A/N: The Hellfire Class Star Destroyer is basically just the Phoenix Class Colony Ship from Halo, AKA, the Spirit of Fire.
It was early morning when the Mandalorians arrived in force over Vale, the uniquely stylized Mythosaur skull emblazoned upon the underside of the Mandalorian Star Destroyer's Hull clearly telling the city's trembling populace exactly which Mandalorian taskforce was at that very moment hovering a mere ten kilometers over their heads. Mythos had arrived, 2,000 fully fledged Mandalorian Warriors and 6,000 Mandalorian Apprentices supported by another another 3,500 naval crewmen aboard a vessel 2,500 meters long, 800 meters wide and 690 meters tall at it's lengthiest point vertically observed. This was a Hellfire Class Star Destroyer, it was neither the largest ship produced by New Mandalore Shipworks nor the backbone or workhorse of the Mandalorian Fleet, but it was the most heavily preferred for usage by Mandalorian Task Forces such as Mythos for it's versatility. Even still despite being preferred and tailored only for such a specific role the ship was multiple magnitudes larger than even the largest Atlesian Dreadnoughts and had them far eclipsed in just about every conceivable way, from armaments and armor to carrying capacity and shields, the ship had full coverage from point-defense weapons that were only "light" by Mandalorian standards. By all means, the Hellfire Star Destroyer, this one so infamously named "Davian's Judgement" that loomed over the city of Vale was quite easily capable of reducing the city to dust, in minutes if they only used their point-defense weapons, in a blink if they used anything heavier than that or decided to use a Graviton Bomb or Nuclear Missile.
It would've caused a panic, if not for the fact that just the night before, all the major news networks of the Kingdoms were invited to broadcast the signing of treaties establishing an official alliance between New Mandalore and the kingdom of Vale. The military details of such an alliance were publicly announced that same night, so everyone knew that Task Force Mythos would be being stationed in Vale the following morning. While it hadn't caused a panic, the tension and unease within the city were nearly palpable, albeit not for reasons of security. No, any promise of Mandalorians helping to defend anything was a great reassurance to the normal defenders and those being defended, but just because a few treaties were signed, that hardly meant the world was suddenly going to trust them, nor would they forgive and forget for any past transgressions, especially Atlas for the war waged in Vacuo merely half a decade ago.
However, to the honest people of Vale, the sight mere hours later of Mandalorians helping garrison the outer walls of the city and working hand-in-hand with law enforcement was a reassuring sight if ever there was one. Reassurance, yes, but that alone could be quite distantly related from actual trust. The Vale News Network still regarded their presence more as an enemy occupation of their city as opposed to merely acting as agreed upon in the treaties signed less than twenty four hours prior, and though nobody quite had the spine to try to slight the Mandalorians in any way, the atmosphere remained tense, nearly hostile, even. Their subsequent arrival and establishment within Beacon and Signal seemed particularly tense, as the fierce and often confrontational rivalry between Hunters and Mandalorians was all too well known.
To say they'd rapidly established themselves within the city and academies would've been a gross understatement, and before nightfall the same day, Mandalorian Combat Patrols were already starting to take on the contracts once exclusive to hunters, now including them as well. One might've thought their focus with taking on work so quickly to be the improvement of their public image, but in truth, they'd just become bored quickly within the city, and were simply seeking out something to do. There was no shortage of combat-related work either within or outside the city, so they'd have more than enough to keep themselves preoccupied for some time... much to the chagrin of both criminals and hunters that were miffed about the new competition.
A small snicker escaped her as she stared out the wide panoramic windows of the airship that was taking them to their destination, their so called "home" for the next four years. While she couldn't regard Beacon Academy as home, she could at least acknowledge and accept the fact that she'd be there for the immediate foreseeable future even if she'd never accept these so-called "Hunters in Training" as her peers. The mere insinuation that these inferior primitives were her peers she found rather insulting, that they would dare call themselves as much only brought a feeling of disgust and anger upon her that she couldn't quite shake, not that she made any attempt. No, Dha Ruby wouldn't deign to rid herself of such feelings, it'd be unbecoming of a true Mandalorian to to lower herself to the level of these primitives, and she felt her Aura and Ki alone reflected as much by how others aboard the airship gave her a wide berth, even if she doubted anyone else here could read or feel the latter.
She'd already long since written off everyone in the cabin as inferiors, and though she remained on guard that didn't mean she wasn't confident that if push came to shove she'd have any difficulty killing everyone on the airship. However, she'd been training with Ki all week under Nero, the Spirit of the New West himself that could even give her father a decent run for his money in battle, which allowed her a certain awareness of presence she'd never had before, and there was one presence among the throngs of students that felt somewhat different than the rest. Familiar, even, which by all means shouldn't have been possible.
She did try initially to ignore it, but as this presence drew closer and closer, this action being deliberate as their Ki gave away. Whoever it was, she knew they must've been looking for her, and while she might've had no idea who it was, she couldn't deny the familiar warmth their presence radiated. It had to be someone she knew, but she couldn't quite figure who exactly it must've been. It sure as hell wasn't a Mandalorian, that was for sure.
