"Operator, the Lotus is calling."
Not looking up from her gun maintenance, the Operator responds, "How urgent is it? We are traveling to another mission and I'm neck deep in the guts of this gun, Ordis."
"She seems very agitated. Perhaps it would be best if you TOOK THE DAMN CA responded to her."
"Alright, put her through. Audio only, I'm covered in grease. This had better be important, though," says the Operator, hands and eyes never leaving the rifle on the table in front of her.
"Connecting to the Lotus. Connection live in 3… 2… 1…"
The voice that comes over the speakers in the next moment is calm, collected, soothing, and yet still expecting obedience. "Tenno, my sensors have detected a Void portal near your location. However, I cannot locate the exit point within the Void. I need you to enter this portal and identify where it leads, and find a way to shut down the portal."
Carefully removing and inspecting a guide rod and spring for wear, correct shape, and elasticity, the Operator asks "Who opened it, Lotus? Grineer or Corpus?"
"Unknown. It appears to have opened without any outside activation, or indeed any Void gate. Even more concerning is that it's fairly large and in hard vacuum – you could fly a capital ship into it, although it would be a tight fit. Your secondary objective is to find out what activated this Void portal."
Careful fingers find early signs of metal fatigue in the spring, removing it from the guide rod and placing it in the foundry for reconstruction. "Any other Tenno in the area? Do I have time to call them for backup?"
"The next closest Tenno is 3 days out. There is a medium sized Grineer fleet roughly a day out. This needs to be dealt with before they reach the portal."
"Is that all?" the Operator asks, opening a bottle of cleaning solution and enjoying the sharp smell for a moment before wetting a cloth with it and wiping down the receiver.
"Yes. Good luck, Tenno."
"Thank you, Lotus." The operator finishes wiping the receiver, using a clean cloth to remove the remainder of the cleaning solution.
"Ordis, bring the orbiter to the Void portal, and put the Ivara back into storage and warm up the Garuda. We don't know what we're going to find in there, so I'm going to hedge my bets with a fast generalist 'frame."
"Warming up the Garuda now, Operator. We are about a half hour out from the Void portal."
"Wonderful. Give me a five minute warning so that I can get to my transference seat, please."
"Will do, operator!"
The Operator sighs, and as she reaches for the small cloths and cleaning rod number 3 to clean out the barrel, begins to vent. "Another day in the life of a Tenno. 'Go here, explore this dangerous thing! Wipe out the crew of this ship! Sneak through to these locations and hack these consoles for enemy intelligence, and if you get spotted, things will rapidly go the way of the Orokin if you don't quickly kill the poor sap who spotted you."
Stabbing the cleaning rod down the Tiberon Prime's barrel with much more force than is necessary, the Operator continues. "Oh Tenno, I have a special mission for you. I need you to go and find the shards of the Sentient Hunhow, who was the leader of the Sentients in the Old War because he's starting to reactivate OH GOD THINGS HAVE GONE HORRIBLY WRONG QUICKLY YOU NEED TO GO FIGHT THE SHADOW STALKER WHO HAS BEEN SUPERPOWERED BY HUNHOW WHO IS ALSO MY FATHER! Take the ENTIRETY of Lua out of the Void! Now go recover yourself! Get to your oribter! There's a transference seat in the back that you need to place yourself in OH GOD HOW IS THE STALKER HERE?"
Slamming a dry cloth through the barrel to pick up the cleaning solution and remaining fouling, she continues, now yelling. "Then, a few months later, someone gets close to the Transference pods that still have fully sleeping Tenno. Go find out what it is! Oh hey, Teshin. What are you doing here? Being creepy and condescending? Sure, that's the best way to not appear suspicious at all! Of course I came here, this is the first intel we've had on the Grineer Queens and the first location of this gigantic mobile fortress! And at the center of that fortress, the Grineer Queens, who it turns out are Orokin who have managed to stay 'alive' through Continuity, and one of them wants my body for her new host now! In order to fight her, you'll need to unrepress your memories of the Zariman 10-0 incident!"
Slamming the cleaning rod onto the table hard enough to break it, she continues. "And then. AND THEN. A Steel Meridian ship goes silent, so we go there to find that the Red Veil has gone crazy, because their spiritual liege, who is an autistic Tenno, decided to permanently bind himself to his Warframe to protect the rest of the Origin System from the Man in the Wall. Which ended up driving him absolutely nutty. So now you have to mercy kill him. And we still don't know what the Man in the Wall actually is."
Much more quietly, she says "But Lotus calls, and I answer."
Leaning back with a sardonic smile, she continues. "For an intelligence officer, the intel that she provides is extremely lacking. What do you think we'll find on the other side of the portal, Ordis? Human intelligence Infestation?"
"That is extremely unlikely, Operator. Infestation transforms most brain matter, leaving only basic functions remaining. If I could get you back on track, the replacement parts for the Tiberon Prime will take about 12 hours to finish fabbing, as you have tasked priority cycles on other things. Do you wish to change your weapons loadout?"
The Operator sighs and leans forward, thinking. "Let's see… Garuda's Claws can handle anything in close. Take the Astilla, I haven't broken that thing out in ages – is it still loaded for Viral?"
"A BURNING INFECTION- Viral/Heat, Operator."
"Good. Need something that can put something in the ground without whittling it down first... The Euphona Prime should do."
"Understood, Operator. Moving weapons to Garuda hardpoints now."
The Operator stands up, looking at the mess she's left on the table from her rage. "How's the Archwing?"
"The Archwing launcher segment is operational, Grattler and Itzal are ready to launch."
"Thanks Ordis. In that case, I'll clean up and go meditate. I need to do that more often, that outburst proves it."
The Operator walks over to the living quarters, and kneels down on the meditation spot, meditating for a while and trying to calm herself from her earlier rage.
"Operator, we are five minutes out from the Void Portal. I am letting you know, as requested."
"Thanks, Ordis."
The Operator walks to the back of the orbiter to the somatic link, swings in, dogs the hatch, and closes her eyes.
And opens them a moment later, in control of her chosen Warframe.
Looking around and moving arms, legs, and fingers, the Operator says "Gross motor control… good. Fine motor control… good. Transference successful, signal is strong."
As she pulls the weapons off the hardpoints to make sure they're in top shape and the hardpoints are functioning properly, the Operator walks up to the navigation console of the Orbiter, with a minute to spare before the arrival at the Void portal.
Watching the rapidly approaching portal, the Operator orders "Ordis, set scans to maximum strength. The less time we spend in an unknown part of the Void, the better."
"That will drop our cloak, Operator. Are you sure?"
"Yes," the Operator says with a slight nod. "Do it before we enter, or the Void might screw with it."
"Dropping cloak and boosting active sensors. Entering Void portal in 3… 2… 1…"
The Void is vast. It is completely black, or would be were it not for the streaks of silver looking like frozen river rapids. And there's nothing nearby, although that doesn't necessarily mean much. Distances in the Void tend to not mean a lot. Something can appear to be only a few minutes away and take days to reach, or vice versa. More importantly, there doesn't appear to be anything opening this Void portal, at least that's immediately visible.
Looking around, hoping to see a ship, or at least an obvious structure to board and disable, the Operator asks "Ordis, what do your scans say?"
Sounding almost confused, Ordis says "Operator, the scans ARE USELESS have found nothing yet. This Void Portal appears to be completely natural."
Shaking her head, the Operator responds "We both know that that's not possible. No naturally occurring Void Portal gets this big or lasts this long. If it was natural, it would've been barely a blip on whatever tacmap the Lotus has before it disappeared."
"All the same, Operator, I am not detecting any power source or any indication of a Void key."
"Ordis, get me a line to the Lotus. Something is seriously screwy, and I want to give a report before something goes way off the rails. Send her all the data you've collected so far, too."
"Attempting connection. Error: Connection failed. Void interference."
Shrugging, the Operator says "Damn. Load up a beacon with the information, and send it back through the portal. Set it to self destruct once the message has gotten through."
"Data loaded and beacon launched."
"Run a search pattern. Let's see if it's just beyond the range of our sensors." The Operator shakes her head and walks to the living quarters to meditate.
