Roses Born of Dust

A RWBY/Halo Crossover by TallYapflip.

Chapter 1: Remnant

August 12, 2681; 0300 Hours

UNSC Avalon, Bridge

Major Ivan Chesnokov sat at the helm of his Prowler-Class Modified Stealth Frigate, which was of the Andromeda Pattern. The empty void of space blew past as his ship was in the middle of a Slipspace jump to a small system near the border that the UNSC shared with the newly-formed Sangheili Federation. The Sangheili Star Federation, in a show of good faith, notified the United Nations Space Command of a strange collection of signals being sent out from this system, all of them being incredibly faint but noticeable. After months of digging through UNSC archives, the Office of Naval Intelligence discovered that this world was actually subject to colonization almost 400 years ago, soon after the development of the Slipspace Translight Engine. Records of this early colonization mission were lost for an incredibly long period of time, thanks to ONI's influence. If these colonists managed to survive and create a colony, it would have developed independently of the UNSC and Unified Earth Government.

Chesnokov, much like this planet, was a rarity within the UNSC. He was a man, barely of nineteen years, who was already a major in the Marine Corps of the UNSC. His exceptional scores on both proficiency tests and combat simulations during his training on Reach allowed him to become one of the youngest commissioned officers in UNSC history. As a result of this, he was chosen for specialized training that would have him placed in the SPARTAN IV Program. Fleet Admiral Bishop and the President of the UEG had seen fit to send him to investigate this world, and study it should any human civilization be present.

The A.I. aboard his ship, which was christened under the name Avalon, had awoken him from his sleep so he could see, firsthand, this new planet. Chesnokov jolted forward in his seat slightly as the Prowler, being the rather sleek frigate that it was, lurched out of Slipspace. Before him laid a relatively small star system with one single yellow dwarf star, orbited by three planets of varying types. The planet closest to the star, unsurprisingly, was a heat-blasted wasteland with no chance of ever supporting sentient life. The second planet in the system was similar to Venus in some regards, with an incredibly dense atmosphere of unknown gasses, with a high probability of a solid crust with a semi-molten core. The third planet, the one Chesnokov's ship happened to drop right next to, truly grabbed his attention.

The world was a Terran world, with an obviously life-sustaining atmosphere based on the circles, lines, and irregular collection of lights scattering the surface of the planet, indicative of advanced sentient life. The planet itself had three large landmasses, which took up around forty percent of the surface while the rest was dominated by ocean. The "Western" two landmasses were shadowed in night, allowing the lights on the surface to be clearly seen from orbit. The planet had a few artificial satellites, but no warships or civilian spacecraft around it, which was unsettling to Chesnokov, as this planet had almost four centuries to develop technology to create warships. Even more concerning was the fact that all of the satellites had a very irregular orbit, indicating that they had gone for years, possibly even decades, without replacement. All of them, sans one, were unable to communicate with his Prowler. The one satellite that did manage to connect to the Avalon was a GPS satellite that would have been used by the UNSC centuries ago, and all of its onboard imaging equipment was completely derelict. His contact was the first in over three hundred years, according to the satellite's onboard records.

The natural satellite was truly awe-inspiring however. It was a single moon, much like Earth's, but it was permanently locked in a crescent shape, as it appeared to be shattered by some unknown force. There were small white lunar fragments drifting along with the larger remnants of the moon, giving off an eerie feel. The fragments trailed along behind the moon, seeming to emerge from the mouth of the crescent.

"Comms, send a contact request back to In Spirit of Fire." Ivan asked, looking over to the young ensign that was manning the comms station.

"Aye, sir." The ensign acknowledged, tapping away on his console. The request was almost immediately accepted by the Admiral of the UNSC 2nd Exploration Flotilla: Admiral Bishop. "Major, I take it you've arrived?" The older Admiral asked, his face popping up on a holographic display before him.

"Yes sir." Chesnokov replied, sitting in a slightly more formal manner. "It looks like we were right, there is some form of civilization down there, but they don't seem to have any dedicated defensive grid in their orbit, only derelict old Interplanetary War-era GPS and Comms satellites."

"Well… They've been separated from the rest of Humanity for four hundred years, they were bound to have developed along a different path than us." Bishop admitted.

"What's even more concerning is the fact that their moon, quite literally, is shattered." Chesnokov said, drawing a look of confusion from the Admiral.

"Shattered?" Bishop asked.

