Chapter 1: 1.2 Mil Thrush

A lithe girl stretched out as the alarm system blared over the intercom. She ruffled her hair and looked around the cramped quarters from the top bunk's dying mattress. Just a simple mirror was next to the beds, across from it was the door. She'd have to move fast if she wanted to use the mirror today; otherwise her sister would bogart it. She rolled out of bed, and landed on her feet, just like every morning. Not that she thought it was anything cool or anything. It was always easy to do so in the weak artificial gravity of the ship. She was looking good in her tight green onesie: not that it was her choice for the entire team to wear them or anything. They were just on wholesale or sale, or whatever it was that made them cheap. Only Ren was happy with the color. Maybe. She wasn't sure. She could never tell what he was feeling, other than tired. She quickly changed into her red flight suit, and left to check on the others before her blonde mess of a sister woke up. She palmed the scanner next to the door, and the door slid open, letting her slowly drift out into the main circular hallway that made up most of the Crescent Rose. If she just let herself drift in the hallways long enough, she'd eventually find the door to the kitchen, where Ren was probably hard at work already. He and Yang had more or less silently agreed on having him do the two light meals, and having Yang do the heavy one. Not that Nora ever ate light. She palmed the door to the kitchen and slid in, giving Ren a sleepy greeting.

"Good morning Ruby. Slept well?" asked Ren as he flipped the fluffy goodness in the pan.

"Yeah. Guess so." Ruby gave off a loud yawn. "Seen Nora?"

"Don't need to. There's only two thing's she can smell anyways."

"Explosions and-" Ruby was cut off by the door being palmed open by a rabid girl in a pink flight suit. Why she chose that color, Ruby would never understand.

"Pancakes!" Nora climbed all over Ren, the pink and green tight flight suits contrasting horribly. At least in Ruby's eyes.

"So," Ruby drifted over and water pack, "while she's distracted, hear anything on any bounties?"

"No, not yet," calmly answered Ren. "Maybe we could call up Jaune again to see if they have any."

Ruby took a hearty sip of her delicious clean water. "Maybe. He pulled some favors for us last time." She sips from the mug. "It's nice. Almost too nice."

Ren chuckles. Before he can answer, Nora answers for him. "Duh, it's cause he's Jauney. He's always nice."

"And he never want's his favor's repaid?"

"Of course he does," Answered Ren, "But they're almost always deliveries. He doesn't get time off, so when we ever traveled to somewhere close to one of his sisters, he would usually ask us to take some cargo for him."

"Oh, that ain't so bad then. So let's call him up."

"In a bit. Pancakes are ready. You mind waking Yang up. I can't stop Nora, so if Yang ain't here before Nora eats them all, then she misses them."

Ruby giggles, as Ren puts the plates onto the table. She had asked her mother before on why the plates don't just fly away, and apparently all the plates are lined with a magnet on the bottom. Convenient. "Well, it's her loss anyways. Not going to let Nora eat my share while I try to wake her up."

Ren smiles as he sets up the monitor. The crew starts munching down on the flap jacks as Ren fiddles with the keyboard. Eventually the monitor emits a ringing noise.

"Hello, Remnant System Office, Bounty Division, how may I help you today?" Drones a dull voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey Jaune," Starts Ren, "Any bounties come to your desk recently?"

"Hey Mulan. Of course there were. There's always bounties here," quipped Jaune.

"Anything worth going for?" Asked Ren.

"Going for as in?" Asked Jaune.

"Million plus!" Chirped in Nora.

"Hey Thor, and I do think one did come in this morning. Let me check." The sounds of a mouse clicking droned on for a few moments before he answered. "Yeah. Vale sector. One ship hijacker by the name of Russel Thrush. Bounty of 1.2 million Lien. Alive, of course."

While Jaune was looking up the bounty, Yang walked in her vibrant yellow flight suit, grabbed a plate and served herself. She gave a short whistle and commented, "1.2 million Lien for a ship-jacker? What's wrong po-po, can't catch him yourself?"

"Yeah Lock. That's why he's a bounty." Jaune deadpanned.

Ruby elbowed Yang. "Jaune, ignore her. What's the real reason?"

"Oh hey Hood. He's heavily armed and dangerous," Jaune sighed. "Heavily modified Dagger Class ship. He makes off with big cargoes, worth 5 to 20 mil. Only's done three so far, but you know the specs of the Dagger class."

"So you guy's want someone to take care of the problem early," commented Ren.

"Nip it in the bud. Nip it in the butt. Right Jaune?" Chirped Nora.

