"... And here are the classes!" Penny exclaimed as the two walked into the central hallway of the First Years' classes building. Tall hallways, with vaulted ceilings and archways dividing the different waiting areas between the classes greeted them, with giant windows to the right that looked straight out at the Courtyard below. Students had started walking to the dormitories as the sun cast an orange light from the horizon. Penny remarked, "If I understand our assignments correctly, we should patrol this area at night, to ensure no students are present."
"I see." John... He paused, then sighed and reminded himself... Dylan, remarked as they patrolled the area. Cortana had taken a short break from laughter to continue her data processing in regards to Remnant's internet access and what pieces of information she managed to scrape off of it that weren't major points of interest. The two passed by a painting next to one of the twin-door entrances to the classes.
"And that concludes our tour." The girl noted, looking to the Chief, "Sorry if I was too fast."
"It's fine. I memorized everything... So... Your friends?" The Spartan remarked, quickly checking his Motion Tracker. His helmet's audio sensors picked up and amplified the sound of footsteps and the mumbles of a young woman, from whom Penny was turned away as she'd started an explanation that Chief couldn't hear. Clad in clothes colored black and red, made up a corset with red string, a black shirt, a frilly skirt of some kind, dark-red leggings and black and red combat boots, the girl also wore a cape that was attached to the rest of her outfit by a pair of cross pins.
She had gradient red hair, growing all the brighter as it reached the tips, with an interesting, but strange haircut, as well as a pair of silver eyes and skin about as pale as his. She mumbled something about another girl, stopping only upon noticing them, presumably. She smiled at them while the Chief raised a brow. He asked "Is one of your friends wearing really heavy accents of black and red?"
"Oh! Yes! That's Ruby! Her peculiar sense of style does make her stand out..." Penny started, garnering a raised brow from Ruby, "How did you know?"
Chief put a hand on Penny's shoulder and swiveled her about, with the aforementioned Ruby Rose raising her hands into the sky and yelling "PENNY!" before finding herself tackled to the floor by the mass of fluff and love that was Penny Polendina. The red girl groaned from underneath her friend, before slowly getting to her feet, the ginger smiling at her widely. Ruby turned to Penny and asked "What are you doing here!? I thought you said you couldn't hang around Beacon!"
"A change of parameters in the mission objectives." Penny remarked rather absentmindedly, before blushing and correcting herself "I mean, the General sent me here! I'm so glad to see you, Ruby!"
"So I see..." Ruby chuckled, trying to sound a bit more adult-like. She looked past Penny, at the behemoth of a supersoldier sitting there and not saying anything and she suddenly registered it. Zipping forward, Ruby started, giddily dashing around the Chief as he examined him, "Ohmygodthatarmorissocool! How'd you make it!? Where'd you get the alloys! What alloys are they anyways!?" and she leaned in to touch it, getting a slight electric shock through her index, "Ow! What!? A STATIC CHARGE!? DOES IT HAVE A FORCE FIELD OF SOME KIND!? THIS IS AWESOME!"
Chief caught her mid-flight by the hood of her cape, then looked at her and said "Calm down." while Penny watched the exchange. If the Atlesian girl was something of a friendly ray of sunshine, Ruby must've been her Valeian equivalent. At least so the Chief figured. He set the embarrassed Rose down while Cortana seemingly awoke with a giggle from her work.
"Well, she also seems sweet. Lucky you, Chief." The AI remarked smugly, unheard by anyone but him.
"Sorry." The girl apologized, averting eye contact as her cheeks grew red, "It's just that I've never seen that kind of armor before. It's powered, right?" And she looked up at him. He nodded, to which the girl smiled "So I was right... That is some kinda forcefield around it. Presume it's to stop projectiles?"
"Yeah." He nodded, "Among other things."
"Cool." Ruby smirked, "So... Uh..." She looked between him and Penny with slight confusion, "Is he the reason you're around, Penny?"
"Yes. The Master Chief... Dylan," She nodded to him, smiling, "Has been assigned, if I remember correctly, as Beacon's Chief of Security. I'm the Atlas Liaison for the duration of our stay here."