"Yes sir, their moon is broken up into multiple large fragments. There's a single permanent crescent moon, with about a dozen smaller shards drifting along in the mouth of the crescent. I can't tell if this is a natural occurrence or not."

"That's interesting… It doesn't fit the Covenant's MO, but we can't rule out the possibility. Be that as it may, your orders still stand. You need to get down to that planet, investigate its society, and learn what you can. Keep me informed, SPARTAN. If ONI's right…"

"Understood sir."

"I gave you that ship for a reason. There's a modified Darter Dropship in the bay. It's been outfitted with a new stealth system that should allow you to land on that world unnoticed. Just to be completely sure, land well out of sight from any buildings, roads, or cities, and be sure to keep the Avalon in orbit so you can keep in contact."

"Aye sir."

"Good luck, SPARTAN." Bishop nodded, cutting the communication.

As the holographic display minimized, Chesnokov looked up from his console. "Helm, bring the ship into geosynchronous orbit with the planet and engage stealth systems. Optical and thermal camouflage."

"Aye, sir." The vessel's pilot acknowledged, hands dancing across the instruments on the display before her.

The SPARTAN stood up and rolled his shoulders around, looking to ease the tension. He keyed into his Fireteam's secure comms network, and sent out his orders. "Fireteam Omega, report to the Hangar Bay for immediate departure, full combat gear."

"Copy that, Major." His second-in-command, SPARTAN L-231 Lauren, acknowledged.

Satisfied with the answer, he closed down his connection to the rest of his team, and turned to the bridge crew. "Lieutenant-Commander Anderson, you have the helm." He declared.

"Understood, Major." The pilot nodded in her seat.

"Keep the vessel in orbit, I'll relay new orders as they come." Ivan added. "If necessary, move to the system's fringe to vent the thermal sinks. I don't want us to be detected prematurely."

"Understood." Anderson nodded.

With a heavy sigh, he stepped past the weapons control station, grabbing his MJOLNIR Gen-2 Helljumper helmet from a rack on the wall and throwing it over his head. His Heads-Up Display activated, showing his vital signs, limited motion tracking, and synched up to the rest of his armor. He took the short flight of stairs down into the cargo hold, grabbing his MA5E assault rifle, combat knife, M6 SOCOM, a few fragmentation grenades, and extra ammunition for his weapons.

As he arrived at the Prowler's small Hangar, he was happy to see that his team had already suited up and was awaiting him. All of them stood around the crew deck of the very large transport Darter. Lauren was leaned up against the transport's frame, her black Hermes-pattern MJOLNIR Gen-2 almost blending in with the transport's black ablative stealth coating. Being a CQC specialist, she carried a pair of M7 SMGs locked to her thighs, and an M45D shotgun on her back.

His team's Sniper, M-031 Mary, was sitting on one of the transport's landing feet. Due to her previous station with the 201st Shock Troops Battalion, she had chosen a Helljumper-pattern helmet, while the rest of her armor was the stock MJOLNIR Gen-2. Her visor was a dark black, just like the rest of Fireteam Omega. She had an M6 SOCOM locked to her thigh, and was idly fiddling with the scope of her SRS-99C sniper rifle.

His team's heavy weapons specialist, J-308 Jacob, simply stood between the two other SPARTANs. His armor was the SPARTAN equivalent to a main battle tank, the Atlas-pattern. He had an M739 SAW locked onto his back, a pair of M6 SOCOMs at his hip, and an ARC-920 Mk. IV Railgun next to the SAW on his back.

"Look who decided to show up! Mister 'immediate departure' has finally graced us with his presence." Lauren called out. Ivan could practically see the smirk on her face through the black visor.

"Watch it, Lauren." Mary snickered, not looking up from her rifle. "Hangar door's right over there."

"Yeah." Jacob added. "Don't want a repeat of what happened over Draco-III, now do we?"

"Hey, that was the Elite's fault and you know it!" Lauren shot back.

"Alright, Omega." Ivan sighed, glad that his visor could hide his smile. Despite only recently becoming the leader for Fireteam Omega, he had come to like them. They were all young, practically straight out of the Program on Reach. The oldest of them was Jacob, and he was only a few months older than Ivan was. They still had the high-spirits that some of the veteran SPARTANs lacked. "Mount up! We'll have plenty of time to take jabs at each other on the ride down."

