Author's Headnote: Well, incase you didn't read the character tags... they are below the story description. That's my response to one of the reviews. So... let's just jump into the chapter now, shall we?
Edit: Pop-Culture Reference Removal and some Grammar checks.
The Ruby of Cerberus: Adek: Prothean Artifact
Ruby Rose:
Health: Healthy
Aura: 100%
Semblance: Petal Burst
Weapons: Crescent Rose, M-7 Lancer, M-2 Kessler
Party Relations:
- Weiss Schnee: For Myrtenaster being a revolver, she's actually a horrible shot with an actual gun.
- Blake Belladonna: From what Ruby knows, this wouldn't be the first time Blake would be doing something like this.
- Yang Xiao Long: Let's hope she doesn't just charge off willy-nilly again.
End of Main character status report
Untrel, Adek, Adek Wilderness, Daytime, Adek Wilderness
Team RWBY was dropped off 20 miles off of their objective, and they're expected to head there on foot. Problem is... they don't know which direction it would be... since all they see is tropical wilderness, and native lifeforms. Out of risk of the wildlife ruining her hair, Yang had wrapped her hair around in a bun and put on her helmet. They proceeded to walk there... problem is, they don't know where.
"Okay, team... let's figure out how these things work." Ruby said, holding her M-7 Lancer.
"I think you should pull on the trigger aaand..." Weiss said, pulling on the trigger of her M-7 lancer, firing energy bolts out from it uncontrollably, some of them hit Blake.
"Hey, watch it!" Blake retorted.
As Weiss continued to fire, she then dropped it, while the assault rifle was beeping. She tried to pick it up, but then it was like she was touching a hot stove surface. "Ouch." she retorted.
"I think it overheated." Ruby stated the obvious.
"Yes, Ruby. Clearly ice queen can't handle a bit of heat." Yang retorted.
"We're not making that my nickname in this dimension too!" Weiss objected.
"This implies that it was your nickname back home."
"Shut up!"
"Girls! Please! Focus!" Ruby shouted. "We need to focus."
And just like that... it seems an alien patrol, via a buggy like vehicle had stopped near team RWBY. The buggy is a hoodless car, with four seats, it is brown. It is alien-designed, but no weapons can be seen on the buggy, though. The four aliens stepped out of the buggy. And pointed their weapons toward the girls, speaking in their alien language. Guess these are batarians, given their language is not being translated, that and their helmet size is a big large for a human. That, and the helmets had four eyeholes instead of two.
"You think they're from the slavers?" Ruby asked.
"Well... we don't have to surrender; we can kick their butts." Yang stated.
"Either way, that buggy could be useful." Blake stated, acknowledging the buggy.
"Well, screw this." Weiss said, picking up the M-7 lancer and putting it away. She then drew Myrtenaster, sure the vials are empty, but it's still a good sword.
Weiss summoned up some glyphs to initiate an attack to the batarians with a thrust from her sword, stabbing the batarian's armor. The other three opened fire on Weiss, her aura taking most of the hits for her. It does hurt, but she's using her glyphs to make her a hard target. While attacking the initial batarian that she was attacking.
Yang then went in and helped Weiss, although by force of habit she tried to use Ember Celicia to launch herself... even though her gauntlets are empty. So, she then awkwardly ran to the one of the batarians and punched them in the face, and then the groin. And then slammed them to the ground.
Blake grabbed the M-2 Kessler and started giving support fire, while Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and goes and attack the other two batarians on her own, using her scythe to attack at a safe range. Slicing and dicing with the scythe and slashing back and forth, using her semblance to blitz through them without a sweat.
In due time, Team RWBY had dealt with the four assumed batarians. Blake had removed the helmet off of one of them. The alien had yellow skin, and four entirely black eyes. It also is very, very, ugly.
"Ewww... he's ugly!" Ruby retorted.
"You can say that again." Weiss added.
