Yang stared at Victor as he did his usual work, guiding the various students about and getting greeted by them like the Bodyguard and buddy he was. She smirked, her lilac eyes locked onto the young man before her like your average schoolgirl in love. She almost yelped, however, when she felt a hand land on her shoulder and looked up to see Ruby. The girl with gradient hair smiled knowingly at her sis, patting her on the back, then sitting down.

Yang rolled her eyes, then said, "Hi, sis. Whatcha doin' here?" as she arranged her uniform. Ruby had a habit of sometimes sneaking up behind her friends and Yang, to the point where the girl had gotten proficient enough not to be heard by her sister. Despite that, though, Yang could almost barely make out the footsteps before she approached. In a crowded place like this, though, it was a little tougher.

"Came to see what you were doing," Ruby quipped, then noticed that her beloved older half-sis was staring at the twenty-something man in camouflage and toting a heavy Machine Gun. Now wearing a smug grin, she stated, "I see you're looking at Vic, heh," while crossing her arms to her chest. She knew her sis's looks and the red in her cheeks and slight red flare in her lilac eyes told.

"I wasn't," Replied the Blonde, a little defensive and avoidant. She went on to add, "Just making sure the guy's doin' alright, y'know?" before she cast a longing glance at the black-haired guy as he showed teams of Students which way they were supposed to take to their respective classes. He'd become surprisingly accustomed to Beacon in the time he'd spent here, much like the rest of his team-mates, many of whom were patrolling the ground of Beacon.

"Hehe. Sure thing," Ruby chuckled at her sister's attempt to deflect the question. She herself looked at Vic, watching the young man looking around, trying to maintain a smile for the Students as he guided them or answered requests from them. Every time a student moved away, however, his smile would fade and be replaced by the gaze and facade of an automaton, an empty placation of emotion. Or almost, really. His face would grow impassive as he reported encounters on the radio to their commander, but his eyes darted around, almost looking for an enemy in the crowd.

Oh, well, Ruby was probably overthinking it. So she thought, anyway. Man could've just been tired...

Yang had noticed this and whispered, "You're one to talk," as she recalled one of Ruby's few crushes back in the day, though that boy felt more like a Childhood Best Friend than your standard crush to her. She'd left him behind at Signal when she came here, however, meaning whatever had been building up would be gone. For the better, Yang thought a little selfishly, it was her lil' sis after all.

"Huh?" Ruby, however, furrowed her brows, confused at what Yang meant.

"Nothing, nothing..." The blond waved it off, then tilted her head toward the Romanian machine gunner and asked her, "You catch my cold, though, right? Vic never seems alright, no matter how you cut the cake. Man needs some sorta help..." while they watched him go about his business, oscillating between the friendly and welcoming(if slightly fake) smile and the calm, stone-cold demeanor of a Security droid.

"Yeah..." Ruby frowned, nodding. They needed to find something out about them, honestly. Like what could drive a guy to look that haggard after all was said and done? Vic and his entire platoon supposedly 'died'. She still wasn't sure she wanted to believe that bit, honestly, considering they were clearly alive and walking among them. He was alive, obviously.

"At least he's got Paul around now, too," Yang quipped, then smiled as she joked, "Heh, should'a seen Blakey's face when she saw him. Apparently foreign-accented men are her thing," which garnered a giggle out of Ruby. So, that made two-for-two on girls who were crushing, Ruby thought. Made sense, honestly, the guys were pretty nice, after all. And Blake seemed to like foreign guys, going by the books she was reading.

"Don't let her hear you joking about that..." Ruby giggled as she leaned forward.

"Oh, what? She gonna pull her claws out on me? Heh," Yang snorted, clearly aware dear miss Belladonna would probably have done that. They'd only known each-other for a few months, but the girls were well aware of each-other's quirks, like Ruby's love for weaponry and cookies, or Weiss's somewhat princessly attitude, though that had subsided, or Blake's penchant for weird books. And Yang, well, she had a thing for puns.