12 hours later
"Operator, I am still finding noth-wait. Operator! The Void Portal is closing!"
Bolting up and starting to run to navigation, the Operator exclaims "Damn! Full speed back to the portal, we still haven't figured out where we are in the Void! If we don't get to that portal, we may be stuck here for good!"
"THIS HUNK OF JUNK ISN'T FAST ENOU - The orbiter won't make it before the portal closes!"
Hitting the ramp into navigation at full speed, the Operator says "Try anyways! This portal broke every other rule of Void portals, maybe it'll slow down as it closes!"
The Operator looks out of the window, willing the Void Portal to stop shrinking.
But despite the Orbiter's speed and the Operator's hopes, they lose the race.
Slamming her fist on the nav console, the Operator exclaims "Damn it! Ordis, what's our supply levels? How long do we have before the orbiter can no longer function?"
"We recently restocked on life support and fuel, so a few months? Fuel is the limiter on how much we can do. If need be, we can use some of the materials you've collected to make more life support, but if we run out of fuel, the orbiter shuts down and THE OPERATOR DIES there's no way to cycle the life support."
Nodding and making the decisions, the Operator says "Right. Shut down everything non-essential, except for the transmitter. Keep us drifting, and transmit an emergency plea on all Tenno channels. Do we still not know where we are in the Void?"
"We are COMPLETELY LOST adrift in a trackless sea, Operator."
"Great. Let me know if anything changes. I'm going to get out of Garuda. And then meditate some more."
Two weeks later
Reaching her meditation spot and looking out into the Void, the Operator says "Ordis, is it just me or is the Void… darker today?"
"One moment, booting up active sensors. Oh no. Oh no. This is very bad. Operator, you must get back to your pod and transference into a Warframe!"
The Operator immediately starts moving to the back of the Orbiter. "What's happening, Ordis?"
"A Void storm is approaching! We must prepare, and the Operator must be protected!"
"Unrack Garuda. She's ready for anything right now."
"I never stowed it. GET MOVING!"
Practically throwing herself into the pod, the Operator begins to initiate Transference even before the pod is fully sealed. As soon as she's in control of Garuda, she starts moving to navigation and asks "What exactly is a Void storm?"
"The easiest way to describe the damage it does is rapidly shifting gravitic anomalies. But it's the Void, where physics breaks down. We don't know what they are. We can only batten down the hatches and hope to ride it out."
"Can we outrun it?"
"Not unless there's a Void gate in the area."
Just then, the ground drops out from under the Warframe, the Garuda ending up sprawled over the navigation console. "Operator, it's starting!"
"I figured that out!" the Operator says, scrambling to regain her feet.
The next five minutes felt like hours, as the Void storm bounces the orbiter around accompanied by the sounds of metal groaning under the strain of rapidly shifting gravitic anomalies.
"Operator! There's a natural Void portal opening!"
Braced against the codex console, the Operator yells "GET US OUT OF HERE, ORDIS! I DON'T CARE WHERE IT IS, ANYWHERE IS SAFER THAN HERE!"
The orbiter turns and boosts towards the Void portal.
They're nearly there when there's a tremendous tearing of metal and alarms start blaring.
As they exit the gate into open real-space, the Operator yells "Ordis! What happened?"
"There was a particularly strong surge in the storm, with two pulses pulling in roughly opposite directions. Your personal quarters has a new exit to hard vacuum. Also, the port side primary thrusters and port side rear maneuvering thrusters ARE FU are out of commission until they can be repaired. This is problematic, as we no longer have the thrust capabilities to escape the gravity of the planet that is pulling us towards it."
Immediately jumping towards navigation, the Operator exclaims "Planet? Which one? We could get picked up by other Tenno quickly!"
"Either my sensors ARE A PIECE OF JUNK are malfunctioning or we are no longer in the origin system, Operator."
Confused, the Operator stops and says "What? Try to send a message to the Lotus."
"I have been trying, Operator. We are getting no connection. Also, there is a more immediate problem. Brace for atmospheric reentry."
"WHAT?"
"The Void portal opened in the middle of the exosphere of the planet, Operator, and we were on A COLLISION COURSEa perpendicular angle to the planet surface. With the port thrusters offline, the orbiter was unable to obtain standard orbit."
"How much control do we have?"
"We have nearly full pitch and yaw, but no way to fly in atmosphere until we can get the port main thruster online. If we try to fly by counteracting the unbalanced thrust with the maneuvering thrusters, we'll just burn them out. I was able to get us to a proper atmospheric entry angle, but only barely. I maintain enough control to steer us away from any population centers, but this is going to be a crash and not a proper landing. SO BUCKLE UP."
Reentry is hellish. With no way to slow down until close to impact, it's not so much a controlled descent as a screaming fireball falling at mach 15. The Operator can do nothing but hold on and pray that Ordis can get the Orbiter slowed down to a survivable speed before impact. Then the Operator remembers something she can do to increase their chances of survival.
In a slightly panicked voice, she orders "Ordis! Emergency override. You are authorized to use the maneuvering thrusters to destruction to slow us down. We can't repair anything if we're dead!"
"Understood, Operator. Beginning emergency braking sequence. Please brace yourself for acceleration. THIS IS GOING TO GET UGLY."
The Operator watches as the maneuvering thrusters on the starboard nose quickly light off, flinging the ship around so the remaining rear thruster can bring its substantial amount of power to bear. The counterpulse of the port nose and starboard rear maneuvering thrusters and the remaining main engine begin slowing the ship from "we just wiped out everything in sight and dashed ourselves in so many pieces that they cannot be counted" to a much more reasonable "There will probably be one big piece that is repairable, and we'll show up on any seismographs for a 1000 kilometer radius."
The Operator watches as the maneuvering thrusters on the nose of the ship go past their safety cutoffs; they weren't designed to be fired constantly, they were only supposed to be fired for a second at a time at most. One of the thrusters explodes, then a second. Then, trees, and an instant later, impact.
Flopping back on her bed and throwing her arms wide, Ruby complains "Ugh, this waiting is so boring! I want to go on another mission!"
"Ruby, even though we were cleared of wrongdoing in the Breach, they still want to give us a break from missions because of how off the rails that mission went" says Yang, not looking up from her beeping scroll as she plays a game.
Blake reaches over and smacks the top of her partner's head.
With an indignant start, Yang exclaims "Hey! What was that for?"
Looking over the top of her book, Blake responds "You know what you did."
Yang looks confused for a second, then surprise sprouts on her face. "I swear that that was unintentional."
"I don't believe you."
Rolling onto her side, Ruby says "Blake, I think she's actually telling the truth. She's normally a lot more proud of her wordplay."
"She still deserved it."
Weiss interjects "Will you all stop bickering? I'm trying to study."
Ruby is quick to respond, saying "Weiss, you haven't turned a page in your notes or your textbook for the last fifteen minutes."
"What - Yes I have!"
"No, you haven't. I was recording," says Ruby, holding up her scroll.
"WHY ARE YOU RECORDING ME STUDYING?"
"BECAUSE I'M BORED!"
"Woah, Ruby, look at that shooting star!" says Yang, desperately trying to avoid the indignant explosion of Weiss that seems imminent.
In a flash of rose petals, Ruby appears next to the window with excitement on her face. "Wow, that's a really big one!"
Joining the sisters at the window, Blake says "Brighter and longer lasting, too. Normally a shooting star would've burned up by now."
Weiss, having completely given up on the idea of studying, joins the team. "It's probably a large chunk of the moon. There might be enough mass there to be a full on meteorite."
The team watches in silence as the shooting star continues its descent.
"Is it just me, or did it just get brighter?"
Nodding, Yang says "Yeah, Blakey, I was just thinking the same thing."
The light disappears, and Weiss starts counting off the seconds in her head. A little bit over seven seconds later, a small boom is heard, the room shakes a bit, and the ropes suspending Ruby's bed creak as it sways. "It landed about 25 kilometers off. It's a good thing that it was a small one."
"How do you know that, Weiss?" asks Blake, turning her head to look at Weiss.
