Illya stumbled into the cockpit of Bye Bye Beautiful, the Warlock was tired and having to deal with the most stressful of things... Two Cabal carriers and several Threshers were attacking her ship and her Ghost, Asclepius was not enough to hold them off.
"Hull integrity is at 67%!" Cried the tiny drone. Illya let out a groan of frustration, she hadn't expected this.
"Dead Orbit is paying me double for this..." She said.
"Will any of our weapons be effective against these guys?"
"Not really, most of our weapons are anti-infantry. We do have a few auto-turrets that Holliday set up, and those may take care of the Threshers that are engaging us." Asclepius responded.
"Understood," Illya said with a sigh as she began tapping her fingers away at the console in front of her. She began piloting the old Fallen skiff, and quietly she began praying to The Traveler that she could get out of this alive and not be turned into space dust.
"Kyrie would kill me if she were still alive," She muttered.
THOOM! THOOM!
"Shields are starting to falter! I'm trying to hold them back but there's not much I can do!" Cried Asclepius. Illya shook her head and turned her head to where the Ghost was.
"Divert all power from weapons and non-vital systems to the shields, now!" She responded. The Ghost did as he was told while Illya began tapping at the console once more, she knew she needed to get out of here, and if she was going to do just that she needed to warp out. It didn't take long for the old Fallen skiff to begin moving, and the ship was now flying out of the destroyed ship it had been floating nearby for so long.
THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!
More powerful shots hit the Beautiful and then there was a loud crackling noise. Illya hated that noise, she knew what it was...
"That carrier just disabled our shields!" Asclepius informed. Illya was pissed now, and slightly curious as to what the hell The Cabal were putting on their carriers that could disable shields so quickly.
"We're getting the Hell out of here, Asclepius! Try to restore the shields as best as possible, and make it snappy!" The Warlock said as she began powering the skiff's warp drive. Several more shots were being fired by The Cabal carriers and the Threshers did their best to keep up but, it was no use.
"Alright! Coordinates are set, we'll be going back home soon-"
THUMP!
"That shot almost took out the warp drive, we need to leave right now!" Asclepius said.
"Hold on tight!" Screamed Illya who finally activated the Beautiful's warp drive and began for an emergency warp.
3...
"Oh come on! It's an emergency warp, why is there a countdown for an emergency warp?" Complained The Warlock who then checked the console once again, and realized that she had not actually hit "Emergency Warp" but instead just hit the standard Warp.
"Oh, you're fucking kidding me..." The Warlock muttered, who turned her head.
"Asclepius! Get my armor on! It's gonna be a bumpy ride!"
2...
"On it!" Said Asclepius, who transmatted her Warlock armor onto her body, it honestly felt good wearing the armor after a relaxing nap. Though, she wished she could have slept a bit longer.
"Cabal carrier is about to fire again!" Said Asclepius.
"Come on..." Prayed Illya.
1..
THUMP!
"That shot took out the warp drive! Hull integrity at 32%!" Alerted Asclepius.
"Can you repair it?" Asked Illya.
"I'm not for sure,"
Illya checked the console again, it appeared that Asclepius was wrong. It was still possible for her to make a warp it seemed.
"WOULD YOU LIKE TO JUMP NOW?"
She smiled at what the console read. In a swift motion, she hit yes.
"WARNING: NFL DRIVE APPEARS TO BE DAMAGED. IF IT IS USED, IT IS POTENTIAL THAT YOU MAY ARRIVE AT AN ALTERNATIVE DESTINATION OR FACE THE RISK OF DEATH. WOULD YOU STILL LIKE TO JUMP?"
Illya hit "Yes" once again. She normally never took risks, but if she were to stay here she'd die anyway, so what was the point? She was a Guardian, and Guardian's always took risks.
"JUMPING TO DESTINATION."
Before The Cabal carriers could launch another shot, The Bye Bye Beautiful suddenly took off at the speed of light. Little did anyone know, however, that this would be the last day that anyone would see The Warlock known as Illya or her prized ship.
It was a nice day for Professor Ozpin. While the man endured and was enduring the most stressful of things he couldn't help but feel... a bit happier than usual. The man had his cup of coffee and didn't have as much paperwork to file.
"It seems Team RWBY isn't causing havoc," Chuckled the Headmaster. As much havoc as RWBY caused, he did enjoy the new first years. To be frank, he enjoyed seeing all of them, but RWBY had become his favorite.
