Mission Nine - Space Thread

[Spartan 999]

Petty Officer First Class Jethro-097
Gold Two
Esperanza-II Orbit, Panis Eterni System
Aboard the UNSCS Silent Sanguine


Jethro had been expecting contact from Silas over TEAMCOM, and thus listened attentively. The aforementioned files sent by Anansi popped up on his HUD, and he opened and scanned them as he replied. “Copy that, Gold One. I'll be there momentarily.” He cut the call, or at least muted his side of it. “HVT, capture, alive. Why did it have to be alive?,” he quietly groused to literally no one else but himself--the helmet prevented anyone outside from potentially hearing him speak.

Still reading the files and silently grumbling, he stepped over to grab his primary gun, an M739 SAW with underslung grenade launcher, and clipped it onto his tactical harness. Jethro quickly checked the rest of his equipment: BR55 with underslung masterkey shotgun, M6G, M6C, M319 grenade launcher, assorted standard grenades, knives, and a few other useful tools and devices and demolition materials. Not to mention the assorted ammunition. Satisfied with all the items, he began making his way towards the subprowler, an eye on the files all the while.

Upon reaching the Black Cat, he was greeted with the sight of Silas standing there, holding several magazines marked with blue tape out to him.

“Stun rounds. My favorite,” said Jethro drily over coms, making sure that only Silas heard him; from the outside, it didn't even look like he'd spoken at all. He grabbed the magazines and slid them into a few empty pouches. “It almost feels like Christmas...except non-lethal.”

[Huka]

Task Force Commander Sanj ‘Aquiree
Flagship CCS-class battlecruiser Righteous Monsoon
Covenant Task Force Staging Position

“Shipmaster, slipspace anomalies booming outside of the system.” The Sensors officer warned and it almost caused a smile on the commander’s face as he brushed to his filters. “Size?” The first question came with the answer of ‘sizeable of fleet’ as the realtime simulation came to give a silhouette of the anomalies. Geometric shaped human crafts, as expected. “Contact to the Destroyer Mistress immediately.”

The leading Shipmaster ordered before accessing his force, “Warriors of the Covenant, the human fleet has arrived and glory will soon be ours. We know not yet if they know of our true strength yet. Prepare to engage on my word, all troops prepare.”

When Communications established to the forward battle group at the planet, Sang immediately spoke in a buzz of rare excitement, “Shipmistress, Shipmasters. Human fleet has arrived in the system, no doubt for their regrouping maneuvers. Shipmaster Mog, I require you to keep an eye on the Heretics. I want all in engagement. The humans will want all of us off their colony, understand?"

Better to use the enemy as another weapon.

Reticent Zealot Til Ra'shi Kaz'ar ‘Muramai
Stealth Frigate Reticent Silence
Covenant Task Force Staging Position

“I understand, Great Hunter.” The zealot’s agent answered with the bow of his holographic head while keeping a hold to his small holo-com. Til’s good eye glared like a studying snake, chin held by his linked fingers as he sat on his chair. The holograph’s illumination shining off his pale scorch-bleached hide and reflective pupils. “Excellent, may your mission be of honor and truth, brother.” He farewells with a wavering gesture, to which the typical answer came in a departing bow, “As of you.”

The holotank on the floor collapsed both projection and its spined legs before one of the special operators collected it. “Do you believe the Jiralhanae and Kig-yar will do well?” One of the operative majors questioned to the dark-armored zealot. It only took a few moments in calculating thought while Til retrieved his helmet from another operator. “They will do as expected of them, but their motives are their own. Do not speak ill of them. Only the Heretics deserve our contempt and focus.” The Zealot passes in the coming march for the frigate’s small hanger, voice hissed into a dark vocalization by his helmet’s audio filter. “And they will receive their judgement. Shipmaster, take her to the planet. We will make not one escapes the wrath of our Gods.”

“Yes, Grand Hunter.”

[John]

Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Dylan Hawkins
Commanding Officer, UNSCS Normandy

"Dropping out of slipspace in one mike" the helmsman noted. Hawkins tapped a button and said "All hands, brace for for entry to normal space", which was delivered throughout the ship via the intercom system. It was just a precaution, really. The ship remained steady enough during the transition, but no-one could really predict where exactly they'd end up. For all the brains that had worked on the system throughout history, it just wasn't that precise. For all anyone knew they'd end up in a debris field.

"Dropping out in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one..." the Helmsman counted down. "We have reached our destination." the Lieutenant continued, noticeable by a slight shudder. Hawkins stood up from the command chair in the center, and slightly to the rear of the bridge. He walked over to the holo table in the centre. "Lexington reporting in, sir" the Lieutenant at Communications reported. "Frigates Luxembourg, Suffolk, and Adelaide have reported in, Sir" she then said. "Sir, Destroyer Victoria reports minor damage to engines, and Holland, and Nebraska report all's well. Everyone's present and accounted for, Sir" he said.

"Thank you, Mister Merlyn. Flag to Kilimanjaro. Compliments and duty to Admiral Vardy, the 22nd is in place." the Admiral said. He turned to the air controller. "Commander, I want you to launch a standard BARCAP. And notify the CAG to have his pilots on 15 minute readiness." the Admiral said.

Now the waiting game began.

[SPARTAN-A120]

Ensign Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Tactical Field Operative "Panther"
Aboard ONI Prowler Silent Sanguine
Orbiting Esperanza II, Panis Eterni System, 2551
"Into the Storm"
(Tags: Faclan , SuperCommando , Spartan 999 , & John  )

“Thank, good luck both, try to record any alien talk, research.”

Chen shook his head at Agent Hyde’s reply since it was typical of him. It took the Ensign quite some time to tolerate Hyde’s inquiries on obtaining as much video and audio recordings as he was sure there were a plethora of such data the scientist could read, watch, or listen to. On the other hand, Officer Candidate School had taught him to be open-minded to many things which would benefit him in the future.

“Know thy enemy,” Chen said mentally to recall the famous quote made by Sun Tzu. They weren’t the exact words of the Chinese general, but it sounded better the way he said it.

He looked up from his TAC-PAD and saw the tall SPARTAN speed walking out of the bridge and was already down the corridor. This caused Chen to break into a light jog to catch up. He didn’t want to make a bad first impression on the SPARTAN team leader so he had to keep up except if they were running at full speed. There was no way he would be able to tail a SPARTAN without augmentations or a vehicle for the most part. After reaching SPARTAN-009, he noticed that the super soldier was gearing up. Chen smiled slightly because he was already prepared with his gear and weapons for the mission which meant he had to wait for them.

Within minutes, SPARTAN-009 and Chen were waiting for the rest for the team near the Black Cat Subprowler. During the wait, he was standing with his helmet in his left hand while he observed Gold One. He didn’t usually judge someone else’s kit aloud since his remarks would probably stir up some trouble so he kept his thoughts to himself.

A DMR complemented by two M7 SMGs. They were good weapons of choice, but he expected the SPARTAN to carry something suitable to his size. A SAW or a BR55 seemed liked it would fit quite well to be proportional to his size, but that was irrelevant. No matter what kind of weapon, it is the user who must possess the skills to use it efficiently and effectively. Going back to his stereotypes, the Ensign assumed that SPARTANs favored close-quarters engagements as they were well equipped to do so with their augmentations and MJOLNIR, but for 009 to use a marksman rifle while Chen had a MA5K Carbine didn’t seem fitting. Not to disprove that SPARTANs were bad shots, but with their MJOLNIR and fighting capabilities, it would be a tactical strategy to have the SPARTANs take point in this kind of mission. They were not expendable though. Maybe Chen was overthinking?

Movement to the Tactical Field Operative’s left side broke his train of thought. His eyes widened at another SPARTAN, designation 097, who was basically a walking armory. From his point of view, Chen was able to see the second SPARTAN carrying a SAW, a BR55, two M6 series, and a M319 Grenade Launcher. SPARTAN-097 was even taller than the team leader by a few inches and was obvious portraying the Heavy Weapons role in the team.

“Sweet Mother of…” Chen began to mutter. But immediately stopped when he caught himself saying it out loud.

He then contacted Lieutenant Sorelson through a secure channel after putting on his own helmet which sealed with a light hiss to provide an airtight environment. The Ensign said, “Sir, waiting on you at the Black Cat.”