Grumbling somewhat discontentedly, Ruby opted to just turn around and directly face whoever it was that had managed to garner her attention. Among the mob of students keeping a respectful distance from her, she was immediately able to pick out the source of the Ki she was reading, forcing her to do a double-take as the girl managed to push through the last person in their way. A mess of long blonde hair and lilac eyes were the first things she came to note, before squinting her eyes somewhat as she took a better look at the girl's face, one quite reminiscent of the leader of the Branwen Bandit Tribe her clan had once decimated, a woman she knew to have been her blood father's ex wife before Summer, and the mother of her half-sister. A moment of observation later, and the girl's own eyes drew upward locking with her own behind the T visor of her helmet, drawing a short silence from neither seemed eager to break...
"R-Ruby? Is... is that you?" The girl questioned, prompting her to shuffle in place for a moment as she pieced things together. It took another second or two, but eventually, Ruby relaxed her arms and began lowering them from the crossed position over her chest as she now more properly addressed the situation.
"Yang... I... I thought you were dead." Though her words were strained and somewhat awkward, her expression softened behind the mask, and a delicate tone has replaced the normally harder tone she used in most normal conversations. She knew this was her sister, or at least her half-sister if not by relation but by blood, but found herself somewhat unable to mirror the emotional reaction the older girl seemingly had with their reunion, simply stiffening up once more slightly as the girl threw herself into her in a tight hug.
Most might've considered it an outright lung-crushing hug, but Ruby merely cleared her throat somewhat awkwardly and kept her arms at her sides. Normal instinct told her to strike down what was more realistically a stranger than anything else, but she forced herself to ignore instinct for the time being, if only to possibly start repairing the only connection outside of the Mando'ade she really had any care for. It took a few moments of the older girl squeezing her to no effect and not quite hearing her previous attempts through her own sobbing for Ruby to finally sigh and lightly pry herself from Yangs hold, grasping her arms and placing them firmly against the girl's sides and standing her upright with an unsurprising amount of strength given her upbringing.
"Okay, Yang, enough bawling your eyes out, you're making a scene, and not the good kind." Ruby lightly chastised albeit in a gentle tone. The girl had a crestfallen expression for a moment, before the Mando gestured for her to calm down and relax a moment and prompted her to recollect herself. If Ruby were being perfectly honest, she did want to mirror her half-sister's excitement and joy, and truly, she was beyond elated to learn of her survival here and now. But it simply wasn't so simple for her as it was for her sister, at least not with the current audience.
"O-oh.. I-I'm sorry, I just didn't realize..." The buxom blonde took a few moments to simply do some deliberate, controlled breathing before finally pulling herself back up to a fully upright posture and slowly opening her eyes back up, staring directly into her sister's visor. "Right... I ah... I suppose Uncle Qrow did say to expect something like this. Okay, mind if we ah... if we start over?"
"I'd appreciate that... might as well reintroduce ourselves, yeah?" She replied in turn, rolling her shoulders back and taking a step to the rear so they wouldn't be so in each others' faces. "Dha Ruby, Mandalorian Apprentice of Clan Juggernaut and adoptive daughter of Mand'alor Midnight. It's... it's been awhile."
"Right, right... I'm ah... I'm Yang Xiao Long. Yeah, it has been awhile... Ruby, you have no idea just how happy I am to see you again... I thought you-" Yang began, getting cut off by Ruby who opted to interrupt the latter half of her sentence.
"I believe we're well passed the topic on the shock of each other's survival, no need to keep looping back on how we thought each other was dead... moving on, however, how exactly did you survive, Yang? I had my father's protection and soon after the whole of my family, but we were under pursuit for some time. I assume if they were after me, they must've been after you as well." The Mandalorian shifted the subject forward rather brusquely, but though the older girl paused for a moment after being interrupted, she seemed to nod in appreciation for the deliberate shift off the trauma.
"After I was cut loose and ran like mom and dad told me to, I didn't stop running until I reached the edge of the island, and I holed up in a cutaway within the cliff face for a couple hours until Uncle Qrow finally found me. I thought I would've been chased, but apparently the only footprints that lead away from the house in my direction were my own... I guess ultimately whoever it was that killed our parents, they were only ever interested in you." She ultimately opted to just say it how it was, understanding clearly enough from what she'd already stated, the girl didn't care much for beating around the bush or unnecessary padding. Slowly, Ruby nodded her head as she took in the information, mulling it over for about a minute of silence before sighing and shaking her head.
"I see... Well, I suppose I'm happy for you that you weren't chased down like I was, I guess. Suppose you'd at least had an easier upbringing following it, if nothing else." Ruby drawled before a dark, throaty chuckle escaped her lips. The older girl merely nodded her head once, seemingly enough in agreement if nothing else. Yang couldn't quite dispute which of them had it harder, given she'd only started combat training in the last five years in comparison to what she could've been mistaken in believing might've been day one training for her sister... still, she yet wondered if Ruby even felt a sliver of the emotional and mental trauma that followed like she had.
"Well... I suppose that about covers your blind spot on me, but I'd be lying if I was to say I wasn't interested in how you survived. I know you were adopted by Mand'alor the Invincible, but how exactly did you come to be adopted by him? Surely, he wasn't among those who attacked our home?" The mere question alone that her father could've had a hand in what happened to their family seemed to draw a certain fury from within her younger sister, one she herself could feel in it's intensity, immediately prompting her to clarify herself to undo any ire she might've brought upon herself. "N-no, I'm sorry, I phrased that wrong... I mean, how did he just so happen to be there at just the right time to intercept and save you from them? It just seems a little too... coincidental?"