They were the poster-children for future Huntsmen and Huntresses, and no matter what was thrown at them, no matter what struggles they went through they never gave up and went through them together.
"Professor Ozpin?" Spoke Professor Goodwitch, his assistant and best friend, at least in his current life anyway.
"Yes, Ms. Goodwitch?"
"General Ironwood has called, he is requesting a meeting for security preparations for The Vytal Festival."
"Tell him we'll schedule it for 3:30, we can meet somewhere... nicer, perhaps that Cafe down-"
The eyes of Glynda widened in shock, at first Ozpin thought it was something he said but she wasn't staring at him. Instead, she was staring outside. The Headmaster looked outside and was equally shocked.
Outside, some sort of UFO was flying into Remnant's atmosphere and was about to crash land into The Emerald Forest.
"Glynda, call all Huntsmen out there and get them to return! Alert Ironwood and tell him to evacuate his people if they're out there, immediately!" The Headmaster said, but he didn't even need to say it as his assistant was already on the move. Ozpin got from his chair and grabbed his cane, holding onto the weapon tightly as he could and watched as this object prepared to slam itself into Remnant.
Illya stared at where she had warped to, an unknown planet obviously but from space, it looked as if it were a planet just like Earth... it was so beautiful, it had so much blue and green. It was stunning to see.
But it wasn't Earth, that was for sure.
"Asclepius! Prepare for a hard landing!" Cried the Warlock who was furiously tapping onto the console in front of her.
"Shields are back up!" Cried The Ghost. Good thought the Warlock. With the shields active, it would lessen the damage onto the ship. She cut all power from everything, the only thing that was now powered were the shields. The engines were cut and damaged, but she still had a tiny bit of control. She began pulling the falling ship up in an attempt to lessen the impact and tapped on the console a bit more, activating the ship's landing gear.
"Prepare to drop!" She cried as she stared at the planet that her ship was descending into.
KATHOOOM!
Ozpin prepared a team together to investigate exactly what happened, all he knew was that a UFO had crash-landed into The Emerald Forest. He and James were now working together, creating a Joint Task Force to investigate exactly what was going on.
"Good news, Ozpin. There were no casualties, everyone who was in The Emerald Forest were unaffected by the crash." Goodwitch informed.
"That's good news, Ms. Goodwitch. Do you have any idea on what this object exactly is?" Asked The Headmaster.
"This is where the bad news would come in... most of our cameras have been destroyed or heavily damaged from the crash. We have two cameras at Sectors J-3 and J-4 online, but when I tried accessing them all I saw were Grimm and a large crater." The Huntress explained.
"That crater must be the object then... it appears she has taken notice," Ozpin spoke.
"The Grimm aren't investigating but they're simply just... standing there, watching. It doesn't look like they're prepared to attack whatever is in the object, but whatever it is, has their attention." Said Goodwitch.
"I see," Ozpin said. He was curious as to why they were acting this way... never in his lifetimes had he seen or heard of any of the Grimm acting in such a way, simply watching? No, that was not the Grimm. They were predators, always preparing for a moment to strike at their foe. Sure there was waiting, and there was watching but there was always a motive. Now... now, this was not like The Grimm.
"Has Ironwood prepared his squad yet?" Asked The Headmaster.
"Yes, he's just waiting on us now. The General insists that he comes with us to see what has happened," Responded Goodwitch.
"Call Doctor Oobleck, I want his assistance in finding out what's landed on Remnant and grab two teams. I don't care if they're first years or veteran huntsmen. The only thing that's going to kill the Grimm that surround this object are numbers most likely." Ordered The Headmaster.
"Understood," Glynda said, pulling up her scroll.
Ruby Rose was ecstatic. First, a meteor landed in The Emerald Forest and now her team was being called to investigate! Meaning, that it wasn't a meteor! It was something else!
"What do you think it is?" Asked Yang, who loaded her gauntlets, Ember Celica with her shotgun shells.
"Who knows, maybe it's just some Atlas project we're sent to recover. Goodwitch did say that we'll be alongside Atlas Special Forces." Responded Weiss.
"Whatever it is, it must be something huge. They wouldn't just send all of us alongside special forces like this," said Blake.
"Or maybe!" Ruby cried aloud.