"Yeah, basically. You will get a bonus 300 K if you can recover his latest cargo. Apparently it's some research project. Atlasian tech."

"So, above your pay grade?" asked Yang.

"Yeah, above my pay grade. You in, cause I got Hector calling on another line."

Ruby looked between the team. Nora was furiously nodding. Ren gave her his consent. Yang, well, Ruby just interpreted her shrug as a yes. Ruby was sure. "We're in."

"Alright, sending you the coordinates. Adios, and good luck." The line went dead.

Ruby placed one of her feet gently on the table and took a heroic pose. She really wanted to do a hearty stomp and heroic pose, but last time she tried to do that, it just ended with her firing towards the ceiling of the kitchen. "Ladies! And Ren. We are going to nab this Rustled Brush character!"

"Russel Thrush," corrected Ren.

"Russel Thrush." Ruby coughed into her hand awkwardly for a few moments. "Anyways, we have the coordinates. We have the team. Let's do this. Battle Stations, move!" Ren raised his hand. "Yes Ren?" Sighed Ruby.

"Dishes Ruby. We got to take care of them first."

"Oh yeah. Dishes first! Then battle stations." Ruby pouted for a moment. "Dang it Ren, you ruined the mood."

"Yeah c'mon Renny~" squirmed Nora. Ren just sighed and started to collect the dishes.

"Hey Hector, looking for a bounty as well?" Asked Jaune.

"No shit Sherlock. Not like you left me on hold for a few minutes. Got any valuable bounties?" Barked the voice on the other end of the line.

"Wow, no need to be so moody Hector. Was just settling business with team Crescent."

The sound of quiet cursing emitted from the other end of the line. "Did you already give the bounty?"

"Well, Hector, you know how bounties work. First come, first serve. As long as you don't commit traceable crimes, then who ever has the bounty gets paid. But, if you're willing to share, I got the coordinates."

"Pay?"

"1.2 mil, alive. 1.5 with cargo."

The voice hesitated for a moment. "How much is the split?"

"Don't know. Settle it among yourselves. Anything else?"

"Ship type?"

"Dagger."

"Coordinates?"

Jaune clicked away for a few seconds. "Sent. Safe hunting." Jaune waited to hear Hector disconnect. The blonde spun his chair around and looked at his captain staring him down from across the room. "Good morning Captain Winchester. How have you been lately?"

Winchester relaxed and leaned on Jaune's desk with two mugs of coffee. "You've been working yourself too hard lately Arc. You need time to recover." He handed Jaune one of the cups.

"Thanks." Jaune takes a sip of the scalding liquid. "Captain, thanks for the sentiments, but no point in waiting in recovery, if you're never going to recover."

Winchester frowned a bit before he patted Jaune's shoulder. "Just keep it reasonable. Your folks already were suspecting that I overworked you before. Don't want them to think I turned you into a slave, now do we?"

Jaune couldn't help but chuckle at that. "No we don't. Can't have a scandal where a captain is arrested for enslaving his workers, now can we?"

"No we cannot." Winchester took a sip from his mug. "Dispatch any orders?"

Jaune cracked a small smile. "Yep. Just finished two calls on the Thrush case."

Cardin nodded solemnly for a few seconds. "That's good. Who'd you put on it?"

"Team Crescent and Hector. How come?"

"Just checking." Winchester sighed. "Got a past with Thrush."

Jaune hesitated for a moment. "Mind me asking?"

Winchester looked down at Jaune for a moment. "Sure. It's just that he, two other guys, and I went to the academy together. We lost track of Bronzewing, and now Thrush is a criminal. It's just me and Lark left of team Cardinal."

Jaune rubbed his head awkwardly for a moment. "Sorry."

"Don't be. They made their choices." Cardin finished his mug. "Refill?"

"In a moment." Jaune finished his mug, and handed it over. "So, got paperwork to fill out. See you around Captain."

Ruby was sitting at the helm approaching the coordinates that Jaune had given them: an asteroid field. Just dense enough to not let the Crescent Rose through. Ren and Nora would have to take care of bounty. If they could find him. The radar pinged for a moment. A ship was coming up behind them. She switched to the cameras on the guns. It was a ship that looked like a four-sided arrow head, with four trails on the edges. It was a ship of the Blade Phylum, but it wasn't a Dagger class. It was a Gun-Blade class ship. Which only meant one thing. She input command, and palmed the mic.

"Hector, what the hell are you doing here."

"Same reason as you. And who may you be?"

"Just call me Hood," Ruby grumbled. "So you here to steal the bounty. Again?"

