The green and yellow planet dominated the screens on the bridge of the Nagato. Jaune looked at the planet with curiosity. It was bigger than their home planet, and had two small moons, both smaller than the fragmented one back home. Aphid-4 was indeed a beautiful planet, but its appearance meant very little for their mission, and as the ship got in equatorial orbit, it was time to make the hard questions.
"What initial analysis says, Velvet?" He asked the bunny girl, her knowledge on exobiology useful in situations like that.
"The planet is hotter than ours by 20 degrees Celsius, and it has 1.2x the gravity. It has a solid surface, but…" Jaune signalized her to continue, but admired her professional way of speaking, made it better by her cute accent. "The green and yellow is likely by copper and sulfur on the atmosphere, and I am almost sure that the oceans aren't made of water, but probably inorganic acids."
"Peachy. I vote for moving to the next one." Sun commented, but Jaune had protocols to follow.
"How long before we have a full analysis of the planet?"
"Three hours, twenty two minutes and thirty seconds." Penny informed promptly, and he nodded and left a sigh out.
"Do it, and scan the moons too since we are at that. Put the ship in yellow alert and fireteam RWBY and Major Nikos on standby. I will be at the training room if something important comes up." Jaune said and was about to go when Ruby, at the moment on duty in the gunner seat questioned him.
"If we can't live here, why waste time scanning them?" It was more a question out of curiosity, so Jaune answered it.
"We might not be able to live there, Rubes, but we might find something useful. Besides, it is not like we have other stuff to do." He answered and left the bridge. While the captain knew that his mission held great importance, he also didn't want to rush things and miss something important.
The truth was that the protocol for every mission involved searching evidences of alien life, but the captain didn't told anyone about it yet. He felt no need to worry them about something like that until they found it. People at the colonies disliked the idea they weren't unique, and specially the idea that the Grimm came from space, as it meant, to many, someone out there was trying to eliminate them. So instead of creating unneeded commotion, he just decided to focus on the main mission.
The training room was the fourth biggest room in the ship, only losing to the docking bay, storage center and the recycling plant room. It had enough space for training with the Hunters, those coming by tube directly from the docking bay as needed. It was the favorite pastime for the crew spending time there, and a few rivalries appeared already, especially Yang against Pyrrha and Weiss against everyone. That girl really liked to be on top, and to brag about it in a veiled manner, despite not even the white haired Marine being able to defeat the Major.
The captain disliked the competition, and preferred just spend the time training, combat with Pyrrha and physical conditioning with Yang. That day he decided to just run on the running mill, so he changed into training clothes at one of the stalls and started running, putting some old songs to help him relax. While the trip being uneventful so far, he knew that had consequences on the crew's mood, and considering how explosive they were, he wouldn't be surprised if soon simple quarrels could go into full brawls, especially between the Marines. Being trained to fight all the time had its downsides.
He was wondering what kinds of activities he could create to keep them busy when Penny called him.
"Sir, your presence is requested on the bridge." He stopped running and realized he wasted an hour there, so they had found something interesting, or so he hoped. Most of the times it was just someone needing him to end some dispute, so he would welcome any change to that routine.
"Troubles, Penny?" He asked as he started drying himself with a towel and walked to the stall to change back into the uniform.
"It is about the secondary mission."
…
"Aliens?Really?" Weiss questioned as they had a briefing meeting at the docking bay.
"Not really, really. What they found is that the smaller moon have some tunnels, and the evidence suggests it MIGHT be artificially made." Jaune explained to the five marines, all of them with their Hunter armor in place.
Ruby wore a black one with red details, and carried a high-powered long range sniper rifle. That was also a scythe, and Jaune decided to never, ever question a Marine about their choices on weapons. She also wore a passive optical camouflage system over it, and to untrained eyes looked like a cape, but when still it blended with the surroundings. Weiss armor was white with blue details, the Schnee ice crystal symbol on the left shoulder. Her weapon was a DMR that fired different types of dust. Blake armor was mostly black, but it had some white stripes. They weren't actually stripes, but active optical camouflage. Not only she could blend on the surroundings while still, but even in movement, making it more effective than Ruby's system. She carried a PDW equipped with grappling hooks. Last were Yang and her bright yellow armor with flames painted on it. The oversized gauntlets where actually high powered cannons and they could break solid rock like it was eggshells. He already knew Pyrrha's loadout.
