As Glynda Goodwitch supervises the end of a practice duel, her scroll rings. She sighs and pauses the bout; the only people who can call her during class require an answer. Excusing herself for a moment, she steps out of the classroom and answers the call. "Yes, Ozpin?"

Ozpin's voice comes out of the speaker. "Glynda, good. I hope I'm not interrupting anything too important?"

Glaring a little bit, Glynda says "I had to pause a bout. What do you need?"

"Tonight, I need you to take a cargo bullhead out of Vale and follow the flight path Qrow will give you."

"Does this have anything to do with why you left in such a hurry earlier?"

"Yes."

"Fine." Glynda hangs up and returns to the classroom.

"The away team has dealt with the Grimm incursion, and is returning. There don't appear to be casualties," Ordis reports to the Operator.

"Ozpin, the others have dealt with the Grimm, and are returning," the Operator relays.

"That's good to hear. Any casualties?"

"None that Ordis can determine."

"That's good. Anyways, you were saying about the Void?"

As Qrow and team RWBY walk back towards the crashed spaceship, Yang walks with shoulders slumped and staring at her feet, dropping to the back of the group. Realizing how out of character this is for her sister and seeing that Blake doesn't seem to notice this, Ruby drops back.

"So, Uncle Qrow was a bit hard on you, huh?"

Shaking her head and kicking at the dirt, Yang responds "He was right, Ruby. I put Blake in a really bad situation. We're partners, we're supposed to be able to trust each other, how is she going to be able to trust me when I nearly got her badly hurt or killed?"

Giving Yang a quick shoulder hug, Ruby responds "By being better. You've always been kind of a 'Punch first, ask questions while punching' person. I'll look up some exercises to increase your battlefield awareness, and maybe doing some training with Ren on maintaining your calm would do you some good."

Returning the hug, Yang says "But what if it doesn't work? We have to work together for the next four years, and if she doesn't trust me then-"

Ruby clamps her hand over Yang's mouth, silencing her. "Then we'll work on that, too. But you shouldn't worry too much about it, Blake will forgive you."

Shaking her head to both to remove Ruby's hand and express her disagreement, Yang says "How do you know that? I screwed up bad, Rubes."

Smiling, Ruby says "I forgave you, didn't I?"

Yang stumbles, inadvertently releasing herself from the hug. "What?"

Grabbing Yang into the hug again, Ruby says "Remember when we were kids, and you decided to go hunting Raven? Yeah. You made a bad decision. It was your fault. But nothing bad came of it, and you've never repeated the mistake. You worked to be better. Why wouldn't I forgive you then, and why wouldn't Blake forgive you now?"

Turning her face forward and lowering her voice just a bit, Ruby continues, "And besides, I'm sure Blake has heard our whole discussion with those cute kitty ears." Blake's instant hesitation before she continues walking puts paid to this claim.

Yang perks up a bit. "You really think she'll forgive me?"

Ruby squeezes her sister tighter. "She already has."

Ozpin watches as the Operator stands up, excusing herself by saying "Hold on a moment. I need to change Warframes. I'll be back momentarily."

Barely noticing Ozpin's nod and sound of acknowledgment, the Operator walks over to the airlock and cycles through. Walking over to the armory and stepping onto the platform, she releases the transference to the Ivara.

Snapping back to your own body is always disorienting. There's a few moments where you aren't clear which body you're in control of, and then another few where motor control is iffy at best. The first time she'd transferred Warframes after her awakening, it had taken an hour to regain control of her body and mind in full. With the practice she's had, the recovery period is more like standing still after quickly spinning around a few times.

That doesn't make it comfortable, and violent separations are still bad. Getting back to her center, she asks Ordis "What's the weapons loadout on the Atlas? Still the heavy and hard?"

"The current weapons on the hardpoints are the Corinth, 2 Lex Primes, and the Bo Prime, Operator."

Contemplatively, the Operator says "A little bit light crowd killing and range, but that's what the 'frame is for, and the Remnant natives should be able to help. Leave it as is."

"Understood, Operator. Atlas is ready for transference at your leisure."

