Miracles of Ancient Wonder
~
Chapter 2.3
~~~
Doctor Oobleck, she needed to remember the right title, and Ruby stood in Beacon's central tower, waiting for the main elevator to arrive. It went from the ground floor all the way up to Professor Ozpin's office at the top. She'd been up almost all of the way a few times to send messages to her dad. For some reason, he was able to keep her messages in mind more than her face. So they were just emailing instead of video chatting.
"So, Prof- Doctor Oobleck. Where's the lab we're going to?" Ruby asked while paging through the advanced engineering book he'd given her.
"We're going down, Ruby. Deep into the depths of Beacon's foundation where we contain technology and items that need to be protected. Also items that people need to be protected from. While we are there you will see many other doors and labs. Don't open any of them unless I, or another Professor, is there to accompany you."
The elevator opened with a soft ping. They stepped in and he waved a badge near the console. Every floor above them appeared along with eighteen basement levels. Ruby whistled when she saw the number.
"Impressive isn't it. A true marvel of ancient architectural prowess. Our modern construction companies still struggle to build as resilient a structure. Though, few of them have as much money as Beacon's original architects did." Doctor Oobleck pulled up a picture of an old painting on his scroll and showed it to her.
It was Beacon, kinda. The buildings were rougher and all of the people standing around were soldiers. Their armor and weapons were plain, white steel. They had no adornments or heraldry, nothing that could be used to tell them apart. If they didn't have different heights or widths, she might've mistaken them for being clones of the same person. Which would be appropriate for Colorless era knights.
"While the Academy was founded only eighty years ago, the buildings and foundation are far, far older. The surface structures were originally known as the Royal Alabaster Bastion. An impregnable fortress that the Kings and Queens of Vale would retreat to in times of war." He paused to take a sip of coffee. "It also served as the training ground of their greatest warriors, the White Knights. A savage order that beat any trace of individuality and feeling from its members in order to improve their ability to operate in lands claimed by the Grimm."
He continued with a slight shiver in his voice, "They would be locked in subterranean cells with a Beowolf just out of reach. There they would remain until they either lost the capacity to feel any emotion that would attract the Grimm… or went mad. Of course, that was just the first ordeal that they went through. Those poor men and women were tortured until they could persevere through anything without a single ounce of feeling, their souls bleached as white as their armor."
Ruby shuddered at the thought of being in a place like that. She'd learned about what Vale was like in that time in broad strokes: restrictions on what people could wear, lack of art or music, and devastating wars between the kingdoms. They went over the effects of the wars on the people, but never how the soldiers who fought in them were trained.
"After the Great War, the Bastion was repurposed into the academy that you now attend. A beacon for the world to see and emulate. It was a powerful symbol for the new era, showing that such an evil place could be redeemed and used to help everyone."
The elevator stopped and they stepped out to a hallway lit by the Dust circuits running along the walls. The circuits traced complex patterns over every surface. Some ended when they reached one of the doors and others just continued until they rounded a corner.
Ruby took a deep breath as she listened to the symphony of the machinery. While the circuits looked rather chaotic to the eye, she could hear how they fused together into a complex melody that echoed through the hall. It was all spiraling into something much further beneath them.
"This floor is used for advanced research and development. There are a number of technologies that either require a powerful Aura to use or need to be modified in order to be used by people possessing sufficient strength of the soul. However, what we will be working on is not one of those technologies." He said as they walked. They passed a number of doors, each of which had a very generic name, usually nothing more than a number. Eventually they stopped in front of room 712, the Advanced Materials Lab.
"Ooh," Ruby cooed as the doors slid open and most of the lights flickered on. There were so many nice machines here and even more components that she was dying to take a look at. Everything was scattered around the lab in a haphazard manner, organized for someone who could quickly get from one side of the room to the other in the blink of an eye. Luckily, Ruby could do that too.
Doctor Oobleck led her to the very back, where a small crucible-like-thing was sitting on a table. Next to it was a rotor made of Orichalcum and Moonsilver!
Ruby glanced around at the other pieces lying nearby and looked at what they were made of. All of the precious metal here boggled her mind.
If she was right, there was a full suit of armor whose plates were pure Orichalcum with flexible underarmor of pure Moonsilver! There were also wires and connectors sticking out of the sides made of metals she'd never, ever seen before! She could even make out incredibly small gears, again made of Orichalcum, built into the joints.
"I, bluh, agagaba." Ruby made random noises and waved at the table that was casually holding more incredible metal than all of Signal's labs combined.
"Ahh yes, the armor. Theoretically, very impressive, but I wouldn't bother with that if I were you. Until we get this improved Dust furnace operational, it's just a very expensive paperweight." He picked up one of the gauntlets and casually dropped it. "It was given to Professor Ozpin many years ago in hopes that he might be able to make use of it. Unfortunately, even his Aura wasn't powerful enough to make that monstrosity move without damaging itself."
Ruby knew that problem all too well. Structural integrity was the hardest part of Crescent Rose's design and she had to scrap most of her initial attempts because of it. She had to choose between being able to wield her weapon or it having a sturdy design. She picked the first for obvious reasons; if something was too heavy to pick up, then it wasn't a useful weapon. But because of that, her scythe wouldn't last through a single fight without her Aura protecting the internal components from damage.
