The new uniform didn't feel that different for Captain Jaune Arc.

It was the same old environmental uniform everyone in the military used. Spacy used grey suits, the Marines black and the Army, for some reason Jaune was still to understand, blue, but maybe it was because the Army also worked as the police force. His new uniform's only difference to the old one was the symbols and insignias on it to indicate his new position. And those new ones fit better. Getting new clothes in the Armed Forces was really hard.

Jaune ended up fixing himself, had breakfast with his family, with his new position still being the big talk of the day, and finally was able to get out of the apartment to go meet his new ship with Mia. Since his sister was part of the project, going with her made sense. After a few trips in the fast tubes, they were finally at the docks. The FTLRSS-7 was in its own space station outside the main colonies.

They were waiting for the bullhead that would take them to the station when they noticed a blonde older woman approaching in her Spacy uniform. Commander Glynda Goodwitch, future first officer to Jaune. She was a beautiful woman and her face was pretty ageless if they could talk about it, and more than a few heads turned towards the woman as she gracefully walked towards the Arc siblings.

"Captain Arc, Commander Glynda Goodwitch of the Colonial Spacy Forces presenting for duty." She saluted him, and Jaune felt weird to see someone who was his superior officer for so long now his direct subordinate.

"At ease, Commander. It is my pleasure to have you as part of the crew." Jaune said trying his best to sound professional. Apparently he did as a subtle smile appeared in Glynda's face. "I didn't expect you to be here."

"As your first officer, it is my job to support you in any way possible. Besides, I will be the one providing a tour of your ship." She stated, Jaune nodded and smiled. At least it would be some he was acquainted to, and Glynda didn't sounded displease by being in the command of someone younger than her.

"Mia thinks my little brother needs to present his girlfriend to her." Jaune looked terrified at his sister while the Commander just gave the Arc girl a cold stare.

"MIA! Don't go saying things that make people misunderstand! Com. Goodwitch was my instructor at combat school and it is in great part thanks to her and Admiral Tenryuu I am here." He said, missing a bit of a proud stare Glynda gave him. "I have nothing but respect for her, understood!?"

"Aye aye captain lil bro." Mia smirked, making Jaune groan while Glynda just had a smile in her face. Thankfully the bullhead arrived sooner than later, and the three blondes boarded it.

Jaune always felt at ease in the zero gravity environments outside the colonies. The gargantuan metallic tubes spun in their axis to create a faux gravity, and that always felt wrong to him. He even had motion sickness the first time he was deployed down the planet as the gravity attacked him badly. But there, weightless, he felt just… peace.

From the bullhead's small windows he saw the four colonies, almost identical to each other, just tubes with reinforced transparent synthetic glass on the top and bottom from where sunlight passed through. Around them several smaller tubes, donuts and other oddly-format space stations that usually housed hospitals, research centers and other dangerous setups to have inside the main colonies. The biggest structure aside the colonies was the Arena, a bowl shaped space station where shows and sports events were held.

Jaune always found that odd. Artistic endeavors were not professions recognized by the colonial government, and no one received a dime for them. Most people making music, books and other artistic activities usually did it in their free time. The problem with having limited resources was that only productivity activities were rewarded. Yet people still did their best to get entertained, and the fighting tournaments between the different colonies and their soldiers were the most popular sport. Even Jaune performed with his guitar once, accompanying a famous Spacy officer that was also a songstress.

"Captain, you can see your ship now." Glynda called, and Jaune turned to the other side of the bullhead.

He saw it for the first time, the ship that would become his home for the unforeseeable future, the FTLRSS-7. It was an odd ship, as it was clearly aerodynamic, like it was made to also go into atmosphere despite its considerable size. It was mostly black, probably the carbon coating used to absorb cosmic radiation. It had some red paintings like its ID, the colonial Spacy symbol (for some reason Jaune never understood, it reminded him of a sail in its mast) and a few lights on. The ship form was much like a broad dagger, the young captain wondered, and in its back was short wings on each side, the tips had large structures that reminded him of kite shields, but he knew those where the FTL engines that would allow them to travel to other star systems. The ship was inside its dock, which remembered Jaune of a big spider wrapping its legs on his ship.

My ship… It still feels weird calling her that.