"I'm not going to transfer yet. I'll give it fifteen minutes. I've been nothing but polite and forthcoming so far, so he'll probably assume I came out as soon as I could."

"Understood, Operator."

Qrow sees the forest brighten, meaning they're near the impact zone, and prepares for his talk with Ozpin; his worries about the alien have not been assuaged.

Walking into the clearing with team RWBY behind him, he notes the distinct lack of said alien, immediately putting him on guard even as he sees Ozpin sitting calmly on a tree trunk, typing calmly on his scroll. Putting his hand on the haft of Harbinger and keeping his head on a swivel, he walks forward and asks suspiciously "So, where's the alien?"

"She said something about needing to change Warframes and went inside her ship a bit over ten minutes ago. How was Grimm hunting?"

"Mostly uneventful. I'm sure the kids can give you a more detailed breakdown if you want, but they did good." He stops, then shrugs. "For students, at least."

Raising an eyebrow, Ozpin says "High praise from Qrow Branwen."

Rolling his eyes, Qrow says "I should hope so. One of them's related to me by blood and I taught the other everything she knows about fighting with a scythe."

Ruby pipes up. "Not everything, I learned some new tricks at Beacon!"

The ghost of a smile barely makes an appearance on Qrow's face, although it's gone before he turns around, eyebrow raised. "Oh really? Can you show me some of them?"

Ozpin interrupts before that can get too far, handing over a message with his seal and signature to Qrow. "Unfortunately, Qrow, I need you to go back to Beacon in the bullhead with this message. Get it to the Vale ATC, and collect Glynda once classes have ended. Fly the same path out as you did in, and on the return in a cargo bullhead."

"Oz, what did you do?" Qrow says, crossing his arms.

"The alien requested protection for her craft while she effected repairs. Her timeline was far too long for me to guarantee the services of enough Hunters that would not talk about the fact that there was an alien on Remnant to those not in the know. I proposed a compromise solution where we would host her in one of Beacon's disused hangars. In return, she has offered to fight at our direction until she finds a way to return home." The glint in Ozpin's eye informs Qrow without words that mentioning that he only knows of one disused hangar and what it currently holds would be quite the mistake.

Unhappily, Qrow asks "What about the kids?"

Turning to address the students directly, Ozpin says "They will help with the loading process tonight, then finish their assignment." Standing and taking a few steps forward, he looks each member of team RWBY in the eye as he states "I don't think I need to mention this, but in case I do, you must tell nobody about this. The only people you should discuss the alien or her spaceship with is me, Qrow, Professor Goodwitch, the alien herself, or yourselves. The alien wishes her presence on Remnant to be kept as secret as possible for as long as possible, and I have no doubt that she's only been as forthcoming as she has been because we simply have no way of making use of the information she's given us."

Team RWBY all nod, making noises of acknowledgement, as Ruby says "We understand, Professor. We'll just say we ran into a lot of Grimm and that's why we're back late."

Qrow, on the other hand, looks downright mutinous and is about to continue questioning Ozpin before he is interrupted by the sound of a door opening. The group of Remnant natives turn and look at what exits the door.

The first thing they notice is the bright splashes of green on the shoulders, shins, and chest, each seemingly made of some green metal, inlaid with silver, and what looks to be a polished uncut emerald set in the center of each – the emerald in the chestpiece, however, is massive and seems to shimmer unnaturally. What looks like an emerald green snakeskin is seen shimmering from behind the Warframe, with some silvered metal devices shaped like a half circle that spike up at the end attached at the bottom.

Looking past that, Yang looks at the body of the Warframe, seeing a granite-grey musculature that look more like they were carved than grown. All over the body is attached what looks to be dyed brown leather, including some tassels hanging off the belt. Darkened bronze devices adorn a few of these pieces of leather, most notably on the tops of the fingers. The overall effect almost looks like someone carved a statue and covered it in leather armor, if it weren't for the head.

The head looks like an old style jousting helmet, with a sharp point at the bottom that widens in a flat triangle to an inch or so wide at the top, with strips of darkened steel making up its face and a rounded steel top. It's obviously designed to take anything that hits it straight on and deflect it, rather than stop it. Around the neck are four slate black protrusions that look eerily like a claw is about to grab the head and yank it down into the torso.