There was a long and awkward silence after she said that as if she was thinking about what the object could be.
"It's aliens..." The young leader said in a hushed deep voice.
"No, Ruby. Aliens aren't real," Weiss said.
"Nuh-uh! I bet they're real, just you wait until we see the thing!"
"Rriiighttt..." Said Weiss who rolled her eyes.
"I am right!" Screamed Ruby who took her powerful scythe, Crescent Rose and proceeded to turn the weapon into it's more compact form. She then stored the weapon behind her waist and finally, the girl was ready. Already, she could see that the rest of her team was ready as well.
"Let's go, Team RWBY! Banzai!" She screamed.
"Banzai!" The rest of her team shouted as they all exited their dorm.
Team RWBY went for the elevator as quickly as possible and following alongside them was Team JNPR, their friends and honestly, they were their comrades in arms. If the team needed help, then they could go to anyone on JNPR and they'd gladly help them out.
"Jaune, what are you doing?" Asked Ruby.
"We're headed downstairs, apparently they want us to investigate that meteor with you guys!" Responded the leader of JNPR, Jaune Arc.
"Really? The message wanted FIRE to come along," Yang spoke up.
"Nope, it appears that FIRE is unavailable at the moment... something about them dealing with The Black Hand," Said Pyrrha, one of the members of JNPR.
"Well, sucks for them! They're missing out on the biggest mystery of a lifetime!" Said Yang.
"What do you think is going on?" Asked Lie Ren. The normally quiet boy was curious as to what was going on, and who could blame him?
"Aliens are invading!" Screamed Ruby.
"Come on, Ruby! That's ridiculous!" Cried the energetic Nora Valkyrie
"Obviously, it's a meteor that has landed and it's going to turn us all into ZOMBIES!" She said.
"Now that's ridiculous," Said everyone in Team RWBY.
"And aliens aren't?" Asked Nora. The team finally walked into the elevator, heading down to the first floor where the Headmaster was at, along with Professor Goodwitch, Doctor Oobleck, and the Atlesian Response Squad.
The two teams were stunned by what they saw. Outside of the academy, the teams could see that there were two Atlesian Paladins while inside, there were two small teams of Atlesian Knights and a faunus with short red hair and red lynx ears wearing Atlesian combat armor. Beside them was Headmaster Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch, and Professor Oobleck.
"Good afternoon, Headmaster Ozpin!" Greeted Ruby.
"Good afternoon to you as well, ladies and gentlemen. We're glad you came here so quickly," Responded the Headmaster with a smile.
"If all the greetings are out of the way... we need to plan exactly on how we're going to do this," Spoke the stern General Ironwood.
"Ozpin, this is your backyard. We'll follow your lead," Said the General.
"Understood," Spoke the Headmaster.
"Two teams will be going to the site. The first team, your job is to clear out the Grimm that are surrounding the UFO while the second team is to investigate the crash site." Explained The Headmaster.
"Ironwood, you will lead Team One. I want you, your Knights and Paladins backing up Professor Goodwitch and Team JNPR." Said The Headmaster.
"And Captain Incendies?" Asked Ironwood, motioning towards the faunus who stood there like a statue.
"He will be apart of Team Two, which I will personally lead." Spoke The Headmaster.
"Team Two will be lead by me, and it will consist of Captain Rojo Incendies, Doctor Oobleck, and Team RWBY." He explained.
"Oobleck and I shall be the ones investigating the sight, Team RWBY and Captain Incendies? I want you to stay and act as our guards. There may be stragglers that flee from Team One's assault. Understood?" Questioned The Headmaster.
"Yes, sir!" Shouted Ruby, and then... they were off. The two teams exited the building and began going their separate ways into the Emerald Forest.
The march was long, but there was good news at least... there weren't that many Grimm around, there were very few skirmishes against any Grimm. The most they had to deal with were a small pack of Beowulves or lone Creepers, attempting to surprise the group from under the ground.
"Are we there yet?" Asked Ruby quietly.
"No!" Weiss said, shushing her leader.
The team continued walking and walking, still not coming across many of the Grimm until...
KATHOOM! KATHOOM!
"Haha! I'm getting more kills than you, Ms. Goodwitch!" Cheered the oh so excited Nora.
"Ms. Valkyire, I suggest you keep your mind solely on The Grimm instead of worrying about a nonexistent competition!" Responded the strict professor, who used her semblance to throw around many of the dark creatures.