Dropping into lecture mode, Weiss explains "A shock wave will propagate through the ground near the surface at roughly 3.5 kilometers per second. I counted down after the light disappeared, and the shockwave hit Beacon a bit over seven seconds after impact."
Looking a little confused, Blake asks "But the horizon is only 5 kilometers away. Wouldn't that screw with your calculations since you couldn't actually see the point of impact?"
"We are very high up, Blake. Thanks to the height of Beacon, the horizon is closer to 40 kilometers away."
Just then, all the scrolls of team RWBY go off with the chime of a new message.
Quickly recovering them, they read the message.
"I wonder why Ozpin wants to see us," wonders Weiss.
Ruby turns and fixes Yang with a glare. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything, Ruby!" Says Yang, raising her hands in mock surrender.
Quickly leaning forward at the hips and jabbing at Yang with her finger, Ruby asks "Then why does Ozpin want to see us?"
Blake interrupts, shaking her head a little. "Let's just go and see him. He did say 'at your earliest convenience,' after all."
The team quickly grabs what of their combat gear they weren't already wearing and pile into the elevator to go meet Ozpin.
It's a long ride up. Weiss breaks the silence. "Why do you think Ozpin summoned us?"
"If Yang didn't do a particularly bad prank, then he's probably going to give us a mission," says Blake.
Ruby looks excited, but before she can start speculating on what the mission will be, the elevator dings and the doors open, forcing her to compose herself as much as she can.
Team RWBY enters Ozpin's office, looking up at the clockwork spinning away before looking at Ozpin's desk and the back of his chair.
Turning around, Ozpin says "I'm assuming you're wondering why I called you here?"
Ruby immediately begins rambling. "Well, yeah, our first guess was that Yang had done a prank that went too far but she's assured us that that isn't the case so our second guess is that you called us here to give us a mission and we were about to start taking guesses as to what the mission was when the elevator door opened and-"
Weiss lays a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Ruby. Breathe."
The corners of Ozpin's mouth lift a tiny bit. "Yes, I called you here to give you a mission. As you have not had any since the Breach, you have technically fallen behind your classmates in field missions completed - although this is through no fault of your own. However, this mission should be much simpler, and should not result in another major incident. Did you see the piece of moon fall?"
Ruby exclaims "Yeah! We were all watching it as it hit. Weiss says it landed about 25 kilometers away."
Ozpin nods. "A very educated guess, miss Schnee. Our triangulation says it landed 26 kilometers away. I want you to go out and investigate the landing site of the moon fragment, collect the largest piece, and bring it back to Beacon. In eighty minutes, a bullhead will be at the landing pad ready to take you to the entrance of the Emerald Forest."
Ruby is barely able to contain her excitement at being given another mission, and isn't thinking too deeply on it. Weiss is already mentally adjusting the study schedule and working out what they need to bring along. Blake is running through her mental map of the Emerald Forest, planning the quickest routes to the mission site.
Yang is the only one who realizes the obvious problems with the mission. "Professor Ozpin? Why are we not just taking the bullhead directly to the crash site? What do we do if the largest piece is too large for us to take back? And what teacher is going to escort us?"
Ozpin actually smiles. "Very astute, miss Xiao Long. I will answer your questions in reverse order. As this is a simple mission, with a projected threat of low and no side objectives, there is no need for a teacher escort. Our math on the impact and experience with previous impacts says that this moon shard was no larger than 500 kilograms on impact, and probably shattered even smaller. It is expected that the largest piece remaining will be roughly the size of Ruby's fist, if that."
"And as for your first question, this mission is more of a test of your ability to conduct missions outside of the city, and navigate using maps, compasses, and the stars. The target goal is actually inconsequential."
"Miss Belladonna has this experience already, but miss Xiao Long and miss Rose have only limited experience with this, and miss Schnee has no practical experience with forest navigation without scroll assistance. If you are to be Huntresses, you must learn to do without these aids, so that if they fail, you will not be lost in the forest, unable to find your way out. For this reason, upon your return, we will be checking your scrolls. If you use their map or communication functions after departing the bullhead and before your return, you will receive a failing grade on this assignment. If the largest part is too large or the mission parameters change and you need to call to inform us of this, that will of course be excused."
Ruby, wanting to get going as soon as possible, responds "Take bullhead to entrance of Emerald Forest, go through Emerald Forest to the meteorite, collect biggest piece of meteorite, come back, use maps and compasses, don't use scrolls. Did I miss anything?"
"No. But I will impress upon you this: If the mission becomes something you are not able to handle or the mission parameters change, do not hesitate to call for backup or advice. Above all else, this is a training mission. We will not fail you if you simply cannot surmount an obstacle, or something beyond your skill level appears. Knowing what you cannot handle is more important than knowing what you can handle. Here are the maps. We have marked them with the approximate location of the impact. Good luck, team RWBY."
"Operator! Operator!"
The operator gets up, still in control of Garuda. "I'm okay, Ordis. What's the damage?"
"Extensive, but repairable. It will take many months before the Orbiter is able to fly under its own power once more if NOBODY COMES FOR US we do not receive assistance from other Tenno."
Checking that the Transference is still properly running and link is strong, the Operator asks "What about the Liset?"
"The Liset is currently trapped underneath the Orbiter, and the launcher itself is damaged. The Liset itself is also damaged and incapable of flight, although less severely."
Moving to the Transference room, the Operator asks "Is the foundry running properly?"
"Yes, and I should be able to fabricate all the replacement parts we will need."
"Good. I'm assuming you'll need me to do installation?"
"OF COURSE I Yes, Operator."
"Sorry, stupid question. What about this planet? Signs of life?" The door opens, and the Operator sees that the Somatic Link appears undamaged.
"Yes, and somewhat advanced from the sound of it. I have been tapping into their unencrypted transmissions, and have created a translation program. The longer I am able to continue running the program, the more accurate the translation will be."
"What are they saying about our little crash landing?"
"They appear to think it little more than a meteorite made from a shard of their shattered moon. It is probable that they will not even investigate, as they believe it to be very small."
"How far away are we from the nearest settlement?"
"We are roughly 25 kilometers from a fairly large city, Operator. However, there is a complication."
Suddenly wary, the Operator asks "And what would that be, Ordis?"
"The locals call them 'Grimm.'"
"All right team RWBY, scrolls off!" a cheerful Ruby announces as team RWBY dismounts from the Bullhead.
There's some clicking and buzzing as the four scrolls of team RWBY power down. While not strictly necessary, it takes a few seconds to start up a scroll again - something that should hopefully remind the members of team RWBY that they aren't supposed to be using them on this mission.
Team RWBY then watches as the bullhead transport flies off, turning to look at the currently opened gate to the Emerald Forest.
Ruby, dropping into her team leader mode, reminds everyone of the plan. "All right, we need to go southeast until we reach the river ford, where we ford across. Once we're across, we go south until we reach the crash site."
Blake adds in, having been assigned as second in command for this mission, "Remember, stay with the group. If you are leaving the group for any reason, take a partner. Weiss, this is very important for you as your fieldcraft is very much lacking. If you do get separated from the group, stay calm. Call out a few times. If that doesn't work, throw up your signal so we can see it."
Ruby nods. "Yup! This should only take 3 days, 4 if we get lost or have to fight a lot of Grimm. We should reach the impact site around noon tomorrow if we're able to follow the schedule and go at the speed Blake thinks we can."
Blake adds in once again "Keep an eye on your compass. In forest like this, it is very easy to get turned around."
"And Grimm are?"
"Grimm are an unknown hostile factor, Operator. They usually take the shape of animals from the natural world, but larger, tougher, stronger, and much, much more aggressive."
"Common physical traits?"
"Grimm run the gamut of sizes and shapes, but almost invariably they have black skin or exoskeleton, red eyes, and – on those that don't have an exoskeleton naturally – white bone plating that doubles as armor. The older they get, the larger, stronger, tougher, and smarter they get."
"Tactics?"
"They use tactics suited to their particular form; for example, wolf-like Grimm will hunt in packs. Overall, they tend to act as a horde."
Standing up, the Operator says "Ordis, these Grimm sound a lot like a strain of Infestation."
