Author's Headnote: Heeeeeeey! Well, this chapter's going to be different. Well, instead of it going to be on the perspective of team RWBY, it'll be on a twenty-four-year-old Miranda Lawson. Like I said, liberties with canon. But given the circumstances... I think you'll understand.
Also, as the terms of how Yang was knocked out? Biotically boosted gun-bash, from the back of the head. Aura doesn't protect against unaware attacks, that's my answer and I'm sticking to it. Let's jump into the chapter.
The Ruby of Cerberus: The Full Report
Miranda Lawson:
Health: Healthy
Abilities: Biotics, Omni-Tool Overload
Weapons: M-2 Kessler (Standard Issue)
Party Relations:
- No one is in Miranda's Party
End of Major character status report
Deneb, Unity, Cerberus Science Facility, October 25, 2174, Monday, 2:45 PM, Engineering Lab
The Deneb system holds the planet Unity, a Human colony on the edge of the galaxy. Unity is one of the older colonies from the alliance, along with Terra Nova, Shanxi, and Eden Prime. The populace here is mostly conservative with a small and open support for Terra Firma. The capital of Unity is a place called Crystanapolis. Other major cities include Cygnus, Alabaster, and New Bremen. Unity is a large, habitable moon centered around the gas giant of Olympia. The day length is 28 hours, and the years are worth 256 days. However, the gregorian calandar is used regardless of this. The biomes in Unity are perfect for human colonialism.
The Cerberus Facility is far from any populated area on Unity, given that this facility is mostly for Cerberus Scientists, mostly to research Prothean technology, along with the technology from other cultures. So far, the Scientists have managed to reproduce Salarian shotguns and ancient Krogan sniper rifles in terms of weapons. But most of the team is to study the linguistics and biology of aliens, since most of engineering goes towards the Prothean stuff. Including one so called: 'Gateway', as the engineers call it.
Miranda Lawson, twenty-four years old, and a recent addition of Cerberus has been tasked directly from the Illusive Man to give a status update on Unity's research facility, and that's why she's in the engineering facility.
The engineering lab is where Cerberus Engineers go study, research, or reverse engineer mechanical technology. This part of the facility is a large laboratory dedicated to studying mechanical technology. There is also a small workshop dedicated to reverse engineering technology. No, actual weapon manufacturing or counter-feit production is done here, any equipment production from Cerberus is at the Terminus systems where galactic law would be considered a suggestion. There is also a small room dedicated to the gateway here.
Miranda had walked in, although no one here recognized her... she is new here, after all. She was wearing a standard Cerberus uniform, and equipped with an M-2 Kessler pistol.
"Can I... help you?" the engineer asked.
"Yes, I am here from Cronos station, the Illusive Man wants an update on gateway research." Miranda stated, professionally.
"Yes, about that... the gateway research has been put on hold..."
"And why is that?"
"A long story short, we got the thing to work 2 weeks ago, we sent in a small team, but quickly they noticed that the atmosphere felt off."
"So... you went into an uninhabitable planet?"
"No no, we ended up on what appears to be an alternate dimension. That, or an isolated colony."
"Isolated colony?"
"The locals were human, but they spoke in another language, one not picked up by our translators..."
"That's odd."
"Quite indeed... We sent some soldiers to establish an expansion to Cerberus activities... but..."
"But?"
"The soldiers were... stopped, likely killed or stranded in this other world because a bunch of teenage girls not only managed to find the base of operations, but had went through it, and closed the portal. If it weren't for the alarm system, I wouldn't know what would happen."
"And these girls?"
"We've managed to pacify them and they are contained in a containment cell, we're waiting on the Illusive man before we do anything other having the biologists have fun with them and install a translator implant."
"And what do I see over there?" Miranda asked, pointing at the grey powder.
"grinded up powder... the geologists say it's made of the same stuff as a barren natural satellite." the engineer answered.
"And why do you have grinded up moon dust in the lab?"
"They were in the weapons carried by girls we have in containment. Using them in place of gunpowder... and black powder for one instance."
