The bell for the end of classes rang, telling the Spartans and local teams that it was time to leave. As they stood up to depart professor Oobleck's class, once more wearing civilian clothing, John was stopped by a small hand. Ruby appeared in front of him, a smile on her face as she whispered, "We didn't get to thank you properly for helping us back there... How did you know we were going to be out there?"
"We didn't," John replied coolly, "We had our own mission. It was lucky that we pretty much had the same objective," he then added as the rest of team RWBY and even team JNPR joined them. The group, Spartans and Huntsmen alike, exited the class and traveled together toward the mess hall. He hummed, then looked to Ruby and asked, "Why was it you were out there, anyway?"
"Well..." Ruby smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck as she felt Blake's piercing gaze locked onto the back of her head. She chuckled, then said "Long story... We can tell ya later. What about you, folks?"
"Recon. Figuring out what the White Fang's capabilities are," The Spartan replied.
"Ooh, noted," She nodded, "So... You folks gonna join us for lunch or nah?"
"Sure," He nodded. Ruby beamed, while Sam looked back to his comrade and gave him a thumbs up. The group of over two dozen walked together toward the mess hall, chatting each-other up. Sam hanged back with John and teams RWBY and JNPR as they walked to the mess hall. He hummed, checking his scroll for a second to see a message from Cortana. It was short and concise.
'Got some new data. Talk when you're home.'
He nodded as if she could see him and quickly slid the device back into his pocket. As the group moved together into the mess hall, a squadron of Spartans and Hunters as they were, Sam once again took to John's side, inquiring, "You good?" to which his old friend nodded. Sam still worried for John, even decades later. To be fair, to the young man, it'd barely been a few seconds since his death and a few more days since his revival on Remnant. That he was still a caring friend, John pinned on the fact that he'd been real young when he went.
Sam himself had noticed the thousand yard stares on him, on Kelly, Linda, Fred and even Jorge. They were the 'oldest' among the lot, seeing as how they managed to survive up to the near the end of the war and, in Blue Team's case, to the Post-War era, to still serve the UNSC as their elite killing machines and problem solvers. They had seen every single other Spartan that was on the 'MIA' list go and the reason they went.
He felt somewhat inadequate, to be quite honest. Even with his return undoubtedly providing John and the others with a much needed respite from thinking of the war that was still so fresh in Humanity's collective memory, he was sure that he would be almost like a toddler compared to them, both in experience and in combat acumen. That he was revived here, however, was still a joyous situation. He saw his old friends that he'd grown up with were alive and he'd learned the war he'd been so quickly checked out of by his own sacrifice had been won, even as Pyrrhic victory.
He looked to see Kelly smirking at him, her left ear flopping down as she tilted her head. He shrugged, taken out of his thought process by his comrade's and old friend's stare and the grin she wore. The girl pointed to his right, to Ruby Rose, to be more specific. While he wasn't sure what was being pointed out to him, he saw Ruby seemed a bit like a fish out of water as she walked beside him. Meanwhile, Blake, Yang and Weiss seemed concerned for their team lead...
At least Weiss did...
Yang was giggling in the background and Blake? Blake looked pretty rough, like she hadn't slept. He wasn't sure what the effects of sleep deprivation were, at least not completely, but he could tell she was somewhat more tired than it was normal to be, even during school time. He turned back to Kelly, then shrugged. The girl sighed, then nodded... He then remembered Kelly had gotten access to Remnant's planetary Intranet. They all did, with the new Scrolls. He figured that must've given her some odd ideas.
Eh, he shrugged it off, then turned to Ruby and asked, "Are you okay?"
She yelped, slightly surprised, then nodded, "Yup..."
"Right..." He remained unconvinced, but elected to change the subject, rather than delve into it. He jabbed a thumb back toward Blake and asked, "Is Blake alright, then? She seems... Tired..."
