Ozpin hangs up the call from Ruby and unleashes a deep sigh before dialing a code that he knows by heart.

It rings three times before it's picked up, and before the recipient can say anything he says "Qrow, It's Ozpin. Are you still in Vale?"

Ozpin can almost hear the eyeroll and lean as Qrow languidly responds "Yeah, the air convoy to Vacuo doesn't leave for another two days. What's up?"

"Not on the scroll," Ozpin says, pulling out his keyboard. "Get to the Emerald Forest landing pad, I need a bullhead pilot that knows the meaning of discretion and can fight if need be. I'll be there in ten to fifteen minutes."

A much more worried voice comes out of the speaker. "Oz, what's going on?"

"Not on the scroll. I'll let you know what's happening in the bullhead." Ozpin hangs up.

Flipping through the scroll's address book, he reaches the Vale air traffic control, who he dials.

"This is Ozpin. I'm taking Beacon's bullhead to the Emerald Forest landing pad and then out into the Emerald Forest." As he's talking, Ozpin types out a message to the Beacon faculty, informing them that he is leaving Beacon for a short while and to continue their daily duties until his return. "Do not record where the bullhead goes once we leave the Emerald Forest landing pad, and delete all records of the flight. This is of the utmost importance. Failure to comply will be prosecuted under section 7 of the Kingdom of Vale Constitution; until further notice, this flight is classified state secret."

The shift officer of the Vale ATC sputters for a second before composing himself. "Right, no records state secret flight. When are you leaving?" Ozpin hears him mutter under his breath "First one of those in a while…"

"As soon as the bullhead is ready to fly."

"Right. We're clearing the skies for you." The ATC hangs up.

Ozpin dials a third number. "Ash. I need you to fly me to the Emerald Forest landing pad. From there, you can have the rest of the day off with full flight pay, although I will still need the bullhead."

"Got it. I could just fly you all the way to your destination, you know."

"Ash, as good a pilot as you are, I need a pilot who is also good in a fight. I'm not expecting to end up fighting, but the destination is not safe," says Ozpin, shaking his head slightly.

"Ah. Say no more. I'm just about to start preflight, so she should be good to go when you get here."

"Good." Ozpin hangs up, sends the message to the faculty, and stands up, looking up at the twisting cogs above him.

'An alien on Remnant,' he thinks, moving to the elevator and pressing the call button. 'This could change things massively. Team RWBY has managed to take another expected milk run and turn it into something massive. If they didn't need more missions in order to graduate, I wouldn't let them out on another mission again.' The elevator arrives and he shakes his head as he steps in and selects the hangar level. 'No. It was a good thing that they found the Mountain Glenn plot, and it is so far a good thing that they found this alien. Nobody's been hurt. And if I can help it, nobody will be hurt.'

The elevator doors open and Ozpin walks towards the high-pitched whine of a bullhead's engines spooling up.

"Not on the scroll. I'll tell you what's happening on the bullhead." There's a click.

'The hell?' Qrow thinks, already reaching for his weapon, Harbinger. 'Ozpin's never that short with people.'

Pulling out his wallet as he stands up, he pulls out a couple hundred lien, dropping it on the hotel bar. "Hey, barkeep. This should cover my tab and my room for about a week. Keep it rented to me." He barely hears the barkeep's grunt of acknowledgement as he leaves the bar.

'Too far to walk and make it in time. I could run, but that would attract attention, and if Ozpin's refusing to talk about any details of this on the scroll it's probably so secret that attracting any attention would be bad,' he thinks as he ducks into an alleyway.

A few seconds later, a crow flies out, flapping in the general direction of the Emerald Forest landing pad.

Weiss watches as the alien shows an extremely animated Ruby some of the features of something the alien had pulled off of her back - she'd called it a "Sheev." The alien hasn't let Ruby handle it or her rifle, but Ruby seems unconcerned, absorbing the details of the design and making excited noises as the tip lights up, heat shimmer coming off of the plasma.

A hushed "Weiss" from behind her catches her attention.