"Maybe," Blake replied annoyedly, causing both girls to yelp and swivel about on their butts to face her. She stared at Yang with pointed auburn eyes, brows furrowed and an otherwise emotionless face as she spoke flatly. She added, "Maybe I'll just punch you harder next time we spar," before crossing her arms to her chest. She swore, these girls really had a thing for talking like that.

"Oh, hi, Blakey..." Yang chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck, "Hehehe... Sorry..." then put on an apologetic look.

Blake rolled her eyes, then let out a deep sigh, asking, "What are you two doing anyway? Shouldn't you be preparing to go visit home?" as she sat down next to Yang. She spoke, "It's the weekend, after all..." before looking ahead at the Romanian infantryman as he sat there, cradling his GPMG, surprisingly calm. Though she could see his eyes darting left and right.

"Just watching Vic go about his workday," Yang offered, avoiding giving more info than she needed to. Blake smirked at that, a catty smile that would nominally have made the blonde quite self-conscious. Well, it was understandable, Blake thought to herself, the newcomers didn't look too bad. Okay, that was pretty much a lie she was telling herself, both of them were fairly cute, but Paul felt a bit more close to home for her.

"She has a cruuuuush~-OW!" Ruby teased at first, only to get an elbow in the ribs from Yang right after. She rubbed her side and grumbled something as she glared at her sister, whose face was a tinge redder than before. The grumbling from Ruby felt incredibly funny in context, considering she was basically trying to stir up a reaction like that from her sis.

So, the more mysterious girl chuckled, replying, "Heh. Fair enough, I guess..."

"I don't..." Yang defended herself, though, annoyed.

"Denial's but the first step to enlightenment, my combat partner..." Blake ribbed her a bit, causing the Blonde to scoff, before she seemed to have her mind settle on something that worried Blake. Blake then paused as she saw Paul walking up, too, the man armed with his own strange general purpose machine gun, though he seemed to be running lighter kit now.

"Oh, don't you start with me, too, Blake," Yang teased back with a grin, arms crossed to her chest as she added, "I saw how you were lookin' at Paul," which caused the black-haired girl to start sputtering as well. Heh. Payback wasn't so sweet now, was it, Blakey? Yang thought as she leaned back. Seriously, why were they talking about crushes in the middle of an open area like ths, though?

"Y'know, I sorta wished I didn't know this stuff," Ruby offered, finding an opportunity to further tease her sister, "But I blame Yang for sneaking boys in since she was sixteen..." which caused the black-haired gal to snort. Honestly, hearing that made her day, compared to the teasing Yang had given her just now. And, honestly, good on their Team Lead for putting Yang in her place a bit.

"RUBY! IT ONLY HAPPENED ONCE!" Yang, meanwhile, balked, looking as if someone kicked her puppy:Rightfully pissed.

"Fair enough," Ruby giggled, shrugging. Blake snickered.

"Anyways, back to watching the boys..." Yang offered as she crossed her arms, "I wonder if Vic's ever gonna tell us of his and Paul's service. I mean, they seem to know each-other well enough despite the supposed country difference. I mean, maybe there's some international rivalry going on between their lands and here they are, being like best bros since the start."

"Serving together does tend to bring folks closer together, I guess," Blake shrugged.

"I think I might'a said this before, but I think we'll be the same after a while..." Yang smirked when she saw Paul approach. The two boys shook hands and smirked at each-other, before rather obviously starting to joke together. Yang chuckled, "Heh. And there's Paul," and watched Blakey get a bit red in the face, almost like clockwork. It was honestly rather refreshing to see people just having crushes. It was healthy and all.

What was not Healthy was Weiss appearing behind them stating, "Look at their eyes," and garnering yelps of surprise out of all three of her team-mates. She furrowed her brows, then snorted at that, slightly proud of her stealth ability. She sat herself down next to her teammates, namely next to the Team Lead and her combat partner, Ruby, before looking ahead.

