Doctor Halsey quietly pondered their futures as she studied a little something small on her table. She checked her calcs, bags under her eyes, before tossing the tablet onto her bunk and rubbing her eyes. Damn it, she was actually tired. Gazing out through the window, the woman noted that it was slowly coming to daytime. The sun was rising not far from them, the half-broken moon of Remnant fading behind the skyline of Vale.
She hummed, pushing her glasses up her nose, then continued reading files, making calculations and reading data. John and the team he'd picked for the retrieval, meanwhile, had gone on to pick as many people as they could up, far as it looked like. She was tracking the progress of the Pelican via an application she had written up herself. She'd scanned several maps of Remnant and inserted them into the App, providing herself a top-down view of the whole place, Vale included.
Strange was that some sections of the world seemed to be missing. The Pacific ocean analogue of the planet was still largely untouched, though, considering how fairly close the continents seemed to be, that wasn't as strange as it should have been, perhaps. She sighed, finishing up a reading and a pair of calculations before setting her tablet onto her desk and clambering into the bunk after taking her shoes off.
Outside, meanwhile, Cortana was running over the specs of certain weapon systems that Doctor Halsey had proposed, not to mention specialized MJOLNIR firmware updates and hardware upgrades that would bring the other SPARTANs up to the standard of the Chief and BLUE Team, all of which still wielded their 'Gen-II' MJOLNIR armors. Good upgrades, like enhanced shielding and the likes, of course. Halsey wasn't going to skimp on protecting her 'children'.
The AI hummed, nodded approvingly, then watched as Weiss and Blake approached. She smiled at them, then said, "Hey, girls."
"Hey, Cortana," Blake waved, "I came to grab Fred. Daily research for info on recent White Fang developments."
"I mostly tagged along because I wished to see how the rest of the group was accommodating to Vale, considering we keep getting more and more newcomers from the UNSC," Weiss added upon Blake's tale, though with arms crossed and a semi-impassive face. The right corner of her mouth quirked up slightly, a half-smile as she spoke, "And, well... I do have to admit it is quite interesting to learn more about your humanity."
"Understandable," Cortana smirked, "Fred's inside. As is everyone else but the Chief, Kurt, Six and Kat, I think. They're all a bit busy with a recovery mission."
"Thank you," Blake nodded to Cortana. She and Weiss walked up to the door and knocked, before Dubbo popped the door open and showed them the way inside. Blake herself saw Fred calmly reloading his magazines. Beside him was Jorge, the man tending to his equipment. Fred hummed and noticed Blake, then gave a thumbs-up to Jorge, who leaned back and let go of his armor. Fred stood up, grabbing his helmet and walked up to her.
"Take it we're on research duty again?" He asked, helmet under his arm. She nodded and smiled.
"As usual," She then stated. Fred nodded and followed her along, out of the building, all while Weiss was scanning the place and examining how each and every soldier went about their normal routine. Blake, meanwhile, just strolled with Fred as she spoke, "So, there's still more of your people set to arrive from out there, right? I mean, I don't think the Chief would be out otherwise."
"Plenty more, according to Cortana," The man replied calmly, "Some of which are apparently familiar with Kurt. The man trained a whole slew of new SPARTANs on another planet. We even met them there back during the end of the war," and he looked at Blake. The girl smiled at him, which made him wonder just how the four girls of team RWBY were so at ease with the presence of what was tantamount to aliens on their own planet, in their own bloody city, no less.
He'd take the whole 'not looking a gift horse in the mouth' thing at face value, but it was still eerily surprising to know that they didn't really give that much of a damn about the Chief and them lying, either. He replied to the smile with his own, though his was smaller. Blake's cheeks flushed red for a moment, but she kept it up, then looked forward. Fred did so, too, asking, "Caught a wink of sleep, at least, I hope."
"Yeah," Blake replied, "Been making sure I can sleep properly as of late... Didn't want to worry anyone anymore, I guess." And, indeed, the good Faunus really didn't want to worry her friends anymore. The relief she'd seen on all three of their faces, not to mention team JNPR's, when they heard she'd slept a full night's sleep instead of just a few hours at most, a few minutes at the very least, was oddly comforting. It was nice to have people who cared. Friends who cared.
"That's good," Fred observed, though he wasn't sure if he'd made observations regarding her sleeping pattern before, or if it was just the Mandela Effect at play. He spoke softly as they marched forward, his mind settled on the matter of their next objectives, "Means it's less likely you're gonna collapse when we keep up our search." All while Blake seemed to pause upon hearing him. Her face flushed even redder.
She hummed, pushing down the feeling of embarrassment alongside the red tint of her cheeks, then stating with a fair amount of confidence in her voice, "I wasn't gonna collapse in the first place, Fred." All while they passed by a group of giggling students, female mostly. Blake had overheard some of the chatter regarding Fred and 'how hot he looked', 'why was he walking with a girl like Blake', yadda yadda. Just basic teenage banter, she supposed.
