"Are you sure this is the team you want to take with you, Major?" Glynda asked as Pyrrha, Velvet, Coco, Sun and Neptune prepared to go down in the sixth planet of the Zebra system.
"I am sure, Commander. I think this will help us in working better together. It won't do if we always let fireteam RWBY go." Pyrrha answered as she fixed her Hunter and her weapons.
Zebra-6 was a rocky planet covered in moss, lichen and fern, with a series of underground passages and tunnels. It had a very moist atmosphere, and Velvet believed that under the greenery they could find liquid water. Glynda wanted to send the usual team, but the redhead convinced her that the rest of the crew needed to experience an away mission more often to be prepared in case the usual culprits were unavailable.
Besides, Pyrrha still wanted to learn a bit more about leadership, a skill she was sure she was lacking. Velvet wanted to 'fix' her mistake from the last time, and hoped to not burn the whole planet down. Coco wanted to be close to her best friend, while Sun and Neptune were tired of sitting in the ship's bridge most of the time. So in the end Glynda accepted it as a way to improve morale. Yet while the Commander trusted Coco and Velvet, she still had reservations about Sun and Neptune.
The fact the duo were drawing a naked mermaid in the bullhead at that moment didn't helped their case.
"She doesn't look like a monkey." Coco commented at the drawing with her sunglasses on the tip of her nose.
"We aren't calling the bullhead the Seamonkey anyway, no matter how much Yang thinks we should follow a theme, one that I still fail to realize what it is." Neptune answered as he finished with the drawing, and it was quite a masterpiece.
"So, what do you think?" Sun asked as the blonde mermaid sitting in a missile was finished.
"It looks like the Commander." Coco answered as she lowered her sunglasses further and eyed the painting.
"Uh. Coincidence." Sun dismissed with a nervous smirk.
"I will decide that after you come back from your mission, Petty Officer." Glynda commented as she approached them and looked at the painting with more than a little displeasure. "You are cleared to go, but for heaven's sake, try to behave this time!"
They nodded and put their helmets before boarding the bullhead.
The flight down was uneventful. The planet was covered in small bushes of fern and the ground was mostly lichens and moss. Velvet saw rain in the distance, and hoped that they would find enough water to build a colony there. The planet had close air composition to what they needed, only slightly high in oxygen, and a slightly lower gravity than the standard. All they needed is confirm the life forms there were carbon/water based, so the bunny girl was eager to land and do her job.
"OK everyone, hold tight, I am gonna land. Heh, just kidding, it will be a soft, nice landing." Neptune said and the bullhead touched down…
And fell into a hole that the ferns were hiding.
It took a few seconds after the bullhead finally 'landed' for them to realize what happened. Luckily the bullhead landed in the right position, just a bit too rough for their taste, and they all prepared to get out, though Coco made sure to slap the back of Neptune's head. Once they opened the door, they found themselves in a completely alien world. This time, quite literally.
The surface, or maybe underground, was composed of rock columns that where reminiscent of tree trunks, and those were covered in luminescent moss. Around them they saw all sorts of small critters, from insects to frogs to lizards. Under their feet there was several water streams running, probably the responsible for the rock formations. Looking up they were down just a few meters, and the fern made nets between the top of the columns. Velvet grabbed her scanner and started analyzing the surroundings.
"Yes! Water! Carbon based wildlife! Normal levels of radiation and no toxic components detected!" She celebrated with a few hops.
"Are you saying… we found it?" Neptune asked, and Velvet nodded. Neptune and Sun hugged each other and jumped in happiness.
"OK, calm down you three. I know those are good news, but we still need to walk around and be sure there are no hidden surprises." Pyrrha said while a pang of guilty feeling her as she saw the dejected body language on her team. She was glad she couldn't see their face under the helmets too. "Nagato, here is landing team."
"Here is the Nagato. Today's promotion is buy one get another free. Would you like to know more?"
"Very funny, Yang. We landed… successfully. Initial analysis is promising. We will proceed exploring the area for a while."
"Be careful, cereal girl. Remember to stay away from dark holes, big pools and aliens trying to be too helpful."
"Will do. He will contact again in an hour. Over." Pyrrha finished talking, and made a sign to Coco. The brunette nodded and opened a small case, and from there several small drones flew away. "Everyone, we move along the stream for now. Our main objective is finding evidence of intelligent life for now. The mobile scanners will give us an idea of what to expect here."
