Sam patrolled Beacon for the evening, his MA5 clasped in his hands. He wondered just how Ruby and the gang were taking the matter of them being basically ETs to their world. Just a mashup of alien people who technically had no right to exist on their little planet beside just being revived there by whatever unholy technological item the Forerunners had brought into the fold. He was, however, surprised by how well their two new friend teams had taken the whole unveiling of them being aliens. Undead aliens, at that. Sure, it wasn't that hard to believe that they weren't from Remnant, but the 'death' ordeal?

The boy sighed as he continued his patrol of the corridors near the dorm rooms by miss Goodwitch's request. She seemingly wanted to make sure no students would be getting 'frisky', as per her own words. Samuel's innocence had kept him from understanding the full implications behind the Combat Teacher/right-hand lady's quip and there had (thankfully) not been anyone present to explain what was by all accounts a genuine innuendo, or hint toward activities unbecoming of what a Huntsman was supposed to be. Or, well, unbecoming of students...?

Sam didn't really care about it anyway. He simply continued his patrol without a care in the world beside making sure everyone was safe. Sam may not have had the decades of experience his comrades carried with them, but he was still a SPARTAN. His mission took priority, meaning he could finally get back to what he did best:Fighting bad guys and keeping his comrades safe.

Perfectly silent as he patrolled, rifle in hand, he passed by dorms from which the sounds of laughter and crying, of joy and sadness and of calm and activity echoed. The hopeful, the tired, the sad, the happy, all of them found a place in Beacon's dorms today as its alumni. It was exam season in Beacon, so there might've been related, which made Samuel thankful that he and his friends were able to thoroughly study what needed to be studied before each went about their job as a security member, or was trying to find a job in the case of the Marines.

Captain Rawley, however, had chosen not to fly her Pelican anymore. They were low on fuel for the old bird and nobody was sure if it was at all possible to switch out the fuel source to something like Dust-based fuel. That, or find a way to acquire the Hydrogen they use in high-enough quantities to ensure they had it for when the situation required it. There was a lot to consider, including ammunition manufacture.

Cortana and doctor Halsey were kind enough to share the chemical composition of the gunpowder they used in their bullets, so that was good. It was just a matter of acquiring the necessary chemical compounds and the brass to manufacture the stuff in Beacon's forges. Doctor Halsey was busying herself with something else in the meantime, some specific research she wanted to finally get through with.

Something about magnetic weapons...

Sam paused, stopping as he saw Ruby appear out from her dorm, jumping backward as a pillow flew from within. She yelled, "Nora! Guys, c'mon, we were supposed to be going to sleep!" and ducking as another pillow, followed by a momentarily inaudible taunt from Nora, echoed. Ruby rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her, before her shoulders sagged and she slumped forward, breathing tiredly.

The young woman was in her pajamas:a black tank top with what looked to be a heart with several spikes poking out of it in the middle, as well as long, saggy white pants with red roses polka-dotting the entire design. She sighed and rubbed her eyes, muttering to herself, "Maybe Weiss was right. It was a mistake to call team JNPR over for study-slash-sleepover..."

"I don't know," Sam quipped, causing the girl to yelp in surprise and swivel about. He took his helmet off, sliding it under his arm and his rifle onto his back, before stating, "Spending time with comrades in arms helps build cohesion. May not be a bad idea to study together, though sleeping in the same room with Nora may contradict that train of thought..." and he smirked at the Rose as she still calmed down, her face as red as the heart-shaped something on her tank top's front. "Hey, Ruby."

"Hey, Sam..." Ruby whined, gripping her chest, "You need to stop doing that..."

"Sorry," He chuckled, then paused as he fully took the time to look over the girl. She looked about as normal as any day, though there was something that changed about her, what with being clad in her pajamas. Something in his mind told him that he, perhaps, was not supposed to see her like this. A single moment of hesitation was all that had passed for the Spartan's own facial features to be tinged by a light crimson.

