Back with another chapter! The plot is moving along swimmingly...at least to my brain it is.
desdelor97: This was and amazing chapter. Please keep up the great work. (Thank you for the compliment! Means alot, so yeah here you go!)
kevinkocher: what the price of a mile one million regiments if needed the Death Korps of Krieg. (Uh...I'm not sure what your trying to say here, its a bit to jumbled for me to decipher.)
Jaune-R: Next update? Been kinda busy so no idea, read below for details...
(I do not own RWBY)
The Soldier's Battleground
ザー・ソールジュズ・バタルフィールド
Chapter X: The Beginning of Something New
Jaune had done his fair share of babysitting when he lived in his hometown, and services when they needed to go somewhere. This provided him with a nice side job to earn some extra cash considering he was fairly popular with many mothers who had no problem with hiring him to watch over their children. But in all his experiences he had not been given the pleasure of babysitting an eccentric man who's love for coffee was borderline excessive.
"Sir, will you please put down that damn coffee cup and help me with this." Jaune said with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.
"My dear boy, coffee must be sampled with the utmost care and respect, if you do not give it the proper respect it won't taste splendid, but rather drawl." The man brought the coffee cup to his lips and seeing Jaune looking at him with annoyance slightly lowered the coffee cup. He reached over and picked up a brown folder and looked at the contents inside.
"After reading your report on the Forever Falls bridge mission, I believe this person would do well serving under your command." The Major pointed to a photo that showed a young woman with shoulder length hair and a predatory gaze in her eyes. "This young lass seemed to know how to handle herself according to what you wrote down of her actions that day. She may have been part of the Resistance, but her knowledge of the land could prove beneficial to you, amongst other things."
Jaune was trying his best to go through all the reports that were laying on the table and trying to figure out if the persons in the reports were worth their salt. Sadly, a report didn't always accurately portray what a person truly was like. Still, having served under Ozpin for some time, he knew the man possessed an uncanny ability to read people with little to no information. Keeping that in mind alongside the approval of the Major, the decision had been made. Jaune collected everything that pertained to the young woman and put her information to the side.
"Hey what do you think of this man." Jaune handed the scientist a piece of paper which he looked at with a rather bored gaze.
"He's quite a tough fellow, he has standing orders to be transferred to another unit as soon as possible. An incident he got caught up in made this so."
"Please expand on that rather vague sentence." Jaune flicked a piece of hair out of his face as he said this.
"According to the information provided, he had stumbled into a rather dangerous business exchange and after being threatened that if he spoke about it, he would regret it. The man had gone and informed his superior officer. Unfortunately his officer was also in the deal, and a gun was drawn, a scuffle happened and even though he was only defending himself, the officer had been shot and killed."
"Shouldn't the man have been given a trial and set free after proving his innocence in the matter?" Jaune started to skim through the information on the man.
"Well the situation was rather delicate according to the government, so they decided to just cover up the incident as to not cause unnecessary attention to the illegal exchanging going on. This man is to be used as their scapegoat."
"If the government is trying to cover this up, how did you come in possession of this information?"
"Perks with the job we accepted." That was all the Major said on the matter and Jaune shrugged before going back to his reading.
"So seeing as how there will eventually be causalities, have you decided on a medic to do patch work?" The Major finished off his sixth cup of coffee and poured himself another one.
"Yes I do, I was thinking of this soldier, Corporal Lie Ren. A mission had gone wrong and everyone in his squad was severely injured, with the help of Corporal Valkyrie they were able to hold off the enemy and evacuate the wounded from the battlefield." Jaune looked at the information closer. "I've personally worked alongside the two of them, and they both have shown a great deal of courage on the battlefield. I want soldiers who know how to do their job right."
The Major looked at the woman's picture and smirked behind his cup. "I heard a rumor of a crazy woman who was causing mayhem on the battlefield while atop one of the tanks. She does inspire those around her in a unique way."
The two men continued discussing the subject at hand and after a little while they had decided on a pair of sisters who specialized in taking out hardened targets and the like.
"I actually meet Sergeant Rose when I went into town to get my knife sharpened at a weapon's shop. I was also privy to her skills as a sniper when she took a machine gun nest that was pinning me down in a past battle. As for Staff Sergeant Xiao Long, I've personally never seen her, but if the reports are accurate she's stormed a number of enemy trenches and survived due to her skills in hand to hand combat." On a side note, Jaune noticed that while the rest of her uniform was rather dirty her face and hair where more or less relatively cleaner than the rest of her. 'Which reminds I need to get a haircut soon, getting mud caked in my hair is a pain to wash out.'