"Like you, I was told to run by our mother and father, but I ran in a different direction than you in my panic. Our paths collided in a snowy clearing, as he was drawn in by the billowing smoke and crimson glow he'd spotted from a ways away. He'd come to investigate what was going on, and killed my pursuers in my defense, before escorting me back to the house where I killed the last of our parents' murderers before mourning Summer and Taiyang. He was only just caring for me as a child under his protection until a few months after we'd begun colonizing New Mandalore, where he'd formally adopted me as his daughter." Ruby explained, crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall by the panoramic windows. Her tone had remained even and mostly nonconfrontational, but Yang could tell she only narrowly avoided seriously pissing off her younger sister with her correction of questioning, making her square this away as a sort of mental note to be more careful about how she spoke in the future.
"Ah... well... I ah... I guess that gets us both up to speed on that department, then." Yang couldn't help but drop her gaze off to the side and scratch the back of her head somewhat sheepishly, unable to quite think of what next to say or ask. She assumed at least by the way Ruby seemed to be redirecting her gaze to the ceiling that the younger girl was in much the same boat in terms of the mental stumbling block. Still, she didn't quite want their interaction to end just yet. Sure, they had four years to interact going forward whether they were on a team together or not but after ten years apart, she just couldn't imagine their first conversation ending so... unceremoniously.
She rapped her brain for a sort of answer for a few short minutes, the silence between the two of them causing Ruby to at some point turn her eyes back towards the outside view. It gave Yang some sort of idea, knowing that the return to home must've been emotional for the girl, or she hoped it would be, at least.
"So... You excited to be back home? Back in Vale? Oh, and I'd imagine it must be pretty exciting to be attending Beacon Academy, huh?" Ruby didn't bother looking back over her shoulder towards Yang even as she registered the question sent her way, merely scoffing before giving any actual response.
"No, and this isn't home. I'd much rather spend my time back in New Mandalore than waste it in some Bajur-taap par inferior verda. There I have actual peers, unlike the primitives here who are only my "peers" in title, as degrading to myself as it is to refer to them as such." Yang couldn't help but wince at the blatant disrespect dripping from her voice, but as Ruby jerked her head to the side she couldn't help but gaze towards where the girl had gestured to, even if Ruby wasn't even gracing that direction with her gaze. There what she assumed Ruby was referring to, a small handful of boys and girls about Yang's own age absorbed into either their scrolls or their clothes, bragging about their supposed accomplishments and bragging about their possessions or showing off some fancy gadget or expensive clothes. A fairly normal scene for teenagers her age she supposed but it was clear that Ruby must've viewed such with disdain. "Tch. Pathetic. It's insulting that I have to call their kind my peers."
"Okaaaaaaaay, she has a superiority complex if I've ever seen one. I knew that Mandalorians looked down on most regular Hunters but I didn't think they thought of us as basically being monkeys... Yikes." Though she wanted to believe that Ruby didn't loop her in with the rest of her peers, the girl made no effort to single her out from the rest. Part of her just knew that Ruby looked down on her the same way she did to everyone who wasn't a Mandalorian, she just didn't call her out on it. It was still an insult, if only insinuated and not directly stated, but Yang merely bit her tongue and refrained from clapping back like she would've if anyone else had done or said the same thing. She supposed she could only hope the girl held her in a slightly higher regard than anyone else there.
With a deep sigh, Yang stepped up beside her sister and stared out the window, eyes widening somewhat as she finally noticed the ARC-1000 on the airship's flank acting as an escort. While it should've been reassuring, being that it meant the Mando'ade were upholding their end of the treaties and that they weren't far from Beacon now, anyone who even paid a sliver of attention to the aircraft of the Mandalorians would know just how terrifying the ARC-1000 was. Quite simply put, the Mandalorians had designed an aircraft so terrifying and powerful that even by their own admission, the only thing they had that could counter an ARC-1000... was another ARC-1000 with a more skilled crew.
Outside their ranks, very little was known about the ship beyond a few raw technical specs that could be observed from observation alone. Full Beskar armor and easily capable of breaking speeds of over Mach 20 in atmosphere despite what must've been an absurd weight from the armored plating alone, the ARC-1000 only finished development in the last five days of the Atlas-Mandalorian War and only three were ever deployed, only operating solo during that time. Each one had two twin-linked heavy laser cannons, one set on each wing in the same place that it's long outdated predecessor the ARC-170 kept it's laser cannons, two more twin-linked aft rotary laser cannons, at least six external missile pods that each carried twelve payloads fast enough to far outpace the ship carrying them and strong enough to blow Atlesian Frigates out of the skies in a single shot, and an internal missile bay on the underside that they knew could carry either nuclear, disintegration, or graviton bombs, albeit this knowledge was only learned after they'd used said weapons. As if to add insult to already fatal injury, the ship could only be detected on Mandalorian detection equipment and could render itself invisible on a whim, adding onto it's already unmatched shielding, armor and speed for survivability. Finally, like it's predecessors in the Aggressive Reconnaissance line of what they called "starfighters," the nose of the ship was packed full of advanced sensors, scanners and even jammers that not only allowed them to have unmatched situational and spatial awareness, but also allowed them to completely shut down enemy communications and detection equipment if the crew so desired.