"Besides the point, pretty sure these guys are slavers. Even then, I feel like I need the helmet more than him right now." Blake said, putting on the batarian helmet. "Eh, it's a bit hard to see in here, but maybe this can get retrofitted." Blake stated.
"Surprised that fits you."
"It's a bit big, but it's better to have and not need right now. We're lucky that the air on this planet is breathable."
"I still don't understand why we need to wear these; we have aura." Yang stated.
"When I asked Pyrrha, she said that armor can reduce the amount of damage that aura takes from attacks. However, it makes using a semblance consume more aura." Weiss stated.
albeit with their limited fighting style... they don't know what to do next...
"Still, we don't know where they were coming from." Blake stated, kicking the ground.
"Maybe we can just take the buggy and drive it the other way?" Yang asked.
"You really think that's a good idea."
"Don't worry, I know how to drive."
"She gets road rage easily." Ruby commented.
"And we're not in a place where speed limits or traffic laws would apply. So, that means no annoying idiots driving in slow speeds or jamming the roads, or elderly women taking two hours to cross the street." Yang countered.
"How about we get in?" Weiss suggested.
Everyone else said 'yes' and got in the buggy, with Yang getting in the driver's seat.
Character Change: Ruby Rose - Yang Xiao Long
Untrel, Adek, Batarian Buggy, Daytime, Adek Wilderness
CAR MODEL: Unknown, but it's a buggy
SPEED LIMIT: N/A
CURRENT DRIVING SPEED: 100mph
HULL: 97%
INSTALLED WEAPONS: None, but passengers can provide fire support
"Alright, hang onto your seatbelts..." Yang announced. She's driven motorcycles, and cars. And is certified and licensed to do both back at home. However, she seldom travels by car because when there is a traffic jam, at the very least Yang could just swerve through the cars with Bumblebee, but not with Beehive.
The way the seating is positioned is that Yang is at the driver's seat, Weiss is at the front passanger seat, and Ruby and Blake are at the back seats, both of which have their M-7 Lancer assault rifles out and ready.
Thankfully, she managed to save enough money to get laser-eye surgery instead of getting screwed over through broken contact lenses sometime before her birthday. She could only imagine the hypotheticals of what disasters that would have brough up. But since the operation, her eyesight's improved. Although it's 20/30 according to her eye doctor back at remnant, it's way better than not being able to see anything 6 feet in front of her without contacts or glasses.
But no less... she starts the buggy. Being that she's able to recognize the controls... problem is... the buggy is a stick shift, she doesn't know how a stickshift works. Pretty sure the oldest car with a stickshift she could think of is during her grandparent's time. She's never had the opportunity to learn a stick shift.
"Well, that's..." Yang said, nervously... "unfortunate."
"What?" Blake asked.
"It's a stick shift..."
"Really? These guys can achieve spaceflight, yet they still use stick shift cars?" Ruby complained.
"Let me handle the stick shift, you focus on the wheel." Weiss offered.
"You know how to drive?" Yang asked.
"Mother insisted I'd learn to drive the family car... which is stick shift."
"So... why don't you take the wheel then?" Blake asked.
"How about we let them do this? We're not going to keep the thing, so this is likely going to be a one-time thing." Ruby said in a serious tone.
Weiss placed her hand on the stick shift and shifted it to drive. In which Yang started to push the gasoline and started to drive the buggy, making a U-turn and heading toward where the batarians came from. At that, Yang continued driving.
She was swerving as she went and avoided any trees growing in the middle of the pathway. Trees. Do not grow on roads. Why are they on the road? How do these guys just drive by them? And then Yang notices a crashed buggy besides one of the trees, with four other dead batarians. Yang looked at the road to avoid looking at the gruesome crash site. Blake was seen covering Ruby's helmet eyeholes. And when they finally drive past the scene of the wreck, Blake lifted Ruby's eyes. Well, that's fortunate, Yang does not want her sister mentally scarred during this escapade. She's still quite young and optimistic, she prefers it if Ruby stays like that as long as she can... even though that behavior is likely going to be gone by the time she hits second or third year at Beacon.