Weiss turns to look at Blake, responding in a similarly hushed tone. "Yes?"

"What are your thoughts on this? I'm kind of in shock. Normally I'd ask Yang, but she seems to be trying to keep Ruby from making any mistakes."

"I really don't know," Weiss murmurs back, shaking her head a little. "I'm excited, but also coming down off of the adrenaline high from having that rifle pointed at us. Ask me again later, maybe after I've had a chance to sleep."

The Operator is in the middle of showing Ruby the concealed explosives inside of each of her Hikou Prime throwing stars when Ordis butts in, announcing "Operator, the sensors to the east have detected a lone flying object. It appears to be coming directly towards us."

The Operator pulls back the Hikou, holding up her left hand in the universal 'one moment' gesture to quell Ruby's questions. "Probably Professor Ozpin, trying to make it harder to figure out where he went. Ping it with an active scan."

"Scanning. Appears to be a bullhead, flying extremely low."

"Thanks, Ordis."

A crow flaps down and disappears into an alleyway, and a few moments later Qrow walks out, walking with a purpose towards the landing pad with a bullhead on imminent approach.

Going through the security turnstile with barely a look at the guard, he waits at the edge of the pad for the bullhead to land, the constant growling thunder getting higher pitched as the engines spool down to land and the side bay door opens, a man in a Beacon uniform and flight helmet exiting. Walking over to him, he yells to be heard "Is there anything I should know about this bird?"

The pilot yells back "Only thing is that she seems to be quite touchy if you try to make a hard turn left at speed, but the mechanics say that they can't find anything wrong with her, so it might just be a figment of my imagination."

"Thanks," yells Qrow with a nod as he steps past the pilot. 'Better take it easy on left turns then, don't want Lady Luck to have her say,' he thinks. Stepping through the open hatch, he doesn't spot Ozpin. 'Probably in the cockpit,' he thinks as he hits the switch to seal the bay door.

The sound immediately dampens inside the craft as soon as the door shuts, and Qrow takes a moment to appreciate the end of the assault on his ears before he enters the cockpit.

Ozpin immediately hands him the flight plan he's thrown together. "Fly as low as possible as soon as we get out of the sight of the Vale proper. Beacon classes should be running for another few hours, so we should be safe from visual detection from anyone."

Qrow looks at the flight plan. "Thirty three and a half kilometers southwest, then turn and go thirty four and a third kilometers due east? Oz, what's going on?"

Ozpin shakes his head. "Get us in the air and moving at cruising speed. Something happened that needs to be kept in as small a circle as possible for the moment, and there's too many eyes here. Never know who can read lips."

"All right, Oz, but this had better be good," says Qrow, shaking his own head as he grabs the controls and begins takeoff.

The inside of the bullhead is silent for a few minutes until Qrow gets onto course and the city of Vale can barely be seen behind them, at which point he asks "Okay, we're in the air and underway. What's going on?"

"Do you remember the moon shard impact two mornings ago?"

"Yeah, it spilled a snifter of some top shelf brandy. What of it?"

"Team RWBY had fallen behind on mission completions due to the investigation surrounding the Mountain Glenn incident, and three of their four members do not have much practice with map and compass navigation. I judged that sending them on a mission to recover a shard of the moon was a low risk mission that would not require a Huntsman escort, so I sent them out."

Quickly glaring at Ozpin before returning his eyes to the job of piloting, Qrow asks "Oz, what happened to my nieces?"

"They're fine, or at least they were twenty minutes ago when Ruby called in, reporting that it wasn't a moon shard."

"What, did a dust smuggling bullhead go down?"

"No. It was not from Remnant."

"What was it then? Because the only thing left that comes to mind for what it could be is a spaceship, and I would've heard about the launch of one of those, even as isolated as I was on my last mission. Also, any recovery mission wouldn't be this secretive, and would be an all hands on deck thing."

The corners of Ozpin's mouth lift a tiny bit. "You're close."

A very exasperated Qrow sarcastically says "Oh, so they found an alien spaceship."

