Chapter 17: The best way to deal with your problems is to ignore them and do something else.

The Headmaster had offered her a place at Beacon. She'd performed exceptionally in the practical combat exam, and her scores in the academic tests were… well apparently she'd scored four-hundred and ninety percent on the physics paper. Who would have thought that idly scribbling the basics of Slipspace travel on the side would get her so much extra credit? But that wasn't what was playing on her mind on this especially rainy day. No, it was Ozpin's offer for her to become a combat instructor that was getting to her.

The proposal ran around and around in her head, and she went back and forth on what she wanted to do. In theory it made perfect sense, Six was an exceptionally skilled hand to hand fighter and most Huntsmen and Huntresses apparently lacked this as a skill set. Still, she had no idea how to teach anyone hand to hand combat.

I wouldn't even know where to start, and somehow I feel they wont let me recreate the Spartan training method.

No, probably not. Also, everyone would hate us if we did that.

Since when does that matter to us?

Hell if I know.

Once again Noble Six wished her thoughts were more helpful than they actually were. On some level, she knew that helping out would be the right call, but on the other, she had no idea what she was doing when it came to teaching. Sure, she'd assisted during her training, but that had been more as a training dummy you could pull into positions easily to show everyone else what to do - Except for the one time she'd snapped and elbowed an instructor in the gut.

The Spartan-III had considered talking to team CFVY and discussing it with them; but ultimately she decided that what she really wanted right now was time to think and clear her head. So she grabbed her hammer and headed into Vale, jumping on the airship and riding down to the town. Once on the ground she started wandering, trying to map her new home in her head and commit everything to memory.

The City itself was mostly smaller buildings, topping out at about five stories at most. Largely made of dull bricks in varying shades of brown with grey tiled roofs. It almost looked rustic, if not for the holographic displays that gave away the true tech level; not that they were working all that well as the rain battered them. In an effort to distract herself, Six took a look inside a weapons store, relieved to see that amongst the oversized axes and transforming rocket-launcher nunchucks, there were some regular guns. Six took a bit too much time looking over a set of predominantly Yellow guns painted with Hazard stripes. She made a vow to try the look on some UNSC firearms later.

One thing Six noted once she had left the shop was the city's surroundings; it was either the vast expansive sea stretching into the distance, or colossal mountain ranges surrounding everything else. At a guess those must have been the natural defences that protected the city from the outside Grimm.

The Covenant wouldn't even blink tearing through them.

That was something even worse to think about then the army of nightmare animals; something with the same hate and drive to kill humanity that was actually clever was hiding on their planet, and no one seemed to be doing anything. The fact that she didn't know what the surviving Covenant was doing was starting to dig at her.

She shouldn't be here trying to map out a city, she should be hunting every single Alien on this planet and turning their brains to a thick goop on the nearest wall. She should be in seven foot power armour commanding respect, she should be doing a lot of things. But instead she was sitting up in Beacon, not doing anything.

She shook her head, thoughts like that weren't helpful. Noble team came to mind here, she hated that they were dead and that she'd failed to save them. But if she became obsessed with that, then they'd died for nothing. She had to make it worth it, and right now she did that better as an advisor than as a soldier.

That thought would probably hold more weight if they found anything else for us to look at, but so far we haven't been contacted.

That's really bad, the Covenant must be up to something, what if they're fixing a ship to glass this place!?

A ship that big would have been spotted by now; they're as stuck as we are.

The fact that was the closest thing she had to a comforting thought was not a good sign.

It was while she was thinking this that Six completely lost track of what she was doing and stopped looking where she was going. This meant that the highly trained Spartan III collided headlong with a ginger girl who'd just darted out of a back alley.

"Ow!" Six groaned, massaging her aching tailbone, as she blearily looked at what she'd hit, or rather, who she'd hit.

It was a young woman with ginger hair, probably a teenager. Even through the endless rain Six could still make out details on the girl. She was blessed with a round face full of freckles, full eyelashes and brilliant green eyes. Six stared at the girl, taking in every detail, the curves at the end of her bob, the pink bow on the back of her head, the one loose strand of hair, the adorable smile.