"Oh, she's been... Working herself to death because of the White Fang, pretty much..." Ruby sighed deeply, "She's usually hard to remove from her shell, but after our little unsanctioned mission to read into the Fang's operations, she's gotten moodier, meaner and, in general, just tunnel-visioned on figuring out what's going on..." And she looked to Sam, then stated, "She hasn't slept in a couple days..."
"Aha..." He nodded. Well, he knew another person who'd usually overwork themselves, even during training. Eyeing John, the boy murmured, "I guess I know how that feels, seeing as Dylan was kind of the same at times... Most of us were, in fact. Mission took priority over everything else for our people," and he shifted on his feet as he explained. As the group entered the Mess and got their trays of food, taking up half a row of tables as they sat together and started chatting, Chief was still processing in his own way that those they'd lost were coming back to life.
"Huh," Ruby stated, "I guess you and we ain't so different, huh?"
"We ain't," Sam replied, then smiled at the girl. She smiled back, though her cheeks flushed red once more. Sam never got that reaction. Was Ruby sick or allergic to him or something? Eh, didn't matter right now. What mattered was getting some chow and preparing to move out and recover a few more people. Cortana had been kind enough to keep them updated on the situation and how dozens of other IFFs had entered the area around Vale.
None of them had winked off the scan so far, so that was also a good sign that the folks, be they Marines or Spartans, did well enough for themselves to stave off the enemy even without Aura. Still, it would've payed to know who they were going to rescue, quite honestly, but alas, it was a luck of the draw kind of thing. He hummed, then looked to Ruby again, changing his thought for a bit and asking, "You think she'll be okay?"
"Well, she's Blake," Ruby shrugged, "We can only hope..."
"Fair..." Sam sighed. It was way easier not to have to deal with civvies, or in this case with what was probably trained Mercenary kids that were meant to fight creatures of darkness sat at the outskirts of their Kingdoms' defenses. The young man felt more calm as he switched subjects again, asking, "What about you and the others? They seem pretty jovial."
"Well, Yang's doing Yang things," Ruby turned to watch her sister joking with Blake while the girl was having none of it. She winced, then smiled awkwardly, "And Weiss is probably filing her nails as we walk. Y'know, prissy princess stuff you'd expect an heiress to do..." and shrugged. Truly, Ruby Rose was no different from John in one regard:She knew the quirks of her team.
"Hey!" Weiss called Ruby out... While filing her nails, indeed. She looked at herself, then sighed and pouted.
"What about team JNPR?" He asked, watching as Jaune tried to get in Fred's good graces, with Linda and Pyrrha seemingly engaged in some form of small-talk that was more or less single-word answers to questions that one of them asked the other. Pyrrha seemed content with it, of course, while Ren seemed to be enjoying the peace and quiet of walking side-by-side with Cal... And Nora did 'Nora Things'. More specifically, she was challenging Daisy to a deadlift competition, which the blonde seemed eager to undertake.
NOBLE, meanwhile, maintained their own small clique in the Spartan group, chatting each-other up in regards to, as far as both he and Ruby could hear, future ops and the possibility of borrowing the Pelican for a ride around the place, to learn everything about Vale itself and scout out any future target areas for their counter-operations against the White Fang.
"So..." Ruby looked to Sam, "You folks are gonna be focusing on the Fang as well, huh?"
"For the purposes of gathering intel and figuring out their endgame, yeah... If Blake needs some help, she can swing by our neck of the woods to get it," He offered, "Same for the rest of you."
"Appreciate it, Sam," Ruby smiled... And the young man felt his own heart skip a beat, his cheeks a tinge warmer than before. He blinked. Huh, interesting. That was the first time he'd actually had that kind of reaction. His mind worked through the moment quickly and memories of Cortana's briefing came to him, regarding the fact that John's own Thyroid Regulator implant was failing, meaning certain hormones were being more openly released. Cortana had also supposed that the same could be said about the other Spartans present, that their implant was failing and they'd see similar changes.
He wasn't sure what to think of it...
"Anyways," Ruby started, "We're also considering a few other things, including a possible dance party later on in the month..."
"... Aha..." Sam nodded, "That's cool."