"Exactly."

There's silence in the cockpit for a few seconds before a loud smack and slight grunt of pain comes from the pilot's chair. "Okay, I'm not dreaming. My nieces found an alien spaceship."

"There's at least one alien there as well."

"And you called me why? Glynda can fly a bullhead just as well as I can and also wouldn't leak."

"I needed someone who wouldn't cause large amounts of alarm if they weren't where they were supposed to be when I left Beacon on short notice. This just looks like I received a moderately high-priority call that requires my personal attention somewhere to the southwest. Yes, it's something to discuss, but it happens a few times a year."

"And why are there only two of us going?"

"The alien requested that this be kept in as small a circle as possible-"

"You've talked to the alien?" Qrow interrupts as he begins a wide left turn to start heading towards the final destination.

Still looking straight ahead, Ozpin shrugs. "Technically, yes. We've exchanged less than forty words total. Its exact wording was 'Only bring those you trust implicitly not to spread the word around.'"

"So you chose the drunk," Qrow says, rolling his eyes. "What do we know?"

"It seems to be able to speak perfect Remembrance. Ruby did not use any of the distress words or phrases during the call, so it probably wasn't made under duress and it's likely they're unharmed."

Pulling up over a hill that was approaching, Qrow says "She's just a student, Oz. She might not remember the words or phrases."

"Possibly, but I doubt it. Miss Rose takes her position very seriously. That being said, after dismount and power down, I will attempt to separate the alien from team RWBY, at which point I want you to talk to them and figure out how the contact happened and if any of them are injured in non-obvious ways. This is another reason why I chose you over anyone else; two of the members of team RWBY are your family, and likely will be extremely excited to see you."

Nodding in approval, Qrow asks "If they are physically hurt, what's the plan?"

"It depends. If they're dead, send a burst to Beacon that all available Hunters are to converge on the location and destroy it, then we try to kill the alien. If they're badly wounded, we try to take it down nonlethally. If they're only lightly wounded, we talk it out."

"This is a lot to take in, Oz."

They fly in silence for a few minutes, before the system screeches a warning.

"Woah! Big active sensor ping from the east. I think our alien knows we're coming."

"Ordis, where's a good spot that I can point them to for a landing zone?"

"Analyzing. To the northeast, there used to be a clearing. There's a large tree that fell; if you DESTROY IT move it, there should be enough room for a touchdown."

"Got it. I think I see the one you're talking about." Turning to team RWBY, the Operator yells "HEY, YOU FOUR! I'm about to blow a tree into splinters. Duck behind that tree trunk and cover your eyes, there will be shrapnel and I'd prefer not to have to explain why you're filled with puncture wounds or missing an eye."

"Operator, you could just move it."

"If I were in the Atlas I would, but I don't think that the Ivara has enough strength to get it clear before Ozpin arrives."

Carefully planning her targets on the tree trunk, the Operator grabs a few handfuls of the throwing stars and, after checking that team RWBY is in cover as ordered, throws them one at a time, blowing apart large chunks of the tree trunk with each star.

"Okay, you can come out now, it's safe. Ozpin's nearly here, and I needed to clear a landing area."

"Destination's about half a kilometer away. Bleeding speed and switching to VTOL for lift," Qrow says, suiting action to words. "Oz, do we have a landing area or am I going to have to trust in the suspension?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think to ask that. We'll probably have to trust the suspension."

"Wonderful," says Qrow, rolling his eyes.

The bullhead pulls up over the impact zone, Qrow looking to find the place that looks the most likely to support it when a bright and cheery voice lights up the comms system. "Hello! My name is Ordis, a Ship Cephalon. If you will look directly to your left, you will see the Operator waving their arms next to a landing zone that has been cleared for you."

Ozpin and Qrow exchange a look before Qrow starts looking to locate the alien. Ozpin leans forward, toggling the comms system on. "Thank you, Ordis. Are we cleared to land?"

"OF COURSE YO-" Ozpin and Qrow jump at the angry outburst. "Apologies. You are cleared to land whenever you wish."