"That was my original thinking as well, but I did some testing of air samples. There are no nano spores in existence on this planet except for the ones we carry."
Surprised, the Operator says "Wait - there's no infestation here already? Please tell me the Helminth infirmary is locked down and not leaking, let's not infect another planet."
"The Helminth infirmary is located deep inside the ship for a reason, Operator. The containment has not been breached, and the door is sealed. As you FINALLY PURGED already burned that patch that was outside the room and the infestation inside of most warframes is not infective, as long as the room is not opened we should have no problem."
Nodding in approval, the Operator says "Good."
"The natives of the planet have a four-tiered ranking system for Grimm. Minor Grimm are low threat on an individual level, only threatening if they get the drop on you or in large numbers. They die quite quickly when targeted. Moderate Grimm are tougher and stronger but slower, much harder to kill than a minor but also a larger target and slower. Major Grimm are massive; usually fast, strong, and tough, or extremely able in two of these areas."
"Where do the elder Grimm fall into this pattern?"
"They're generally referred to as 'Alphas,' and are usually thought of as half a step up from their normal level."
"And the fourth class?"
"Omega. An Omega class Grimm is an existential threat to any bastion of civilization. They're extremely rare, and only awake in times of calamity. THEY'RE MASSIVE they break the scale, larger than the Orb Mothers on the Vallis were. And they're never alone; if an Omega class Grimm has awoken, there's almost certainly a massive amount of lesser Grimm in the area as well."
The Operator shakes her head, seemingly disbelieving. "What's the state of the world's militaries?"
"Only one nation has a substantial standing army. The others make do with what they call 'Hunters,' who appear to be superpowered humans. And even the nation with the military relies heavily upon these Hunters."
"Special Forces?"
"Closer to mercenaries in many cases, from what I can see. If you have a problem with Grimm, you either have a Hunter on staff or put out a bounty."
"Sounds a lot like the Tenno," the Operator jokes.
"Their powers are nothing to sneeze at, either. Every Hunter seems to be able to access something called 'Aura,' which according to the local BULLSHIT mythos is the physical manifestation of the soul."
The Operator pauses. "What?" she finally asks.
"Aura seems to be able to be used as a shield of sorts. In addition, it can be used to fuel what the locals call a 'Semblance,' which with few exceptions is a unique special ability, seeming almost magical. In addition, there's something that the locals call 'Dust' which seems to be physics breaking in several ways, that can also interact with some Semblances and change how they work. Hunters who are particularly adept at this are called 'Dust Mages.'"
"Sounds useful. Can we -?"
"It's reportedly useless outside of the planet's atmosphere."
"Damn," the Operator says, not sounding too disappointed. "How do Hunters stack up to a Warframe?"
"A trained and experienced Hunter could probably handle a freshly awoken Tenno. Some of the more experienced and skilled ones could probably handle some of the more inexperienced ones. Against you, there's no comparison, not one on one. IT WOULD BE A SLAUGHTER – even their most experienced fighters cannot match you for skill and power combined, barring surprise of course."
"So, not a threat except in numbers."
"Theoretically, Operator. Some teams working together could potentially defeat you."
"What about the nations?"
"We've landed closest to Vale, which seems to be a representative democracy of sorts. It's also the most outwardly accepting of Faunus of the four-"
The Operator interrupts. "Faunus?" she asks.
"Faunus are humans that seemingly have a mutation causing them to have secondary animal characteristics, such as a kavat tail or condroc wings," Ordis says, sounding as though he's reading from a particularly dry encyclopedia. "There's a large amount of racism towards them, both on an institutional and personal level, although officially this is outlawed."
"But it's supported in some nations?"
"Vale handles it the best, although there's still a long way to go. Atlas is the worst; the laws are given lip service at best, and large corporations treat the Faunus as little better than slave labor."
"The Atlesian government supports this?"
"The Atlesian government is mostly run by the corporations. Of the five seats on their board, one is directly selected by the top companies, one is the head of their armed forces, one is the headmaster of the school, and the remaining two are selected by an ostensibly popular vote, but on the occasions when a non-oligarch runs, they're forced out. There is a 20% death rate and a 75% rate of uncovered scandal if you are a non-oligarch who runs for the seat – naturally, the major news corporations will never stop covering this 'breaking news.'"
"What about the remaining 5%?"
"They never polled well enough to be taken seriously."
"And nobody investigates this?"
"The military functions as their police, and is effectively bought by the corporations. Any investigation is perfunctory and never goes beyond a minimum of effort."
The Operator shakes her head. "They sound like the Corpus."
"THAT'S BECAUSE THEY A – They're more like a Corpus light. Diet Corpus, if you will. There's a significant amount of resentment among the common populace towards the oligarchs, as the oligarchs don't have the BRAINWASHING 'education' industry of the Corpus."
"The other nations?"
"Vacuo is less of a nation and more of a group of roaming tribes. Mistral is based in dormant volcano chain, and has a somewhat strict caste system."
The Operator stands. "I'm going to go outside to do an inspection of the exterior, maybe try to salvage some of the debris so we can reuse it. If I'm reading your estimates on repairs right, we have the ability to repair this with our saved resources, but we'll be cutting it extremely close. If we can salvage broken bits, that'll stretch our supplies."
"It will take longer, Operator."
Shaking her head as she walks to the exit, the Operator says "We're already guaranteed to be here for 6 months, Ordis. We're going to have to police the debris anyways. And since we're in atmosphere, we can synthesize fuel."
The Operator leaves the Orbiter via an airlock, stepping out onto this new world for the first time. Walking around and checking the damage, the first thing she does is check the fuel lines to the main engines. They are mostly intact, with only a few of the lines having any failures. Due to the redundancies in the system, there's no pressing need to repair the lines yet - in case of emergency, enough fuel would still make it to the engines.
The engines themselves, however… The portside engine is so much junk. It's beyond repair - the damages wrought by the Void storm and later being the first point of impact for the Orbiter on the ground have resulted in it being so much scrap metal.
The starboard engine is in better shape. While it took damage, the Orbiter was starting to spin to port as the maneuvering thrusters burned out, so it didn't take as much damage as the port engine from impact with the ground, on top of not being damaged previously. It'll be easy enough to replace the damaged housing.
The hardest part is going to be repairing the hull - it's easy enough to see the new entrance to the personal quarters right now, but the bottom of the Orbiter must be torn to hell and back and what was that noise?
The Operator's head is on a swivel. "Ordis, are you running scans?"
"No, Operator. It is possible that the inhabitants of this planet may be able to detect an active scan if it pings them."
Fingering the grip of the Euphona, the Operator asks "Can you run a low-powered scan focused magnetic south? Look for motion if you can. I think I heard something."
"Scanning. Please wait a moment. Oh. Oh dear. THAT'S A LOT OF there is much movement incoming from the south, Operator. Coming fast. They will be here in under a minute."
Nodding, the Operator says "Right. Any fliers?"
"Not yet, but I kept the scanner power down to a 1 kilometer range. The fliers could very easily be out of range."
"Keep the Grattler in the launcher then, and be ready to deploy it if I call for it. Time to do my job," the Operator says as she cracks her neck and pulls the Astilla off of her back, a quick check of the chamber confirming that it's still loaded.
'Thankfully, the impact knocked down a lot of the trees in the area. Makes it easier to have that long, clear line,' the Operator thinks as she crouches down and readies the Astilla to receive the incoming horde. In the last moment before the horde of bone plated wolf-like creatures that the locals call 'Beowolves' emerges, she has one more thought. 'The Astilla was a good choice.'
The thumping of the Astilla as it sends a glass slug into the face of the lead beowulf is gratifying, shattering the bone mask at the same time that the slug itself detonates, sending the glass shards and their deadly payload into the other beowulves behind it. The second and third shots are on their way even as the accelerant catches fire along the already infected glass lacerations, causing several Grimm to fall over themselves in panic as the fire spreads rapidly along their fur.
All too soon, the Astilla clicks dry, and the Operator has to reload. Grabbing a fresh cylinder, she breaks open the action, ejecting the empty cylinder for the Carrier to grab, and slams in the new one, closing the action again with a flick of her wrist.