"That's odd."
"Geologists were confused by it too, they said moondust can't be used as gunpowder."
"And these... weapons?"
"Quite bizarre... combination weapons too, using some sort of odd technology. Never seen anything like it. The first one we went through was the red one, and oh boy do I want to meet the gunsmith that built that scythe."
"Wait wait wait… gunsmith? Scythe?"
"It's some sort of bolt-action rifle, scythe hybrid. The firing mechanism is also functional in the scythe form too. I took it apart, and put it back together. And now, I've got a basic schematic for it, I'll send it to Cronos for it to be adapted and ready for use for our soldiers."
"You want our troops to be equipped with those?"
"I don't see why not."
"Yes... and the other ones?"
"The second one is a rapier with a black powder revolver around it, not sure what kind of drugs the person built that was on... but it was where most of the moon dust came from..."
"Did you check and see if there was any element zero mixed in there?"
"In the moon dust? Even if there is, it'd be so diluted it would be non-existent."
"Uh huh..."
"The hand-gun knife thing is a bit eccentric, what kind of gun has two magazines? And there is this strange string attached to it and the blade."
"Perhaps the magazine swaps when one is empty?"
"Nope, it does not. This design seems utterly redundant. The M-2 Kessler would do just fine in terms of side-arms."
"Well, it is the standard issue for a reason."
"And for this last one is a pair of bracers which also able to fire shotgun shells. And can alternate between gauges, able to fire 8 gauge and 1-gauge shells."
"That seems incredibly... adaptive."
"But no less, like the rest of them. Took it apart and put it back together, I'm going to send the schematics to the shotgun bracers to headquarters, maybe our biotics would find use of them."
"So... that's it?"
"well, and then there's these things?" the engineer said, presenting the strange ipod like device.
Miranda picked it up and fiddled with it, it opened up like a scroll, and a bunch of text and pictures appear.
"Guess these things are like a midway between phones and omni-tools." Miranda commented.
"I didn't even know it could do that; I didn't even know it was electronic."
"Don't bother, the technology would have no use for Cerberus. Is there anything else?"
"No, that is it from us. I think you'd want to speak with the biology team for their results."
"I understand, I'll go talk to them right now." Miranda said, writing down what she had heard on her e-mail letter and leaving the engineering wing of the laboratory.
Well, their weapons are an interesting subject, wonder why they were using moondust instead of gunpowder? Perhaps something in the atmosphere altered the property of the moon dust. Well, no matter. Not like Miranda is going to find out anyway. She needs to check up on the biology team, now.
Deneb, Unity, Cerberus Science Facility, October 25, 2174, Monday, 3:07 PM, Intersectional Corridor
The corridors were nothing special, they do their job, a pathway between all the various rooms in the facility, thin, accessible to large groups. Pinnacle of human architecture.
Miranda was walking from engineering to biology. When all of the conversation of two soldiers on break manage to catch her interest, so she listens on their conversation.
"Y'know, I'm not sure how exactly we've managed to take down the blonde one with a single gun-bash, if she was able to tank the shock collar." One of the soldiers said.
"From the person who did the deed, it was at the back of the head, and biotically boosted. He's a biotic, but he prefers using his guns to attack. His biotic techniques only focus on close combat." the second one said.
"Oh, one of the biotic commandos. Biotic troops are a new addition to the corps."
"Ya, after the L3 implants were released, the Illusive man went and recruited biotics. He didn't trust the earlier implants."
"Given the news about the L2 biotics, makes a lot of sense."
"Do you think these girls are biotically capable?"
"I don't know, but those white circles and red rose petals aren't biotic, I tell you."
"The yellow one's eyes turn red, for sure. Young and aggressive, much like my girlfriend."
"Don't let her catch you say that."
"Yes, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation."
"I'm curious about what the one with the cat ears has? So far, they have some sort of like weird comic book superpower, she's got to have one."
"Maybe it's connected to the second magazine her weapon had, I heard the engineers rant about it back at patrol."
"What exactly would a second magazine be used for?"
