I've been hunting around for a half-decent modern military/combat AU fiction, but came up empty. So, I figured I might as well give it a crack myself. It's not my first fanfiction piece, but it's the first in this fandom. I hope you guys enjoy.

Post note - Characters may seem a little OOC, but hopefully I can write it off as being 'militarised' this way.

Rose Residence, Patch Island, Off the coast of Vale.

Twelve years ago...

"Ruby! Yang! It's time!" Taiyang shouted from the front door of their home. Beside him stood a woman wearing a camouflage uniform with the tags of ROSE-XIAO LONG and VALE ARMY sewn to her chest. Taiyang turned towards her and placed an arm around her. "Last tour, right Summer? Then you're out?"

"Yes, it's my last tour. Then I'll get transferred to headquarters and hopefully never get deployed again." She replied, leaning into Taiyang's side. "Sure, I'll miss being around the regiment and the guys, but I'll be able to spend more time with my girls." Summer turned and watched as said girls ran down the steps and wrapped their arms around her, one on each side of her.

"You'll be back soon, like last time right?" The younger girl asked, looking up at her with teary silver eyes. "Promise?" Summer's heart couldn't help but break at the request, knowing full well that she couldn't promise anything of the sort. She crouched down to be eye level with the girl, and held her in front of her.

"Ruby, I promise that I'll be back. I'll even bake you some cookies when I return, okay?" Ruby didn't reply, but instead just pressed forward to cuddle against her mother once more. Deployments were always like this; no matter how many times that Summer was called away, it never got any easier. The reverse was true, it got harder as Ruby grew up and was able to comprehend where Summer was going and what she was doing.

"Hey Mom, be sure to kick some Grimm ass." Her eldest 'daughter' spoke up, resting a hand on Summer's shoulder. She looked up at her to tell her to watch her language, but Yang beat her to it. "Sorry, I meant butt. Kick some Grimm butt for us." Summer smiled; while she wasn't her mother by blood, she had raised her like her own. Thankfully, Yang was a little more mature whenever it came to Summer's deployments; she was always the stronger one of the two, though she still cried a little when it was actually time to say goodbye.

"Yang," Summer said, untangling herself from Ruby to pull Yang into a hug. "Look after your sister for me while I'm gone. And help your father around the house as well." Yang nodded against Summer's shoulder, the older woman feeling a small damp patch against her shirt where her daughter's face rested. A car horn sounded from outside, directing Summer to expedite her departure. She pulled both of her daughters in for one last hug.

"I need you both to be good while I'm gone. I'll call home whenever I can, and before you know it I'll be back home for good." She stood up as the girls moved to grab either side of their father. Summer stepped over to her husband and gave him a kiss and hug goodbye. "I'll be safe, so don't worry, alright?" She stepped away and picked up her bags, and walked through the door. As she walked towards the car with her fellow officers, Army Captain Summer Rose-Xiao Long finally let a few tears fall.

I'll be safe...

Five months later...

"... and now to the south east, where coalition peacekeepers are still facing opposition from insurrectionist forces in the state of Menagerie. So far, coalition casualties are on a steady..." The report droned on as the two girls sitting opposite of the TV waited for their favourite show to start. A few sharp knocks on the door ruptured the relative silence. Yang stirred from her bored state and looked over to her younger sister.

"Hey Rubes, can you get that?" She asked, stretching out a little before sinking further into the couch. Ruby opened her mouth to protest, but another series of knocks cut her off. Rolling her eyes, she made her way from the couch to open the door. Like the many times she had opened the door and greeted guests before, she opened the door with a bright smile on her face.

"Hi!" The three men on the other side of the door remained silent, causing Ruby's confidence to falter slightly. It was then when she noticed that the men were all wearing the Army's ceremonial uniform, one man with small crosses pinned to his collar. Ruby took a few tentative steps back, and turned her head to call for Yang while not taking her eyes off of the men. "Yang?!" She called with an unsteady voice. Seconds after, the sounds of frustrated footsteps could be heard approaching.

"I swear Ruby; just slam the door on them if it's a sales..." Yang's sentence trailed off as she saw the three soldiers standing at the doorway. Instantly, she knew something had happened, as three soldiers in ceremonial uniforms standing at the doorway of a soldier's family could only mean one of a few things. She rested a hand on Ruby's shoulder, her gaze locked on the soldiers. "Ruby... go get Dad... quickly." Ruby didn't hesitate, and quickly ran off to fetch their father. Yang kept her eyes on the soldiers, focusing more on the man towards the rear than the two other soldiers who stood on either side of the doorway. It wasn't long until Ruby returned with Taiyang in tow.

"Ruby, you need to tell me who's at the door..." He said, looking up towards the soldiers at the door. Yang could see him visibly freeze, his eyes widening in fear. When they saw him, the two on either side of the door snapped to attention, their arms rising slowly in a salute.

"Mr Taiyang Xiao Long?" The third soldier spoke up quietly, stepping closer to Taiyang. "I'm Major Azure Powers, a chaplain from the 11th Airborne Infantry Regiment. I... have some bad news regarding your wife, Captain Summer Rose-Xiao Long. Is there someplace we can talk inside?"

Camp Castle in the Nikol Desert, approx 1000km south of Vacuo

Present day...