"C'mon Hood, I haven't even contacted you before so I wouldn't know anything about that. Sorry if I was just better than you."

Ruby was just steaming at that comment. "How about-"

"We share. Besides, the bounty is in a Dagger Class, right?"

Ruby bit her tounge. "Jaune gave you the information didn't he. That backstabbing-"

"Hey now, he's just doing his job. Just like us. So… how about a 30-70 split?"

"You want 45 thousand, for just showing up. Really? Try again, dummie."

"Well this 'dummie' at least knows that Sniper Class ships have some of the worst sensors for cloaked ships. I could flush him out, but I guess both of us will have to deal with no money."

Ruby frowned. He wasn't wrong. Crescent Rose was many things, but good at finding people who didn't want to be found was one of them. If they ran, she was fine, but cloaked ships were always harder to find. Its part of the reason why she picked up Ren and Nora. That and they were just good.

"Mulan can scan for him as well. No deal."

"We both know Mulan uses a Dagger class ship. They cloak well, but frankly, Dagger classes are not the best against other Dagger classes. You should know this, shouldn't you Hood?"

Ruby did know this. She just didn't want to share. "25-75 split. Deal?"

"Deal. Glad to do business with you. I'll be flushing him out." His ship started to move past her long, bulb ended ship. He at least didn't scrape the paint going past the rings around the thin portion of the ship. "Don't wait up." He then disconnected.

Ruby sighed. She changed the channel to call the insides of the ship. "Ren, Nora, Yang. We'll be working with Hector today. Don't kill him. Just junk Russel's ship and bring him back here, preferably with the cargo. Be wary."

Yang was the first to question her. "How come?"

"Cause he's dangerous. That and he's here to make the transaction. We'll have company."

"Why do you say that?"

"Why else would you stop in the middle of an asteroid field? Any pilot with half a brain knows not to stay in an asteroid field too long, even if you're out of fuel. We all good now?"

"Yeah."

"Yes sir!"

"All good."

"Alright, the air seal is activated, and the hangars are now opening. Good luck out there guys." Ruby watched as her team floated into the field. She wanted to go, but someone had to watch her baby, and she wasn't trusting Nora to do so. And Nora went where ever Ren went, so he was out of the picture as well. And Yang's ship was better suited to this environment than Ruby's own cruiser was. So here she sat. Staring off into space. All alone. Again.

Yang liked to think that she designed the best ship possible. She had chosen a Gauntlet Class ship. Gauntlet Class ships were not a pretty ship. They were long, dense rectangles, made with the engine taking up the largest portion. Well, technically the tank took up the largest portion, but it wasn't that big of a deal to Yang when she got it. This was because, normally, Gauntlet Class ships were made for freight. Yang had more than happy to give it quite a few modifications, and it had become her beaut. Yang felt that she didn't need fast pulse rifles like those attached to the blades of Dagger Class ships, or the heavy laser cannons attached to the Crescent Rose. The Ember Cecilia had more than enough power with its four-nozzle engine, and the dense plated armor in the front. She sure as hell didn't look any better, but when you need a fisting, she did the trick. And that's exactly what she was doing.

"Yang, should you be bulldozing through the asteroid field?" Asked Ren over the intercom.

"Of course I should," Yang smirked, "If he's in the way, I punch into him, and if not, then you guys just have a less to scan through."

"I just don't want to give Nora-" Ren was cut off by a sizable explosion off to Yang's right. "-ideas. Nevermind."

Yang laughed as the mic went silent. She knew what she was looking for anyways: all Dagger Class ships had basically the same design. They all had the cockpit in the center, with bracers holding two parallel wings out two the sides, looking like knifes. Some dumb-asses sharpened their wings, which messed with the camouflage. Ren upgraded the blasters on his, and did something else to his jammer, making it so his ship could entirely drop off scanners. She knew Russel had done something similar since he was not showing up on their radars. Before she could take the train of thought further, someone started pinging her.

"Hello, this is Lock. May I ask who this is?" Curtly answered Yang.

"Hector. Something popped up on my radar at your 5 o'clock a moment. Check it out."

"On it. Thanks." Yang hung up the call, and flexed her right arm. Well what she used to do to flex. After she lost her arm, she learned how to make it so Ember Cecilia was a literal extension of her arm, and whenever she wanted to drive it, she could just plug and play. The ship started rotating through space, hissing gas to make the tight turn, and she could just make out the outline of a ship on her monitor. She wouldn't have even noticed it had it not been the thin layer of space dust outlining the ship. She palmed the intercom.

"Ren, Nora, I've got eyes on him."