This is of course, if team RWBY can work for them enough to get back to Beacon. They've been gone for a whole month, obviously the dance was missed, and the White Fang is going to be run amok, in which Blake was complaining about back at the communal cell. Eh, chances are team RWBY's absence won't affect anything in the long run, it's not like they're main characters to a show or something.
And just like that, Yang managed to drive past the final tree in the road and she continues to drive to wherever they came from...
"Someone should really hire a gardener." Yang said, jokingly annoyed.
"Maybe it's why they have those slaves..." Weiss said...
"So... automation is not a viable option for them!?" Blake objected, sounding offended.
"I didn't mean it like that. No offense, these guys enslave humans. And they would enslave your people if they did exist in this dimension."
"Well, maybe you shouldn't try to discuss the benefits of forced labor next time, sensitive subject."
"New subject, ladies. As much as I want to see you two claw each other, now is not the time." Ruby interrupted. "How about we put on the radio?"
"Good Idea, Ruby." Yang said... as she was looking for the radio... "I'm lucky the driving function's nearly similar to a car back home, but where's the radio?" Yang screamed in frustration.
"Weiss, don't push random buttons this time." Blake warned.
"Okay, it was one time, and I was getting desperate!" Weiss rebutted.
Soon... radio chatter picked up. It was uttering some weird alien language... the same one those batarians were speaking. Meaning Yang has no idea what they are saying...
"Gretan daar, gashar untmosk!" the radio yelled. Well, what Yang thought it sounded like in her head, chances are the batarian language isn't just a bunch of gibberish.
"Err... daaba laaba lunfin?" Yang said, trying to answer the radio... Blake on the other hand is trying to hold her laugh.
The radio had been cut off.
"Well, either that's good or bad..." Weiss said, with a small amount of panic in her voice.
"Make sure you shift that thing to stop when the time comes." Yang reminded.
"I know, I know."
And as the buggy proceeds to keep driving forward. Two more buggies, two seats and has a turret gun proceeds to towards Yang. All armed by batarians, according to the armor. And from the sounds of it, they were gunning towards team RWBY. And Yang is not having it, being shot at would be a huge distraction. But thankfully Yang can find a way to pull it off.
"Weiss, shift gears." Yang ordered. "I'll be drifting."
"What? Why?" Weiss asked.
"Just trust me on this."
"Alright fine." Weiss said, shifting gears.
After Weiss used the stick shift to shift gears, Yang started drifting the buggy... with her drifting, Blake and Ruby can get a better shot at the wheels, which allows the buggies to be stopped. Well... likely only Ruby since Yang doubts Blake can see in the batarian helmet. In addition, the Buggys would have a harder time hitting the buggy team RWBY is on.
She's confident in her driving skills, shame it's a stick shift, she really can't show off on one of those.
But no less... she sees Ruby not actually hitting things... knowing her, she's doing suppressing fire, which is not very ideal in a vehicle shoot out. How does she know this? Well, she had a very crazy time at Signal Academy last year. It was right after she got her license, and her friends needed a ride... next thing Yang knows it, she's a getaway driver in a shootout against the criminal gang. It was a wild night for Yang.
So, Yang got out the handgun that was given to her and started to aim for the tires of one of the buggy's wheels while her other hand is on the wheel, it may be impractical to wield a pistol by one hand, but she's driving so she doesn't have much of a choice.
One of the energy bolts had managed to hit the wheels on one of the buggies, causing it to swerve and crash, the other Buggy still remained. And Yang's pistol overheated, despite this, it seems like it can fire more ammunition. Well, assuming these things fire bullets instead of just pure energy weapons. The handgun has no place to reload it to... either-way, it seems like she needs to get the other buggy out of Yang's tail. The brawler had unequipped the pistol and placed it away and put her other hand at the steering wheel.
"I hope those guys are okay..." Ruby commented.
"Ruby, they were shooting at us! And they work for slavers!" Blake retorted.
