RWBY: Just A COG In The Machine

New Place To Call Home

When the Bullhead landed Isaac was the first to hop out with Kowalski's duffle bag on his shoulder and took a look around.
It was a nice change of pace to see a nice, maintained, structure inhabited by people that didn't want to kill him.
The Academy also over looked a city that Isaac had jogged off to look over from the landing pad.
Ozpin meanwhile was staring at the Sergeant with a smile on his face, the Sergeant was acting like a child that was taken to an amusement park.
More questions to the pile he had been meaning to ask him, Ozpin supposed.
Ozpin coughed to gain Isaac's attention.
"Sorry to intervene but we still have much to talk about."
"Of course. My apologies sir. Lead the way."
Isaac said as he walked with CVFY to the large tower that Ozpin used as a office.

After a long elevator ride the group finally arrived at the top floor of the tower and was greeted by Ozpin's assistant, Glynda Goodwitch. Ozpin walked to his desk and sat in his chair with Glynda standing to his right.
"Thank you CVFY. You're excused."
Ozpin said.
"Bye Isaac!"
Velvet called out with a wave as she and her team walked to the elevator.
"Now let's get started. How did you get to that forest in the first place? It's not an easy place to simply wonder into."
Ozpin asked with a sip of his coffee.
Isaac took a moment.
"I don't know myself."
Isaac's hand slipped into the pocket where his friend's COG tags were.
"I was with my friends. We were trying to buy time for my little sister to warn the fort."
Isaac's breath began to quicken.
"Sergeant Carver?"
Ozpin asked softly.
"We held them back but they overran us. They killed us. Tore us apart."
Isaac was shaking now.
"Sergeant Carver. Please calm down."
"I was about to join them, to be with my family, my Gears, but-"
Isaac carefully laid his head down on the desk and began to take a few careful breaths in and out for a few minutes.
He lifted his head up and took a few more careful breaths.
"I'm sorry. I try to control it but it gets so hard sometimes."
"What was that?"
Glynda asked with a sympathetic tone.
"Docs said it was signs of my mental state deteriorating. I loose my self and I don't know what's happening. It takes time for me to get myself back and under control again but until then I'm...not all there. They say I'm unstable."
"Why haven't you gotten help?"
"I can't. There aren't many people qualified to do that anymore in the world. We also needed Gears and my friends and I were good ones at that and we wanted to keep fighting. Keep people safe you know?"
"Yes but all to well I'm afraid. Your armor and weapons are unique. I take it you are not from around here?"
"Yea I'm from a faction called the COG, until recently which has been disbanded. But Gears like me still proudly call ourselves part of it."
Isaac said proudly.
"Where is this COG if you don't mind me asking?"
Glynda asked.
"That's the crazy part I've been thinking of. There is nothing to even hint toward this place being anything like my home or anywhere else so as crazy as it seems I either got kicked to a different dimension or planet."
"And do you have any information or proof to back up your claim Sergeant?"
Issac reached into the back of his helmet and pulled out a small chip.
"COG issued helmets come with a lot of features. One of which is a helmet cam to record battles and to plan the next one using the footage. Kind of like a Trashball game."
Ozpin reaches over and picked the chip out of Isaac's hand and plugged it into his computer and an array of files with a serial number came up.
Ozpin clicked on the most recent one and what played was enough to back up Isaac's claim and then some.
Ozpin and Glynda looked at the footage in horror while Isaac just listened and kept his head down, unwilling to watch his friends die again.
Each young Gear that fell made both of the Professors heart attempt to leap from their chest in sadness, the screams of the Gears insuring that they would be heard throughout the night.
The professors watched as the wounded and broken Gear infront of them dragged himself to the remaining ammo of his friends and made a last stand and finally dying with a soft lullaby with a hint of happiness in his voice till the film cut out and when the footage returned Isaac was in the forest, leaning against a tree.
It broke their hearts to hear someone so young accepting death like this.
When the video ended Isaac spoke again.
