The next morning of this little extracurricular vacation had found Ruby in her Pajamas, wandering the halls of the beautiful Mistrali-style in. Pulling up her pants and tightening the elastic lanyard so they didn't fall off. Walking down to the kitchen area, past several other occupied rooms, the girl fully intended to make herself what Weiss usually called her 'Abomination Coffee'. Just a bunch of sweetener, cream and so on mixed with coffee, obviously.
As she snuck her way through the place, trying very hard not to wake anyone up, what with the wood floor potentially creaking and all, she descended to the center of the Inn and walked over to the counter where the coffee machine was… Only to pause the moment she saw a Spartan in his very familiar Mark IV Armor, his helmet sitting on the counter as he drank a small cup of coffee.
Sam seemed pretty unsure of how Coffee was even supposed to work when it came to giving him an energy boost, but at least he could still pick up noises in the room rather quickly. He cracked a smile and slowly turned to face Ruby, who was staring at him from the door. He spoke to her, "Good morning," in a whisper.
"Mornin'," She replied with a smile, walking over to him, "You look like you've been up for a while."
"I had night watch," He answered, then took a sip from his coffee, "Did a patrol of the whole town. Even met some of the Town Watch. The place is surprisingly calm for being in the middle of Grimm Country," to which Ruby giggled. She approached the coffee machine, opened the fridge next to it and started working on her own coffee.
As she did so, she told him, "Well, it's supposed to be like a spa place, so it kinda makes sense," before pouring some milk into her mug. She looked at Sam again, face a tinge red as the Sun lazily rose outside, then continued, "Plus, it's not like a Grimm horde's gonna come say hi just because we mention them. Sure, they're attracted to negative feelings, but…"
"I getcha," Sam nodded.
"Heh. Thanks…" Ruby replied awkwardly, blushing and smiling. Whenever she spoke to the guy, she felt like she was talking to some old childhood friend, not a seven-foot-tall Supersoldier. A friend she really cared for, obviously, she thought, then she blushed, stammered a little and switched to quickly asking, "Say, Sam, why… How are you coping with the revival stuff? Sorry if that's too forward, but I'm curious," before raising her hands defensively, face red.
"It's alright," Sam smiled back, causing Ruby to both sigh and relief and visibly shiver a little. He took a moment to consider his words carefully, before letting out a quiet hum and replying, "As for how I'm coping, well, knowing we won the Human-Covenant War, even with all the casualties we sustained, and working with John, Kelly, Fred and Linda again kind of makes it easier. Especially since they look about as I remember them instead of… Forty-something grizzled vets. Sure, they still have the scars, but," before shrugging.
"I see…" The girl replied, scratching her cheek and trying to take a moment and understand how he felt. She really had no frame of reference for how it must've been to be revived. As she took a sip from her coffee and watched the faintest wisps of orange glow among the sky, the valley being somewhat shielded from the sun by the two walls of stone.
"Yeah…" He sighed, scratching his cheek and mumbling, "It's not easy to adjust to the realization that I died, missed 90% of my friends' lives and now I'm back here again, but they and pretty much everyone else here are making it easier," and he looked at the young girl as she seemed to perk up, silver eyes glimmering a bit.
She awkwardly asked him, "Even me?" as she averted her gaze, starting to play with her hair a little. Though it should've been obvious to anyone watching that Sam really meant everybody, Ruby may or may not have wanted to play up getting a compliment from him. And when she heard him let out a short cough, a bit of the coffee he was drinking winding up in his windpipe, she wondered if that'd hit a nerve.
Taking the little coughing fit in stride, the Spartan replied, "Obviously?" without so much as flinching again. He stared at Ruby, his piercing gaze locked on her as he cracked a small smile. He then asked rhetorically, "What kind of question is that?" which caused Little Red's face to glow as red as her cape again. Upon seeing that, he let out an awkward chuckle and asked,"Heh. Sorry, too forward?"