Orichalcum and Moonsilver were amazingly potent, but you also needed a very powerful Aura to use them. The thought of trying to infuse an entire suit of armor made out of nothing but them made her shudder. She'd have barely any Aura left to take hits or use her Semblance if she did that.
Well, maybe if she did the glowy thing she might be able to do it, but that only happened when she pushed herself too hard and glowing all of the time would suck.
"I have no idea how General Ironwood got a hold it. But, he said that if we can figure out a way to make it work, then the armor was ours. Of course, since he couldn't provide us with any schematics or knowledge of which company built it, reproduction will be next to impossible without sending it back to Atlas." Doctor Oobleck sighed and shook his head. "It's most likely a proof of concept from one of their defense firms. Designed to get the military interested in purchasing hundreds for specialists. If a lesser version of this armor could be constructed, it would revolutionize the capabilities of the average Hunters. But the project was likely scrapped once they realized the costs involved. So Instead, we have a demonstration of incredible technical prowess that is utterly unusable."
He tipped his head back, draining his mug in one go.
"In any event, what I need you to do right now is perform a large number of tests on our current furnace model and record the results. There are a large number of different nozzle sizes and Dust ratios that all need to be checked against."
A long, mostly empty, spreadsheet appeared on the wall in front of Ruby. She barely resisted groaning. Weiss was right! It was all boring paperwork! She looked up at Doctor Oobleck with dazed, pleading eyes.
"But, all of these tests will take a long time to perform, leaving us…" He flicked a switch and the lights near the big machines turned on. Ruby's eyes immediately brightened at the sight of all of them. "With ample opportunity for other research. Of course, if you come up with any ideas for modifications or improvements to the furnace, let me know as soon as you have them."
"And now, we will begin!" He shouted and raised his mug above his head.
"But first, we need to re-build some components that the last tests melted." He dashed over to the side of one of the bigger machines, narrowly avoiding hitting some tools dangling from the ceiling with his hair. "Tell me Ruby. Have you ever used a lightning lathe before?"
~~~
Later that night, Ruby was laying on her bed and staring blankly at her text books. She spent way more time with Doctor Oobleck than she expected and had a lot of homework to catch up on.
Each member of team RWBY had some and they were all working on it. Well, Ruby was supposed to be, but she was paying more attention to the sounds of all of the machinery around them. She knew there was something wrong with the furnace, but couldn't put her finger on what it was. The Dust wasn't being burned smoothly and the pockets of imbalance were causing the turbine to spin out of control.
Of course, explaining how she knew that when they hadn't finished going over any of the numbers wouldn't be possible. She didn't know how to fix it either, so she couldn't just happen upon the right configuration. Research was hard.
"Grrr, why are you so incompetent? You can't even catch one man?!" Weiss growled loudly enough that it snapped Ruby out of her thoughts.
She leaned over the side of their bunk bed so she could look at her partner. Weiss was in her nightgown with her scroll in hand and two textbooks in front of her. She was gripping her scroll hard enough that it was shaking.
"Weiss are you ok?" Ruby asked after clicking her music off.
"No, I'm not. I finally figured out why the price of Dust has gone up so much!" She scrolled up and turned her screen to Ruby.
"'Aerial Criminals Abscond with Additional Dust.'" Ruby read the article's title out loud. There was a picture of a shop with a broken window and a small bulkhead flying away. A smaller picture showed a red headed man wearing a bowler hat and suit, but Weiss pulled her scroll away before Ruby could read any more.
"Ok, so some guy in Vale's stealing a bunch of Dust. Why are you mad? Wouldn't that be good for your dad's company?"
Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes, it brings in more money. But this isn't a good way for that to happen. He isn't just stealing high grade dust, he's stealing all of it: sand, crystals, even completely unrefined pebbles! There's no use for most of it outside of creating explosives."
"Uhh." Ruby raised a finger in hopes of getting a word in, but Weiss continued ranting without looking at her.
"Dust prices are up and it's 'good' for the Schnee Dust Company. However, this artificial demand only exists because Dust is being removed from the market by criminals! It still exists, we just have no idea what they plan to do with it."
"Weiss I-" Ruby tried to interject as Blake and Yang turned towards them.
"Meanwhile the White Fang have also been increasing their attacks. Disrupting shipments, destroying factories, and assaulting mines. So we also have Anathema worshiping savages stealing everything they can get their grimy paws on! They should just go the whole way and call themselves the Silver Fang considering how much damage they do to society." Weiss was shouting by the end of that. Yang flinched at her final words. Blake just stared at her, mouth hanging open.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Weiss said in disbelief.
"Do you know
anything about the White Fang besides propaganda?" Blake said slowly.
Weiss locked eyes with her and spoke quickly, as if she was reciting a list of facts from a text book. "They were a supposedly peaceful, Atlesian Faunus rights group that turned violent when the world didn't change fast enough for them. The violence quickly escalated from civil disobedience and resisting arrest to terrorism and assassination. They now operate in Atlas, Vale, and Mistral, with a larger membership than ever before due to strong-arming any Faunus they can into joining. And killing any who try to leave."
