Five days flew past for the girls, with no small amount of tears and sweat being shed on account of the relentless exercise regime that Papa Bear had put them through. If there was a small consolation for them, it was that Papa Bear had followed them in every exercise they performed, along with the rest of the rookies in XCOM Headquarters that he rounded up. He ran around the base when they did, shot at targets alongside them, and performed squats and sit-ups whenever they had to do so. The manner in which he taught – leading by example – contrasted strongly to the hands-off approach that Ozpin and the teachers in Beacon took; the man had years of experience and was willing to teach them in any way he could.
Despite his best efforts to convince Dr. Vahlen of the importance of studying the girls' abilities – particularly this mysterious 'aura' that they kept talking about – Dr. Shen had failed to tear the scientist away from her precious alien cadavers that she enjoyed dissecting so much. Reluctantly, he simply filed a note to Dr. Vahlen about the potential research lead, hoping that the woman would eventually come across it sometime.
For now, however, he was content to simply observe them. And what better way to observe them than on the field; Bradford had deemed them ready for their first mission, an abduction site in the United States. One that had relatively few moving thermal signatures, given their initial satellite scans of the site.
"Strike Six, Strike Five, report to the Skyranger for duty in five minutes," Bradford spoke through the base's speakers, "I repeat, Strike Six, Strike Five, report to the Skyranger in five minutes,"
"Well, this is it, everyone. Our first proper mission away from Remnant!" Ruby said cheerfully, nearly bouncing up and down in excitement. The excitement was only shared by Yang, who smacked her fists together in anticipation of the coming fight; Weiss grumbled about an early morning outing, while Blake's face remained neutral as she closed a piece of 'fine literature' that she had been reading.
When they arrived at the Skyranger, they found a familiar face waiting for them at the ramp of the aircraft. "Emily!" shouted Ruby, jogging forward to wrap her arms around the taller medic's waist. Yang and the others followed closely behind, giving the medic a friendly wave.
"Ruby! Your first mission, eh?" replied Emily, smiling as she ran a hand through the brunette's hair. "And the rest of your strike team, too. Are they ready for this?"
"As ready as we could possibly be, against an enemy we've never fought before," Blake spoke back in a deadpan tone. She cradled a beam rifle in her hands, still somewhat annoyed by the order that none of them were permitted to wield their own weapons until they had been at least assigned a proper soldier class. Something about 'learning the basics of teamwork', and requiring to know how the others would fight.
"Well, at least one of you has the right idea about fighting. You're never ready, no matter what,"
Emily suddenly snapped off a salute as a dark-skinned man walked past all of them, carrying several belts of ammunition and wearing the most long-suffering frown on his face. He gave the members of Strike Six an appraising look; with every shoulder patch that he inspected, his frown continued to deepen, until Ruby was fairly certain that had there been enough members in their squad, it would have carved a hole in his face.
"Rookies? This is what Central gives me for an alien abduction mission? Rookies?" he grumbled, storming into the Skyranger without so much as greeting any of them.
"And there's our most fearless squad leader. Sergeant Andersen," Emily groaned, rolling her eyes as she relaxed, "Totally a ray of sunshine, isn't he?"
"But...he's not glowing?" Ruby asked, bemused by what the medic had just said.
Between Emily looking at her as if she had grown another head, to Weiss simply covering her face in embarrassment of her team leader's naivety, Yang had to fight to suppress a laugh at her sister's expense – and failed. "You know, Rubes, one of these days, you'll finally get the idea of sarcasm," she giggled, slapping her on the back, "Anyway, let's get in the ship. I'm itching to put a few hits on something,"
Once the group had entered the dropship, they noticed the presence of two others already onboard. A round-faced man with a large rocket launcher was already sitting down on a bench, clutching at a cross on a chain and muttering feverishly under his breath. A box beside him had a few large rockets sticking out of it, painted almost entirely yellow for some reason. The other man wore a wide-brimmed leather hat which mostly hid his features; though when Ruby tried to peek under his hat, her eyes met his piercing glare.