"And why is it filled with useless grey powder?"
"We'll never know, but we should get back to work. Time is money."
"Aye."
And some things didn't make sense in that conversation? Red eyes? Superpowers? Cat ears? Well, she's going to have to talk to the prisoners directly after the biology report. The Illusive Man would certainly want to know more about the new guests. But no less, the biologists would certainly give some results to what they're made of.
Deneb, Unity, Cerberus Science Facility, October 25, 2174, Monday, 3:18 PM, Biology Labs
The biology lab is much larger than engineering. With the most notable wing being the medical wing, there is also other sources of biological testing ranging down the cellular research, autopsies, botany, most of the stuff that's related to studying living tissue. And no doubt four new samples have came into the laboratory. The people in the laboratory are not doctors, nor do they have a medical license, they're biologists willing to experiment on sentient beings. There are plenty of private medical facilities owned by Cerberus, this is not one of them.
Miranda had looked to the lab and went to talk to the biologists.
"Excuse me, I assume you're the one in charge here?" Miranda asked one of the biologists.
"Me? No, the head biologist is at the main center, looking at the results of the new subjects." the biologist stated.
"Can you bring me to him?"
"Certainly." the biologist said, escorting Miranda to the head biologist.
The head biologist was standing, pacing and looking at his computer... "what does it mean?" he asked himself.
"Excuse me, I'm here about the lab results for the new prisoners." Miranda stated.
"About that... the blood samples from each of them are well... we had to re-do two of the subjects given that they've eaten and it affected the results." The head biologist stated.
"And what did you find?" Miranda asked.
"See for yourself."
She looked at the screen of the biologists computer, and see the subjects test results.
SUBJECT 2:
AGE: 15 years, 11 months, 344 days (Taken on October 12, 2174)
HAIR COLOR, NATURAL: Black with red tips
EYE COLOR: Silver
SPECIES: Human
SEX: Female
DNA MAKEUP: 100% Miscellaneous Human
"Looks like someone has their birthday coming up." Miranda commented.
"We're not baking any cakes for the prisoners." One of the biologists said in the background.
"She's... one hundred percent miscellaneous?" Miranda asked.
"It's a fallback on the device, even then it's never seen until now." The head biologist explained.
"So... is it safe to assume she's not related to anyone on Earth by any means?"
"Or any other human, for that matter. We've even did another test, and got the same results."
"Interesting... and she has naturally silver eyes?"
"It's not an impossibility, but around less then 1% of the population has them."
"And her hair color?"
"That, I have no explanation for, might be related to the miscellaneous part."
"And this one?"
SUBJECT 3:
AGE: 18 years, 2 Months, 23 days (Taken on October 13, 2174)
HAIR COLOR: Yellow Blonde
EYE COLOR: Lilac
SPECIES: Human
SEX: Female
DNA MAKEUP: 100% Miscellaneous Human
"I've overheard that the blonde one had red eyes." Miranda commented.
"Well, apparently either the machine is broken, or she has the ability to change her eye color at a whim." The head biologist stated.
"She's Eighteen? Old enough for a job."
"I don't think the commander would want to recruit her in particular."
"Well, the Illusive Man has the final word on that."
"You don't think that he'd actually consider conscripting her?"
"Didn't she get knocked out by a rifle stock or something?" one of the patrolmen asked.
"From what I've heard, she was knocked out by a surprise attack, so she hadn't seen it coming. Even then, she's more than capable of taking on the facility if it weren't for the biotics." the other patrolman stated.
"She wasn't even wearing armor, either."
"Can you two please be quiet?" the head biologist demanded.
"Well... anyway? Let's check up on the next results."
SUBJECT 1:
AGE: 17 years, 4 months, 27 days (Taken on October 12, 2173)
HAIR COLOR: Black
EYE COLOR: Yellow
SPECIES: Human
SEX: Female
DNA MAKEUP: 51% Miscellaneous Human, 32% Unknown, 15% Housecat, 2% Puma
"Fifteen percent... housecat?" Miranda asked.
"Would explain the cat ears, but nothing else." the head biologist explained.