"Blake, no!" Yang retorted. "Anyways, Weiss, shift gears, we've been drifting enough."
"I don't understand why you need to shift gears to drift."
"Me neither, Blake."
Weiss went and shifted gears, in which then Yang then stopped drifting the car and going straight forward. Yang had timed it right, and she's heading forward toward where the batarian buggies had came from, although the other buggy was quickly to hesitate.
She had to come up with something... in which she then sees a tree in front of the road... and then, she has come up with an idea. One that she knows it will work.
"Weiss, shift gears, and make sure you are buckled." Yang said, in a serious tone.
"Yang..." Weiss said, in concern.
"Just trust me on this."
"Alright." Weiss said, shifting gears, in which Yang then pulled over on the side of the tree and moved it so it would stop on the other side of the tree and, the road... meanwhile, the batarian could be heard crashing the car, and the sound of a tree cracking could be heard, in which Yang then hits the gas so she doesn't die in the forest. With the buggies out of the way, Yang can continue to drive safely... she's relieved that she's still alive from all of that.
Two hours pass, and Yang sees a facility. It is gated by a large wall...
"So... how do you want go with this? Loud or quiet?" Yang asked.
"I'd figure our new bosses would want us to do this quiet, why?" Blake asked.
"Shame, Weiss... shift the gear to park."
"Finally, I need to stretch my legs." Weiss said, shifting the gear to park, which causes the buggy to stop 100 feet away from the facility.
"Since we're going to do this quiet, we're going to need a plan." Ruby said, starting to tell her plan.
Character Change: Yang Xiao Long - Blake Belladonna
Untrel, Adek, Batarian Slave Facility, Daytime, Strange Mine
"We are going to free the slaves, right?"
"Of course, Blake! I wouldn't leave these people behind. But you'll likely going to need to give them weapons."
"Just take Ice queen's."
"HEY!"
"Just give them to me Weiss, perhaps the person using them would be a better shot."
"Alright, fine."
This facility's design is alien alright, seeing that the facility is mostly brown. Likely some metal or other material found in the batarian home world. Blake never wanted to know why the batarians wanted to colonize a planet that's packed with deadly pathogens. Well... until she sees what's inside of the facility. There's a mine, a whole large mine, and they appear to be mining some sort of strange glowing blue material, if this was remnant, it would be dust. Alternatively, dust could work on this planet. Yet again, raw dust doesn't glow blue. There are also multiple buildings in which likely has the batarian commander and the prothean artifacts inside one of them.
filled with slaves, from various alien species. Most of them being human and... batarian? Why would they enslave their own species? That doesn't make sense! In addition, there is other species here, one that looks human in shape, but with a blue-skin color and weird hair tentacles on their head, likewise she only sees the females of those species. She wonders where the men of their kind are... there is also a green, reptilian/humanoid species. With reptilian scales and fins, and a humanoid structure, with eyes pitch-black. They don't seem to be doing well in this environment. That's mostly it, though.
Most of them seem to be mining all of this blue stuff... this quite resembles the SDC mines back in Atlas, or from what the White Fang depicts of them. Either way, the act of slavery disgusts Blake. Thankfully Ruby wanted to free them too, otherwise there would be a problem. Thankfully, she can arm people with Weiss' weapons and that assault rifle Blake was given, she'll keep the handgun for now until she can find ammo for gambrol shroud. But she can't do it here, there is a guard here... she needs to start the rebellion in a clear coast.
This is absolutely disgusting to Blake. She absolutely despises the act of slavery. However, she's going to need to find somewhere to get slaves to riot and rebel. So, she sneaks around to look for a particular part of the facility, the slave pens. The slaves are to be kept somewhere... yet again, chances are the pens are much more guarded, so there has to be a blind spot.