Sergeant Ruby Rose pushed aside the flap to the tent then let it fall back to hang naturally as she stepped in, taking a moment to savour the cooler inside air temperature. While the desert-issue combat uniforms were designed with hot weather conditions in mind, they still made her feel hot under the bright Vacuan sun. She started walking deeper into the eight person tent, navigating around the storage crates stacks along the centre and the other members of her squad that were sparing or maintaining equipment in the walkways. She arrived at her bunk and laid down on it, eager to rest after the lengthy briefing she had attended. Ruby understood the point of the briefings, but she couldn't understand why Warrant Officer Class 1 Port was the one giving the briefing. The long-term career soldier had a nasty habit of going off tangent during various stages of the briefing, dragging out the process.

"Hey Rubes, any word on movement just yet?" Ruby turned her head to her left to find her squad's automatic riflewoman, and her older half-sister, sitting on her own bunk, a freshly cleaned Minimi resting on its stock beside her. Sergeant Yang Xiao Long was one of the largest soldiers in Ruby's squad, and as such was given the responsibility of carrying the light machinegun and its ammunition. Thankfully, given Yang's uncanny ability to carry more weight than normal, there was need for an assistant to carry ammunition, allowing a member of her squad to fulfil another role.

"No... just another situation report with our favourite Warrant Officer." Ruby replied deadpan, but a slight smirk crossing her face. "Two-Two took a few casualties during a patrol out west, while a Mistralian armoured platoon wiped out an entire nest of opposition forces that were going to mass an assault on the camp." Ruby sighed and rubbed her face. "I wonder if any of the other platoons have our issue."

"And what issue is that?" Yang asked curiously, setting the large gun on the ground beside her as she laid down on her own bunk.

"Well... our briefings are either run by someone who can't stick to the format, or someone who rushes through the brief and leaves out the finer details." Ruby was referring to the second senior enlisted soldier that was attached to platoon command, Warrant Officer Class 1 Oobleck, also known as 'De-Caf' by the junior soldiers. "I swear, between Port and De-Caf, I'm surprised we manage to survive our missions."

"That's because Ozpin actually knows what he's doing, unlike some of the other platoon commanders I've come across." A black haired soldier said as she approached the two resting sergeants. Corporal Blake Belladonna was one of the quieter members of the team, but was also one of the more lethal members, fitting for someone assigned as the designated sharpshooter on the team. "It's thanks to him that we get accurate intelligence and proper battle orders."

"That's true... still; it'd be good to get through a briefing that's both concise yet detailed." Ruby chuckled, looking around the rest of the tent and studying the remaining members of her team. Two of her team were sparing, her assistant team leader and fellow Sergeant Jaune Arc currently being pinned to the ground by radio operator Corporal Pyrrha Nikos. Corporal Weiss Schnee sat at the end of her bunk, the medic in the middle of resupplying her FAST pack with medical equipment. Lance Corporal Nora Valkyrie was going through a crate of forty-millimetre grenades for her underslung launcher, while Lance Corporal Lie Ren sat on his bunk, cleaning and servicing his rifle.

Ruby wondered if her mother ever had a team like this, but dismissed the thought. Her mother was an officer, holding the position of platoon commander in an airborne infantry regiment. Ruby instead chose the enlisted route, rising to the rank of Sergeant fairly quickly, faster than her older sister. She too was in a command position, a team leader of seven soldiers, unlike the thirty that her mother had led for a few years before her death. She was too young to fully understand what had happened to her mother when she died, only being told that she was not coming home and would never will. It wasn't until she was fifteen when she learned that her mother had died as the result of an insurrectionist vehicle-bomb at a checkpoint her platoon was controlling. Being the kind of officer who led from the front, she was at the gate when the bomb detonated.

As Ruby grew older, she went through her mother's belongings and keepsakes from her deployments, learning about her exploits all over Remnant through her career. At the age of seventeen, she followed in her older sister's path and enlisted in the Army. Now, five years later at the age of twenty-two, she had reached Sergeant and was leading seven others into the fight. She was in the same unit as her mother, 2nd Platoon of the 11th Airborne Infantry Regiment, and was going to make her mother proud. While the heavy conflict in Menagerie had ended just before Ruby had enlisted, Vale still deployed a small detachment of peacekeepers to the area; Ruby had been deployed for a six month tour with the security forces during her time as a Lance Corporal, and then was transferred to the 11th upon her promotion to Corporal.

Right now, the 11th Airborne were deployed as part of Vale's contribution to Exercise Vytal, a major multinational training exercise held every three years. Soldiers, sailors and airmen and women from all over Remnant would deploy to a single location and take part in a series of war-games designed to strengthen international ties and practise large-scale combined operations. Each exercise focused on a different scope of warfare; this year's focus was on manoeuvre warfare and urban operations, as well as multinational cooperation on a squad level. To Ruby, this meant a lot of running around, moving from building to building while working with teams from other nations.

"So, when you do think we'll get another tasker?" Jaune asked as he was let up by Pyrrha, brushing off the dirt and sand from his uniform as he walked over to the others.

"I don't know, after Port finished the briefing Wizard spoke up and said something about 'being on guard'. Knowing him, he's probably received orders for a scramble and keeping it from us so he can spring it on us during our down time." Ruby replied, referring to Captain Ozpin by his radio call sign. Taking off her hat and uniform shirt, she then laid back down onto the bed. "I'm just as eager as you are to get into the fight."

And this brings us a close to the first chapter. I can't say when exactly I'll update this story, but I will. If you have any critiques or feedback, please leave them. I also have some resources (uniform styles, weapons, etc) which I will upload either upon request or when it becomes relevant to the story.

Thanks again for reading.