In the very words of it's creators, the ARC-1000 was both the most advanced and terrifying ship of it's class ever built, and no one could quite bring themselves to disagree, especially given the only theoretical counter to one was another one of the same craft. So to see one of these technological marvels slowed down enough to be closely observed so they could properly perform their escort duties was both a source of reassurance and terror in equal measures. Yang couldn't help but shudder as she more closely observed the ARC-1000, knowing well that usage of the ARC-1000 was only entrusted to the Mandalorian Honor Guard, further denoted by the gold and red color scheme used. In terms of decoration and color, the ship was beautiful, sporting black light-adaptive glass that was impossible to see the crew through, shiny gold plating that was engraved in a gorgeous floral pattern, while a deep crimson was used for any other details or markings on the craft. The usage of gold, crimson and black was the most commonly displayed color scheme among the Honor Guard, and although each's kit was unique to the user and a work of art, there was some loosely enforced yet still evident uniformity across their ranks, such as in the case of their colors.
Upon a second consideration and examination, she noticed another airship approaching the Academy from a ways away had a pair of ARC-500 escorts as opposed to 1000s, suggesting to her that it was more likely the Honor Guard was dispatched to escort their airship alone less because of the care they held for it's occupants or the treaty and more to ensure no harm befell their Mand'alor's daughter. It took a full team of Honor Guard to fully crew a single ARC-1000, and supposedly five full teams had in fact been dispatched to Vale with Task Force Mythos. Fifteen Honor Guard in total. If one alone was already considered an apocalypse level threat, the thought of what fifteen could do together was borderline mind-breaking, outright incomprehensible in scale for someone who wasn't a Mandalorian.
Ultimately, Yang could only feel glad they were on their side. There was only two things higher in the hierarchy of battlefield power than the Honor Guard in their world, those being the Mand'alor and his top Lieutenant... her little sister's adoptive father and uncle. Even just thinking about the power of the modern Mando'ade was dizzying to her, especially considering she could still clearly remember a time when the total number of them running around was under ten. To think that in just ten years they'd gone from not existing to being the most powerful military force the planet had ever seen by a massive margin. If she didn't know any better, she would've thought such a feat to be impossible.
But she did know better, and the public footage of the Atlas-Mandalorian War gave a very clear representation of just how far ahead they truly were. It was one thing to simply hear someone speak of their enemies being so far ahead of them, but it was another thing entirely to watch ten thousand Mandalorians emerge and charge from a distant trench, followed only moments later by titanic bipedal mechs that towered over them by a hundred or more meters emerging from the smoke behind them, carrying weapons that even the Mando'ade regarded as apocalyptic. In the same vein, it was one thing to hear a shellshocked Atlesian Survivor of the war speak of doomsday weapons that could disintegrate entire companies of soldiers in a single poorly-placed blast, another to see footage of a carefully-placed one from the same weapon they spoke of reducing an entire Battalion to smoldering ash and cinders.
It was curious, Yang thought, that even with how many of them there were and the insane weapons at their disposal, they'd deigned to agree to a set of Treaties with Vale and accept a military pact. From where she stood, it didn't quite seem like New Mandalore stood to gain anything from this exchange. Sure, Vale was handing over their stores of Beskar and had removed the 500% increase on the prices of raw resources that they'd levied upon them after the war and replaced it with a considerable discount, but was that seriously it? Natural resources not plentiful in New Mandalore in exchange for an entire Task Force of Mandalorians as a token guard force? She was still just trying to wrap her head around the fact that including ship hands, around 11,000 Mandalorians in total including the Hellfire Class Star Destroyer they called home and all the additional weapons of war that came with such a ship was somehow considered a "modest presence..." the mere thought of 11,000 of anything being considered "modest" was just absurd to her, but she supposed this was just how the Mandalorians operated.
"So... you uh... you got any hobbies? Surely fighting isn't all you've been doing these last few years, right?" The question seemed to garner a curious look from her sister that she swore she could see even behind the mask, but her body language hadn't suggested any sort of animosity or discomfort with the question as the girl turned to face her again. A sort of mental sigh of relief escaped her as Ruby raised a hand to caress the chin of her helmet for but a moment before finally answering.
"Fishing, playing guitar, singing, designing and crafting weapons and other things, cooking, working out, hunting, competitive marksmanship... sometimes arcade-sort games. That's really all I can think of right now that isn't directly combat-related... well... aside from competitive marksmanship. And you?" Ruby's answer was both a surprise to her and somewhat expected at the same time. However, it did somewhat disappoint her that it didn't quite seem they'd had anymore than one hobby in common.
"Oh, nothing too special... I like riding my motorcycle, I love going to parties and hanging out with my friends, hitting the gym is also a favorite pass-time of mine... guess the gym is about the only hobby we share, huh?" Yang scratched the back of her head with a somewhat bashful grin, almost expecting her little sister to have a judgmental expression behind that mask of hers. However, if she did have one, she couldn't tell, and the girl only answered with a nonchalant shrug anyways.
"I guess so." She couldn't help but mentally berate herself as she failed to strike up any lasting conversation, not that she was necessarily surprised. However, before she could say anything more, she was cut off by the hologram of Miss Goodwitch appearing to speak with them. A pre-recorded message, nothing particularly special, just a brief overview of why they were there, the expected amount of padding, not that Ruby was even paying attention to the message. No, the girl merely scoffed as the hologram appeared and recrossed her arms, her gaze turning back towards the Hellfire Class Star Destroyer in the distance.
"Hmph. If I can get away with it, I'll probably be spending most my time in the Mandalorian Enclave or in Davian's Judgement. Rather not waste my time on the ground." Yang couldn't help but cringe a little as her little sister continued to effectively write off what was basically her dream school so ruthlessly. "And what's with everyone suddenly crowding around the windows? This view is crap, and most of these baboons already see this hideous city every day from the ground anyways."