After giving his own team leader a heads-up, he observed SPARTAN-009 handing 097 a few magazines of stun rounds which reminded Chen to check his M6C. The bottom of the magazine’s base plate was painted black which meant they were standard M228 SAP-HP .50 caliber rounds. He checked the left side of his battle belt and found two of four magazines with blue paint on the bases. He conducted a magazine swap after realizing his own mistake and made his M6C SOCOM into a less-than lethal weapon.

“That would’ve been a clusterfuck…” Chen muttered once more.

---

OOC: SuperCommando & Spartan 999 : Take point on the Black Cat ride down post. I'll post after y'all.

Llau & Faclan : Feel free to have a (heated) conversation?

[MrKill]

Admiral Eric Klix
UNSCS Iowa
Marathon II Class Cruiser
15th Battlegroup
In System

"Give me an update," Eric ordered as dozens of new vessels appeared on the holotable, the CAP from the Normandy. There were a few audible clacks and clicks as the crew hurriedly, but not to a point of rushing to complete their jobs, gathered the information Eric had requested. Within moments he had his report: They had practically regrouped with the fleet, the 15th Battle Group was in formation and both the main fleet and his own battlegroup had sufficient CAP to protect any assets. Satisfied, Eric switched his path of thinking to getting Marines on the ground from this far away. Sensors indicated, though not with any accuracy an Admiral would consider hard proof, large groups of Covenant warships were around the planet.

The art of deceit, Eric thought. The thing about sensors was they picked up radiation, heat or rapid changes in mass - course corrections, or perhaps incoming rounds - rather than pinging like a radar. They couldn't pinpoint where something was without it because RADAR took to long to ping back and forth in space like it did while on the ground with gravity. That, and radar would reveal far too much space debris for a commander to genuinely use it as a tactical advantage. With that in mind, he had an idea.

"Communications, recall the Iowa's fighters but the ready five. I want them refueled and rearmed. After that hail the CO's for both the transport and fighter squadrons, I want them to meet me in the ready room, I'll be waiting for them there." Eric said. "Lieutenant Commander, you have the bridge. XO, report to the ready room." Eric added, leaving as quickly as he could. The sooner he got this plan in action, the sooner his Marines would be on the ground.

The two men walked pretty much silently for a good ten minutes before they arrived in the tram, which then took them towards the hangers, and another ten minutes or so to arrive at the ready room. By the time they got their one of the squadron COs was already waiting, but the other hadn't showed up yet, likely still cycling through airlocks or other regulations for a safe landing. Without a doubt, the man sitting in front of the CO and XO of the Iowa, was the man who was still on the ship.

Eric's attention was diverted when he heard a klaxon blare and a message from the bridge play. "All hands, set TACCON Alpha Two throughout the ship, repeat: Set TACCON Alpha Two throughout the ship."

The officer of the bridge had decided to stand down from general quarters, or condition one, to allow the crew some rest before engaging the Covenant. It was a smart idea. Klix had done it in the past, but he left better knowing his crew as at high readiness before they engaged the Covenant. But since the CAP was out, courtesy of all the ships in the battlegroup, as well as other... certain ships within the fleet, Eric could see what the Lieutenant Commander wanted the crew to rest for a bit.

It didn't take long after that for the briefing to start.

"Gentlemen, lets cut right to the chase, I don't have much time. I want our Marines on the ground as soon as physically possible, and I've come up with an idea. It's been rarely used, but it works. If we load our transports and send our fighters in as escorts, you can reach the planet before our warships could at this point. My idea is this: Power down and drift after achieving a good velocity. We're thousands of miles away from the planet we have to land on, so much so it's just a spec in the distance visually. If you guys match speeds with the pelicans on a full burn for half an hour or so you'll have both the velocity to dodge incoming and enter the planets atmosphere with speed to shred." Eric said.

"Sir, what about protection from the fleet then?" One of the CO's asked.

"We'll be behind you, but we can't fire our MAC until we have a clean shot on their ships anyway. If we miss, the planet gets hit, and that's one hell of a bloody mess if we hit a population center on accident."

The CO that asked the question froze for a second before leaning back in his chair, seemingly understanding to what Eric had said.

"Okay, sir, we'll get on it." The other said.

And the briefing was over.

[SuperCommando]

CPO SPARTAN-009

GOLD ONE

ESPERANZA-II ORBIT, PANIS ETERNI SYSTEM

UNSCS SILENT SANGUINE

OOC: Fun fact, the Winter-class Prowler (the one Blue Team uses in Halo 5), is designed similarly to the Black Cat. Since we don’t have an actual image of a Black Cat, its successor the Winter-class is the next best thing for visual reference.

www.halopedia.org/Winter-class_prowler

---

Once everyone had arrived, the combined team of SPARTANs and ONI special forces boarded the sub-prowler, its engines already humming as it idled on standby. Silas led the way past the landing gear under the stealth craft’s nose and up the forward-facing ramp into the troop bay, where there were enough seats lining the walls for everyone to strap into. The Chief Petty Officer sat down in one of the chairs right up front next to the ramp and checked his tacpad for the pilot’s callsign and frequency. With a few eye movements, the Spartan directed his HUD to open comms as he buckled his harness.

“Shadow Sky, this is Gold One. Strike team is on board and ready to deploy, over.”

“Copy that Gold One, we are clear for immediate takeoff.” The boarding ramp smoothly lifted up and hissed shut, sealing the small bay. There were mechanical noises from outside and brief elevator-like sensation of movement as the Black Cat was lowered out of the belly of the Silent Sanguine. “Stealth drive engaged. ETA to mission site in twenty minutes. ”

Silas turned his head to silently inspect the others. Jethro, Agent Chen, Lieutenant Sorelson. They’d make a good team. And with Lieutenant Commander Moretti and Agent Hyde just a call away, the team was in good hands.

Time to hunt some Heretics.

The Black Cat swooped through space, descending upon Esperanza II and whatever awaited them on the planet’s surface.

TO BE CONTINUED IN MISSION 9 – A HAIRLINE FRACTURE!

TAG(S): Spartan 999 , SPARTAN-A120 , John , Llau , Faclan

[edtosivaree]

Edto Xar'Sivaree sat, admittedly bored with her position. When she was ordered to take the stratosphere, she did. It was an easy task. They didn't have anti-air by the sounds of it, a small colony like this and the Warriors on her ships were already in the midst of deploying. Nadra stood next to her, quiet as well. Neither of them had to speak right now except for the Shipmistress acknowledging a necessary comment from one of the bridge officers.

"Shipmistress. Shipmaster Sanj ‘Aquiree has informed us that the Human naval forces have arrived in system. He has ordered an all in engagement. Orders?" The Master of Communications asked.

So this battle just got a little more interesting. She could go and assist the Lead Shipmaster, but that would leave the surface wide open for any ground troops. She needed to maintain the line of defence over the area of interest, not to mention the Heretics on the other side of the planet. She had an idea, though.

"Order our Corvettes to go assist the main group. Order the Frigates to be just within range behind the battle group providing support from their nuclear weapons. I want Nav officer scanning for familiar ID's if possible. I am curious as to if the Human Captain is part of this conflict. It will be a glorious reunion of sorts" She stated, a split jaw smile. Her fingers trailing the pommel of the odd saber style weapon.

The Navigations and Communications officer nodded, confirming her orders and relaying them to the warband. She would remain where she was, acting as a rear officer. She opened up her own COMs with the Lead Shipmaster.

"I am sending my Corvettes to assist with the main assault. My Frigates are remaining between the planet and the forward group to provide interference for their guided weapons. I will remain in the stratosphere to act as a rear guard and to make it that much harder for the Humans to land their troops. I will also be available to assist Shipmaster Mog should the Heretics attempt an assault o his ship" She declared, awaiting her response.

[Astro]

EDIT

[Kart]

Shipmaster Arvoth 'Senjaree
CPV-class Destroyer CNV Hallowed Fury
Rally Point (Dark side of system gas giant) - Preparation of Close Quarter Slipspace

“Fellow Shipmasters,” The voice echoed in the spacious bridge of the Hallowed Fury. “We are preparing the conquest of the human settlements. Ready your warriors for quick ground insertion, followed by dropship choirs escort. So far, the planet’s defenses are open. That will not last, we will not be taken by surprise and they will fall to the Covenant. They will fall to us.”