"You were close to it when I started helping you with this mess. Don't lie to yourself or me, Blake," Frederic replied, steadfast. Blake hummed, noting a little hypocrisy from the SPARTAN. Were they not the ones who sort of lied to them first? And with something way bigger than the issue of sleep? She appreciated Fred and his teammates as far as new friends went, even if they were a little too soldierly for her tastes, but that was a bit annoying.
So, she replied rather sarcastically, "Yes, well, that's easy to say, right, mister Ellsworth?"
"That's different." Fred shot back without skipping a beat, his voice flat, a deadpan. Blake snorted. Sure, it was. Lying about the fact you were basically ET coming home to roost was... Well, no, in truth it kind of was different from her lying about her lack of sleep. Sure, it wasn't immediately dangerous, but god only knew what else Fred, Chief and the gang could've lied about. But...
"How so?" She still had to ask.
"Chief..." Fred hesitated, unsure of whether he was blaming his old friend and the AI companion he had, or... He sighed and continued, calm, focused, sharp. He knew they'd done the right thing, keeping the Human-Covenant War a secret for now, so he told her, "We were all just trying to make sure you were ready for the reveal, I guess. You'd have probably called him crazy if he up and said we're aliens."
"We..." Yeah, Blake had no reply to that. It would've honestly only been natural to call a man that dropped into your school and up-and-said, 'Hey, I'm an Alien supersoldier from an alternate humanity and I'm here to help'. Tantamount to going to the asylum for a self-check-in. She had to give Fred that, begrudgingly, by stating in a murmur, "Probably... Yeah, probably... Fair enough, I guess." And she let out a deep sigh, before looking to Fred once more, her eyes glimmering in the light as she requested, "Just... I'm sure Yang said the same thing to you folks, but please, don't lie to us again. We'd like to trust the folks patrolling Beacon to have our backs."
Fred offered her another genuine smile alongside the promise, "You don't need to worry about that. No more lies. Doctor Halsey's orders."
"You guys really put a lot of faith in her, huh?" Blake answered, smiling back at him. She pushed a strand of black hair behind her right ear, before feeling her cat ears twitch on top of her head. With another faint, pinkish tint to her cheeks, she put a hand on her 'bow', pushing 'it' down to keep 'it' from moving again as they walked, an image to which Fred seemed to suppress a short, albeit very SPARTAN-like laugh.
"She made us who we are, Blake," He replied once he managed to fully suppress it, continuing on with a semi-serious tone as they walked past the tower of Beacon toward the library, "We'd be doing a disservice to her by being distrustful. Especially now, that she's openly ready to cooperate with your peoples and us. Talk things through." And he saw her pause.
She sighed and shrugged, surrendering this one to Fred as well, "Suppose you're right on that end, too. We'll trust doc Halsey, though we still have stuff to learn from her, don't we?" of course, referring to the rather important matter of the Human-Covenant War itself. Halsey had been rather openly stating that, once Ozpin and his clique were done with reading through it, Halsey would brief at least the two Huntsman teams about the very war that the SPARTANs are Veterans of.
"Yes... She will probably hold a brief for you and team JNPR to understand where we come from." Fred more-or-less confirmed Blake's memories. She smiled.
"Looking forward to hearing of the heroics you've done in the war, Fred." She then quipped, her smile turning into a grin. Fred rolled his eyes as they entered the Library. He let Blake walk in first, opening the door for her. With a nod as her quiet 'thank-you' to the gentlemanly supersoldier, she walked inside. He followed and gently let the door close behind them, then noticed that there were still quite a few students reading in the place. Good to know they took their studying seriously.
... That or, like the teenager they just passed by, they just enjoyed their comic books... Fred sighed...
"I, like my comrades, was just doing my job, Blake. No point in calling us heroes for just that." He told her flatly as they arrived at their desk. It was not actually 'their desk' per se, but they'd pretty much sat there every time they were doing research, so much so that it'd become the Library's thing to have the spot ready for them, alongside a reinforced chair that could hold Fred's weight.
Blake giggled at the stoic man, "Heh. Humble to no end. I feel like that's a trait all SPARTANs share."
"Suppose so." The man replied nonchalantly. He sat himself down and stated firmly, "Now, c'mon. We have more reading materiel to parse through. I've seen reports of new White Fang activity as recently as yesterday evening, so we'll have some data to see what their next operations might be..." as Blake booted up the computer screen and started tapping away. He pulled out a tablet-sized Scroll and started parsing through the online newsreels as well, not to mention whatever Cortana could give them to access.