"Yeesh, cut a little deeper, why don't you?" Her eyes turned away from the cityscape below them and back in on the cabin, or rather towards the far corner on her right, still their side of the ship, where a blonde boy was in the beginning stages of starting to puke his guts out. Chuckling slightly at the sight, she bumped Ruby on her side with her elbow and jerked her head towards the boy in misery. As expected, it got a dark chuckle from the Mandalorian as the girl, much like herself, seemed to take amusement in this vein of suffering.
"Heh. He'd not survive five seconds as a Mandalorian. How embarrassing..." Ruby only tracked him as long as it took him to rush passed herself and Yang before losing interest. However, she was at the very least swift enough to shift her boot out of the way to avoid any puke dropping onto her toes... but the same couldn't be said about her sister, who didn't seem to notice the puke on her foot. "Puke on your shoe, Yang, best clean that off soon if you don't want it to stain."
"Oh, gross! These are new boots, too!" The older girl lamented for a moment as she flicked her foot and kicked most of the filth off, albeit not all of it as a considerable amount stuck nonetheless. "Ugh... You wouldn't happen to have any wet wipes or a rag or something like that, would you?"
"I have a rag but unless you want weapon lubricant and carbon residue on your boots I'd suggest you look elsewhere. Only other rag on my person is for my face, and I try not to get bodily fluids and half-digested mash on that one." As much as that answer annoyed Yang she understood why the girl was opting to maintain a clean rag as opposed to handing it over. Grumbling slightly, she held her hand out and mere seconds later felt the more tarnished rag fall into her palm. A single look at the rag made Yang wince slightly, as the rag, once likely white, was more of a grey color with tan and black splotches stained into it, oil and lubricant, she understood, and the rag itself was a little damp too.
Much as she disliked it, she begrudgingly singled out the least tarnished spot on the rag and used that to wipe away the filth up-chucked onto her boot before folding it up and passing it back to Ruby. It was an annoying event that transpired, but she supposed there really wasn't anything she could do about all that, so instead just focused on turning her attention back to the armor-clad girl beside her, and wait for touchdown...
She wasn't entirely sure what to expect when the transport had finally touched down and opened up the doors, but even just walking out it seemed everyone gave her and Ruby a wide berth as they'd exited. It was almost as if Ruby being their was enough to just passively push everyone else away from them, not that she was wholly complaining. While Yang always had fun flirting around and being the center of attention, she'd rather now spent time with her sister than soak up the spotlight... besides, it made actually getting from place to place that much easier when she didn't have to push through a crowd of people.
"Tch. I would've rather attended Ne'tra Pirun than Beacon. Easier on the eyes than this bland, grey dump. Not as big but a lot less wasted space." Ruby grumbled in a discontent manner, however the comparison did draw a curious expression from the elder sister. She nudged the younger girl in the side to get her attention, and upon seeing her quizzical look just nodded for a moment before elaborating. "It's a warrior school back home in New Mandalore, named both in honor of our Arbiter, Marcus Ne'tra, and in reference to the streams of black water that run through the mountains where it was built. Myself and my brother did not attend, since we were already being personally trained by my father Mand'alor the Invincible and the Arbiter Marcus Ne'tra."
"Oh, I see. That sounds interesting... wait, how is the water black? And I didn't realize that Mandalorians ah... went to school?" Yang questioned, drawing a small sigh from the Mandalorian who seemingly slumped forward somewhat in exasperation.
"The riverbeds are almost entirely composed of black colored minerals and the sort. Jet, biotite, onyx, basalt, that sort, and because of that, the water has an almost black appearance, even if it isn't actually black. As for schooling, yes, Mandalorians attend school, just like everyone else, although ours is much more difficult in regards to combat. Every Mandalorian starts combat training as soon as they can both walk and speak, all other studies start around the age of five with Remnant History taking a backseat to Mandalorian History." The explanation was only finished as they entered into a sort of crossroad in the path not too far from where they'd landed, but it was satisfactory enough for Yang to accept. It was interesting, of course, but if a place that she thought was majestic like a fantasy castle of old was bland to Ruby, she wondered just what this "Ne'tra Pirun" academy must've looked like.
"Huh... Actually, I was wondering, what is New Mandalore like, anyways? I've always heard that because of the Mandalorians there the region is considered the safest in the world, but not much more than that. Is there anything for recreation, or is it all fighting related?" The question seemed to make Ruby perk up as opposed to the previous one she'd asked, drawing out a short chuckle from the girl before she'd continue to tell.
"Well, not all of our activities relate to fighting. There's bars and taverns, clubs, a couple casinos, theaters, sports stadiums, parks, a lot of good fishing spots, a decently large beach and all that comes with oceanfront territory, libraries and really just about anything else you'd find in most developed cities. The only thing the city is lacking, and by intention, is something my father and the Arbiter call a "Red-Light District." Still not too sure what exactly that is, all I know is that my Father has told me to stay away from them." Yang couldn't help but cough and sputter a bit at the reference of red-light districts, taking a few moments to recompose herself before clearing her throat. She was about to explain this gap in her sister's knowledge, but paused before she could speak as she'd felt a buzz in her pocket.
A scroll message, she knew it to be, so with a low sigh, she pulled the device from her pocket and almost immediately felt her heart skip a beat as it had a singular message. Unknown number, but the text very related to their current conversation simply stating "Don't you DARE explain what that is to her." Laughing somewhat nervously, Yang stuffed her scroll back into her pocket and scratched the back of her head before trying to play it off.
