"Ruby wake up!"

Ruby awoke with a start to her sister shaking her awake and klaxons ringing in her ears.

"What's going on?"

"Category three is moving in, local forces are being told to evacuate with civilians."

"What about STRQ? Why aren't they standing by?"

"They got called away last night for a cat five, our daily defense jaegers can't handle a three."

"Isn't the mainland sending anyone?"

"They won't get here in time, now get dressed we've got to get going."

Ruby quickly slipped into her jumpsuit and grabbed what few belongings she kept on station with her and moved with Yang seeing that they were the last ones leaving the barracks. The two hopped aboard the military issue transport that had been waiting in the courtyard as it was taking off with the last of the bases personnel. Ahead of them the running lights of the civilian craft could be seen with the green lights of military ships outlining their formation. Behind them the bioluminescent red glow of the category three Grimm appeared over the far side of the island and clambered over their two hundred foot defense wall with ease. Any who hadn't evacuated would likely be dead within the hour, survivors had become increasingly rare in recent months.

"Maybe we'll come back some day," Ruby muttered as she watched their hometown fade into the distance.

"That settles it, we're signing up with the Remnant Defense Corps," Yang stated.

The two had been on the fence about following in their parents footsteps and joining a full team of jaeger pilots where they'd be forced to drift with two other people for a while but desperate times call for desperate measures.

"T-minus two minutes till landfall. Vale integration seminars are at eight and ten in the morning, until then try and get some sleep. We've all had a hard night," the commander of Patch's militia broadcast across the formations bandwidth.

"We enlist tomorrow morning."

Two months later

"Ruby! Yang! Letters for ya!" Qrow called as he came back inside from grabbing the morning paper.

The sound of two pairs of feet running down the stairs echoed through the house as the two girls had been expecting this letter since their entry exams to the RDC that fateful night.

"Oh lemme see!" Ruby chattered excitedly as she half slid half fell on the hardwood of the kitchen.

"Yeah show us!" Yang agreed with equal excitement.

"What's all the racket about?" Raven asked as she dragged herself out of the room she, her wife, and husband shared.

"Ask them."

"We got in!" the two screamed in excitement at the same time.

"Nice job kiddos, now if you'd like to be a little quieter I need to get started on breakfast, it's my turn today," Raven said while pushing past the two overjoyed teens into the kitchen.

"Initiation is tomorrow morning at three, cadets are expected to be combat ready on arrival, if no CQB ready equipment is available it will be provided. Teams will be assigned within the hour of the initiation ceremony. Team drifting trials will begin a week after initiation," Yang read from the introductory guide.

"Siblings always end up on the same team at least, maybe even partners if your bond isn't better with one of your other teammates," Raven noted as she poured pancake batter onto a sizzling skillet.

"You're still angry about the fact that I ended up partnered with you," Qrow shot while he sipped his coffee.

"Considering the fact that I'm married to our other two teammates now, yeah."

"We've only ever drifted with each other, is it any different when you drift with someone you don't know as well?" Ruby asked nervously.

"Kinda, you don't know them as well so it's definitely going to take a bit longer to find out if you're compatible or not. Also all your feelings, deepest secrets, and fears are on display."

"We both had to get short term therapy after drifting with Summer, she went through some serious stuff as a kid."

"That's called an ROMT, rub-off mental trauma, doesn't happen if you get the trauma while drifting but in certain cases if someone's trauma is particularly bad or their mental state is bad enough it can do some seriously bad stuff to people."

"Catatonia, memory loss, permanent amnesia, multiple personality disorder, drifting can break people just as easily as it can bring them together. Be careful with it."

"Also don't be weirded out if you start getting really attached to your teammates, romantic feelings are very common and actually help out a lot."

The sisters turned and saw their father in the hall behind them.

"Morning Tai," Qrow greeted his brother in law cheerfully.

"I'm so proud of you two, did you see what your scores were on the written exams?"

"Not yet, just that we passed the physical and written portions and made it in."

"It'll have your recommended team position on there along with your grades."

The two sisters turned their letters over to check their scoring.

"Team leader? Why did I get team leader?" Ruby asked.