It will hardly be so simple as that, Shipmaster Arvoth 'Senjaree thought. The Humans are tenacious foes, and much blood will have to be shed before our ground troops even touch ground. But I am sure that 'Aquiree knows that.

Arvoth stared at the holographic tactical display before his hover chair, admiring 'Aquiree's battle plan, which had an assault warband at the vanguard to serve as a spearhead, while escort ships such as the Hallowed Fury were arrayed behind the line-of-battle, conserving their strength and protecting the ground troops hunkered down in their hulls.

"We hear and obey, commander." Arvoth relayed to his commander. "At your word, we will fight."

[MrKill]

With permission from BetaWülf, the Iowa (not the UNSC fleet) is now in range to deploy their Marines and ODSTs.

ADM. Klix, E.
UNSC Iowa
Near geo-sync orbit

The Iowa, a massive warship nearly two kilometres long, had coasted towards the planet on inertia alone for two hours. Eric had ordered the engines shut down after achieving a velocity great enough to remain in orbit after they arrived at the planet. With no engines going, radiators shut and the first three sections of hull closest to the armour open to space the Marathon II Cruiser was just another asteroid - at least on a thermal scan. The warship was getting close enough to the planet that the Covenant would be able to detect them visually soon, if they knew what they were looking for. With no external lights going, not even the sensors, even a keen eye would miss the floating behemoth.

"Admiral, it's hard to judge the distance without sensors online, but I think we're getting close enough to start powering up basic systems along the hull." The XO said.

Eric analysed the distance between them and the target planet. From his perspective, the planet had seemingly consumed space itself with how large it had gotten since the last time he had looked. They were close, maybe too close; perhaps it was a good time to start booting up the communication and sensor dishes - but Eric was aware that even a faint thermal anomaly would be enough for the Covenant to investigate - and that would ruin any chance the UNSC had on deploying their ground forces sooner rather than later.

"We will coast over the planet and deploy our troops. The dropships heating up will look like chunks of asteroid burning up in the atmosphere. However, I also agree with your thoughts. Power up only for a brief moment, get the information you need, and shut them down again. We will have the AI make calculations to keep up updated after that so we know what we are doing."

"Aye, sir!" The XO replied. "Engineering, power up the sensors and send a burst towards the planet. Operations, prepare to send the data we receive to our AI." The XO delegated.

A few moments later the XO had returned. "We're at a healthy range to deploy our ground forces, sir."

Eric turned his attention to the communications officer. "Ensign, tell the Marines it is time to deploy."

"Yes sir." The Lieutenant replied.

The twenty year old officer went about her duties. "Bridge to LSO, all dropships and escort fighters are cleared for mission launch. Bridge out." She said. In an instant she had switched channels to the PA system located in the hanger. "Marines: Mission is a go, repeat, mission is a go. Pilots: contact LSO for departure instructions, bridge out."

[tetsu]

Command Master Chief Petty Officer Sungyol Ju-Hong
Aboard UNSCS Punic Class Carrier Normandy
22nd Carrier Group
Entering Esperanza II, Panis Eterni System, 2551
"Slip Space, it gets me every time"

The movement of the ship beneath Chief Sung’s feet always seemed to both him a little bit as he operated the navigations computers with one of his multiple teams of crewmen, working meticulously to make sure that the bridge remained aware of current and accurate data. It was the officer’s job to issue where they wanted to go, and it was Sung’s job to figure out how to get there. It was a strange experience being upon the bridge of a carrier, as most of the other crewmen aboard the vast ship was actually used for storage space for other ships and their crew. All the same, it was an honor. “Chief Petty Officer Hearnz, I want to see the navigations display brought up ASAP as the countdown to exit slip space began, and he could hear from over his shoulder as he had gotten into his “action station” so to speak. He was in his fine white Uniform, his CMCPO Chevrons with the star at the center representing his rank tailored to his shoulder sleeves to present him as he felt them stopping official.

He almost felt himself shift to the floor as he grasped onto the display keyboard for dear life. It was horrible, to think of how much navigational data he had input, all the calculus and finite math, and yet they were going to have an inaccurate jump; which pissed CMCPO Sung right off. All he could focus on was maneuvering wherever they ended up in hopes of getting them into a ready position. He didn’t quite have much data yet, but His comms officers seemed to be recording ship check signs; which were acknowledged. “Petty Officer Burke, please monitor those comm lines for me, I want to make sure we’re ready for anything.” Sung said calmly as he made his way up the bridge of the vessel. The cool metal interior was reassuring as he quickly barked over the comms on his way up. “All hands to Action Station, that’s an order from the admiral, Master Chief Patriz please make sure your details are mobilizing the weapons systems please.” [/font]The CMCPO would ask over the comm piece in his ear as he was the ships commanding NCO, answering only to the ships officers and the Fleet Master Chief Petty Officer. The Command Master Chief Petty Officer was in theory, the ship commander’s bulldog.

“Admiral Sir, the crew is in action stations sir!” The CMCPO would announce formally as he would click his heels together offering a salute to Rear Admiral Hawkins. He had been assigned to this ship as a simple Chief Petty Officer, but if his family in Seoul could see him now, the CMCPO of the UNSCS Normandy, they would be proud. “Sir we are getting accurate field analysis of our location processed now, would you like the image transferred to your holo drive sir?” The CMC would ask as his still facing eyes wanted to glance to the side towards the holographic display table that was accessible and fairly common of a bridge belong to a ship of this caliber. If the salute was returned, which it was likely that it would be, the Command Master Chief Petty Officer would relax simply tapping into his comms momentarily. “Petty Officer Burke, please display relay the data from CPO Hearnz’s consul to the main holo display please.” He would request as the display would quickly appear, displaying their position in space in regards to the fellow fleet ships as well as the projected position of what looked like rounded Covenant ships to the CMCPO's understanding of the situation. 

OOC: [1LT] Charles Callaghan , I’m ready to get things rolling since I can finally do something aboard your vessel sir. If you wouldn’t mind PMing me our Location as it is your ship and what not I would really appreciate it if that’s alright ^-^

[John]

Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Dylan Hawkins

Commanding Officer, UNSCS Normandy





Hawkins stood, leaning on the edge of the holotable. He was studying the movements of the fleets. Iowa deployed the Marines, and they were reaching the surface right about now. The Admiral looked up from the table at the tactical officer, a young Lieutenant from the Netherlands. "Lieutenant, give me a status of the fleet, and that of the enemy."  he told her. Immediately, she got to work and droned off the status of every ship, and the Covenant fleet. It seemed that Irresistible was still working on the field repairs, and wouldn't be ready for the inevitable battle. 

Just then, the Command Master Chief entered the bridge. He saluted, and the Admiral returned it. He'd have to make sure the Chief learned that Hawkins preferred a more casual tone on his ship. Or at least his bridge. It was of no significance now, though. They all had bigger things to worry about right now. 

"Thank you, Chief. Go ahead" Hawkins said to the Chief. Another Petty Officer patched the image into the holoscreen. He studied it for a bit when some alarms went off. "Hull breach on deck six, section Foxtrot!" one of the officers aboard the bridge said. Hawkins looked at the Chief. "You know what to do Chief" he said. 

[Cabel]

[Inner Colonies: System: Panis Eterni Sector: Planet: Esperanza II: Current Location: Outer Panis Eterni System: 14th Tactical Response Fleet: UNSCS Passchendaele: Marathon Class I Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser: Bridge: Captain Matvey Daniilovich Galina]

“Status on the Covenant?” Matvey asked, from where he hunched over observing the holographic projections above the situation table displaying the arrayed forces of the Covenant Fleet in orbit on separate sides of the planet to the UNSC Forces and the UNSCS Iowa skimming the orbit. The Covenant Fleet lay in orbit, though a rough estimate of their disposition had been gathered more from the distance between the opposing forces and the planet rather than the sensitivity of the Passchendaele‘s scanners.

“The Covenant Fleet hasn‘t altered course, either orbital or otherwise with the exception of a squadron of Corvettes moving to join...if the scanners are accurate at this distance the main assault force. Tactical scanners aren‘t detecting any incoming Seraphs or drop-ships or boarding pods,” Commander Alice Qelar reported from the tactical station.

