The large cafeteria was bereft of almost all noise, only filled with the subtle sizzling of breakfast foods and clattering of plates and cutlery in the distance. Jaune had been one of the first to arrive here, what with his usual body clock at play. Even amongst his men he tended to be first to rise, starting morning drills early by his lonesome until the soldiers naturally awoke barely minutes later to tag along until what was essentially the entire unit moved as one.

With his morning routine aside; he decided it was time to dig into this world's cuisine.

...

It was better than anything he'd ever known existed. This 'bacon' was so unlike anything he had ever tasted, same with the 'sausages' and 'eggs'. How in his entire, expansive universe had he never come across anything but bricks crafted just to keep the men functioning when this apparently existed outside of his grasp?

It must be bad for you, it's the only explanation why they wouldn't let his men at it.

Or the universe was full of zealous pricks and such things as pleasure was for the most part lost to them.

But he was one of those zealous pricks, and he'd sooner give up bacon before he'd give up even a fraction of the devotion he had towards Humanity and their God Emperor.

And.. Faunas too maybe? He knew a Space Marine would smite them on sight, so would a Sister and Grey Knight. In hindsight, maybe he was just the odd one in the equation, though he'd like to think his Regiment would do the same for the most part? Surely the Emperor couldn't expect damnation of an innocent race such as the Faunas? There were extremists amongst them of course, but so were the humans in this world.

Unlike his Universe, they weren't forced to unify under the threat of utter annihilation. Of course, that didn't do much to stop Krieg from revolting just to fall to war and intense nuclear fire until they really began to realise the error of their ways.

Whoever decided it was wise to kick the Hornet's nest that is the Imperium is an idiot of unimaginable proportions. Jaune wishes he could've been the one to look him in the eyes as he pulled the trigger, or worse. He had no mercy for those who brought the curse of the Death Korps upon them.

He was only grateful to the Emperor for the chance to redeem the wrongdoings of their predecessors.

His teeth met the metal of his fork and it only now occurred to him that he had already finished demolishing his meal during his mental stroll. A quick clean up and return of the dishes later and he decided it was time for him to get acquainted with the better part of his deal with Ozpin.

"So this gun has a near-endless supply of an optic laser superior to anything we have on Remnant just as long as you don't overheat it and give it ample time to recharge itself?"

Jaune blinked, hands clasped behind his back as he watched the Quartermaster of Beacon speak her unsurprisingly skeptical thoughts aloud. He nodded once prompted "That is correct from start to finish."

She watched him for a while longer, taking the time to give her the ocular patdown as she did: The woman was a perfect example of inescapable Faunas traits he could tell; nothing subtle such as feet or a tail, both concealable beneath the right attire, no, Forgemaster Maine had the traits of a more reptilian species it seemed; eyes narrowed into slits with forest green backdrop - noting the expressive nature in them he'd have assumed she'd have lacked in theory with the supposed cold-blooded aspect, nice to know that the traits weren't quite as exact as the species they derived from - as well as the burnt umber scales just barely contrasting the scorched brown of her skintone, something he'd imagine the fires of the forge were partly to blame for.

Beyond that, the woman was fairly short in stature at 5ft 6in, her build slim if not for the obvious muscle outlining her entire frame, more than he'd seen on any of the other women he'd had the pleasure of meeting thus far, no doubt a result of years working around such heavy duty conditions as the forge. He also caught traces of callouses upon her palms and slight blemishes in the form of burnt scars along her hands and forearms, something he hoped she wore with pride as a pariah of weaponry for the new generations as they come.

All in all, despite the tomboyish way she carried herself in, both posture and attire which consisted of a smithy apron and grimy overalls, he'd admit that the woman was attractive in a way he hadn't seen in the others; her face framed nicely by the messy bob of hazel locks twisting in every direction upon her head.

Plus the way her face scrunched up like it was now really highlighted the adorable freckles on her cheeks and nose.

He idly grieved that his trip to Remnant bore his first and fourth glimpses into the marvels of the opposite sex within the span of 24 hours. Maybe he really had been too familiar with the women of his life if it took all of this for him to just pay attention to one and seemingly all of them as they came along.