"Ah, well, trust me, you aren't missing out on anything! A-anyways, you said that-" Yang was about to try to shift the conversation, but was somewhat rudely interrupted by the sight of Ruby getting shoved forward a few inches and the sight of a large metal luggage cart pushing into view, and a fair number of white, grey and pale blue suit and briefcases spilling out.
"HEY! Watch where you're going!" A light, shrill voice rose from behind the cart, making Ruby grumble in an annoyed fashion while crossing her arms and tapping her foot. She didn't have to wait long for the owner of this cart to step out to chew her ear off, however she'd stopped dead in her tracks as soon as the Mandalorian turned around to regard her directly. "Seriously, do you just have absolutely ZERO awareness of your surroundings? Do you have even the SLIGHTEST idea just how... e-expensive..."
"Nutennir laam ra Ni'll shove whatever's o'r those kebise laam gar ass." While Yang couldn't understand Mando'a at all she couldn't help but find herself impressed by how smoothly Ruby had shifted over to the other language. Though she didn't know the language, from the few words that were shared between languages she could picture a rather vulgar image in her head with her general idea of what exactly Ruby was telling this new girl. A rich girl, she could tell, wearing an expensive looking dress and jacket of pure white, the interior of the dress sporting a bright red in contrast to the rest of her outfit. Long white hair tied back into a ponytail and a silver tiara sat atop smooth, pale skin and icy blue eyes with a singular albeit clean vertical scar running over her left eye.
"Erm... y-you're... you're a Mandalorian..." The girl stuttered out slightly, taking a short step back before looking Ruby up and down, eyes widening slightly before recollecting herself. She would've applauded the girl for the swift recovery, but her mannerisms still showed some sort of panic, not that most could fault her for such a thing, Yang thought. "Wait... That's Beskar armor, right? Pure Beskar? How much do you want for it?"
"Ni'm not selling ner beskar'gam." The growl in Ruby's voice conveyed very obvious irritation and anger in equal measures, prompting Yang to take a step back as she felt the situation could very quickly get somewhat explosive. Sure, she was no expert on Mandalorian culture, but it only took a bit of observation in their zealotry for taking all the world's Beskar by force to surmise that the mere idea of selling their armor was grossly offensive to them.
"Oh please, everything is negotiable, and everyone has a price tag. Weiss Schnee, Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, simply name the price, I can afford it." The girl, self-identified as Weiss Schnee herself, seemingly hadn't taken the hint from the first time the Mandalorian rejected her, instead opting to pull a wallet from one of the few pockets in her jacket. All it accomplished was Ruby straightening out her posture and tightening her fists as her arms crossed back over her chest.
"Kebbur buying ner beskar'gam off ni tug'yc bal Ni'm hettyc gar luggage." Ruby gave one final warning, albeit despite the now very obviously hostile mannerisms she was displaying, the Heiress only seemed to understand the part about her saying the word "luggage."
"You want to know what's in my luggage? Dust of the highest quality and purity, mined and refined by the Schnee Dust Company! The contents of these cases should prove a fair trade- WOAH!" She only just barely managed to throw herself back as Ruby snapped her wrist forward and loosed an all-consuming conflagration from her gauntlet's flamethrower. Flames augmented by her semblance as they sprayed from her gauntlet, the inferno took on a black appearance as they almost immediately disintegrated the cases and set off a violent chain reaction from the various dusts triggered by the flame. A veritable storm of ice, fire, wind, electricity and earth erupted in an instant, throwing both Yang and Weiss back yet doing all of nothing to affect the Mandalorian, broken a moment later by a sweep of a blade cloaked in a corona of black energy sending it all scattering in the wind. While she was initially just baffled by the fact that this girl had completely tanked a chain reaction with enough power to instantly kill a whole team of Hunters without so much as budging and hadn't taken a scratch, Weiss quickly shook her amazement off and turned over to indignant fury. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! The contents of those cases was worth a small fortune, and you could've killed all of us!"
"Ni told gar Ni'd vaabir ibac. Jii ba'slanar ni solus, di'kut." She couldn't help but smirk slightly as a group of Mandalorians in her peripheral that had been assisting with site security while students were arriving broke out in a bellowing fit of laughter at the situation as it played out, some of them even doubling over and clutching their guts with one arm as they pointed at the scene with the other, but reigned her attention back in nonetheless. Turning back to her sister, she offered the buxom blonde a hand up, which was graciously accepted, the girl seeming almost surprised as Ruby was almost gentle in pulling her back to her feet. "Let's go, Yang. This moron's screeching is annoying me."
She stayed still for a moment, looking back and forth between Ruby and the heiress, trying to decide whether to go along with Ruby or try to help the girl up like her conscious told her to. However, she ultimately just allowed Ruby to pull her along, truthfully more interested in keeping up with her sister than helping a girl who was ignoring very obvious signs of offense... still, she couldn't help but hold some reservations about the whole matter. Sure, the Schnee should've taken one of the many hints her sister had given, but Ruby could speak both Basic and Mando'a, yet opted to speak the language she must have known Weiss couldn't understand. It was rather unfair, and she couldn't help but feel Ruby's actions were a massive overreaction, but she'd also picked up that her sister had obviously taken offense to Weiss's proposition, and it didn't take any real close observation to see that to her and her people, their weapons and armor were sacred.