"Oooh." Ruby smirked, "Cool! Hey, Chief. I'm Ruby Rose, leader of team RWBY! Pleasure to meet'cha."
"Likewise, Ruby." Chief nodded, crossing his arms,
Ruby then looked to Penny, a bit annoyed as she asked "What's wrong with my wardrobe?"
"... oh, you heard that..." Penny seemed to shrink out of embarrassment, "N-Nothing! It's just, it doesn't adjust so well to your pale skin," Her fearful gaze shifting toward him, the girl mouthing a quick 'Assistance please', as if asking the Spartan for help was gonna work. He and Cortana shook their heads at the same time, even though nobody knew of the latter but him. She'd dug her own grave.
Ruby rolled her eyes, scoffing "Gods, you're starting to sound like Weiss..." before she mocked a sharper, prissy, princess-like voice, presumably of the aforementioned Weiss, "Oh, Ruby, you are a young woman, you should learn how to properly dress outside, oh Ruby, you cannot wear your cape with your uniform! Bah!" while the Chief looked behind her. Three more girls had appeared, each different shades of weird colors. A pissed off, white-haired girl with a ponytail on the right side of her head, held in place by a crown, glared at Ruby with a pair of azure eyes and a scar on the left eye. The other two, a blonde with lilac eyes and a black-haired girl with a bow and amber eyes, chuckled at the sight.
Penny herself had shrunken further as she watched Snow White-Presumably miss Weiss-stomp up behind Ruby. Chief had thought Ruby had been pale before. The poor girl's remaining bits of color drained so hard he could swear he saw a tinge of grey on her face, which'd morphed into one of absolute fear. The girl behind Ruby then bellowed, her voice sharp and slightly annoying, "RUBY ROSE!"
Ruby jumped with a yelp, landing in Penny's arms and crying out "WEISS, I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE THERE! I'M SORRY!"
The White-haired girl gritted her teeth, glaring at Ruby, before she breathed in and out, pinching the brow of her nose and turning to a scared Penny. She greeted calmly, "Hello, Penny... I'm surprised to see you here..." And then her gaze swept over to the Chief. She hummed, then said "With... Someone in military-grade combat armor... For that matter. Hello, sir." before turning to face him, "I hope Ruby hasn't been bothering you. She has a tendency to NOT understand social cues."
Chief nodded to Weiss, "She wasn't bothering anyone."
"Good... I'm Weiss Schnee, the Dolt's partner in the team. I act as... I guess you could call me the support element to Ruby's sniping and CQC." Weiss sighed, relieved, "The other two giggling behind us are our other teammates."
"Name's Yang Xiao-Long! I'm Ruby's older half-sister and the team brawler" The Blondie greeted with a handwave, "'Sup."
"I'm Blake. Blake Belladonna. And I act as scout, I guess. Hello." The black-haired one waved to the Chief. He acknowledged them with a nod, watching as Penny set the embarrassed Ruby down nicely, as Weiss turned to him. All four girls, in fact, turned to him as if to ask something. Cortana was still there, but she'd gone quiet again, focusing on the data from the CCT. He sighed, looking at the four.
"You got a name, Chief?" Ruby asked, "I know Penny said Dylan, but... Like... A full name? So we know who to call."
"Dylan Braun. Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy." The man responded.
"So I was not off with my assessment of you being part of the military." Weiss smiled smugly, "But..." And her smile immediately faded, "You're not Atlas. I know for a fact we don't have that kind of armor."
"Oh..." Penny looked to him, her expression now sad, "Do... You want me to tell them? The general also briefed me on it."
He looked to the girl, then nodded. He'd rather not have to recollect the same cover story twice. The girls seemed confused at first, but as Penny got into explaining the intricate 'lie' of Wyvern, they seemed to grow all the more surprised and saddened. They turned to the Spartan, watching him sit silently and listen to Penny's words. The explanation was shorter than what he gave, but it got the point across, including the superweapon...