“Keep an eye on the scanners for anything out of the ordinary. The moment the Covenant attempt to gain a lock or move to intercept, have the Longswords take action. Link them with the rest of the Fleet‘s fighter-umbrella,” Matvey ordered, knowing the first moves were often what resulted in the outcome to an engagement. The Covenant had assets in orbit and from Intel reports forces on the surface yet the orbital assets hadn‘t made a move. He could have dwelled, even focused on the questions as to why the Covenant hadn‘t made a move, but in the time it would have taken him to have come to a conclusion the engagement on the surface would have played out. Studying the arrangements from ever shifting coordinates to even the slightest tonnage displacements of the Covenant ships with their semi-organic appearance laying wait in the varying orbital layers surrounding the planet and the positions of the UNSC ships in an attempt to glean or apply a strategy either from more modern times or from antiquity or if in failing that a creation of his own.

Submitting a few commands into the holographic situational table, Matvey watched as the projected outline of the general vicinity of space surrounding the Planet Esperanza II expanded to cover the entire system or at least in-so-far as the computers could have extrapolated from the findings from the scanners. The system‘s single gas giant dominated a single side of the holographic projection, but as the positions of either of the amassed forces had been a distance from the gas giant it had appeared less gargantuan in size while retaining the intimidation factor. He‘d gained a reputation for utilizing, much to his advantage, random flotsam in a system to environmental factors his opponents had often overlooked much to their own embarrassments and something about the situation bothered him. The ships gathered around Esperanza II had been placed there both to convey a gesture of power to raiding the agricultural colony of its resources to attempting to prevent the UNSC from establishing a beach-head against them on the surface and in orbit. The intent of that gesture had been clear, as clear any Ensign or Lieutenant Junior Grade fresh from the Academy could have gleaned, and while that in itself had been fairly troubling since rarely did the Covenant pursue anything without having a more complex plan in mind.

“What are you pondering, Matvey?” Nadezhda asked, having materialized as if standing atop an extended part of the situational-table. Her choice for having materialized using a small part of the table’s holographic matrix had only seemed the logical choice since she could in a manner of speaking personally interact or at least witness the strategy the Passchendaele’s Captain and her long-time friend came up with.

“The Covenant have this system. They’ve laid claim to Esperanza II’s orbit, or at least pretend to. Their gesture is of strength, but they haven’t moved from their orbital positions. Why?” the Russian-born aristocratic officer asked out loud for the Passchendaele’s SMART A.I. as much as to reassure his own ears.

“If the Covenant had mined the system’s approach, I would have been able to have detected it. The Passchendaele’s own scanners would have detected it,” the Passchendaele’s Third Generation “SMART” A.I. replied. “You’d ruled that out already, I’d imagine,”

“You wouldn’t be wrong. Mining or rigging the system’s approach would have been too obvious, and if they had mined the approach we would have triggered them upon our arrival from slipstream. They’re waiting. If I were my counterpart and held orbit, I would have insured any reinforcements would have been only minutes away if less in a holding pattern either in the system or en-route in slipstream,” Matvey explained.

“Once we approach the planet, the Covenant’s reinforcements arrive in-system and box us in,” Nadezhda reasoned.

“It’s the Battle of Leyte Gulf. An Allied victory in World War II, but a costly one in ground-forces, air and naval assets on both sides,”

“Didn’t the Allies have a naval force of three hundred in that engagement against a Japanese force seventy ships?” the Third Generation “SMART” A.I. asked.

“They did, and while we have fewer assets in system we do hold an advantage in better detection systems…a fairly slight one as it may be given the state of the Covenant’s technology. We know where they are, minus their reinforcements…at least the exact positions,. If I had to make a guess, the reinforcements would be in-system rather than in slip-stream due more for convenience and rapid deployment as any reinforcements from outside the system would take longer to gain formation,” Matvey explained before opening up the keyboard built-into the side of the table. He’d make notes pertaining to the analysis of the system, and following those notes would construct an overall strategy. Through his mind plans upon plans, with a myriad of variables raced using his decades of experience combined with his interest in military engagements throughout history, and one could sense even across the bridge that Matvey‘s reputation had been either largely deserved or a sign of his mad fascination.

[tetsu]

Command Master Chief Petty Officer Sungyol Ju-Hong

Aboard UNSCS Punic Class Carrier Normandy

22nd Carrier Group

Esperanza II, Panis Eterni System, 2551

"Damage Control"



The blaring alarm was enough to get the Chief’s attention as he calmly raised his gaze from that of the holo display for a moment to meet the eyes of Rear-Admiral Hawkins. “Indeed sir, I’ll send out the orders.” CMCPO Sung stated calmly as he quickly reached up to his ear, dialing the frequency of each team in turn. “Damage report on deck Six please, I need to know more on that breach Master Chief Chanda.” He stated calmly as the corresponding MCPOs under his command would mobilize their own details of men to perform the tasks he set out for them. He briskly lifted himself up and maneuvered his way down the bridge, quickly stopping at the comms officer he had spoken to earlier. “Burke, give me live comms with the DC and security detail, with standard encryptions, security clearance Charlie please.” He would state tapping his petty officer on the shoulder as he would quickly put his finger back up to his ear as he was in needed to direct to the Damage Control team that was surely mobilizing on site. “Damage looks pretty shallow sir, it was definitely a solid hit, but the armor of the hull seemed to absorb most of the impact, it might take us a minute to patch her up,” He heard Petty Officer Poe state as he rubbed his chin, making his way back up to the command consul.



“Admiral Hawkins, Deck Six’s breach is sustainable; however it has depressurized section foxtrot, I’ve taken the liberty of sealing the airlocks and blast shields in that sector.” Chief Ju-Hong stated bluntly as he quickly leaned over a consul to rear of the holo table to quickly type in the commands. Finishing the action, Ju-Hong quickly turned around speaking into his comms again, this time targeted at the MCPO down in the weapons bay once again. “MCPO Patriz, please arm the weapons systems for combat, CPO Hearnz, please send the tactical Nav Data to both Chief Patriz and the Admiral’s holo display please.” CMCPO Ju-Hong would finish as he would take his place across the holo table from Rear-Admiral Hawkins. “Sir, what is your command?” Chief Ju-Hong asked calmly as he leaned forward, looking at the ships moving on both ends of the table, the clear damage report data being relayed to their model of the carrier as it showed a small red section on the flank where there had been some damage.



“Weapon systems online Chief,” He heard over the comms as the weapons were surely prepared, and all the crew was in their action stations, including the ships’ within the carrier crews. “Sir Ships are ready for deployment, weapon systems are online, comms are established between ourselves and the fleet’s comm channels, Damage has been minimalized, and I even put a cherry on top,” The CMCPO said attempting to joke, but the tone would have sounded too serious for such a lighthearted thing. “Shall we set our course sir?” He would ask as it was the officer’s jobs to set the course give the commands and direct the ship, his job was to simply make sure that their commands became reality. “On your command sir,” As he would wait patiently for the Admiral’s orders before proceeding, thus was the life of an NCO…even if you were the Command Master Chief Petty Officer.

[edtosivaree]

Shipmistress Edto Xar'Sivaree sat in the command chair as the stand-off continued. She was bored, and information on the Battle Net told her that the Ground Forces were doing much more than she was doing here in space. It made her curious. She had heard of Ship Masters going to the planet surface to participate in battles in the past. She wasn't exactly needed here. The battle in space was never a difficult one. On the ground though, she might actually get a challenge. Plus, she had heard Garatus was dealing with things. She might go join him.

While she was pondering this, the Master of Communications spoke up. "Ship Mistress... We have accessed the human battlenet. We are scanning for information now" He called, returning to his panel.

Edto nodded slowly in approval. They were learning, and breaking the bad habits of their kind. It did not matter how primitive the humans may seem, how pointless their chatter may be. It was crucial to know. She would rather know about pointless, trivial things like their shipmaster bowel movements, but be listening, than not be listening and not hear about a surprise flank.

She pulled up the information that she had with a curiosity. Right now it was only basic ship information. She wouldn't be surprised if the humans somehow blocked her out after a few minutes of her prying. When she saw the name Matvey Daniilovich Galina, it caused her to pause.