She forced herself to rationalize that Ruby perceived Weiss's offer as an attempt to tempt her to commit some sort of heresy within her culture or religion, but still couldn't quite find her reaction justified. Cringing slightly as she chanced a glance back and observed the girl stomping and seething about indignantly, Yang turned her attention back forward and tried to just forget the event that had just transpired. No point dwelling on it, but she did at least hope to convince her little sister to dial the intensity back a bit. Yang was of course expecting something of this nature from her sister when she learned she was a Mandalorian, but all this was still a bit much, a bit more than she'd expected.
"Oh well... I'm sure Ruby isn't like THIS with all altercations. Yeah. That Weiss girl just pushed the wrong button, surely." Despite telling herself this she couldn't quite find herself believing the thought she'd put on repeat in her head. Still, she could only hope such a thought wasn't ill-placed...
"...In hindsight, it was stupid to ignore obvious body language and aggressive vocal tone. Okay Weiss, calm down, getting worked up over this isn't doing you any favors, but still! She used a flamethrower on nearly a half a million liens worth of dust! All over me pressuring her about buying her armor! WHY?!." Weiss had only somewhat calmed her seething after about ten minutes completely alone, recollecting herself just enough to assess the damage that Mandalorian had inflicted. Though somewhat unsurprisingly, none of the dust had survived the conflagration, but as she had a separate cart entirely for all her other supplies aside from dust, that much was still intact. Cases knocked over from the concussive force of the detonation and scuffed up from the fall, but intact nonetheless. "Ugh... alright then, I'll just try to stay out of that Mandalorian's way. If they're actually a student here like it seems is the case and if they're anything like Winter described the average Mando to be like, then they're WAY out of my league."
"The Dha Ruby, Mand'alor the Invincible's daughter." A deeper voice to her own albeit still feminine arose from behind her, prompting Weiss to turn her attention back to another newcomer. She raised a brow as a girl with long black hair, fair skin and amber eyes was kneeling beside the blast mark and inspecting the residue, craning her head back up to look her in the eye with a quizzical expression of her own. She was dressed mostly in black and white, and also wore a black bow atop her head, but also had what looked to be some sort of gun-sword sheathed on her back. "I'd heard that she would be attending Beacon this year. If I'd known about that earlier, I probably would've opted for Haven... you're Weiss Schnee, right?"
"While the recognition is nice, I'd really only imagine someone would ID me so quickly if they had a strong opinion regarding either myself, my father or the SDC. So, love or hate, let's move on past the who's who and what's what." The kneeling girl narrowed her eyes at her momentarily, before rising from the knee she'd taken to inspect the blast mark with a swipe of her fingers and locking amber to ice blue in a sort of wordless standoff. Weiss sighed and dropped her head slightly as it seemed that without any further exchange of words, she could pick out this girl's opinion without any difficulty. "Great. Judging me because of my father and the company. That's just great. Really. Just terrific."
"Hmph. While I don't like the Schnee Dust Corporation, I think I'd rather share a space with the Heiress of the SDC than the daughter of Mand'alor, though I am surprised she'd bother with Beacon when she could be attending New Mandalore's academy. Blake." The girl, Blake as it were for the moment, introduced herself with a neutral tone, though she couldn't help but steal a glance back at a squad of ten Mandalorians coming in their direction on what seemed to be their standard patrol route. The mention of an academy in New Mandalore, however, seemed to catch Weiss completely off guard, if her eyes widening so much and her taking a step back was any indication.
"Wait, you're telling me there's a warrior academy in New Mandalore? Are you serious?" She couldn't help but chuckle slightly as she could've sworn she could see an idea formulating in her head, but Blake moved quickly to shut it down.
"It's exclusive to Mandalorians, as far as I'm aware. Unless they accept you into their ranks, there's no attending that academy." It wasn't exactly common knowledge that she spoke, but it also wasn't classified information, either. More so than anything else, it was just something someone would only really know if they'd been to New Mandalore at some point or another.
A memory she'd had mixed feelings about, if she were being perfectly honest. Several years ago, the White Fang had made a move on New Mandalore foolishly assuming it to be more of the same as the outside world. They weren't expecting every single civilian to be a trained and capable Mandalorian warrior, outside of children it was a massive chore to find anyone not clad completely from head to toe in Beskar or Beskar Alloy armor, and even they still wore a helmet, and that's just were the differences started. There was a universal animosity towards them whenever they were there, but it didn't take long to figure that unlike everywhere else in the world, it wasn't because they were faunas, but because they were outsiders. While normal humans did seem more numerous from a glance, it was sometimes difficult or even impossible to tell under full suits of armor and masks, and even those who were very clearly faunas by features they couldn't hide still treated them with the same animosity and mistrust that the human Mandalorians had.
It was strange, and by all means it was almost completely unexpected. They'd went there expecting racism and were instead met with xenophobia. Still, there was something to be admired, she thought, by the way they thought and viewed the world. They didn't care what race one was, human, faunas, it didn't matter so long as they were a Mandalorian. She was expecting not to be legally allowed to do some things because she was a faunas, but that was a whole different kind of discrimination that she was neither prepared for nor knowledgeable on how to feel about. Still, there were still some places that allowed outsiders, so after attempting a rally that went entirely ignored by both human and faunas Mandalorians alike, they'd simply opted to try and sight-see in the city, maybe get a meal while they were at it, difficult as that was given Mando'a was damn near the only language spoken there.