Anyway, he digressed. "Seems like something Atlas would try for. Looks vaguely Atlesian. Is it Atlas-make?" Jaune ignored the barrage of 'Atlas' themed inquiries as he reminisced upon the visage of his trusted comrade as he battled Eldar Harlequins beside Vale and himself, power swords meeting the cries and blades of the older race as their Grenadiers stormed the battlefield with laser fire to meet their Shuriken hail. Good times.

But he also realised she clearly hadn't mentioned his Commissar and rather meant the Kingdom. Honestly, that there was not just one but two Kingdoms on this planet that shared the names of his men was still something he was trying to comprehend.

"It is not Atlesian, no" he saw the frown she adopted and offered her a simple shrug for her unspoken bafflement "I assure you I'm not lying ma'am" it also felt weird to call a young woman still fairly fresh out of Beacon school-life ma'am.

She was... what? Maybe 26 he'd guess?

She had him beat in Terran years but he'd wager he still had more years of life-demanding service under his belt.

age was but a number however, hence why he had long since stopped putting a number to his age. It was lost to time and he'd have lived and died just fine with that. Now he was declared 17 by Ozpin and the records forged under his name just to make him appear of this world.

it was oddly pleasing to know he had words to his name here, false though they may be. Ozpin has made the effort to intermingle whatever truths he could into his backstory; his parents and siblings having been separated from him through Grimm-related conflict. It was decent enough for him, this world and it's expansive lost wilds making it easy to fabricate the existence of supposed frontier towns such as 'his'. The story was vague but it was made well enough that you couldn't really poke holes into it. He had no idea where his family was and Ozpin himself vouched to know of their existence, making it incredibly difficult to dispute.

and he'll admit he preferred referring to his sisters as missing than dead as the story may have demanded anyway. He hoped Ivory was alright, having been so close to the origin of the warps opening as he had been, wishing the same for his Elite Grenadiers troops; Derris, Vawn, Kellog and Shen just to make a few, a good leader knowing the value of every man he held responsibility for, both as a person and as an instrument of the Emperor's wrath.

He left his thoughts behind, he was here to talk about a weapon after all.

"Well it looks like the charge packs are a little damaged" she lifted it up high with strength he had admittedly assumed she lacked, her easily proving otherwise. "I'd wager they'll only live through another couple firefights at best, and that's if you're lucky" she levelled her forest green eyes on his ocean blue "I can have a whack at fixing it but even I've never quite seen something like this." She moved it about some more "I've seen laser and plasma based weaponry but nothing this... this?" She was at a bit of a loss to describe it he could tell, the weapon itself not overly complex in design, but impossible to replicate on this world. She didn't seem to like admitting her lack of knowledge on the matter, one who took pride of her abilities in the forge.

she'd fit in with the Adeptus Mechanicus if not for her flesh and bone vessel. She'd need far more machinery in her to get near Forge World Mars, that's for sure.

"If you can just see what you can do about it, that's more than I could hope to ask for" he said with a small smile, chuckling as she moved and messed with the cartridge much like a kitten batting around a ball of yarn "The sword and pistol?"

she stopped to give him a grimace "The pistol is pretty buggered to be frank; I'd need to completely reverse-engineer the thing if you need it, and if Ozpin will send more funding this way rather than on his and the faculty's coffee addiction..." she muttered the last part under her breath. "The cartridge for it is also a big issue since I had to shut the thing down, the structure cracked deep enough that I was concerned it would begin to emit radiation or react with the air around it. For all I know it could have gone off like a megaton bomb with the apparent endless supply of energy it contains." He couldn't fault her there but he wasn't pleased at the sight of the mess of a Hellpistol he was apparently left with, the barrel twisted to an almost 90 degree angle and the frame depressed into itself so much that it couldn't hope to survive a single pull of the trigger.

Seriously, fuck that Weirdboy.

"And the sword?" Honestly of all his equipment, his sword was the mine concern of his. His armour seemed fine for the most part, only slight marring on the metal plating. However, it did a number on his guns and he just hoped his sword came out unscathed.

she produced the blade and he breathed out a sigh of relief to see it was in pristine condition "The blade is perfectly fine, so is the handle and pommel. Honestly, I'm surprised with the treatment the rest of your equipment got, the thing is made of almost impossibly hard stuff" he nodded in acknowledgement at that, knowing that the Arc heirloom was amongst the most renowned weapons amongst the entirety of Krieg. Hell, if you told him that Crocea Mors had more kills to its name than the vast majority of the company's tanks he wouldn't even bat an eye. "The doohickey here though, that shorted out and... I don't think there's much hope salvaging that kind of tech, the thing broke the buildings fuse when I tried to jump start it." She said with clear frustration.