"Interesting... So we meet again Shipmaster Matvey... Unfortunately, I will not be present for this fight" She mumbled to herself, before turning to Nadra. "You understand my... Position with the Covenant, correct?" She asked quietly.

"Yes Shipmistress. Why do you ask?"

"I wish to go planet side. Fight there for a bit. I am putting you in charge of the ship. I trust you to do well, as you may take command of the ship permanently" She explained, standing up. Before Nadra could respond, Edto grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him close. "If you receive a message from the humans... Take your time to decide how loyal you are to me. Make the decision carefully... As you will never come back from it" She hissed, letting him go. "Get my dropship prepared" She called out.

Nadra stood, staring at where his Shipmistress was standing just moments before, processing the information. When he was done, he shook his head with a smile. "How long until you realize it will always be you Shipmistress" He asked, sitting down in the command chair.

"Attention. Ship Mistress Edto Xar'Sivaro has taken to the ground to reap glorious honour on the fields of combat. I, Nadra 'Othamaee, Bridge Master have been given command of her vessel and warband until she returns" He called over the Warbands COMlink. When he got the notification the Shipmistress had left, he frowned. "Do try to make it back..."

OOC: Edto is now on the ground, command has been given to Nadra

[Huka]

(I was waiting on the Heretics’ post, but this have been waited on far too long. This will include said crossfires. The Covenant Warband is burning into the fray and getting M9 on a move! Approved by BetaWolf)

Task Force Commander Sanj ‘Aquiree
Flagship CCS-class battlecruiser Righteous Monsoon
Covenant Task Force Staging Position

The plan was about to be executed. Everything seemed perfect...but what Sanj did not expect, was the sudden appearance of a raid group appearing from slipspace right by their vector. The ships registering were not of up-to-date record and more importantly, had recent plasma scarring. This operation was need-to-know and no other fighting group was not to appear at any time. Immediately, Sanj ordered their execution. The Righteous Monsoon fired her barrage of plasma torpedoes on the leading Destroyer before its frigates could move to protect.

“All of the task force, fire at will.” His voice commanded through the force-wide comms. The Kig-yar ship Bloodied Coin was quick enough to indulge a communications jamming with an aversion with the other force frigates. Their powerful ships catching the counter attack against corvettes. “Choirs prepare for dogfights. Shipmaster ‘Senjaree, jump upon suitable position of our planetary mark. We must get this operation to go before the Humans take advantage or our ground forces are overwhelmed.”

Before he could get a confirmation, the ship rattled. “Report!” The Aquir commander roared in abrupt frustration that something actually caused the Monsoon to do such a thing. “Energy fluctuation, Shipmaster! From the system star it seems, the planet barely averted the waves. Shields are down 68 percent. Enemy forces seem unaffected. Doubling their effor-...” Operations answered before Sensors immediately interrupted. “Heretic Ticks inbound!”

“What!?” Sanj seethed in surprise. “They dare! Weapons, point blank weapons in defense. Do not let the blunt touch our hull!” In that same motion, he tapped his command chair communication controls, “Security Master, Ticks are immediate. Secure all stations!” “Aye, Commander.” A gruff Jiralhanae answered back before his native tongue cracked through the line and ended it.

Standing up from the chair as the visual screen running over the wall of the bridge, he watched at the beautiful blossom of explosions and tracing fire between Covenant factions danced in the star-twinkling void of outer space. While his task force was meeting to the smaller unit, they were mobile and devilish. They were made for quick reaction while his forces were more diversity. In the end, that will win this battle. Kig-yar ships were moving to engage foot-to-foot. The heavier corvettes and frigates interlocking like webs in cunning trades. His Destroyer pair moving to take flanks, unleashing salvos of plasma torpedos and a number of their choirs to ensure none of the enemy escaped.

“Cripple the enemy Destroyer by engines and weapon lines. If they power their projector, unleash secondary salvos. Prepare on my mark of evasion command.” He ordered, opening a hand for a tight clench. Every tick counted in this battle before the Humans react.

Thankfully, the Heretic naval force on the planet was already moving to engage their mingled forces to keep them of immediate action.

[Llau]

LT. CMDR Moretti, Michelangelo N.
ONI Tactical Field Officer
Aboard UNSCS Prowler Silent Sanguine
Inner Colonies // Panis Eterni System // Esperanza II's Orbit
2551
Tag(s): edtosivaree , Faclan , SPARTAN-A120 , SuperCommando , Spartan 999

(OOC: Mostly to Edto and Fac, but I thought to include the rest of you in, so I can keep you guys in the loop for when you get back into posting. No rush, but hopefully soon. )

Sitting in his command chair, waiting in silence as the operation to retrieve 'Kasai commences, Moretti overheard the radio chatter for a moment – ETA to LZ was 20 minutes. 20 minutes he could use before things get even more interesting, and he needed a little breather. He started thinking about the...interesting discussions with the one who he was speaking to off and on for a while. The DATA-PAD this individual was using to communicate with him via text messages was originally from a field operator he was commanding and overseeing their operation back in January of this year. When they didn't check in, he left a message, asking them to report back, and then learned they were KIA, and that someone else had taken it. In truth, once he learned the operator's equipment had been compromised, he could have remotely disabled it to make the DATA-PAD become a pile of junk, but...he became rather curious, and wanted to investigate who this unknown person was.

He picked up his DATA-PAD he left beside the chair, and accessed the secured files of their discussions, and began re-reading through, mostly out of boredom as he thought about the individual again.

((OOC: Day/Month/Year, btw. The messages have been Rped by Edto and I. So, there isn't any confusion, J is Edto's Shipmistress, while Ombra is Mike.))

=======03/01/2551=======
Ombra>>>J, it's been a couple of weeks since you last checked in. Status report?

=======17/01/2551=======
J>>> Ombra, Who is this?
Ombra>>>What the hell? Joking isn't a good thing to do right now.
J>>> Who is Ombra?
Ombra>>>Your commanding officer...
J>>> Commander? I am the Commander of my Ship, you are words on this screen.
Ombra>>>Are you drunk again, LT?
J>>> I am a Shipmaster, not a LT, Commander Ombra.
Ombra>>>Well then, "Shipmaster". I'm guessing my operator has been compromised?
J>>> That depends. I have spent the last few days trying to figure out how to respond... However I must leave. I have a battle to lead.
Ombra>>>A battle? Where?
J>>> Disconnected
J>>> Connected
J>>> You will find out shortly.
Ombra>>>I'm sure I will, "Shipmaster".
J>>> I take it you do not believe me?
Ombra>>>What do you think?
J>>> I think you are concerned. You will hear of 8 ships being destroyed by a Covenant Warband, minimal damage to the Warband. Message me when you believe me... I let one limp away...
Ombra>>>I'm more so concerned about who I really am speaking to, but I'll play your game. I'll message you back when I find out how true your claims are.
Ombra>>>Disconnected