"Yet you want us to go there and search for little green men?" Weiss asked again.
"Again, not really. There is very little possibility you will find little men of any color there, all we need is some close-up scans of those tunnels. They are too perfectly cylindrical and do some weird curves around. But the Nagato's sensors can't go deep on them due to the fact that moon is made almost all of iron."
"Come on, Weiss, the other day you were complaining of nothing to do. We just go, take some pictures and come back for the afternoon movie!" Ruby said in a cheery tone as she toyed with her helmet.
"Why are we even doing this? Why it does matter if they exist or not?" Weiss questioned again, still unwilling to go in what she considered a goose chase.
"Because if there are aliens somewhere, sooner or later we might have to do a contact, so better be prepared." Jaune finished the issue. "Now, fireteam RWBY and Major Nikos will be delivered by bullhead, so no joking around, helmsman Vasilias." Jaune said to his pilot, and he just gave his brightest smile back.
"Come on, skipper, I am an awesome pilot."
"That have crashed three times, all trying to, and I quote, 'impress some skirt walking around'. I am serious, helmsman, I want my Marines and my bullhead back, or else I leave you in the planet covered in acid ad deadly clouds." If they learned one thing already it was Jaune really liked to threaten them around and those were always big ones. "Major, you will be on command once you land."
"Captain, while I am the highest ranked, I believe Captain Rose have more experience, so I would believe she is the better choice for leading the team." Jaune looked at the two redheads and wondered for a bit. What Pyrrha said was true, so he decided to follow her advice on that one.
"Very well, you are leading, Rubes. Now, hopefully nothing will happen, but just to be sure, here some ground rules. You won't split to cover more ground. You won't go check some weird lights and/or sound alone, nor split the group for that. You won't stick your face close to weird stuff; stick your guns if you need to. If you get hurt or feel weird it IS something and you will report. And absolutely nothing unknown goes back to this ship, no matter what you think of it. Actually, just don't touch anything or let anything touch you… Especially the helmsman." Jaune stated, and they chuckled a little, even Neptune.
"You have being watching too much old movies, skipper." Yang teased, but Jaune was serious.
"And they are probably good advice. Now, be safe, Marines, and carry on." As the five Marines were finishing their preparations, Penny approached the captain with a shy but pleading look.
"Captain… I want to go with the Marines. I am combat ready." Jaune evaluated the request for a moment. With only fifteen people on the crew, if he added Penny he would send half of them to that mission and that prospect wasn't appealing. Besides, he still was unsure if the artificial girl could perform well together with the others in a dangerous situation.
"I don't think so, Penny." He could see the sadness in her as she looked downwards. "But, I want you to be ready to deploy if something happens and they got in need of rescue. So you are to be on standby with the Commander and Velvet, OK?"
"Aye aye captain!" She said with a smile.
…
"Does the Nagato look different to anyone else?" Ruby asked as the bullhead left the ship towards the moon. The ship fully deployed its weaponry, and she finally could see all the anti-aircraft units and the main cannons.
"It is the battle ready mode. The captain is probably prepared to give us cover if needed." Pyrrha explained as the bullhead moved in near silence.
"So cool! I want to see it in battle!" Ruby said with a childish glee in her eyes. Weapons were still her favorite topic no matter where she was.
"You better focus on this mission, Rubes. I want to perform well enough to please the captain." Weiss scoffed, and Ruby would have showed her tongue to her if she wasn't wearing her helmet.
"OK girls, I am positioning us over the hole. The gravity is 70 times lower than that on the Nagato, so it is almost as none. Since the whole moon is iron, you better use your magnetic boots. I will stay around, but mostly it is your show." Neptune said as he positioned the bullhead a hundred meters from the hole in question.
The side door opened, and the five girls jumped in space, the faint gravity of the moon doing the job of pushing them in. They landed at the edge of the perfect circular hole and looked down it, but even with their lights they couldn't see the bottom, only the pitch blackness of the iron walls, their sensors detecting nothing unusual.
"Well, time to shine. Blake, Pyrrha, you are pointers. Then Weiss, me and Yang covering our backs." Ruby ordered, and they proceeded to enter the hole as commanded. The magnetic boots working as a charm, they entered weapons ready.