And there was the trade off. The 'doohickey' was what made the thing a power weapon to begin with, otherwise it was just a sword. A sword made of material so rare that it was literally named Arcamentium after his family for being the ones to discover it. Beyond it, he was sure there wasn't enough to make more than another sword or dagger more, so rare was the stuff. They theorised it was something to do with the nuclear fire bathing the materials for long enough to harden them or something of the sort but the blade emitted no radiation, hence the addition of the power battery generations ago.

He sighed to himself "Don't worry about it; would you be able to strip it down to just the sword in that case?" she nodded with a small smirk and began tinkering right away.

And now, as he walked down the corridor after but ten minutes later, he couldn't help but feel that he'd make it through this just fine. He patted his new plain sheath - the last being converted to scrap - and the still impeccable blade inside, now stripped of anything but its Arcamentium bones.

"Well I may need to bring you back to your former glory at some point but for now..." he chuckled "For now we'll be fine."

The bustle of students milling to here and there was really quite the sight, even these enormous locker rooms doing little to deter the bustle of several dozen new potential students amongst the many that already belonged here, picking up their own gear for missions or training.

Weiss clicked her tongue, as long as they minded her space unlike that dolt in red from the day before then she'd manage.

Weiss extracted her beloved Myrtenaster from her locker and began to refill the dust cartridges with the appropriate sorts. She barely paid attention to the people changing in here, either not caring or trying to seem appealing in the presence of the opposite sex. It was disgusting, she had made explicit care to change beforehand, thus she now stood prepared for departure.

Myrtenaster's revolving chamber clicked back into place and the Heiress began to make way for the initiation's starting point.

A glimpse of bright red hair to her side and a smirk graced her pale pink lips.

'A little detour wouldn't hurt'

"Pyrrha!" the redhead turned around so fast that the Heiress idly wondered whether she had been expecting somebody. Recognition flashed into the emerald green of the Champion and Weiss knew that she had her locked down. "Good morning"

"Oh, hello Weiss." she bowed her head slightly in greeting, lips turned up in a pleasant smile "A pleasure to see you again" Weiss hummed in acknowledgement, rolling on to more important matters

"So I was wondering if you would like to be on a team with me?" Pyrrha's head tilted ever so slightly, the request coming from nowhere. Of course, Weiss was miles away, mapping out her plot overtake the school with the combined effort of her intelligence and Pyrrha's battle prowess.

"Well I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may" and she was brought back, a small look of displeasure on her face only worsening once a hand found her should and she was asked to move aside.

"Ugh!" Weiss whirled on the blonde soldier, eyes of frozen blue far more heated than they should have been "The nerve... do you even know who you're talking to?!" she questioned, disregarding the few odd looks from other initiates and the look of embarrassment on Pyrrha's for this altercation to have even come about.

Funnily enough, she did sense no recognition in the mans eyes, instead receiving a small look over and a shrug to follow it up "No idea I'm afraid, I'm not from around Vale you see." he offered, though she was not at all deterred.

"Who cares if you aren't from Vale?! Pyrrha Nikos is known worldwide!" she huffed "She graduated top of her class at Sanctum after all!" the man looked a little confused as he went on. "Champion of the Mistral tournament for four years in a row!"

"You did?"

"Wha-?" Weiss went red in the face and about ready to explode "I'm not Pyrrha you dolt! I'm Weiss Schnee! SCHNEE!" again she saw no recognition "You don't know the face of the heiress to the Schnee corporation?" she asked more calmly now, more lost than frustrated at this point.

He made an 'o' shape with his mouth and she thought she finally had him "Oh I just thought you were referring to yourself in the third person; I know a lot of people who do that so..." he cleared his throat of the conversation, not trying to compare the porcelain features of Weiss to a green skin. "But no, I don't know of Schnee nor your business I'm afraid."

Her right eye twitched and she ignored the sound of Pyrrha gasping aloud at this revelation "You... don't know of the Schnee Dust Company?" surely not, you couldn't live in this world without dust, and the only way to have an efficient means of getting some was through her fathers business.