=======19/01/2551=======
Ombra>>>Connected
Ombra>>>Are you there, "Shipmaster?"
J>>> Connected
J>>> I am. Have you received the reports?
Ombra>>>Of course.
J>>> So you believe me?
Ombra>>>I wouldn't be contacting you if I didn't. So, yes.
J>>> Fascinating... Cautious even when nothing is hidden. I take it that is part of what makes your kind so... Interesting to fight
Ombra>>>I'm more curious as to why you have decided to contact me on the operator's data-pad you probably found on their person. Why converse with the enemy?
J>>> Because I always talk with humans when I can. My time with a Shipmaster name Matvey a while back was... Quite interesting.
Ombra>>>I'm probably the wrong human to talk to, but you have me very curious right now, I must admit. And Matvey...? That's certainly not an alien name. You captured him? Probably killed him after...not smart.
J>>> No human is wrong to talk to. You are correct though, Matvey is not an alien name, but he is neither in my captivity, or dead. He is still with you, after I let his ship live a while back. He gave me a sword.
Ombra>>>Oh? Interesting...didn't think you would let anyone go....then again, you're probably not one of those fur balls.
J>>> Your term for them is appropriate, Brutes. However, I have let quite a few of your Shipmasters go. I reward those who impress me in combat.
Ombra>>>I see...Isn't that a dangerous thing to do? Letting humans go, no matter the reason?
J>>> You make it sound like I care about this war.
Ombra>>>Well, do you?
J>>> Not in the same way as others of the Covenant.
Ombra>>>How many others like you who don't care about this war?
J>>> Depends... I think the Hierarchs should offer to let you join. However I am skeptical on all the Great Journey stuff they go on about.
Ombra>>>They seem too hellbent on our destruction to allow us to join. Not that I want to join. Sounds bullshit...the Great Journey? Wow...
J>>> Sounds much like this God person your soldiers pray too.
Ombra>>>Yeah. So?
J>>> History has a habit of never truly changing. I would stake my bottom right mandible on this God causing a similar war.
Ombra>>>Religion is fine until people claim their God wants to destroy others. But people are violent, with our without religion.
J>>> Sounds like our kinds have more in common than one might initially think.
Ombra>>>True. If I was some nerdy scientist right now, I'll be pissing my pants in excitement talking to you.
J>>> I have noticed your kind seems to do that in high stress situations. Makes me miss Captain Ambrose.
Ombra>>>Not many are trained to deal with high stress situations.
J>>> Indeed. Tell me about yourself.
Ombra>>>What do you want to know of me?
J>>> I like hearing the stories of your kinds lives. It gives me perspective.
Ombra>>>Interesting...I'm not really good telling about myself...in fact, I hate telling about myself.
J>>> Shame? Dishonour?
Ombra>> No.
J>>> Then what is there to fear? If we meet, one of us will likely die. Who better to tell than an enemy?
Ombra>>>Fine. I'm a commanding officer for ONI, a Lieutenant Commander if you want to be specific. I've been a field officer for many years. I had a family...my wife's dead, KIA. I'm raising my daughter on my own, but I barely see her considering my line of work keeps me too busy. She is taken care of by my late wife's parents. That's kind of about it that I can say...unless you want to know my hobbies or whatever.
J>>> Your wife was in the Military?
Ombra>>>Yes, but she was a doctor in my old unit, which is how we met.
J>>> Your wife reminds me of... Someone. I appreciate doctors, despite my kinds dislike for them. It is childish to throw yourself into death after being wounded. I'm sure she died honourably.
Ombra>>>I really don't like to discuss it, but...yeah.
J>>> She must be a good addition to your clans poem. Taking care of your child though... Most Sangheili do not know their father.
Ombra>>>They don't?
J>>> It is to make us achieve greatness without relying on Heritage. The pain many of us go through to prove ourselves would be reduced if we could ride the glory of our sire.
Ombra>>>I'm not really on good terms with my father, but I still kind of talk to him. I think I would do anything to talk to him if I didn't know him at all. He's a good man, but...we didn't see eye-to-eye sometimes.
J>>> I care little of who my father is. My journey to my position was my own, and the sacrifices I made were mine to make. What I have accomplished means so much more without knowing who he was, but I have my ideas. I think he was my Uncle.
Ombra>>>I got to where I'm at now on my own as well. It wasn't easy, and both of my parents had nothing to do with it. And why do you think he was your Uncle?
J>>> He is the Shortest male in my keep. I am... Disabled. I am just taller than an Unngoy. I come up to the elbow of most Brutes... And even Sangheili.
Ombra>>>Well, I know how it is to be short, but it has its advantages. Disabled?
J>>> Hormone deficiency. I never grew out of my adolescent body.
Ombra>>>Ehhh, I don't find that to be disabling.
J>>> My kind does. I had to enact old laws to become a warrior of the Covenant
Ombra>>>I see. What other crap do they not like?
J>>> It's nothing extraordinary. I went against tradition to get where I am, but I proved I was capable in combat. Many Sangheili are tied to tradition, and most brutes just find my presence amusing. I must go now. I am to attend to the bridge for the next few... Hours?
Ombra>>>Okay. It was...interesting talking to you. We will discuss more later if you wish.
J>>> I will keep that in mind for next time I am able to talk.
J>>> Disconnected

=======07/02/2551=======
J>>> Connected
J>>> Are you there?
Ombra>>>I am now.
J>>> How often are you in combat Lieutenant Commander Ombra?
Ombra>>>Not as often as I used to be. I command more, but I'm still in the field.
J>>> Yes... I would like to go back into ground combat. Fighting from my command chair is... Boring. I have trained my Warband well, and could likely say nothing and win fights. They have learned from your kinds creativity.
Ombra>>>I hate being in command of my own ship...I hate being in a ship, too be honest with you. And...well...it isn't hard to learn from my kind. Some do make things easy to learn. I've been told I'm rather aggressive in my style if I have to fight. On the ground...I guess I can see I'm aggressive there too, but I like to wait before I strike. Be creative...improvise.
J>>> Indeed. Your kind despite your lacking technology still have very impressive tactics. I have been caught unawares by them a few times. I will admit it was a large amount of luck that allowed me to walk away unscathed. One such instance was a capture attempt. That was dealt with however... You remember me mentioning Captain Ambrose. He was the commander of that attack. I still have his armour.
Ombra>>>Yes, I remember you mentioning about him.
J>>> He was the first human I got the chance to speak to.
Ombra>>>I see. Did you let him go, too?
J>>> No. I did not have that option. He was already on my ship after I destroyed the two frigates. I gave him an option. I could kill him, or I would present him to my Fleet Master, as this situation was my first solo mission away from the fleet.
Ombra>>>I imagine he would have been killed by your Fleet Master anyway, no?
J>>> You are correct, but he would have been fed to the Kig'yar by my Fleet Master. I just beheaded him.
Ombra>>>Can't say I don't blame him for deciding that you kill him...I've seen first hand what hungry Kigs and Brutes do to their victims...
J>>> It was an unavoidable outcome... I would have liked to keep him... But that was impossible. I would also never keep a warrior trapped in a cell. I... Talk to his amour sometimes. I am aware it's just a suit but it is relaxing.
Ombra>>>You...talk to it? And people think I'm crazy.
J>>> I am aware it is... Odd. I think of it as a silent sounding board. Like a journal, which you agent kept rather updated with silly little things.
Ombra>>>The Data-pad is certainly better than talking to an object like that armour.
J>>> Yes, but it creates a physical copy. I just like talking about what troubles me, but I cannot really trust anyone on my ship. The armour almost feels like talking to a person.
Ombra>>>A journal would certainly be safer. Don't have to worry about anyone hearing you. Of course, you are talking to me. Probably not as safe, but you seem to be a risk-taker.
J>>> As I said before, enemy is a better person to talk to than an ally sometimes.
Ombra>>>True. I don't really trust my own allies sometimes.
J>>> I would be interested in meeting more humans sometimes, without needing to fight and kill them. It would be enlightening.
Ombra>>>Yes, it would be great if we weren't killing each other.
J>>> But the hierarchs so stupidly believe your kind of some unknown heresy. You would be worth more than the unngoy and Kig'Yar combined. Coupled with our technology? Your Demons are something to be feared.
Ombra>>>I would like to know why they hate us so much...
J>>> That is a mystery. What I know is though... The Brutes are not so happy you shot first.
Ombra>>>They aren't? ha...I don't care. It's no skin off my back over who shot first. We've been at war for so long, that I've stopped caring about that. I just want it to end.
J>>> Agreed, mostly. The fights are amazing, the cause is little more than idiotic at this point.
Ombra>>>War is rather idiotic...I hate to say it, but I need to go. Good talk though, Shipmaster.
J>>> You as well... My next message may not be for some time. I am still here though.
Ombra>>>Disconnected

He closed the chat history, but kept the DATA-PAD in his hand while he returned to the holo-table, and stared at the planet, and studied where everything was at the time. It wouldn't be long until the mission would pick up, but he silently wished he was going with them to help with the operation.