"N-No, no, it's perfectly fine, heh…" Ruby defended, giggling even more awkwardly, her voice having risen in pitch as she waved her hands defensively toward the young man, as if trying to shield both herself and him from this kind of embarrassing talk. Honestly, Sam appreciated the thought, because, like most Spartans, he was about as poorly-suited for civilian interactions as any Spartan.
"Well, anyways…" He decided to switch subjects to spare both of them the embarrassment, watching Ruby let out a very tiny and relatively cute sigh of relief that she must've thought he didn't pick up. He asked her, "You guys said this was a 'vacation' to you," as if urging her to talk about it. He saw her immediately perk up as he took a sip from his coffee, trying to hide his own smile.
"Yep! Us shadowing you folks basically gives us some nice relaxation time!" Her voice perked up with her, apparently, considering just how happy she looked, beaming smile and all. She then let out a short, sweet laugh and added, "I sure as heck don't envy anyone stuck behind at Beacon, being drilled by your other troops," before downing another swig of her coffee.
"Daisy and Cal may seem like hardcases, but if there's anyone who might get along with teenagers, it's Daisy. And if there's someone to keep her in check, it's definitely Cal…" Sam explained with some amusement, all while Ruby chuckled. He tried recalling just how nuts Daze and Cal were back in the day and could really only recall the boisterous girl who escaped. Not only that, but she got out with Ralph and a few others.
"Sounds like those two have a history," Ruby giggled as she took a sip from her coffee.
"They've been thick as thieves since we started training. John tells me they were separated based on their own missions, but now that they found each-other again…" Sam shrugged, smiling a little as he recalled the pure adrenaline high of watching them escape during the last stages of their training, the chase and all, "Like staring into the past with'em."
The girl pushed a strand of hair out of her eye, then nodded before thinking of what to ask. She nodded to herself, then inquired, "What about Jorge and Noble?" as she leaned onto the counter, looking Sam in those deep blue eyes of his. Part of her thought of the fact that, yeah, he was the first to die, but he'd also been the first to help accomplish a mission. Her question was more to keep up the chatter…
"Jorge is the only II out of that whole team and the only other guy I know as being open, like Kurt or me," He shrugged, then continued, "Noble Team's… Kind of unknown to everyone but Doctor Halsey, John and Cortana, apparently, since the latter was actually escorted by them to the ship that pretty much started the end of the War…"
"Huh… Cool," Ruby smiled again, still feeling a little awkward.
"What about you girls? I mean…" He'd noticed this and decided to continue the chat himself. He wanted to keep talking to her, too, honestly. He did enjoy her company for what little his thoughts on the matter were worth, though his service prior wouldn't have allowed this kind of interaction. Or at least it felt like it wouldn't have. An outside perspective looking in at all of them.
"... Well, you obviously know me and Yang are half-sisters, so there's that bit," The girl replied, a bit surprised at the question. She added, "I'd normally say it's Yang's business to tell ya, but she already let a lot of people know. Her mom ran away…" then she shrugged, "Then, my mom, Summer, came into the picture, comforted dad and I kinda appeared later… Then mom disappeared, too. On a mission…" and frowned.
"... Oh… I'm sorry," He replied, gently putting a hand on her shoulder.
Seeing that, she smiled again, blushing a little as she replied, "Nah, it's alright. Mom's the reason I'm here, so, ya know! Positives!" before she beamed. She blinked, realized something, then asked him, "You knew your parents? I mean… Going by what Doctor Halsey told us-" before pausing as she wondered if that was a sore subject.
"Somewhat…" Sam shrugged, faint memories not touched in ages appearing in his mind, the face of a woman, blurred, but still discernible in the dark recesses of said memory. He sighed and said, "I faintly remember mom's face, but that's about it. The Spartan Project's really all I've known. John and the others are my family nowadays."
"Ah…" The girl became awkward yet again, wondering if she'd actually hit a nerve. He did seem pretty calm about it, though, and with that last statement, she felt like she didn't mess up that bad. Then again, could she really know if she didn't ask? And what if she asked and he felt bad after all and she just made it worse? So many thoughts swam through Ruby's mind, it must've been visible to the Spartan, who simply raised a brow, slightly concerned.
