What An Idiot cleanup

Prior to the incident, the show has established the following (much of which the entry is ignoring):

• Weiss has already fled Atlas to escape her abusive father, and it's been repeated stated in-universe that she's afraid of going back in case her father manages to catch her, so her friends have made it clear they will not let her go to Atlas alone or be in Atlas alone. They'll have her back the entire time.
• To protect the four Relics from the Big Bad, the Big Good separated them into four different locations, hiding them in their own Pocket Dimension chambers behind doors that can only be opened by a single magical female (one for each door). The doors lie in secret vaults that are each protected by an entire school of the world's best fighters who are training the world's best combat students. This Relic is in the open and vulnerable, guarded solely by the heroes (Ruby is carrying it at this point). They are trying to get it to the nearest vault as quickly as possible (Ironwood's school).
• Qrow can shapeshift into a crow, but the show has never established whether he cross oceans (necessary to reach Ironwood). More importantly, Qrow is in a downward alcoholic spiral at this point, having transformed from a Cool Uncle and Functional Addict into an Addled Addict and The Load. He objected to this idea, the heroes went ahead anyway, so he wasn't initially a resource they could rely on. Only when the plan goes wrong and he has a meltdown, blaming his The Jinx Power Incontinence does Ruby (his niece and former mentee) deliver a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to pull him out of his funk and finally start helping.
• The actual reason the plan goes wrong is because of a third party that the heroes couldn't anticipate: Blake's Psycho Ex-Boyfriend Adam has been stalking them across the continent, waiting for a moment to catch her alone. Her job of infiltrating a military relay tower to disable its sensors gives him the opportunity to ambush her, preventing her from carrying out her part of the plan.

As a result, the entry has the follow issues:

You'd Expect: this is not what we'd expect based on what the show has told us. Weiss is afraid of going to Atlas alone, the heroes would have to break their promise to her for it to happen, and no-one is going to let a single person carry the Relic without any back-up.

Instead: The heroes pretend to send Weiss back to her family, so Cordovin gives her the airship and two pilots to get her home. Maria is smuggled onto the ship in Weiss' luggage, Weiss easily overpowers the two pilots once they're in the air, and Maria becomes the pilot. Blake is supposed to kill the sensors that would alert Cordovin to the airship doubling back to pick up the rest of the group before travelling to Atlas. Adam prevents her from doing this, the military spot the reroute, contacts it and discovers the ruse. Maria and Cordovin have hated each other for years, with Maria acting as The Gadfly to Cordovin's extremely oversized and fragile ego, so Maria deliberately provokes Cordovin.

The Result: Cordovin's reaction to Maria's baiting is to skip the "by-the-book" response to a stolen airship and instead go nuclear. Cue giant mech fight that generates so much negativity it attracts a Godzilla-esque Grimm. Neither the heroes nor Cordovin realise this until after the mech has been disabled... and it's purpose is to fight Godzilla-esque Grimm, so everyone (heroes and Cordovin alike) realise they've screwed up. They ultimately end up helping each other to kill the Grimm and Cordovin gives them permission to travel to Atlas in the airship.

Also: Global comms is down because plot, so Atlas doesn't know about the Cordovin incident. Upon arrival, Weiss worries that the military might conclude the ship is stolen, ban them from seeing Ironwood, and drag her back to her father. The heroes also worry whether Ironwood's authoritarianism in Mantle makes him untrustworthy. They therefore ignore Atlas' docking instructions, land in Mantle, then save the city from a Grimm incursion. The Ace-Ops arrest them because they're non-licensed Huntsmen engaging in unauthorised weapon use after making an unauthorised landing in an unauthorised ship. They confiscate the Relic and the heroes are bundled into a prison ship that takes them straight to Ironwood instead of the police station. He apologises for the arrest, explains their behaviour upon arrival triggered a stolen ship report, then laughs when Ruby admits it was stolen. The Ace-Ops brought the Relic straight to him, and later also apologise for arresting them by mistake.