Opening fire again at an area of Beowulves that hadn't been slowed by her first barrage, she observes that these ones seem to have learned quickly, having spread out much more and trying to not run directly at her. It doesn't matter; the Operator has fought too many battles to be outsmarted by a mere horde creature.
As her third magazine clicks empty, she realizes that the horde has split up too much for the Astilla to be effective anymore. Finishing the reload, she stows the Astilla and finally listens to the instincts of Garuda, leaping incredibly high and landing directly on the head of the largest beowulf she can currently see, claws already extended and lashing for the creature.
The wolf, not quite an alpha yet but definitely a few years older than most present, is caught completely off guard by how fast the Operator moves, and before it can react, Garuda's Claws stab into the murderous creature's torso through the back. The Operator immediately lifts the Grimm above her head before ripping her claws apart, tearing the already very dead Grimm into four distinct pieces, the Blood Mirror appearing in front of her.
There's a distinct and unfortunate lack of blood coming from the gory display, just a great deal of smoke emanating from the pieces. Garuda demands blood, she should savage the corpse until it gives – the Operator snatches back control from the Garuda's instincts, instead spinning on the spot with claws extended, raking through the faces and flanks of several nearby beowulves before leaping high again and repeating the strike on another beowulf.
Finishing this one in a much less gory display, she leaps to the edge of the crowd again, allowing herself a little flourish by ripping this one's head clean off before she leaps high and turns in the air, channeling her power into the Seeking Talons as she defies gravity with her aim glide.
With a quick pirouette, she releases the charged power and watches as a vast swath of the Grimm suddenly develop lacerations, their smoky essence spreading from their newly acquired wou -
The pack Alpha tackles her out of the air.
The Operator, momentarily surprised, reacts quickly, her claws immediately reaching for the throat of the massive beowulf, but she's surprised as the beast lowers its head enough to cause the blows to land on its heavily armored skull instead. Her back hits the ground, and she quickly gets her feet underneath the belly of the wulf, using her momentum and strength to fling the beast off of her. She doesn't even pause for thought, grabbing the Euphona off her hip and snapping off a round of buckshot into the belly of the beast before it can begin to recover. And then three slugs into the throat and head, as it was starting to get up again.
'That was a fresh awoken mistake,' the Operator thinks, berating herself even as she quickly reloads the Euphona. 'Garuda's instincts are strong, but I shouldn't be letting them take over like that. I need to let it guide me, not rule me.'
She's not distracted enough to fail to notice the pack of Ursas lead by an Alpha that rumble out of the trees, nor the trees further behind those shaking with the passage of something massive.
Flipping the Euphona to her left hand, she grabs the Astilla off her back and fires a one handed burst of four shots at the dozen bear-like creatures, the glass shards flying all around them and peppering the beasts with numerous small, irritating, bleeding and burning wounds.
Having successfully stopped their forward momentum, the Operator leaps forwards once again, the Blood Mirror refreshing as she lands on top of an Ursa on the outskirts of the group. The claws stab down into the throat, ripping outwards even as the Operator backflips off her impromptu mount, landing in front of the pack Alpha.
The Blood Mirror absorbs the first blow from the smoldering and raging creature before the Operator leaps to the other edge of the group of Ursa, this time sliding underneath the one at the edge with claws outstretched, raking the belly of the beast open and barely getting out from under the collapsing corpse.
With a quick backstep even as the Ursai turn to chase, she starts channeling energy and stored damage into the Blood Mirror, collapsing it and sending it blasting out and impacting a still smoldering Ursa in the chest, the blunt projectile exploding out into the pack, killing a few outright and staggering the rest.
Nearly out of energy, the Operator immediately casts Bloodletting to regain her energy at the cost of health, the pain of the damage being taken barely registering on the periphery of her perception as she casts the Blood Altar on a nearly dead Ursa, the talons bursting up into its torso and gut and suspending it in the air, the smokey life essence finally converted to blood that siphons to the Operator even as she leaps at the still staggered pack Alpha, claws outstretched and going for the hamstrings.
The Alpha recovers quickly enough from the Blood Mirror to avoid losing both rear legs to the unnaturally sharp claws of Garuda, but is still hobbled by the successful strike to one of its legs as it stumbles and falls, the ground slightly trembling as it impacts. Assured that the Alpha is temporarily out of the fight, the Operator draws the Euphona, blasting a slug at point blank range into the eye of one of the few remaining lesser Ursa, killing it instantly before spinning under another Ursa's enraged paw, coming up faster than the bear can react and stuffing the barrel of the Euphona down its throat, firing a blast of buckshot into the innards of the creature before quickly removing the arm, the Ursa's last act being just too slow to catch the retreating hand with a bite as the claw of the other hand stabs into the now exposed throat, ripping sideways as the Operator spins and countercharges the remaining two lesser Ursa, slipping sideways at the last second as she rakes her claws down the flank of one of the beasts as it tried to bullrush her before grabbing onto the fur as she kicks off the ground, using her grip on the mortally wounded bear as a pivot point to land on top of the last Ursa, the claws already descending before the Ursa can even have a chance to react, stabbing into the back on either side of the spine and ripping outwards.
The Ursa crumbles to the ground instantly, and the Operator rolls forwards off the falling bear, spinning and already drawing the Astilla on the crippled Ursa Major.
12 rounds later, the last of the Ursa is well on its way to dissolving, and the Operator reloads even as she turns towards the still shaking trees. She sees the glowing yellow reversed teardrop first, before the massively thick bone plating resolves out of the trees, covering the thorax, tail, and pincers of a house-sized scorpion.
A small smile reaches the corners of the Operator's mouth as she activates Blood Mirror again, charging at the Death Stalker and refreshing her protection, landing directly in the middle of the Death Stalker's claws.
The creature is somewhat slow to react, not expecting the sheer speed of the Operator, but the tail slashes down at her, and the Operator makes no move to avoid it as it deflects off the Blood Mirror, stabbing into the ground. Before the Death Stalker can recover, she casts Blood Altar on the tail, impaling it in several locations and pinning it in place before almost casually swiping a claw at the armored tail of the beast.
To her surprise, the square on strike doesn't effortlessly cut through, and she quickly changes tune and begins a flurry of slashes at the beast that's still struggling to figure out what happened to its stinger. After a few moments of this, the Death Stalker tries to grab the Operator with a claw, a clumsy maneuver which the Operator deftly dodges with a quick backflip.
Changing tactics and taking advantage of the fact that the Death Stalker is still mostly immobilized for a little longer, the Operator dashes forwards around the snapping claws, casting several more Blood Altars on the legs on one side to hold it in place even more securely before backing up and channeling Seeking Talons, relishing in the power of the fully charged ability for a second before releasing it.
Where Garuda's Talons had difficulty cutting, the channeled Void energy has no such compulsions, slipping past the armor and reaching the fleshy bits within, rending them open and causing black smoke to escape from cracks in the exoskeleton.
Despite all this damage, it's not dead, and the Operator moves to correct that even as the Death Stalker recovers its stinger and awkwardly tries to turn to face her. She dashes forwards, the Blood Mirror deflecting another sting, her claws aimed at the lightly armored, vulnerable legs that are still stuck to the ground. A flurry of claws and the Grimm is now permanently crippled along one side, the Operator immediately retreating to see what it does.
The Grimm tries to charge and use its mass to crush this insect that has caused it so much pain, but is so slow that the Operator feels no need to even dodge as she channels all her energy into the Blood Mirror before releasing it at the head of the creature, the blunt projectile smashing the white bone plating apart before ripping through the head, stopping the creature where it stands and causing it to start dissolving.
Watching the dissolving Death Stalker with no small degree of satisfaction, the Operator says "Ordis, queue up a bunch of sensors that I can mount on some of the trees around here. I want to get a network set up so that we can't be caught off guard by this again. If that death stalker had come in with the beowolves, it's very possible that I would've just been overrun. Let's not count on luck to save us again."
"Yes, Operator."
"Oh, and prep the Ivara. Loadout B. During installation, I want to be able to avoid battle if I choose."
"Silenced Vectis Prime, Hikou Prime, and Sheevbeing moved to Ivara's hardpoints now, Operator."