"Means you're the most capable of drifting with more than one person, you'd have the likelihood of high drift sync with your whole team. What'd you get Yang?"

"Team base. Like the base of a pyramid I guess?"

"Exactly right. You take after your dad, he's our base."

"What's with all the noise?" Summer yawned as she walked into the kitchen and towards the coffee machine.

"We got in!" Ruby said again.

"You got in?"

"We got in!" Yang said this time.

"Oh I'm so proud of both of you, you're gonna do great at Beacon!" Summer said wrapping her daughters in a tight hug.

"Ugh, why did initiation have to be tomorrow though, now we have to wait through today," Yang groaned realizing how far away tomorrow morning at three was.

"At least you can go to sleep early to wake up on time and cut out a good chunk of that," Raven suggested.

"That's not what I did. I was late," Summer said somewhat proud of her tardiness.

"Qrow and I were early, trying to scope out who we wanted to be on a team with."

"And I was right on time," Tai stated.

"We should still get there early, Ruby's hard to get awake and it would be easier if she's had time to come to her senses by the time initiation starts," Yang decided.

"What even is initiation?" the younger sister asked.

"They change it every year, it's usually some kind of trial that tests your physical and mental abilities while forcing you to work with others. Whoever you end up with during initiation will likely be the rest of your team. There have been exceptions where pairs don't drift well with others and end up as a solo backup jaeger, or times when more than four people have ended up on a team and those are usually the patrol groups, multiple jaegers synced up over a large area can certainly keep a look out when they're all sharing a mind," Summer explained.

"I hope we just end up on a normal team so we can take missions and get deployed around Remnant like you guys."

"Breakfast is ready, eat up we don't want you hungry tomorrow," Raven said as she set down the freshly made pancakes on the table in front of everyone.

The two sisters dug into their breakfast before running back to their shared room to pack the necessities before their big day tomorrow. The rest of the day seemed to speed by as they went about their usual schedule albeit more excited and on edge than was normal. Before they knew it two in the morning had come and they were up and getting ready. Few words were spoken between the sisters as they made final preparations and ate a simple breakfast before heading out the door to catch a bus to the RDC center located near a cliff edge overlooking the sea and port district where it was easiest to deploy the massive mecha that defended their kingdoms from the Grimm. The smell of salt hit them like a wave when they stepped off the bus in the still pitch dark morning. Hundreds of other accepted cadets milled around in the darkness waiting for the three o'clock mark to hit. Some sat on benches and looked through their phones to pass the time while others talked with and attempted to get to know anyone who might end up on their team. A few people stood out in the crowd of accepted candidates, there was a girl wearing a cute black bow who seemed to be watching them over the top of her book, a well dressed girl with long white hair up in a ponytail who seemed to be judging everybody around her, and a blond boy who seemed very lost and at least a little bit sick as he stumbled past people in search of a trash can. Chaos erupted in seconds as the blond boy doubled over and lost his breakfast right beside the white haired preppy girl.

"How dare you!" The girl shoved him away.

"Hey look I'm sorry about that I just have trouble with crowds and- oh no," he barely had time to turn away before vomiting again.

Ruby made her way over to the pair.

"Hey I've got a towe if you need something to wipe that off with," Ruby offered her workout towel from her bag to the preppy girl before moving over to check on the blond guy, "You alright?"

"Just a bit of an anxiety problem with crowds," he muttered before throwing up again with only bile coming up this time.

Ruby flinched as he retched and backed up slightly. Yang stepped up beside her sister to check on the boy too.

"Dude, you all right?"

"Never better," he groaned.

"I've got some stomach pills if you need them," Yang offered.

"Yeah fine," the boy accepted the pills Yang handed to him.

"Uh, thanks for that," the white haired girl said as she handed Ruby her towel back.

"No problem. Are you alright? You seem a little sick too," Ruby said noticing an odd look on the girls face.

"I'm just a little out of my element here," the girl said looking back around at the crowd of people.

"Yeah, high society back in Atlas is definitely your element," the girl who had been reading spoke up.

"Do you know who you're talking to?" The white haired girl asked in outrage.