Alternatively... these slavers don't deserve mercy, so she could create an exception. Well, given the choice... Blake took off the batarian helmet and threw it asside, grabs one of the M-2 Kesslers, and shoots the batarian guard in the head, killing him. Seeing the blood pouring out of the batarian's body, it disgusted her, but it created a clear coast. One of the slaves grabbed the batarian's weapon, and then started making a speech. In which Blake used this opportunity to come out of hiding to greet the slavers.
"Wait, are you the one who shot the guard?" one of the human slaves asked, specifically the one armed with a weapon.
"Yes, now hold still, I'll get these shock collars off before more guards show up." Blake said, using gambrol shroud to slice the collar of, using her aura to strengthen to slice.
"Err... thanks, can you do the rest of us?"
"I'll undo the collars of three more of you, from there you can try and shut down the power down, ensuring the collars don't work." Blake said, she wasn't sure if the collars would go out if they did bring the power out.
The various alien species has questions, but Blake cannot understand what they're saying.
"Why are you helping us?" one of the human slaves asked.
"Slavery's a despicable act, now three of you, line up and I'll remove your collars, and you'll receive a weapon." Blake answered and commanded.
One of the human slaves echoed what she's saying, it's quite clear that the batarians and the other two species of alien don't understand Blake. After that, another human, a green reptilian humanoid alien, and a batarian lined up to get their slave collars removed, in which Blake used gambrol shroud to slice the collars off, using her aura to enhance the cutting power, consuming it. Although her aura is not depleted yet. She then went armed the newly collarless slaves, and the four of them went toward the power station, Blake went back into hiding, waiting for the signal to head to comms. Hopefully, contact can arrive before the power goes out.
Character Change: Blake Belladonna - Weiss Schnee
Untrel, Adek, Batarian Slave Facility, Daytime, Main Facility
"So... while Blake is out freeing the slaves, what do I do?"
"You and Yang will be looking for the artifact. Whatever it may be, it'll likely look like the doorway we walked out of when we entered this dimension."
"Ya... got it."
"I'm still mad at you for dragging us into this mess."
"They were a lot easier to fight back there."
"SHUT UP! WE ARE NOT HAVING THIS CONVERSATION AGAIN! JUST GET IN, FIND THE ARTIFACT, AND GET TO THE MEETING POINT!"
"Where is the meeting point, exactly?"
Well, it was effort. But Weiss and Yang managed to get in the main facility. The interior is metallic looking, along with some alien engravings along the walls. Whatever it is, it's likely made cheap. The architecture is quite dull and boring. It makes the urban areas of Vale and Mantle look unique in comparison. However, it seems like the batarians are in the minority in this area, as a majority of the staff is automated. Including security. Makes sense, given Miranda's description being that the viruses here are deadly to batarians. Guess that explains why there were so few... wonder why none of the mechs were sent out, they seem like they can just send more.
But no less, she's paired with Yang and tasked to get the artifacts. Problem is, she doesn't know which room it is... so, she starts with the bottom floor, and work her way up. And so far, they're around halfway done searching the floor. They proceed to the next room... so far, no artifact, that's the mech charging station.
She would text Yang with her scroll but being that CCT's do not exist in this dimension, they're basically useless for communication. But for now, they'll meet up at the way to the second floor. Hopefully Blake can manage to free the slaves.
Although the next room Weiss walked into had a container of blue-glowing powder... although Weiss doesn't know what it is, but it'll do to stock up Myrtenaster. Weiss got the revolver vials out and started to scoop up a bunch of the stuff and loaded Myrtenaster with it. Whatever it might be, could be this universe's equivalent to dust. So, it would function the same way when it comes to Myrtenaster, well... Weiss assumes. No less, she has dust... or dust-like material loaded in Myrtenaster, what it will actually do, Weiss will find out sooner or later.
But onto searching the next room.
Character Change: Weiss Schnee - Ruby Rose
Untrel, Adek, Batarian Slave Facility, Daytime, Comm Tower Facility
"And what about you?"
"I have the numbers, which means I'm going to contact Miranda at the base."
"Do you have any idea where it would be?"