Admittedly, each discussion between him and the individual made him become more and more curious about who the person on the other end was, and he eventually became very interested in the individual; especially when he found out during their second discussion that they indeed weren't bullshitting him about the ships being destroyed, and that they were part of the Covenant - a Sangheili Shipmaster. With the built-in translation program in ONI personnel's DATA-PAD or the equivalent, Moretti was glad that the alien was using it, and perhaps even learning the English language as well. Perhaps they've been learning English even before then too. It makes sense to him, considering how the alien is interested in the human race. The value of intel he could acquire from them if captured, and what he could do with it made his day. Even more so if he could capture them somewhere. He would use their desire to talk to humans to his advantage. So, having them trust him was his priority, and he would say anything to convince them that it would be okay to trust him. Earning their complete trust meant to not hound them so much, and keep the questions about them friendly enough, while coming up with answers that were half-true, but convincing for them to believe. He was pretty good deceiving and manipulating people when he needed to. Meanwhile, he kept the line secured, since what he was doing was on his own accord, as he didn't have permission exactly to do this. In the end, he was sure his superiors would forgive him due to the valuable intel he could gain from this.

Needless to say, he only could track down their location a little at a time when they had the DATA-PAD turned on to have a chat with him. It was difficult to trace them, but not impossible. He figured out they knew what they were doing before he learned he was correct on that notion when the individual told him so. One day, maybe he will have his chance to get them. ONI would certainly benefit from gaining intel from a Sangheili Shipmaster who loved to talk to humans. Unlike Unggoy and Kig-Yar, Sangheili are always so uncooperative during interrogations whenever they were able to capture one. The only thing he could do was to kill them, as prisoners served no purpose when they don't cooperate; unless ONI wanted them alive and sent to a research facility for tests. As for what kinds of tests they did on the aliens, he didn't care if these tests were legal or not, at least not anymore. Truthfully, he barely remembered the three Kig-Yar who he met back on Protector, and how he deviously captured them, and sent them to a prison...which so happened to be an ONI research facility where they ran tests on all three of the Kig-Yar before releasing them to him nearly a couple of months later. Then, instead of killing them, he freed them down on some planet with a chance that they would live.

Of course, his actions had consequences, and he was punished for a while. He was later reinstated, but with no care in the world about these aliens – perhaps more so than usual. He was “Good as new”, as said by his Handler, Major Wagner. Moretti was cold and ruthless, just the way ONI wanted their field agents to be. If these aliens had value to ONI, then all he cared about was to capture them alive, interrogated, and either later killed or handed over to ONI to do whatever. Some are “lucky” being sent to prisons, while others...aren't.

While he continued to stand at the holo-table, he heard a quiet beep that came from his DATA-PAD. He went to look at it, and slowly smirked a bit; surprised to see that it was a new message from the Sangheili. He chuckled lightly in disbelief. It's been a while since they last had a conversation, and it seemed like a coincidence; though, he mostly stopped believing in coincidences these days.

=======24/08/2551=======
J>>> Connected
J>>> I am currently defending a planet by quite the large force of your kinds... This may be the last we speak...

He stared at the message for a nearly two minutes, contemplating on how to respond to that. This may be the last we speak...? He thought, eyebrows furrowing slightly. That could mean anything really. He glanced around the bridge, and then started typing his message to reply to “J”.

Ombra>>>What do you mean?

He waited for them to answer, in which they did as he fixed his eyes on the black screen.

J>>> 12 ships of ours, and my scanners count 20+ of your own. Plus a small warband of Heretics. These are not odds that I feel we can win.

“Wait...” The Lieutenant Commander murmured under his breath, barely above a whisper. He started to gradually walk away from the holo-table; taking a few steps away, and stopped momentarily.

Ombra>>>The planet...what sort of planet is it?
J>>> A colony world of yours. I hope you do not know anyone on the surface.
Ombra>>>I don't know anyone personally, but...I am near a colony world, keeping an eye on this group of your kind.
J>>> Quite the coincidence. Related perhaps?
Ombra>>>Perhaps. It's a farming world...
J>>> Strong Brute presence on the surface? A Destroyer in atmosphere?

He blinked, glancing up toward the door, and then returned his attention down to the screen. “Hmm...interesting...interesting indeed.” He whispered.

Ombra>>>There's a lot of that that suddenly appeared.
J>>> I believe we are around the same planet...

If he could jump around, like some kid who was surprised with an amazing gift on his birthday, he would right about now. He smiled again, but only a little to keep anyone – particularly the ship's AI – suspicious. Which Anansi hasn't been paying much attention to him...yet. He responded quickly again, pretending he didn't know everything he knew already to test them.

Ombra>>>Seems like it. These Heretics you mentioned...what about them? Are they the group that is located down there, or are you talking about us Humans?
J>>> Covenant Heretics. Revuul 'Kasai was our original target. Then humans showed up.

So, they really were here...he thought, already planning on what to do.

Ombra>>> Interesting...I'm guessing 'Kasai didn't agree with the Covenant beliefs?
J>>> I care little. Some would say I don't care for their beliefs. I am here to fight.
Ombra>>>Why fight for something you don't care about?
J>>> I thought you would figure out that the fight is all I am interested in. I would fight for the Humans if I wouldn't be killed immediately.
Ombra>>>By this point, I'm fighting for my species' survival...fighting just because you're interested in it isn't really legitimate, at least in my opinion. Seems like you want something more, and like you said, you can't because you'll be killed. Killed by your allies?
J>>> Killed by Humans. This is where our kinds differ. The fight is everything to our kind. The honour... The adrenaline. We are raised from the moment we can lift a sword to fight and kill. I would like to fight
Ombra>>>You're right...a lot of humans would be too trigger-happy, and kill you on the spot, even if it seemed like you were wanting to fight for them. I'm different though...for the most part, as long as I knew your intentions.

He stifled his laugh at what he just said to the alien. It was pure bullshit. He was certainly not different, and would shoot them on the spot if he didn't have any orders or the notion to capture an enemy combatant.

J>>> My intentions are is to participate in glorious battle, and I will admit... I grow tired of the Covenants constant droning.
Ombra>>>If you are, then I imagine you are tired of the killing too. You did say you would like to talk. Personally, I would like to talk more with you, face-to-face some day.
J>>> After today... I do not know if that will be possible. I am on a dropship heading to the surface to assist with the ground battle.

He briefly looked up toward the ceiling of the bridge at what they just told him they were doing. “Yes...” He quietly exclaimed with a devious grin.

Anansi noticed; rather, overheard him. “Is something wrong, Lieutenant Commander Moretti?”

Moretti slowly gazed down at his DATA-PAD, and read the message again before looking over at the AI as she floated on the AI pedestal.

“Everything is fine, Anansi,” he explained mildly, and left it at that.

“Very well, Lieutenant Commander.”

Once again, Moretti peered back at the screen. He finally had to push what he wanted from the Sangheili, but he was careful in doing so. He didn't want them to decline due to his eagerness to talk to them. He needed their trust after all.

Ombra>>>If you are on the same planet I am near, it could be possible. Another thing, I can track you, using that data-pad you took from my agent.
J>>> I assumed as much, which is why I had my engineers show me how to stop it from sending out wireless signals. I take it you can only track me when it is on and we are talking.
Ombra>>>Correct.
J>>> What is it you are leading up to Commander. I may be interested in listening. Quickly. I only have but three rooks before I am planet side.
Ombra>>>I go down there myself, and then I will find you. You'll know it'll be me when I do.
J>>> You will find me and what?

Careful, Mike...he warned himself quietly.

Ombra>>>Then I will take you back to my ship, where we can talk safely. I imagine you have a lot of stories to share...stories that would be better told in person. I'm interested.

There, he said it, and now he waited in anticipation until they finally messaged him back.

J>>> So you wish to /capture/ me... How can I trust you?

“Cazzo...” he gumbled.

Moretti lightly rubbed his chin, thinking carefully. He breathed in slowly, and replied.

Ombra>>>Because I'm not some Brute who wants to kill. I won't force you to trust me, and I doubt whatever I try to say will convince you, but actions speak more than words. If I don't shoot at you, then you have nothing to worry about.

He gritted his teeth, worried that what he said didn't work, but was relieved when they answered him.

J>>> ... Matvey... I saw his name when I was scanning the UNSC Battlenet. He is here? The Paschendale?

Matvey...he thought, using his fingertips to resize the chat window so it was smaller, while in another window, he searched through the UNSC database to locate Matvey, and checked to see if he was here with the UNSC Navy Fleet. Sure enough, the man was.

