Jaune listened to what he called the warp songstress again. This jump was a day long warp jump, and he has being listening to the song all the time. This time though, it wasn't a melancholic one, but something different. It felt like the songstress was welcoming someone after a long time longing for it. It was a more upbeat tune, and while he welcomed the change, it made harder to sleep.
So he got up and decided to go to the mess hall and make him a midnight snack. Not that he was hungry; it was just because it helped him sleep after. He walked the silent corridors of the Nagato in his t-shirt and shorts, and wondered who else was awake, besides the people in the bridge. Penny was always awake, of course, and he learned sooner than later that Blake was one who preferred to sleep by day, or in this case, different time shifts than her teammates. Distracted by his thoughts he entered the mess hall to see an unusual scene.
Pyrrha looked at him like a deer in the headlights, with a big glass of warm milk in her hand. She was blushing madly, for some reason Jaune didn't get at first. She was wearing her hair down, something he rarely saw. And she was only with a tank top and a pair of shorts that hugged her nicely. So he could see her long legs, her shaped abs and her delicate yet strong arms. And then he blushed.
"Pyr…"
"Captain!" She squeaked in surprise. She stared at his face, and noticed his blush, while he kept his blue eyes fixed in her green ones. She actually thought it would be better if he was staring at her body, because she was having a hard time to not do something when he stared at her eyes so intensely.
"T-trouble s-sleeping?" He asked as he quickly moved to the kitchen and started preparing a sandwich as so to not look at the scantily clad Marine.
"Y-yeah, just a bit nervous." She said as she sat at the table, using it to cover her body a little. "How about you, captain?"
"You can call me Jaune when we are alone, Pyr. Besides, neither of us is on duty right now."
"Yes, of course, sir… I mean… Jaune." She took a deep breath and smiled at him. "So, what is keeping you awake?" He hummed the song he was hearing, and Pyrrha just stared at him in surprise. "Is this the song you listen? Now I wish I could listen too… It is beautiful, and somehow comforting."
"Yeah, but I just keep wondering why I listen it. But it is… I dunno… I don't feel worried about it, you know? Just curious." He sat opposite to her in the table with his big sub on hand, and started eating.
"You will get fat eating so much." She said with her voice laced in kindness. He smiled towards her.
"My stress burns a lot of calories." His answer made her giggle a little. "And why my favorite Major can't sleep?"
"I am the only Major in the ship!" She said and they laughed a little. "It is just… How you do it? How you aren't always second guessing yourself?" He stared at her and laughed heartily, confusing her.
"Pyr, I am always second guessing myself. I am probably the champion when it is coming to that. But… I am the one giving the shots now. I can't let my self-doubt put you all in danger or keep us from accomplishing our mission. Admiral Tenryuu said this to me during officer school: 'Miles, the secret to do quick decisions is knowing what your crew is able to do. So, don't waste time thinking about plans they won't be able to execute anyway.' And since I have an amazing crew, I know you all will make even my craziest plans work."
"That is comforting." She said and drank a bit of her milk. Her instructors always pushed her to surpass herself, but Jaune concentrated in doing whatever he could. Once again she felt glad to have accepted going in that trip. "Thanks for talking with me Jaune. I feel more relaxed already."
"I am glad to be of help. Now, better we go back to sleep before any curious eyes decide to see what we are doing." He finished his sandwich and Pyrrha her milk. "Penny?"
"Yes, captain?"
"Not a word about Pyrrha and I having a night snack to the crew, OK?"
"Yes, captain."
…
"OK, this is the most beautiful planet ever!" Coco said as they orbited Kangaroo-2, an ice blue planet with two parallel rings in its orbit, one was a beautiful emerald green and the other a shining purple. "Tell me we can live there!"
"Well, it is not impossible… The surface is ice, but it is a mix of water, nitrogen, oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide and traces of other elements. It goes several kilometers deep, and the core of the planet is metallic. So, not much for farming land. No organic life detected from here. There is a little more radiation than normal, nothing too dangerous on short term, despite interfering with our long range sensors. But since this system have only two planets and no moons, no much in resources to expand a colony under the ice." Velvet explained, making the crew lose a bit of the enthusiasm. "And there is this…" She showed the image of a huge white cloud that spun in the left side of the planet, and it shaped a bit like a flower. "It is a huge storm, and I don't know if this is occasional or permanent. So, I consider this more of a last option than a prime on."