"We've been fighting the Locust for 17 years. I've been in that war since I was 7 and I officially started doing that as a COG Gear when I enlisted when I was 13. After a bit I didn't even bother keep track of my age. The only reason I know how old I am was because of my sister, she was the last person that I actually listened to and, as of now, the last of my team."
"Why would your government enlist children?"
Glynda questioned with a sympathetic look on her face.
"They didn't. But after awhile the COG just didn't care if you lied to get in. If you could do your job then you were in. It was all about how effectively you could do your job and my friends and I did our jobs very well. My parents sure were pissed when they found out though."
Isaac said with a small chuckle and rubbed the back of his helmet as he remembered how his Gear parents reacted when he told them he had enlisted in the COG.
"We didn't even get a chance to rest after the last war. The Pendulum Wars."
"And how long did that war last?"
Ozpin asked, curiously as the worst war Remnant had faced only lasted less than a decade.
"89 years."
Ozpin almost choked on his coffee at how long that war lasted. It made the Great War seem like a skirmish in comparison!
An entire human generation contributed to war.
"How?"
Glynda said shocked.
"It was over a miracle resource called Imulsion. It was the answer to a lot of resource problems and that made people greedy. It was solved when the COG got their hands on a weapon that fired a laser from orbit and had the capability to burn an entire city. My dad along with my mother fought in the Pendulum Wars. I'm sure everyone else's family somewhere in their tree did too."
Ozpin and Glynda continued to listen with their full attention.
"After about 6 weeks the Locust came. They killed off everyone in their path, men, women, kids, it didn't matter to them. We called that day E-Day, or Emergence Day. They killed us off till we eventually resorted to burning our own cities. The COG sent a call to evacuate all cities to a city named Jacinto while the rest we used the Hammer of Dawn on, a satellite array that fires lasers at a designated target. We killed millions of our own people, hoping to kill off the Locust, but all that got us in the end was the hate of our own people."
Isaac said with sorrow laced in his voice.
"After a long brutal war and 2 years after sinking Jacinto to bury the Locust did it finally end and the day I died."
"What do you mean you died?"
Glynda asked, scared of the answer she would receive and already knowing the answer.
"I mean I died. The end of that video you saw was my death. I died expecting to return to my family and friends. To finally have the rest I have been looking forward to. I'm not going to lie Professors I am tired of fighting. I've been fighting for as long as I can remember. At this point I just want to rest as much as I can until I am inevitably sent back into combat."
"What makes you think you will have to fight again?"
Ozpin asked.
"It's human nature after all. There truly isn't going to be peace, only a period to rearm and rebuild for the next war. That's just how life works."
Ozpin thought for a moment before giving the COG Sergeant a map and a key card.
"That is a map of the academy as well as where you will be staying. I'm willing to offer you a job. Not as a huntsman but as a one man strike force. If you are interested that is."
"What's the first mission?"
"You'll start on-"
"No I need the mission now. I-I need some stuff to get off my mind."
Isaac said softly.
"I understand. However the most recent mission I have isn't until a few days from now."
"Understood. Anything else sir?"
"That will be all Sergeant. Thank you."
Isaac nodded and picked up his bag and left.
As soon as the door to the elevator shut Glynda took a big sigh and rubbed her eyes, desperately trying not to break down for the young soldier.
"My god. I would have never taken what he said seriously if he didn't have that footage. Even then I would still assume something was bothering him."
"You noticed too didn't you."
"How he would always keep a hand close to the revolver on his side and when he would twitch at even the slightest of sounds? Yes. However it's hard to see that in someone so young."
"Yes. For the first time in a long time I am not looking forward to what else is on that chip he gave us."
Ozpin said looking at the device in question that was still hooked up to his computer. It was going to be a long night indeed.

By the time Isaac started to walk through the halls it was dark outside and he was getting odd looks from the occasional student walking through the halls, while looking down at the card Ozpin has given him.
He stopped infront of a door and knocked on the door with his armored hand.
The door swung open and Isaac was met with Velvet at the door.