Ruby's eyes are, of course, immediately drawn to the weapons. She sees a black, silver, and tan stock inlaid with something green over the shoulder of the new Warframe, and then her eyes are drawn to the massive black and silver pistols inlaid with bronze on each hip - they look like they would dwarf her hands. To her disappointment, the melee weapon seems to simply be a staff - an expertly made and heavily ornamented staff, inlaid with silver, but a staff nonetheless.

"Did I miss anything important?" The Operator asks, stopping a fair distance away from the group.

With a start, Blake realizes that the timbre of the voice has changed - it's almost the same, but there's a slight undertone of… what almost sounds like a rockslide? It's barely there - even with her faunus senses, it was hard to detect.

Qrow turns and steps forward, subtly placing himself in between team RWBY and the Operator. "What do you actually look like? So far we've just seen two of your Warframes, when are we going to see the real you?"

Somehow, despite the mass of muscle that makes up the shoulders of the Atlas, the Operator shrugs. "Hopefully never. If I'm actually visible, that means I'm vulnerable. However…" The Warframe's limbs stiffen as a swirl of emerald energy apparates out of the chest of the Atlas, rapidly coalescing into a humanoid form.

It's human. A bare few centimeters taller than Ruby, with a similar hair length, however, the hair is black with shocks of white running through it. Green eyes and fair skin are noted as they look down to see the light gray shirt, skirt, and sleeves, with emerald piping adding a splash of color to all the gray. There's also silvery brace of some form on her right forearm.

A bemused half smile crosses the Operator's mouth at the shock the students and Qrow show, and says something in a language that none of the Remnant natives are able to understand - it sounds almost… musical? Blake quietly notes that the undercurrent of rumbling is gone, and the earlier undercurrent of rustling leaves that the Ivara had is also absent. Weiss's jaw drops, sputtering incoherently. Yang puts a hand on her shoulder and asks "What?"

A look of confusion crosses the Operator's face, and more of the musical language is spoken.

"Remembrance, please," says Ozpin, completely deadpan.

The Operator's eyes widen in understanding, and she steps back, placing her hand on the Atlas, disapparating in a swarm of emerald energy that rejoins the Warframe. "Sorry about that. I forgot that the translation program can't translate my speech while in that form. I said, 'This is what I look like.'"

Weiss regains control, asking "Is that - was that- well you know what I mean, real?"

Shrugging again, the Operator says "Kind of? It has a physical presence, can interact with physical objects, even fight - although that form is much more vulnerable than a Warframe. On the other hand, if that form is, for lack of a better word, killed, I am not harmed beyond a rather painful migraine for a minute or so, and am placed back into control of my Warframe."

"How is that possible?" asks Ozpin, seemingly curious.

"The actual 'how' I don't understand, and I doubt anyone ever will. It's Void energy; if you think you understand it it'll do something it shouldn't be capable of according to your model. As to how I physically do it, imagine taking a step forward without moving your legs and you'll have a pretty good idea."

"And that brace on your arm?" Qrow asks, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

The Operator pauses for a second, cocking her head to the side. "It's… Probably the easiest way to describe it is as a flare stack, like you use in the Dust refining process to burn off dangerous waste safely. Void energy is very bad for the general area if not properly contained, and one of the downsides of using that form is that it can 'cook off,' for lack of a better phrase. The brace usually is able to prevent that, by burning off any overpressure. It's another reason I rarely step out of my Warframe."

"That's enough, Qrow. I need you to fly back to Beacon and do what I asked now," Ozpin intervenes.

Qrow looks at him like he's insane. "Nothing it's saying is making me trust it, Ozpin. You must be crazy if you think I'm just going to leave my nieces here."

Ozpin stands up and looks Qrow directly in the eye over his glasses. "I am not asking you to trust the alien. I am asking you to trust me."

The two men continue to stare at each other for a good thirty seconds, a test of will on Qrow's part to display to Ozpin exactly how much he dislikes what Ozpin is doing, and Ozpin attempting to reassure Qrow.

Qrow breaks first. "Fine," he says, shaking his head, "I'll go collect Glynda. I'll be back half an hour after nightfall."