Qrow finishes landing in the clearing, shutting off the engine, the whine getting progressively higher in pitch until final shutdown. The older man leaves the cockpit as Qrow completes the shutdown, and Ozpin toggles the switch to open one of the bay doors. Air from the clearing swirls in, smelling of freshly cut hardwood.

Ozpin steps out, nodding in greeting to the unharmed team RWBY before turning to the alien. "Welcome to Remnant. I am Professor Ozpin, and my pilot is Qrow Branwen." There's some excited looks exchanged between Ruby and Yang. "I hope that our encounter will be peaceful. Do you or anyone with you need medical attention?"

The alien shakes her seemingly hooded head. "Thank you for the welcome, I hope it remains peaceful as well. I am the Operator. I am unharmed, and Ordis does not have a physical body, so we will not need medical assistance."

Qrow steps out of the bullhead, right hand slightly cheating towards the handle of Harbinger. "If he doesn't have a physical body, what is he?"

"Ordis is a Cephalon. Probably the easiest comparison for you is an artificial intelligence."

Qrow gives a flat look at the Operator. "He didn't sound stable when he called us."

The alien's shoulders slump. "Ordis is… damaged. It wasn't caused by the crash. He's stable, and still able to do his job without issue."

"But-"

Ozpin interjects. "Enough, Qrow. If they say that it's not a problem, then it isn't a problem. Do you require any assistance with repairs to your vessel?"

The Operator shrugs. "From what Ordis has figured out, I'm pretty sure you don't have the material manufacturing capability to help make replacement parts, while the foundry in my ship is able to. Help guarding the vessel would be good. I had a fairly sizable swarm of Grimm - one moment. Yes, Ordis?"

The natives of Remnant stand awkwardly for a moment while the Operator nods along to whatever Ordis is relaying to her. The Operator stops nodding, her tone dropping into a very serious mode. "Right. Sensor network just picked up motion to the south, either a lot of little things moving in a pack or one very big thing. It's moving fairly slowly, and according to Ordis its current path would take it wide of us, but I have a policy since the attack on my vessel a day ago of annihilating any Grimm that come close. If you'll excuse me, I'll be back in half an hour. Don't go into the ship."

As the Operator turns to leave and wipe out whatever idiotic Grimm has decided to encroach upon her domain, Ozpin steps forward and holds up his hand. "Wait. Surely you would rather talk with me. Let Team RWBY and Qrow Branwen deal with the Grimm while we talk."

The Operator stops, seeming to think about it for a few seconds, before shrugging. "Fine. Your scrolls have radio capability, switch them to channel 24 scramble 17 and Ordis can walk you there."

Ruby suddenly looks very excited, fumbling out her scroll, as Qrow shrugs and asks, "Which way should we go?"

The Operator pauses, slightly cocked head indicating that Ordis is talking to her privately. After a moment, she relays "They're at about one-nine-oh, moving north-northwest. Try going two-ten, maybe two-fifteen. If they keep their course and speed, it should be about two thirds of a kilometer before you meet them."

Qrow nods, pulling out his own scroll and activating radio mode as he starts to walk towards the forest in the suggested direction, team RWBY following him as a very excited Ruby finally runs up and hugs her uncle.

"Ordis will call with any updates to what the intruders are doing. He should be able to track you as well."

After team RWBY and Qrow got underway and were well into the forest, Qrow turns to them, motioning to keep moving while asking "So, what happened?"

Surprisingly, Yang answers. "Lots of things, Uncle. We went off track, and ended up going too far to the east when we were going to the spot. When we realized that, we went in from the west. We got to the spot, and we saw the spaceship. Had a few moments of discussion between ourselves, ending with me saying 'We haven't been shot at yet,' and Weiss responding 'That could just mean it doesn't think we're hostile!'" Yang's impression of Weiss is very accurate, if a little too high pitched. Weiss's annoyed "Hmph." and accompanying glare says everything that needs to be said about what she thinks of that.

