Author's Note:

Thanks for all the support in the start of this new fic!

Cover Art: Cruz7808

Check my profile for polls and planned fics!

Review, point out mistakes, and flame!

Chapter 2- Get Your Tucks in a Row

"Well they left to recover material left behind by Project Freelancer. They said it in the season 10 finale." Blake pointed out.

"But they left, and that only makes sense if they hadn't crashed, why would Carolina and Church abandon the group like that?" Ruby asked, understanding Jaune's point.

"I'm going to assume that they planned to end the whole series at season 10. But decided to keep it going and they're starting off the best way they could." Blake guessed. "As to your question.. I guess they felt that what they needed to do was more important."

Ruby and Jaune both grimaced.

"I don't like it either." Blake shrugged.

"Donut, Doc, and Lopez are also missing." Pyrrha added.

"Doc and Lopez are in Valhalla." Jaune pointed out. "They left him behind when they rescued Carolina and Church. And Lopez is still a scarecrow."

Nora, Ruby, and Yang snickered at that, Weiss grumbled.

"Get Your Tucks in a Row" appeared on screen with the theme.

"Obviously referring to Tucker." Weiss commented offhandedly.

Fade in. The tank is seen driving over a bridge, heading for Blue base. A soundbite from "Contact" plays.

"I didn't mention it before but the soundtrack seems to call back to the first few seasons yet it is much more detailed." Weiss commented.

"Yeah I like it." Jaune nodded.

"I guess rock music wouldn't fit in too much here." Yang pursed her lips.

"I'm going to miss it." Ruby sagged.

Cut to Tucker exiting the base.

Tucker: "Oh shit."

Caboose appears from behind the tank

Caboose: "We are back."

Tucker: "Caboose?! Christ I thought you were in that thing. Wait, who is in that thing?"

Pyrrha chuckled, Ruby, Jaune, and Yang laughed and Nora giggled.

"I wonder if that tank is another smart tank like Sheila." Jaune wondered.

"I doubt it, my theory is that the only reason they had a smart tank was to protect Church." Ruby commented. "Friendly fire was disabled so that no one could shoot a friendly, then caboose enabled it or disabled it, whichever let him shoot Church."

"Still." Pyrrha smiled, "It's no wonder that Tucker was only scared of Caboose driving the tank."

Wash exits the tank

Washington: "Hello private."

Tucker: "Oh shit."

"Tucker's not happy to see anyone on his team." Pyrrha noted.

"I'd expect that attitude from Grif.. but not Tucker." Blake frowned.

"Somethings going on." Jaune agreed.

"Yeah.. he sounded angry when he saw Wash." Ruby added.

Wash: "Tucker, what is the one thing I tell you each and every morning?"

Tucker: "Wake up."

Wash: "The other thing."

Tucker: "For the love of god, stop sleeping naked."

"I can sympathize with Wash on this one." Weiss grimaced.

"Hey, sometimes it's a lot more comfortable to sleep naked." Yang defended.

Wash: "Don't let anyone touch the tank."

Tucker looks at Caboose, then the tank.

Tucker: "Heh, okay I can see where you're going with this."

"It's clearly an important rule if he has to tell Tucker it every morning." Pyrrha commented.

"For good reason! Caboose let Red team drive the tank and I don't know who's more irresponsible. Caboose for letting Red team anywhere near the tank, or Sarge for firing at his own base!" Weiss groaned.

"Wash should take the keys." Yang suggested.

"The tank doesn't have keys, remember?" Ruby asked.

"I thought that was just the memory unit, I guess not." Yang shrugged.

Wash: "Until we're rescued, we need to be more mindful of the supplies that we have."

Tucker: "I know, I know. Ration the food, maintain our equipment."

Caboose: "Brush your teeth, don't talk to strangers, try not to shoot anyone while they're trying to brush their teeth."

Wash: "And always report in to me."