"More than they do. You're Weiss Schnee heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, supplier of arms and ammunition as well as energy and production of the majority of Remnant, also a wide user of slave labor and the exploitation of Faunus."

"And by no means do I condone the actions my father has taken since my grandfathers death! I'm not exactly the poster child of success either," she seemingly pulled a newspaper from nowhere and pointed to the front page where an entire article was about her removal from the line of succession to the Schnee legacy.

The black haired girl nodded smugly, "And oh how the mighty have fallen, you still have luxury to fall back on so what brings you all the way here to Vale to join the RDC?"

"Spite, a lot of cash stolen from my father, and a need to set things right."

"Honesty. I'm surprised. I was assuming you'd pay your way in and have no actual skill but you must have some other plan if you're hard on cash. I'll see you in initiation then Schnee," the girl said walking away towards the building.

"I wonder who she was," Ruby said looking after the girl.

"Probably some rights activist who has no idea what she's talking about, so many of those movements are full of hypocrites," Weiss scoffed.

"She actually had a couple good points," Yang admitted as she'd done a fair amount of activism with their parents.

"The slave labor and exploitation, I know all about that and it's horrible, that's why I left, but there was no reason to go after me directly when I'm not the problem."

"Names can bring a lot of pressure, she's done nothing to prove she isn't living up to her father and I'm doing nothing to even try," the blond boy said from off to the side where he'd been listening.

"Who are you again?" Weiss asked with a slight look of disgust.

"Jaune Arc, you may recognize my last name but don't let it fool you, I'm not even half the hero any of my ancestors are," Jaune sighed.

"Oh yeah, the Arc family, isn't their whole deal glorious last stands sacrificing themselves to save others?" Ruby asked unsure.

"That was back in the days before we could properly fight the Grimm, past two generations have all been Jaeger pilots and so far all of this one too. Except for me. All seven of my sisters have been out here kicking giant monster tail and I've been struggling to get into the local militia. I have no idea why they even accepted my application here."

"Probably just reputation then, we got in maybe with help from our parents rep but we also passed the tests with flying colors," Yang boasted.

"Oh really? Who are your parents?"

"Team STRQ! Well minus Qrow of course but he's our uncle so close enough," Ruby shrugged.

"No way! The team STRQ?"

"You better believe it."

"Man that's cool. That means you're from Patch right? I'm sorry about that."

"It's fine, you're not the one that destroyed it. The Grimm are."

Their conversation was interrupted by the morning bulge marking the start to the day and the beginning of the initiation process. The crowd of cadets filed inside where it was much warmer than the chilled darkness outside. Inside the grand lobby black marble and chrome shined in the warm light. Hallways went off in multiple directions of what would normally be a very busy area. In the center of the diamond shaped room a tall man with silver hair and spectacles stood waiting for them.

"Greetings. As some of you may know I am Ozpin. I am the head of the RDC and primary designer of our Jaegers. This is my facility, it was built and designed by me. Not alone of course but I didn't sit back and watch either," he chuckled before continuing, "Today you will be going through the initiation ceremony. To explain the entire process would take hours so I will tell you the basic rules. There are one hundred and fourty eight of you here today and we only have enough Jaeger frames for a hundred, so fourty eight of you will either be going home or continuing to work outside of the Jaegers here depending on your success during initiation. We will be dropping you into a simulated hostile environment. When you find other cadets you will have two options, to attack them, or assist them. If you help a cadet they are almost guaranteed a spot on your team but if you attack one whoever loses the fight will most likely be removed from the program, so choose your battles wisely and your friends wiser. Follow me."

Ozpin turned and went down the longest hallway behind the receptionist desk. After a few feet of bare concrete the walls and ceiling opened up into glass revealing that they stood high above the Jaeger deployment yards and were headed towards the monolith of a training building on the far side of the facility. Down below sparks flew and base pattern Jaegers ready for pilot customization. All Jaegers had two forms depending on which teammate was swapped out between the two in the team and even a rudimentary form of active camouflage that could change the mecha's color based on who was aboard allowing for easier identification on the battlefield.

