After what seemed like an excruciatingly long flight, the Hercules made it's final approach to Vale Air Force Base. The two new teams felt the bump as the aircraft touched down onto the runway. Everyone began to gather their gear while those who had fallen asleep on the trip were unpleasantly woken up, mainly one blonde squad leader who flailed to catch himself from falling over.
"Gonna make it over there Jaune?" A chuckling Yang called out to him.
"Yup, totally fine, all good." Jaune tried to shake it off and save his dignity, even though everyone who saw the event knew otherwise but went along with it.
Finally as the Hercules pulled into it's spot on the tarmac, everyone stood up with their gear and made their way towards the lowering ramp. The morning sun blinding them briefly before their eyes adjusted to their surroundings.
The base was clearly massive, being located within the capital city of Vale, but no one ever figured it was this big. They could clearly see the control tower on the other side of the property. With two massive runways parallel to each other while a third smaller runway intersected those two in a diagonal fashion. With various buildings lining both sides of the base, ranging from hangars large and small, a parking building, various administrative buildings vehicles and aircraft moving in every which way. Everything from big refueling craft like the KC-135, various types of combat aircraft and helicopters moving everywhere.
While the two new squads gawked at the size of it all, all except Weiss…
"You people act like you've never seen an air base before."
Yang piped up, "I mean I have, but this thing is massive!"
Blake glancing up from her book quickly stated, "It's the largest airport on the continent of Vytal. So it's no surprise it backs up it's name."
Weiss glared at Blake, but no one paid her any mind. From a close by building a man in an Air Force uniform made their way to the crews. "Teams RWBY and JNPR?"
"Yes, that's us." Ruby said in her best professional voice, being 2 years younger than the rest of her squadmates made that difficult sometimes.
"If you would all please follow me, the Base Commander has requested to see you. After meeting with him you will be allowed to make your way to your barracks."
Ruby nodded and the rest of her squad and JNPR followed the man into a nearby building, feeling much better with the air conditioning. They continued up a few sets of stairs before they found themselves in front of a wooden door with the name 'Ironwood' above the frame. After a quick knock, a gruff "Enter." could be heard. Both teams quickly filed into the office, which turned out to be larger than expected. The far wall had large wall windows that had a high level view over the entire airport. Before that was a big wooden desk with a few tidy stacks of paper on top. In the far corner of the room was the flag of Vale.
"General Ironwood, the new squadron as you requested."
"Thank you Private, you are dismissed."
The young man gave a salute and then left the room, leaving the new crews with the slightly intimidating commander.
"Welcome to Vale Air Force Base, my name is Major General James Ironwood. I am the commanding officer of this base and as such you will follow my commands to the T. Both teams here will comprise of the Hunter Squadron, or formally the Vale 3rd Fighter Squadron. On this base you will be designated as either Team RWBY or Team JNPR, in accordance with Colonel Ozpin. Are there any questions?"
Jaune meekly tried to raise his hand, but the glare from the general quickly shut that down.
"None? Good, you are dismissed to your quarters until further instruction." Both teams saluted before leaving the office.
As the door closed, Ironwood stood by the windows staring out over the base, pondering to himself. The one thing that has been on his mind for a number of weeks continues to wear on him. The file he had been reading before the new pilots came in sat closed on his desk with a bright red CLASSIFIED printed on its cover.
"Two new reports of Vacuan bombers flying close to Vale border air space…"
He had seen this before, many years ago, it was the same story. No one believed it was possible, and that it was just one Kingdom showing off and saber rattling, not posing any real threat, until that day…
Ironwood shook his head, blocking out those thoughts, and looked down at the pilots walking towards their quarters, goofing off and laughing like kids do.
"Please God, let me be wrong, for their sake…"
"Hey Yang! What kind of planes do you think we'll get to fly? I'd love to get behind the controls of one of those F-22's! Or maybe an F-15 Strike Eagle! Oh my god what about a Mirage 2000? I can barely handle this!" Ruby had always been a bit of an aircraft nut, being able to name most any plane and specs about it all the way back to the first Human-Faunus war almost a hundred years ago, when biplanes ruled the sky.
"Slow down there Rubes, we haven't even gotten to our quarters yet. Just let us get settled in first." Yang wrapped her arm around her little sister, making her squirm trying to get out of her older sister's grasp but to no avail. "Your're no fun…" Ruby pouted.
While on the other team, while pink eyed pilot was trying to reign in his orange haired friend from climbing all over the crews working on an F-16, Pyrrha walked up behind Jaune and asking, "How are you doing Jaune? Feeling any better now that were on the ground?"
Jaune looked up at Pyrrha, she was one of the few people who knew about his air sickness. He had to lie about it in order to get into the Air Force, and a lot of stomach settlers were taken so he could fly comfortably. "Much better now, thanks. I am curious though as why were here, I can't imagine there are any massive threats to Vale, and were in one of the longest eras of peace ever in Remnant."
Pyrrha nodded at Jaune in agreement, "True, but I must imagine the top brass must know what they are doing and know how to respond to any problems should they arise." Pyrrha looked out over the whole base, "How about we go find our barracks and relax a bit, we haven't been able to since we left Beacon Air Base."
"Hey sounds good to me. Hey guys! Let's go find out quarters, and set our stuff down."
Everyone nodded in agreement and made their way over to the building they assumed to be a barracks of some kind, which turned out to be correct.
The orange haired pilot Nora cried out in excitement, "Bunk beds! Woooo!" As she ran and began to jump onto the top of one. Ren sighed and followed Nora over to her bunk, taking the bed on the bottom. Jaune and Pyrrha shrugged to each other and took the bunks besides their teammates beds. Team RWBY took the room opposite of their friends and quickly unpacked their gear with Weiss grumbling about the untidiness of all of Yang's "unnecessary" things, like her Achieve Men poster. Soon after that brief scuffle, the teams met up again and decided to get grab some food from the mess hall, since they had flown over most of the night without eating anything.
As they made their way to the mess hall, they walked past other people, pilots, mechanics, administrative, janitorial. After finally grabbing some food and setting down at one of the tables, The two teams chatted just like they did at Beacon Air Base during training.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm so ready to get into a real jet, and not one of those little jet trainers that kept shoving us in." Yang said out loud, Ruby and Nora both nodded excitedly. Ren spoke up to Nora,
The conversation dwindled down as the effects of being up for almost 24 hours was beginning to wear on them. By the time food was finished, some people, even Nora, was beginning to fade. The group decided to retire to their quarters to catch some rest after their very long day. Returning their plates and returning to their rooms, Both teams said goodnight to each other. After RWBY cleaned up for bed, with Yang splayed out across her bunk as usual, Blake reading her book and Weiss quietly snoozing below her, Ruby thought quietly to herself, wondering what the future held for her friends, and how as a squad leader she was going to do. As she turned her lights out, she hoped that Ozpin had made the right decision making her squad leader.