"Yup..." Ruby nodded, rubbing the back of her head and looking away, her cheeks tinged scarlet as her cape.
... Kelly had been busy for the last few days, reading up on Remnant's culture. More specifically, the culture of their current (biological) age demographic. She'd gotten hooked on silly love dramas and teen romcoms, she had to admit, as well as television soap operas. It'd been exasperating and exhausting for the other Spartans to have to concern themselves with her tuning in every evening for the stuff. But it had given her a decent, if somewhat exaggerated view of civilian courtship rituals and how awkward they could turn.
Again, she'd watched what she thought were exaggerated renditions of teenage love and how it manifested in various archetypes of people. For Kelly to know that there existed a person as awkward as one of the protagonists of one of the romcoms, more specifically, that Ruby Rose was so awkward despite being one of the most outgoing persons in Vale physically hurt her, somehow.
Ruby seemed by no means a caricature or archetype of any kind, sans her semi-comical love of cookies and heavy armaments, but Kelly had never pegged her as one to easily crush on someone. 'Crush' on a gun or on some new type of sweet, sure. Not to mention that the object of her current affection seemed to be Samuel-034. Sam. One of the peppiest and friendliest of the lot, bordering on the weird for Spartans.
Then again, maybe it was the fact that Sam was so outgoing that Ruby had started liking him? No, they'd barely known each-other for, what was it, a couple of weeks? Maybe more? And they hadn't even interacted that much beyond classes and that one recent operation. The rabbit Faunus regarded Sam as he seemed partially oblivious to the hints Ruby gave and wondered just how far this little comical game would go. She made a mental note to maybe start a betting pool with Nora on this and see who else would wanna join in-
"Kelly," John's tough younger voice took the young Spartan Faunus out of her fugue. She looked to him, raising a brow as one ear flopped, still. The young man gazed upon his old friend from Boot Camp with the most concern he'd shown since she'd known him. He stared at her like she was the caricature. Kelly had also noticed that she had become somewhat more outgoing in regards to interacting with the kids, though she'd still prefer staying close to Fellow S-IIs and even the IIIs to interacting with Civvies and Huntsmen-in-Training if push came to shove.
"... What's up?" So she asked, nonchalantly ignoring the pointed stare her operational commander and close friend was giving her.
"... Are you okay?" He inquired, every word seeping with concern for a fellow soldier, "You've been staring at Sam and Ruby talking for a while..."
"I... Uh..." She narrowed her lips to the point they were a thin line. Of course, John would notice this kind of thing. He had learned to notice even the smallest errant twitch from one of his own. She also noticed they'd been sat down in the mess hall for a while. She recalled getting the tray in front of her, which was stacked head-high with various carbohydrate-filled foodstuffs like fries and even bread. It was lukewarm, still, probably freshly cooked when she'd gotten it, so that was an indication of how long she had focused on the fact one of their new 'friends' was pining for Blue Team's happy-go-lucky blonde.
"... I'm restricting your watch-time," He stated, crossing his arms to his chest and noting, "This isn't normal..."
"Chief," Kelly started with a whine, "C'mon,"
"No... It's been a week, Kelly... You've been acting stranger after every watch, almost matching the personality of one of the characters in that latest show you've spent all of last night watching," He sighed, then pinched his brow. The Chief admitted, he should have expected his teammates to change, considering he himself felt every little personality shift he was undergoing thanks to the malfunctioning thyroidal implant. So far, they'd been minor for him, thankfully...
She leaned toward him and whispered, almost in a plea, "Chief, I'm fine... It's just..." still trying to maintain the man's cover...
"Everything we're going through," He whispered back, nodding understandingly, "I'm still restricting the watch time... For all of our sakes..."
Kelly bowed her head, sighed and retreated back into her seat, finally starting to dig into the mountain of food she'd stacked her plate with. John himself had gotten nothing beyond a hamburger and a pile of fries that he'd finished half of off his plate. He had gotten used to the standard military rations of the UNSC for his continued survival. While generally tasteless, the MREs sustained them for their operations. Spartans had never really needed fancy meals or rooms, as could be gleaned from their bunk-bed arrangement... Which would get challenged soon.