"Thank you, Qrow."

"When should I tell Glynda about the situation?"

"Once you're in the air should be fine."

"An alien."

"Yep."

"Team RWBY found an alien and a crashed spaceship, and made first contact."

"And Ozpin then met it and invited it to repair its ship at Beacon, in exchange for it fighting for us until it finds a way to return home."

"And you're okay with this?"

"Ozpin is."

They continue the flight in silence.

Flying a cargo bullhead is tricky. The sheer mass of the craft means that any mistakes in piloting are punished due to the momentum of the craft causing the entire thing to want to continue to make the mistake.

Flying close to the ground is even trickier, especially in a craft that takes to quick maneuvers about as well as a Goliath Grimm.

Doing this while heading to a location without a beacon is even trickier.

Doing all this at night, with only instruments to guide you? That's just asking for problems. Especially when you're a magnet for bad luck.

Thankfully, the only problem that Qrow had run into so far was the computerized artificial horizon bugging out. The physical one was still fine, but just to be safe he'd increased his altitude a little bit.

As the Qrow and Glynda enter the final stretch, he says "Radio should be set for minimum strength. Can you radio and call the Orbiter, asking for some assistance in getting right on target?"

Unable to take his eyes off the instruments, Qrow hears Glynda messing with the radio before she says "Glynda to Orbiter, come in, we are on approach and requesting a walk in."

The radio crackles, and the cheery voice of Ordis pops in. "Thank you! Turn to heading two-six-zero and throttle back to 75%. In roughly two minutes, you should transition to VTOL and begin bleeding speed."

"So, where do we attach the straps?" a confused Ruby asks as she drops off her armful of orbiter scrap.

Stepping out of the airlock, heavy duty straps in hand, the Operator shakes her head and responds "We don't. The orbiter has no external attachment points that are designed to be used to hoist it up. We'll be running the straps underneath."

Ruby looks down past the small pile of scrap at the bottom of the orbiter. It's completely flush to the ground. "Um."

The Operator chuckles for a moment, before saying "I can lift it up on edge. Then it's up to you four to run the straps over as far as you can. Then we repeat on the opposite side, except you grab the end that was brought partially over before."

Ruby looks at the Operator, boggle eyed. "You're that strong?!"

"This 'frame is. I've punched a 250 kilogram Grineer nearly 400 meters as the crow flies. That was with one hand, without assistance. You'll be fine as long as you're quick - me being strong means nothing to the fact that a lot of weight is going to be focused on my feet. I shouldn't sink very fast, especially with a trick I have up my sleeve, but you shouldn't dawdle either."

A little bit later, after as many bits of orbiter scrap as can be found have been collected, the Operator asks "All ready? Remember, get the marked middle as close to the centerline as you can - there's quite a bit of extra on the ends, but getting it to the center can only help. Try to avoid twisting the straps."

Team RWBY nods and makes noises of affirmation.

"While you're under there, grab any more scrap that you find and pull it out. I can give you a thirty second warning if you aren't all out." With that, the Operator slams the ground with a grunt of effort, somehow summoning a platform of rock for her to stand on.

It's now Weiss's turn to look confused and amazed. "Wha- how-"

"This 'frame can summon rock, for protection and utility. It's Void stuff, channeled through the 'frame in ways that I frankly do not understand, and each 'frame makes use of the Void energy in a different way."

Standing on the freshly created platform, the Operator turns and bends at the knee, digging her fingers through the loam and underneath the edge of the orbiter. "Lifting in 3, 2, 1."

The orbiter groans and Blake swears she can hear the rocks underneath the Warframe beginning to fracture as the Operator lifts the orbiter on edge. Despite this, the Warframe holds rock steady and maintains perfect form on the lift, even lifting up past the shoulder. Stopping lifting, the Operator says in a voice that betrays no strain whatsoever, "Go."

There are seven straps in total. Ruby has the longest run, since she will be running the strap that will go along the keel. Hers will be laid down first, before the others run theirs. Running as fast as she can without her semblance, she covers the distance in seconds, snapping it straight and removing the twist.