"We are not the luckiest ship, are we?" Sun quipped, and they groaned on the truth of that statement.
"We all knew this wouldn't be easy. It would be a really short story if the very first planet we found to be just perfect." Jaune said trying to keep the crew from getting depressed. "Any other thing of note, Vel? Something on the data pad we got at The Club?"
"Yes, actually. Nothing from the data pad as we still are translating and converting it to a format we can use, but the long range sensors found something. This." Outlined on the image was an elliptical form spreading on the right side of the planet. "It is some type of structure, mostly metal, and I believe to be artificial. There are heat signs inside, and it is ten kilometers long, two wide in the widest part and at least 500 meters deep. I think it is some sort of station, maybe even a colony of sorts."
"And when you tried to contact them?" Jaune asked curious about that discover.
"We actually received a message back. It says… 'Access granted by upper port 5.' Just that, actually, and the location of said port." Velvet gave Jaune a 'no idea what this means' look and he analyzed the data in his screen.
"They actually invited us?"
"All attempts of contact returned the same answer. It is clearly automated."
"Damn automated responses. Well, we can't get there with the fighters… And that is one big… place? Suggestions?" Jaune asked as he had no idea on how to proper proceed.
"Send two teams to search the structure. I will go with them." Commander Goodwitch affirmed, surprising him. "Two teams will be able to explore the place faster, and reduce the chances of us getting trapped if this turns out to be the case."
Jaune looked at his first officer for a few moments, and evaluated the idea. While sending half his crew down there was less than compelling, he remembered his talk with Pyrrha and decided to trust them. After all, he saw Glynda in action once, and was pretty sure nothing would be able to get on her way.
"Very well, you are leading this mission, Commander. Choose whoever you want to go with you."
…
Glynda adjusted her Hunter and a memory crossed her head, making her wonder. She was an efficient soldier back in the day before becoming an instructor, and even after the run in with the avian aliens a few days back, she still felt like that was natural, even if the new Paladin-class was different from her old Knight-class. Her own armor was mostly black and white with purple details, and it felt so light and fitting that kind of scared her. She always told her students you never get used to battle, but now as she put her helmet, she knew she did grew used to it. And this scared her a little bit as she looked at her crewmembers joking around. It would be a shame if they grow used to war, when they were barely adults.
"Is everyone ready?" She asked and they turned towards her. Fireteam RWBY was going, as would go Pyrrha, Ren and Penny. Neptune would fly them down, and the White Rose was being prepared with an ice thawer to open a path to the structure below the ice.
"Aye aye, sir." They said together, and Glynda smiled.
"Very well. The storm Sgt. Scarlatina detected is twelve hours more or less of our landing zone, so we have that time window to explore the structure in question. To be safe, I am restricting it to ten hours. The structure is under a twenty meter thick layer of ice, so we are equipping ourselves with the arctic packs. Lt. Lie?"
"The artic packs carry extra fire dust to keep the heating on our Hunters, plus ice climbing equipment, first aid kits specialized for cold environments, and three days' worth of rations. Just in case." He stated and they checked the big packs on their backs.
"The rations arean emergency measure, I don't expect or want to spend any time more than necessary down there. If everyone is ready, let's get going." Glynda finished and they started boarding the bullhead. It certainly brought up memories.
"Captain Arc speaking. I just want to tell you all good luck. We're all counting on you." Jaune said over the intercom.
"Officer Vasilias, let's get moving." Glynda ordered, and the White Rose left the Nagato.
…
"HEAVENS IT'S COLD!" Yang shouted as she secured the perimeter. The ice thawer was creating the tunnel to get them to the structure below, covering the area in fog. "Next time I won't deploy unless it is a tropical beach!"
"Stop complaining Xiao Long! We are in a mission!" Weiss growled back while Yang gave her the finger.
"If you don't want a broken finger, you better apologize!"
"Stop that you two!" Ruby shouted at them. "The Commander will get angry. Why can't you two be more like Pyrrha? Look, the cold is not bothering her!"