"Thank you, Ordis. I really don't say that often enough."
"You're welcome, Operator."
"We're making good time, we got across the ford faster than I thought we would," says Blake.
"We are, but I'm still worried about Weiss. She's having problems on her turns navigating, and her endurance isn't as good as ours. She was lagging behind for the last few hours today," responds Ruby. "We may have to slow down or take more breaks, so that Weiss isn't completely exhausted if we run into grimm."
"We'll try to call halt to check the map for directions more often, and once we reach the impact site we can take a few hours of break or light work. Tomorrow and the next day are going to be worse for her, she's not going to have slept well and won't have physically recovered nearly as much," says Blake.
"I can hear you, you know!" a peeved Weiss says from the other side of the camp they've set up.
"Are we wrong?" asks Ruby.
Weiss hmmphs. "... No."
"We're not trying to shame you," Blake says. "We're trying to help you. Everyone, including Ozpin, identified you as the weakest link in this group for this task."
"We all have different strengths and weaknesses," says Yang. "Without you keeping us on our study schedules, and especially helping Ruby, we wouldn't be nearly as strong academically as we are. As a matter of fact, as the PT master of the team, I've already started coming up with exercises to increase your endurance so that this doesn't happen again."
Weiss looks faintly horrified. "This is revenge for the history test prep I put you through, isn't it?"
Yang smiles. "It actually wasn't, but now that you mention it…"
"I will bury you in flashcards."
"Alright, no extra PT time for Weiss." Weiss sighs in relief. "I'll just run it faster."
Weiss glares at Yang, hand inching towards Myrtentaster. "I will stab you."
"Not with how quickly you tire out!" Yang says, leaning back against a tree with a huge grin.
"Yang, please stop winding Weiss up. Let's try not to attract any Grimm," says Ruby, raising her hands palm up towards the two verbal combatants.
"Right. Sorry sis. Sorry Weiss." says a suddenly contrite Yang.
"I'll take first watch. Yang, you take second. Blake, third. Weiss, you'll take fourth, unless anyone wants to trade?"
"No." "No." "Nope."
"All right. Good night team RWBY!"
The sun begins to creep up over the horizon. The Operator has been busy all night, planting the hidden sensors first to the south, and then to the north, as Ordis calculated the greatest possibility of Grimm coming from the south and of the people of the planet coming from the north. Next, she'll set up the network to the west, and will probably return to the Orbiter around midday to restock on the last sensors and cover the east, meaning Ordis could stop pulsing possibly detectable active scans at somewhat random intervals.
The advanced warning of anything incoming would help, but having gone over the recordings of the battle while waiting for the first batch of the sensors, the Operator had realized two things.
Firstly, as in control as the Operator had felt during the fighting, she had still nearly been overrun by the creatures of Grimm. A few dozen more Beowulves or the Ursa or Deathstalker entering the fight a minute before they did would have been a much closer fight, if not an outright defeat. If fliers had shown up at any point, it could've been even worse, forcing her to split her attention.
Secondly, if there was a full fireteam of four Tenno here, there would have been next to no threat from the Grimm, at least in that attack. Since Ordis's work attempting to connect to either the Lotus or other Tenno had failed, that wasn't an option. However, the inhabitants of the planet may be willing to help.
Or they might refuse, or shoot at the Operator. The resulting spike in fear when the Operator would defend herself would immediately summon Grimm, overrunning both the settlement and the orbiter. Or, the Operator's Warframe could be defeated and they could just destroy the orbiter and the Operator on board while she attempts to recover from a violent separation from her Warframe.
The other option to beef up the defenses involves creating automated defenses, such as gun turrets. This might be even worse, as Ordis's conservative estimates are a month of time to build the minimum necessary for the turrets to be effective, and would use enough resources that they could not complete the Orbiter repairs without later cannibalizing the turrets, so for at least 3 months of the now extended timeline that they would be there, the defenses would be insufficient to hold off a Grimm assault.
The debate with Ordis over which one was the better option had been agreed to be continued later, as both options presented their own scary problems and advantages, and both had switched sides multiple times to argue it from both angles.
"Oh well," the Operator thinks. "At least we'll know if anything is coming now."
"All right, Weiss, your turn as navigator is over. How'd she do, Blake?" asks Ruby.
"We spent most of the last two hours traveling southeast. Weiss, can you pass me your compass?" Weiss hands it over. "Ah. Your compass got stuck. In that case, you did an excellent job of keeping us on a straight path, much better than yesterday," Blake says, smacking the compass a few times before handing it back to Weiss. "Overall, still not good, as she was too proud to ask for help, and I doubt she didn't realize her compass was broken." Weiss fumes for a moment, but doesn't issue a denial.
"If I'm reading the map right and we did go mostly southeast, based on the speed we traveled yesterday we'd be a bit south and east of the target. Given that we slowed our pace a little, I think we're pretty much due west of the target," says Ruby.
Blake nods in agreement. "Maybe a little bit north of it still. Let's try to go at about 265."
"Yang, are you okay with trading navigation turns with Blake?"
"Yeah, I don't want to navigate this close to the area. Too likely we'd miss it."
"Alight Blake, lead us onward!"
"Operator, you must return to the orbiter at once!"
Putting one of the last western sensors in place, the Operator asks "What's happening, Ordis?"
"I just pulsed a scan to the east. There are four human INTRUDERS interlopers coming, and they will arrive soon!"
The Operator, in her Ivara, begins moving as quickly as possible towards the orbiter. "Void damn it. I guess our debate is about to be settled. Start jamming all transmissions except for ours in the immediate area. If they're unfriendly, we need to make sure that they can't call for help. If they're friendly, easier to explain it to them as a precautionary measure than deal with enemy air strikes if not."
"Operator, at your current speed, they will get here before you."
"How much sooner? I can't go any faster," says the Operator, parkouring towards the Orbiter.
"A few minutes. They won't be here for any significant length of time before you arrive."
"That's still not good, Ordis. If they try to call out immediately, they'll notice something's up."
"Do you want to drop the jamming, Operator?"
"No. They probably won't be carrying anything that can damage the orbiter before I reach it."
"Nearly to the impact site," says Blake.
"Really? How do you know?" asks Yang.
"Look up." Team RWBY, with the exception of Blake, look up and see the tops of the trees shorn off.
"So this is the angle it came in at," Weiss says.
"Yeah! This is so cool! It's like we're tracking it!" Ruby exclaims.
"As a matter of fact, I can see the impact site up ahead through the trees. About two more minutes, and we're at the location."
Walking faster than they were before now that their goal is nearly in sight, they arrive at the edge of the impact zone.
And stop for a few moments, as they get their first clear look at the thing in the center.
Weiss breaks the silence. "Please tell me that that's just a crashed bullhead."
"Nope, I can't. That is not a bullhead. Ruby, do you know of any Atlesian prototypes that this could be?" asks Yang.
Ruby looks awestruck. "Uh, no. Nope. Not a one. Atlas just upgraded their picket fliers, and that or a new transport would be the only thing this could be if it were Atlesian. And Atlas hasn't had any problems with up-armoring bullheads, so it's not a transport."
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang start moving towards the crashed ship, but Blake calls then to stop, saying "Wait! Look to the southern side."
Turning, Yang is the second one to see the remains of the fight. "Something was fighting over there."
"That's impossible. Nothing could've survived that impact, it showed up on seismographs and we felt it from 26 kilometers away!" says Weiss from behind the rest of the group.
Ruby pulls out Crescent Rose, deploying it to rifle form and looking through the scope at the woodline. "Something did. There's punctures in the trees to the south. Grimm don't shoot guns."
"It could've been automated defenses!"
Blake shakes her head. "If there were no survivors, what attracted the Grimm? It must've been a fairly decent swarm for all those bullets to be necessary. This wasn't a pack of beowulves wandering around and coming across it."
"Don't even have to go that far, Blakey. I don't see any weapons on the thing, and we haven't been shot at yet," says Yang.
"That could mean that it doesn't think we're hostile!"
A new voice cuts in from behind and above them. "Actually, I haven't decided what you are yet. Turn around slowly, no sudden moves."