"What do you want, missy?" he groused, unfolding his arms and leaning back, "Ain't nothing here for anyone to see. Not for you, and definitely not for the aliens,"
"Um...okay, then. I was thinking that since we'll be working together, we might as well get to know each other!" Ruby replied nervously, somewhat disturbed by the man's brusque greeting.
He waved her away dismissively. "Ain't nothing here for anyone to see but a number. Five-Seven to you and the rest of this squad. Fat Man over there blows up walls, and I put holes in enemy heads. Works simple, works great, and don't need nobody else to work with us,"
"Really? Fat Man? I wouldn't ever have guessed," Yang whispered sarcastically, rolling her eyes. That had to be one of the worst nicknames to have been given to any man alive, though she did see how the name could have come from. After all, that man was rather well rounded and padded.
"Alright, folks, settle in, settle in!" barked the pilot, "Callsign is Big Sky, and I'm flying your battle taxi. Which means that for you folks in the hold, you sit your asses down in the benches and don't get up until the lights turn red and that ramp comes down, while I fly this bird to wherever it is Central needs you to go. You need evac, your CO drops a blue flare, and I come and pick you babies up. You got that?"
"Five-by-five, Big Sky," droned the older XCOM personnel dryly, obviously having heard the exact same thing many times over.
"Means you understand him properly. Just take my word for it," Emily said to the members of Strike Six, noticing their blank expressions. There were just some things that you couldn't understand without being with them for a while.
"Well, seeing as we have some FNGs with us, I expect that you experienced maggots will take care of them properly. I don't want to be hauling back bodybags, and unless you got a death wish, you don't want to explain to Central that you're bringing back some human corpses. Stay safe out there, people!"
"Central, this is Big Sky. We're approaching the AO, LZ looks clear,"
"Copy that, Big Sky. Strike Five, Strike Six, this is Central," Bradford spoke through their earpieces, "Ordinarily, Strike Five has eight members, but due to unfortunate circumstances, they are down to four members still combat effective. That means Strike Six, you will be filling the hole in their ranks. For this mission, you will receive your commands from Strike Five's CO. Follow his orders to the letter. Your orders are to secure the area and eliminate all hostiles. Initial scans indicate that there are no civilians in the area; collateral damage is not a concern. We expect there to be only a light enemy presence, and look forward to an excellent after-action report. Central out,"
The skyranger's hold had a large holographic screen for them to view the initial images of the battlefield. Right now, it was showing a run-down section of town, filled with narrow alleyways and litter-strewn footpaths. Several small shops lined the main avenue that ran through the place, where several cars had stopped haphazardly in the middle of the road.
Weiss frowned; if this was an attack, it was a little too neat and orderly. There was no collateral damage that her sister often spoke about whenever there was any sort of military action. In fact, it looked positively peaceful out there, if one were to disregard the cars stopped in the middle of the road with their doors open.
"Uh, Weiss? What's an AO again?" Ruby whispered to Weiss, who sighed and replied stiffly, "Maybe you need to stop eating those cookies while listening to Papa Bear's explanations. Area of operations, you dolt,"
"Means the place we're about to hit and clear of all aliens," Yang supplied helpfully, noting that her sister still appeared confused.
"Keep the chatter low, Strike Six. Touching down on the AO in five. Get to the nearest tall cover when that ramp drops," Sergeant Andersen shouted, "I want your guns raised and your eyes peeled. Rookies, that goes double for you,"
They felt a small bump as the vehicle's landing wheels touched the road below. When the ramp dropped, Strike Five immediately rushed out, their weapons held up and scanning for enemies; Strike Six followed closely behind them. The situation appeared to be clear, though both Blake and Weiss furtively looked over their shoulders with every step. There was an eerie sense of someone watching them from the shadows; as if the enemy could be anywhere around them.