Instead of docking on the station, the bullhead maneuvered to the back bottom of the ship, and the hangar opened to receive them. The bullhead slowly entered, and the hangar closed behind them. The second set of doors opened soon after, allowing them inside the pressurized area. There Jaune saw the ship had four bullheads like the one he was riding, plus two fighters to give support and a few land vehicles. As the bullhead touched down the deck, he saw the dark floor lit up in a faint green light, creating a hexagonal pattern. His next surprise was feeling gravity.

And a bit of motion sickness.

"Artificial gravity? I thought that was impossible." He commented as he tried to keep his mind off his complaining stomach.

"It was fully developed last year. Since we are going to be away far too long, it was decided we needed a bit of comfort, captain." Glynda explained, and Jaune nodded, but disagreed with what was comfort in this case.

"Can I turn it off?" He asked and the Commander just stared at him, while Mia laughed.

They get off the bullhead and were greeted by a peculiar person, at least for Jaune. Her environmental clothes were a weird mix of colors. It was grey as the Spacy ones, except by the black pants, and had neon green colors here and there. The girl didn't look older than Jaune, and had orange hair, green eyes and a pink bow in the back. There were no insignias, so Jaune wondered if she was a civilian contractor.

"Salutations Captain Jaune Arc, and welcome to the Faster-than-light Remnant Space Ship number seven. I am P.E.N.N.I." She said in a happy and friendly manner.

"Nice to meet you, Penny. Are you a member of the project Beacon?" Jaune asked with a small smile, and Penny smiled back.

"No, Captain Jaune Arc. I am part of the ship." Jaune and Glynda arched an eyebrow at that, and Mia laughed before going to the girl and putting an arm around her shoulder.

"Positronic Embedded Neural Network Interface, P.E.N.N.I., Penny for her friends. She is the AI supporting the ship." The Arc girl told, and Jaune was agape for a moment.

"An android?"

"That would be correct Captain Jaune Arc. I am not a real girl. Mom created me to be able to support the crew in their daily activities. I have two cores, one in the ship, and one in this mobile unity. The cores are in sync, but if needed I am able to support outside the ship with this mobile unit." She explained, yet Jaune's brain failed to process it properly.

"It is just me or this AI unit is… happy?" Glynda wondered, and Penny smiled more.

"Yes, I am happy meeting my future crew, Commander Glynda Goodwitch." The two blondes stared at Mia.

"AIs usually have trouble understanding us because they lack understanding of emotions. By making Penny feel emotions, she can properly support you, lil bro." Mia explained with no little pride hidden in her voice.

"If you are mom's brother, does this means you are my uncle, Captain Jaune Arc?" She inquired, hope in her clear green eyes.

"Wait, what?" Jaune couldn't be more confused right now.

"Mia Arc created me, therefore she is my mother. And you, being her brother, would be my uncle. Am I correct?"

"Yes." Mia said with a giggle.

"NO!" Jaune corrected promptly.

"I am confused…" Penny said while putting a finger in her chin.

"I will explain to you later, Penny." Jaune sighed as he knew his sister was responsible for this. "What exactly can you do?"

"I am combat ready, and I can operate a Hunter unit. I also have medical capacity and can provide my own Aura." That was a surprise to both Jaune and Glynda. An AI capable to use Aura was quite a revolution.

Aura was a mystery to everyone. Many wondered if it was a side effect of Dust exposition, but no one knew for sure. Before that day, they all believed Aura could only be produced by living beings, and used by intelligent ones like humans and Faunus. It was Aura that powered the Hunter suits. Jaune had lots of it, but his skills with the power armors were lacking to say the least.

"I can also control the whole ship if allowed by you, Captain Jaune Arc, but I mostly relegated to support the crew and keeping the maintenance of the ship." Penny finished, and Jaune nodded. It was weird thinking the computer system of his ship had feelings, but Mia was not the type to do things without thinking it through, so he decided to trust her.

"Very well. Penny, you don't need to refer to anyone on this ship with the full title. Just the patent or last name will be enough."

"Understood, Captain."

"I am surprised you didn't know of her before hand, Commander." Jaune asked Glynda, noticing her surprise.

"I knew the ship was equipped with a new AI model, but that is the first time seeing her mobile unit." Glynda explained, well aware Ozpin hid this detail from her on purpose, because he knew she would oppose about having a ship that could get its feelings hurt.