The Major was so glad they couldn't see her face as she cursed under her breath the whole planet and wanted Velvet to make it catch fire as she did before. The reason she was standing still was just because the heating seemed to work better than moving around.
"OK, the thawer reached its target." Neptune declared as he brought it back. "OK, girls and Ren, I see you back in… eight hours. Sun said that if they have frozen bananas he want a box." With that the bullhead flew back to space.
Glynda left a sigh and directed her attention to the mission. The hole they made was in diagonal for easiness to climb down and up. So all that was left was to organize who would go first, but…
"WEEEEE!" Ruby shouted as she slid down, surprising everyone.
"Sis!" Yang jumped next, and soon all fireteam RWBY slid down, making Glynda grow loudly.
"Let's follow them, I have punishments to deliver." Glynda slid after them with Pyrrha, Ren and Penny following.
The ice passage ended in the opened hatch to the structure bellow, where Glynda and her team landed in their feet. They found fireteam RWBY in a pile with Ruby in the bottom and the rest on top of her.
"Ouch… That... wasn't a good idea…" She complained.
"Do you think you dolt?" Weiss yelled back.
"GET OFF ME!" Yang pushed up and threw Blake and Weiss on their butts before helping Ruby up. "This… was really stupid, Ruby. We are not in a training session! What if this was a trap and at the end of this corridor it was a pit of acid filled with piranhas?!"
"Sorry…" She apologized again.
"I will talk about your reckless behavior back at the Nagato, Cpt. Rose. Now, your team is to go explore the most downward levels. Mine will explore the upper levels. And captain, be serious." Glynda said in a commanding and exasperated tone, and Ruby nodded before walking away with the rest of her team. "Sometimes I think she is fifteen instead of nineteen."
"I can't blame her. It is not like in the colonies we have much chances of being children." Ren stated, and Glynda realized he was right. There was no space, no time to just frolic around. They all got in combat school at thirteen, mandatory service at seventeen. And Ruby skipped two of those years.
"We will talk about this later. Follow me." She said as she drew her service pistol.
…
"When you will grow up? Damn it you are a fucking Marine captain! We count on you!" Weiss kept yelling as they walked the empty corridors, only faint white lights fighting the darkness of the chrome and cobalt colored corridors.
"I already apologized! What you want me to do?" Ruby yelled back.
"Rubes, she is right. That was immature and dangerous, and not a calculated danger, just dumb dangerous." Yang said in a rare occasion of siding with the heiress.
"You do dangerous things all the time!" Ruby accused her sister, but yang remained unfazed about it.
"Yes, but I do knowing exactly what I am doing. You jumped head first in something you didn't knew what would lead you into, Captain. Besides, since when I am an example to be followed?"
"Ha! At least you recognize it." Weiss scoffed, and Yang glared at her.
"Shut it princes. My sister and I are having a mature moment here." Yang spoke with a hint of displeasure in her voice.
"It is just me or the heater inside this place is turned off?" Blake questioned, focusing in her mission and ignoring the squabble between her teammates. "It is just a few degrees warmer inside here than outside."
"They might be saving power. Let's find a way to go down there, maybe find the engine room." Ruby said as she walked close to Blake. "Since they invited us in and even opened the door, I expected there would be someone to greet us."
"I found a service shaft." Blake said as she opened a door, revealing a tight shaft with a ladder, but big enough so they could go down. "Maybe they are concentrating the heat in one place and waiting for us to find them? Try contacting Goodwitch and see if her team had better luck."
…
"Fireteam Grape, here is Fireteam RWBY, come over."
"You better explain to me why we are Fireteam Grape, Captain Rose." Glynda questioned over the radio as they checked another room. Apparently they were in the living quarters of the ship, and while there were signs people lived there, the rooms were abandoned.
"GRPP. Glynda, Ren, Pyrrha and Penny. That is how we do in the Marines to define Fireteam names. It is a tradition." Ruby explained and Glynda sighed. It sounded like something Ozpin would come with just to annoy her.
"Found something, Cpt. Rose?"
"A shaft that leads down way. We are taking it now. How about you guys?"