"Do you have an idea to why she's 17% feline?"
"The only explanation is if she was genetically engineered, although my fellow biologists report that she identifies as a 'faunas'."
"Genetically engineered cat girls? That old fantasy from the twenty-first century?"
"Humanity had a weird phase at that time. But that is my only conclusion."
"And what about that 32% Unknown?"
"Well, that just means whatever that is, it's not human."
"So... this thing says that she's barely human?"
"Yes..."
"So... what does she look like?"
"Oh, she looks exactly human, just with cat ears."
"Well, this is an odd array of results."
"Quite indeed."
SUBJECT 4:
AGE: 17 years, 8 Months, 5 Days, (Taken October 14, 2174)
HAIR COLOR: White
EYE COLOR: Blue
SPECIES: Human
SEX: Female
DNA MAKEUP: 92.5% Miscellaneous Human, 7.5% Unknown
"Well, this one is at least more reasonable than the last one." Miranda stated.
"Only 7.5% not human, that is."
"White hair? Could that be related in the unknown?"
"Or the miscellaneous."
"Did you also test to see if they're capable of possessing biotics?"
"Well... I knew I was forgetting something."
"Well, regardless. I'll have to talk to them to know their side of the story. The Illusive Man wants a status update, and I'm giving him a full report." Miranda said, writing down what she had discussed on her e-mail. "Send me the test results through e-mail, I'll send it to him as an attachment."
"Very well. I'll go back to our standard projects." the head biologist stated, heading back to work.
Miranda had figured she was done here... discussing the genetic makeup of the individuals. Vague it is. The rest of the documents sent to Miranda discuss the details of the rest of the tests. Save for biotic sensitivity. Guess it was time to meet these individuals personally. They should still be in the communal containment cell bored out of their minds. Being that they're all teenagers. Not sure how a bunch of teenagers would do so much damage to Cerberus, but Miranda is about to find out.
Deneb, Unity, Cerberus Science Facility, October 25, 2174, Monday, 3:34 PM, Communal Containment Cell (Exterior)
Right outside of the communal containment cell, Miranda sees four teenagers... fit to the description from their biology reports. Two soldiers are seen guarding the cell outside of their field of vision, in case they have any idea of escape, both of which are biotics. They seem to not notice Miranda yet, being pre-occupied with what appears to be them playing twenty-one questions.
"Is it Yellow?" The one with the cat ears asked.
"No! Of course not, why would I be thinking of Yellow!?" the white-haired girl retorted.
"Given the rest of the questions, it would make sense that you're thinking of him." The blonde added.
"Maybe she's thinking of Sun?" the black and red-haired girl asked.
"Really, Ruby? How did you get that right!?" the white-haired girl asked.
"I mean, you do like to stare at his abs." the blonde suggested.
"I've caught you staring too, Yang."
"Oh, cheer up."
"Have you noticed that the Cerberus woman has been staring at us?" The girl with the cat ears asked.
"Oh?" the other three uttered, turning around.
"I was waiting until you were done playing your little game before I ask some questions." Miranda stated.
"So... you're going to ask us about... what exactly?" one of the girls asked.
"Well... first... your full names, I need a full report of what happened here."
"Why should I tell you?" the blonde asked.
"Because if you don't... well... guards... shock em'." Miranda ordered.
"Warning, the collar doesn't work on her." the guard warned.
"Then shock the other three if she misbehaves."
"What?"
"You know what I've said, instead of shocking her, shock the other three."
"You can't be serious!" the blonde objected.
"Just watch me. Shock them..."
All of the prisoners... except the blonde received a shock from their collars. The three of them groaned in pain from the electrical shocks they've all received from the collar. The blonde looks honestly horrified, especially looking at the young black and red-haired girl.
"You care for her, don't you?" Miranda asked.
"I won't say..." the blonde said stubbornly.
"Hmm... just shock the silver-eyed girl, and turn up the voltage!"
"Don't hurt her!" the blonde said, her eyes turning red.