Sighing, Chief picked up his half-eaten burger again and started eating once more, looking over to see Ruby having finally gotten out of whatever state she was in as she had managed to get Sam to espouse his view on High-Explosives. Nora had also joined in from across the table, laughing heartily as she told of her weapon, Magnhild, and its destructive capabilities aided by Forty millimeter grenades.
Ruby had turned back to her usual, joyful self as she spoke of weaponry and how she enjoyed every intricate detail to Sam, all under the watchful gazes of his comrades and of team JNPR.
Yang slinked up to John and said, "Looks like sis and Sam are getting along, eh, Chief?" before she plonked herself down on the seat next to him. She was wearing a seemingly trademark grin that was standard to the Xiao-Longs, if Sam's tales of the girl's father were to be believed. Sam had mentioned he'd landed in the Xiao-Long abode after his transference and 're-awakening' onto Remnant, so...
"Yeah," He nodded, focusing on his burger while Kelly grinned. Was that what she was staring at? It was only natural that they'd get along. Even with Nora having a seeming affinity for explosives, it was natural that Sam and Ruby would get along due to both having proclivities for firearms and weaponry of any variety. Though, in Sam's case, it was indeed more focused on the explosive types if that pack of C12 he kept near his armor was a strong enough hint.
"You folks good?" She asked, "It's been some time since y'all arrived."
"We're fine, thanks for the concern, Yang," He replied, then finished the burger.
She hummed, then leaned onto the table and offered, "You folks really don't like talking to anyone outside your small circle, huh?" a look that spoke more of worry than of anything else on her face. He raised a brow, a fry as golden as her hair in his hand. She hummed, then said, "Well, lemme see..." as she started counting out on her fingers, "You folks are only seen together. You never branch out to talk to anyone else. Even when we're trying to get you to join us, you seem hesitant as hell and you always seem to try and avoid talking to us..."
"You stick with your own group as much as we do, Yang," Fred replied from beside them, startling Yang slightly.
"Y'know what...?" Yang started, raising her right hand and index finger up as if she was searching for a witty reply. She then sighed deeply, stating, "Fair enough... But seriously, you folks oughta talk more with us. We got stuff to chat about and I'm pretty sure we all share some common stuff, such as the hunt for the White Fang, martial skills as Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-Training... Ya know, the usual."
"We're still security for Beacon's grounds," John remarked dourly.
"Oh, come off it, D-Man. You're students, too, like the rest of us," Yang shot back sharply, then smirked. She looked to Weiss as the girl moved to deposit her tray and asked, "Yo, Ice Queen, back me up here!"
Weiss scoffed, rolling her eyes, then stepped away. Yang poked her tongue out at the Heiress as she turned her back on her teammate, then sighed again. She looked to Fred, then asked, "Army types like you folks sure are buzzkills at times... C'mon, we're offering ya a chance to hang out with the coolest kids in Beacon! Plus, we're already kinda technically friends through Penny and Ruby, so what's the harm?"
John and Fred looked to one-another and pretty much admitted through the most imperceptible of shrugs that they had no rebuttal to the last part of the line. The Chief then looked to her and asked, "Okay... How do we 'hang out', then?" knowing full-well he may regret this. In fact, John already felt slight regret for even remotely giving the now-grinning blonde ammunition.
Yang proudly stated, "I knew you two would see reason..." Then comically took a thinker's pose, cupping her chin, her gaze wandering to the tall-ass ceiling of the mess. She smirked as the proverbial lightbulb lit above her head, then stated, "Well, let's see, we could all hit the movies together during the weekend, we could hit up a local gun store, though I think that'd be more fitting for Ruby, we could go to a club, we could head out to a Paintball game..."
"Paintball?" The two leaders of Blue Team inquired, the faintest trace of interest in their expressions.