"It should be the building with the large tower..."
"Well... she's not wrong."
"Anyways, I'll be there contacting Miranda for extraction, by the time I'm done, Weiss should have the artifact, and the slaves freed."
"I don't think they'd approve of trying to be the hero."
"Yang. I don't give a darn. So, are you guys ready to do this?"
"Ready!"
"Ready."
"Readier than I'll ever be."
"Good, let's do this."
Likewise, the interior should look the same for most of the facilities. Although this one has flyers everywhere. Likely written in the batarian language, the art-style also looks alien. So... far, the only people guarding this place are machines. In which Ruby has no regard in. If the machine has shown a form of sapience, then she'd treat it no different than any living person.
But no less, she unfolded Crescent Rose aaaaand... oh yeah, no ammo. She's going to have to find some ammo for her scythe. She then blitzes the robots and slices them to pieces with her semblance, clearing the room in record time. After that, Ruby broke open the door, and into the radio tower room.
There are a lot of consoles here, which means Ruby is going to have to guess to which one is the right one, thankfully she has a number combination written down. There is also a chair in this room. There is also a monitor, likely related to the numbers Ruby has written down.
She looks like somewhere where there is a dial... or a numpad... either way, she needs to change the frequency to this combination. Although the numerals here do not match the numerals Ruby written down... but she then pushed a button, and the numeral format changed... maybe if she continues pressing the button, it'll look like the ones on the paper. So, she continues pressing it. As the text and numerals change formatting and design until it can resemble what Cerberus calls: 'english'.
After that, she did some adjustments, some tuning, and finally it's at the point where she has finally matched the number communication. After that... the monitor presented Miranda's face.
"So... you managed to figure out how the comm tower works?" Miranda asked.
"Ya... Weiss and Yang are getting the artifact." Ruby stated.
"Do they have it?"
"Not yet, but they're getting it. Also, we may need more than one extraction ship..."
"What? Why?"
And just like that a bunch of shooting had occurred in the backround, along with Blake's shouts and grunts, and some from batarians, mechs, and the various slaves. Some of them don't sound human, though.
"I can't stop you from being the hero, I suppose..." Miranda said, deadpanned. "Well, if the Illusive Man complains, it's on you."
"I can't sit there and let them continue to be enslaved, I needed to do something." Ruby objected.
"Alright... how many?"
"How many can people fit in?"
"At a maximum, ten."
"Well, I'll go ask Blake."
Character Change: Ruby Rose - Blake Belladonna
Untrel, Adek, Batarian Slave Facility, Daytime, Pathway to the Power Facility
On the way to the power facility. In which Blake was following the freed slaves. She was encountered a mixture of batarian and mechanized soldiers. In which she offered to help fight, limited to just gambrol shroud and an M-2 Kessler handgun, she helped. She fought them down, she didn't need to use her semblance, though. But after the first wave, she had found the off button for the collars, in which she had pressed, freeing the rest of them.
As of wave 2, she was jumping on the mech's heads to take out the batarians first with downward strikes and dodging the energy bolts. Well, until Ruby showed up.
"Hey, how many slaves?" Ruby asked.
"All of them!" Blake answered.
"Like, I need a number."
"How many of you guys?"
"All of us!" the human slaves answered.
"I need a number!" Blake retorted.
"Eighty-four!"
"Eighty-four, gotchia." Ruby said, heading back to the comm tower.
Well, so much for backup. But no less. She managed to get back to fighting, in which she had used her semblance to catch them off guard, and then used her aura to create a couple of sword beams to deal with most of the mechs at once, slicing most of them in half.
Blake can take them on easily, it's just the numbers that are making them hard to deal with. And then suddenly, she gets hit in the face by a ball of fire. She was knocked down, but not out. She had gotten up, and then to realize that she was still on fire. Thankfully, her aura is keeping her from being cooked. The aura eventually puts out the fire, but her aura gets drained in the process, which means she needs to play it safe, where did that come from, anyway?