Six wasn't sure how long she was staring before she finally forced out a question she should have asked a lot sooner:

"Are you okay?" She asked, head tilted as she stood up, offering a hand to the cute girl. Who paused for a second, carefully looking between Six's hand, the Spartan's face and finally her own position on the ground.

"Yes, thank you for asking." She responded cheerily, reaching up and taking the Spartans hand. Noble Six must have been really distracted because the effort it took to help the girl off the ground was herculean. Even factoring in that she was taller than the Spartan, it was still shocking how heavy she was, actually stumbling when the girl was up right, causing the many water puddles around them to splash noisily.

It's gotta be muscle.

Agreed, there's no way this girl has any fat on her.

"Sorry for knocking you over, I was… distracted." Six admitted, now she was finally off staring at the girl she was able to remember she was worried about the Covenant.

"Oh, that's okay. I should have looked where I was going, I'm still new in Vale and I was a bit distracted." She admitted. Not blushing or expressing any awkwardness in her body language. Just smiling happily. "What about you, why are you sad?"

"Huh? I'm not sad." Six blurted defensively. This caused the ginger girl to move in closer, looking her up and down.

"You look sad. Admittedly, I'm not the best with feelings, but I would like to help if I can."

Six shook her head.

"No, It's fine; just some personal stuff is all, Miss…"

"Penny Polendina, it's a pleasure to meet you!" She said happily. The name rang a bell with the Spartan.

"Wait. Is your dad a scientist?" Six asked, her head tilted again as the pair started walking.

"Yes.. wait, you must be Noble Six!" Penny said happily, her eyes glowing as she took the details in.

"I wasn't aware he would have talked about me." The Spartan admitted with a shrug. The girl seemed to think it was funny, giggling.

"He trusts me with lots of stuff! Also the weapon on your back matches one of the ones you showed off in the test footage, I like the modifications, they're cute." Penny explained with a carefree grin on her face as the pair started wandering together, heading into a street market, their eyes sometimes browsing the various stands that were still open despite the late hour.

"I've never heard a gravity hammer be described as cute." Six admitted, looking over her weapon, running a finger over one of the gravity dust mods.

"Well I find it to be aesthetically pleasing!" Penny beamed, eyes closed and beaming. Six was sure this was something to do with being more used to looking at helmets and not faces that this smile was making her feel so warm inside.

What about Team CFVY, or the Marines, or the CO's, or the-

Oh zip it.

"It is good to see you smiling, my compliment worked!" Penny declared, her green eyes open as Six nodded in a manner that could best be described as 'Dopely'.

"Yeah, guess it did." She admitted with a grin. Honestly this girl made her feel far calmer than she had in a long time. Standing there, enjoying the rain pounding down on her with Penny. It just felt right, so naturally it couldn't last.

Just as the two changed streets and entered a much quieter lane, something happened. A brilliant dazzling glow of orange light flared into existence a few metres above the ground in front of them. The two girls hastily backed up as the orange light formed a pulsing orb, growing until it was many metres wide.

Then in the centre a shape appeared, a brilliant white form in the middle. Then as soon as it appeared the light was gone and the thing in the middle of the orb fell to the ground.

"That is not normal for a plane to do." Penny noted, looking at the large gunship that had landed in front of the two girls.

"That… That's a Pelican." Six said, looking aghast at the angular giant green dropship now laying in the middle of the road. Its large engines and fat triangular wings led into the sizable troop bay. It appeared to have its landing gear down, meaning the Spartan could slowly advance towards the machine.

"It doesn't look like a Pelecanus" Penny said, looking over at the Spartan who shook her head as she moved close enough to touch the UNSC vehicle that had appeared right in front of her.

"It's just its name, they're UNSC dropships." Six explained as she walked over to the craft, nervously placing her hand on its surface. It wasn't at all hot, so Six moved in closer and saw the ramp on the back was down, allowing the two girls to step on board.