"... Huh, holy crap. You guys don't know what paintball is?" She raised a brow, then saw the two of them staring at her with ever-confused looks. She smirked, then stated, "Right, right, isolated kingdom in the middle of nowhere... Paintball's basically simulated combat with guns that fire specialized paintballs. Stuff usually hurts except for if you have Aura, then you just feel them hit you. If you get hit once in the chest, you're generally out for a bit... It's a lot of rules to explain from the get-go, but..."
"So, it's a combat sim," Cal noted from behind Yang, causing the blonde to yelp in surprise, jumping back and grabbing onto her chest. The wolf Faunus had gone off to grab a new platter full of lasagna and was just coming to rejoin the gang when she'd seemingly heard of the stuff. Yang rapidly nodded, to which Cal hummed and said, "I'd say we do it... Sounds fun."
"It does... Arguably..." Fred nodded.
That was two-for-two... John hummed, then said, "I'll let the others vote for it, but I'd suggest telling your comrades about it as well, Yang..." as he stood up, his plate empty. He spoke, "I have to go check something. If all goes to plan, I believe we can have that paintball match this week..." and left before Yang could start cheering. After he left the tray and plate, he marched quickly back home, finding the Marines doing their usual of lounging around and waiting for them.
He gave a nod to Johnson as the man looked over his shotgun and was given a nod in kind by the cigar-chompin' Marine. Entering his room, John was met by his armor as it sat on a stand. He approached it, leaned behind it and removed the chip, revealing Cortana as she sat there, processing the data that she'd received. As her hologram materialized, she smiled, "How were classes today?"
"Long," He replied, leaning against his desk, "What do we have?"
"Atlas communiques, high-level. After I dropped a hint in regards to the location of some of their lost mech prototypes, they've been thinking of how to engage militarily against them. Sure, they have military assets in-country, but the General has to approve it before anyone else," She explained as she showed him several files via the small hologram. John squinted, reading some of the data, to confirm to himself it was as his AI said. She smirked, then said, "One more thing. We have another contact... Broad spectrum scan shows they aren't anywhere near Vale, though..."
"Oh?" He raised a brow.
"Yup..." She pulled up a map of Remnant, then pointed at the northernmost continent, where a single golden dot flickered in and out. She stated bluntly, "I piggybacked the connection to the CCT's sensor suites and found them randomly... Whoever our new contact is, they're in Atlas's borders... And according to another high-priority Communique, Atlas detected them, too."
"That's... Not ideal..."
"Not at all. Could be a major political issue," She hummed, "If it were a Spartan," And then she smirked.
"Can you ident what this person is, then?" He raised a brow.
"Yes. Civilian. UEG Researcher ID, from what I can tell..." She nodded, "Rad coating is lesser on this one than any other. That, or Atlas's sensor suites are better than the ones they put up with the other CCTS towers in the other kingdoms. I guess I'd better prepare to expand search parameters, though. If UNSC and UEG assets can pop up all around Remnant, well..."
"Right... Expand them, then. And keep me appraised about our newest contact... Can we not go rescue them?" He sighed. She smiled at his misery, then nodded and disappeared as he slid the chip back into place.
One thing that was not that fun about school was studying...
... Who was that new contact, though?
Mantle.
As the faint chill of the North coursed through her bones, she tucked and rolled as she landed. Her skin felt like a thousand needles were being driven into it and the Geiger counter built into her tablet's systems whirred and clicked loudly for the first minute of her awakening. She stopped when she slammed into something made of metal with a deafening clang which told her it was partially hollow. That didn't help with the pain that surged through her skull, however...
With a groan, the woman murmured to herself, "I should have left that alone..." as she straightened into a seating position. Feeling her forehead, she wiped away faint traces of soot and ash. That would be the last time she occupied her time with smuggled Forerunner technology in prison. Slowly, she clambered to her feet, leaning against the very metallic object she'd hit.
Breathing in and patting down her labcoat and skirt and arranging her turtleneck, the woman looked around the alley she'd landed in. Blinking away the last blurs of radiation-induced semi-blindness, the woman eyed the damp alley's walls. The entire thing was narrow, perhaps wide enough to fit two people. The thing she was leaning against was a standard dumpster, painted a deep teal and showing symbols she was too dizzy to concern herself with at this point. There was also a light bend in the metal hull of the dumpster, presumably where her head impacted it.