"You will not be piloting these immediately after team assignment and basic training many are only shells and are not fully equipped or even finished with construction yet," Ozpin pointed out a Jaeger who's head was removed allowing its inner workings to be seen revealing it was only the structure without any of the working parts.

"Wow," Ruby gasped as she surveyed the massive amounts of production equipment below.

"Not a single piece of Schnee equipment among them, it really is that bad," Weiss muttered as she continued to walk.

"Please step inside and choose a marked starting platform," Ozpin said holding open a door at the end of the hall leading into a massive open room made up of dull grey panels.

Ozpin closed the door behind them and went down a side hallway into the elevator lift observation chamber, a room designed to rise up and down the height of the monolith that was the training building.

"Take us down," he ordered.

A technician who was monitoring the situation entered the command and sent the entire room down sixty feet so it was just below the floor the candidates were standing on and the window taking up the entire wall faced out into a lush jungle that was only given away as fake by the grey wall panels. On the ceiling red lights showed unoccupied deployment platforms and green signified ones where cadets were standing in place waiting. Once all one hundred and fourty eight cadets were on platforms Ozpin spoke into a microphone on the dashboard just below the long window.

"Cadets, your initiation begins, now."

On his mark the floor dropped out from beneath the cadets sending them plummeting into the dense foliage below. Ruby screamed in excitement as she fell maintaining sight on her sister who had taken up a spot beside her the whole way down. Once everybody had hit the ground with a dull thud resounding through the jungle over the noises of birds and insects. Time seemed to stop for a moment as everybody's movement was restricted completely. A few screams rang out before Ozpin spoke through the microphone again.

"In a moment you will be put in a combat suit similar to those your will be wearing during actual combat as well as provided with weapons. The weapons cannot kill you while in these suits but you will be effected as if they could if you are hit."

The explanation wasn't very calming as people were covered in a thin film of nanobots before forming the full body suits complete with full face mask that appeared pitch dark from outside.

"You have all been assigned a color designation, try not to forget it."

Ruby looked down at her hands and saw red highlights lining the rather comfortable suit. On the ground a scythe and a strange looking carbon fiber bolt action rifle had appeared out of thin air.

"Shit!"

Ruby heard somebody cry out from her left and grabbed her weapons before running to investigate forgetting about her sister for a moment. Ruby broke through the undergrowth to see Weiss stuck in a tree.

"Which option are you picking?" Weiss asked her.

"Friend?" Ruby asked Weiss in response.

"Ugh, fine. You don't seem too incompetent, now help me down, my weapons are down there."

Ruby scaled the tree with ease and got Weiss loose from the branches. Weiss picked up her weapons which had ended up being a rapier and a heavy revolver.

"Ruby Rose!" Ruby introduces herself excitedly as she extended her hand to shake with Weiss.

"Weiss Schnee," Weiss said taking her hand, "Thanks for the towel earlier."

"It was no big deal. Wait where's Yang? Yang!" Ruby realized she'd left her sister and charged off into the trees in the direction she'd fallen with Weiss running off after her hoping not to get separated from her new teammate.

Bullets zipped past Yang as she ran, luckily her opponent had terrible aim and even worse depth perception after she'd beaten him over the back of the head with the stock of the shotgun she'd gotten, realizing it would do more than the brass knuckles she'd gotten no matter how heavy and spiked they were. Yang ducked behind a rock and noted her location at the bottom of a shallow gorge with steep rock walls on each side meaning her opponent would either have to come to her or she'd have to go to him. Bullets hit the rock around her as they continued to fire having not needed to reload once yet.

"How many bullets do you have?" Yang called out in frustration.

"Enough!" Her opponent called back confidently as a bullet flew in the opposite direction hitting him square in the middle of the head knocking him out cold.

"I had that," Yang said watching her savior appear from the bushes, "You gonna fight me too?"

"Nope. And I know you had that, I just felt like getting the first elimination."

The person seemed to be a girl and Yang thought she recognized the voice.

"Book girl with the cute beanie?" Yang guessed.

"The names Blake. I guess we're partners now?"

"Yeah. We are. Let's get going I need to find my sister."

"Yang! There you are!" Yang turned to see Ruby calling her name and sliding down the side of the gorge with Weiss in tow.