"... Should we just make some more coffee and wait for the others to wake up?" He asked, wanting to make her feel at ease around him again. And when he saw her perk up and smile, he knew he'd practically succeeded in the matter, thank the maker. He smiled, too, watching the girl take a moment to think about it…
Then he heard her reply, "Sure! I'm gonna make everyone a mug!" with joy in her voice. Indeed, audible was the noise of others slowly stirring awake in the Inn. The Spartans, going by the weight of the footsteps, Sam thought. He honestly doubted John had slept as long as he supposedly did now, or that Spartans have slept at all.
"Heh. Alright, I'll help. C'mon. We ought to grab a bit more milk…" He nodded, however, taking himself out of his thought process and leading Ruby to the kitchen. As they walked in, the smell of fresh food welcomed them, the sizzle of eggs and bacon, the smell of toast and the surprising scent of a fresh salad. Both of them paused as they saw Doctor Halsey working the kitchen's oven and stove, mumbling to herself as she donned an apron instead of her usual labcoat.
She looked tired, but the bags under her eyes were very regressed compared to her usual. She even seemed content as she cooked, focused on her task. Though she was taken out of her momentary trance when Sam cleared his throat. She simply looked up, nodded and said, "Samuel. Miss Rose. Just in time for breakfast."
"... You can cook, doc?" Ruby asked, a bit surprised.
Halsey feigned being hurt, stating, "My dear girl, what do you take me for?" before sighing and dropping the act the moment she felt like she disliked it. She told the girl and Sam, "Yes, I can cook… Despite appearances and previous experiences, I don't just subsist on coffee and delivered food. I had to make my own food every once in a while in University."
Sam crossed his arms to his chest, stating, "First we've really ever heard of it, doc…" to which Halsey cast a glance his way that was neither hostile, nor accusatory, but still surprised the young man. He raised his hands, showing her to relax, but she sighed and shook her head, before motioning to the table to their right.
"How we doin'? Something smells good in here!" Yang called out as she, the rest of team RWBY and, obviously, Penny, walked in. Teams NOBLE and BLUE followed not far behind. The blonde-haired hand-to-hand expert gasped, then asked, "You can cook, doc?!" which caused both Ruby and Sam to laugh a little.
Halsey rolled her eyes, but cracked a surprisingly visible smile as she said, "Yes, miss Xiao-Long. Now, please, all of you, take a seat…" before she started plating the food for each of the dozen or so new arrivals. Last to come in were the members of team JNPR, for whom Halsey had also prepared food. Including pancakes for Nora.
As the woman spread out the plates onto the three tables in the room, she looked at Ren and asked, "Is it a problem if I've made these for miss Valkyrie, mister Ren?" to which Ren offered one of his usual small, friendly smiles, then put his hands together and bowed. Halsey took that as the hint she needed and handed a very giddy-looking Nora the pancakes.
She then sat herself down with Blue Team and Cortana, stating, "I suppose it would only be natural to ask if any of you, aside from Sam, caught any sleep?" to which the four other Spartans and Cortana all affirmed it with various gestures, Cortana cracking a smile as she looked at John. Halsey hummed at than, snorted, then started eating her own eggs.
"What's on the objective roster for today?" Jaune asked as they started eating, only to pause immediately after tasting one of the bacon strips and saying, "Oh, wow. Heh, that's actually pretty good. Must be some high-quality stuff the Innkeeper has in her fridge," to which Halsey nodded. Pyrrha gave a gentle elbow to Jaune, who then added, "O-Oh, right! Thanks for the meal, Doc!"
"You're quite welcome," Halsey replied, hiding her mouth to conceal a smile directed at Pyrrha, who gave a simple thumbs up to the doctor, all while wearing an awkward smile. The Doctor nodded quickly in thanks, then continued, "As for what we are to do today, I've only managed to do a preliminary read-through of Doctor Smith's data, so I will continue to search through it. The rest of you can continue patrolling the Village until then."
