Terrestrial planet. Slightly lower gravity than what he was used to, breathable air, seeded with human-ish people… well, there were worse places to crash, right? The moon was a little funky, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Waking up from cryo always sucked. Jaune knew the gross chemical taste wouldn't leave his mouth for days- just enough time to get put back in cryo!- and the chills… ugh. Thankfully, he was met with a smiling face.

"Penny?" He blinked, "Do you have that blanket I asked for?"

"I'm afraid not, Captain." She waited a moment as various drips and monitors detached themselves before yanking him out of the cryobed.

"Penny?!"

"We've been struck by a micrometeorite, Captain." Penny began to fill him- a situation made only slightly awkward by the fact that he was being bridal carried. "It has severely impacted our ability to maneuver."

Jaune didn't like the sound of that.

"So you're going to take an escape pod to the nearest planet! It's habitable, don't worry!"

"What about you, Penny?"

"I'll stay with the ship and do my best, Captain."

"Penny-"

"I'll be watching over you, Captain. Your safety is my absolute priority!"

He was promptly dumped in the escape pod, and he caught one last glimpse of Penny's face before the pod sealed.

"I have complete faith in you, Captain!"

The escape pod detached and screamed away, a misty trail of propellant behind it. Outside of the minuscule little window, Jaune could see a hole punched clean through an engine bell, broad enough to crawl through.

Micrometeorite his ass.

With a crunch, Ruby's scythe dug into the snow, and with the Grimm defeated she took a moment to breathe.

She had gotten a lot better, she thought, and she was pretty sure the farmers wouldn't have to worry about Beowolves for at least a week or two.

Honed (well, kind of honed) hunter instincts made her snap towards movement in the corner of her eye. A shooting star screamed through the air, falling falling, so close she could hear the roar-

Too close, too close! Her semblance let her shoot away as the meteor fell, although she realized she didn't need to when she saw the expanding parachutes. Parachutes?

Now her interest was piqued, and she rushed to follow as it descended. Once it neared the ground, engines on the bottom fired, turning the snow to steam and letting the capsule- because it was definitely a capsule- land on the ground gently.

It was pretty, shaped like the bud of a flower or perhaps an egg. And inside that egg would be aliens!

She trembled in excitement as the door slid open, a blast of air sending the snowflakes dancing as a strange, alien light shone out, a figure stumbling out.

Honestly, she was a little disappointed. She expected a creature with a gazillion limbs, or at least skin with a funny color… but it was a completely normal-looking teenage boy. Lame.

He coughed and wheezed for a few moments, and for a moment she wondered if Alien Boy could even breathe their air. Thankfully, he seemed fine, even if he stumbled and staggered as he climbed out of the pod.

Then he noticed her, reaching for his hip and pulling out…

A laser sword, oh my gosh!

...

He shot a single dart, and the Grimm simply… dissolved into grey dust.

This… this was weird. These sorts of nanomachines had a very well-defined MO. It was in their code: Land somewhere and gray goo it up. That was what they always did, since most of them came from the same source.

(There had been an accident with uncontrolled nanomachines a while back, with some going rogue, eating a planet's worth of life, and then sending probes to do the same elsewhere.)

Any presence of out-of-control nanos would be reason enough to call home, but these… they acted weird. Instead of spreading across the land like some all-consuming blob… they took the form of wolves and pestered teens?

...

"Penny, did you point one of the self replicating miners at the moon?"

"According to Article 6 of the Admiralty Accords,the mission takes priority."

(Meeting with Winter or Weiss or someone)

Jaune's mouth had a wonderful tendency to run ahead of his brain, and he was honestly just tired at this point.

"You wouldn't know pure dust if it bit you in the ass."