"Signs that indeed this ship had passengers. No life signs yet, so we will keep moving. You four, be careful."
"Understood." With the message over, Glynda moved closer to Ren, who was scanning a terminal.
"Anything, Lieutenant?"
"No power here. It is like the power is being diverted somewhere else. The lights are clearly just emergency lights, some type of luminescent compound that need no power to shine." He explained as he put his mobile terminal away. Glynda turned towards Penny, who was using her swords as antennas to scan the place.
"Penny?"
"Sorry, Commander. The radiation is affecting the readings, but I concluded that this whole ship's components are contaminated with radioactive materials." Penny state rather calmly, but Ren and Glynda stared at her, worried.
"The source of the radiation is this place… and you called it a ship?" Glynda questioned, and after putting a finger under her chin like she was thinking, the android answered.
"Yes and yes. The components are naturally radioactive, with traces of uranium in all of them. I believe the original planet this ship came from had large amounts of it, so life just evolved to incorporate radiation as part of its natural process. Of course, this is just a theory. Velvet could probably explain that better, but I am having trouble reaching the Nagato." Penny explained and Glynda looked around.
The rooms were all small, but they had comfortable beds, and many had clothes spread around, some even had what she defined as toys. They even found some childish drawings that they couldn't determinate if they were of the alien people or not. She was about to give an order when Ren drew his machine pistols and pointed against the empty corridor.
"Lt. Lie?"
"I thought I saw something." He said as he lowered his weapons.
"Something?" Glynda questioned.
"A white shadow." He explained, and Pyrrha joined in the conversation.
"What, like a ghost?"
"Of course not. Ghosts don't exist." Ren answered plainly. "It is probably the lighting playing tricks."
"Anyway we will keep on guard. Let's try to find the control room, if this structure is indeed a ship, we can find information there." Glynda finished the talk and they moved along the long, silent corridor.
…
"Did you hear something?" Blake questioned as she took pointer and they walked around what was clear the docking bay of the ship, filled with transports not dissimilar to the bullheads they used to ride. The place was dark, and only their built-in lights illuminated the space. She was hearing the sound of what she associated as steps on metal.
"Yeah… probably just the wind." Yang dismissed as they kept walking.
"There is no wind indoors…" Ruby added, and they took a few more steps until they noticed Weiss just stood in place. "Weiss? Weiss!"
"Ah!" She yelped, surprising them. "Coming."
"Weiss… are you afraid?" Ruby asked, and the heiress glared at the redhead.
"Of course not, you dolt. Just got distracted. Let's keep going, we have lots of places to check and not enough time." She answered passing them all. Yang made a mental note to completely harass her over that later and followed, with Ruby and Blake soon behind.
They passed the docking bay and found the engine room. Several Dust generators could be seen, but none was active. Silence dominated the place, and once again only their lights dispelled the dark of the place. As they walked forward, some lights flicked, then the sound of a shot. When silence reigned again, smoke came from Blake's gun.
And Weiss was clinging on Yang.
"Hey, you are pretty and all, but I am interested in someone else already." Yang teased and the white haired girl jumped away, thankful for the helmet hiding her blush.
"Blake?" Ruby asked as the catgirl kept pointing her weapon at the empty space.
"I saw something." She explained.
"And?" Ruby pressed, and Blake finally pointed her weapon down.
"A white figure."
"There is better ways to 'accidentally' shot Weiss, Blakey." Weiss answer to Yang's comment was elbowing her ribs.
"It wasn't Weiss. It was like… someone in a dress." She explained, and Yang laughed loud, while Weiss and Ruby gulped a little.
"A ghost. You shot a ghost?" Yang laughed even louder to the displeasure of a certain black and white duo.
"Come on, let's keep going. Next stop is probably the maintenance deck." Ruby prompted, and Blake took pointer again. When Weiss passed by Yang, the blonde Marine made a ghostly sound, prompting the heiress to point her gun at her teammate. She probably would have shot if Ruby didn't push the gun down.
…
The bridge of the ship was ample, full of different stations and in two levels, differently from the rather Spartan bridge of the Nagao, but aside the emergency lights, only one small panel in what Glynda imagined to be the captain's chair, though the chair was larger than Jaune's. There she could see a small schematic showing a point in the back of the ship, a few decks bellow, and a rather large space. All energy apparently was being converged to that point.