Feeling the belt that kept her skirt in place, the woman found a holster. She allowed herself a smile and thanked her few lucky stars for small mercies. She'd managed to snatch a handgun off of one of the ONI guards when they entered her room to check on things. As old as she was, she still had her sleight of hand with her. She also found a tiny first-aid kit with a painkiller in it, as well as half a canister worth of biofoam.
Feeling the back of her head, she found no trace of blood or any other major injuries. In the time it'd taken her to get to her feet, the Geiger counter had also gone completely and utterly silent, much to her surprise. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, then let out that breath she'd taken when first waking up. She opened the small medpack, took the white painkiller, removed its film and downed the pill itself without water.
It was a fast-acting medicine, somewhere between experimental and ready for deployment, according to that one ONI girl that liked her enough to give her what she requested. Osman and Parangosky had seen that she be put in the deepest, darkest hole that ONI could find, damn them both to hell. Serin, she understood somewhat. The poor girl had been subjected to and a victim of some of the botched SPARTAN-II Augmentation procedures, which had left her 'clinically dead'. She was sad that Parangosky got to her before she did...
As for Parangosky, that witch of a woman would've deserved a nice, cozy final resting place six feet under a layer of dirt and concrete in an unmarked grave.
Still, for all her failures and unbelievably non-ethical experiments, Doctor Catherine Elizabeth Halsey had found that even in the 'deepest, darkest pit' that was ONI's top-secret high-security prison, she'd discovered someone who cared for what she did and who thanked her. For a program like the SPARTAN-II project... One of the heaviest weights she's borne since her youth.
She narrowed her lips, staring ahead, past the dumpster and into the wider streets ahead. The buildings resembled Victorian era designs from Great Britain, with tall smoke-stacks flying high above them, billowing the acrid black fumes of industry. Of course, this wasn't Victorian London or anything akin to it. The defining factor that told the good Doctor that was the neon sign she had eyed from behind the dumpster.
Slowly staggering forth on nothing but a pair of leather dress shoes, the woman felt droplets of water hitting her shin as she stepped. Looking down, her gaze was met by, at first, a rippling puddle of water where her foot had touched it. Then, as the water cleared and the ripples disappeared, the visage of a younger woman, perhaps in her early-to-mid thirties, greeted her. Black, shoulder-length, wavy hair and a pair of deep blue eyes complimented a more youthful, less creased and marked face more akin to that of a twenty-something woman.
Mouth agape, Halsey ran a hand down her cheek, watching as the reflection in the water below mirrored her action. She bit her lower lip, then murmured to herself a disbelieving, "Impossible..." as she looked closer at the image. Her badge was still stuck to her left breast pocket. She brought it up and the figure in the water did the same. It was her.
She narrowed her lips, then shook her head, "... Impossible... But..."
She pulled her tablet out of her labcoat's breast pocket and took a photograph. It, too, showed her face as much younger, morphed into an expression of shock. She fished her left pocket for her glasses, sliding them onto her face and looking at the picture and the puddle more clearly. She blinked. It was her. There was no doubt about it. Doctor Halsey had either gotten years shaved off her age, or...
She shook her head. There must've been some logical explanation for this. She was not going to find it in the middle of a damp alleyway in the middle of whatever city and planet this was. She carefully edged her way toward one of the corners, poking her head out just enough to see both directions of the road. Keeping her head on a swivel, the doctor crept out from the alley, swallowing empty, then marched down one of the sidewalks, picking a general cardinal direction so she had a way to orient herself in space and-
What?
She looked around and above, past the tall buildings of this industrial city, past the roiling, billowing clouds of black smoke spewed by the tall smokestacks of factories, to see the unbelievable. Glittering like a gem, or something out of a fairy-tale, an artificial island hovered several hundred meters in the air, connected to the lower city via a dozen tubes that all converged on a central structure at the bottom of the massive hunk of dirt and rock. Technological marvels stood attached to it, tall towers and spires that shimmered lilac as energy coursed through them, surrounding the massive azure and white gemstone-like city that stood above it, almost like a crystal palace.