"We just finished the mobile unit this week. And don't worry, Penny can't turn against you or anything." Mia explained with an easy smile. Jaune wasn't much worried, but Glynda still distrusted the AI. "Now, come on, I will show you around the ship.

Space was something precious in the colonies, and therefore the word 'spacious' wasn't one used lightly. But that ship was the very definition of it. The corridors were large enough for the four of them walk side by side, there was a comfortable mess hall, a brig with four cells, a fully equipped med bay, and the quarters had full beds for the crew, to the point Jaune and Glynda would have separate officer's quarter. His own quarters were as big as the apartment he lived with his family, with a bedroom, an office with a big table, a private bathroom and even a real closet.

But what called his attention the most was the bridge.

Again, there was a big space there, with his command chair in the middle. In the front, three seats, the center for the helmsman, left and right for gunners. Back and left the communication center, one he expected to be manned by Glynda, and on the right the engineering center, where Jaune expected Ren to sit. Jaune froze there for a moment, the three girls looking at him, until he finally sat in the captain's chair. It felt comfortable yet terrifying at the same time. It finally dawned to him how much responsibility he would have from now on.

"Is the chair of your liking, captain?" Penny asked, getting him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, Penny, it is… does it have a cup holder?" Jaune asked jokingly, lighting the mood.

"Yes, press this button." Penny surprised him as the cup holder popped.

"Uh."

"How's your ship, Captain Arc?" Jaune spun on his chair to see director Ozpin standing there with a mug of coffee.

"Well, incredible is the only word that pops on my head. And Penny seems nice too."

"Thank you, captain. You also strike me as a good person." Penny said with a small curtsy, making Jaune and Ozpin smile.

"I think it would be a good idea if you moved in immediately, since it is a captain's job to know his ship as best as possible." Ozpin said and Jaune nodded in agreement. Penny apparently was ecstatic about it. "Now, I would rather leave you to your duty as a captain, but I was informed we have an appointment at the Arena."

"We do?" Jaune questioned but the director just nodded.

"It will be quick. I will have your family send your belongings here, and Penny will help setting everything in your quarters." Jaune sighed and got up, but he remembered something.

"Does the ship have a name? FTLRSS-7 is a mouthful."

"No, not yet. It didn't appear important at the time."

"A nameless ship is bad luck, director."

"So, why don't you name it? It is your ship after all."

"Nagato. She will be named Nagato." Jaune said with a smile, following the tradition of the Spacy in naming ships. Ozpin giggled a little but nodded in agreement.

Jaune hated the changes in gravity when going around. The Arena station had slightly lower gravity than the Atlas colony or the Nagato, and that made his stomach attack. He finished vomiting at one of the bathrooms around the Arena, and he already missed the spacious living quarters of his ship. He smiled. His ship. He finally felt like a true captain of the Spacy, but now he was there to test-drive the new class in Hunter power armor, the Paladin class. He lamented that the situation they were in forced him to even have one.

Combat school was mandatory to every single body enabled citizen that reached 13 years old, where they all would have their Aura unlocked and trained for combat together with the mandatory school disciplines. Jaune heard, as everyone, rumors that medic personal was to terminate the life of anyone born with any defect that avoided the military service, a sad reality of living in the brink of extinction. Jaune barely was able to pass through it, suffering in the hands of Cardin Winchester as his bully. Thanks to Glynda and the support of Ren and Nora he was able to survive it and graduate, barely. But once you graduate combat school, you had a few choices.

Military service was mandatory for two years, no matter what career you wanted, so at seventeen they could choose the two years of service and go to get civilian jobs or get a spot on one of the three forces that composed the military. Ren and Nora, interested in the engineering career, got to the Army. Cardin got to the Marine Corps, and that was one of many reasons Jaune didn't go there. Spacy fitted him better, and even he admitted that he was above average there.

But he never expected to be captain so soon after graduating.

He decided to worry about it later; he still had a month before his departure, so he would just take it easy for now. He got out of the small space that they called a stall relieved, and after cleaning himself he made way to the main arena where he would test his new power armor, apparently mandatory equipment for all his crew members. As he walked distracted by his own thoughts he failed to notice someone walking the opposite direction and stumbled on said person.

"Ah!" A feminine voice let out as she landed in her butt.

