Chapter 193 - Proving

The next day, Cedric noticed something for the first time, something that he felt he really ought to have noticed sooner than he had. The older individuals that he had noticed during the battle were still around, but totally separate from the training that the recruits were undergoing. He saw them occasionally, but even during mess and PT, they were utterly separated from the rest of them. For the life of him, he couldn't understand who they were or what the purpose of this division was. As usual, though, he was given little time to wonder.

June had been right in her prediction, albeit a day early in the anticipation. Rather than expanding the scope of their tactical drills, the recruits found themselves assembled just outside the series of garages from which they had gotten the vehicle they had used during the battle. MSgt. Earl addressed them.

"Today, you unworthy shits will have the distinct honor of operating the most deadly piece of equipment in our arsenal," he fixed the group with a cold stare, "Each of you will treat it with the respect it deserves. Or so help me, I will have you used by target practice with the 140mm cannons."

With disconcerting swiftness, the sergeant switched from a deadly serious threat of physical harm to a pleased expression.

"Without further ado, it is my honor to unveil.. the X10 Leopard."

As he said this, the doors of the garages retracted, revealing identical vehicles, their tri-barreled cannons standing proudly. Cedric resisted the urge to shake his head. Let it never be said that the Sergeants didn't have a flair for the overly-dramatic. In his opinion, though, the name "Leopard" didn't seem exactly appropriate for the hulking behemoths. They seemed more similar to something like a warthog or maybe a rhino.

Looking altogether far too pleased with himself, Earl instructed the fireteams to mount the vehicles at double time.

Cedric's fireteam was by far the swiftest at mounting up, with the experience of doing so during combat providing an invaluable advantage. Indeed, throughout the day's armored drills, his team continually surpassed the others. While the extent of what they were actually doing was limited, being the basics of driving, performance both maintenance, and combat repair, and traversing the turret, his team excelled and they left the training field in high spirits.

Over the next few days, the Vigiles recruits alternated between more practice in small units and practice in armored vehicles. Much to the disappointment of June, they were not permitted to practice firing the cannon beyond dry-firing. The sergeants informed them that level of noise a troop of tanks firing would generate would be disturbing to the locals.

In the mess, Cedric sat with his usual group of friends. It consisted of his own fireteam and a couple of others.

"I really wish we could actually fire the main guns on the Leopards," bemoaned June, "That kind of power is…"

"Don't get too excited now," Lavender, leader of one of the other fireteams, said teasingly, "Besides, we'd need to get far from civilized places to stop people's bones from rattling every time we fired."

"Well we should get out there then!," said June, "That would be some real training."

"Yeah," said Cedric, "I'm sure we could all use some more practice in being mauled by Grimm."

His sarcasm earned him a shove and the laughter of his comrades.

"We're gonna have to get out there eventually," said June, "Besides, it's not like we haven't fought Grimm before. So why not now?"

There was a murmur of affirmation in response.

"Because out there, Grimm aren't neatly funneled towards our waiting guns," said Shae darkly, "Out there a fully trained huntsman can die in an instant."

The usual joviality of the group was suddenly dampened by Shae's tone.

"With that kind of knowledge, why isn't she in charge?" said Cole, one of Lavender's teammates, trying to lighten the black mood that had descended.

"Because with motivational speeches like that we wouldn't need Grimm to off us, we'd have done the job ourselves," said Cedric.

That returned the table to its usual lighthearted mood. With June's ostensible bloodthirst stifled, the conversation turned lighter and more inane topics.

Nevertheless, Cedric still shot a look at Shae. Cole's offhand comment had stuck with him, despite the fact that he knew it was just a reach for a joke. The fact of the matter was that Shae was clearly to of the class in nearly everything she did, with the exception marksmanship, in which June had an inexplicable and noticeable superiority over everyone else. Meanwhile, Cedric couldn't help but notice that he was at best slightly above average. It was because of this that the fact that he had been chosen as fireteam leader over Shae was something that the more he thought about, the less explicable it seemed. What were the DIs thinking, choosing him over her?

Cedric was distracted from his feeling of insufficiency and insecurity by actually noticing what he saw when he looked at Shae. She seemed unusually broody, even for her. Something about what June had been talking about had affected her. Cedric didn't know what it was. She had seemed entirely cool and confident during the Battle of Vale. June had been the one most affected by the pressures of combat in contrast to her rhetorical bravado. Cedric knew better than to call Shae out on her mood, especially in public. He was determined to get to the bottom of her story, partially out of his own curiosity and also because he was genuinely worried for her.

Over the next few days, he found an utter lack of even semi-private moments during which he could talk with Shae about her thoughts and feelings on what June had said and why she had reacted as she did. Instead, he was distracted from this enigma by another, recurring, mystery. During the morning run, he noticed the older recruits running in their own group, led by GSgt. Emeric. Between breaths, he pointed them out June.

"Who do you think they are?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said, pausing to take a breath, "I've been noticing them too." Breath.

"They're officers in training," said Shae, interrupting.

Cedric glanced at her, initially not taking in what she had actually said, instead more focused on discerning from her face whether shes was still affected by the incident, though it was several days prior. Cedric had been keeping an eye on her since then, both to see how she was doing and to find an opportunity to address it. However, her usual reserved and distant manner made her nearly unreadable, especially in this regard.

Once he processed what she had said, he furrowed his brow.

"How do you know?"

She motioned towards the other group, "Look at their insignia."

As Cedric looked closer he could see vaguely see what he now recognized the markings of 2nd Lieutenant cadets. He supposed it made sense that they were training officers for the Vigiles, considering the size of the organization, if they were to deploy they would need to have some direction beyond the fireteam level. He found it notable how few officers there were. He supposed Vigiles wasn't exactly the largest organization.

While there had been much speculation during the breakfast that had followed PT, no one-not even Shae-had been able to accurately guess what the DIs had in store for them. They were led as a group to a part of the compound none of them had ever entered before and were filed through some double doors into the building itself. The first thing Cedric noticed, bizarrely enough, was the high ceiling. While building could have easily been four stories tall, this room's ceiling went all the way to the room. The second thing Cedric noticed was a concrete wall in front of him, ribbed with support pillars and punctuated by windows, along with a door. It was tall, reaching to the very roof of the structure, having four rows of windows, and looking very much like the skeletal exterior of a building. In front of this austere scene, MSgt. Earl stood and addressed the recruits as they stood at attention.

"Welcome to the slaughterhouse ladies," he said smiling, "This is where you are gonna learn to be the very best at the dirtiest, meanest, and bloodiest kind of combat."

Earl's lips pulled back into a sadistic kind of grin.

"Close quarters battle."

Cedric's adrenaline and nerves immediately spiked at the prospect of the new exercise. He was going to learn how to storm a building. He let out a small sigh, vainly trying to ease the tightness in his chest. Now was the time to perform.

As the Vigiles prepared to progress to the next phase o ftheir training at the same time, many miles away, somewhere on the island of Patch, Ruby Rose awoke.

AN: The Vigiles arc will be intercut with perspectives from team RWBY, showing how the Fall of Beacon has affected them and what the consequences of the perceived deaths of half of team MRPN. As well, the Courier's decision to call in an artillery strike on the CCT tower will have its consequences revealed. As always, I welcome any reviews, PMs, or other means of reaching me. Speaking of, I'll give the forum a plug, forum/The-Bringer-of-War-Discussion/185810/ So head on over there if you would like to discuss the story as well as more general topics.