"Hope we don't find anything trying to eat us." Neptune said as he locked the bullhead.
"Maybe, maybe not. With such a tight place, things don't tend to get too big." Velvet said as she prepared her railgun. "At least we don't have to worry about the planet being flammable."
They shared a small laugh and started walking around. The small streams never got to become a river, at most they turned into creeks were small fish swan. Apparently the planet lack of any significant change in the landscape made water never stop flowing in that spread fashion. As they walked, the wildlife was mostly small, the biggest ones being some type of lizards no bigger than a cat.
The streams of water reunited in a water mirror, no bigger than the docking area of the Nagato, and Velvet used that point to analyze more samples, and she hummed all along as she grabbed moss, fungus and other green stuff to analyze.
"Can we eat that?" Coco asked as Velvet held a colorful and shine mushroom.
"The luminescence is provided by phosphoric components. Probably better to not eat it in natura. But we can use this as basis in our food plants. The water is also rich in phosphorous components, but a simple filter would solve that. Coco, this planet is a prime candidate!"
"So, that is how it ends? I was hoping to end with an epic space battle where we do one last effort to save the galaxy."
"Not all stories need to end with a bang."
"Ours can't end just with a Yang." Coco said making Velvet groan. "Fine, I will let the bad puns to the blonde."
"Please." Velvet answered with a roll of eyes when she noticed Sun and Neptune walking away from the group. "Where are you two going?"
"We need to take a leak." Sun answered and Neptune slapped his head.
"Man, that is not how you talk with a lady!"
"Come on! She is a Marine too! No need to be so formal!"
"You two are not doing it." Velvet simple said with a hand on her hip.
"What?" they both asked at the same time.
"I am not allowing any contamination on this planet until we have more data. Just do as everyone else and pee on your armors." Hunter armors had the capacity to retrieve and recycle human waste in small quantities. Not that any of them wanted to know how and what is done with that.
"Come on, Sergeant. It is icky and uncomfortable doing it on the armor." Sun begged.
"No! We don't know yet what our contaminants can do to this ecosystem. I won't risk a prime planet because you two want to pee on it!" Velvet said as commanding as she could be.
"Velvet!" they turned around to see Pyrrha staring at one of the stone columns. "Come here a minute."
"Coming, Major! Coco, if they try to do it, give them more crouch room. With a hot knife!" Velvet threatened and the two boys covered their sensible area with their hands. The bunny walked towards the Major to see what she was looking at.
"Those markings, are they natural?" Pyrrha asked as they looked a series of deep markings in the stone following what seemed to be a pattern. They weren't deep, but there was a certain precision on them.
"Hard to tell. Maybe it was made by an animal or other natural occurrence. Let's try to find more of them." Velvet suggested, and they spread out a little to search for more signs.
As they walked around searching for signs, Velvet noticed that night was coming and they reunited to discuss what to do. Pyrrha decided they should eat and do some nightly research for a while. They sat in a dry clearance of stone and they put the bright lamp in the middle of them and finally removed their helmets. The smell was the first thing they noticed. It wasn't unpleasant, juts so different from the usual sterile smell of ships and space stations.
They silently and dejectedly ate the unsavory rations they packed with them. It was really that hard to go back to standard food when Jaune could make it tastes good, and especially after tasting real food for once. Pyrrha decided to call the Nagato and give them a report in order to keep her mind out of the food.
"Here is the Nagato. At the moment all our attendants are dealing with a raging heiress."
"Captain, can we do it serious for once?" Pyrrha said, suppressing a giggle.
"Nah. Once I am admiral, I will make this the standard."
"Oh, dreaming high now?" Pyrrha now laughed heartily.
"Yeah! I mean, we need to plan the future! By the way, how are the things down there?"
"Kind of boring, right now. The planet is nice, it seems, and I wouldn't mind living here. Velvet?"
"Initial analyses are promising. We are just investigating some markings we found that might be signs of an intelligent species." There was a moment of silence before Jaune answered back.
"Make sure to find the origins of those markings. I don't want us to move in and discover we have neighbors. But be careful. I hope Neptune and Sun aren't giving you girls, troubles."