Ruby looked up to him, smiled, then paused, confused as to why he, of all people was blushing. She looked down at herself again, then slowly shrunk down, curling into a fetal position as Sam looked away. He hummed, then asked, "Are you doing okay...?" as he stared at the door of their dorm and pondered going in to help drag team JNPR out. Or at least Nora.

"... no..." Ruby replied, her voice so high-pitched, yet so low in volume, it actually stunned Sam for a moment. It was a feat worthy of someone with the kinds of powers Huntsmen and Huntresses had, the Semblances. Still, he knew that managing to do that to her own voice was not part of Ruby's repertoire of powers. Rather, it was due to a moment of embarrassment at being seen in nothing but her pajamas. Even the young SPARTAN knew to read the room, or... Err... Hallway... Well enough to understand that the girl was not doing well.

That, and he knew a few of her tells at this point. He didn't know why she was so embarrassed, considering she was not particularly under-dressed for the evening. It was almost curfew hours, anyways. He sighed deeply, then he asked, "Want to talk about something? Get our minds off of this?"

"... Sure, if it doesn't interrupt your patrol..." Ruby murmured, still avoiding looking him in the eye. He smiled, then extended his hand toward the young girl. She looked upon the hand, then up at the smiling blonde and smiled back, though more awkwardly. Taking his hand, she felt herself lifted to her feet as if she was as light as a feather. She dusted herself off, still using her hands to try and hide certain portions of her body, then asked, "What do you want to talk about...?"

He shrugged, "Well, my patrol's over and John probably won't mind me being late if I send a ping. So, whatever you want."

Ruby nodded, then took a moment to think of a subject. She felt a chill, her exposed arms growing cold. She shivered, rubbing her arms and forearms to try and warm them up, then paused as she felt and saw Sam drape something over her shoulders. He said, "Thermal blanket, part of the standard United Nations Space Command survival kit. I keep mine with me, as does every Spartan."

She looked at the item, a blanket made of a surprisingly comfortable and insulating material, as it settled neatly over her back. She curled the material around in front of herself as well, then blushed again as she smiled, saying a meek, "Thank you..." before asking, "Where are we gonna talk? We can't exactly go in the dorm right now..." and the muffled sound of a crash echoed.

"NORA!" Yang's voice blared from inside.

"Sorry...!" Replied the wrecking ball of a girl.

Sam snorted. Understandably enough, they couldn't exactly go inside and they couldn't lounge around in front of the door at the risk of being listened to. Admittedly, being listened to should not have proven to be a problem for the Huntress-in-Training and for a SPARTAN Supersoldier. Alas, he figured he may as well make Ruby feel as comfortable as possible, stating, "There's a cot I know from my patrol patterns. C'mon."

Ruby seemed shy at first, but she smirked and whispered to Sam, "My, my, mister Sam, isn't it a little direct to call a girl to a secluded place during night-time?"

He raised a brow, confused at the implications, "I mean, miss Goodwitch mentioned the whole 'getting frisky' thing, whatever that means," and that seemed to stun the young Rose enough for her little moment of trying to tease Sam(unsuccessfully, one may add) to instantly be replaced by a stuttering mess of a girl. He added, "I won't do it, seeing as I ain't got the faintest. So..."

"R-Right..." Ruby sighed, covering her mouth and looking to the side, "Let's just go..."

The two of them marched toward that small cot, an indent in the walls of velvet into which the carpets extended. A massive window showed the outside, specifically pointed toward Vale itself to the West, visible being the entire city's lit skyline, which beamed an aura of golden artificial light high into the sky, muting the stars' light in favor of its own. It was still an eerie beauty that served as a backdrop.

The two sat themselves down on a (surprisingly strong) couch, with Sam starting, "So, what is it you wanna talk about?"

"Well," Ruby rubbed the back of her neck and looked at him as he set his helmet aside and onto a table sat at the side of the couch. She hummed and looked to see his Assault Rifle, then stated, "Your weapons, actually. I wanna know more about'em. More about the Armor you're wearing. That kind of stuff."

"Weapon geek?" He smirked. She blushed and nodded, to which he replied, "Same here."