No matter, she retreated to cover. And used the handgun to attack from a safe distance, if her aura is broken, she's going to be defenseless to whoever threw that fireball. So... they have their own version of dust here, or some other way to conjure up a fireball. It's strange the ball only hurt Blake, and had a short radius, like as if it was designated to only hit one person.
And then she sees it, one of the batarians have this weird yellow-orange thing at their hand that allows them use certain fire and ice abilities. Being that a number of the batarian slaves got frozen and shattered, and then another number of them were on fire burning to death. In which Blake quickly aimed and shot the batarian's arm, distorting him. Blake then jumped up and pounced him, knocking him down, but not out. Blake was in front of the batarian, in which out of desperation, fired a beam of ice at Blake's right arm, she can feel it freezing, as it spreads to the rest of her body. Out of retaliation, she stomped on the batarian's arm, which interrupted the attack. She then got her M-2 Kessler and shot him in the head. Blake doesn't feel like becoming an ice sculpture today. Thankfully her aura is warming up the ice attack... although at this point her aura is nearing the point of exhaustion.
"Hurry up with the artifact, you two." Blake mumbled.
Character Change: Blake Belladonna - Yang Xiao Long
Untrel, Adek, Batarian Slave Facility, Daytime, Main Facility
Despite what Weiss believes Yang skipped a couple of floors. She figured the best way to find it is to find where their leader is residing. Because she believes whoever is in charge of this place would have the artifact. Whatever it may be.
She was on the top floor, of course skipped the rest of the building. She believed the one in charge had to be on the highest point of the building. It's a gut feeling she has. She was wondering around the floor, looking for every single room, and so far, they're all empty... even the office. Yang considered to head down, but then she heard some singing and music, so she opened the room. And there it is... the bedroom of the batarian leader... with him singing karaoke.
He wasn't even wearing any armor; he was just in a bathrobe and wearing slippers. So, chances are Yang did not communicate with him back at the buggy.
She doesn't know what the batarian is singing, but the lyrics are nice. It was likely some popular song, but it wasn't in a human language, so she couldn't understand it.
However, the voice was not so pleasant to hear. However, across the singing individual was an object that looked similar to the gateway that Yang had walked out of and into this dimension. It looks alien alright so it must be that 'prothean artifact' Yang was hearing about.
Pretty sure there's no need to kill a man having a good time. However, she doesn't want to alert security. Thankfully, there's a middle ground. She came up behind him, and then punched him, knocking him out. Despite his occupation, Yang thinks he just needs a few pointers in the right direction. Yang went and grabbed the prothean artifact. It appears to be some sort of orb with cracks on it, sealed with some sort of alien adhesive. She's got what she needs... however...
"I'll be taking this with me." Yang said, grabbing the Karaoke machine. This thing will be fun to have when they come back to Remnant. May as well grab a souvenir they'll use for a short bit.
After that, she went back to find Weiss. Who was likely searching the first or second floor...
After going downstairs to the second floor, she had found Weiss, and it appears she a substitute for Weiss, given that Myrtenaster has a blue glow going for it.
"There you are, we were to search each of the floors!" Weiss retorted.
"Well, I found it." Yang said, holding the orb in one hand, while the arm is holding the karaoke machine.
"And what is that?"
"It's a karaoke machine."
"Why would we need that?"
"Possible karaoke night?"
"Where would we put that? We're homeless right now!"
"Well, when they open up the portal back home, we can put it at the dorm..."
"Yang! It's been a month! We're likely going to have to repeat the first year!"
"Oh right... I'm still taking it with us!"
"So be it... well, I'm not going to help you explain why you have it."
"That's fine." Yang said, leaving the facility. Weiss had followed.
Character Change: Yang Xiao Long - Ruby Rose
Untrel, Adek, Batarian Slave Facility, Daytime, Landing Zone
Well, from the looks of it. The landing zone is quite large, likely because It's a facility that holds slaves that are often transferred in and out of this place. Its colors match the rest of the facility, and it's wide enough to cover for nine ships. Which is perfect given it's the exact amount needed.