"Tall cover. Hmm," Ruby muttered. She looked around; there were plenty of garbage cans around, but those would barely even cover her legs. There was, however, a large dumpster inside an alley leading away from the main avenue. Flattening herself against it, she peered around the corner.
"What...is that?" gasped the girl. There were several bodies on the ground. Human bodies. Plastered with what appeared to be sticky green gel of some sort. Some had their hands held out as if pleading for mercy from some unseen enemy, while others lay flattened, face first, as though they had been struck from behind as they fled.
"Bodies. We've got...bodies," muttered a horrified Weiss, clutching a hand to her mouth. She had taken a position next to a storefront, and had illuminated the inside of it with the torch strapped to the end of her rifle, immediately regretting that decision. "Dust, I do not understand. Why would they...why would anyone do this?"
"Keep your eyes peeled, rookies," hissed their CO, "Last thing we want is for the aliens to get the drop on us because one of you can't stay quiet. 6-3, 6-2, move inside this store. I want to make sure it's clear before we proceed,"
Remembering their assigned numbers, Yang and Blake shook off their disgust and nodded. The faunus stood beside the store's door, pushing it open quietly before Yang stormed in, sweeping her weapon slowly across the store.
"Looks empty," she commented, lowering her weapon slightly. The only things that she could see in the shop were the books on the shelves, and the bodies on the ground. The cashier's counter at the back still had a couple of bags that she supposed were full of books, right in front of two gel-covered bodies. She gritted her teeth in anger when she noticed the small size of one of the bodies. These aliens were abducting children!
Blake followed the blonde in, carefully stepping over a body on the ground. Curiosity got the better of her as she leant down to touch the green gel on the body, wondering what the stuff actually did to the targets they hit.
"These bodies...they're still...warm," said the faunus slowly, her eyes wide as she shook the green goo off her hands.
"The aliens don't kill their targets when performing abductions. They seem to want to keep them alive, but for what reason, we do not know," Vahlen spoke through their earpieces, causing them to jump.
"That woman still gives me the creeps. Rubes, seeing anything outside?"
"No...well...just bodies..." Ruby squeaked.
Blake's cat ears twitched when she heard a faint scratching noise, almost too quiet to hear. The sound came from behind the wall at the back of the store. Narrowing her eyes, she could see faint traces of green gel on the fire exit door behind the cashier's counter at the back. "I think I hear something. Scratching...something that's not metal, on rock...or concrete,"
"I can't hear anything from here, Blake. You sure you're not hearing things?"
The faunus rolled her eyes. "Funny that you should say that, Yang. You know that my hearing's better than yours. There's definitely something behind that door,"
"If you're certain about that, rookie, we'd better get ready," said Sergeant Andersen darkly. 5-2, 5-4, take firing positions beside those doors. 5-7, with me; we're taking a better vantage point. 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, get in that bookstore and behind the counter. Get ready to shoot anything that moves. 6-actual, take cover just behind that corner in front of you. Hold fire until the rest of us are in position,"
The team shuffled into position. Fat Man and Emily took up their places on either side of the fire exit, while Yang, Blake and Weiss crouched behind the cashier's counter, training their rifles on the door. If the stomping noises on the roof were any indication, Andersen and Five-Seven were moving into position.
"I'm there, guys. Are we all ready?" whispered Ruby into her earpiece, peeking around the corner. She could see the red fire exit door just ahead of her, with another two steel dumpsters directly in front of it. Two strange pods were emitting some noxious-looking green gases just beyond that.
"Ain't you just special, then, being so quick. Would you like a cookie?"
"Yes please!"
"...You know what, never mind, kid. Getting into position on the roof,"
Heavy boots stomped above the group in the bookstore again, letting them know that the sniper and the squad leader were getting into position. The scratching noises that Blake had heard before subsided soon after. Some kind of chattering replaced it; louder than the scratching, forming some kind of pattern. Was it the aliens speaking, perhaps?