Stunned, Ruby asked ecstatically, "REALLY!?"

"Yes," He nodded, "Though I'm more focused on explosives, I can maintain any UNSC weapon, from the basic Magnum to the trustworthy Battle Rifle prototypes and models. If it has a trigger group, a bolt and a barrel, I can disassemble, assemble, mend and upgrade it. Even things that don't have that, like our armor, I've learned to maintain a bit while we were here."

"Woah," Ruby smiled, "So... What's your weapon called?"

He drew the rifle off his back and said, "This is an MA5B, a Misriah Armories product. Basically, the standard-issue Assault Rifle of the UNSC for as long as I can remember. Admittedly, not a really good idea to change something as sturdy and reliable as the MA5 out for anything until you're sure the newcomer can hold up to the strict requirements of the UNSC."

"Wow," Ruby smiled, then ran a hand onto the weapon and paused, "Wait..." And she pressed a button on the side of the barrel hood and cowling, revealing two flip-up iron sights. She smirked, then said, "It does have iron sights! I thought that you guys dropped'em in favor of something else! Not to mention the digital ammo counter didn't look like it gave much way to this kinda stuff!"

"The MA5 is highly modular. And of course she has Iron Sights," He nodded, "If our SmartLink Scopes break, we need the analog backup."

"SmartLink Scopes?" Ruby seemed positively excited, bouncing up and down on one of the couch's pillows. The two went on with their discussion about the UNSC's various pieces of equipment and how to best develop them, unaware(or perhaps not caring) that the other three members of team RWBY and the four of JNPR were looking at them from behind a corner.

Yang smirked, "You all owe me fifty lien each..."

Within the confines of the SPARTAN abode, doctor Halsey was sat outside, on the patio, reading through information on her tablet. She had begun researching the events that were bringing the dead back to life in order to figure out just how much longer they would continue. Said research was being aided by a subroutine Cortana had copied off herself using the Covenant AI's algorithm and imprinted into Halsey's tablet to aid at Data Analysis. She hummed to herself, reading through the reports compiled by Cortana in regards to the radiation pockets being Slipspace-related and made a note to run a scan of the place as soon as possible, perhaps discover what kind of device could cause this.

She had also read up on the Didact's superweapon, the Composer. Not as much a weapon as it was a forced recruitment tool for the Forerunners' army of horrible human-adjacent super-machines, which were called 'Prometheans'. That the Forerunners were this evil an ancient force stunned the good doctor. Alas, it meant that the UNSC would have something extra to deal with whilst exploring the world the Infinity had recovered John from.

She sighed, then read up on the theories Cortana had penned for the slipspace anomalies. A combination of a nuclear warhead going off next to the Composer? Why were they all 'recomposed' here, then? And why were the living also being brought in? Why were they having years given back to them? Too many questions for that theory to hold water, even if that was how John and Cortana wound up here. Recomposition might have had something to do with it, but it wasn't the full answer.

Perhaps a Forerunner device on the planet was very likely, perhaps being the most obvious answer. Any time there was a piece of their ancient technology on a planet, there were a mix of weird signals and information retrieved from the planet's surface, but the resulting 'anomalies' were usually small and innocuous, unless the technological item itself was massive and active. So that was a good starting point for a theory to mix in with being recomposed.

She merged the two in her own written speculative file, then grabbed her coffee mug and sipped the dark blend that Captain Rawley had brewed for her before going to sleep. Sighing, she set the tablet aside and rubbed her face with her hands, letting out a deep sigh and looking out toward the lights of the city beyond Beacon's lake. She blinked, then murmured to herself, "There are so many unknown variables..."

"It's headache-inducing, ain't it?" She heard her own voice ask. Unfazed, Halsey turned to see Cortana walking out, a smirk on her face as she, too, held a cup of some sort of hot drink. She sat herself down next to the doctor, on the other free patio chair, noticing the woman's surprised glance. She replied to the unasked question, "Doctor Polendina made sure to give me olfactive and taste sensors. Plus, I do function off of processing food matter in a bioreactor of sorts that acts as a bonus energy source, aiding the Dust micro-reactor inside."