"Sorry, let me help you." He pulled her up, and noticed the Marine uniform, though it lacked any insignias at the moment. For some reason she was wearing a cap and sunglasses, something not needed indoors, or even 'outdoors' considering how little real sunlight the colonies had, not to say the space stations around them.

"Thank you… Oh, sorry captain!" The girl immediately saluted Jaune, and he chuckled, still not used to be a high patent officer.

"At ease, Marine. I am at fault here."

"I am sorry sir, but…" Jaune put a finger on her lips and shook his head, making the Marine blush a little.

"My rank doesn't make me right, Marine. So, just accept my apologies."

"Sir, yes sir." She said now with a bright smile.

"Better. Now, excuse me, I have to test my new coffin." He saluted the girl and she saluted back, but as he walked away, he missed the fact she watched over him till he disappeared.

"So… That is my captain…" She murmured to herself, and smiled once again.

"Jaune-Jaune!" He heard the energetic redhead that was Nora Valkyrie yelling from across the preparation room where a few sets of Hunter armor were being prepared. She rushed towards Jaune and pulled him into a bear hug. "I missed you!"

"If you missed me why you are trying to kill me, Nora?" He complained and she let him go with a giggle. "I see you are healthy."

"Sorry about that, Captain." Ren said as he approached and saluted Jaune. The young captain smiled and saluted back. "We are both eager to serve under your command."

"At ease, Lt. Lie. So, where's my coffin?"

"Sir, I would appreciate if you didn't call the Hunter a 'coffin'." Ren said in his stoic tone, but Jaune just rolled his eyes. Engineers were proud of their power armors, but soldiers knew the survival rate inside one wasn't that favorable, to not say terrible.

Ren showed the way towards the Paladin-class power armor. The blonde man was impressed on how compact it was compared to the old Knight-class Hunters. That one was his personal armor, and it was mostly white, with some golden details, his family crest on the chest. With the exception of infiltrator armors, there was no camouflage to speak off, as the bulky old armors would be easily detected by the enemy. So it was common for soldiers to personalize their armors, especially considering they were so likely to die inside one.

"Paladin-class is 30% lighter than Knight-class armor. It also consumes 10% less Aura, and it have a 15% increase in durability, while keeping reliability and ease to maintain." Ren explained, and Jaune just could think it meant a very small increase in chance of surviving.

"Right… Let's try it on them." With the help of his two friends and the automated arms around the armor Jaune was soon geared up. It really felt better wearing one of those than one of the old armors, and he moved with ease. The HUD was also cleaner and more on point, and soon it was fully charged.

"We will now connect it with the FLTRSS-7…" Ren stated and a link was established.

"Salutations, Captain. I can monitor your status from the Nagato from now on and provide assistance as long as you are in range." Jaune nodded as Penny's voice filled his helmet.

"OK, no more boring stuff! We talk weapons! We put some cool ones for you, oh captain my captain!" Nora shouted as the weapons schematics showed on the captain's display.

"Not much in weapons it seems…" Jaune questioned.

"Your fighting style is better fit for CQC. So… try the shield." Nora commanded, and Jaune activated the hardlight white shield in his left forearm. It shone brightly and looked like a hexagon. "Nothing can go through it as long as you have enough Aura to keep it up. Or until someone jumps on your back."

"I will keep that in mind."

"Now, the sword!" As commanded, Jaune activated the long white light blade that was embedded to his right wrist. "Sadly it can't cut everything, but still will ruin someone's day if you hit them."

"OK, Nora, I see what you wanted with this. And what is a 'neutron pulse rifle'? Sounds awesome."

"And it is AWESOME! Let's give it…" Ren covered his friend's mouth.

"Let's not. We will test it later, Captain. It is… a bit on the powerful side to safely use it here."

"Nice. Can I get this off now then? Everything is working fine and I don't feel like spending all day inside this."

"Oh, but we are still to test it in a fight, captain vomit." Jaune turned to see one person he would not bother seeing ever again. Cardin Winchester, wearing his Knight-class armor; the golden eagle in his chest making him looking more of a douche than normal, approached them. "We are going to spar… oh, sorry; I meant I am going to wipe the ground with you."

"You shouldn't count with a victory beforehand, 1st Sergeant Winchester." Ren said still stoically, and Jaune groaned under his helmet seeing Cardin already got a promotion, probably with his father's help. Also, memories of vomiting inside his helmet the first time he deployed, granting him the 'vomit boy' nickname.