"That seems to be the case." Ren confirmed as she asked him to check. "Apparently the energy is being supplied to some specific machine in the middle of this deck."
"Very well. Tell fireteam RWBY to meet us there. Where is Penny?" The three looked around and noticed no sign of the artificial girl. A little bit of panic set in as the three of them started searching for their friend. They found Penny in one of the access corridors to the bridge, and she was just standing looking at the empty space. "Penny, do not move on your own like that."
"Sorry, Commander. I was trying to communicate with the entity." She stated remorsefully. Glynda sighed in relief until it clicked in her mind what Penny just said.
"Entity?"
"Yes. A non-corporeal entity is trying to communicate with us." She explained, quite happily to their tastes.
"Penny, please, do not joke like that." Glynda asked with a sigh of exasperation, since it seemed to her even the android was getting a taste to lousy jokes in inappropriate times like Yang.
"I am not joking. Captain Arc is trying to teach me humor, and said to me I should not use any during missions and assignments until I fully understand the concept." She explained quite seriously. Glynda and Pyrrha traded looks with Ren.
"It is probably a glitch in her system. I will get it checked when we come back to the ship." Ren stated calmly, but Penny stared back with pouted cheeks like she was Ruby.
"I am 100% functional and my auto diagnosis system indicates no issues with me."
"Then those also need checking, Penny." He answered back, because there was no way he would accept the android made contact with ghosts. Because they don't exist, he told himself trying to not shake inside his Hunter. From the cold, certainly.
"Very well, let's get moving or fireteam RWBY will arrive on our destination before us." Glynda said and they moved. Well, Ren needed Pyrrha to gently nudge him to make him move.
…
"Are we sure this is a shortcut?" Ruby questioned as hey followed Weiss through one of the many corridors of the alien ship. She was not so sure her fellow Marine knew where they were going.
"According to the schematics Ren sent us, there will be a service shaft in the cargo bay that will take us towards our destination. We are doing a beeline there." Weiss answered, intending to get away from that place as soon as possible.
"She is just scared of ghosts." Blake deadpanned, and that made Weiss stop on her heels and turn around.
"I am not afraid of anything. And if you say something else, Belladonna, I will use my rank to discover what you read so much that make you so defensive of your scroll." Weiss hissed, and Blake kept the poker face as best as she could. "Now, follow me. IN SILENCE."
She walked stomping her feet, while the rest of the Marines followed. She finally reached the cargo day door and opened it by force as have being the case since they arrived. There was no power to make them open automatically. But as soon as she opened it and took a step she fell a few meters. And when she saw in what she landed at, she shrieked, reaching a note that many would be pretty sure humans couldn't hit.
When the rest used their lights to see what she fell into, they froze as the heat in their blood was stolen. Weiss landed in bones, thousands upon thousands of bones of all kinds and sizes, and so many skulls, many inhuman in nature, but others so closely resembled that of people that they couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.
"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Weiss yelled as she crawled towards the wall. Yang snapped out of the fear induced paralysis and used her hope to haul the heiress back. As soon as she got there and Ruby helped her up, she hugged her captain tight. "I want to go back…"
"We will be back at the Nagato soon, Weiss." Ruby said in her most comforting tone.
"Home… Yeah, home sounds great…" Weiss said in a weak voice, and Ruby smile to herself. So she was not the only one, even after just a few weeks, that felt that the Nagato was their home.
"So, I vote for an alternative route." Yang said as she closed the door. No one questioned her.
…
Lie Ren was a man of science. Everything had a logical explanation and nothing could surprise him as everything just needed a good look at to be understood. There was not a thing as magic, just things science can't explain yet. So, he was pretty sure there were no ghosts in that ship, and whatever Penny saw or they were experimenting was all something with logical explanations as ghost weren't real.
That is what he kept repeating to himself.
So, when they entered the only room in the ship that had power, he was pretty sure the white shadow he saw coming from another door had a perfect simple explanation. One that he would discover after filling it with dust rounds as he fired against it. The white figure ducked immediately.
"STOP SHOOTING AT US YOU IDIOT!"