"Something is not quite right here," Blake spoke, narrowing her eyes. "The scratching sound's gone, and I'm now hearing something...talking?"
"You sure you aren't hearing things, kid? I sure as hell don't see anything up here, other than a basketball court and trashcans," complained the sniper.
The sounds were getting louder. Getting closer and closer. There were three or four distinct voices, each chattering in the same unintelligible gibberish. Blake clutched her rifle tighter, turning her head so that her faunus ears pointed at the direction of the noise in an effort to pick up where it was coming from. She soon found herself staring at a wall to her left, with the noises loud and clear for her to pick up.
"We can't wait here all day for something that we don't know is even there," grumbled the sergeant above them, "5-4, open the fire exit,"
Before Blake could say 'wait', the fat man pushed open the fire door.
Only to be met with a barrage of green plasma bolts. The carapace armour that he was wearing absorbed several hits to his chest and legs, hissing loudly as the ablative coating dissipated the searing heat of the superheated gases. Another shot blasted clean through his kneecap, severing his leg at the knee; screaming in agony, the man fell down to the ground, before another shot incinerated his chest cavity.
"X-Rays spotted! Top of building overlooking basketball court, and down on the ground near the second alleyway; a Thin Man, and three Sectoids!" yelled the sergeant. "5-2, status of 5-4?"
Emily stood frozen, staring at the still-smoking corpse that was once the squad's rocketeer. There were bits of charred skin and flesh still stuck to her face when the plasma bolts blasted open the contents of his chest. Even now, the gaping wound in the middle of his chest was still ablaze, filling the room with a sharp, acrid stench.
That could have been me, she thought to herself. It was just like the mission in which they rescued the girls that were now Strike Six. The smell of burning flesh, the sharp sting of ionised gases; it was too close, too real, too crippling. Her heart was pounding at a million miles an hour. She wanted to get out of here. No, she needed to get out of here.
"Oh God. Oh God," she stammered, slowly inching away from the body. Breaking into a run, she dashed through the fire exit towards Ruby, narrowly avoiding another barrage of green lightning. "Get me out of here! Evac!" she wailed, clutching the helmet on her head with both her hands as she ran.
"5-4 is...dead..." Blake said slowly, resisting the urge to retch on the spot. "5-2 ran away. I can't see her,"
"Emily, stay with me!" they heard Ruby's voice call out through the comms, slightly higher than normal.
The dark-haired girl was desperately trying to calm her friend, who had by now turned into a whimpering ball beside a dumpster that was Ruby's previous cover. A bolt of plasma whistled past Ruby's head when she peeked out, grazing the tip of her bangs. "I'm under fire here!"
"I got your back, kiddo," spoke Five-Seven. His sniper rifle barked once; a dark shape came hurtling down from the top of the apartment across the basketball court, landing with a sickening crunch on the concrete below. "Target...neutralised,"
"Thanks!" Ruby replied, relieved. She saw two squat, hunched aliens hiding behind the dumpster on the other end of the building, just past the fire exit that had been thoroughly bombarded by plasma. She could see their heads poking over the top of the metal container; barely visible, their positions largely only given away by the pistols held over their heads.
Take the shot, she told herself. Lifting the beam rifle up, she held it steady, lining up the sights with the top of the dumpster and waiting for the alien to poke its head up again.
Breathe out. Pull the trigger smoothly. It's just like Crescent Rose, just smaller...and weaker. Just like Crescent Rose...smaller...weaker...
A crimson beam of light arced out from the tip of her rifle, streaking out and through the little grey alien's head. It crumpled to the ground, half of its skull missing. The second one, on seeing the death of two of its allies, chittered and scampered away and out of sight.
"They're falling back! 6-Actual, advance!"
"Oh, come on!" Ruby whined, running forward to the still-intact dumpster in front of the fire exit. Immediately on reaching it, a bolt of plasma narrowly missed her head, courtesy of the sectoid who had seemingly run off.