One of Blake's eyes was twitching a little bit. Her bow also moved forward and turned out, which was weird, but Ruby had gotten used to it doing that. Maybe it was in response to Blake's aura? Both her and Weiss were using theirs, for some reason. Each of them pushed against the air, sending waves of intense sound blasting across the room.
"Thus marking them the greatest barrier to the Faunus being treated better because no one wants to allow a rabid beast to live next to them. All the general public see is the White Fang committing atrocity after atrocity. Of course, all of that ignores their status as the most dangerous and destructive Anathema cult in recorded history." She practically spat her words. "Did I miss anything?"
Ruby gulped and glanced over to Blake. She didn't really know anything about the White Fang and from her sister's shocked face, neither did Yang.
"For starters," Blake said as she glanced at one of her books, "They
were a peaceful group that protested for decades. However, they were met with nothing except for attacks. After years of weathering these blows, they started fighting back and protecting themselves. It obviously got out of hand, but they hardly need to force people to join. You're delusional if you think a chance to fight back against their oppressors isn't attractive to many Faunus. A chance to make a real change, instead of waiting for empty promises that will never be fulfilled. And rabid beasts? That's what you call people fighting for their lives with the only power they have?"
"So they can attract young fools who are willing to throw their lives away for nothing, so what? Any White Fang member would be better served by trying to join the police force or a combat school. And yes, I will call them what they are, beasts. They are a menace who've undoubtedly caused more Faunus to die from Grimm attacks than they'll ever save." Weiss paused. "Also, you haven't even touched on their worst choices as a political entity. You know, the part where they dress like Grimm and worship man-eating demons, literally taking on the appearance of humanity's greatest threats."
"If you'd read about where that came from, you'd know it was done because they were already being called Grimmspawn and Anathema worshipers. 'If you would treat me as the devil, then I will give you something to fear.' Humanity forced them to become monsters, they just decided to dress the part. The 'worship' is just done ironically."
Ruby hissed slightly, but neither one noticed. After what Ren and Nora went through, she couldn't trust something like that. Maybe Blake was right, but… just no.
"That still doesn't make it,
in any way, a good idea. It just gives other Faunus a bad name and keeps real progress from being made."
"Really, real progress." Blake said deadpan. "Like what? Actually being paid for their labor?"
"The SDC pays them! We even gave them a twenty percent raise last quarter."
"Yeah, a raise in Schnee scrip."
"It's more efficient!"
Blake gave Weiss a look of disbelief again. After a moment, the heiress turned away in a huff.
Ruby took the pause to look at Yang. She opened her mouth and gestured from Weiss to Blake. Yang shrugged and shook her head. She mouthed
"I have no idea." back.
Weiss knowing a bunch of this made sense, since her dad's company employed a lot of Faunus. Now that Ruby knew which sites to check, she found a lot of really bad news written about how it treated them until about four months ago. Today, everyone wanted to know why they were suddenly giving out raises when they hadn't for nearly a decade.
She didn't know why Blake cared so much. No one at Signal was ever this intense, even the Faunus students. Ruby wondered,
Could Blake be... No, she doesn't have any animal traits. Unless...
Ruby kept a close watch on Blake's bow. It twitched in time with her Aura again.
Nah, couldn't be.
Weiss looked at Blake and took a deep breath. "By handling all transactions internally, the SDC is able to let its workers benefit from a lack of payroll taxes and the improved economy of scale that the SDC can use to purchase necessary goods from other vendors. Because of this, they're effectively making almost half again as much as they would be if they were being paid directly in lien."
"Because you know so much more about what they need."
"Well they certainly don't know how to shop intelligently! They spend so much of their money of beer and junk food that they can't save anything."
"They buy those as an escape from their miserable situation. They're slaves in everything but name!"
"No they're not!"
"Then how much does it cost for them to leave the mines?"
"I-" Weiss flinched back and grabbed her scroll. She pulled open a huge spreadsheet and scrolled through the figures. After a few minutes she finally spoke again, most of the anger gone from her voice. "It costs approximately three months' worth of labor for a ticket after factoring in cost of living expenses. If they buy luxuries at the average rate, then this increases to eleven months."
She took a deep breath before she continued. "Assuming they want the equivalent of three months' rent according to low-income housing prices in Atlas and to have luxuries while they work, then it becomes two and a half years."
For a long moment they waited. Ruby could still hear the reverberations of their clash echoing through the room in waves. Louder, softer, then louder again. They reached a peak in the center of the room.
"And if they have a family…" Blake barely spoke, but her words shattered what remained of the argument. It flowed away.
Weiss was blankly staring at her scroll now, at the numbers that determined how much a life under the SDC was worth. "The new Faunus foreman didn't have any complaints about their pay. He was excited for the raises."
"
A Faunus foreman. How many mines are there?"
"...It takes time to change things."
The tension was gone. They all turned back to their work.
But no one could focus for the rest of the night.