"You got it, Major." Lauren gave a half-hearted, two-fingered salute as she stood upright and made her way into the compartment of the Darter transport. Ivan rolled his eyes as he followed the rest of his team into the 'crew compartment'. In all actuality, it was really just a cargo hold that had been vacuum-rated, with a few seats welded into the frame. The compartment itself carried extra ammunition, food, purified water, ordinance, and spare weapons among other basic supplies.

Ivan banged a fist against the frame of the dropship as he stepped into the hold, notifying the ONI Pilot to begin takeoff procedures. As he moved to sit down in one of the seats, he could hear the thrumming of the engines spooling up. After a few minutes, the pilot finished his pre-flight checks and took off.

The dropship quickly left the bay, firing its rear thrusters. As it passed through the energy shield that kept the Hangar's atmosphere in, the heavy sound of the engines was replaced by a dull hum. He listened as his team returned to their banter, occasionally joining in himself. It had only taken a few minutes for the dropship to make contact with the upper atmosphere, lurching slightly as the friction started to slow down the descent. Just as the ship made contact with the atmosphere, the pilot's voice rang out in his team's comms. "Engaging stealth systems. Topographical scans are coming through now." After another short few seconds, the pilot's voice returned. "Suitable LZ located, eighteen klicks out from a large settlement on the largest continent. Permission to land, Major?"

"Granted." Ivan acknowledged. "Bring us in slow."

"Might want to take a look at this, Major." The pilot explained. "Forwarding images to your Datapad now."

Ivan flicked back the armored covering on his wrist, revealing the small Datapad contained within. As he did, an image appeared on the screen. It was a large collection of structures sitting atop a large plateau, taken from the Avalon's sensors. "Steer clear." Ivan ordered.

"Understood."

Ivan felt the Darter lurch under him as it touched down, followed by a green light overtaking the red hue of the crew compartment. With a hiss, the two bay doors slid open, letting the fresh air flood the deck. Wordlessly, the four SPARTANs stood up and disembarked the dropship. "Mark the LZ on your HUDs." Ivan ordered, his armored boots making contact with the grass beneath him. They had landed in the middle of a small, secluded canyon in the middle of a forest. It was surrounded on all sides by a sheer cliff face, with only a small pass leading up and over the cliff.

"Copy." His team echoed, following his order.

"Let's get to work, we have a camp to set up and supplies to offload." Ivan ordered

XXXXX

August 12, 2681; 0430 Hours

Uncharted Planet, Surface (FOB Alpha)

Ivan stepped out of the large tent that he had set up. They had spent the past hour or so setting up a base camp not only for them, but for the ONISEC Marines that would be alongside them down here. The pilot had assisted them in setting everything up, and was now on his way back towards the Darter to head back to orbit and recover the platoon of Marines that would serve as a security force for their camp, along with an ONI-affiliated scientist.

As the Darter took off, engaging its stealth systems before it cleared the top of the canyon, Ivan looked over to the rest of his team. Jacob was busy finalizing the placement of the deployable cover for the perimeter. Lauren was setting up a separate location for the ammo dump, and Mary was putting the finishing touches on the three tents that the Marines would be occupying. He decided to help Jacob set up the deployable cover around the perimeter, making sure to take sight lines on the pass into account.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, the Darter returned. It was heard long before it was seen, touching down in the small area that had been set aside for it on the edge of the FOB. As the side doors slid open, fourteen Marines and a single ONI scientist all disembarked the dropship, which had shimmered back into existence a moment prior. They all worked to carry crates of scientific equipment and other items out of the rear of the dropship, able to offload all of the cargo in a single trip.

All of the Marines were clad in the normal Marines BDU, colored a dark black and sporting an ONI emblem on the right shoulder. After setting their cargo down, the Darter's pilot gave a quick hand motion before re-engaging the stealth systems and returning to the skies, inbound for the Avalon.

"Major." The Marines CO saluted Ivan, laying down a small crate containing some unspecified equipment first.

"Lieutenant, have a squad set up motion sensors around the rim of the canyon, fifty meters out." Ivan ordered. "Doctor Evans, set up secure comms with the Avalon. Omega, we're on recon duty."

XXXXX

August 12, 2681; 0800 Hours

Uncharted Planet, 3km North of FOB Alpha

"Hold!" Ivan ordered, holding a closed fist above his head. "Motion contact, eighty meters north." At his word, all of Fireteam Omega stopped dead in their tracks, watching their motion trackers. They watched as one ping on their tracker became three, and began closing the distance… quick. All four of the SPARTANs raised their weapons, keeping them trained due north. At twenty meters, just at the edge of the treeline, the tracker lost the contact.