"Hmph. Well, like I'd want to join an academy full of those uncouth brutes, anyways." Weiss, although unconvincingly, dismissed the aforementioned academy, arms crossed over her chest as she shot a glance off to the side, glaring at the Mandalorian patrol that paid her no heed. A ballsy move, Blake idly mused, considering among the ten Mandalorians there were two clad in Power Armor. Even if they wouldn't act on something as insignificant as a mere glare from someone they viewed as beneath them, most didn't have the guts to do half as much, given their reputation.
However, as if both mutually sensing that any further conversation between them would doubtlessly just degrade, the two broke off from one another, with Blake parting ways first to avoid the inevitable confrontation, and Weiss making herself scarce just moments later as she finished packing up the last of her luggage back onto the cart. Neither were particularly pleased to have met each other, but the feeling of ending it before things went south was shared well enough, Weiss at the least walking away with a bit more information than she'd previously had...
Following the brief announcement in the Auditorium from Headmaster Ozpin, the prospective student body found itself gathered up in the gymnasium, simply awaiting their initiation trial in the morning, although there was a single soul there that stood out from the rest. Where everyone else had since disarmed themselves, stowing any wargear they normally carried in their respective lockers for the time being, one remained fully armed and almost fully armored, her helmet momentarily removed as she polished the black Beskar. Most gave her a wide berth, save for the Mandalorian's non-Mandalorian sister, as strange as that was to any outside observer.
Still, she was for the most part completely silent as she maintained her equipment, despite her slightly larger sister beside her being somewhat of a chatterbox. At times she honestly just wanted to tell Yang to shut up for awhile, but she bit her own tongue to at least humor her and not potentially drive her away. Any questions Yang had about her or her equipment were usually answered in as concise a manner as she could manage if a nod or shake of the head was insufficient, but she did honestly wish the barrage of questions would end.
"Its like a big slumber party in here, don't ya think Ruby?" Yang plopped herself down beside her sister while she said this, having laid out her sleeping bag and a pillow for her to fall on flat on the ground to contrast her sister foregoing any sort of sleeping equipment in favor of just propping herself up against the wall and sleeping like that. The statement earned little more than an eye-roll from the younger girl as she continued to wipe down the crown of her helmet, something Yang didn't miss, eliciting a small sigh from the buxom blonde. Still, seeing Ruby without her helmet was bizarre to her, as if not for the couple scars she would've been the mirror image of Summer Rose. "Ugh... wait, Ruby, how did you get those scars, anyways? I figured your helmet would've protected you from any damage, at least to your face."
"Not always wearing my helmet. Usually when I'm fishing with my father, neither of us are wearing armor. He and I were on the water when the Atlesian exploration fleet arrived five years ago, one of their ships fired on our boat, destroying it and throwing both of us into the water. My aura wasn't as strong back then, so while my father got off without a scratch, my face got a little cut up after my aura broke." The admission of what happened drew a look of horror out of Yang at the idea that Atlas would've fired upon something as small and harmless as a fishing boat, but she calmed down quickly after thinking back on the events. It was no secret that the exploration fleet fired first on New Mandalore now nearly six years ago, she just didn't think they'd be so indiscriminate about what they fired upon. Whatever the case, it earned a bit of her ire towards the supposed "Good Guys" that the media portrayed to have ultimately lost the war, the thought that they could've well and truly killed her little sister that day.
"My god... well... I suppose that explains just how violent New Mandalore's retaliation was and why you'd pull out all the stops for the ensuing war." Ruby merely shrugged at this, but she'd been going through the motions of reading in depth her own emotions and those of others for ten years now, and could see the resentment in her little sister's eyes. It wasn't the only thing she could either feel or see bleeding off her sister, but she doubted the girl would appreciate her prying this early into their reunion so instead opted to simply leave that stone unturned for the time being. After about a minute of silence, Ruby set her helmet down and began finagling at the sides and shoulders of her breastplate, dropping down the Beskar plate upon the towel she'd laid out, right beside her helmet. "So... you ever get uncomfortable wearing all that armor? I mean, I've always heard that Beskar is heavy, but I've never actually held any..."
"If the armor is ever uncomfortable then I simply need to get it refitted, which so long as there's an Armorer available really isn't an issue. As for the weight, Mandalorians are raised wearing our armor, we almost always wear it both day and night, so while an inferior might consider it heavy, for us the weight is largely unnoticed." Her explanation satisfied Yang, prompting her to lower down fully into her sleeping bag as she just observed how Ruby maintained her equipment. To say it appeared complicated would be something of an understatement, as the plates of armor seemingly contained countless pieces of sophisticated technology within it... technology she neither understood the usage of nor could she hope to divine such an answer from observation alone.
However, after a quick glance at the electronic clock at the end of the gymnasium she determined that it was getting to be a bit too late in the night to pester her sister with any further questions. Whether she wanted to build a stronger relationship with Ruby or not, it wouldn't do her any good to not get enough sleep the night before their initiation and risk flunking it. So, with a small chuckle, Yang waved her sister goodnight, folding her sleeping bag over herself and laying her head back against her pillows with shut eyes, drifting into a swift sleep as the Mandalorian beside her merely busied herself with her armor, both completely unaware of the blonde's preference towards rest and completely indifferent to such a decision...
A/N: Had a lot of writer's block with this chapter specifically since I don't really like this episode in the show. So... World Building be upon ye, next chapter will be going back into the fightin.