Around the city itself hovered over a dozen warships and many hundreds of VTOL-capable craft, flying on patrol. All ships were arrayed in such a way as to seem non-threatening, yet still imposing to the citizens they were probably meant to protect. Each ship seemed to float independently, akin to the city in the sky itself. A safe haven protected by layers of impenetrable defenses and a strong military.
Halsey would hate to test how long they would last in a genuine conflict, even with this technology...
She hummed, then continued walking. Whatever she had done with that technology, it was clear it hadn't been a good idea to touch it so much. It'd transported her to god-knew-where and had her lose shave a couple of years off her biological age clock. The latter prospect seemed the most pressing, terrifying and, at the same time, completely intriguing. That they'd dug this thing out of the Forerunner Shield World, 'Requiem', was strange. She'd have liked to visit that world, test its everything... Alas, that could wait for until she got back home and into her gilded cage.
A frozen breeze flowed through the streets, which she'd now noticed were bristling with people. Men and women walked together, bundled up in warm clothing and talking, laughing and enjoying each-other's company. She felt a chill and trembled as she approached a Y-intersection, looking for ways to cross, a place to find something warm to eat or drink...
The thunder of boots changed that prospect really quick, though. She paused and blended in as best as she could with a crowd waiting to cross the street off to the left, toward a series of ramen and grocery shops. She saw them marching off to her left, jsut across the street. Soldiers, clad in white armors with varying color accents ranging from red to yellow to blue and carrying box-like firearms in their hands. They marched, a squad of about a dozen, in formation.
"Huh. Atlas Troops," A girl from in front of Halsey whispered to a boy.
"Must be searching for something..." He replied, "Or someone. Heard there was a pretty bad sitch upstairs thanks to White Fang."
"Damn... Talk about giving Faunus a bad name, huh?" She raised a brow.
"Who knows who fucked up what, honestly... At this point, I'm willing to give the Fang the benefit of the doubt after what Ironwood's been proposing to the council," He shot back, crossing his arms to his chest, "Eitherway, Atlas troops don't concern us. We just gotta go on with our lives and cooperate if they ask any questions. After that, we should be safe and sound."
"Fair," She nodded, then scratched...
Halsey took a moment to compose herself as she saw the girl scratching at what seemed to be the base of an antler sat atop her head. She had two antlers. Two deer antlers. They were small, generally fitting under what seemed to be a purpose-made headdress, but they were goddamned antlers. And they didn't look like a hairband or something for Christmas, either.
Her partner had a pair of black wolf's ears poking out from under his jacket's hood and they twitched in the cold.
If she had half a minute to stand and gawk, she would've, but with troops patrolling the streets, she wanted to make herself as inconspicuous as possible. As the light turned green, she crossed with the folks around her, keeping a hand close by all the important equipment:Her pistol and her tablet. If she got engaged, she could use the pistol as a suppressive fire weapon and just run.
Picked a hell of a day to not have stun grenades, she thought. She had never carried armament before the Shield World incident she'd been in, but a single pistol felt more than adequate for her to wield. The .50 SAPHE round of the weapon could easily dispatch anything worthy of derision, but right now, Halsey didn't want to engage in any combat whatsoever, especially with fellow humans and... Faunus, she presumed as she gazed upon the deer girl.
She sidestepped and exited the crowd, entering a medical clinic, as far as she could tell by the green neon cross outside. It was either that, or a pharmacy. No matter, she could find some shelter in here. Indeed, the lobby was relatively empty. A row of seats lay on the left. Three leather chairs with wooden armrests. The doctor took one of the seats, then took a moment to figure herself out.
She had lost years off her age clock, she was alive after messing with a piece of Forerunner technology she probably should not have touched and she was in some place called 'Atlas', she assumed...
Could today get any stranger...?