As soon as Ruby went in front of them, the other members of team RWBY moved forward, dropping their straps past the midpoint and grabbing any scrap they can find, throwing it out from under the orbiter.

Calmly, the Operator says "Thirty seconds."

Immediately, team RWBY clears from underneath the orbiter, and the Operator begins to slowly lower it. As it's returned to the ground, Yang takes a look at the platform that the Operator had created - all the weight pushed into it had sunk it a good foot into the ground. "Good job. Now the other side. Then I'll throw the ends up for Glynda to attach, and we can hoist it up."

In a safe house, a scroll rings. A black coated redhead man with Grimm mask covering his eyes and nose stalks past a window showing the barest hints of sunrise, swipes it up and answers the call with a flat "Yes, Cinder?"

"Taurus. Ozpin was doing something that required a cargo bullhead out in the forest near where the meteorite impacted the other day. He then took it to a secure room at Beacon, and the Black Queen can't locate where. I need you to find out what it was."

"I'm going to need more reason than that to risk discovery, Cinder," says Adam Taurus, leader of the Vale White Fang, as he stalks over to the map on the table and checks the location.

"It involved Qrow Branwen, Glynda Goodwitch, and utmost secrecy. The only reason I know that they were at the meteorite site was because for some reason they flew just high enough that the Vale radar was able to catch them while they were in the cargo bullhead. There are no records of the flight accessible by the Black Queen."

Leaning forward and plotting the westerly course his men would have to take, Adam says "Well, that certainly is… unusual."

"Exactly. My squad is stuck here, so I need you to check it out."

Adam waves his hand dismissively. "Fine. I'll head out there tomorrow - and don't tell me to go out sooner. I'm going to need some prep time. Ever since the Breach incident, Vale and the Atlas troops have been a lot more paranoid. It wouldn't be good for your plans if we were caught, now would it?"

"We met an alien."

Team RWBY still hasn't left the clearing. The shock of the previous day's events have finally worn off, and Weiss was the first one to break the silence as they picked at their breakfast.

Putting down her fork, Blake just nods, lost deep in thought. Yang isn't as silent. "She was weird, wasn't she? She didn't act normal."

"She's paranoid. From what little we got out of her, I don't think she's used to having friendly contact with others," Blake notes.

"We met an alien," Weiss repeats.

"Her weapons were so cool! She had explosive throwing stars, and the lines on that sniper rifle were beautiful! And that shotgun, sure it's just a pump action, but it's so expertly made! And I didn't think you could make pistol rounds with a caliber that high!" Ruby enthuses, upsetting her breakfast and only barely catching it before it scatters all over the clearing.

"We made first contact. With an alien."

"Ya know, if this is the Ice Queen's reaction now, it's probably a good thing that the first semester included a lot of classes on how to compartmentalize emotions and remain effective in stressful situations. Where's her reset button?" Yang jokes.

Reaching over, Ruby grabs Weiss's plate and then pokes her in the side with her fork. Weiss jumps and lets out a rather undignified yelp, before smacking at Ruby's hand.

"Yes Weiss, we met an alien. And we did it peacefully. Somehow. I'm not sure how that happened when it looked ready to kill us at any moment and that barrel was huge and terrifying…" Ruby trails off as her eyes lose focus, staring off into the distance.

Weiss snatches her plate back from Ruby, jolting her out of her thoughts. "Obviously," Weiss says, "She decided that it wasn't in her interest to kill us. She explained that to us just fine."

Blake shakes her head. "That explanation worked backwards from information we gave her. I think she may have actually had intentions of killing us if she thought she could get away with it."

The campsite is silent for a few moments as rest of the group digests that information. Yang is the one who speaks up, saying "I don't think she was planning on killing us. I think she was prepared to kill us if she was forced to."

"And if what she said is true about how many combat missions she's been on, then I highly doubt that she'd feel any guilt over it," Weiss murmurs, barely loud enough to hear.

"I can tell you this much, I don't want to be on her bad side," Yang jokes. "Being able to lift that entire ship on edge, seemingly without any strain? That's insane."

Blake shakes her head. "I think she is a little insane, but honestly that just makes her fit in at Beacon."