He got a ping from Cortana with a message, 'Gen. Ironwood talked with Oz. Agreed to give us access to some of their own investigative data. Have fun, kids. ;)'
... She was a freaking joker...
White Fang base outside Vale
Within the confines of an abandoned building from the earliest days of expansion, Kuro spun a combat knife between her mechanical fingers without fear, watching the blade dance around with each movement. She looked over the massive underground facility next, not stopping the movement of the knife around her fingers, each swish and turn drawing strange ovoidal and circular designs through the air. Humanoid robot drones bearing a cuboid symbol on their shoulder plates carted around boxes of supplies:Armor, ammo, weapons and the likes. All meant for the Private Military Contractors that would soon start their work with Vale's White Fang branch.
She regarded one of the machines as it pushed a container of Dust-based missiles for a shoulder-fired missile launcher next to the launchers themselves, before turning around and proceeding down one of the lanes to grab another box of supplies. She spotted one of their grunts, a soldier clad in a jet-black uniform with heavy armor, a load-bearing chest rig full of pouches that had ammo, a tactical helmet, goggles and a balaclava mask, approaching her. He saluted Kuro, who saluted back halfheartedly and asked, "Report..." as she sheathed the knife.
"Ma'am, the automated factory has finished production of the requested number of automatic rifle rounds, spare parts for the rifles and pistols and for the various vehicles we'll be using when the time comes to initiate phase 3 of the plan." The Infantryman replied rather tersely, trying to find the right words in front of someone as unstable as the Fox Girl. "Phase 2, as per the Lady's word, is already underway within Beacon..."
"Good. Means Fall's doing her job. Status on our units?" Kuro requested next as she sharpened her claws on the railing. The metal scratching against metal let out an annoyingly-sharp, shrill screech, but the soldier remained unfazed by his officer's prodding and testing. She smirked at him, taking the sight in before pulling back and leaning against the railing.
The soldier reported, calmly, "RAZORS 1 and 2 are currently overwatching one of the target buildings and sending telemetry back." The soldier replied uneasily, "Command slated those units for replacement soon, though. We have another pair of drone units coming from Merlot, though he's at odds with doctor Watts at the moment in regards to the encryption scheme of the combat mechanoids meant to help bolster the number of stolen Atlas units." And he pulled out his Scroll.
"Tell Watts to get his head out of his ass. This is our op." Kuro scoffed as she looked at what he was showing. Specifically, the communications between Watts and a certain 'Doctor Merlot'. Arthur Watts was a prevalent scientist and roboticist that had once served the Council of Atlas and helped design many a machine and system for their military. It was why he was even with their group. A disgraced scientist that knew the ins and outs of Atlas's machines? Heh, a good pick.
"Will do, ma'am." The soldier saluted. He wasn't paid enough to snap back at the woman that could and would easily claw his heart out of his chest and sit over him, laughing, as he bled to death. Kuro was one of the few officers that had both the respect and fear of the entire Shadow Doctrine, the little secretive unit supplying their White Fang minions with the weapons needed to 'win' an upcoming battle against the Kingdom's troops.
"Anything else you specifically need to talk about? What's the status of the White Fang's leader?" She sighed and handed the Scroll back to him. The man nodded and slid it back into his pocket, while the girl turned back to watch the Drones working. She saw one of them stumble, but another caught it and seemed to direct an order to go for a maintenance check. The first machine obeyed, stepping off the line as its sibling carried both its own crate and the malfunctioning one's.
The soldier looked at the moving pieces of the puzzle ahead of him and replied calm, straightforward, "He's currently planning a strike with the plastic explosives we delivered to him and his troops. Said he'll let us know the When and Where." All the while, he was looking over his own uniform, making sure it was properly fitted and such. He pulled his sidearm from its holster and looked it over, then slid it back in, fidgeting a bit at the fact he was still stuck next to Kuro.
She scoffed at the not-present Adam Taurus, shifting uneasily. "Hope he fucking does. He seems more unstable than I am... Anything else?"
"No, ma'am." The Trooper replied. He only added as he remembered, "Most we have to worry about at the moment are Atlas troops coming down on the locations of the Mechs. Something activated their tracker systems and we've been fearing a raid for the past few days..." and he saw the girl clench her fists around the metal railing, slightly bending it due to her own enhanced robot arm.
"... Well, fuck. Disable the trackers again and move'em before we wake up with a company of Knights raiding those stations." She rubbed her eyes gently. That was gonna be a headache, seeing as Atlas tech was only targetable by mister Watts. Valeian tech like theirs couldn't even remotely compare, the woman thought. It was like pitting a runt of the Grimm litter against one of Merlot's insane concoctions. Even security was tighter than a nun's asshole for Atlas mechs.