"Look!" Said Professor Oobleck, who sounded surprised at the sight.
The "artifact" was a large brown ship, it looked so foreign. Nobody had ever seen such a strange craft until this very day, and everyone began staring at Captain Incendies, who seemed surprised himself.
"Is this some... Prototype Atlesian craft?" Asked Oobleck who was astounded by the ship.
"No, this is something completely different! I've never seen anything like this in my entire life," Responded the soldier, stunned at this foreign object.
"Dr. Oobleck and I will search for a way to enter the craft. Captain Incendies, RWBY, I want you all to assist Team JNPR and Professor Goodwitch." Ordered Headmaster Ozpin.
"Sir, yes sir!" The five said and went out into the forest.
Professor Ozpin stared at the ship and proceeded to try and place his hand on it as if he was searching for some way to open the way to the ship.
"Wait, don't touch anything, Headmaster!" Shouted Oobleck who ran and swiftly took hold of his superior's hand.
"We don't know if this thing has any self-defense mechanisms, for all we know this thing could blow us up!" He said. Ozpin only smiled and waved off the archaeologist.
"Now, now, Doctor. The ship looks damaged enough, if any self-defense mechanisms are present within this... unique craft, I'm sure they won't be activating anytime soon." Said The Headmaster. Oobleck sighed and let go of his hand, taking a step back. Ozpin proceeded to only touch the ship and gently moved it, wiping the dirt and rubble off the ship.
"Strange..." Spoke The Headmaster who became curious as to the sight.
"What have you uncovered?" Asked Oobleck who began running toward the sight and assisted Ozpin with cleaning off the ship, wiping away the dirt that had covered the tan-colored spacecraft.
"Amazing!" Shouted the archaeologist. The two took a step back at the sight, there was writing on the ship that was in clear understandable Vytalan, the language that everyone on Remnant spoke and understood. To the left in black bold text, the words "Bye Bye Beautiful" were written on it and as they uncovered more and more of the ship, they saw a large nightingale painted on it and under the picture were more words.
"Fireteam Nightingale..." Ozpin read aloud.
"Amazing, they seem to know Vytalan and Remnant's wildlife!" Screamed Oobleck who then let out a scream filled with shock and happiness.
"Ozpin, I believe I found a way into the ship!" He said. Ozpin's eyes went wide with surprise and stared at Oobleck, who was standing in front of a keypad. The Headmaster walked over to the panel as well and saw that there were numbers in this pad, which amazed him. Legible numbers, the same numbers that everyone on Remnant used.
"Are we sure these are aliens?" Asked Oobleck, surprised by this revelation.
"This ship has writing and a keypad in Vytalan and a drawing of a bird native to Remnant on its hull... it's possible that they aren't aliens, but it doesn't explain where this craft came from." Spoke Ozpin as he touched the keypad.
The man had no idea what the passcode could be, neither could Oobleck. He could wait for Team One to get done dealing with The Grimm but, he wanted to be the first to see what was going on, he wanted to see exactly what had landed on his planet. He turned away and watched as Oobleck distracted himself with more of the ship's design and as he did that, The Headmaster tapped into the magic he once held as Ozma and muttered only a few words.
"Eralever ihim et," He softly spoke. The man soon gained knowledge of the passcode and entered it.
"9.."
"9..."
"14.."
DING!
The noise took the two huntsmen by surprise and Oobleck ran over to Ozpin and the two watched as the door opened.
"What did you do?" Asked the doctor, shocked as he watched the door open.
"I.. made a good guess on the passcode," The Headmaster lied.
"Well, it seems you have wonderful luck then, Headmaster!" Said Oobleck cheerfully.
"Shall we go inside?" Asked Ozpin. Oobleck nodded and the two entered the craft.
The interior of the ship was a total mess. Thousands of books and tools were thrown all over the place, a large device that looked a lot like a mini-fridge was thrown onto the floor. Oobleck looked around, amazed at the damaged interior of the ship.
"Amazing... this is the inside of a space ship, Ozpin! Isn't that amazing?" He asked.
"Yes, doctor. Though, we should prioritize on finding the crew of the ship, if there is one." Said The Headmaster who took one step.
CRACK!
The Headmaster was shocked and looked down at what he stepped on. Under his foot was a frame of some sort... he picked it up and stared at it. The frame was badly damaged but he could tell it was a photo frame.