He actually seemed to consider that "Oh so you handle the dust?" he wondered aloud "Are you like a local business? Retail?" Weiss threw her hands up in the air at that.

"BUFFOON! I cannot believe I let you fool me like that!" she glared icy daggers at him "Do NOT mock my family name you dolt" she flicked her head forward, lopsided ponytail whipping around after her as she strode off, sufficiently riled by his unintentional mockery.

"I cannot believe I fell for that fools ploy..." she muttered to herself, getting angrier and angrier as she replayed that idiotic look on his face as she spoke to him, looking so innocent to his own tricks with that mocking poker face!

She grit her teeth with cheeks red from anger, and a little something else.

'Why did he have to be cute?'

Jaune heard melodic laughter and turned to face the angel in bronze before him, ignoring the dazzle of her emerald green eyes and the drapes of red framing her features. Why are all of the women in this world such spectacular specimens? He had attractive women in his unit in hindsight but few like this, not in this quality and quantity.

Made in the hundreds it seemed.

"You really shouldn't play with her like that you know" she was laughing into her fist, as if trying to hide the fact and failing. "You upset her quite a lot"

Jaune just sighed and moved forward to finally reach his locker "I wasn't playing, I just wasn't in the loop" he admits, a few seconds passing before Pyrrha realises she couldn't find any trace of deceit in his eyes.

"You're serious?" she too looks amazed by this knowledge, "Well... I'll admit that I have yet to meet a man not aware of the worlds lead and arguably only real supply chain of dust to the world" she watched his eyes widen, hands stilled in his locker with whatever he had been messing with.

"That large scale?" he idly wondered how a world not unified could have only one supply of their main source of energy, that very energy powering everything from vehicles to lights, not to mention the very weaponry that the worlds Hunter's needed. Surely this Schnee company had too much power, too easy to cut off connections with whichever kingdom they saw fit to.

This company must have more influence than the damned council if he could simply point his finger in any direction and birth a new city.

That girl really had the power to make or break whatever or whomever she willed.

"I'm afraid that is the case." he nods but then he remembers what else she was saying.

"She also made a big deal out of you" she flinched at that "Are you like a champion of Remnant or something?" she looked like she wanted to deny it but couldn't.

"I'm more of a champion for Mistral" he whistled aloud at that, back at digging into his locker.

"The life of a Hunter is glamorous from an outside perspective; saving lives in your duty is a rewarding thing indeed" he spoke from his own recollections, smiling softly and ignorant to the dilemma she seemed to be going through at his words.

He continued to find and strap his gear to his person for another half a minute before she piped up again "I... I've never actually saved a life." he gave her a befuddled look "I'm a champion in the way that I have won tournaments held in Mistral for the Junior divisions to define the strongest." his look of confusion grew worse as his brow creased.

"You fight fellow men and women?" she grimaced at that.

"It's a form of entertainment to some, for me it's to hone my abilities to excel when it comes to training here at Beacon." Jaune nodded, brow still raised slightly in skepticism.

"So do you often spend time away to exterminate this Grimm threat?" she froze up again and he fixed her a look "Best in Mistral and it's spent for entertainment before duty?" he looks baffled, almost frustrated by the lack of logic in such a notion.

But he sees the hurt and regret in her eyes at his words and reigns himself in "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend." he bows his head down "Please forgive me." he looks up to her face and offers her a smile "I assumed things I don't truly understand the scope of, I am sure you have your reasons and that you came to a school to train means you too saw something more than life upon a pedestal." he chuckled softly "I hope you find your way Pyrrha." he strapped the last plate to his chest and then left before she could even get his name.

She brought her hands to her chest and watched his broad back as he left. Her lips turned up in a wistful smile and it came to her that not only had he not known who she was, he acted like it was insignificant to who she was now.

She wasn't Pyrrha the celebrity.

She was Pyrrha the Huntress-in-training.

"Any questions?" Ozpin's eyes went over the entirety of the student initiation group for the year, seeing none raise any questions at his rundown of what they had to do exactly.

He had high hopes for a number of these prospective students, and no small amount of curiosity centered around their newest addition.