"Oh, it's you," Blake sounded disappointed upon seeing Weiss.

"And you, I'm hoping we can put aside our differences considering we're stuck on a team now with these two," Weiss stuck a thumb in the direction of the sisters who were currently hugging each other.

"Yep. I hope to see you as more capable of fighting than your father is at running a humane company."

"The bar is low," Weiss admitted, "Very low. In fact anyone who can throw a punch is already over it."

"Your new nickname is Eclipse because that was some serious fucking shade there!" Yang jumped in.

Everyone else sighed at Yang's joke.

"We should get moving, we're already a full team but we still need to complete the objective," Ruby said looking towards the center of the training room.

The four of them started moving towards the center, gunfire being heard from multiple directions. Once they'd reached the center they found a massive pyramid shaped structure with the corners cut out. Multiple teams waited at the top talking casually and resting to pass the time. Blake ducked down just as a bullet whizzed overhead drawing their attention to a pair of cadets shooting at them from across the clearing. Ruby quickly took aim and let off a shot causing one of them to fall down immediately as the bullet slammed into their visor. The other quickly jumped behind a tree trunk for cover. The four of them spread out and pushed towards the tree from multiple angles. Their opponent jumped from behind their cover and attempted to make a swing at Blake with their melee weapon as they got closer. Blake flinched and the blade grazed her arm the suit system making it go limp. Weiss took a shot at the now exposed enemy that sent them rolling as the powerful bullet hit them in the gut.

"You okay?" Ruby asked Blake as she came closer to make sure the enemy was out.

"Yeah, I just wasn't expecting that," Blake took a look at the enemies sword and saw that it was a katana before quickly turning away.

"We'd better get up there before more people show up," Yang suggested.

"Yes, that's a good plan," Weiss agreed.

The four made their way to one of the four steep ramps leading to the top of the structure before starting their ascent.

"Hey! You guys made it!"

"Who're you?" Ruby drew a blank.

"I'm the guy who threw up outside remember? Jaune Arc?"

"Oh yeah. You feeling any better?"

"Yep, just fine now that the hard part is out of the way."

"You think that was hard? And you've never drifted with anyone before? You're in for a rude awakening," Yang chuckled.

"Oh don't worry about him, I'm sure I'll be able to help him through it," a tall muscular girl who remained unidentified through her visor stood beside Jaune.

"This your partner?" Ruby asked.

"Pyrrha Nikos at your service! I'm sure I'll be enough to pull his weight until he gets the hang of it."

"The Pyrrha Nikos?" Weiss asked almost in shock.

"The one and only."

"Wait, are you famous or something?" Jaune asked his partner.

"I might have been and still am number one solo Jaeger pilot on Remnant."

"Never heard of ya."

"I was on the Pumpkin Pete cereal box."

"That's you?!"

"Yep! A shame it wasn't very good for you."

"I'm honestly a little disappointed with my team now knowing that I could have had you," Weiss said with a shrug.

"Where's the rest of your team?" Blake asked curiously.

"Right here!" A short girl tackled Jaune from behind as a taller person stood behind her.

"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Lie Ren and this is my partner Nora Valkyrie. She's not one for subtlety."

"You got that right Ren!"

"Wow Jaune, the only guy on a team of girls," Ruby said smiling behind her visor.

"Common misconception! Ren is a dude," Nora corrected her.

"Oh I'm so sorry," Ruby apologized profusely.

"No it's fine, it happens all the time, I don't mind it that much."

"He embraces his feminine side," Nora added.

Ruby's smile had become more awkward.

"So how long are we supposed to wait here?" Weiss wondered impatiently.

"All remaining cadets, you have passed the test. Those who haven't already, make your way to the central pyramid and avoid stepping on knocked out failures along the way," Ozpin announced over loudspeaker.

"There's your answer," Yang said with a smile.

Slowly the combat suits began to disappear and their weapons faded away leaving everybody in the clothes they'd been wearing before. Blake quickly checked to make sure her beanie was still on having a brief look of relief on her face before recovering her composure before anyone noticed. Above them a hole opened up in the ceiling leading onto the section of the training room they'd stood before and the whole massive part of the building lowered down around them before closing back up and connecting to the floor they stood on. Ozpin stood waiting for them with a smile on his face.