In it were three individuals, the first was what appeared to be a man in large bulky armor wielding a shotgun and he waved it in the air while the other two were both women. One woman wore simple black combat gear, a helmet that resembled that of a motorcycle driver and she also wore a long black cloak. The other woman wore a white helmet and a white trench coat, hell her entire gear was white as snow. The two girls were in front of the man, and there was one thing he noticed... all of them had their thumbs up in the photo.
"This must be Fireteam Nightingale," Ozpin spoke.
"Really? Let me see!" Oobleck shouted, taking the frame from the hands of Ozpin and gasped in shock.
"Ozpin, these people must be human!" He shouted.
"We don't know that for certain, Bartholomew."
Ozpin turned his head toward Oobleck and with a smile, he spoke,
"How about you go investigate the rest of this ship, I'll be out of your way and find the crew." He said.
"Of course, thank you, Headmaster!" Oobleck said and began looking around, inspecting every little possible detail of the ship. Ozpin couldn't help but chuckle, Oobleck was always curious about the world around him. He loved to learn every little thing he possibly could about Remnant, and had become an esteemed huntsman, archaeologist, and historian. He was the best and brightest Beacon had to offer. This must have been like a dream come true for the man, for him to see the unknown once again... who knew what emotions were flowing through the doctor's mind.
Ozpin then took his mind off of his friend and allowed him to investigate. Right now, he had a crew to find and save, who knew how badly they were hurt by the crash.
The Headmaster walked throughout the small ship. There weren't that many rooms that the Headmaster could notice, but there was a big entryway that he noticed.
"This must be where the cockpit is at..." He spoke to himself and began moving forward, keeping himself on the alert of what potential threats he may come across. However, as he moved further he realized there were no threats at all onboard this ship. There was just a woman, one of the women who were present in the photo.
This was the woman with the white trench coat, though this time instead of a helmet that was white as snow there was the face of a woman with long hair that was black as night, and a beautiful face, despite the large scar on her face.
The Headmaster ran to her side, he got onto his knees and placed his hand on her neck, checking for a pulse.
"Please, don't die..." He muttered to himself.
Thump...thump...
Thump...thump...
Yes! There was a pulse, it was weak but it was there! This woman was alive! As Ozpin was about to call Oobleck over, her eyes opened and she let out a deep pained breath.
"Who..." She muttered. Ozpin looked back to her side and stared into her green eyes, the Headmaster put his hand in the air as if he were telling her to be quiet.
"We'll get you medical attention soon, please, just hold on." He calmly demanded.
"Ascelpi..." She spoke.
"What?" Ozpin asked. The woman only grabbed his hand and pointed to the back of the cockpit's corner.
"Get... him for... me," She weakly muttered. The Headmaster nodded and went over to the direction which she pointed at. There was rubble and several books, as well as a few electronic devices. He began moving those and beneath it, all was an oddly shaped machine of some sort. He proceeded to pick it up, but as soon as he touched it, the machine quickly activated itself.
"Illya!" It cried as it activated, floating into the air it began looking around and stared at Ozpin.
"Who are you?" It asked.
"My name is Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy-"
The machine suddenly noticed Illya and flew over to her side, calling out the woman's name.
"Illya! Oh, by The Traveler.. thank goodness you aren't in pieces or flown out of the window." It spoke. Ozpin just stood there, and stared at this amazing sight and watched as this... machine began hovering around and soon it's shell began popping off of its body and it sent out a flash of bright blue light in the ship. The Headmaster was in awe, he had never seen anything like this. He hadn't seen a drone that acted like this, and what saw him freaked him out even more.
The woman whom he assumed was Illya was quickly healed, the woman got up and let out a groan and soon stood up, acting as if nothing had ever happened and then proceeded to turn her head. Her jade eyes looked into Ozpin and she only had a soft smile, her eyes showed no intent to harm either and this lead to the Headmaster becoming more relaxed.
"I am a Warlock Class Guardian, my name is Illya Of The Praxic Order. May you please tell me where I'm at?" She asked.
And that's all folks. This is my 2nd DestinyXRWBY fic and there's gonna be one more. This is going to be different from Into The Dark as it's gonna have more RWBY elements than Destiny, so to speak.
I do hope you've all enjoyed this, it took a while for me to actually get this fic to where I liked it!