The hole was large, and the walls perfectly smooth and they wondered what could have caused it, while some of them trying to push the idea that was made by aliens aside. They walked for fifteen minutes before the tunnel made a sudden turn to the left, in a closed angle. Blake stopped and rolled a motion sensor, the device not picking any signs, and they resumed walking for another fifteen minutes before the tunnel connecting with another in a perfect 90º degree angle. This time it was Yang that spoke.
"OK, can we all agree there is no way this was done by geological activity?"
"And aliens are your explanation?" Weiss questioned with annoyance in her voice.
"Weiss, do you have any explanation for those tunnels that isn't aliens?"
"Well…" She didn't, but she stopped talking when they felt vibrations. They passed suddenly, and they wondered if it was a small moonquake.
"Look, I see some light…" Blake said, pointing to the right. A faint glow could be seen a few dozen meters from where they were, and Ruby signalized them to go there. The small distance took a long time to be completed as they walked with their weapons ready, and stopping because of any shadow they saw. They finally arrived in yet another perpendicular tunnel, and a good quantity of Dust crystals laid there, in a variety of colors.
"Oh, jackpot!" Yang said as she was about to take when but Ruby held her shoulder. "What, it is just Dust!"
"The captain said to not touch anything!" Ruby shout whispered. Her for once believed in aliens, and that they were all there to eat their faces.
"OK, those crystals can't be here." Weiss said and they turned towards here. "Unrefined dust crystals aren't perfectly cut in the same size and format. Something refined those and I would rather not meet whatever did."
"Now you believe in aliens?" Blake deadpanned, and Weiss groaned.
"Well, our mission just said to discover if those tunnels are artificial, and we just did it…" Pyrrha said, as uncomfortable with that situation as everyone else.
"Agreed. Marines, let's…" Ruby was about to order but the motion sensors started picking up signal, and the ground shook lightly. They immediately formed a circle and waited. It was at that moment that they saw it for the first time.
The wall at their left started glowing, first red, then yellow and finally white when something sucked the melted iron off. A machine came out of it, as wide as Ruby was tall, and as long as three bullheads. It was mostly a copper color, and moved to take the Dust crystals. It apparently floated over the ground, maybe using a magnetic system polar opposite as how they were gluing themselves on the floor. The machine finished taking the crystal and turned around to them, a red laser scanned the group.
Then it activated three plasma cutters, and they spun around its mouth so fast that created a circle of white plasma. For some reason the Marines assumed it was pissed with the intruders and attacked them like a big snake. That could melt iron. The Marines all were able to escape the first attack, and the worm-machine turned in itself to strike back, showing a speed and precision unexpected for something its size. But they were in a low gravity environment and all, and Ruby decided to take advantage of this fact too.
"Everyone, turn down the magnetic boots in 90%! Let's circle this thing! Yang, try to make it hold in the same position!"
"On my way!" Yang cheered as she jumped on the wall and using the low gravity threw herself with everything against the side of the weird machine, using her cannon-gauntlet to make a dent on its side. Then using the powerful activators in her arms and hands she grabbed its 'tail' and kept it still.
"Pyrrha! Weiss! Try to turn its mouth off!"
Weiss used her weapon charged with ice Dust rounds, firing on the edges of the opening where the plasma cutters were rolling. The ice melted almost instantly, so she changed to lightning rounds, the discharge making the worm jump on itself and the plasma cutters fail. Pyrrha used the opportunity to shoot the first two, but after that the worm made a sudden movement, tossing Yang off its 'tail' and against a wall. Blake got to her aid and the creature rushed forward, forcing Weiss and Pyrrha out of the way. Ruby stood her ground and activated the 'reaper mode' of her rifle.
"You are not the only one with a plasma cutter, pal!" She shouted; ignoring the fact the thing couldn't hear her.
The rifle turned into its scythe form, and the blade glow white as it generated plasma. Using the low gravity environment, the red Marine jumped and twirled in the air, her blade connecting to the side of the worm and opening it with ease. As she finished the maneuver, she landed at the ground and turned her scythe off, the machine floating for a while before turning off and spilling Dust crystals from its open side.
"Well, I think this is proof enough that aliens are a thing." Blake said as they regrouped. "I think a lot of people will have to apologize to Dr. Oobleck."