Nora quipped, "Basically just enjoying our vay-cay, then? Hehe! Can do, doc!"
"It would be nice to hang out a little more," Ruby smiled, looking at her team, then at Sam, her face flushing a little red. Weiss shook her head, rolling her eyes while wearing a smile. Meanwhile, Yang flashed a grin Sam's way and Blake hummed, then looked at Fred. Most of the crew seemed to concur with the idea that it'd be nice to just 'be there' for the moment, all while Halsey figured things out.
The Doctor spoke, "Then it's decided. Visit the Village while I deal with the data here. Rest…" and she continued eating. She mumbled to herself, "Who knows what awaits us in the next few days…" while poking one of her eggs with the fork. Kelly soon volunteered to deliver some food to Foe Hammer, who'd apparently been staying in their Pelican.
Vale
Sergeant-Major Johnson had decided to take a few of his Marine buddies and Daisy out for a coffee trip. Operationally speaking, they were also going to retrieve some supplies for the base, like more food items and maybe even securing a proper ammo supplier. Additionally, they were looking to get an engineer to help them figure out how to properly refuel a Pelican with the local Dust supply without having to fully rebuild the engines.
Polaski had joined them for that, since she was flying their other Pelican out nowadays. She'd taken the liberty of just not doing that and going by Bullhead this time, even if she felt every bit as unsafe aboard that thing as she did on board a Pelican that'd had its engines shot out from under it. Seriously, those aircraft felt incredibly flimsy.
As they walked, Johnson told them, "Remember, kids. Eyes peeled for that Food doc Halsey really likes. Don't wanna be the one to tell her Bisenti ate the last of it," to which the other Marines let out laughter, all while Bisenti himself sighed, mildly annoyed. Chips snorted and shook his head, patting the guy on the shoulder.
Polaski quipped, "Locklear sure would've liked that joke, Sarge. Take into account that son-of-a-bitch helped Bisenti here chow down," and she grinned, arranging her bandana. Johnson snorted, giving an approving nod as they walked. The crowds around them could only watch yet again as the Marines and their pilot walked through the place, looking for a specific store.
They walked out onto a square, pausing all at the same time as they saw a protest and counter-protest of some kind, both sides separated by the VPD's Riot Control Unit, men and women clad in heavy carapace-like armors and holding shields and batons. Though the Police, back-to-back with one another, seemed calm, the Protesters, some being part of the White Fang while the others had a strange emblem of a crossed-out paw, were swearing and hurling crap at each-other.
Johnson took a puff from his cigar, blew the smoke out through his nose, then walked up to the Precinct Chief of the Police, asking, "The hell's goin' on here, officer?" to which the cop, a man clad in a white shirt and black pants with aviators hiding his eyes, turned about, hand on his pistol. He paused, however, seeing Johnson, then sighed.
"You one of Ozpin's new friends?" He raised a brow. Johnson nodded, to which the Cop then said, "Well, you're lookin' at what we've had to deal with for the past few months:A protest from the Natural Order that the White Fang got riled up about…" before he crossed his arms, "If it were after me, I'd arrest both sides right here and now… Just don't have enough cops."
"Natural Order?" Johnson quirked a brow up. He could honestly already piece everything together from the situation, he just wanted a confirmation for the fact he could be angry at these bastards, honestly. He spoke, "Lemme guess," as he looked at the bunch on the left, a lot of'em looking like direct parallels to the other side. Unwashed, ugly, angry. He continued, "Human supremacists. Racists, basically."
"Pretty much," The man nodded, arms crossed, then sighed and said, "Man, I don't get paid enough for this crap…" and Johnson understood the sentiment. What the Protest was even about, no side knew, but Johnson could only assume it was about the fact that there was a store serving everyone or some bullshit like that.