"Don't worry, skipper, we are keeping an eye…" Pyrrha noticed the two boys were not in sight anymore. "…on them. I will call you back."
The three girls geared up and Pyrrha used her Hunter to locate the two sneaky officers. Luckily they didn't drifted away too far, and the Major was planning what punishment she should deliver to them once they are found. Different from the Colonies, the night gave them more light there as the fluorescent life under the shade of the columns and fern glowed brighter. Soon they found the two boys kneeled and observing something. As the girls reached them, they finally saw what they were seeing.
Between the stone columns, slowly, a group of giant snail-like creatures slowly moved around, their bright colored eyes on top of antennae moving back and forth. They were reaping mushrooms from the columns with long beige tentacles and putting them into baskets, some of them using stone made knives for the job. Their shells were painted in lively colors and they would use an extra antenna with a glowing orb on top to communicate with each other using a series of different colored flashes of light.
"That explains the scratch marks on the stones." Sun whispered as he noticed the girls kneeling by his side.
"So, we go down there and present ourselves? How we even do that? 'Hey, we are aliens from another planet and we kind of want to move here. We are cool, OK?'" Neptune wondered.
"I don't think they can communicate with us. Our translators are made to match vocals and mind waves. It doesn't have the capacity to translate our words into light." Velvet said as she watched the slow work of the snail-like creatures. "A primitive gathering culture. I think we should follow them."
"Is this wise? We don't know what they can do." Pyrrha wondered, not kin into putting the team in harm's way.
"We are here to learn about this planet. The best way is to observe the natives." Velvet justified, and Pyrrha agreed, if a bit reluctantly.
The group waited for hours before the snail-people finished their job, and slowly returned to their village. After a few hundred meters (that they wasted an hour crossing due to the slow pace of the snail-people) they reached their village. There was houses made of fern and stone, and there were several of those creatures of different size. On the middle of the village there was a pool of water surrounding some columns with bright pink globes attached to them.
"That stuff on the lake looks delicious." Coco commented as she looked at the pink globes.
"I am pretty sure those are eggs." Velvet commented.
"Hmm, I like eggs."
"Coco, I think those are snail-people eggs." The bunny girl explained, and Coco eyed them again.
"Damn."
At that moment they heard some weird shrieks, and the snail-people hid inside their shells. From the opposite sides came lizards throttling and shrieking. They were the size of a big dog, and jumped around like kangaroos. Some of them fell in hole traps dug around the village, but many just jumped on the shells. They had nail-shaped skull and used it to hammer against the shells of the snail-people. Their constant and hard bangs opened the shells and the lizard like creatures started to eat the soft innards. Coco motioned to interfere but Pyrrha hold her back; shaking her head to signalized they wouldn't interfere. The lizards rushed around the pool that protected the eggs, but none dared to try to get them. After killing three of the creatures and devouring them, the lizards moved away.
It took several minutes before the snail-people emerged from their shells. They looked around wary, but once they decided they were safe, they approached the remains of their dead. There was a soft gloomy glow from their antenna, and a few pulsations of light as they carried the shells. The team followed from the distance and found what could only be defined as a cemetery, where the shells were deposited upside down and the opening filled with soil, from where colorful flowers bloomed. There was a sharing of lighting pulses between the snail-people, and one of them carved a series of slits in a column of stone nearby with a stone tool.
Once they finished, they returned to the village and entered their huts.
The team stood there for a few moments before returning to the bullhead.
…
"Man, I can't wait to return home. Do you think they will have a parade for us?" Sun commented as the bullhead started taking off.
"What are you talking about?" Velvet questioned as she removed her helmet to let her ears free. While the modifications Nora did worked, she still felt better without it.
"Come on, bunny, we did it! This planet has everything we need, right? Water, food, Dust. All we need is: go back, tell everyone home, and start moving." Sun explained with a broad smile.
"But what about the inhabitants?" Velvet questioned in a more serious tone.
"What about them?" The blonde boy answered, genuinely confused.
"What we do about them?"
"Nothing, we leave them alone! We find a nice spot far from them, let them eating their mushrooms and dealing with snail-eating lizards and we just take care of our own business."
"Sun, everything in a planet is connected. Even if we decide to live in the other side, our mere presence, the presence of two million people will affect it, and will affect the snail-people. We can't just come and take a part of their planet like that." Velvet retorted, a bit of frustration on her voice.