Jaune paused in his reading to tell the Major a new piece of information that crossed his mind "Seeing as how this unit will be testing out new equipment, I heard we are being given access to test out prototype tanks, we're going to need a tank crew to manage that." Before he could continue his thought he was stopped by the Major holding up his hand. "Do not worry I have personally taken on the responsibility of overseeing the tank and her crew, rest assured everything is in good hands." Knowing the quirks of the man, Jaune still couldn't help but wonder who the Major had chosen.
"Okay then, I trust your judgement, but who did you choose if you don't mind me asking."
"They were a part of the first assault made by the tanks and were one of the few tanks crews to survive the battle. Lieutenant Adel has proven to quite a capable leader and was able to lead her crew through many obstacles and ensured their survival. Corporal Scarlatina who serves in the crew is also a highly skilled mechanic. She will be a great addition to the maintenance of the experimental tanks." Jaune opened his mouth to reply but was once again silenced by a hand being held up. "On that note, there is another soldier who has caught my eye. Her name is Penelope Polendina, She will be one of the new tank drivers for a new type of tank that we will be testing."
Jaune looked over her profile and saw that she was qualified and came highly recommend for the job. 'I guess we'll see if the recommendation is true or not.' Some more miscellaneous details were passed between the two soldiers until Ozpin looked at the watch on his hand and lightly cleared his throat. "Lieutenant, I'm afraid we will have to pause in what we a currently doing as we need to go meet up with the individual who will be helping to outfit your squad." Jaune nodded his head and quickly organized the pile of folders into a somewhat neat mess underneath his arm, before following the Major into the brightly lit hallway outside the room.
After walking by many rooms they came upon a room upon which Ozpin stopped at and knocked upon a couple of times. He then turned to Jaune and gestured to the door. "I'll leave it up to you Sergeant." Ozpin started to walk back in the direction they had previously come from.
"Pardon the intrusion." Jaune opened the door and was meet with an oddly familiar sight. Sitting before him was a man wearing a white coat sipping from a tea cup and holding a tea saucer beneath it.
"Mr. Torchwick?"
"Ah, Mr. Arc pleasure seeing you again boy." The man spun around in a fairly basic-looking office chair, twice, before standing up. "And what does the door-to-door salesman require of my humble presence?" he asked, tipping his saucer towards Jaune with a smirk.
Jaune smiled. "You are to be outfitting my squad with the latest and greatest the military has to offer." Roman pulled out the cigar in his mouth and laid it down on the table.
"Oho. Well, my boy! Sounds like a fabulous time is going to be had. I am willing to offer you my... specialized services. However!" he pointed a finger at Jaune. "Neo shall be the one to manufacture, manhandle, and manipulate the weapons of war we will be dealing with!"
"Manipulate?" Jaune asked hesitantly.
"Erm, please disregard that one. It'll only happen when your backs are turned. She won't say a word about it too anyone, Promise." The man put the cigar back into his mouth.
"I guess we can go along with that," Jaune stated, casting a furtive glance to his companion.
"Oh, splendid!" With a flourish the man offered his hand to Jaune. "It's a pleasure to work with you!"
Jaune grasped the man's hand. "Looking forward to what you come up with."
After the meeting with one Roman Torchwick, Jaune headed back towards the room were Ozpin and him were previously going over potential recruits. And upon entering found the Major looking over a folder with a serious expression on his face.
"Sir I finished the meeting with Mr. Torchwick." Ozpin looked up at Jaune and nodded his head once before gesturing towards the remaining folders on the table.
"They won't read themselves Lieutenantt." Jaune mentally sighed at the tedious task of having to go through all of these papers. 'I signed up for action and adventure, instead I nearly get my head blown off, get into many close calls with death, and a shit ton of paperwork at the end of it all.'
He moved over to the pile and picked up another folder before once again starting to read.
Jaune wiped the small beads of sweat that had started to form on his brow as he ran down a dirt road lined with corpses and destroyed vehicles scattered about the muddy landscape. A few bullets whistled by his face, making him internally cringe at how close he escaped getting hit by the enemy rounds.
'Take a break they said, get away from the paperwork he said! Then why the hell am I taking part in storming a freakin bridge!' An Atlesian soldier next to him took a grazing round to their leg and they fell down with a cry of pain from the hit. He quickly grabbed the soldier and hauled him to a small ditch before popping up and firing off a round. "MEDIC!" He hollered for a medic before giving a quick pat on the soldier's shoulder. "Keep pressure on that wound and you'll be fine buddy!"
Jaune left the soldier and scrambled out of the shallow ditch and continued towards the bridge. He raised his pistol and lined up the sights on an Imperial soldier who was about to throw a grenade in his direction. The round hit the enemy soldier in the gut and they crumpled to the ground in pain.