"Someones going to have to move this." Penny commented as a car screeched to a halt, its driver honking his horn rather indignantly at the recently formed aircraft in front of him.

"I'm hoping I can." Six muttered as she walked through the downed plane, her eyes unable to resist taking in every detail, from mud pooling up in the footbays near the seats, to the peeling fabric on the chairs no one ever fixed. The tiny crumbs of food that careless troopers had left behind. To the crude marker drawings some Marine had left. She felt a lump build in her throat as she spotted a crude drawing of a frog, the words 'Jumpin' with the Bullfrogs!' scribbled next to it. Six knew she was crying now. They were dead, everyone on Reach was, except her. But why was she here!? Why was this freakin' plane here? What was going on!?

She gripped the doorframe tightly, screwing up her face before she continued to the pilot seat. Settling in made her fully aware of just how short she was now. The Pelican by default was built with seats that a seven foot Spartan could comfortably fit in. Six was currently five foot five and thus felt utterly ridiculous as she settled into the chair. Still just because a Spartan could fit in didn't mean it wasn't made for regular troopers as well, some of whom were short. So she was able to rejig the controls enough for her to comfortably reach everything she needed.

"Are you planning to fly this plane?" Penny asked, walking into the cockpit, looking quizzically at the nodding Spartan.

"Yeah, I can fly a Pelican… assuming these readings are right and everything's still working."

"Where are you going to take it, Beacon?"

"That's plan A. They have a landing pad; the Headmaster will… erm? I guess he'll understand." Six explained with a shrug, before she looked over her shoulder and added: "You might want to hang on."

Noble Six was a good pilot. She'd been chosen for the Sabre Program after all. That didn't mean she was able to fly this particular Pelican smoothly. Yes it did fly, and none of the readouts suggested anything was dangerously wrong. But they also told her that out of the two additional engines at the back that were usually used for manoeuvring (and as soon would become apparent: Landing) Only one of them was actually working. Also she was fairly certain one of the control flaps on the wings was only moving some of the way because her craft was definitely leaning as she flew.

"This Pelican is not in ideal condition." Penny commented happily as Six moved close to Beacon's landing pad. "Also, there appear to be people near the landing pad looking at us."

"Yeah, that'll be the staff I can't call on the radio." Six muttered, looking at the burnt out device sitting in the console. It was at this point the Spartan was glad surface-to-air missiles didn't appear to be a thing at Beacon.

"Do you think they'll be angry with us?" Penny asked.

"Maybe? I mean you're free to jump out the back and explain what happened if you want to." Six said sarcastically, a smile on her face as she tried to figure out what she was actually going to say.

I mean, they did say we were allowed to use the facilities, I think the landing pad counts during that.

I'm not sure this was what they meant.

No but I have an argument to make to the CO.

You mean headmaster.

Shut it.

No I-is the back opening?

"Penny, what are you doing?" Six asked, looking over her shoulder just long enough to see the ginger girl casually jump out of the Pelican, which was about a hundred feet in the air.

The Spartan took a second to scream. She wasn't scared for Penny (She was sure she'd survive) it made sense that you could do that on Remnant, It was more the fact that had been taken as a legitimate suggestion and how casually she'd jumped.

"I hate this planet, I hate this planet." Six muttered on repeat as she brought the craft down, the engines rotating downwards as she lowered herself down to the pad. The landing however… could have gone better. For one thing it hadn't gone down level, it was at a slight angle so one foot had hit the pad first, now Six thought this meant she was close to being properly done so she took a short gut and powered down the other engines faster then she should.

It was at that point the craft lurched violently, the resulting jolt slammed Six's head into the back of her seat. Slightly dazed, she staggered out the back, struggling in her dazed state to get up the Pelican's crew bay because of the angle.

"Noble Six, this is… Unexpected." Professor Ozpin said, smiling slightly at the Spartans predicament as she looked out the back of the Pelican and saw exactly what had gone wrong. The landing pad was trashed; a large crater had formed in the middle, looking Six saw she'd put the Pelican's gear down on very cracked chunks of concrete. Hopping out, she said the only thing she could think to say.