Blake picks up the story from there. "After Weiss said what she said, we suddenly heard a voice from behind us saying 'I don't know what you are yet, turn around slowly, no sudden moves.' As a note, I still don't know how it snuck up on us; I had my head on a swivel and I didn't see or hear anything. The only explanation I can come up with is that it was either invisible and didn't make any sound as it approached, or it teleported."

Qrow looks worried as the group continues onward. "What happened then?"

Ruby gets in on the conversation. "We turned around and it was pointing a gun at the middle of us. Yang said something stupid, and I was looking around trying to figure out how it got there and it pointed the gun at me and I've never stared down the wrong end of the barrel of Crescent Rose but now I think I know how a Beowulf feels when Crescey is pointed right at it."

Blake intervenes, before Qrow can get too angry over what happened. "She probably thought that Ruby was trying to figure out how to reach her. She was treating us as a potential threat."

Ruby nods quickly as she steps over a rotten tree trunk. "Yeah. Anyways, it started asking us questions like who we were and what we were doing and we were trying not to freak out or provoke it because oh my god it's an alien."

Yang steps in. "After it asked us all that stuff, it kinda went silent for a moment, then asked us what we would do if it put its gun away and answered our questions. We all said we wouldn't attack it, so it put the gun on its back, jumped down, and sat on a tree and started answering our questions."

Blake interjects. "At first, she was very ready to fight us if we showed even the slightest bit of hostility to it. Even though she was sitting down, she kept both of her feet on the ground, her hands free, and her center of gravity above her feet - she was ready to jump up and fight us at a moments notice. As our conversation went on, she started to relax more, and-"

The radio squacks, and Ordis's voice comes out of their scrolls. "According to the mapping the Operator has done of the area, there is a fairly large clearing just west of you. If you can bait the Grimm there, you will have much more room to KILL THEM ALL work with."

Qrow turns to the west, motioning for team RWBY to follow him as he pulls his scroll out of his pocket, saying "Thanks for the advice. Any information on what we're fighting?"

"It's no more than 30 beowulves, 20 boarbatusks, 6 ursa, or a single Death Stalker. It could also be a combination of any of the smaller types. Unfortunately, in order to maintain stealth with the sensors, they had to be ABSOLUTELY USELESS only motion sensing."

Qrow grimaces, still not trusting the damaged AI fully as they enter the clearing. "Right. You girls plan your ambush, I'll go figure out what's coming and bring them to you. I won't fight unless things go pear shaped; show me what you can do."

The Operator watches as Qrow and team RWBY leave the impact zone. Turning back to Ozpin, she shrugs. "We'll see how this goes."

Ozpin nods. "They'll be fine. Qrow is an experienced Hunter. Now, you were saying something about protection?"

The Operator nods. "I can hold out against a lot of Grimm, but I'm vulnerable to being overrun, especially here. If you have any people that you trust to keep a secret, I can be off the ground in four months, and spaceworthy in six. In return, I can fight at your direction until I find a way to return to my home system - I assure you, I am far superior in combat to any Hunter you have."

Ozpin shakes his head. "Unfortunately, the number of people who I would trust to never spread this news is very small, and I cannot have them abandon their current duties for four to six months. However, I may be able to move your ship to a safer location. Would that suffice?"

"You're going to have to define 'Safer,' Ozpin."

"There is a barely used, massive room below Beacon that is only known of by a few people. The only current occupant is a VIP, but she is in a coma and shows no signs of waking up. We could use a cargo bullhead to move your vessel into it. All that I would ask is that you do not disturb the machine keeping the VIP alive, and guard her from any who visit without my express consent. I may ask that you lend your… combative talents to away missions on occasion, as well."

"Give me a minute. I want to discuss this with Ordis."

Team RWBY had discussed their strategy before hiding in the trees. If it was a pack of Grimm, they would wait until they chased Qrow into the clearing, where Weiss would wait until the entire pack was in the clearing before using an ice glyph to summon an ice wall to halt and confuse the pack. At that point, Yang would jump down into the middle of the group, scattering and confusing them even more. Ruby and Blake would then descend and work on the flanks, while Weiss supported Yang's chaos with glyphs.