"Wash has a lot of rules…" Ruby frowned.

"I can see why he does, I think his rules are necessary." Weiss commented.

"I do too, but he needs to be more clear that it's not a chore he's punishing his team with." Jaune commented.

"Yeah." Ruby nodded, "That's what I was thinking. He needs to remind them why he has those rules."

Tucker: "Do we have to?"

Wash: "Yes. I even put up that old Blue Team organizational chart to help demonstrate the point."

Cut to a view of the Blue team's organization chart.

"Blue Team"

"Blood Gulch Outpost: Alpha"

"Captain Butch Flowers" was crossed out and replaced by "Church" which was then crossed out and replaced by "Washington" in pencil.

Under this a "Doc?" Is crossed out next to a crossed out "Church" next to a drawn in "Caboose" an unmodified "Tucker" and an added "Grif's Sister."

"They thought about having Doc on their team? Interesting." Ren hummed.

"That would have been cool, also aww I miss Sister." Yang sighed.

"Yeah.. it's a real shame we haven't seen her in so long." Weiss looked away, not meeting her eyes."

"Agreed." Blake chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"Hey Sister was funny!" Yang argued.

"I liked her." Ruby added.

Tucker: "Yeah, but we never really listened to that. Church just kinda shouted orders and we'd get around to them...eventually. Or we wouldn't, whatever."

Caboose: "He was an inspiration to us all."

"Caboose sounds a little.. upset." Pyrrha noted.

"He probably misses Church." Ruby crossed her arms, "I still can't believe they left."

Wash: "Well Church and Carolina decided to run off without so much as a goodbye. So it's up to me to keep us all together."

"It's good that he's calling them out for that, they didn't even say goodbye." Yang scoffed, "I get that they hate goodbyes and I understand why. But they still have to say it. I mean Church and Carolina said it themselves, they spent their whole lives chasing ghosts because they couldn't say goodbye."

"And look what it's doing to Wash." Blake added, "He has to take over for Church to keep blue team together and he has to deal with Red team all while trying to everyone alive."

"And it shouldn't be completely up to him either." Pyrrha added.

Jaune nodded in agreement but Ruby frowned.

Pyrrha is right but.. as team leaders we have the same job. Wash and I both have to keep everyone together, it is our job and we are to blame if the team falls apart. Ruby thought, feeling as if a slight weight was put on her shoulders.

Wash: "Maybe if someone hadn't crashed the ship, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Tucker: "Whoa, wait a second. Why are you looking at me when you say that?"

Wash: "I just have a hard time believing that thousands of well trained crew members were to blame for the incident."

"I thought they were blaming Caboose." Ren commented.

"I thought it was actually his fault." Pyrrha chuckled.

Tucker: "Well they definitely didn't survive it. Ah ha ha ha. Ahem."

"..."

Wash: "Wow."

Tucker: "Yeah."

Wash: "You proud of yourself?"

Tucker: "No."

"Good." Weiss sighed.

Caboose: "Yeah that was, tha- that's too soon. Prob-probably too soon for sound effects too. (makes sound effects) 'Meeer. Oh god help us, Kapow.' Yeah that's too soon."

Pyrrha chuckled and shook her head, "That's awful."

"Tucker made a joke and Caboose made sound effects." Weiss grimaced, appalled.

"I don't think there is enough time that can pass for those kinds of jokes to ever be acceptable." Pyrrha added.

"Like Sarge's donut hole joke." Nora giggled.

"Incredibly disrespectful." Weiss sighed.

Cut to Red base, where Sarge approaches Grif and Simmons outside the base

Sarge: "Absolutely unacceptable."

Simmons: "I couldn't agree more sir."

Grif: "But you have no idea what he's going to say."

Simmons: "Oh, right yea, just got a little excited."

Ren chuckled.

Grif: "You are the worst kind of person."

Sarge: "Quiet morons, we've got a situation on our hands."