"Yeah! Besides Jaune-Jaune kicked your ass the last time you sparred!" Nora affirmed, and Jaune groaned again, knowing that wasn't exactly due to his skill.

"And now, I will have my revenge, Captain Arc." Those words were laced with so much venom that could as well being an insult. Thankfully Cardin moved out with his usual pack of goons, laughing.

"Why him?" Jaune asked, and Ren sighed.

"His father wanted to show him off, so he used his connections to get him as part of the demonstration to the higher-ups. We were lucky enough that the Paladin armors are being made for your crew first or else he would be the poster boy." Ren explained as he finished checking Jaune's armor.

"Wouldn't be Major Nikos the one to be the face of the new armors?" Jaune asked, but as his friends were about to answer, they heard a siren calling for him. "Oh, great, here I go to be humiliated in front of everyone. Tell me does this armor have a 'win the fight anyway' button?"

"We are working on that." Ren said and Jaune wasn't sure if that was a joke or not.

Jaune walked towards the arena and was happy to see it was mostly empty… And unhappy to see all his sisters there with posters, as well as most of the higher-ups of the armed forces, including Ironwood. He hoped the new armor would give him something of an advantage over Cardin, but he remembered Glynda always saying the tool is not as important as who use it and how. Sadly the neutron rifle was locked for safety measures, so he would have to go with the hardlight shield and sword.

"I will enjoy this a lot, loser." Jaune heard Cardin's voice on his helmet. Of course he would use the private channel to bother him. "You don't deserve your post, vomit boy."

"Penny, block this clown out of my armor." The communication stopped immediately. "Thanks, Penny. Now, suggestions?"

"Trying to not lose seems appropriate." The voice answered seriously, and Jaune felt relaxing and chuckling.

"You and I will be good friends, Penny."

"I am your friend?" Penny said amused.

"Sure, yeah. So help me to not get trashed here."

"I see no trash around you, but I will provide support at the best of my capacity, Captain and friend." Penny answered energetically.

They waited for the sign to start, and as soon as it sounded Cardin charged against Jaune, using his variable mace to attack. The captain barely had time to activate his shield, which surprisingly held well enough to allow Jaune to counter. His blade hit Cardin's left side, but not with enough force to damage the armor. Jaune felt a bit more confident and had gone into the offensive, trading blows with Cardin. That had gone for a few minutes before Penny talked to him.

"Captain, your Aura levels are at 50% now. The shield is consuming a lot of it, as well as the automated forcefields." She informed, and Jaune acknowledge it. All armors had an automated forcefield, not as powerful as the hardlight shield, but every time he got hit it chipped a bit of his Aura.

"I will take a risk move here."

Jaune rushed towards Cardin, and allowed him to kick him back. Jaune sparred so much against the Marine when in combat school that he knew he would try to hit him next with the mace and would expose his left side for an attack. He rushed again to attack, and was swinging his word. But Cardin was about to strike his head from the side, when Jaune felt his shield arm move on its own and block the mace, allowing the captain to attack and destroy the cameras on Cardin's helmet. With that the siren sounded and he was declared the victor.

"Penny, did you assumed control over my arm?" Jaune questioned as he returned to the preparation area, while Cardin trashed around blindly, forgetting he had reserve cameras on his shoulders.

"No, captain. I did detected electromagnetic interference, but was unable to locate the source."

"Report that back to Ren and Nora, and keep an eye for it from now on."

"Understood, captain."

Jaune was forbidden to remove the armor yet, as Nora wanted it fully charged for the neutron rifle test, so he just removed his helmet and joined his sisters at the stand, being praised by every single one of them. He was concerned about the interference in the fight though, but was taken out of his thoughts as the stadium was filled with some kind of epic music.

"Oh, it is Pyrrha Nikos!" His sisters pointed at the arena and yelled like crazy fans. Jaune knew Pyrrha as almost everyone, and he did recruited her, but he wasn't a big fan of the tournaments, thinking those were a waste of time for the soldiers involved. He saw the famous red and bronze colors entering the arena. He never saw her fight before, so he found odd she had a physical shield. She carried a variable carbine on both hands. Jaune realized they were transmitting that fight around as he saw the big screens showing sponsors and other things, and sighed. They were transforming the event is a spectacle, and he hated that.