It was only then that Ruby noticed something different about the strange little alien creature. While the other one that she had shot had eyes that appeared to be dull and glazed over, this one was bright with keen intelligence. Instead of running away like she had expected, this one had taken cover behind a stack of wooden crates, ensuring that it remained hidden if the sniper tried to look for him. Chattering angrily, it raised its plasma pistol and fired another few rounds at Ruby, both shots going wild and vaporising the walls of the apartment behind her.
"That was close," gasped the huntress, glancing over her shoulder at the rapidly melting brick wall behind her.
Turning back to face the creature, her eyes widened when its hand was engulfed in what looked like purple flames. Its eyes practically shone with malice as it lashed out with a whip of purple flame, catching Ruby by surprise. While the touch of the whip seemed to do no physical damage at all, pain unlike anything Ruby had ever felt before shot through every single one of her nerves, causing her to crumple to the ground, writhing in pain. It was as though she were being both burned alive and frozen simultaneously, all while being torn into a thousand pieces by blunt Beowolf claws. Perhaps it was even real, considering that there appeared to be numerous dark claws raking itself into her skin-
Wait. Beowolf claws? Without the rest of the Beowolf?
"This has got to be fake!" she said angrily, forcing herself to stand despite the pain. Her vision was swimming, and she could see the rifle in her hands trembling; but at this range, she couldn't miss.
A laser beam blasted into the creature's right shoulder, just a little too low to strike its head. The flames in its hand vanished as it hissed in pain. Just as the flames vanished, so did the pain racking the young huntress' body, replaced by an almost overpowering sense of nausea.
"Ruby! What's going on out there?" she heard Yang scream, though it was oddly muffled, as though someone had thrown a pair of extremely thick earmuffs over her head.
"Looks like a psi attack of some sort. 6-4, go out there and give 6-Actual support until she recovers from it,"
Whatever this creature was, it seemed to have an incredible capacity for pain. Ignoring the wound in its shoulder, it conjured yet another ball of purple flames in its still functioning hand. Though instead of looking at Ruby, it stared up. Right into the eyes of Five-Seven, who had his revolver out and was ready to put a bullet in its brain.
Snarling, its eyes glowed a vivid violet. Five-Seven stiffened and seized up, his pistol now twitching in his grip. Slowly, he pivoted around and stared at Ruby. His eyes were blank and unseeing orbs of the same vivid violet as the creature. An inhuman screech left his lips as he raised his weapon, levelling it at the girl's heart.
"Dust, what the hell are you doing! Stop this!" shouted a wide-eyed Weiss at the sniper. Noticing that his fingers were twitching, she hurriedly lifted up a hand and summoned a glyph with all her might in front of Ruby. The floating force glyph shattered with a ear-splitting blast as the high-calibre bullet smashed into it; the huntress that it was shielding was thrown to the ground by the backlash, but was otherwise unharmed.
"Interloper...die..." he hissed, now moving his pistol to aim at Weiss. Without any nearby cover, Weiss waved her hand to conjure another force glyph in front of her. To her horror, the glyph materialised for less than a second before it flickered away. Now staring down the end of the barrel of the insane sniper's pistol, she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.
Bang.
Nothing.
She felt nothing.
Opening her eyes a fraction, she saw the squad leader of Strike Five grappling with the sniper. Whatever had happened to the sniper seemed to have greatly enhanced his strength; despite Sergeant Andersen's much greater bulk, the thin and wiry sniper was giving the gunner a significant amount of trouble keeping him pinned against the wall. Even with all his body weight against Five-Seven, Andersen sweated profusely as he strained to pry the pistol out of the man's hand.
"6-2, 6-3, 5-2! Kill that damn sectoid commander! That's an order!" roared Andersen, snapping Blake and Yang out of their stunned stupor, "I can't hold this guy down for much longer! Ten seconds!"