"Well... if you don't co-operate, her death will be on your hands. And our biotics can take care of you, easily."
"Just tell her what she wants!" the white-haired individual pleaded.
"I much prefer if I don't die in a cell." the cat-eared girl stated.
The other girl stayed silent...
"Alright... my name is Yang Little-Long. Just don't hurt her." Yang confessed.
"That's better. Where are you from, Yang?" Miranda asked.
"An island called Patch, off the coast of the City of Vale, in the Kingdom of Vale."
Kingdom? Well, do these people come from a fantasy world? And her choice of name doesn't make sense either, who would have their last name be 'Little Long'
"Can I get the rest of your names?" Miranda asked.
"White Snow, for one." the white-haired girl said...
"White Snow?"
"No, I said White Snow!"
"Yes, that's what you said... White Snow."
"Can you spell your name for me?"
"W-E-I-S-S S-C-H-N-E-E! WHITE SNOW!"
Unfortunately, the language of these girls does not go through the translator well. Given that saying her name translates to 'White Snow', when she means 'Weiss Schnee'. Which is the German version of the name, and it's being translated to English. But the translator implant will pick up in time, just not now... wait... Little-Long...
"Yang... could you spell your name? I'll need it written down..."
"Okay... Y-A-N-G X-I-A-O L-O-N-G"
'Xiao-Long'. Well, that makes a bit more sense than 'Little-Long'. Again, an issue with the translator. The choice in names is still confusing to Miranda. They come from another world, yet have perfectly earth-sounding names. Well, perhaps the other two would break the mold.
"And you, what's your name?" Miranda asked the cat-eared girl.
"Blake Belladonna, and I am going to assume you're not here just for our names?" Blake stated and then asked.
"Quite perceptive. And if you co-operate, My boss would show some mercy on you four." Miranda stated, trying to intimidate them.
"Okay then... and our leader here is Ruby Rose, she's still mad about her weapon being taken from her."
"Ya, Crescent Rose is like a daughter to her." Yang added.
"I see..." Miranda uttered. "And your leader is the youngest of the group?"
"You know our ages?"
"You were tested, and the results showed your age, and someone's birthday is coming."
"Are we going to receive any cake?"
"No."
"Aaaaww..."
"Well, we could have had cake if you didn't decide to just jump into the portal!" Weiss retorted.
"In-and-Out, she said..." Blake commented.
"And now we're being tested and interrogated." Ruby said in a grumpy tone
"Explain to me why she's the leader." Miranda asked out of concern.
"Well, that's what I've been trying to figure out." Weiss... or as she pronounces it in Miranda's ears... 'White' answered.
"Uh huh... and that Moondust... why was it in your weapons?"
"You mean dust?" Weiss asked.
Miranda facepalmed. The fact that they call it dust is not a good sign because not only did they know they're using it, but also the fact that they have no idea what the stuff is made of... she does not want to know how the laws of reality impact that stuff in their dimension, because if it means what Miranda think it means, it means that they've been using dust, sand, and grinded up rocks from their moon as gunpowder. It just makes Miranda feel uncomfortable.
"What?" Weiss asked.
"Nothing..." Miranda retorted, and lied. She doesn't want to put up with any nonsense excuse they have to put up. "Now tell me... what is this?" Miranda asked, pulling up the device one of the engineers gave her.
"GIVE ME THAT!" Weiss demanded.
"Oh, it's your phone."
"What the heck is a phone?"
Miranda just stood silent for five seconds... "No matter, I'll be keeping it until you're released." she stated.
"You can't just keep someone's scroll!" Yang retorted.
"Well, given that you are all prisoners... you're not allowed to have any personal belongings."
"We didn't commit any crimes!"
"Breaking and entering? First degree murder? Attempted murder? Assault and Battery, destruction of property?"
"Oh, fair point."
"You do know if you did that anywhere else in the galaxy, you would be sent to prison for the rest of your life, given that you're eighteen?"
"And not in here?" Blake asked. "Are you a terrorist organization?"