There were the Silver eyes, the Maidens and then him, and somehow he was the most insane amongst them.

Jaune was ready for this. He didn't know much about these Grimm other than from what he was told, but if these kids could all handle it with such casual smiles on their faces, then surely a hardened war veteran such as he could carve his way through with ease.

'Some threat they must be if they send children to kill dozens to hundreds just to see if they're worth actually being accepted at a school that trains them to kill the things they killed to get in.'

He didn't quite get it, but whatever.

Nor did he understand the significance of these square plates they were each stood upon. Where was their 'bullhead'?

"I hope you've all prepared your landing strategies."

Our what?

And then suddenly all he knew was wrong. Up was down, left was right and forward was omni-directional with how wildly he flailed around. It took him all of five seconds to realise that the Inquisitor had flung him into the air without even handing him a chute or a jetpack, and now he was starting the day off with a less-than-advisable attempt at saving his own life from certain death.

He groaned, just like the majority of his mornings then.

He corrected his midair posture and began to brainstorm. The treeline was fast approaching but his mind was capable of handling such fast paced thinking even under life-or-death situations. If he wasn't then he'd have died years ago.

Currently he only had his sword on him as a weapon, and a number of plates strapped to him as armour plating. He was somewhat tanky but he wasn't stupid enough to think that the plates would do anything but crush into his body at the point of impact. He was plenty strong, stronger than most people of Remnant he'd imagine, and that was factoring in Ruby and her ability to swing around a giant metal scythe for a living. Maybe he could stick his sword into a tree and slow his descent?

Surely not, his weight would probably rip his arm out of its socket if not just take it off entirely, especially since he'd have to stick his sword in at an angle that wouldn't let it drag, the blade was more than sharp enough to go through the tree like it wasn't there, taking him out the other side with his weight thrown to one side. That would just start the flailing again.

Would he have to hope to aim for foliage enough to break his fall enough not to make him a stain? There was always the option to-

Years of fighting in lands hostile enough to have you fighting for your life even in times of suspected peace had forged a sort of sixth sense into many of the soldiers of the Imperium, and his was sharper than most. So when a spear launched at his person with frightening speed, he managed to perform a deft roll in the air to avoid it, grimacing as it severed the lower half of his overcoat, ripping a large hole into the fabric.

"Friendly fire?" he wondered, so focused on the point of origin that he hadn't the time to avoid the ribbon suddenly wrapping around his ankle, swinging his momentum down and around before it went slack a few metres from the ground, where he performed a roll to bleed away the remaining momentum.

He looked up to find the girl in black from the night before, drinking in the sight of her dressed in what he could easily assume was her combat gear, and it was when his eyes went to her upturned lips that he realised that she had been the one to save him.

"Was your landing strategy to be saved by those that actually came up with their own?" she commented playfully, a lovely smile on her face as she dropped down to gracefully saunter over to him. "So you're my partner for four years." he chuckled softly and gave her a weak nod, one she returned "I'm okay with that" and like that she was by him, leaving him to follow her with a mix of surprise and giddiness at her words.

Partner acquired.

Chapter was late and I lied, combat is next chapter.

So it ended up being that Blake was his partner, I kinda came up with that on a whim because I didn't want to favour anybody in particular myself as his partner. I literally decided to myself that it was going to be anybody.

Pyrrha took the chance to try but ingrained reflexes saved him from that.

His final team though, I'll let you guys make suggestions for that.

I hope this lets you see that whilst he isn't weak, he also isn't overly strong. One problem RWBY has is that if you're important, you're overpowered. They basically never lose fights and if they do it's because it was against somebody absurdly beyond their level. Jaune is the only real exception to that, and Ren was to a degree as well, the only two amongst RWBY and JNPR that aren't terrifying powerhouses.

So if it comes to flesh and blood, Jaune is easily the strongest man in Remnant, as he would be compared to an average human. When aura (which he doesn't have) and semblances (also doesn't have) are added to the mix, he's beat, and it takes a set of circumstances to have him win a fight. He needs to be smart with the handicaps he has in this world, but most Grimm are gonna be easy since they aren't nearly as awful a threat as they're made out to be.

Truth about Remnant is that it all comes down to your aura and semblance to win.

Anyway, Follow, fave, review and all that malarkey.

Au Revoir for now Readers! ^^