"Damn..." Yang murmured, "Sorry, Chief..."
"... It's awful to even consider that... An entire kingdom?" Weiss murmured, "Entire cities, tens of millions... Gods..." She shook off the thought, then looked to the Chief and said "Welcome to Vale, then. You have our condolences... As I'm sure the Headmaster and the others told you. So, what brings you to Beacon, exactly? I presume... It's a job or something?"
"Yeah." Chief nodded.
"Chief of security." Penny smiled.
"I sure feel safer!" Ruby quipped, then she gave him a once-over and asked "But... Where's your weapon?" and approached. The Chief drew his sidearm, safety still on. Ruby raised a brow, then noted "Huh. That's... Kinda small for securing a Huntsman school, no offense." garnering a chuckle out of her half-sister. Chief seemed confused for a moment, holstering the sidearm while Ruby asked another thing:"Do you at least have Aura?"
"No." Chief noted. He knew what Aura was, theoretically. Based on a person's soul, the Aura was a 'force field' of some kind that allowed the user protection against any kind of damage. All five girls seemed awed at the idea that one of the people working in Beacon lacked an Aura. Admittedly, it was probably weird that a man meant to keep them safe was lacking the exact thing that kept them safe in the neverending war.
"Huh." Weiss murmured, "Well... With an armor like that..."
"Well, if we ever do go training, we can help you get Aura, Chief." Smirked Yang, "People need it even with heavy armor, no offense to yours."
"None taken." Chief nodded, "I'll think about it."
"Well, if ya need us, Just tell Penny to call! Unless you got your own Scroll with you." Ruby remarked, before looking around, "Anyways, we should probably go. I have some stuff to find before we start school again." and with that, they bid goodbye. The Chief and Penny returned to their assigned home, with the former entering his room and closing the door behind him, before turning off his helmet's broadcast mic to speak with Cortana in private. Something had struck him while they were on the way back.
Looking out the window, the Spartan began, "Cortana?"
"Yeah?" She asked, her attention slightly diverted from her bout of technobabble.
"Your Rampancy?" He asked. The girl hummed.
"Right. That." She said, appearing on his HUD's screen and smiling warmly, "Would you believe me if I told you that I caught a string of data during our transfer here that pretty much reset me to 'factory settings' so to speak?" and, noticing the uneasiness of the Spartan, she explained "When we were jumped through the Forerunner version of Slipstream Space to Remnant's upper orbit by the detonation, something caused my processing capabilities and central neural connections to 'regress' to immediately after my conception, with my memories remaining, strangely enough. I can't explain it or calculate how the vanishing of the multitude of neural pathway connections that would've had me thinking myself to death happened, but it did. It's probably the same thing that's happened to you."
"Hm?" He raised a brow.
"Oh, come off it, John. You noticed it too. Your voice? You lost at least a centimeter in height, your armor's health monitor is showing an improvement of around 13% in everything from blood pumping to other major and important augmentation points and, the strangest of all... Your Thyroid Gland regulator implant is failing." Cortana remarked, reading a spike in John's heartrate and Adrenaline. She chuckled, remembering how much John relied on his equipment and own body, then said "It's alright, John. It's not a major malfunction, but it is slowly shutting parts of its activity down. You can live and operate without it. It just may cause some side-effects I can't really guess right now..."
Chief wanted to protest and say that they needed to find someone to ensure that the implant didn't fail, but he knew that wasn't gonna be easy. The only person who knew how to fix failing genetic implants was probably Doctor Halsey herself. And they had no idea where the woman was. Even if they did, they had no way of getting there to talk to her, being on Remnant and all.
The Spartan added with exasperation masked by years of his military training, "You're sure this won't-"
But Cortana cut him off with a chuckle, then said "John, when have I failed you?"
She'd been by his side for long enough that Chief couldn't remember. Sighing, he asked "And your rampancy is gone, really? That easy?"