"Sorry Yang, but Renny and I are busy right now. Some White Fang ships are making a ruckus, and they just won't let me hit them." Answered Nora.

Yang sighed. "Nora, that's cause you drive a Hammer Class ship."

"So?"

"Hammer Class is a demolition type. You hitting them totals their ships."

"So? That's their problem."

"Nora, that kills people."

"Eh. Maybe if they didn't shoot at me first we wouldn't have a problem. Just have Hector help you."

Yang sighed as she hung up. She pinged Hector. She sat idle, waiting for either Hector to respond or Russel to panic. Didn't matter anyways, since she could accelerate right into his sorry excuse for a ship.

"Lock?" Replied the speaker.

"Yep. I've got eyes on him. Thor and Mulan are busy with the Fang. We'll have to deal with him."

Hector was silent for a few seconds. "Alright. I've got eyes on him as well."

"You in position?"

"Blindspot. You?"

"Flank." Yang started revving the engine. "Okay, three, two, one, let's jam." Yang blasted off at max speed towards the cloaked ship. It started to move, but was T-boned by the flying quadrilateral that was the Ember Cecelia. The wing crumpled against the front of the ship, as they continued to head full steam ahead towards a cluster of asteroids. Yang could make out Hector's ship on the flank, waiting to strike. Russel's ship then barrel rolled downwards, or what was currently downwards, detaching itself from the blunt edge of Yang's ship. It spiraled for a few moments before it balanced itself out, and started to accelerate. It didn't go far, as four harpoons locked themselves into his ship. Either Hector was really good, or just really luck, for his two of his harpoons hit vital parts: one through the engine, and the other through the computer systems. Yang dived the Ember Cecelia, and pressed itself onto the underside of the smaller Dagger Class ship, preventing it from diving further, as Hector reeled him in.

"Hey, Lock, grip onto him and take him back to the Crescent." Hector piped over the intercom. "Something's messing with my computer."

"Got it." Yang rotated her ship till it was perpendicular to Russel's, and four grip claws dug into the body of Russel's ship, holding his underbelly to her front. "How'd you even get something in there?"

"My harpoons use a computer to aim," Hector admitted. "Must have jumped in when the computer got destroyed. I think I-" Hector's voice went silent. Yang could still see his ship however.

"Hey, you there?" Asked Yang. She thumped the intercom twice with her left. "Guess I lost his signal, or he just hung up on me." She then saw Hector's ship retract it's harpoons, veer drunkenly, then blast off away from the fight. "Or something else." She switched channels, and pinged the Crescent."

"Hey Rubes, I've got the bounty, Ren and Nora are busy with the Fang, and Hector blasted off to who knows where."

Ruby hesitated for a moment. "So we don't have to split with him?"

"Don't think so."

"Sweeeeet. Get him back here. I'll let Nora and Ren know when its time to go."

"Got it." Yang hung up the call.

Jaune wasn't sure if he was supposed to be impressed, surprised, or annoyed. He had asked for one criminal. He received six. Five of them were apparently White Fang terrorists. Which meant a lot of paperwork. They had already been taken to their cells, but he still had to pay the Bounty Hunters.

"So… Russel was going to trade with the Fang?" Asked Jaune.

"Apparently so," replied Hood over the monitor.

"Why though? They want to kill all humans and all that jazz."

"Did you say, 'Jazz'?" Echoed Lock over the monitor. It then sounded like someone was fiddling with the controls.

"Yang, stop it!" Squealed Hood. "We listened to 'Tank!' all the way over here!"

"C'mon, its a good song."

"No means no Yang."

"Fine~" Lock dramatically sighed. "I guess this means no dessert today then."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Now girls, calm down." Jaune insisted, "You guys want me to pay you right?"

"Yeah…" Hood sighed. "So how much?"

"The 1.2 plus the 5k from the Fang you wrangled. It'll be sent over…" Jaune clicked on the keyboard for a few moments. "Now. So, what happened to the tech?"

"Dunno."

"And Hector?" Added on Jaune.

"Apparently he just booked it." Hood calmly dismissed.

"Huh, doesn't seem like him. So… Lock's name is Yang?"

"You heard." Hood went silent for a few moments. "Please don't tell anyone."

"You're secret is safe with me. Arc's word. Hear from you later?"

"Yeah. I'll call you later Jaune."

"We should be a safe distance away now."

"My words cannot express my hate of you."

"Oh, thank you!"

Thanks for reading this. Just came to mind while watching a certain show, and decided to write it. Feels good to write again. Honestly, any criticism, comments, or things of that nature would really be appreciated. See you next time.