If it was a Death Stalker, they would open off with a Freezerburn maneuver to throw up a smokescreen. Yang would again be the distraction, and Weiss would prevent its retreat, while Blake and Ruby attempted to sever the stinger. They figured once that was severed, they could attack with much less fear, with Yang being able to use her heavy blows to crack the armor.

Ruby's scroll crackles, and Qrow's voice comes through. "Bringing the Grimm to you. There's 2 Ursa and about 20 Beowulves."

Ruby responds "Just get them into the clearing then keep going, we've got a plan." There's a grunt from the other end of the line. Gripping Crescent Rose tighter, still in rifle form so as to make her profile smaller and harder to spot behind the tree she's hidden behind, she calls out to the team "Get ready, Qrow is incoming with the Grimm on his tail! There's a couple of Ursa and a bunch of Beowulves!"

Blake is up in the tree branches on the other side of the clearing from Ruby, her chained sword and sheath, Gambol Shroud, at the ready. Hearing that, she unsheathes the sword and prepares to leap down once Yang has engaged.

Yang double checks that the correct sequence of shells is loaded into her yellow shotgun gauntlets, Ember Celica, once more - gravity dust for the initial jump into the group, and a combination of gravity and burn to create the explosion and chaos. Finding that they're still ready, she checks her footing on the sturdy branch once again.

Weiss crouches behind a bush, her rapier Myrtenaster ready to help focus her glyphs. Her part is the most tricky in the battle, as she has to correctly time the glyph cast to not catch Qrow on accident while also blocking the entire mass of Grimm. She knows she can do it, though. She's practiced extensively, and knows exactly how long it will take for her glyph to take effect.

Qrow bursts out of the treeline, running just fast enough that the Grimm won't lose sight of him. A half-second later, the first of the Beowulves burst out of the trees, baying in excitement - the open ground will let them use their superior speed to catch the highly maneuverable human.

Just as the Ursa come crashing out is when Weiss chooses to strike. Stabbing her rapier into the ground, a line of white snowflake glyphs appears underneath Qrow's feet, perpendicular to his path. The instant Qrow is clear, a 7 foot tall wall of ice appears, blocking off the last half of the clearing.

The first Beowulves have no chance to react, slamming face first into the ice. The ones immediately behind them attempt to pull up, and are only partially successful. The Ursa, with significantly more momentum than the Beowulves due to their larger size, actually trample a few of the smaller Grimm underfoot as they attempt to brake.

Ruby smiles, hearing the telltale sound of Ember Celica firing off, and seeing the flash of yellow and tan come flying down into the middle of the pack of Grimm before an explosion sends dirt flying everywhere.

Yang aims her landing carefully, and Ember Celica discharge their explosive payload into the skulls of two of the Beowulves, killing them before they had a chance to realize what was going on. Before the dirt has even landed, she leaps towards where she remembers the largest concentration of Grimm are.

As the dust begins to settle, Blake targets the closer Ursa, leaping from her perch and aiming to sever the spinal cord with one well-placed stab. Unfortunately, Yang either doesn't or can't see this, and a beowulf is sent flying into the Ursa an instant before Blake lands. What should've been an immediately mortal blow from which Blake could immediately recover her blade and move to her next target instead results in Blake having Gambol stuck in the neck of the Ursa as her planned footing is knocked off kilter.

Ruby, not having the height advantage that Blake does, can't immediately reach the second Ursa. Leaping forward with a burst of rose petals in a burst of semblance-enhanced speed, Crescent Rose scythes off the heads of the first beowulf she meets before she spins the scythe with an underarm motion, burying the blade tip-first into the chest of another, before firing the rifle of Crescent Rose and using the recoil to both free the blade and get some height.