"Oh, this will be good." His sister Noir called his attention. Cardin and his fireteam entered the arena, the bully with a new helmet, it seemed. Jaune wondered why he was asked to perform when they were going to make the famous Major Nikos provide them with a show.

And what a show.

It took her two minutes to defeat the four Knight-class Hunters. And none of them touched her, nor in any moment did she get in trouble. The shield was actually some type of automated drone hovering around her. Simply put, she was so out of their league, Jaune's league, what happened was a massacre, not a competition.

"Captain?" Jaune got surprised as Penny called him by his communicator.

"What is the problem, Penny?"

"I couldn't keep an eye on it as you asked, but I monitored remotely this battle, and detected several small electromagnetic interferences in fireteam CRDL's armors. The likely source was Major Nikos."

So, that was how she was able to control the flux of the battle so easily, she somehow tampered with her enemy's equipment. Jaune knew that was probably her Semblance, a type of special power people manifested with their Auras, something Jaune completely lacked.

"Captain, you are being requested at the preparation area." Penny talked again, and Jaune sighed hoping it was about to remove his dammed armor.

"Lt. Lie, I am feeling a bit pissed off right now." Jaune said at the intercom as he stood outside the space station, his magnetic boots keeping him in place.

"Sorry captain, but that is the safest way to show the neutron rifle. Your targets are already in position, one click ahead of you, 15 degrees up, 9 o'clock." Jaune looked at the coordinates and saw six Titan-class armors being positioned by bullheads. Those were bigger, older power armors before the Knight-class and probably were decommissioned. He wondered what he was expected to do. "The neutron rifle takes seven seconds to charge. You better keep locked on target the whole time. Also, use your shield."

He activated the shield and the rifle, and listened as the gun armed on his back before moving to his right side. It indeed looked like a rifle, except longer and with three blade-like structures instead of a barrel. Jaune put the shield up his front and the hardlight construct opened a slit where he slid the frontal part of the gun. After locking at the targets, he started charging, and saw his Aura depleting fast as the gun started accumulating a golden energy between the three blades. The seven seconds seemed to last an eternity, but as soon as he saw the 'ready' warning and fired, everything happened in a split second.

A beam of golden light as wide as Jaune was tall was fired, and despite his armor and shield he felt the heat. The protective shield on the Arena station got red from the heat too in the parts closer to the beam. The six targets simple disappeared after the passing of the beam. Jaune stood there seeing the neutron rifle cooling down.

"Ren, what the holly hell just happened!?" Jaune yelled at the communicator.

"The test was a success. You used a fifth of your Aura to fire a supercharged neutron beam, which vaporized everything in its path, including the targets. Range is estimated in ten clicks before dispersion, and now you see why we didn't fire it inside." The engineer calmly stated, and Jaune was just baffled.

"I could take down a battleship with this!"

"Indeed, but sadly this weapon only works with people with great amounts of Aura like you, and even you can fire it only two, maybe three times. Now come back inside and we will check your equipment." Jaune agreed and started to return back to the inside of the arena. He finally felt things were more hopeful for his mission.

"He would be more useful down there killing Grimm! And just the other day we talked about super weapons!" Ironwood said to Ozpin, no small amount of anger in his voice.

"James, that was no super weapon. It is not much different than the cannons installed in our spaceships or battle tanks, except that it doesn't use a 100kg of dust to fire each round. The… strategic value of Captain Arc down there is pretty low, at best."

"Screw Arc, tell me why every soldier doesn't have this gun right now!" Demanded Winchester Sr., more worried about why his son didn't had a neutron rifle.

"Counselor, to even fire a neutron gun you need to use a ridiculous amount of Aura. Captain Arc has five times more of it than the average soldier, and he used a fifth of his reserves to fire one single shot. Most soldiers would be unable to move after a single shot." Ren tried his best to explain the situation.

"I don't mind if he is the only one. He could kill a thousand Grimm with a single shot. I am transferring him to the Marine Corps." Ironwood stated, but Tenryuu started laughing.

"You can't transfer him without permission of the Spacy commander, and guess who the Spacy commander is, Jimmy? We agreed to not try to snatch each other's staff or else I would have got Major Nikos a long time ago. Besides, what did you said yesterday about Miles? Oh yeah, that 'he barely passed the test to be a licensed Hunter operator.'"

