Not RWBY but its an RT property so oooo
Counselor Aiden Price looked over the motley crew of soldiers and plastered a warm and welcoming smile onto his face as he and the director strode out before the gathered personnel.
As they came to a stop before the seven soldiers, Aiden spared a glance at his CO, but seeing the man simply glaring at the soldiers, he repressed a sigh and strode forwards. "Soldiers, I would like to welcome you all to Project Freelancer, where we intend to make the mundane, magnificent."
The older Sargent is the first to respond, "Sir, thank for this opportunity, sir!" Saluting, alongside the other soldiers, some of whom at least kept proper form and others who... Did not.
"Wait," Tucker muttered, "What do you mean mundane? I thought this was badass special ops stuff, you know, that might draw in some ladies. Speaking of which-"
"Finally, and sadly, the Director chose now to speak, "And that kind of attitude, 'soldier'," said with as much contempt as the texan could convey, "Is exactly why you and yours were assigned to this experimental program!" Arms behind hid back, the director sent a withering gaze across the troopers, "Each among you has been designated by our military as so lacking, that you'd be more of a detriment on the front lines than an aid."
The argent reared back like he'd been struck, "Say... What?" While the others began whining and protesting or in private Caboose's case adding, "Well that doesn't sound right, I like being helpful."
"Quiet!" The Director started marching down the line, "Some amongst you once had respectable military careers, but have fallen off the damn wagon," Aiden could practically see the Sargent caught between offence and honest grief as the doctor pressed on.
"Some amongst you have the skills but lack the focus," Simmons and DuFrene practically swallowed, mumbling excuses before being silenced with a glare.
He came to a stop before Dexter and Tucker, "While others might have some potential but lack the will to be of worth," Aiden could actually hear Dexter mutter, "Whatever," under his breath while glaring daggers at the director as he came to a stop before Caboose and Kaikaina.
"While others simply lack the intelligence to be of help to anyone."
Kaikaina scoffed, "Says you, I got tons of people who-"
"Be silent and be grateful you're even here!" The director stalked around the chamber, "Our species is at war for its very survival and all of you were lucky enough to be chosen for this very exclusive program. Here you will be remade into true soldiers, soldiers who will help us win this war at ay cost, because if you don't, you will die, your friends and families will die, your loves one's will die, over and over again at the hands of this alien menace. So I expect you to be grateful, I need you to be obedient and I demand that you be loyal or you will only bring about your own destruction." Then he turned away, "I now leave you with your councilor, if I or your superior office Texas are not present, he will be your CO," and with that he marched out the door."
This time Aiden let out his sigh of frustration, a show of vulnerability, however small, would make this team more amendable to him and ease their mood. 'Rather necessary given half of them look miserable and the other half like they want to cave in the directors skull.'
"Soldiers," he said gently, "I do apologize for the Directors... Brisk manner, he is a brilliant man and because of this he has less patience for those of us who didn't begin our lives at the highest standard."
Tucker snorted, "Or in other words he's an elitist asshole nerd, great."
"You can't talk about our director that way," Simmons snaped.
Seeing others gearing up to speak Aiden coughed into his hand and waved Caboose's offer of a lozenge off with a smile, "Soldiers, you will all have time to shoot the breeze with one another soon, you will be seeing a great deal of each other. But for not, let me give you a better idea of why you're here."
"Because we suck?" Dexter cut in.
"Shut it soldier, or I'll make you quiet!" The Sargent snapped.
"Thank you Sargent, though that won't be necessary, I sympathize with your shared frustration. But I do want you to know despite the Directors... Harsh words, you would not have been picked if we did not think you had what it took to succeed in this program."
Private DuFrene raised his hand, "Uh, actually, can we get more details on that? I'm a consciousnesses's objector so I don't think I'd do much good as a fighter."
Powering through the new attempts at chatter, Aiden turned on the holo projector behind him, "Don't worry Private, I think you will find your preferred skills in great need in this project. As to our overall purpose," he motioned to the projection behind him that showed a generic soldier, armor, a chip and an enhancement.
"Project Freelancer has been granted access to advanced Artificial Intelligence programs and experimental armor enhancements, the Artificial Intelligence will aid in running your enhancements and advise you in battle and in training. These when combined with your revised training schedules are intended to help you surpass even the most elite of our armies soldiers."
"Hot diggity daffodil, now that sounds more like it!"