"Oh hello Isaac! You need something?"
"Yea um apparently I'm staying here."
Isaac said with a nervous chuckle.
"Hey Velvet! Whose that?"
Coco called from the room before she poked her head from the doorway.
"Oh hey Isaac. What's up?"
"He said he's staying here."
"Well what are you doing keeping him out get him in here!"
Coco said waving Isaac in.
When Isaac went into the room he was greeted by Yatsuhashi and Fox and immediately saw an issue with their living arrangements.
"So where am I sleeping for the night?"
Isaac asked as he looked around.
"Oh um."
Velvet looked around to her teammates and they all shrugged.
"If nothing else I can always sleep on the ground."
Isaac said as he set his bag down on the foot of Velvet's bed.
"Are you sure? There's so way that can be comfortable."
"In the COG they teach you that even getting an opportunity to sleep is a blessing. I've slept in worse places than this back home anyway."
Isaac said has he started to take off his armor, leaving him in a t-shirt and his combat pants, and his blue COG bandanna.
Last he lifted his helmet off of his head and breathed a breath of fresh air.
"You have no idea how fresh air feels after you take off a sealed helmet."
Velvet blushed at Isaac's face and looked away to save herself the embarrassment while Coco smiled at her friend's reaction.
Isaac had brown eyes and brown hair to match that's was cut to a short fade to the top where the top was slightly longer than the sides but not by much.
But what really caught the eye of CVFY was the amount of scars on Isaac's arms and face.
His left ear looked to have been clipped by a blade, leaving a chip out of the thin flesh, he had a scar that cut through the top left of his hair and stopped right below his right cheek bone and another that ran at an angle at the left side of his face.
His arms were highly scared as there was a multitude of scars that varied from bullets to claws to blades, even what appeared to be a bite.
It made CFVY shutter at what could have done a so much damage to the young soldier.
Isaac grabbed a long rifle from the duffle bag and took out four chains that had little gears with writing on them.
He wrapped them around the barrel of the weapon as CFVY looked on curiously.
"What are those?"
Yatsuhashi said, asking what his team were also wondering.
"They're my friends. Their COG tags are all I have left of them aside from their weapons."
Isaac said softly.
CFVY looked at the soldier with sympathetic looks on their faces as the soldier laid his head down on the duffle bag with the rifle with a chainsaw bayonet laying next to him.
"Get some sleep. I don't know much about this place but I know that sleep is still needed to sustain yourself here."
Isaac said as he pulled his bandanna over his eyes and went to sleep almost immediately.
At first CVFY thought he was still awake a bit but that thought was quickly shut down by Velvet confirming that Issac was truly asleep from his breathing patterns.
As the rest of her team got ready to follow Isaac's example, Velvet slowly moved to the weapon where the "COG tags" hung and carefully lifted them in her hand and looked at them, each one with a name, rank, serial number, and, what Velvet assumed was, a place.
Each had a light coating of a dried red substance on the metal.
Velvet looked at the tags in horror as she realized what it was, dried blood.
Velvet could only imagine what kind of grizzly death that Isaac's friends met to end up with this much blood on the necklaces.
Isaac meanwhile growled and held the rifle next to him tighter the longer she held the tags and she quickly let go as soon as she realized this and almost immediately Issac relaxed.
Velvet crawled into her bed and stared at where Isaac was sleeping.
"Hey Velvet. You ok?"
Coco asked as she looked at her teammate.
"Yes, I'm alright."
"You sure? You look like you saw someone kick a puppy."
Velvet sighed.
"I looked at those necklaces. They had so much blood on them and Isaac was covered in so many scars. He said he has been fighting for his whole life. I just-"
She sighed before she could finish.
"It's ok Velvet. We'll help the big guy. After all I'm sure you would do it with or without our help."
Coco said with a smirk.
"Wait. What?"
Coco chuckled.
"Get some sleep Velvet. See you in the morning."
Coco said as she rolled over and closed her eyes.
Velvet looked back at Isaac and slowly closed her eyes and went to sleep.