Jaune approached the mess the higher-ups were doing and sighed as he removed his helmet, tired of seeing them discussing because of him. He just wanted them to stick with one decision instead of changing their minds every day. He stood by the side of a Marine and commented the situation.

"I wish they used as much energy they use verbally abusing each other in solving our troubles."

"That would be grand, yes." The Marine answered and Jaune recognized the voice of the girl he stumbled upon early.

"Hey, you are that girl… and Major Pyrrha Nikos…" He stood there, looking at the emerald eyes of the Marine. She smiled back and fixed her ponytail.

"So you finally recognized me, Captain Arc. I was quite surprised that you didn't recognize me at the very moment we met."

"I don't follow the tournaments, Major. Honestly, if it were up to me you would be doing missions instead of entertaining civilians. I am glad you volunteered to be part of my crew." He commented with a charming smile, and Pyrrha blushed a little. "I am eager to work with you."

"Thanks, captain. I am… eager to do that too."

"And thanks for your help back there with Sergeant Winchester." She looked surprised over the fact he noticed her interference. She disliked Winchester as much as everyone else, so making him lose was something that pleased her.

"You know, maybe I can help you with your CQC skills when we start the mission. You have quite the talent yourself." She asked, and Jaune blushed as he noticed she was quite beautiful up close.

"That won't happen because you are not going, Major." They turned around to see Ironwood speaking directly towards them. "If I knew you volunteered for this mission I would have warned you against it sooner. While it is clear I can't stop Captain Arc of leaving in this mission, you are a Marine and still take orders directly from me."

"Sir, as you said I am a Marine. My job should be fighting the enemies of Remnant." Pyrrha said, and there was a clear hint of sadness in her voice. "Yet all I do is promotional stunts."

"What you do, Major, is keeping the population confident in the Armed Forces capacity of fighting. I will not lose you to this hopeless mission, nor risk one of the few things that keep the population distracted of their troubles." Ironwood spoke clearly not wanting an answer, and so Pyrrha lowered her head.

"Permission to speak freely, General?" For their surprise, it was Jaune speaking.

"Yes, captain?" Ironwood sighed, deciding that allowing him to speak would be better than letting Tenryuu doing the talk.

"I have read Major Niko's file, and her capacity as a field soldier is nothing short of spectacular. It would be an honor having her in my crew and my invitation to her stands." Pyrrha felt happy, for reasons she couldn't explain, hearing his words. "But it has being three years since she last was deployed in a real mission, and if the fact I can work as a battery for a gun is so important for you, a true soldier like her should be in the field, not in the arena."

"That is all, Captain?" Jaune nodded. "Maybe when you are older, if you return of your mission, you will understand the importance of her job. My decision stands, I am not transferring Major Nikos to your command. Now, excuse us."

"He is as stubborn as a mule. Sorry you lost the girl, Miles." Tenryuu said as she patted Jaune's shoulder and walked away with the rest of the higher-ups. The captain and the major still traded a stare before she was out of his reach.

Pyrrha sat alone in her quarters.

She looked at the wall covered in competitive medals, but it was on her table that were the medals from duty, the ones she really valued. She didn't become a Marine to be stocked away at the safety of the colonies and to be showed off to the civilians when convenient, she wanted to help people. Certainly she liked competing, but now she was all alone. Her fellow soldiers didn't saw her as one of them, and even her rank was more because the Armed Forces thought 'Major' sounded good with her name, not because of her achievements on the field.

And the civilians put her in a pedestal so high she felt separated from them. And now when an opportunity to escape the clutches of the PR arm of the military she was told she was to be kept in her golden cage. And she even liked that one Captain Jaune Arc, the one who looked at her field achievements, the one that supported her, and the one that didn't care about her fame, and saw her as a soldier he would like to have on board.

But she was now all alone again, trapped in her own success.

That is when her scroll played a weirdly happy music she was sure she didn't put on it.

She grabbed it and opened the message, and gasped and had to make an effort to not cry.

Don't unpack your things. You are coming on this trip, I have everything set. Don't tell anyone till a day before we depart, and delete this message ASAP. C.J.A.

A.N.: The ship is named Nagato in reference to both a Japanese vessel that fought during WWII, Nagato Yuki from Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and the character Nagato from KanColle, that is based in the WWII vessel too. XD