"I was sure this pad was intact on approach." She said, looking around at the damage and wondering what she was going to do.

"Oh it was, your friend broke it when she landed." The headmaster explained casually, taking a sip of his drink as the Spartan struggled to stand up straight in the pounding rain on the slippery concrete. "I believe Glynda was going to fix the pad before you landed, unfortunately, you did so before she could."

Looking over at the frustrated blond Six got the feeling that she wasn't making a good impression on the Deputy Headmistress. At least Ozpin was smiling, so she might not get thrown out.

"Yes sorry about that, the radio's gone so I couldn't contact you."

"Six, you do have your scroll on you don't you?" The Headmaster said. Six personally suspected he took a sip from his mug at that exact time to hide the fact he was grinning at her dumbfounded expression as she struggled to come up with an answer to that question.

"Oh well, you live and learn. Do try to remember your new equipment in the future." The Headmaster said casually as Glynda raised her weapon, the Pelican and the concrete lifting into the air before reforming into an intact landing pad with a not crashed dropship on it.

"Yes Sir." The Spartan said, slightly red in the face.

"Can I suggest you get to bed Noble." Glynda said firmly, the Deputy Head having walked over, ginger girl in tow. "Please lend Miss Polendina your Scroll so she can inform her father she will be staying the night. The weather is only going to get worse and the airship is unable to fly until it clears up. I recommend you prepare somewhere to sleep in your room for the night. For now, your… aircraft is staying here on this landing pad. Do not fly it without explicit permission from either of us."

"Yes Ma'am." Six said, realising once again she'd saluted on instinct. She suspected it was to do with Glynda's commanding tone of voice, it reminded her of female UNSC officers. It was oddly comforting even if the Deputy head was giving her a stink eye.

"You salute people here?" Penny asked as the two adults walked off.

"No it's just me, tough habit to break. I don't even realise I'm doing it half the time." The purple haired girl admitted as she led Penny towards her room, unlocking the door with her scroll and letting Penny into the old changing room that now served as her dorm.

"Here, contact your dad." Six said, offering Penny her Scroll. "I'll dig out some spare bedding for you. You can take the bed if you want, I don't use it."

"Thank you, Noble Six." The Ginger girl said, taking the device as Six walked off to the linen cabinet, which was just passed her shower area. Six was glad of the linoleum floor as she dripped on everything. Just as she'd pulled a duvet and a couple of pillows out was when she heard a loud splintering crash. Bedding forgotten Six sprinted back to the main area and saw the problem.

Penny had jumped up, blushing furiously as she looked at the splintery mess that had been Six's out of use bed.

"I'm sorry!" She cried, lifting both ends up and slamming them together desperately.

"I wasn't using it." Six said, putting an arm on the nervous girl's shoulders. "Really it's fine. The mattress is still good, we'll just put it on the floor; it's where I sleep anyway."

Penny nodded and the two girls worked to move the broken frame up against the wall, before the ginger girl swept up the splinters. It was on the way back as Six was slipping a duvet into a cover that Penny asked a question Six honestly couldn't answer.

"Noble Six… is this a Sleepover? I… are we friends having a sleepover?"

Six noted the excitement creeping into Penny's voice. As such she thought hard and delivered a very careful answer.

"Uhh… Yeah I think so?-Gak!"

Penny had pulled Six into a ridiculously tight hug; it reminded Six of a time when a brute had tried to crush her to death, only this wasn't anywhere near as terrifying.

"Sen-sational!" The ginger girl cried, an ear to ear smile formed on her cute face. "This is fantastic! I've never had a sleepover before, we can paint our nails, and talk about cute boys!"

Six wasn't sure how to respond to that question, instead she pulled out her Scroll and began searching her contacts. She had no idea or ability to talk about cute boys, but she was sure she knew someone who could help with the other part.

"Erm… I'll ask Coco if she has any nail paint?"