If either of them were Ruby, ten seconds would have been plenty to chase and dispatch the sectoid that was currently hiding on the other side of the building, especially with the aid of her Semblance.
Neither of them had something that could help, unless-
Yang looked down at the belt on her armour. There was a grenade there; a high-explosive one, designed to take out solid concrete walls and turn unarmoured enemies to paste. The wall of the bookstore was only brick and wood, and was not terribly solid. A blast would be enough to carve a shortcut through the building – and possibly even kill the alien on the other side. "Blake," she growled, pulling the pin on the grenade, "Move away from the wall, and get ready to shoot the alien as soon as you can,"
A powerful blast rocked the building as the wall exploded outwards, spraying the sectoid commander with bits of shattered brick and splinters of wood. With only a few seconds left to go, the faunus rushed out to shoot the alien. She raised her rifle and aimed for the creature's torso, though she pulled the trigger with far too much force and the shot went wild, incinerating the brick wall behind the sectoid.
"Missed!" Blake snarled, adjusting her aim for a second shot.
The sectoid narrowed its eyes at her menacingly. "Goddamn it, Five-Seven, get a grip on yourself- fuck, man, let go of that gr-"
Another powerful blast rocked the building, this time powerful enough to cause part of the ceiling to collapse. Weiss threw herself in front of the still-prone Ruby, shielding her from the worst of the hail of debris that rained on them all. When the last of the concrete and wood chips had stopped falling on her head, she looked up to see that half the building had fallen down, with no sign of either the sniper or their squad leader anywhere. Blake, hurled against a dumpster by the sheer force of the explosion, lay slumped on the ground with her weapon a good ten feet away. She stirred and groaned, but could not muster enough strength to push herself up.
The sectoid commander was still up. Its gait was unsteady from the steady loss of blood that it had been enduring. But its eyes were locked on Blake's body. Slowly, it limped over to the fallen huntress, its plasma pistol raised and charged. It took careful aim, ready to end the girl-
"Oh no, you don't!" yelled Yang furiously, charging at the alien with a fist raised. Her armoured gauntlet smashed against its chin with an audible crack. It screeched in pain and dropped its pistol, pressing its hand against its shattered jaw. With incredible force, the blonde reared back and slammed home another blow against the sectoid's midsection, launching it into a wall – and through the wall, and a table, before the creature's twitching body came to a rest inside a refrigerator's coolant coils. "You are not touching my kitty cat!"
Kitty cat? Weiss thought to herself, suppressing a laugh despite their grim surroundings. If Blake heard about that one, she was certain that Yang would not live to see the evening, Aura shielding her or otherwise. Still, there were still other aliens on site, if Bradford was right, and she could not afford to let her guard down at this time.
As the white-haired girl stooped over to help her team leader stand, her boot bumped against something hard and metallic. She caught sight of a rather unique pistol; the heavy revolver that the insane sniper had used. Though its wooden handle was charred and pitted from the explosion, she could see the appeal in using such a weapon. It was a perfect blend of elegance and power; the long, heavy barrel provided exceptional accuracy, while the large cavities in the weapon's cylinder indicated that it was designed to fire rounds almost as powerful as Ruby's own Crescent Rose.
One shot, one kill, in one hand. That was what she had been looking for, all this time!
"Alright, let's get you up, you dolt," huffed Weiss after she clipped the charred revolver onto her belt. Leaning down, she hauled Ruby to her feet with one smooth movement. The red-haired huntress stumbled unsteadily for a few seconds before she fell back down with a pained yelp. "Or...not. I suppose I will have to help you for a while,"
"Strike Five, Strike Six, be advised of incoming hostiles. We count at least six small aliens approaching your position. Given the current speed of their approach, they will be in your position in approximately twenty seconds from the direction of the concrete clearing north of your location. Find some cover and prepare to ambush them,"
"Twenty seconds? No, no, no!" Yang said, looking for cover wildly. The bookstore was no longer solid enough to protect them – not that she would try to find cover in a burning building, as flames are certainly not friendly to anyone wishing to keep themselves in one piece. Blake was still floored by the concussive force of the earlier explosion, and Weiss had to prop Ruby up with her shoulders, as her sister appeared to be incapable of standing on her own for some reason. There weren't enough of them to eliminate all of the newcomers effectively or safely.