"At least we did something. I think we won't get bored in this mission after all." Yang added, but they couldn't see the big grin she had on her face.
"Better we return to the ship, we accomplished our mission. Ugh, the iron is interfering with external comm. I am surprised this thing is actually so small considering the size of this tunnel." Ruby commented, and everyone looked at her. "What?"
"You jinxed us. You jinxed us so badly, little sister." Yang commented, and if wasn't for the helmet they would see their leader's shocked expression.
"I did not!" The smaller girl protested.
"You so did. So, better we started walking before… Crap."
The motion sensors fired like crazy, and the ground shook heavily, they turned back to see the opposite side of the T-section they were in glow, this time as big as the tunnel they were inside, and as the melted iron was sucked away, they saw a way too big worm machine there, almost as it was looking at them. The machine scanned them, then the one they destroyed.
"Do you think mama worm there is angry we killed baby worm?" Yang asked, and the giant machine activated its plasma cutters again.
"What do you think you dolt!" Weiss yelled over the radio.
"Grenades!" Ruby ordered, and they threw the blast grenades at the 'mouth' of the mining machine. The explosions made it stop moving for a bit. "Run! Blake, try to get to Neptune, we need extraction ASAP!"
"Too much interference, we need to go back to the entrance!" Blake said as they ran; the machine soon on their tracks. They made a close turn on the previous intersection but the worn just rushed straight. "At least that thing doesn't seem to be smart!"
They soon were close to the entrance, and for a split second they believed they were safe.
Until the worm blocked the way out, its massive body blocking the sight of the exit as it emerged from the hole it just made in the top of the tunnel, curving itself to fill the passage. They all started firing against it as it prepared to rush on them, but it just stopped, as if it was struggling to move forward. The Marines stared at it in doubt for a few seconds before the radio started to crackle.
"Yo! What the hell am I fishing here?" It was Neptune, which used the bullhead's grappling hooks to trap the machine.
"Neptune! It is some type of mining equipment hell bent in mining Marines!" Ruby answered.
"Well, you better kill it! I can't hold it forever!" He yelled back as the worm was indeed inching forward.
"Marines! Fire at will! Use everything you have!" Ruby ordered and they followed suit, firing the most damaging rounds they had for a minute or so before the enemy stopped functioning and was fished out of the hole by the bullhead. When they finally got out of the hole, they finally saw how big the thing was. It could barely fill inside the docking bay of the Nagato, and that was if they rolled it up like string.
"That is one big worm. Imagine the size of the fish we can get with it, eh?" Yang joked, but nobody reacted. "Big worm, big fish! Come on! If I discover you all muted me again I will be pissed!" They ignored the threat because they indeed muted her.
"Neptune, come get us. I had enough of those things… OH COME ON!" Ruby shouted as the motion sensors got mad. Out of the moon's ground came a worm three times bigger than the previous one, hovering dangerous above the Marines. Its plasma cutters shone brightly as the 'mouth' pointed towards them. But it soon got hit by two blue rounds, breaking it to pieces that slowly fell around, together with the dust crystals it carried. The marines turned around to see that the Nagato fired against it.
"Did you all see that? Please tell me you filmed it! My first kill with this ship!" The voice of Coco filled the radio.
"WHAT IF YOU MISSED YOU DUMBASS!?" Weiss yelled, but they only heard Coco laughing.
"Me? Missing? Pffft."
"Enough of that you two. Neptune, take my Marines back before we got more of those things. Glad you are all unharmed." Jaune assumed the radio, and the bullhead hovered close to the soldiers.
…
"So, what you can tell me, Ren?" Jaune asked as the two engineers floated outside the Nagato, examining the mining worm Neptune fished out of the moon.
"This would be easier if we could do it inside." Ren answered by radio, as he used a portable device to examine the carcass.
"Ren, that thing is NOT coming inside my ship. It eats metal, and last I checked the Nagato is like 80% metal."
"Actually, 68.96% metal." Penny interceded but the captain ignored the remark.
"At least ask Coco to stop pointing all the weapons at us. I am not comfortably that your specific instructions were 'if it even thinking of squirming, send it to hell.'" Ren asked, and Jaune and Coco suppressed a chuckle. The cannons kept aimed at the machine.