Grif: "Which is?"

Sarge: "The deplorable condition of Red Base."

"Well it's probably deplorable because someone fired at it with a tank." Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose.

Grif: "You're still hung up on that? We're stranded in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a mysterious, and seemingly uninhabited jungle might I add, and you're worried about the condition of our makeshift fort?"

"Well housing is important to survival." Ren commented.

"Yeah." Nora agreed.

"You're right but Sarge is more worried about adding a mortar cannon than anything important to their survival." Pyrrha pointed out.

"What if a giant monster attacks them? You'd want that mortar cannon then." Nora argued.

"What monster would attack them?" Weiss asked.

"Well Grif did say they're surrounded by a seemingly uninhabited jungle.. probably some kind of jungle monster." Ruby guessed.

"There are some kinds of jungle Grimm that are particularly troublesome in Mistral." Ren nodded, recalling his time in Mistral with Nora.

Simmons: "Besides, I don't think our base is even that bad."

Grif: "Well...I wouldn't say that."

Simmons: "What? What's wrong with it?"

Grif: "Seriously? There's an enormous hole in the roof. Every night it rains, I get washed into the corner!"

Cut to a view of Red base's hole.

"They have a rain tarp, why wouldn't they move it over the hole?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, we'd make a much better base than them." Ruby put her fists to her sides with confidence. "Our makeshift bunk beds have been stable all year."

Simmons: "Oh, well, yeah there's that, but I mean overall."

Sarge: "And the majority of the west wing is made up of sand bags and rain tarps."

Grif: "Which reminds me. If we have rain tarps, why aren't we using them to cover up the hole in the roof?"

"Exactly!" Weiss threw her hand up. "Grif has common sense the others lack; he just never chooses to use it in a productive way."

Simmons: "Listen, I think you guys are blowing this whole thing a little out of proportion."

Grif: "You're just saying that because you're the one that designed the base."

Simmons: "Well I did a better job than you would have done."

Sarge: "That's not saying much."

"Well I actually wonder if Grif would have done better." Ruby rubbed her chin.

"Besides the rain tarps, how would he have?" Weiss asked. "Rain tarps over the roof is common sense in hindsight."

"Well Grif is lazy so he'd want to make a base that's most comfortable to sleep in and the best at storing a lot of food." Ruby explained. "So he'd make a great base just because he wants to be lazy in it!"

"...That's somewhat sound logic." Weiss hummed and nodded.

Grif: "I bet I could at least do it in a better location."

Simmons: "But this is the best location. The sunlight is perfect for maintaining my vegetable garden and the faulty engine from the ship should keep us warm all winter."

Sarge: "But aren't slipspace engines extremely radioactive?"

Cut to a view of the slipspace engine.

"Radioactive.. what's that?" Nora asked.

"Hmm I don't know, but whatever it is it doesn't sound good." Jaune commented.

Grif: "Well that would explain why my hair keeps falling out and why all your cabbages have three heads."

"That sounds very bad." Yang grimaced, rubbing a hand through her hair.

"I assume it causes sickness.. or in the case of the cabbages, causes a mutation." Ren surmised.

"It reminds me of Dust lung." Weiss grimaced, "The effects different kinds of dust can have on people is.. it's not pretty."

Blake nodded, thinking of several dust lung horror stories.

Simmons: "I thought I was just really good at farming."

Grif: "No Simmons, you're good at other things. Like always being on time, maintaining your virginity."

Grif runs towards Red base

Simmons: "(yelling) Oh yeah, well we'll see who's laughing when my garden produces a bountiful crop in the coming harvest!"

"I wouldn't want to eat a mutated cabbage." Jaune grimaced.

"What if you get superpowers from it though?" Nora asked.

The episode fades to black.

Grif: "Glad to hear you still have that virginity on lock-down buddy."

The episode ends.

"That was a very short episode, it's been a while since there has been one this short." Weiss commented.