"Sure we can. It is not like they can do anything about it with their trap holes and stones in sticks."
"Sun! Please tell me you did NOT say what I think you said!" Velvet said showing a bit of frustration.
"NO! I am just saying we just come in, make our own place, and when the snail guys finally come to our doors we will already be established! Neptune, help me here!"
"Sorry, buddy, but I am not qualified for this discussion." Neptune answered from the pilot seat.
"So what good it is for you to read so much, you nerd!?"
"Intellectual! Besides, this is just preliminary data we gathered from the drones and our own observations. And I doubt it will be any of us to make this call."
"Coco, you agree with me, right?" Velvet asked, and Coco just squirmed uncomfortable in her seat.
"Vel, I think I will side with the nerd this time. If he is not qualified to profess an opinion, why I would be?"
"Why everyone thinks I am a nerd?" Neptune shouted from his seat.
"Because you are!" Sun answered back.
"People, this call rests on only one person." Pyrrha chimed in, a bit of worry in her voice. "And we can only hope the captain do the right call."
…
Jaune listened to their reports with a mixed expression. Velvet poured her heart in her description of the snail-people. His eyes moved from her face to the data presented from time to time. He paid attention on every single world his friend and crew member was telling him, but provide no commentary until she finished talking, her chocolate eyes fixed on his face, full of a hope Jaune knew he couldn't give her.
"Thanks for your report, Sergeant. I want you to know everything you said is being taking in consideration. You are probably tired, so I recommend you to take a good bath and rest a little."
"Captain, you won't return to the colonies, will you?" She asked after hesitating for a few seconds, biting her lips in expectation.
"I need time to check all the data you got to make a decision, Vel. All I can say now is that I won't rush it." Jaune answered in his most comforting tone, but Velvet just nodded and clenched her fists.
"I… understand, Captain. I will see you later, then." She said, getting up and leaving. Jaune sighed and looked at the images they brought back.
"Penny, please call Major Nikos and commander Goodwitch here. Also, can your mobile unit come over too? I want to talk with you for a bit."
"Understood, Captain." The AI answered over the intercom.
One image stood on his screen. The cemetery.
It was a powerful image, he agreed. He have read about those in old books, how people used to bury their dead to honor their memory, and other rituals made for the fallen. In the Colonies dead people would have a few ceremonies, but their ultimately destiny was for the remains to be put in the recycling vats so they could the organic matter to sustain the rest of the people. Jaune wondered what his ancestors would think of such practice, but he understood that rituals had little space when the need was greater.
Now he was in a dilemma, though.
As the commanding officer, it was his call to decide when and if they should return to Remnant. And the planet they found just fit the bill perfectly if not for the indigenous inhabitants. Sure they weren't a threat. But there was so many other questions he needed answered. Soon the three girls entered his office and he indicated for them to take a seat.
"Major, you were down there. What can you tell me about the natives?" Jaune started, and Pyrrha took a few moments to find the right words.
"They seemed peaceful. Or maybe the right word would be unable to fight. They aren't fast, but are crafty. They can create traps, but their main defense is hiding on their shells." She stated, and Jaune nodded. "If we were to confront them, I doubt that would be a fair fight."
"If possible, I would never have to confront them, fair or unfair. Commander, knowing the Council, what would be their attitude if we deliver this information?"
"Considering all the planets we have visited so far, they would send a scientific team, and if they give them the green light over our survival in this planet, they would start moving as soon as possible. The natives would be… ignored, at best." She admitted, and Jaune sighed. "Sir, I know what I am going to say might sound insensitive ad selfish, but the survival of our own people take precedence over anything else."
"Actually, that sounds reasonable." Jaune said, surprising both the other girls.
"Captain, wouldn't ignoring the natives make them see us the same way we see the creatures of Grimm?" Penny questioned, and Jaune got surprised over the insightful remark.
"That I can't say. Commander, how's the crew reacting?" Glynda left an exasperated sigh out.
"A third is sure we finished our mission, others are siding with Sgt. Scarlatina over the native issue, while the last third is basically washing their hands." She said, and Pyrrha spoke again.
"There have being some… heated arguments. Thankfully just words, but I fear any decision you make will affect the moral of the crew."