"It's already being done, ma'am. Watts has been focused on that and only that." The soldier replied, half-heartedly sighing in relief at the fact Kuro didn't try and tear him a new one. Not yet, anyhow. Kuro wasn't specifically known for stability in this line of work, but she was still one of the finest soldiers they had. Formerly an Atlas program survivor herself, she was one of the most ardent supporters of putting that floating hellscape of capitalism down. Not in a Communist way, she just hated the bastards in their ivory towers.
"Least mustachio man's making himself useful..." The woman quipped, then paused as she saw something with the corner of her eye. A low growl escaped her mouth, causign a chill to shoot up the poor Operative's spine. The red tinge in her auburn eyes became a little more evident as she murmured with audible fury in her voice. "Fucking hell, I feel a headache coming on."
A thin man with slicked, fancy black hair that greyed at the sides stepped in. Clad in a sharp suit and wearing strange, technologically-advanced rings on his fingers, as well as a pistol hidden behind the brown coat of his outfit, he marched with a certain poise, his hands behind his back as he approached them. His bushy mustache wrinkled upon sighting Kuro, but he kept on marching nonetheless.
Kuro let out a low, guttural, angry laugh as she saw Watts, glaring at the man with burning fury. She spoke directly to the man, her grip tightening yet again around the railing enough to bend the steel, "Speak of the fucking well-dressed devil. Hey, doc Watts, what can we, humble Operatives, fucking do for your oh-so-supposedly-kissable Atlesian ass?"
"Foul-mouthed and crazy as ever, miss Kuro." Arthur Watts, tech-genius of Atlas and, now, of Salem's Cabal, replied wittily, before adding sarcastically, "Your charm was sorely missed." and flicking a speck of dust off the collar of his suit jacket, "I've only come to make sure that lunatic Merlot's mechanoids are still in working order while my algorithm finally purges the Paladins of tracking systems across the network. I'd appreciate a little more appreciation from someone relying on Atlesian prosthetics to function as a fighting machine."
"I wouldn't need these fucking things if it wasn't for Atlas and their insane training regimens..." She murmured again, then scoffed, "Whatever. So, you're only here to make sure doctor Merlot's drones still work right, eh? How touching of you to care about us, mooks." She then added just as sarcastically as Watts had spoken to her mere moments ago. The trooper took a step back from between them, feeling the dislike. He never got the backstory between Kuro and Watts, just that he had had something to do with Kuro's... Status.
"I appreciate the dry humor, I'll say that much..." He replied nonchalantly, not even sparing Kuro another glance as he pulled out his Scroll and started looking through the data on the drones here, "Yes, I'm here to be sure the lunatic-in-charge is keeping his end of the bargain. I'm still not sure what the Lady sees in him, but I'm not one to comment on her preference of assets... Else you wouldn't be here, I think." He had half-threatened.
Kuro chose to be the bigger woman in this case, not even acknowledging his little stab at her as she replied, crossing her arms, "He not only managed to keep Grimm, creatures which die when nabbed, alive in captivity, but he also modified them to be even more dangerous than your run-of-the-mill beowolf or Ursa. Hell, even than some human Huntsmen. I can see the interest, to be honest." She then cast a sideways glance at a humanoid drone of Merlot's as it marched past them and murmured, "Not to say I wouldn't like someone a bit more stable to be in charge of that kind of research, though I guess you do have to be missing a couple braincells firing in the right direction to be experimenting on fucking shadow monsters."
"Not unlike one of our other compatriots." Watts sighed dispassionately, probably referring to a certain Tyrian Callows, the squad's resident scorpion Faunus. There would never be someone as crazy as him, so Kuro figured she was at least in the 'functionally crazy' branch thanks to that. Still, Watts added with a certain nonchalance, "I see everything is in order, so, I will take my leave. Ta-taa~." before waving and walking off.
"I'll see you never, fucking flamboyant asshole..." She shot an angry glare toward Watts. She murmured, "Swear to the Gods, the Lady picks the weirdest companionship..." then turned toward the Trooper and ordered, "Well, back to work we go. Status on the weapon shipment we were preparing back at Rebirth? That damn thing also concocted by our dear mad scientist still coming?"
"Yes, ma'am. The first vials have arrived with the latest transport of arms..." The soldier replied, then cleared his throat, his voice rising a hint as fear came to him, "M-Ma'am, if I may..."
"You may not," She shot back, claws scratching against the steel railing ahead as she leaned over the edge, watching the crates of the 'stuff' being brought in, "And if you ask why we're bringing project Father here, you're not gonna like the answer. Got it, corporal?" she glared back at him. He nodded, saluted, then was dismissed with a handwave. Kuro looked at the crates, noting the biohazard marking on the side. Those were special crates, tightly sealed to the point not even a dust mite would get out through any of the cracks. If they weren't, well... The soldier would've been right to be worried.
She grinned. The Lady could easily approve the project for field testing soon enough.
Fun.