"I see," Halsey hummed, "Penny's... I do not know if I should call him 'father', or 'creator'..." Then she sighed and settled, "Father, because that is what our young friend calls him... He is a brilliant man to have figured out these kinds of upgrades. It would help a machine like Penny easily blend in with those around her, should she ever be sent back to Atlas for an upgrade."

Cortana smiled, "Yeah..." then she looked to the doctor as a slightly concerning realization hit her, "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I cannot sleep until I have processed all the information and formulated some form of hypothesis for why we are in this strange situation, Cortana," Halsey replied absentmindedly, before adding, "I know the old adage, 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' may apply here, seeing as the many dead Heroes of our War are back, but this does not mean we shouldn't be inquisitive..."

"I agree," Cortana nodded, "Still, doc, you're human."

"Do you not have a sleep setting?" She inquired half-heartedly, picking her tablet back up and continuing to read and correlate.

"I do, but it's off. If I eat stuff every three to four hours, my reactors don't shut down, nor do the internal batteries need to replenish that often."

"And she says I should sleep..." Halsey murmured, "Do you gain weight?"

Cortana snorted, "Nope. Benefits of being a robot."

Halsey rolled her eyes, then continued reading and preparing assumptions. The contacts appeared over the span of a few months and, by all accounts, were probably still coming in if this data was to be believed. She stood there, thoughtful, for a moment, before asking, "Have you been able to track any new contacts via the CCTS's sensor suites, or...?"

"I've detected a bunch more in the general area of Vale, yes," Cortana replied with a nod, "Though I wasn't able to update the Chief on them while I was getting a full-body lift done..." and that got Halsey to snort, almost spilling her coffee. Cortana chuckled, then said, "Did you also get your humor back when you dropped in, Doc? Because you don't usually laugh at my jokes."

Halsey sighed, setting her mug of coffee aside again and replying annoyedly, "I do have a sense of humor, Cortana."

"It's just very dry, or it's subsided," Cortana smirked. Halsey shook her head, then continued reading. She waved Cortana away, to which the AI stood up, still smiling, then went back inside. There, she found Johnson... Arm-wrestling with Dubbo, while the SPARTANs were watching it unfold. The two men were holding their ground against each-other very well.

Johnson grinned, "C'mon, Dubbo... Give up."

"Like hell, Sarge, with all due respect," The Australian shot back. Cortana snorted and shook her head, walking past them with her cup in hand and joined John and Penny at the dinner table. The former was reading the news on his Scroll, while the latter seemed to simply be humming a song to herself. She smiled at Cortana and waved when the AI approached.

Cortana was then struck by a simple realization:They were basically sisters. Admittedly, Cortana was older by some degree, at least in terms of her experience with the real world, but Penny was adorable and she knew Remnant, so... Bonuses. She sat herself down face-to-face with John and said, "Hey, you two. Anything interesting in the news today, John?"

"Aside from what Team RWBY sent me? Nothing much."

"Ah, yes, the link from the Vale News Network site, with the report in regards to the SPARTANs and the fight against Torchwick," Penny explained before plucking up a small creature from the floor, which stunned Cortana. "Hello, Keyes, my little friend," Penny cooed at the creature as she pet it, to which Cortana looked to John. He looked up, shrugged and looked back down at the news.

"This little fellow wouldn't stop following me and Lieutenant Alice during our patrol," John remarked, "So, we took him home. Named him Keyes."

"Penny...?" Cortana said, hiding the annoyance she felt at seemingly being left out of the loop in regards to them owning a damn kitten. "Can I hold him?" She then inquired. Penny smiled, then gently handed the little cat to Cortana. It looked at her, curious, then let out a shrill meow of greeting ,causing the AI to absolutely, positively squeak with joy. She brought the little fella close to her chest, then shot a pointed glare at John, stating, "That you didn't tell me about this before saddens me, John."