"Actually, only one would. The other would mean the end of the mission and probably the dissolution of the crew." Glynda stated, and Pyrrha looked in a bit of a shock over the older officer.
"What? Why?"
"To begin with this mission was never really… appreciated by the military command or the Council. Only Director Ozpin influence and Admiral Tenryuu support kept it going till this point, but they needed to make concessions. The FTLRSS-7 was supposed to carry a two hundred people crew. But the costs were too big. The reason Penny was created was so the ship could work with just the fourteen of us. Not only that, this crew? While you all volunteered, the truth is more than a thousand soldiers did. While you passed through the cracks though, any personal deemed as important was… 'convinced' to withdraw." Glynda explained to a perplexed redhead, while Jaune just shrugged. He already expected that. "But if we succeed, this is the only ship already ready for interstellar travel, they probably would desire for a more… fitting crew for the ship."
"They would of course receive us all as heroes. But after my little stunt to get you on board, Major, I am pretty sure they won't let me in any commanding position so soon. They probably would pull us all of any mission so we would be used as promoters of the colonial effort." Jaune said, and Pyrrha lowered her head.
She wanted to be a true soldier, to escape the clutches of her fame and do something more meaningful than distracting the people of their problems. And now she was being told that it was likely she would be throwback to be a poster girl and go back at that meaningless life she hated so much. Not only that, there was a real possibility she would be taken from the friends she loved so much.
"Pyr?" She looked up to see Jaune offering her a handkerchief and she noticed she was crying.
"Sorry…" She said as she accepted it.
"You two can go now. Thanks for your input. Penny, I will need you to stay and help me with this data." Jaune said, and after a brief salute the two women left.
"Sir… What are you going to do?" Penny asked with genuine concern on her voice.
"I have no idea. Now let' crunch some boring numbers." He said as he started checking the data once again with the helpful android.
…
A day has passed in the Nagato, and the crew grew nervous.
There was lots of walking around, of fidgeting and of small discussions, but no sign Jaune was going to make a decision. He spent most of his time in his office with Penny, sometimes calling Velvet to explain to him some data they couldn't understand. There was a clear tension around, and even Nora could sense it. In fact, she decided to do something about it in the most Nora way possible.
"GAAAAHHHH!" Blake yelled as she tried to fend herself off the new invention from the crazy engineer.
"Come on, Blakey! He just wants to get to know you?"
"WHAT IS THIS UNHOLY BEAST?!" She yelled as she jumped into the top of a bullhead. On the ground was a little quadruped robot that eyed her with curiosity.
"Zwei is an exploration drone based on old archives of dogs. Isn't he cute?" She said with a proud stance.
"Yes! He is!" Weiss answered as she cooed the little robot.
"Why he is even a dog?!" Blake protested as she planed how to get hid of the barking contraption.
"They are loyal, learn fast and are good at finding things." Nora explained.
"And they were easier to program." Completed Ren, the 'father' of the creature.
"I always wanted a dog!" Ruby answered as she snuggled it. "He is even soft!"
"He is made of a silicon and carbon nanotubes combination. He is resilient as a Hunter armor and yet as agile as an organic creature. And since he is small it means he can access many places we can't." Ren summarized. Blake was not amused.
"WHY. A. DOG." She growled, but before they could answer it again, Penny called them over the intercom.
"Attention crew, all members are being called by the captain in the sky deck. Please arrive in fifteen minutes."
"Do you think it is about the mission?" Ruby asked as she got Zwei in her arms, the little contraption looked happy to be like that with his mechanical tongue out. No one questioned it yet.
"Better be, I would hate if we got stuck here longer." Weiss answered as she petted Zwei.
"Let's just go!" Blake shouted as she jumped away from the mechanical dog and into the elevator.
…
Jaune stared at the curious eyes of the crew as he floated in the sky deck, and while a bit crowded, they all fit there. The planet was visible from the windows beneath his feet, as it was the concerned looks the crew was sharing between themselves. He knew they all expected a decision and in fact he had come to one. But at that very moment he had more urgent things in mind.
"Cpt. Rose, what is this on your arms?"
"Corporal Zwei! Ship's mascot!" She proudly said as she showed the robot to Jaune.
"That is inadmissible, Cpt. Rose." Both Ruby and Zwei deflated a little. "This is a Spacy ship, so Zwei is part of the Spacy ranks, making him a Petty Officer, 3rd class."