"Sounds like we're guineapigs," Groused Tucker."
"Ooh guineapigs, where!?"
Aiden cut in again, "There are none here private Caboose, that stage of testing was done months ago, which is why are are moving onto soldiers who can be matched with Artificial Intelligence units and specialized armor enhancements suiting their respective skills. Private DuFrense for example, shall be granted a healing unit, both to protect his own life and aid him in ensuring the lives of his fellow soldiers, or anyone else who might need medical attention."
"Oh, well that sounds great, much better than just making people more comfortable while they die," The young medic said with some cheer.
"Indeed, we are still prepping unit Theta and yourself for implantation, along with the others, such as an energy shield, Camouflage, strength and speed enhancements as well as other technologies. As we prepare for this however, you will also learn the basics of caring for your AI," He powered through Caboose's "like a pet!" and will begin taking missions."
Dexter Grif raised his hand, and Aiden answered his unspoken question, "No Private Grif I am afraid it is not possible to transfer, I checked," he said, drawing a small chuckle from some of the more self aware members of the team. He looked to the Sargent who responded with a curt, "Sir, if I may?"
"Go ahead, Sargent."
"Thank you, now our director mentioned you, himself and this Texas fellar, but where do the rest of us fall in the pecking order?"
"A fine question, and as you might expect Sargent, you rank just below Special Agent Texas and are expected to act as the secondary commanding officer on missions. I must add that Special Officer, Private DuFrense also outranks all officers save the Director and myself, though be it only when it comes to medical matters. Everyone else is, as of now, are Special-Privates, but I imagine given the nature of this program, there will be promotions in your futures."
"Hell yeah," Tucker chuckled, eying Grif's sister appreciatively.
"For now, I think we should handle basic introductions, a brief tour of your quarters before heading to the training room. I believe the Director wants Special Agent Texas to demonstrate their capabilities for you all so you can see what kind of soldier this program can help you become."
'Put these fools in their place,' had been the man's actual words, but Aiden wasn't about to go yelling that from the rooftops was he? This assignment. As he motioned for the Sargent to begin, Aiden repressed a sigh, 'This is going to be a long assignment.'
NOTES:
So, I saw a fic on AO3 that highlighted getting tons of the militaries best and brightest for an experimental program in such early stages might be hard and that instead the military might feed its less useful soldiers into the potential grinder first. Thus causing a shift in who got assigned to what project and where. I liked the premise, but they ended up going for focusing on the Freelancers in Blood Gulch over where my interest lay, not that it wasn't kind of fun for the short while it lasted.
As it is, the premise here is similar, the army wants its best and brightest fighting, not screwing around on a spaceship with experimental technology they can't use yet. The fact the Director wanted his own daughter on the team also made it seem like he was stacking things too much for his own interests, so he got told to make the best of things and improve the rank and file first as a proof of concept. Oh also Lopez is their pilot, or at leas I am thinking he might be as he wouldn't be part of the main squad.
I imagine some subtle shifts in how other stuff is handled, for instance the Sarcophagus was retrieved early thanks to Tex, hence them already having some ready made AI. Also I am thinking they tried the "Implant the AI into a person" trick on her here, so she's running around int he body of some unfortunate soldier (or possibly a brain dead person stolen from a hospital) thinking that its her body.
As to AI assignments, I am thinking:
Tex has no AI and is presented as just an elite soldier.
Theta is paired with Doc for the same reasons he was paired with North.
Omega is probably paired with Caboose with the hopes he'll basically do all the 'real work' but this might not last as he makes Caboose increasingly unstable.
Delta might go with Sarge, as Sarge oscillated a lot in terms of competence in the series, so their goal might be to balance him out mentally with added logic.
The others are harder to assign, though I imagine the Directors "Give one sibling an AI and the other not" experiment fails to make much headway with the Grif siblings.
Fear (Eta) and Happiness (Iota) are again very tricky, especially as they canonically have next to no characterization, though perhaps they get stuck in the Grif siblings as they are described as twins. Otherwise less sure, but there's lots of options.
Sigma might get paired with Grif to try and counteract his low motivation, or would be paired with Simmons as someone with the technical skills but lack of will and or focus.
Gamma I could see maybe being assigned to Tucker given their shared perchance for telling huge grandiose lies to people.
Anyway, this was just off the cuff, not sure I'd continue the idea, but I did enjoy it and I hope you did too.