If only they had one more person to help...
"We still got Fat Man's rocket launcher, Yang. He won't be needing it any more," Emily said thickly. The medic was holding the weapon in her arms, along with three spare rockets that she had found on the fallen soldier's body. "Load it, and blow 'em all to hell," snarled the woman, thrusting the entire package into Yang's arms.
Yang nodded enthusiastically, drooling at the chance of using some serious firepower. The bigger the explosions, the better! As long as it was in the general area of their enemies, of course. "Sounds like a plan. Let's do this!"
When the six sectoid grunts arrived on site, they were greeted by a curious scene. One building was all but burned down; a thin man was plastered on the concrete in front of an apartment block, and their commander was nowhere to be seen. And most curiously yet, they did not see a single creature in the area that could have caused all of this.
That was, until one of them noticed what looked like a fat stovepipe peeking over the top of a tall dumpster.
"Say cheese!" shouted Yang as she pulled the trigger on the rocket launcher. A yellow rocket streaked out towards the middle of the group, before detonating just above the surface of the ground with a deafening explosion and a blindingly bright mushroom cloud.
"Strike Five, Strike Six, this is Central. There are no more alien thermal signatures in the AO. Mission accomplished. Excellent work out there, everyone,"
Ruby raised her head to take a look around the site. One building was all but burned down. The body of the squad's rocketeer lay in a pool of his own blood by a doorway; Emily was standing over him, sobbing profusely. The sniper and the squad leader was nowhere to be seen, having been vaporised by the grenade's explosion. The usually quick and nimble Blake had an arm around Yang's shoulders to steady herself, wincing with every ginger step she took. And Ruby herself was leaning heavily on Weiss, who was strangely quiet, enduring the weight of two people without complaint.
If this was 'excellent', she did not even want to think about what anything less than that would be like.
A/N
Anything less than 'excellent', really, is a normal day in XCOM. What's a mission without a suicide rookie scouting ahead of the main group, anyway?
But yes. Losing is fun (tm). Just like in Dwarf Fortress! Blood for the blood god!
Indecisive Bob: Yeah, it's a bit odd that there's no gym at Beacon, considering that physical fitness is probably one of the most important things to have for someone that's out hunting monsters with melee weapons (with guns built in them, heh). I don't think though that anyone would ever find physical conditioning a cakewalk. If you're not pushing yourself, you're not actually getting conditioned :P
That being said, I have plans for how Aura is managed on Earth vs. Remnant. Let's just say that Weiss has probably figured out the first piece of the puzzle.
MeleeSmasher: That would be a fun way to show that bayonets are not dead. I mean, scythe-guns...something...hmm...chainsaws come to mind... (sticks chainsaw bayonets on plasma rifles, gets rookie killed anyway because they weren't trained in hand to hand combat)
Next up: The cure for post-battle stress? Is there even such a thing?
Operation Fire Axis: After Action Report
Cpl. Rick 'Five-Seven' Connors: KIA
Cpl. Carlos 'Fat Man' Garcia: KIA
Sgt. Thorsten 'Sunshine' Anderson: KIA
Cpl. Emily 'Angel' Vargas: Active (Promoted)
Spc. Ruby Rose: Wounded (Promoted)
Spc. Yang Xiao Long: Active (Promoted)
Spc. Weiss Schnee: Active (Promoted)
Spc. Blake Belladonna: Wounded (Promoted)
3 KIA, 2 wounded. 9 of 9 aliens killed. Council rating: Good