Blake is currently regretting her decision to tie Gambol to her forearm. Sure, it's makes it significantly easier to use the chain part of the chained sword, but now she can't get out of the rodeo ride on her terms. She also can't pull it out, as it seems to have twisted inside the Ursa in such a way that it has become stuck - she just doesn't have the leverage in her current position. Suddenly, the ursa throws itself forward, landing back on all four paws, throwing Blake over its head and causing her to lose her grip on the Ursa and Gambol. Blake reflexively tucks into a few rolls to attempt to minimize impact and gain distance before getting onto her feet again; unfortunately, as she reaches the last of her rolls before she's going to get onto her feet, she hits the end of the line. The ribbon, now unfortunately wrapped twice around her midsection, cinches tight around her waist, blasting the air out of her lungs and sticking her right arm to her side. Eyes unfocused and desperately trying to get air back into her lungs, she hears the Ursa roar once more before everything goes red.

Weiss, away from the immediate fight, is able to see Blake's predicament as the Ursa rears back in an attempt to unseat the unwanted passenger. Her glyphs aren't precise enough to kill the Ursa without also potentially hitting Blake, and she's too far away to close the distance and get into melee range. As well, now that the initial confusion is ended, several of the beowulves and the other Ursa are actually pushing Yang back - and the ice wall prevents her from having full freedom of movement. She makes the instant decision to yell "Ruby, Blake needs help!" as she casts a fire glyph underneath a beowulf that is trying to get around Yang.

Yang is in her element - the focal point of the battle. As she ducks under the wildly swinging paw of the other Ursa, she hears Weiss yell "Ruby," but whatever else she said was missed underneath the sound of the ribcage of a beowulf breaking and subsequent shotgun blast. She does flick her eyes to see where Ruby is and if she's in trouble, but locating her isn't difficult - she's in a Crescent Rose assisted jump. Her eyes flick back as she takes a quick backstep and the beowulf that was about to jump on her misses before she snaps a kick off into its side.

At the peak of her jump, Ruby hears Weiss's call. Looking over to Blake, she's just in time to see her awkwardly thrown and her ribbon cinch around her stomach as the Ursa stands up again. It roars in pain and anger before starting to lurch forwards.

Towards Blake.

Ruby immediately activates her Semblance as she lands, moving faster than she ever has before. At the last moment, she turns around, scything Crescent Rose around. As soon as she feels pressure, she pulls the trigger once more.

The red fades from Blake's vision as it she's able to focus again, and she sees a bunch of rose petals, an Ursa dissolving from the beheading it just received, and Ruby standing in post-strike stance.

As Blake stands up, disentangling herself from Gambol Shroud, Ruby disappears into another cloud of rose petals, repeatedly appearing, striking, and disappearing across the battlefield.

Blake collects herself and moves towards a beowulf that appears to be focused on trying to get to Weiss, making short work of the distracted Grimm as she hears Yang yell out in triumph as a sickening crunch is heard and a disintegrating Ursa is sent cartwheeling through the air, and she realizes the fight is over.

Ruby rushes over to Blake. "Ohmygosh are you okay? I was so worried when I saw the Ursa throw you and saw the ribbon get pulled on and-"

Blake interrupts. "Ruby. I'm fine. I'm a little bit short of breath, and I'll probably be a bit sore in the morning, but with how fast you got over there, I was never really in any danger. And now I know that I need to practice recovery rolls where Gambol is stuck in something, so that this doesn't happen again."

Qrow emerges from wherever he was hiding, and says "Good work. For the most part. Your actual plan went off without a hitch, you were able to communicate well in the fight when things went wrong. That being said, there is some room for improvement."

Yang crosses her arms and leans back, smirking. "Like what, Uncle Qrow? I kicked butt out here!"

Qrow fixes her with an unimpressed look. "One thing for each of you. Weiss, your ice wall, while impressive, was a substantial waste of ice dust. If you're similar to other dust mages, that ice wall probably ate up most, if not all, of the ice dust you keep in your focus, and only a third of it was actually needed for your plan. While it didn't come up in this fight, it's important to remember that you aren't always going to be in a fight where you can find time to reload, and supply isn't always going to be a few hours away."