Looping through the forest to the north of the crash site, the Operator looks at the group of four girls that may have forced her hand as she casts prowl and turns invisible to sneak up on them.
Carefully picking her footing, the Operator thinks 'Dammit. They're armed, and they're not wearing uniforms, so they're not soldiers. Given the range of colors, they're probably huntresses. I need to know how much they know. That means I need to ask them. Let's keep it at range - if they're huntresses, they're probably very good in melee and I'm currently not equipped for standup melee. If it does become a fight, open off with a few shots from the Vectis before dodging into the forest and activating the Artemis bow. Try to turn it into a running fight.'
'Identify, assess, plan.'
Carefully dodging fallen branches so as to make a minimum amount of sound, she thinks 'the one in black and purple with the bow on her head is the most alert. Sneaking up on her will be the most difficult. Weapon is a currently sheathed sword. Handle on the sheath itself - probably able to use it as a bludgeon, I can't imagine that it's sharp. Crossguard of the sword appears to be a small pistol. Also, it appears she's attached her sword to her forearm with a length of ribbon. Probably able to use it as a chained sword.'
Jumping up on top of a fallen tree trunk and picking her next jumping target, she thinks 'red cloak girl there is interesting. That gigantic thing she just took off of her back changed forms - probably a transforming weapon of some sort. Definitely has a sniper mode, as she's using it to check the woodline more closely. Probably has a melee mode as well, as I can't imagine that the whole mass in the rear is just to reduce felt recoil. The cloak has the potential to make shots miss, as it could make her look bigger than she actually is when snapping off a shot. If it comes down to a fight, I need to eliminate her first, as she looks to be the only one who can really contest me at range.'
Rolling under a fallen tree, she thinks 'the blonde in the browns and tans doesn't look armed at first glance, but with how I just saw that weapon the red cloak girl is carrying transform I'm willing to bet that those big bracelets on her wrists are actually punching weapons, just waiting to be deployed. In that case, definitely keep her at range, as any ranged weapon she has will still be very inaccurate at range because of design limitations.'
As she tightropes along a treetrunk, she thinks 'white hair, white dress, and the rapier. No obvious ranged option, but given the glowing stuff in the guard of her rapier, possible dust mage. From what Ordis gave me in his briefing, those attacks are fairly telegraphed, but very powerful if they hit. That being said, if she plays a more supportive role, she could be very dangerous in enabling her teammates. Take her out second tentatively, first if she does anything really dangerous.'
Reaching her destination and jumping up onto a sturdy looking branch, the Operator catches the last bit of their conversation, and smirks when she hears the blonde say that they haven't been shot at yet and the white haired girls frustrated reply before dropping out of Prowl and aiming the Vectis at the middle of the group - not pointed at anyone yet, but easy enough to flick onto target.
"Actually, I haven't decided what you are yet. Turn around slowly, no sudden moves."
The group turns, and gets their first sight of the alien on Remnant. It's primarily white, with spots of green and lines of copper all over the body, and some teal and steel armor pieces on its shins, with a glowing and shoulders. The ethereal white skirt seems to float almost unnaturally, and the ticking white and viridian cloak and device on her back seem to promise violence. Green lights shaped in a diamond seemingly set in copper make up the face, while the top of the head seems to be covered by a white and green Mistrali conical hat tilted at a severe angle.
It's also aiming a very fancy looking white, viridian, and copper rifle right at the middle of the group. The blonde speaks somewhat sarcastically, crossing her arms, "Are you going to demand that we put our hands up too?"
The girl in the bow and blacks and purples looks absolutely shocked at the fact that this thing had managed to sneak up on her - she'd checked behind her not five seconds ago, and had seen and heard absolutely nothing.
The rifle shifts to point directly at the red cloaked girl, whose eyes are flicking around, seemingly trying to plot out how to get to the Operator's perch or into cover. "No. Two of you have your weapons attached to your wrists already, another one has her weapon in her hand, and either way I'll only be able to plug one of you before I'm forced out of my position. Just don't make any sudden movements and don't point your weapons at me and I won't shoot." The red cloaked girl is completely frozen, staring down the barrel of the rifle pointed at her - looking down a barrel with a caliber larger than their thumb tends to do that to people. The Operator shifts her aim off of the red cloaked girl, prompting an exhale of relief, before asking "What are your names?"
Red cloak carefully steps forward. "My name is Ruby Rose. The one with white hair is Weiss Schnee. They," she says, pointing to the black and purple girl with the bow in her hair and the blonde in tans and browns respectively, "are Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. What's your name?"
"I'll answer that later. What are you doing here?"
Ruby answers, carefully choosing her words, "We were sent to get the largest part of the moon that crashed here, and we were supposed to do it with maps and compasses as part of a test." She starts adjusting her stance before a small movement of the rifle towards her stills her once more.
"Why did you come from the east instead of the north?"
A few seconds of silence pass, Ruby not daring to speak lest she move and have the rifle pointed at her again, before Blake sighs, shrugs, and speaks up. "Weiss's compass was stuck when it was her turn to navigate, and she sent us southeast instead of south. When it became my turn to navigate, we went west to get here."
The alien is completely still. "Did you know the craft was here before you arrived?"
Yang barks out a laugh, crossing her arms and putting her weight on her back leg. "Nah. We thought it was a meteor. If they'd thought there was gonna be aliens, we wouldn't have been sent."
The rifle recenters and lowers a bit. "Who sent you?"
Now that the rifle is no longer pointed near her, Ruby finds her voice again. "Professor Ozpin."
The lights on the alien's face brighten for a second, and the rifle tip bobs up and down almost imperceptibly, seemingly surprised. "Professor? You're students? How old are you?"
Ruby rallies a bit. "We're students. I'm 15, Weiss, Blake, and Yang are 17."
The rifle lowers a bit more. "What were you going to do before I interrupted you?"
Ruby slowly shrugs and shakes her head as she answers "I don't know, probably call Professor Ozpin. Things kinda went beyond what we were prepared for, especially with the whole aliens on Remnant thing. And Ozpin told us to call him if we found something that we couldn't handle."
"What would your Professor Ozpin have done upon being informed?"
"Probably come out here himself to make a decision based on what he found. This really isn't making a good first impression, by the way."
"Ruby, please don't antagonize the alien. I'd rather go into the history books as the first people to make peaceful contact with alien life, not the first people to be killed by hostile aliens," interjects a miffed looking Weiss.
'This is a decent outcome so far,' thinks the Operator. 'If I can smooth over the whole "Aiming a rifle at you" thing, they don't seem to be immediately hostile to me.'
"One last question. If I put away my rifle and asked to have a friendly discussion rather than an interrogation, what would you do?"
Ruby's face instantly brightens and she starts looking hopeful. "I'd talk with you! I'm super interested in your ship and also I really don't want that gun pointed at me anymore because the size of that barrel really scares me."
The other three remain silent for a few seconds before the alien looks at them in turn. "That question was for all four of you."
"Not gonna lie, I'm more curious than angry right now, although that might change depending on your answer to my first question," says Yang, uncrossing her arms and shrugging at the alien, seemingly unconcerned. "I won't attack you straight off the bat, anyways."
"As I said earlier, I'd rather go down in history as one of the first people to make peaceful contact with alien life, not the first to be killed by an alien," says Weiss, absolutely hungry for new knowledge and fame that her father has no claim on.
Blake speaks up again. "I won't attack you."
"Good. I'll hold you to your word," says the Operator, pulling the rifle up and placing it on her back, before hopping off the branch she was sitting on and landing lightly on the ground.
There's an uneasy silence for a few moments, team RWBY fidgeting and shifting for a bit, nobody wanting to be the first to talk and the alien content to wait, before Yang shrugs and opens off the questioning with "So, why the whole holding us at gunpoint thing if you weren't going to shoot us?"
"Short version? I needed information, and didn't know what your reaction would be if I revealed myself peacefully. You dodged the partial sensor net that I had managed to put up that would've given me early warning of your coming. One of the first things I found out about this planet is that humanity is under siege, and people under siege tend to be very paranoid. I needed to have some control of the situation, some reason you wouldn't immediately attack me upon revealing myself."