"Jeez, Weiss!" Ruby huffed, annoyed. Two for two on scares.

"Scare the life outta us, why don't'cha, Ice Queen..." Yang mumbled.

"... Anyways. Like I've said before and like I say now," Weiss told them, motioning to the two boys as she added, "Look at their eyes..." only for the girls to see it. Half-empty stares hidden behind weak smiles. Odd, terrifying, but understandable. Weiss continued, "Do they look like the eyes of men who would so willingly share their Service record, girls? Especially to four underage young women that are barely training to do a quarter of what they do."

"I'd argue we do plenty as Huntsmen, Weiss..." Ruby mumbled, then asked, "Uhm... Any family relation to the Military, since you're Atlas and all?"

"Yes. My sister," Weiss confirmed, arms crossed as she looked at her own team-mates, "She's currently serving. Probably away on a Goodwill Mission near Mistral, dealing with insurrectionists or something... Anyway, I do believe I've made my point. Give them time and they will tell us of their world if they wish. Otherwise? Interact as you would with any other staff... Or friends, I guess."

"Not a bad plan, Weis," Ruby offered, smiling.

"Of course. They are our friends, too, after all..." Weiss, meanwhile, replied, a little beyond awkward. She was still not used to being 'friendly'. Even so, she knew there was probably more to everything than either man or their comrades let on. Questioning them on the matter would probably not be as good as they hoped, though, so she'd let them come clean.

Ruby, though? She had an idea of a sort...


The Girls' Apartment, Nikos Towers, Vale

It wasn't long after the gang had found out about the new arrivals that a plan was set in motion. Vesna was searching through the RemNet, Remnant's own version of the internet, to find more information on possible new arrivals They'd also been recently tipped off by someone high in the Vale Council that the 'other' PMC was also searching for survivors. Said contact in the Council also promised the girls that they'd make sure they could meet Ozpin's PMC, but that it'd take a little while to recover everyone.

They had been tipped off about possible new contacts within Vale itself, though. Vesna knew they had to go looking. If there was even an inkling of a chance that their friends might be out there, they had to reunite with them. Yes, she deeply regretted that that might mean they all perished in Russia, but that also gave her an opportunity to meet with them again, to talk, to laugh, to reminisce... To cry.

Part of her still wondered if he was around. Most of her hoped he wasn't for the simple fact she wasn't sure she could face him. Regardless of that, she peered through a report sent about a strange soldier assisting at one of the nearby Vale General Hospital, another apparently sneaking through the alleys and a few more unconfirmed reports from outside of Vale, those that she assumed the 'other' PMC would be going after.

She wondered, sent a message to their contact and waited for a response. It was a negative, sadly, meaning that the other PMC was gonna be busy for a while yet, what with patrols outside of Vale and securing Beacon. Meanwhile, they had their own job they could not stray from. Annoying enough, Vesna thought, but she'd agreed for the sake of getting money and a place to live.

She felt a hand clasp her shoulder and looked back to see Vera. The two sisters smiled at each-other, then Vera sat down and offered her a cup of coffee, pushing strands of black hair out of her own eyes. Vesna replied with a quiet "Spasibo," before taking a sip from the warm, energizing and surprisingly sweet drink. She looked down to see it had cream, which garnered a bigger smile.

Vera, meanwhile, was sipping on hard, untouched and unsweetened brew as she watched Vesna work. She asked, "Take it work is proceeding as usual... Anything about those contacts on the RemNet that we could use to locate more people?" while leaning over toward the Laptop. Vesna noticed twitching in Vera's hand and wondered if she'd been up again, but didn't dare ask.

"There's data here revolving around contacts within Vale," Ves offered, turning the device around to show Vera the images. Of course, they were blurry, but she could make out modern-day BDUs and combat uniforms being in use, plus modern equipment like assault rifles with attachments and the likes. Ves added, "New arrivals spotted in similar gear to our own, though thankfully no EMR it seems."