He paused as he saw two people walking out. A human male and Faunus female with wolf's ears. Both looked… Terrifyingly familiar, Johnson thought as he flagged them down, asking, "You two alright?" as he looked them over. The man had familiar facial features, too, while the woman had surprisingly deep blue eyes and their child-whom Johnson had just now noticed-looked an awful lot like someone they knew…
"Yeah, we're alright," A surprisingly rough voice came from the man. It was still warm and welcoming, but, again, familiar. He spoke, "Those bastards didn't get to do any harm to us," and pointed at both sides. He stared rather intensely at the group of Marines, then grabbed Johnson by the arm and asked, "Are you all UNSC?"
"... We are…?" Johnson blinked, "Are ya-"
"Humans from Earth," The man replied with a nod, "Or, well… Eridanus II, more like," then he took a step back and sighed, rubbing his eyes and letting out a short laugh, "Oh, this is gonna be interesting," all while his wife stared at them with concern. He spoke to them, "I don't suppose any of you have seen a small kid, shaved head, about yae high," and he put his hand by his hip, "Walking around, have you? Or… Hell, I don't know how big he'd have grown."
"... What's your kid's name? We'll let you know if we've seen anything…" Johnson asked, feeling a slight pit in his stomach. Doc Halsey had been kind enough to tell them all most of the Truth about the Spartan Project like she had to Ozpin. Though Johnson wasn't one to comment on the matter, considerin' his own past as a soldier taken on by Humanity to gene engineer into a war machine, this might've come to bite them in the ass.
"John," The man replied, which caused the Sergeant-Major to suddenly feel that pit in his stomach growing just that little bit bigger. Polaski and the others all overheard this, with Jenkins staring at the 'Find Out' stage finally playing out in front of them. The father spoke, "... You look like I just said a Ghost's name, Marine."
"Well," Johnson spoke quietly, then sighed and took a puff from his cigar. Oh, this was gonna go over well. He told the man, "We'll let you know if we've seen anythin', like I said. Leave me a contact number and name and we'll talk over the Scroll," to which the man and woman, though suspicious, agreed. Their little kid stared up at Johnson as he was writing down the data. He gave the kid a smile, to which the kid smiled back, then he turned to finish the data collection.
After letting them walk, he stared at the pair for a second, mumbling, "Oh, that's gonna come back to bite Halsey hard," before sliding his Scroll back into a vest pouch. Jenkins stared at the family, to which Johnson said, "You can see the likeness too, right? Ain't just me bein' old and seeing shit anymore, that's them…"
"Guess we'll find out if Chief's happy to have them around when they come back," Jenkins mumbled as he shifted his rifle off his back. Footsteps thundered toward them, with Jenkins stating, "Sarge… Possible contact incoming," which caused Johnson to swivel about, hand hovering over the grip of his shotgun. One of the men obviously belonging to the Natural Order stepped forward, staring them all down.
He spoke, "Cops brought in mercs? Hah! What're ya gonna do?"
"We're just here to observe, kid," Johnson replied, walking in between Jenkins, Bisenti and the man. He told him, "Get back with your racist buddies before you give us an actual reason to intervene," as a bit of a warning. Despite the fact that he had come up to them all boisterous, he seemed to stand down a second later, scoffing and walking back.
Polaski stared at him, mumbling, "Good. Last thing we fucking needed was a dumbass starting shit with the rest of us," before turning toward Johnson and stating, "So, Sarge, what're we gonna do about those people whose number you just wrote down? Cuz I think they might call us first if they hear more UNSC people joined us at Beacon."
"They won't hear it," Jenkins spoke, sliding his rifle onto his back, "Right, Sarge? Not like they'll figure out we're not the only Marines on Remnant," and looking ahead. Johnson stared, still, stunned at the fact that they'd found two people that they never thought they'd meet. Jenkins then asked, "Sarge? You okay?"
"I'm fine…" he sighed, "Let's get moving. We still have shopping to do," and despite seeing the team exchange a few quick looks of concern, he didn't rush them or tell them to hurry the hell up. No, they were probably just as shaken by what had just happened as everyone else. They needed time to clear their minds and also needed to keep tabs on the Protest so it didn't turn into a 'Marines gotta intervene' deal…
… Christ, what a mess…