Weiss nods. "That makes sense."

Turning to Ruby, Qrow says "Your plan placed you too far away from Blake for her to support you if you ended up in trouble. As you saw in this fight, even an easy fight can go wrong in an instant."

As Ruby nods, taking the advice to heart, Qrow turns to Blake. "You relied far too much on one perfect strike, not taking into account that the battlefield can change in a millisecond. All it takes is a little bit of bad luck." Qrow winces a tiny bit, almost unnoticeably, as he says the last bit.

Finally, he turns to Yang. "You failed to keep track of what the rest of your team was doing and very nearly got your partner injured or killed."

Yang blanches, shock on her face. "What?"

"After you landed, you immediately launched towards a group of beowulves. That right was very impressive, but it also launched a beowulf straight into the Ursa that Blake was about to sever the spine of, jarring it just enough that her stab missed the spine and her planned footing was off. Her landing was awkward, her sword got stuck, she got thrown and tangled up in her ribbons, and if Weiss and Ruby hadn't spotted this you would've possibly been calling for medevac, because I was far enough away that I don't know if I would've made it in time."

Yang sheepishly looks over to Blake and says "Sorry Blake."

Qrow adds "That being said, these are minor things that most first year students have issues with, and you all acquitted yourselves well in the fight - Weiss kept the Grimm off of Yang's back and spotted Blake in trouble, Yang made for an excellent front line and her mechanics and movement were superb, Ruby got to Blake very quickly, and Blake's quick recovery after Ruby rescued her were all excellent. The plan was textbook and well executed, Ruby just forgot that just because she can cover Blake that doesn't mean Blake can cover her. You did good, and everyone's going home without a stop at the hospital. That's always a good thing."

Stepping inside the Orbiter and letting the airlock close, the Operator asks "Ordis, what are your thoughts on this?"

Ordis pipes up. "I've been doing some hacking, Operator. The space he mentions is well hidden, and not on any public records."

Slightly surprised, the Operator says "Wait, you can hack them that well?"

"OF COURSE I CAN. Their information security isn't very good compared to the Corpus, or even the Grineer, and most information is on networked drives. They seem to barely use air gaps. I'd guess that they don't have much experience with being hacking or being hacked - their protections are amateurish at best, but I've found very little actual malware."

Nodding, the Operator says "Alright, fine. Keep it up as long as you can stay undetected. Let's keep this ace up our sleeves. But what did you think about Ozpin's offer?"

"We would essentially have 24/7 armed guards and would be immune to airstrikes. The only way to attack us would be to either open the hangar doors - which I could override - or come down the elevator. We would be safe, even if Ozpin were to turn on us."

"That can't be a very big elevator, then."

"The plans say it fits six PACKED LIKE SARDINES."

"So it's overall safer, aside from the transport period, and very few people would know. And you can monitor for anybody that notices it happening. That works. Are you OK with me giving the green light to Ozpin to proceed?"

"My hacking will only improve with closer access to a network tower. And with you there to provide physical safety, what could-"

Raising her left hand, the Operator interrupts. "Don't finish that statement."

"I'm sorry, Operator?"

"It's fine, Ordis. I just remember saying something to the effect of 'What could go wrong' shortly before we investigated that Steel Meridian ship."

"IT'S JUST A SUPERSTITION That makes sense, Operator. Anyways, I like the idea."

Nodding as she turns to the airlock to exit once more, the Operator says "Good. We'll do it. Warm up the Atlas, we'll need the strength to load it up. Start fabbing some straps?"

"Starting the fabrication now, Operator."

"Thanks, Ordis."

Stepping back outside, the Operator turns to locate Ozpin, who is looking with a critical eye at the shredded engine on the port side. "We'll take the offer. I've got Ordis fabbing some heavy-duty straps to help load and secure the Orbiter."

Nodding in satisfaction, Ozpin turns. "Excellent," he says. "I will call for the transport now. I do have some more questions for you after I make this call, however."

The Operator shrugs. "That's fine. I'll answer what I can."