"There is a lot of potential here, I look forward to seeing what you can do but for now I'll have someone come and lead you to your quarters, drift compatibility testing begins tomorrow and if all goes well you should be in a training Jaeger by the evening. Take the rest of today to get acquainted with the facility and your teammates."

A blonde woman stepped up from behind Ozpin and got everyone's attention.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch, I'm head of logistics here and second in command to Ozpin, you'll be dealing with me if you step out of line but I hope it doesn't come to that. I'll be showing you where you're staying and if you're interested I can give a proper tour of the more important areas of the facility," the suit clad woman introduced herself to the one hundred remaining cadets, "Once in your quarters you'll find uniforms ready in your sizes along with paperwork regarding your position on your teams. Team leaders will be required to attend a meeting tonight after dinner. Now follow me."

Glynda led them through a door that had opened in the nearest wall of the massive blank room. Outside were a few veteran teams hoping to get a look at the next generation of pilots. The majority of them were wearing casual clothing but a few were in uniform, the tight fitting bodysuits with armored padding and ports in the neck for proper drifting being accented with various colors making them easier to identify. Just past a large elevator at the end of the hall leading down into the Jaeger deployment sector were the pilot quarters and at the far end of this wing were the cadet quarters.

"Your rooms are set to your biometric readings and will let you in automatically, unless given permission by an administrator with proper clearance nobody else can enter your rooms unless invited by you. Your team name is labeled above your door, the position of people on your team is nonnegotiable," Glynda gave this brief explanation before leaving them to do as they pleased.

Ruby started walking the edge of the large circular room lined with twenty five rooms to find which was theirs before one opened and she took a look at the team name there.

"Yang! Look!" Ruby pointed at their team designation.

"Team RWBY? You're team leader?" Yang asked excitedly.

"Looks that way," Blake said as she came over to look.

"Oh great, you? I obviously would've been a better choice," Weiss groaned.

"What suggested position did you get on your application acceptance letter?" Yang asked Weiss with a glare.

"Supporting fire," Weiss sighed.

"That's what I thought, Ruby got team leader on hers. Plus Summer was team leader too so it's basically genetic at this point."

"You've got different moms?" Blake asked curiously.

"Yeah, it's not a big deal because technically both of them are both of our moms, you know how it happens sometimes with teams," Ruby explained.

"Yeah polyamory is pretty common among Jaeger teams when compared to the general public," Yang added.

"I didn't know that."

"Seems a little odd if you ask me," Weiss stated.

"When you're sharing multiple peoples heads it's difficult to not develop feelings of some kind for more than one of them I guess," Yang said with a shrug, explaining it the way Tai had.

"Yang, we need to call to tell them!" Ruby said reminding her sister of the promise they'd made to their parents.

"Oh shit yeah, you guys mind meeting them early?" Yang asked their teammates.

"I don't mind, they seem pretty cool," Blake answered.

"Yeah it's fine," Weiss agreed.

Yang and Ruby led the way into the decently sized room that was somewhat bare besides the bunks set in the walls and the desk in the middle of the far wall. Yang took out her phone and started a video call with their dad.

"Hey dad!"

"Hey sweety, how'd it go?" Tai asked eagerly not being able to see much of her surroundings through the camera.

"Get Summer and Raven first and then we'll tell you."

"Yeah get them first," Ruby added excitedly.

"Hey kiddos, we're all here, even managed to drag your uncle out of bed to talk with you," Raven said glaring at her brother once they'd all been assembled.

"I'm team leader!" Ruby shouted excitedly once she'd assured that their whole family was there.

"No way! I'm so proud of you!" Summer squealed.

"Oh yeah, these are our teammates, Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna. And yes, she's that Weiss Schnee," Yang said as she planned the camera to show them.

"Hello," Blake said with a little wave.

"Team STRQ I assume," Weiss greeted them.

"How polite, well we hope you take good care of our girls, be careful once training starts," Summer said.

"We will," Blake assured them.

"Yeah, everything's gonna be fine."