"Grenade get down!" Jaune yelled to the allied soldiers around him as he dove for the ground. The ensuing explosion showered him in a hail of mud and grim, but nothing life threatening hit him and he quickly scrambled to his feet afterwards. After a quick glance around him showed that no was injured he gripped his pistol before charging once more towards the main objective. But before that they had a secondary objective to complete.
A small town had built up on either side of the bridge and soon the Atlesian soldiers had to deal with clearing out the buildings in search of hostile forces before continuing the attack on the bridge. Jaune grunted as his right shoulder hit the door frame as a few soldiers also lined up on either side of the door.
"GO!" A private kicked the door open and promptly received a bullet to the arm from an Imperial soldier inside. Jaune who was right behind the private, fired his pistol at the enemy soldier who dropped dead from the shot. "Clear this building out!" He grabbed the injured soldier and quickly looked over the wound.
"Lieutenant Arc, I've got this." Jaune looked to his side to see Ren kneeling next to him. "Right, bullet to the arm, looks like a clean shot." The young man nodded as he started to take out bandages from he bag at his side. Seeing that he was no longer needed, Jaune stood up and started to make his way down the hallway in front of him before turning to a room on his right to see another door to the outside. Seeing no one around him he quickly opened the door and found himself in a small alleyway between buildings. A lone shot rang out and a bullet impacted the building wall next to him. Seeing the the shot had come from a small store's second story window. Jaune sprinted to the entrance and charged in with his pistol ready to fire.
Sweeping the front room revealed no enemies and he started for the back of the store were the stairs to the upper floor probably were located. Turning a corner he was meet with a kick to the gut and he bent forwards from the impact. His training kicked in and he quickly leaned back just in time to avoid a fist aimed at his head. He raised his pistol to fire but was unable to get a shot off before it was knocked out of his hand.
'Uh-huh so that's how you want to play.' Jaune drew Crocea Mors from it's sheath and jabbed it towards to the enemy soldier. This time it was the Imperial soldier who stepped back to avoid the deadly blade. The soldier drew out his own combat knife and charged towards Jaune.
'Well shit.' Jaune's thought's on the matter were highly intelligent as he raised his knife to parry the strike towards his neck. With practiced ease he reversed gripped his knife and once again slashed at his enemy before pulling the blade back in anticipation for a retaliating move. Up to and including a thrown knife heading for his chest. He deflected the weapon from his body only to find himself being lifted into the air and being thrown backwards towards a wall. The air was slightly knocked out of him from his back hitting the wall. The Imperial soldier didn't care about that fact and lunged towards to him.
Taking a page from the enemy's book he flicked his wrist and Crocea Mors sailed through the air before lodging into the person's thigh. The soldier stumbled from the blade lodged in his leg and fell to the ground. Not wasting the opportunity presented to him, Jaune kicked the enemy soldier in the face before standing up and grabbing hold of their neck. With a quick twist of his hands a sickening crunch was heard as he broke their neck.
With a tired groan he let go of the corpse in his arms and bent down to pull out Crocea Mors from the Imperial's leg. His pistol lay a few feet away from him and he also retrieved the weapon before checking to see if a round was still in the chamber. Verifying that one was he made his way through the rest of the building to see if anyone was inside before making his way outside to the streets. Seeing Atlesian soldiers running in front of him he sheathed Crocea Mor's and started to make his way to the sound of battle nearby. 'Fuck my life, I need a break.'
Jaune made his down a street with other Atlesian soldiers and soon came to a mostly destroyed building were some soldiers were taking cover from incoming enemy fire. Not wanting to expose himself more than needed, he crawled over to a Sergeant who was giving orders to his men.
"What's the situation Sergeant!?" The man looked at Jaune and pointed in the direction of a machine gun being fired. "They've got a machine gun nest that is pinning us down from advancing forward, and we think there is also a sniper or two backing the position up!"
Jaune grinned grimly. "So the usual then I presume!" A nod was his response. He pointed at five soldiers. "You five on me, the rest of you give covering fire when I give the signal!" He waited for a lull in the sound of the machine gun firing before signaling the five to follow him.
"Let's go!" The small group of soldiers ran out from the protection of the building and started to run towards the machine gun nest. A bullet split open one of the Atlesians soldier's head from the impact and the dead soldier dropped to the ground. Not having time to recover the body the rest of them ran forward until a small wall were they all laid down to take cover from the blistering fire of the machine gun as it once again opened fire.