The SPARTANs, however, could see three pairs of glowing red eyes staring them down from the darkness, and four weapons swung to them. The still air was punctuated with a low growl from the treeline, and all of the SPARTANs found their fingers gravitating towards the triggers of their respective weapons.

Without warning, three massive beasts lurched from the treeline, attempting to pounce on the SPARTANs. Their reflexes and training kicked in, and time seemed to slow for Fireteam Omega. The three beasts, looking quite similar to the werewolves of fantasy, were still mid-air when the SPARTANs unleashed hell.

A steady stream of rounds from Jacob's SAW tore through the right-most creature. The left-most creature found itself riddled with 5x23mm caseless rounds from Lauren's twin SMGs. The lead creature, seeming to be the pack leader, got the worst of it. A short burst of fire from Ivan's assault rifle split through a bony covering on its head, followed quickly by a single 14.5mm round from Mary's sniper rifle which passed through the creature's body effortlessly. The round even continued through a tree, embedding itself in a small berm on the other end of the clearing.

All of the SPARTANs engaged their armor's integrated thrusters, pushing themselves to the side, allowing the limp corpses of the three creatures to crash against the ground where they had stood just a moment before. "What the hell?" Mary looked to the three corpses, surprised to see that they were already in the process of decomposing. At least… she assumed they were decomposing.

Black flakes flittered off into the air as the bodies started to quickly fade away. It almost seemed like they were made of nothing but ash by the way they decomposed. "That's new…" Lauren commented, watching the process unfold before her very eyes. "What the hell were those things?"

"No idea…" Ivan answered. "They seemed feral. Stay alert, don't let them get the drop on you."

"Copy that." Lauren acknowledged, replacing the magazines in her SMGs with fresh ones. She, along with the other two members of Fireteam Omega, fell into step behind their CO.

After continuing North for another kilometer or so, they heard the distinct sound of gunfire and explosions coming from their due North, coupled with the furious roars that those feral creatures had uttered. Ivan waved a flattened hand forward, motioning for his team to continue moving forward.

As they passed through the forest, they eventually came upon a large, open valley surrounded on all sides by cliff walls. Down below, roughly a kilometer from their position atop the cliff, Ivan spotted a few figures standing around some stone ruins, seeming to converse with one another. "Hold!" He ordered. "Active camo."

As his team shimmered out of sight, he activated his helmet's optical zoom and focused in on the group. Much to his surprise, all of them looked to be in their late teens with some very unnatural appearances for Humans. One's hair was a bright, almost ivory-white. Another seemed to be wielding a massive scythe as a weapon, despite a shorter stature than the rest.

"Take up positions, hundred meter spacing." Ivan ordered. "Time for some field research."

XXXXX

August 12, 2681; 0812 Hours

Remnant, Vale (Emerald Forest)

Ruby Rose racked the bolt back on her massive scythe/high-impact sniper rifle, which she affectionately called Crescent Rose. Another massive round chambered into the rifle section of her weapon, which she quickly sent through the thin head armor of a Beowolf, sending the body splaying across the ground. She quickly collapsed Crescent Rose back into its compact state and adjusted her cape to cover it. She turned back to face Weiss, Yang, and Blake.

After the rather… interesting fight against the Deathstalker, everyone was rather tired and wanted nothing more than to get back to Beacon and sleep for the entire week. "Everyone get their 'relics'?" Yang asked, looking to everyone around her.

"Yep!" Ruby responded, holding up the white knight chess piece.

"Good… maybe now we can get back to-" Yang found herself cut off as a Nevermore's screech ripped through the still air of the Emerald Forest. Everyone looked around for a moment, finding the massive Grimm circling around the cliff edge to their southwest. It was firing its sharpened feathers down towards the ground, and the faint sound of gunfire could be heard.

"Someone's in trouble!" Ruby declared. Just as the words left her mouth, she saw a bright white streak spear upwards from the ground, striking the Nevermore just beneath its beak. The projectile cut through the Grimm's body like a razor, and exited through the back of its neck. The creature plummeted to the Earth, striking the side of the cliff and falling into the forest below. "Or not…"

"What was that?" Yang asked, confused.

"I have no idea…" Weiss admitted. "It didn't look like a normal weapon, not one that I've ever seen."

Soon after, the staccato of automatic gunfire returned, along with a very loud report from either a grenade or an immensely powerful rifle. "Come on!" Ruby shouted, taking off towards the cliff face.