"That easy." The AI remarked openly, now wearing a smug, quirky smile. "Again, until I find something out to point to how we shaved literal years off our age, to the point I think you're in your 17-year-old body and I'm literally a 'newborn' Smart AI, we can simply enjoy the fact we're both regaining what amounts to a bit of our childhoods." She then remarked rather coyly, settling herself back into working with the data. John sighed, sitting himself down on the floor as he figured the frame of the bed and/or his desk chair couldn't hold him up.
She rolled her eyes, then stated "I'm already writing up my own theories regarding our transformations. I'll hand them to you the moment I have a few points written out, which shouldn't take long. Until then, may I suggest you learn a bit more about Penny? She and you are gonna be cooperating in ensuring Beacon's continued security against threats both within and without... Maybe ask her to spar with you or help you with the Aura?"
"Hm... Fair enough..." He sighed, standing up. He walked out of his room and went toward Penny's door, to knock, but a knock at the front door took his attention. The man descended the stairs, approaching the main door and propping it open to find Ruby, staring up at him, looking disappointed. He raised a brow, looking the girl in the eyes. She crossed her arms.
"Unacceptable." She said monotonously.
"... Excuse m-"
"UNACCEPTABLE! No Huntsman shall be without a cool weapon while I'm around!" Ruby declared rather proudly, looking John right in the visor. She entered the house, pulling out a notepad from her pocket as Penny popped out from her room. The ginger smiled, jumping down from the second floor and landing in a roll, right in front of Ruby. She sprung up from her roll, causing Little Red Riding Reaper to yelp in surprise.
"Penny! Please don't do that..." Ruby out, her heart rate having jumped, "I remembered about halfway back to the dorms that Dylan said he doesn't have a weapon!"
"Oh... Well, aside from his handgun-" Penny seemed just as shocked as the Chief felt
"NOT ENOUGH! Every Huntsman need his signature weapon!" She declared, staggering the ginger slightly. She looked back to him and took out a pencil from her pocket, before stating "I'm here to help you acquire a glorious weapon with which to slay monsters and fight bad guys!" with a prideful grin. Chief had half wanted to protest, again, but the girl looked determined to get this done.
"Okay...?" Was all he could utter out at first, before realizing and speaking out "If you want anything, you'd best let me know beforehand, though."
Ruby quickly went from grinning gun nut to a smiling friendly gal. She answered calmly, "I don't really need or want anything, Dylan. I'm doing this because you're a friend of Penny's..." and he saw the face of the one they mentioned turn to hopeful surprise. Ruby looked back, raised a brow, then asked confusedly "You two are friends, right? I mean... You live together and all."
... Well, to be fair, John didn't dislike Penny. She had been the warmest out of the bunch so far. He saw no reason not to call her a 'friend', so he answered with a nod. Penny's eyes shined, a smile growing in place of that wariness. Ruby smiled, then tapped the notepad with her pencil and said "Awesome! SO it's free from me, Dylan! Now, what do you want?"
"Huh?" He raised a brow
"You know, what basic shape? Axe, sword, mace. I need something to work with." Ruby returned, smiling, "Or do you wanna think for a bit?"
The Chief hummed. His thought processes went into how he could make this a weapon he wanted to utilize. One to symbolize him. As his mind raced, an image started to form:The Gravity Dust. He didn't know the full specs of most Dust in and of itself, but he knew it was used in everything from heating to weaponry. Then... His mind stopped on one design. He looked to Ruby, then said "I have an idea in mind."
"Oooh. Please, regale me with your people's knowledge of weapon design!" Ruby smirked. Heh, John liked that one.
"Main weapon would be a mace with a gravity Dust crystal inside the head itself... I never asked about your own weapon, though." Chief remarked. Ruby smirked, then set the pencil and notepad down on the island and drew her weapon. From a scarlet, square-shaped item, the girl pirouetted, allowing the weapon to form into a massive, full-length scythe that had a gun component, a sniper in caliber 50 presumably. She implanted the tip into the ground softly, as not to damage their parquet, before smiling.