"Grenade's ready?!" Jaune pulled a grenade from his belt and pulled the pin. The rest of the soldiers followed suit and he let the spoon of the grenade go which armed the device. Everyone lobbed the grenade over the small wall and the sounds of resounding explosions made it's way to their ears. Unfortunately the sound of the machine gun could still be heard, which meant they had missed in trying to destroy the nest. Jaune pulled out another grenade and was about to pull the pin when the sound of an artillery piece could be heard going off and the shell hitting and destroying the machine gun.
A cheer went up from the Atlesian soldiers at the appearance of an tank entering the scene. An energetic orange haired grenadier was also standing above a turret cheering. Most soldiers in the area didn't quite know how to react to the scene and opted to just ignore the woman and her dangerous antics.
"Kneel before the awesome power of my beast!" One Nora Valkyrie cackled as she pointed across the bridge."Forward my noble stead!" The tank's engine roared as the small vehicle started to make it's way across the bridge. Atlesian soldiers started to follow behind the tank as it slowly rumbled across the bridge. Jaune was about to follow as well until he heard a sound that he only a handful of times, each of those times being unpleasant memories. He looked up to see an enemy biplane diving towards the tank on the bridge.
"Enemy plane, 12'o clock high! Take cover!" He hollered at the group of soldiers behind the tank. Everyone started to raise their rifle into the air and open fire on the approaching aircraft.
With the advancement of technology at an all time high, the creation of flying aircraft had been achieved, but it wasn't until the war started that the newly designed biplane started to carry weapons of it's own, among those weapon's was the addition of two machine gun's mounted in front of the pilot flying the plane. Which were currently spewing rounds out at the tank and also the soldiers seeking cover behind it.
Even though the armor on top of the tank was relatively thin, it was still enough to stop the machine gun bullets and it shrugged off the attack no problem. The soldiers on the other hand were not so lucky and many of them were cut down by the strafing run.
"Medic! We need a medic here!" Jaune fired off a few rounds from his pistol at the now retreating plane as it climbed into the sky. He looked up to see the plane coming around for another pass. But this time he saw something being thrown out of the cockpit by the pilot. "Everyone disperse, disperse!" Once again the plane opened fire on the Atlesian soldiers, but this time the tank that had shrugged off the first strafing now had a sizable smoking hole coming from it's roof as the small bomb that was dropped was enough to blow apart the roof and kill the crew inside.
Jaune ran over to the now burning tank and saw a slightly dazed Nora laying to the side of the tank were she had landed from when she had jumped out of the way of the bomb. "Corporal you alright?" He knelt down and lightly shook her. "Ah? Uh yeah I'm alright, no problem here boss." Seeing the annoying aircraft coming in for yet another run, he needed to someone how deal with it. Seeing Nora's weapon laying beside her he had a really stupid idea come into his mind. "This is a stupid idea, but do you think you can hit the aircraft with your weapon?" She grinned at what he said and grabbed her grenade launcher before aiming it towards the approaching aircraft. The plane once again opened fire and bullets started to spray the area around the two of them, but Nora patiently waited for the right opportunity until...
Thump
The grenade soared out of the barrel and headed towards the now diving plane. With no time to react, the plane ran straight into the grenade and was subsequently destroyed from the explosion. The burning wreckage crashed into the ground behind them taking a building in the process.
Nora grinned at Jaune. "What's your next crazy plan oh fearless leader!?" Jaune pointed towards the other side of the bridge. "End this battle, and get out alive."
She smiled at his statement. "Will do boss."
(A few days later)
Jaune walked with a brisk pace as both Corporal Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie followed closely behind him as he made his way into a warehouse with vehicles lining the wall, which ranged from the standard transport truck, to artillery pieces and their weapon crates, all the way to the newly acquired Atlesian tanks.
Nora who always seem energetic looked at all the equipment around her with awe and had to be lightly nudged by her best friend Ren to keep pace with the Lieutenant. As she was gazing at everything around her, she noticed a rather peculiar looking vehicle parked next to an Atlesian tank. Rather it looked like a tank, but it was on a much smaller scale and had only one artillery piece located on a what looked to be a rotating turret on top of the body. She bumped into Ren's back as she didn't notice him stop in front of her. The young man turned his head and gave an apologetic smile.
"Corporal Ren, Corporal Valkyrie, stay here while I go finish up some finer details with our supplier. Some other soldiers who will be joining our unit will also be making their way here so keep them entertained until I get back and brief everyone." The two of them gave an affirmative nod as the Lieutenant walked away from them over to what looked to be offices of some sort before disappearing inside in one of them.
"Hey Renny, check out that tank over there! I mean I think it's a tank, it looks like a tank so it has to be a tank right!?" Ren's gaze followed were his childhood was pointing excitedly at a rather small looking tank parked next to a few other bigger tanks that he had before in battle.