XXXXX

August 12, 2681; 0958 Hours

Uncharted Planet, 4.3 Kilometers North of FOB Alpha

"Jesus Christ…" Lauren muttered, slotting fresh magazines into the side of her SMGs. "That scorpion was as big as a damn Scorpion!" She looked over the quickly-decaying corpse before her. "And just look at the size of that damn stinger!"

"Man, fuck that thing." Mary shuddered. "Saw enough of that in New Phoenix."

"It's the small ones you've gotta worry about. You'll be fine." Jacob added with a chuckle.

"Quiet, tracker contact." Ivan held up a hand. "Eighty meters North, on the cliff. Camo." At his word, the four members of Fireteam Omega shimmered out of sight and took cover behind trees, rocks, bushes, or in a tree in Mary's case.

Ivan waited in complete silence, ready to put a stream of lead downrange from behind the boulder he was using for cover. Much to his surprise, it wasn't one of the black creatures that stepped through the treeline, it was one of the people he had spotted at the bottom of the valley. She was the shorter one that Ivan had seen slinging a scythe around. She looked no older than sixteen at most, and had a pair of inquisitive silver eyes. With her dress being adorned by a red cloak, he couldn't help but draw parallels to Little Red Riding Hood."How the hell did she cover the distance that quick?" Lauren asked into their closed-circuit local comms.

"No idea…" Ivan responded. This planet had very quickly thrown him for a loop. He wasn't about to assume anything anymore.

From behind the short brunette girl with the scythe, another voice called out to her. "Anything over there, Ruby?"

"Nope…" The shorter girl, who Ivan now knew as Ruby, responded. From behind her, a trio of other girls emerged from the brush. The first one to emerge was a blonde, wearing what appeared to be a crop top and a brown jacket. She had a pair of metallic yellow gauntlets around her hands, with what seemed to be smooth-bore barrels protruding from just above her knuckles. She had a pair of eyes with a lilac hue to them.

The second was that girl Ivan had made note of before. She was incredibly thin, and had what seemed to be a rapier in her hand. Stranger yet, it looked like it had a revolving cylinder, not unlike an old revolver's, just above the grip. She wore a white dress and coat, her ice-blue eyes scanning the area curiously.

The last to emerge was probably the most normal looking. She was very tall and lithe, with a long mane of midnight-black hair. She had a black bow atop her head, and as Ivan made note of it, he could swear he saw the fabric twitch, just slightly. On a lark, he activated his helmet's thermals, and was truly surprised by what he saw. There were a pair of triangular protrusions beneath the bow, matching her body temperature. They looked almost like… Cat ears? He made a special note of that as he de-activated his optics, seeing the strange-looking blade she carried at her hip. Her amber eyes scanned her surroundings very carefully. If there was anyone that could spot a SPARTAN's active camouflage, it would probably be her. The tech had come a long way over the past hundred years, but there was still the slightest shimmering around the user. He remained painfully still to mitigate this.

"Well, there's definitely been a fight here…" The Blonde noted, kneeling down to pick up one of the numerous shell casings that littered the ground.

"What gave it away?" The ivory-haired girl asked, her voice sounding almost nasally. "The bullets all over the place, or the disintegrating Deathstalker?" Now Ivan had a name to attach to the giant scorpion. Deathstalker. He suppressed a chuckle at the naming convention, and continued listening.

"Look here." The black-haired girl pointed to the ground near where Ivan's team had made their stand against the Deathstalker. The tall grass had been flattened by their armored boots, and the shell casings had seemed to fall around this location.

"What is it, Blake?" Ruby asked, darting over. Another name.

"These weren't students…" Blake explained, pointing to the footprints that had been planted in the dirt. "All of the footprints are the same, ignoring the size difference. Look at their spacing, too."

"They barely moved at all…" The white-haired girl noted. "It's like they stood their ground, and stood it very well at that." She gestured over to the bullet holes that pockmarked trees, the ground, and the still-disintegrating Deathstalker.

"Weird…" Ruby noted. As she looked around, she spotted a single shell casing on the ground and decided to pick it up. "Wait a sec… this is the same bullet I use!"

"Really?" The blonde asked.

"Yeah." Ruby pulled one of her own bullets out and compared them side-by-side. They were completely identical, save the length. The foreign one she had found was notably longer, but the diameter was the same. She flipped the casing around, examining the back where the striker would meet the primer. She brought it closer, seeing that the bullet's measurements were 14.5x114mm. What truly surprised her was the fact that this bullet apparently had another series of numbers and letters in front of the measurements. "M232 APFSDS".