"That's a relief..." Vera murmured, a little hostile as her hand twitched. She grabbed onto it and set the cup aside, rubbing her arm. Vesna didn't dare question it yet, but she could just tell not even her Sister was fine. It was better not to pry too much into stuff, seeing as, if her, Aye and Li's training was something awful, the training for Spetsnaz must've been twice as awful.

"We've got one at the local hospital in Vale..." Vesna began, pointing various callouts on the Net. She continued, "Another possibly sneaking through the place, armed to the teeth from the looks. Then there's rumors of stuff moving outside the bounds of Vale. More movement in Vale just got reported. Some sort of armored car. Photographs are blurry, surprisingly. Must be because they're aiming their guns to ward off people looking at them..."

"Wonder if the other PMC will use the CCTS to transmit a message across Vale, rally them up..." Vera thought loudly. It was honestly what she would do. Would make a lot of sense to attempt to send a message over the widest-reaching telecommunication system in this world to try and reach as many people as possible, though the dangers lay in the enemy intercepting and decrypting said com... Hm.

"We'll see... Until then, we should start looking for any possible new arrivals," Ves offered. She went to start donning her gear and said to her sister, "I'm going to need your help with this. Lita and Ayesha are away dealing with a transaction involving the compounds we need for our gunpowder, so we're the only ones who can really handle this stuff..."

"I'll be with you then. Let's go find your friends," Vera offered, smiling.

"Da. Let's move it fast. They might need a rallying point," Ves smiled back, then put on her radio and grabbed her rifle, making sure to keep it folded and with the safety on. Kalashnikovs were still scary here, apparently, considering they nearly got shot at by cops a couple times... "I'll call Aye and Li and tell them to meet us in town when they're done, if they can manage," She then said.

"Hey, I get first dibs on drinking with them, da?" Vera quipped as she hefted her own gear, Saiga-12 auto-shotgun included.

Vesna giggled, "Heh. Da, save for one. C'mon."


The Misfits' House

"I've asked permission from Ozpin to send a message via the CCTS. Boost our radio signals if possible. Request is being processed as we speak, but we did get even more data on new arrivals," Diana offered as she was sat at the computer, "New arrivals outside of Vale, possibly. And within, too, though we have orders to take the villages around Vale..." She then spoke, leaning forward, "To this end, I'm leaving half our unit behind. Victor, Paul, Vicky and Paula are coming with me. Everyone else, continue patrols."

"Understood!" The platoon snapped crisp salutes as they went about their business. Diana watched calmly as they did so, smiling all the while and wondering if they'd leave early. Sending that CCTS message might save them the time, but, honestly, a little return to form for the Tomas and Nemeths might've been healthier for them in the long run. Best to just go with that road trip.

"Guess we're finally off on that Post-Operation Road trip we kept talking about, eh?" Vic grinned as he and Paul went to start packing their stuff. The pairs of twins probably wanted to stick together just so they could find their friend group together. Whoever was around on the outskirts of Vale's borders would hopefully be glad to see them all, though. Honestly.

"As good a time as any, especially if any of the people out there are our friends," Paul added, nodding as he prepared his own gear. This was gonna be an interesting outing, honestly. They hadn't gone beyond Vale City's borders, so that meant they had plenty to look forward to out there, including these Grimm they kept hearing and reading about from the Students.

"Right. Pack your gear, twin teams," Diana looked to Paula and Vicky when she said that, before grinning and adding, "We're going out on a hunt ASAP... Who knows, maybe I'll finally get a fucking Lieutenant to help me reign a few of you asswipes in," which garnered some laughs out of the group. As the girls went to join their twin brothers, they started packing their own gear.