He stopped as he heard Weiss voice and saw she getting up and the rest of fireteam RWBY entering the room soon after.
"WHAT THE HELL LIE?! I thought you were the one with self-control!" She yelled at him.
"Sorry…" He said as he put his guns away.
"Sorry?! You almost killed me!"
"Yeah, you almost transformed her in a 'sweiss' cheese!" Yang told, and everyone let out a groan, making her scoff a little. "At least Jaune laugh of my jokes."
"Enough. We still have a mission to accomplish." Glynda commanded before the situation could escalate. "Penny, can you detect… Penny?"
"I found the remains of the ship's crew." She said pointing, and before they could ask what she meant by that, they wished she didn't found it.
Together in the center of the rather big room was dozens of skeletons wearing suits, of varying heights, so they assumed they were adults and children alike. They all were hugging each other, and in the middle of it there was a glowing tall structure. They careful spread and approached it, when an holographic projection started in the top of the structure, an alien women with four arms and a long face with two big black eyes and a big mouth appeared, covered in a white dress.
"Thanks for answering our emergency sign. Our migratory ship suffered an irreparable damage to its warp engines and we were forced to land in this planet. With no resources to repair the engines, we ask of you to help us, be it repairing the engine or rescuing our people. To reward you for you kindness, we will share with you our technology."
As the message ended, a tablet like piece ejected from the terminal, and the once shining structure turned off after blinking several times. Blake used her grappling hook to get it without disturbing the remains and gave it to Ren.
"What… What happened here?" She asked as they looked around the room. It looked to be a central computer of sorts.
"By the state of the bodies, I would assume they have being trapped here for years. They probably started shutting down parts of the ship without use and concentrating on smaller spaces, till the point they used all energy they had left to keep the computer sending the emergency broadcast." Ren theorized. "The computer probably tried to reach us while we walked but didn't had enough power to project the hologram, creating the 'ghosts' we met."
"How about that room full of bones?" Yang asked, but Ren didn't have an answer. Glynda had one, a very unpleasant one.
"There are… reports in the Armed Forces that in the past stranded groups in the planet would… use everything at hand to survive. If this was a migratory ship, they probably had livestock with them, and they ate it to survive as their food ran low… and when the livestock ended…"
"Don't! Please don't say it." Ruby begged. "Can we go back home now?"
…
"Hey Ruby."
"Hey Jaune…" She answered as they finally arrived to the Nagato. The mood was incredible sour, and nobody said anything. Even Nora just patted Ren's back and looked concerned at her friend while everyone scattered around the bay. Jaune sat by Ruby's side in a crate.
"And I thought Yang and I had it hard." He commented, and Ruby nodded.
"Is this the universe we live in? A tragedy after another? We visited a planet that just exploded, another the inhabitants strapped themselves to machines, and we escaped vampire aliens and now…" She said in an almost crying tone, and Jaune just pulled her in a hug, as she buried her face on his uniform so no one could see her crying.
"Ruby, we only saw a tiny, tiny fraction of it. Things have being… rough to say the least. And while I can't promise next stop will be better, we will just keep going till we find our happy end."
"What if we never find happy on the way?" She asked from his shoulder.
"Then it is not the end." He reassured her, and she giggled a little on his shoulder. It was nice having someone like him to keep the spirits high, she thought for herself.
"At least it wasn't a complete downer. We did get the schematics they gave us." Weiss commented, and Ren nodded as he checked them with Nora.
"Most are technology at the same level as ours, there are three promising ones though, but I will need some time to translate them." He explained, just relieved that as he had absolutely no doubt there was no such a thing as ghosts, just quirks in an old ship.
"BOOOOO!" A figure clad on white come from behind him, and he and Weiss hugged and yelled, scaring everyone as the figure started laughing. It was Sun with a white sheet over himself.
"Man, you all should have seen your faces, it was priceless!" Weiss and Ren grabbed their weapons and loaded it, pointing towards the Faunus. "Hey, come on, it was just a joke. Guys? CAPTAIN!"
"Try to not bleed on my ship, gunner. Blood stains are a bitch to clean up." Jaune said plainly, and if there was a priceless face that day, was the one Sun just made.