"You'll be the first to know if we get new pets, okay?" He quipped, then continued reading the news. Cortana chuckled, then peered at his Scroll for a moment, sending information regarding even more newcomers. He hummed, then said, "We're going to need to build an underground section if we're hoping to house everyone..." as he saw the multitude of blips.

Some of them were in Vacuo, others in Mistral. Many were clustered in and around Vale, as usual. He spoke, "One's moving fast, seems like the contacts are airmobile. Should be making it to the RV point within fifteen minutes..." And stood up, before ordering, "Captain Rawley, we're flying. Kurt, you're with me on this one. Everyone else, be ready build up the new infrastructure necessary for our soldiers. And a new Pelican, I assume..."

The SPARTANs nodded, with each grabbing their kit and preparing to depart. Kurt joined up with the Chief, stating, "Any particularly reason you picked me for this one?"

"I think some of the new contacts are familiar to you," He replied, "Call up NOBLE Team on the radio."

With a nod, Kurt slid his helmet on his head and cued up a call for Noble, express delivery. Cortana and John exchanged one look and she smiled, nodding at him. Penny, beside them, stood up as well and said, "I wish to aid in the recovery of your comrades, Chief. I haven't been out on a mission with you for a while and I... Do miss seeing you fight."

Chief nodded, "Understood. C'mon."

The trio and their pilots departed as soon as they all retrieved their weapons. At the landing pad, they met Nobles Two and Six, with Kat stating, "Sorry, sir. The commander and the others are busy with that scouting mission they requested a while back. We're all you're getting for the evening..." As she boarded the transport with Six behind her. Alice racked the bolt of her DMR, then nodded to the Chief.

Before long, the group was airborne with the broken moon of Remnant high in the sky above and behind them. Carol kept an eye on the fuel counter of the vehicle, noting, "We just need to find a good way to get ourselves hydrogen and we'll be good..." before gently lowering the thrust of her vehicle to burn less of their precious fuel source. Chief looked on ahead as they approached the area of Forever Fall again, the usual brightness of the red-colored trees and grass now replaced by a slight sense of dread.

Before they could land, however, the roar of a thirty millimeter burst filled their ears, muffled by the armored canopy of their own aircraft. Ahead of them, a Nevermore was stripped of its black ichor skin and feathers and split in two by the AP rounds. Carol reported, "Radar contact, immediate North!" and watched as a new aircraft came into view. The Pelican's radio crackled to life, white noise first filling the cockpit, before...

"... Is Petty Officer Shiela Polaski, does anyone in that bird copy!? Echo Four-Nineteen, is that you!?"

A young woman's voice. Carol's face morphed into a joyful grin as she said, "Echo Two-Fifty, it's good to hear your god-damn voice again! How are you doing?" And a burst of joyful laughter echoed from the armed Pelican ahead. The aircraft brought itself nose-to-nose with their dropship, with Chief smiling as he saw Sheila aboard, waving to them. Beside her was corporal Locklear, the ODST that had been with them on the Ascendant Justice/Gettysburg during Operation FIRST STRIKE.

"It's damn good to hear your voice, Carol... What the hell's with the Demon Birds all over the sky? And... Is that the Chief?"

"Long story, bud. Long, long story. Stand by, patching the Chief through to you now."

Chief nodded, then spoke, "Petty Officer Polaski. Good to see you alive. You arrived just in time to help us rally up a few more new contacts," calmly watching as Polaski and Locklear high-fived, with the blonde pilot grinning ear-to-ear at them. She gave a thumbs up from aboard, to which the Chief asked, "Anyone else with you besides corporal Locklear?"

"Negative, sir. It's just me and him. Patch the coordinates for the other survivors, though. We'll pick'em up and bring them to the RV point," Polaski replied as she went through a series of buttons on her Pelican's consoles. Chief nodded, tapped Foe Hammer on the shoulder and told her to send the details to her fellow Pelican pilot, before going back into the blood tray.

... Well, that temporarily solved their issues in regards to the Gunship's limited fuel availability, at least.