"Y'know, this could be an interesting teambuilding exercise," Vicky offered, stuffing her backpack with extra 7,62x54mm ammunition for her sniper, not to mention some new mags she'd managed to make at the Forge with Ruby's help. She told the confused Paula, "Seeing if we've still got the coordination from KFOR and all..." as clarification, which got a nod out of Paula.

"Agreed. Should be fun," The Hungarian replied, then hefted her own DMR.

"I'm gonna go grab tents for us. Figured we're probably gonna be camping a while," Diana told them as she packed her gear, too. She quipped, Considering the village we're heading toward is deep within the Vale mountain range. If the folks we're gonna recover are still there, anyway," and the finale whas whispered, though still audible to the others, thankfully.

"They'll be there. I doubt anyone really knows which way is up here beside us nowadays," Vic supposed, then told them, "We've been here long enough."

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Vic," Diana replied to that as she donned her gear and prepared to leave. She told them, "We've got a lot of work ahead of us. And if I'm reading this right, the route we're taking is gonna bring us into conflict with 'Grimm', the local alien creatures that really don't like humans or Faunus up in their business. Asses in gear and prep the Warhound. I want us rolling within two hours if we can... See you all there." And, with that, she left.

"This is gonna be interesting, alright..." Vic murmured, then quipped, "Watch team RWBY try to tag along with us," and grinned. He could see them doing something so stupid, considering. They were good people, but they got lucky it was Vic that dropped in, not some psychotic Ruskie. He was not far from being one, save for the fact he was NATO, honestly. They were also lucky they were so friendly, not for lack of Vic being a bit off-putting.

"Not recommended, but I wouldn't be surprised," Paul snorted, as did the two girls beside them. He asked, "Didn't you say they're teenagers?" as he looked upon his old friend. They were in what was basically a large-scale combat training university, so the girls being Teens was really not surprising in the least. It still made little sense as to why Vicky wanted to hook Vic up with Yang, considering the very fact they were about to head out proved that there might be more survivors out there, with the chances of Vesna joining rising exponentially.

"Them and their friends, team JNPR," Vic replied with a nod, then added, "Though JNPR seems a tad more restrained when talking with us..." before humming, in thought. He shrugged and told them, "Gonna assume it's because they find us weird, while team RWBY got used to Earthlings through chatting me up as often as they have, followed up by talking to all of you."

"I think the blondie wants to do more than 'chat you up', bro," Vicky quipped, grinning ear-to-ear, though it got a look of confusion out of her brother. Paul, however, snorted at it, causing even further exacerbation of the confusion the young Romanian man felt. It was sort of funny to watch how dense the Brother was, but alas, Vicky could only sigh, slightly annoyed.

"Same for the black-haired one and Paul..." Paula quipped, though she whispered to Vicky, who giggled. Paul's own confusion showed, the man furrowing his brows. He outright dismissed the claim from his sister as he packed his gear. His sister, meanwhile, sighed deeply, rubbing her eyes. There was no helping these two. First, for Paul, it was Katja and for Vic, Vesna. Now, this.

"Nevermind, I guess..." Vicky shrugged, then hefted her rifle and put away some of the extra stuff, like NVGs, a Gas Mask and a couple of grenades, plus her sidearm. She quipped, "C'mon, let's get our shit to the Warhound and get rolling. I wanna actually see what the hell these 'Grimm' are, bro. Maybe even dome one, heh," and she patted Vic on the shoulder, which caused the men and Paula to laugh.

"Bloodthirsty little shit," Vic shot back with a grin as they exited the building, going for the Warhound... Only to pause as, indeed, they saw Diana chatting with team RWBY. The Sergeant turned to face the four and smiled awkwardly, while Ruby quickly waved goodbye. Huh. Well, when they boarded the MRAP, the squad found out that team RWBY had only come to wish them good luck. Which they did.

Ruby, though, watched the transport leave, then eyed the house with specific intent to learn.

Was time to get a lil' info, she thought.