The alien steps forward a bit, jabbing a finger towards the scars of battle to the southwest. "Because under an hour after I woke up from the crash landing, I found myself in pitched battle against 142 Beowulves, an Alpha Beowulf, 11 Ursa, an Ursa Major, and a Death Stalker, and I was damned near overrun and killed. Because my ship is unarmed, and is so heavily damaged anyways that it cannot fly. Because I am hideously outnumbered by both the Grimm and the humans of this planet and in an extremely vulnerable position that I cannot retreat from or reposition in any way, and I'm going to be here for the next six months at least before I can effect enough repairs to get out of this deathtrap. I am quite sorry for that our initial interaction was hostile, but I view it as necessary."
Blake interjects, nodding in understanding and looking to the rest of the group. "You were scared. It was a little paranoid, but I can definitely understand why you did what you did."
The alien nods sharply for emphasis. "Scared is definitely a term that can be used. Professionally paranoid is probably more accurate, however."
Yang slowly nods. "I scare you, then?"
"You in particular don't scare me. I have fought in literal thousands of combat missions, and I am extremely confident in my ability to defeat you. It might take some time and effort, but I would win. It's what comes after that concerns me."
Blake says "What do you mean, 'what comes after?'"
"You're huntress students. Because you're out alone, your Professor Ozpin must've decided that this mission was fairly low threat or you are particularly good fighters - possibly both - and don't need an escort. If a team of huntresses on a low risk mission disappeared this close to a city, what would happen?"
Blake nods, understanding. "He would be worried about a Grimm threat that could overwhelm four fairly competent huntress students before they could call for assistance this close to the city, and would launch a search for our remains and whatever killed us."
"And one of the first places they'd check would be your destination, as it is the only place that they knew you would be going. It's easier to track going two ways than one. Even if I were to successfully hide your remains, they'd still be extremely suspicious of me."
Ruby says "So, you never actually had any intention of harming us?"
"Only if you attacked me outright. I just needed a way to control the situation and get my questions in so I could figure out what you were doing here and how you dodged the sensors."
Weiss asks, curiosity in her tone, "You said you're a veteran of thousands of fights. How old are you?"
The Operator sighs and sits down. "That's… hard to answer, actually. Biologically speaking, I'm about 16. Years since I was born in the regular universe, somewhere more than 5,000. Years that I've been awake for in the regular universe, about 300 or so. Actual age is actually pretty much unknown."
Ruby asks, tilting her head in confusion, "What?"
"I spent birth to age 14 as a normal, baseline human. At 14, my parents took me on a colony ship, the Zariman Ten-Zero, to go colonize a newly terraformed planet. The ship had a malfunction in its Void drive, and disappeared for approximately 4000 years. It was not 4000 years for us, though, although it was long enough that people stopped tracking things like how long we had been stuck in the ship. During this time, anyone older than 16 went absolutely batshit insane and started attacking people who were 16 or younger, however, those who were 16 or younger started manifesting Void powers. As a side effect of this, we stopped biologically aging at about the age of 14 to 16. We are effectively immortal if not killed."
"After a long time, the ship emerged from the Void, surprising the Orokin who had risen to dominance as it was thought long lost and would never be found again. The kids onboard had created our own society by that point, born out of having to defend ourselves from the adults. Eventually, due to the fact that we were unable to completely control the Void effects when outside of the Void, we were forced to be put into a dream for several hundred years, until we were woken up because the Orokin faced a major threat that only we were able to properly deal with."
Yang says "You say you were born as a human. You don't look like a human. What are you now? Also, what's your name?"
"My name, like so many other things, was forgotten while I was in the dream. Just call me 'Operator,' 'Tenno,' or the pattern of Warframe that I'm using, that's what everyone does. As to what I am, I am still human. What you are seeing here is a Warframe; specifically, an Ivara-pattern. It is a conduit for the Void energies and prevents it from leaking into the environment, which is very bad to have happen."
Weiss says "You mentioned someone named Ordis, but you said you were the only one capable of fighting onboard. Were they injured? Do they need medical attention?"
"Ordis is a ship's Cephalon. Short version is that he is an AI."
Team RWBY exchange a look, before Weiss asks "Ivara-pattern? Does that mean there's different types of Warframes?"
"Yes. I actually have four with me right now; an Atlas, a Garuda, an Ivara, and a Mesa. Each of them has very different abilities and strengths."
Blake asks "Do you feel pain if your Warframe gets hit?"
"I feel anything the Warframe I am currently controlling feels. So yes, I feel pain, although with the amount of times I've been shot, stabbed, and slashed over the years it doesn't register."
Yang asks "What's the Void?"
The Operator's shoulders slump. "That's… literally impossible to actually answer. The Void is a place where all physics and logic break down. While sections of the Void are relatively stable, they still shift in random, patternless ways. Something can look to be a five minute trip away and take 5 days, or vice versa. The greatest scientists of the day ended up completely stupefied by the whole thing, saying it seemed to resist any attempt at ordered investigation."
Weiss interjects "But it's traversable?"
"Technically speaking, yes. A Void drive that is properly functioning can open a portal to the Void. While inside the Void, it protects a vessel and any occupants by essentially wrapping it in a bubble of realspace. Going through the Void to your target is usually faster than light, and as long as the Void drive is working properly you should know roughly where you are in realspace. This doesn't protect the vessel from any environmental dangers in the Void, however."
Weiss asks "Does your vessel have a Void drive?"
The Operator throws back her head, before shaking it. "Ha! No. A Void drive is massive. The smallest ones are roughly four times the size of the clearing that my little crash landing created."
"But then how did you arrive here?"
"I was alerted to the presence of a large Void gate that had opened in my immediate area, and was sent to investigate it and close it, as a natural Void portal shouldn't have lasted that long. Upon arrival and transversal of the gate, we found it to be a naturally occurring Void portal - one that was larger and longer lived than any other recorded natural portal. Disbelieving this result, I had Ordis run a search pattern for the ship I believed to be opening the Void gate. During one of the search pattern sweeps, we strayed too far from the portal when it began to close. We were unable to make it back to the portal before it closed, and ended up trapped in the Void."
"How'd you get here then?" asks Ruby.
"I was getting to that before we got sidetracked. Short version, a Void storm happened, we tried to ride it out, a Void portal opened during the storm, we went through the portal which exited in the upper reaches of this planet's atmosphere. The storm damaged us quite badly, and we were forced into this very hard landing."
"That's great and all, but can we call Ozpin? The mission has changed, and we were supposed to call him if it did," says Yang to the group as a whole.
"Go ahead," the Operator says. Privately to Ordis, she says "Drop the jamming."
Only the Operator can hear Ordis's response, saying that the jamming has been dropped.
They're silent while they wait for Ruby's scroll to start, dialing Ozpin as soon as she's finished. Putting it on speakerphone, she says "Hello Professor Ozpin."
"Hello Ruby. What's happened on your mission that required this call?"
"We've reached the impact spot with a only a little bit of trouble and no Grimm fights, but there's a problem."
"Is the largest piece too large for you to transport yourselves? I can have a bullhead out to your location in a few hours."
"Yes and no," says Ruby, slightly elongating the last word.
"What do you mean, miss Rose?"
"The thing that hit the ground is not a piece of the moon, it's actuallyacrashedspaceshipandthere'sanalien."
"Miss Rose, can you repeat the second part of that last statement? I didn't catch it."
"It's actually a crashed spaceship and there's an alien," the Operator helpfully supplies.
There's dead air for a good 15 seconds before Ozpin responds. "I'll be there in half an hour."
"Professor Ozpin, as the alien being contacted, I would like to request that you only bring those that you trust implicitly to not spread the news around."
"I'll do that, although my leaving Beacon on short notice will not go unnoticed."
"That's fine. I look forward to talking with you, Professor."
"Likewise," says Ozpin before the line goes dead.
Team RWBY look at the Operator. "So, we've got a half hour until Ozpin gets here. Do you have any more questions?" the Operator asks.
"Yeah! Can I see your gun?" asks a very excited Ruby.