"Well, that's insulting. Terrorist exist to strike fear amongst the people, we don't fearmonger. We're an organization dedicated to the prosperity of humanity. And given that you are all human..." Miranda said, before being interrupted.
"I'm not human."
"Half-Human at the least for you. 51% to be exact."
"I'm a faunas, what do you guys not get about that? Clearly other faunas exist here, right?"
"No... there's no species by that name. If you are another species, would explain the unknown result we got on you and your silver-haired friend."
Weiss jumped out of shock... and she looked heavily concerned.
"You're kidding?" Blake asked.
"She's around 92% human according to the DNA test." Miranda answered. "But let's get back on topic, where exactly did you find the Cerberus outpost?"
"A warehouse in the industrial district, there was a news report about a strange light coming from there and we wanted to check it out."
"And what kind of authority do you have to investigate something like that?"
"We're huntresses! We help people!" Yang retorted.
"Huntresses in training, we're not licensed yet." Weiss stated.
"You call yourselves huntresses? What do you hunt?"
"The grimm, creatures of darkness who sense negativity and preys on humans and faunas alike." Blake stated.
Miranda was writing all of this down... well, they're certainly capable combatants, guess that means they've managed to take care of the expedition force on their world with ease, and that troops was lucky to knock her out so easily. But she needs to know one thing... how exactly are these girls such powerhouses?
"And one more thing, What's the source of your power?" Miranda asked.
"And that's where I'm stepping the line, I'm not telling you that." Yang objected.
Ruby started to receive a shock from her collar.
"Don't worry... I can tough it out." Ruby said, shrugging it off.
"It's clearly not technological... since there was nothing on your person for you to do that, and it's likely not biotic, since it doesn't glow purple. So... what is it?" Miranda asked... expecting an answer.
"Not like you'd understand anyway..." Blake stated. And then her collar gets shocked. Blake grunts from the pain from the shock.
"So be it... that's all you'd be hearing from me for now..." Miranda said, leaving the prisoners to their fate.
They seem stubborn about telling the secret of their power, they seem more than willing to tell them about their world, but not about where they get their power from? Well, Miranda doesn't understand the logic. But no less, they have some mysterious power to them... but what exactly?
No less, Miranda wrote down about how they're stubborn on the information of their power for some reason. And sent the E-mail to The Illusive Man. She then goes to the ship on the way to the Cronos station, which is the headquarters of Cerberus.
Author's Footnote: Alright before you bombard me, let me explain!
1. The DNA Makeup results were all charted as mostly miscellaneous human for two reasons. 1: I do not want to start any arguments. 2: They're not from earth, so they couldn't be anything like English, German, Iroquois, or Chinese. So, it wouldn't make sense for them to have any genetic ties to those regions. As for Blake and Weiss... the UNKNOWN part is Faunas DNA, spouted out as an error because the machine does not recognize it. And Housecat and Puma is because the machine had mistakenly identified part of her DNA to resemble those species.
2. Why they talked to easily about grimm is because they don't know much about the Mass Effect universe, so they assumed that grimm is a universal problem.
3. Who is Yellow? Jaune, if you hadn't figured it out. From Miranda's perspective, they're translating everything they've said to English so foreign words would get translated as well. This would be awkward with names that aren't usually names. Although spelling doesn't seem to be affected, for the sake convenience. For that... this issue would resolve itself in time. Just expect people calling Weiss: 'White' for quite a bit.
4. I don't remember how old Miranda was when she joined Cerberus, been quite a while since I've played Mass Effect 2. So, for the sake of convenience, she joined around 2173 in this timeline in particular.
5. What the heck is the M-2 Kessler? Well, that's the pre-thermal clip variant of the M-3 Predator. Remember, Thermal clips weren't introduced until Mass Effect 2. So, weapons like the Lancer and Kessler models would be more commonplace.
6. Yes, this Deneb is based off the Stellaris counterpart. Expect Stellaris references, however... nothing else other than planets and star systems would be referenced here.
Okay, now that I got all of that out of the way, what do you guys think of the chapter? Make sure to leave feedback, and see ya next chapter.