"Finally someone we can outrank." Sun commented with a smirk and fist bumping Neptune, while Yang eyes where shining as she believed Jaune just did a pun.
"Be careful, Sunny, if Zwei do a good job he might outrank you two." Coco said with a smirk, and there was a bit of laughing, relieving a bit of the heavy mood. Jaune breathed and resumed talking.
"Usually commanding officers don't justify their decisions to their crew. But you are not only my crew, but my friends, even my family now I dare say. Therefore I decided you deserved an explanation. If you remember my little speech in the day we were departing, I said that my grandfather told me to base my decisions thinking not of me, but of my children that are to come. It means, kind of obviously, that you always should base a decision thinking of future consequences. There is another sentence that I based my decision, 'those who don't learn from history's mistakes are fated to repeat it'. The planet below us is a prime candidate for colonization, and if we go back to Remnant right now, we would have accomplished our primary objective." There was a palpable silence in the lounge as he paused to stare at their faces. "And while we probably would not have any problems today, we can't predict what would happen in a thousand years. There is an intelligent native species down there, one able to mourn their dead, do rituals, and make tools. Sure they are not a threat right now, but a thousand years ago, before the Grimm, our people ride in horses and the ships crossing the oceans were powered by wind in their sails. Now we are travelling between star sisters hundreds of light years from home. My question is: what happens if we colonize this planet and in a thousand years the natives decide they don't like us? Will they be technologically advanced enough to wage war against us? Will we be wise enough to try to find a peaceful resolution or will we just destroy them all to keep a planet we took for ourselves?"
He paused and watched their faces again. They all wanted to say something, and he could see many of them weren't happy with the direction he was going. He breathed and resumed talking.
"We will change this planet just by being there, and even if our moral compass made us try to interfere the minimum with the natives, we will interfere. That said I am not going to hide its existence from the Council and the military command. This planet IS an option for us, one that I would call a last resort. It does have all we need, and unfortunately, the survival of our own people take precedence. I know it is not the… politically correct thing to say. But if we want to survive, sometimes we will have to decide between death and a guilty conscience. I am not ending this mission since I hope we can find a planet where no such dilemmas will be presented. But if we don't, we will have accomplished our mission today."
Another long moment of silence as the crew digested the information.
"So, when will you say that we won't find a better planet than this one?" Weiss asked first. Jaune accepted that was a valid question, one he was prepared to answer.
"While the mission doesn't have a real timeline, I don't want any of us to spend the rest of our lives in a fool's quest. Five years. Can I ask of you all five years?" He looked around to see their expressions. "None of you need to answer right now. I know this is not an easy decision."
"I will follow wherever you go." Pyrrha said promptly. Jaune looked at her soft smile in surprise, but accepted it anyway with a smile of his own.
"Count me in too. This trip has being the most thrilling thing I ever made." Yang said with a smirk.
"Well, does anyone want to say anything BUT that you would follow the skipper?" Ruby said with a bright smile. There was a bit of sighing but in the end no one said anything.
"I will hold you on your end line, Captain Arc." Weiss said as she prepared to leave the sky deck. "But… past mistakes tend to become future headaches. I know this very well. I believe you are doing the right decision."
As she left, Velvet just broke protocol and hugged him, hiding her teary eyes on his shoulder, feeling guilty for even doubting her captain would make a bad call. She only left his arms when Coco started catcalling them and the feeling of envious looks on her back.
"OK, no more gloomy mood. Everyone, back to your stations. We depart in half an hour. And Ruby? Petty Officer Zwei is under your care." Ruby smiled and saluted before leaving. Soon everyone left but Penny, which turned towards her captain with a confused expression.
"How?" She asked simply.
"How what?" He stared at her unusual nervous behavior.
"How do you know you decided the right thing?"
"I don't know if what I am deciding is right, Penny. There are plenty of times that you will decide without knowing."
"Then…"
"Sometimes, Penny, you don't decide with your mind, but with your heart."
"Do I have a heart?" she asked and he floated towards her and petted her hair.
"I believe you do." Penny looked at him then hugged him, a gentle one.
"Thanks, Captain. I will also follow you." She answered with a bright smile. Jaune stared once again at the planet, before leaving the sky deck with the android.