However, it's quite guarded by mechs. Ruby, thankfully knows how to deal with such... In which Ruby blitzes them all one by one using her semblance to take them all out. Only for more of these mechs to be re-enforced. Thankfully theses human-sized mechs, equipped with only handguns similar to that of an M-2 Kessler are easily dealt with.
The downside is their numbers, Ruby stopped using her semblance because she doesn't want to eat up her aura fighting a horde of enemies on her own. But then suddenly...
The power went out... the mechs are still standing, though. But that would mean the AA-guns are down, that means Ruby can get out of here and likely back to that base... or wherever her team would be sent. The freed slaves also show up, along with Blake. Which means she can deal with these mechs with ease. Now she needs to wait for Weiss and Yang to come back with the artifact.
Ruby switched to the Kessler handgun and started firing. She's not much of a fan of automatic weapons, they don't have a lot of control on them... Maybe if the weapon had more stability, it could work. But she prefers to hit her targets. So, she continues to fire the mechs at the joints while the freed slaves overwhelm the mechs, along with Blake at the side. Guess her aura's all tired out.
Context: Aura can only recover outside of combat
Eventually, the mechs were dealt with by the wave of freed slaves, armed with batarian weapons. Soon after Yang and Weiss showed up. With Weiss holding the prothean artifact... looking like a cracked orb... and Yang... holding a karaoke machine... where would she put that? Team RWBY doesn't have a place to settle down, is she going to lug it around everywhere she goes? That's going to seem impractical.
And coincidentally, the shuttles have arrived, albeit not bearing the Cerberus icon on them. Although Miranda was there in one of them, signaling team RWBY to enter the one she's in. In which they do exactly that.
Transport Vessel, Daytime? Unknown Destination
The four members of team RWBY, along with Miranda were sitting in the individual vessel. It was quiet until they got off the surface of Adek.
"So... where to now?" Yang asked.
"We'll be taking these vessels, this one included to the Citadel." Miranda answered.
"The Citadel?" Ruby asked.
"The heart of the galactic government." Miranda added. "It's a large space facility, and the official seat of the galactic council."
"And the council is made up of five seats of various alien races?" Blake asked.
"Three, actually. One for each of the council races. And the council seats can only be of those three species." Miranda stated.
"Huh..."
"We're not going to ask more questions about the political system of the galaxy, we can figure it out as we go." Yang said, with a smirk on her face.
"Why do you have a karaoke machine with you?" Miranda asked. "Please tell me you have the artifact..."
"Oh, here it is." Weiss said, handing the artifact to Miranda.
"Well, it's not as quiet as the illusive man wants, but you get the job done." Miranda said, with a disappointed tone.
"We don't do quiet."
"I can tell..." Miranda stated... "I'll be carrying out the report when I get back to Cronos. You got the artifact he needed. Albeit it looks like the batarians rough-housed with it and tried to glue it back together."
"It was like that when I found it." Yang stated.
"Riiight..." Miranda retorted.
Author's Footnote: Mission complete, indeed. Before you have any objections... I'll explain a couple of things.
A: Batarians are known to enslave their own species along with humans and other aliens. It's part of their stratified caste system.
B: Only Ruby has a problem with killing sentients in this story, the rest of team RWBY will not hesitate in severe moments.
E: Batarians are anatomically similar to humans in terms of physical body, so it would make sense that their vehichle designs would be nearly-identical, albeit still using stickshift.
F: Blake took off the helmet because it inhibits her vision, she'd radther have a clear vision fighting, so it seems.
G: I had edited the chapter to remove dated pop-culture refrences. Because I'm not sure why anyone from the 22nd century would be interested in 21st century stuff.
That's all I'll explain for now. Any other questions can be answered in the next chapter, when they head into the citadel for the first time. In which I'll be writing FoB before I'll start chapter 6 of this. So... be patient.