"Stop being dramatic Renny. This thing is beyond dead. I wish I could play whack'a'mole with them too." Nora said as she messed around the carcass, removing from it big quantities of Dust crystals. "This thing had being busy."
"Ok, you two, what you can tell me about this thing?" Jaune asked.
"Well, the Marines did a good job destroying its computer, I can't recover anything from the software and apparently this thing doesn't have a black box we can check." Ren pondered. "I can always check the ones back at the moon."
"No one is going back there. I don't know how many is infesting that place." Jaune said, and Ren sighed. It meant he had nothing more to add. "Nora?"
"Oh, this thing is clever! It uses electromagnetism to both navigate the tunnels it makes as well as to separate the molten iron form dust! This one was full, so I think they probably leave behind older crystals. I wonder how the owners of this thing unload them. Do you think they have big ships like ours? That they are green? Maybe they are just like us but with goatees!"
"Nora, anything we can use ourselves or that clue us on who built it?" Jaune patiently asked, now used to his friend's way of sidetracking.
"Nah. It is all tech we have. At least it means we aren't going to be overwhelmed if they decide to fight." The captain agreed those were indeed good news.
"The Dust crystals. Anything unusual about them?"
"They are perfect pure crystals, sir." Ren answered.
"I am sending the bullhead to bring you two back. We are taking every ounce of Dust this thing have for us. Once we are all set we are going to the next jump point ASAP. I don't want to be here if the owners of that thing decide to come check their toys." Jaune concluded, and sighed in worry, knowing very well that confirming so soon alien life, and advanced ones at that, made the mission more dangerous than before. "Commander, I will go check the Marines, bridge is yours. Coco, if anything pops out that moon, blew it up. Diplomacy be damned."
"Aye aye, skipper!" Coco said cheery as Jaune left the bridge. "I love this ship! Those cannons are my new favorite things ever! And I am the first person to ever fire them against an alien thing!"
"Sergeant Adel, calm down. I would rather not go around blowing up stuff as we go." Glynda said, but Coco was just begging for something to appear so she could fire again.
…
Jaune entered the quarters and almost had a heart attack, using all his willpower to not show it externally. The five girls had just finished bathing, and were all with wet hair and wearing shorts and t-shirts, too tight in his opinion, especially Yang. They noticed him and stood up.
"At ease, Marines. I am here to say you performed above expectations when confronted with an unknown threat, and that I am glad you are all well." He said, and the girls relaxed, but Yang made sure to wink at him. He tried to ignore it. "Anyway, I am putting in the ship's log a commendation for all of you. Not much considering we are so far from home that we would be retired till they call us back."
"Captain, you don't seem too shocked about contacting alien technology." Pyrrha wondered, and Jaune shrugged.
"It was expected we would find something. Maybe the people that created that thing don't even exist anymore. Besides, I think it is worth mentioning now, but while our primary objective is finding a suitable planet to live, our secondary mission is to find any clue if the creatures of Grimm are of alien origin." The girls looked at each other before looking back at the captain.
"Oobleck's theory? Are we really giving ears to that?" Weiss said displeased.
"We just fought a giant space worm made of metal and hate. I think Oobleck's theory have some credibility now." Blake answered, and Weiss couldn't retort it. "Any idea on who made it?"
"No, but they seem to like Dust as much as us. Nora said we are taking back half a ton of it, five times more dust than we used to get here. So, congratulations on the job well done, Marines." Jaune finished and was about to go out if Yang didn't grabbed his arm.
"You know, skipper, wearing those armors really made my shoulders sore, and I was wondering if someone with big hands as you would be good at massages?" She said with a sultry voice, but Pyrrha put her hands on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, captain, I will give Lt. Xiao Long her massage. Right, Lieutenant?" The redhead had a mean smile on her face.
"I don't want to be a Major trouble, Major." Yang snickered, and everyone groaned. "Tough crowd."
"I will let you girls have some privacy. Just relax… and behave." He said the last part in a stern tone as he left.
"Yang, didn't we already talk about flirting with the skipper?" Ruby said in an exasperate tone that didn't fit her tiny frame. It was more adorable than menacing.
"Come on, we are staying in this ship for who knows for Xiao Long?" They answered by throwing their pillows at the blonde girl.