"Weird…" Ruby continued. "What's the back of that one say, Yang?"

The blonde, now known as Yang, looked to the back of her notably smaller round that she had recovered. She read the small stamped text out aloud. "M118 7.62x51mm."

"That's the bullet that Atlas' military used in their old rifles, I think…" The white-haired girl added. "It's been decades since we used things like that, though."

"Weird… We should definitely let Ozpin know about this." Ruby suggested.

"Good idea." Yang nodded. "Now c'mon, let's start heading back."

Ivan watched as the four girls headed back towards the cliff and out of sight. As their movements no longer registered on his motion tracker, he let out a sigh and sent a ping to the rest of his team. All of them shimmered back into sight at the same time. "Holy… fucking… shit…" Lauren let out, still sitting behind a bush, completely awestruck. "Enough 'field research' for ya, Major?"

"Please tell me you were recording that…" Ivan looked up to Mary, who was crouched down on a branch in a nearby tree.

"I got all of it…" Ivan breathed out, equally amazed. "ONI's gonna eat this up."

XXXXX

August 12, 2681; 1223 Hours

Uncharted Planet, FOB Alpha

"Professor Evans, you're going to want to see this." Ivan said, stepping into the tent that the professor had claimed as his own.

"Find something interesting, Major?" The professor asked, looking up from his terminal for a moment before his eyes gravitated back towards the screen.

"A teenage girl with prehensile cat ears sound interesting to you?" Ivan asked. That certainly got Evans' attention. His eyes darted over to the SPARTAN, who was holding out a small data storage drive.

Without a moment's hesitation, Evans took the chip and slotted it into his terminal. With a few quick gestures across the haptic display, he found himself watching around ten minutes of footage from Ivan's perspective, complete with audio recordings. It started with his team engaging a massive scorpion-like creature, then a short conversation between the members of Omega, and then the truly interesting bits started. He watched the full conversation between four teenage girls, and did indeed see what the SPARTAN was talking about. When he activated his thermal imaging, he saw the very feline-like ears beneath the girl's bow. "Christ alive, SPARTAN…" Evans muttered as the footage came to an end. "What the hell did we just stumble into?"

"You don't know?" Ivan asked. "I thought the Prowler would have returned the in-depth scan data by now."

"It would have, but there's something interfering with our scanning equipment." Evans knocked his knuckles against the terminal, which showed a completely unintelligible collection of data. "All of our scans return complete gibberish, unintelligible even to Merlin. So, until we figure out what the hell is causing the interference, we're in the dark. The only thing we have would be the topographical maps taken from orbit, and they're still imperfect. It'll be a few days yet before the Avalon can get us a full planetary scan with just its imaging equipment."

Ivan sighed. "Alright… we're going to resupply and get back out there. Have you made contact with the local wildlife yet?"

"Indeed…" Evans nodded. "A small pack of those wolf-like creatures. Easy enough for the Marines to handle, but I've put in a request for heavy weapons to be brought down from the Avalon. They'll be arriving in a few hours."

"Alright…" Ivan nodded. "See if you can convince FLEETCOM to send another team. This is a lot of ground to cover."

"I'll do what I can." Evans nodded.

XXXXX

August 12, 2681; 1306 Hours

Beacon Academy, Vale

Ruby spotted Professor Ozpin making his way towards the auditorium, shouting out to catch his attention. "Professor Ozpin!" She declared, darting toward him, propelled by her Semblance.

Ozpin didn't at all seem surprised by the sudden appearance of a literal incarnation of energy. "Yes, Miss Rose?" Ozpin asked, taking a sip from his omnipresent coffee mug.

"While we were out in the Emerald Forest, we… found something." Ruby began. "It looked like a fight happened on top of a cliff, but there was nobody around." She dug around in her pockets for a moment, producing the two shell casings she and Yang had picked up. "These shells were scattered all over the place, and it looked like a group held out against a Deathstalker and a Nevermore!"

As Ruby held out the two shell casings, Ozpin took the smaller of the two in his hand, adjusting his glasses to inspect the print on the back of it. As his gaze fell onto a small collection of letters and numbers "MA – 7.62x51mm – FMJ-AP". He allowed himself a small hum. "Hmm… thank you for bringing this to my attention, Miss Rose." Ozpin said, handing the casing back to Ruby. "We can talk about this a bit more after initiation this evening."