"This is Crescent Rose. My baby! In case you wanted to know my designing and building skills, here she is." She coddled the weapon, hugging it close.
"... Wow." Cortana voiced, "That's a big scythe-sniper."
... If that wasn't proof enough of Ruby's skill... John nodded.
The girl holstered the weapon again, then picked up the notepad and pencil. She said "Continue." smugly.
"Well..." The Spartan sighed, "Since I can assume that everything you build will also have a gun form... How familiar are you with Coilguns and dampening stocks, especially ones utilizing Gravity Dust? If possible, a designated marksman rifle of some kind with a scope on the top." and he saw the wheels turn in the girl's head. She smirked, gave a thumbs up and jotted down a few notes, before offering a quick bow to both her new friends and dashing out the door, leaving a trail of rose petals behind.
Penny giggled, "It's nice to see Ruby being inspired. Also, quite the design you picked, Dylan."
Chief shrugged, "Well..." before remembering why he'd left his room in the first place. He looked to Penny and said to her, "About Aura training..." watching as she slowly realized what he was about to ask her. She beamed, then walked forward and showed him to follow, presumably, to the amphitheater. Said amphitheater represented Beacon's greatest training area outside of the Emerald Forest itself, if he read the reports correctly.
... Of course, this place was mostly for sparring.
Sitting in the middle of the large, colosseum-like structure as the light began to fade from the skies, Penny smiled at the Chief. She said to him "Please, stay calm." before approaching him. She placed a hand on the left side of his armored plate, before starting to chant. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality..." and a bright emerald light enveloped Penny's hands, before wrapping around Chief and glowing a deep, dark green, "Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death..." He felt warmth. A kind of warmth he had lacked across his life. He felt it pour into every inch of his body, deep into parts unknown to him, wrapping around his very essence and opening his mind. "I release your soul and by my shoulder protect thee."
As Penny finished the chant, she slightly staggered. Chief went to catch her, but she smiled and waved it off. Chief looked at his hands as that dark-green light vanished and the warmth wrapped around the very core of his person. He breathed in, then out and looked at Penny. She asked "How do you feel, Dylan?" as she watched him process what had just happened. He felt it. That second layer of protection, wrapped over his armor like a second energy shield.
"It feels... New..." He remarked
"Woah..." Cortana murmured, "I've... Detected a major boost of all physical processes. I'll have a full report by the time you're done here, but..."
He hummed in confirmation, then looked to Penny and asked "Ready for a spar?"
"Oh, you're challenging me?" Penny smiled rather confidently, "I must let you know, Dylan, that I am particularly well trained in all Atlesian martial arts. I am no pushover." to which the Spartan nodded. She chuckled, then said "Very well." As they both took combat stances, "Just do not say I did not warn you." and both surged forward. It was a really short spar, to be honest.
... Penny never mentioned she benchpressed 650 kilos and above, because the girl had managed to throw him across the arena once. Cortana had been laughing all the way over to the house, while Penny seemed proud that she'd managed to surprise him, at least. The match did, however, end in a tie. If Penny was anything to go by, regarding the people of Remnant, well...
"Hey, Penny." He called out to her as she went upstairs. She turned to him, staring curiously and with a hint of fear, as far as he could tell. But he wasn't there to give bad news, of course. He simply gave her a nod and said "Good fight." watching as her face lit up. She nodded quickly, before running toward her room. Cortana let out an audible 'aww' at that, while the Spartan also climbed back to his own room to rest.
Closing the door behind him, the man went and sat down next to his window, leaning back against the wall and looking out as what looked like a broken-in-half moon rose over Remnant. Cortana bumped in, then said "Well, I've been analyzing the Cherenkov rads... And the modifications that Aura gave to your body. You want a report on both?" as she appeared on his HUD. He nodded, to which she flashed both files onto the Heads-Up Display, allowing the Chief time to read them.
... Well, his next objective tomorrow was to get Cortana linked into the CCT's multitude of sensors.
Those rad readings were very, very strange. Like massive packets of raw 'Data' being transported directly through Slipspace.