"Yes Nora I think you are right in thinking it's a tank." She started to make her way over to the peculiar, only to have a gentle hand grasp her shoulder. "Nora I don't think we should be touching equipment we don't know how to work."
"I don't mind if you touch her!" Nora who was about to reply to Ren cast her gaze over to a young woman who was walked up to the two of them before sticking her hand out in greeting.
"Salutations! My name is Penelope Polendina, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance!"
Ren not forgetting his manner reached his hand out and gave a polite shake to the young woman. "Lie Ren, it's nice to meet you." She gave him a big smile before letting go and looking at Nora with a curious expression on her face. "The names Nora Valkyrie, hi!" The two woman shook each other hands with smiles now adorning their faces.
"Splendid, now that the formalities are out of the way, you expressed excitement in checking out my tank?" Penelope gestured towards the small tank. "I wouldn't mind telling you all about it, come on I'll show you." The three of them made their way over to the machine and Penelope started her speech.
"This is the Vacuon M1917 light tank, it only weighs around six tonnes, much lighter than its counterpart that weighs a massive weight of twenty-eight tonnes. This baby can also go around five miles per hour, quick enough to keep up with and support advancing infantry!" She moved to the front of the tank and after a few second opened a few hatches revealing the inside of the metal machine. "Two man crew, one driver and one gunner. But I'm trying to see if can modify it so that it only needs one person to properly operate it." Ren and Nora quietly listened as the young woman continued to talk about the small tank...
Meanwhile, Jaune found himself looked down at a silent woman staring up at him with a blank expression on her face. "Neo was it? It's nice to see you again. How are you today?" She tilted her head as if thinking before shrugging. "Ah well that's good to hear, is Mr. Torchwick around?" The silent woman pointed at herself before waving her hand as if saying goodbye. Not quite understanding what she was trying to say, Jaune gave her a confused look. Letting out a small huff she pulled out a small notepad and wrote down some words before holding it up to Jaune. "He had to leave for some other business." She scribbled down something else before handing the notepad to Jaune who took it without question. She walked over to were a bag was one the ground and after opening it she walked back with what looked to be some type of chest armor.
"I know that the metal chest armor is cumbersome to wear and really only stops pistol bullets. That's why only machine gun crews mainly wear it." Neo handed him the armor before grabbing her notepad back from him and wrote something else down.
"Roman had this specially designed for you, new type of material. Should be able to resist rifle bullets better than the average chest armor."
"Um if this works better than the chest armor currently, why isn't this standard issue then?"
"To expensive to mass produce at the moment, or so he says."
"Hmm, well I'll at least try it on." Jaune slipped the armor piece over his head and started to secure it to his chest. After finishing with putting it on, he started to do some simple movements to see how it felt, and was pleasantly surprised to find that will having a metal plate on his chest was going to get some time to get used to, overall it was rather comfortable to wear.
"Well I'm pleasantly surprised, please tell Mr. Torchwick that this fits rather well."
Neo who was standing and observing him walked up to him and started to give small tugs on different parts of the chest armor before nodding her head. "I'll tell him." She walked over to the bag once more before coming back and handing Jaune a letter. "Details are inside, I would give it a read. If you have questions, Roman will set up a meeting."
Jaune nodded in acknowledgment at what she wrote before looking down at his watch. "Well if that's all you need from me Ms. Neo I shall be on my way." She flicked her wrist in a semi-haughty manner before going over and picking up the bag and throwing it over her back. She raised her hand and waved goodbye to Jaune as she left the room.
'What a wonderful talk we had, great to hear her voice again. Anyways I need to go brief my new squad.'
Jaune walked out of the room and noticed a familiar looking blonde haired young man chatting with another familiar looking raven haired female. Besides those two he noticed a few of the other faces in the crowd and smile crossed his face.
'I wonder if she finished reading the book I gave her. I'll have to ask her sometime.'
He cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and they all stopped there conversations and turned their attention to him.
"Hello everyone, my name is Lieutenant Jaune Arc. I will be your commanding officer in a new type of specialized unit that will be hitting the battlefield with new and experimental weaponry. I understand that some of you don't know me that well, but I give you my word that I will do my utmost best to keep you alive and get you through this war."
And there it is! The RWBY crew is now coming together, I know some people are still missing, but don't worry they will be revealed at a later time when the plot calls for them.
On a side note, I am preparing to move to Japan soon, so updates will probably be spotty until I get settled in, but I will try my best to get 1-2 chapters out per month until my schedule is less busy.
Thanks for reading!