Ombra>>>I'm not part of their Division, and I only care about my own people during operations since they take priority, and not all of the UNSC who ended up here.
J>>> Give me your honour you will allow me to return to him his sword... In person, alive, and not bound up like some animal, and I will take you up on your offer. You must make it look like an actual capture initially. I will not be able to lose my guard outside of the warcamp.

He grinned at that, and replied with more bullshit.

Ombra>>>I will do as you ask of me. If you truly want to return his sword to him, I will have someone look for him, while I'm down there looking for you.
J>>> My word is my honour Ombra. Even your kind must know how much we care about our honour. I would not lie in this regard. Understand that to make this work, people might die... For both of us. However, I can give insight that may make it worth it.
Ombra>>>My people know the risk of capturing an individual such as yourself, but at least this time it'll be worth the risk. Not many of your kind are willing to talk face to face, plan something like this with me...let alone speak to me like we have been for some time. That's why I'm interested.
J>>> There is much about me you do not know... But I will make sure I do not make anyone suffer should it come to that. I will see about leading an attack on the humans. That will be your chance.
Ombra>>>Fair enough. I will hopefully see you soon.
Ombra>>>Disconnected

Smirking some more, he stared at the door, and then turned to face Anansi.

“Slight change of plans, Anansi,” he explained, “There is a very important HVT down there, and not just that Heretic leader, and I'm going to head down there with a small team to capture this HVT.”

“Oh?” This peaked her interest. “I'm guessing that was what your exclamation was all about, Lieutenant Commander? May I ask who this unlucky High-Valued Target is?”

“Correct.” He smirked again. “It's a Covenant shipmaster. They will be down there in the ground battle.”

“How marvelous.”

“Isn't it? I will leave you in charge of the Prowler until I return. Hopefully.”

“Yes, sir.” Anansi replied.

Moretti nodded and quietly head out of the bridge, and headed toward his cramped CO quarters to gear up, and pick a few of the remaining operators who were on stand-by to get ready themselves and go with him as soon as the Black Cat returned.

(OOC: I will be now posting in the ground thread for a while, and will NPC Anansi here if needed.)

[Frazer]

Rear Admiral Frazer York
UNSCS Tassafaronga - Punic Class Supercarrier
15th Fleet
--Hyperspace--
"Back into the fight..."

"Frazer go, I am so very proud of you... I will never forget you." A mysterious woman said as Frazer walks away, bag over the shoulder.

"I... I Love you." Frazer said with tears in his eyes.

"Admiral, sir... Wake up..." Again a different female voice echoes throughout Frazers ear.

Frazer awakes in his quarters sat in his chair. Frazer notices Liara up on his personal A.I pedestal.

"Liara status! Are we nearing to our desired location of the three fleets?" Frazer said as he gets off his chair and walks to the mirror straightening his uniform up, taking his naval cap and placing it on his head.

"Yes sir. We are going to be coming out of slipspace very soon. Your presence is required on the bridge." Frazer looks over to Liara.

"Understood. Inform the XO I am on my way." Liara came off the A.I pedestal and Frazer stared back into the mirror. Still thinking of his lost loved one back on Earth. He then snapped out of it and proceeded to leave his cabin. As he left a couple of marine soldiers salute him, Frazer returns the salute. Since the Punic Class Supercarrier is a huge vessel it took Frazer a long time walking from his cabin to his bridge. He approaches the bridge, showing his identification and walks onto the bridge. Tom, his executive officer, called the bridge to attention.

"Admiral on deck." The bridge crew came to attention.

"At ease. At ease." The bridge crew sit back down. "Trayner how close to our rendezvous point are we?" Trayner turns around on the chair to face him.

"We are coming out of slipspace now sir. Preparing for deceleration." The Tassafaronga came out of slipspace, an echo of creaking is heard around of the ship. Frazer looks out the bridge noticing his escort forming up around his ship. Tom brings up the surrounding space on the holo table. On the holo table are the fleets 22nd carrier group, 14th Tactical and Klixs 15th Fleet. Frazer knows his orders. He has came with his escort to inform the 22nd Carrier Group and the 14th Tactical Fleet to return back to Reach. Frazer wasnt sure why but orders are orders.

"Trayner keep current course, full ahead. Keep our escort in formation. Wilson get me an open channel with Admiral Vardy, Admiral Klix and the Normandy." Wilson nods and begins to bring up the comm link.

"Channel is open and ready sir." Frazer nods and moves closer to Wilson, looking out towards the open space in front of him.

"Admirals, sorry I am late to the show. I have came from orders from Reach High Command to ask you, Admiral Vardy, to take you, your fleet and the 22nd Carrier Group back to Reach for reassignment. I am unsure the reasoning behind this. They will need you to return as we speak right now." Frazer waits a few seconds to allow Admiral Vardy and the fleets to make the preparations to leave. "Admiral Klix, sir. I am here with a small escort to reinforce your fleet and to go under your command. We are standing by and awaiting further orders." Frazer waits for the reply from Admiral Klix as he does so he notices the 22nd and the 14th Fleet move away from the 15th Fleet and prepare for slipspace.

[MrKill]

[OOC: About two hours have passed on the ground mission since the Marines deployed, I figured I'd just use that already passed time to re-link with the fleet. In regards to the NAVCOM message, I was asked to get the UNSC fleet back in action by Llau, and was informed Dave (Vardy) wouldn't be continuing the mission.]

Admiral Eric Klix
UNSCS Iowa
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser
15th Battlegroup Fleet

Though Eric had managed to regroup with the UNSC Navy since deploying his Marines - about an hour and a half ago on a rough estimate - they were still holding position outside Covenant weapon range. His battle group had rejoined formation but they were at a dead stop; it was almost like they were observing the Covenant warships maintain their orbital presence instead of contesting it. By now a few Covenant warships, a destroyer in particular, had deployed troop transports to the surface. Sensors had identified multiple drop ships before they entered the atmosphere.

Eric understood the situation. The Marines he deployed would need reinforcements - and soon. He had made the assumption they were already taking casualties before he had regrouped with the UNSC fleet, but during his return he never thought of a viable way to send more reinforcements. His trick worked once, at least he thought it did, but the truth of what really saved him was probably his speed. The Marines had only moments to deploy from the Iowa before the planet was out of range, and they were going far to fast for the Marine transports to return to the warship.

"Sir, multiple warships have just entered normal space. It's the UNSCS Tassafaronga and escort." The tactical officer reported.

"Verified, sir. Friend of foe track radar has confirmed their signature." The second tactical officer reported.

Oh? Eric though for a moment.

York's ship was one of just four completed Punic hulls, and likely the only four to be produced, as the war continued to hurl downwards for humanity. They were one of the few UNSC warships that could effectively combat the Covenant, the others being the higher end cruisers. The question on his mind, however, was 'why the fuck are two of them here'. The planet wasn't overly valuable to the UNSC's overall war effort if Eric recalled. Why was the UNSC committing so many valuable ships to a fight.

He pondered for a minute while a transmission came through.

"The 14th and 22nd fleets have been recalled to Reach, sir. The new arrivals are also joining our formation." The communications officer reported.

Now it made sense; in order for the Tassafaronga to arrive so soon they must have been dispatched immediately after Vardy had left. He did the math in his head as quick as he could. If the 14th and 22nd fleets made up 43 combat warships taken from the Reach defence fleet, it left Reach with just over 120 UNSC warships. Well below the 150 minimum NAVCOM and ONI had suggested a while ago.

Simply put: someone fucked up the deployment orders and left Reach weakened.

All though 120 UNSC warships was still a large number, it wasn't nearly enough if a Covenant invasion fleet had arrived. Eric though it was amusing that Reach and Earth harboured the last remnants of any 'large' fleet. The 'Home Fleet' was, at any given time since Admiral Cole's death, over one hundred UNSC warships of various classes. The Epsilon Defence Fleet was supposed to be at least 150 warships at any given time.

But that left another question.

Why would the UNSC send a Punic to answer that question?

The only thing Eric could think of was to replace the one that was leaving, along with its fleet, so that the UNSC forces left in this system still had warships capable of combating the Covenant. Though the UNSC combined fleet was well equipped, 43 of them would be leaving. Eric made an easy subtraction: that would leave his fleet with only 15 warships, should all of them go.

"Sir, we're picking up a message that was automatically sent to us from High Command when our reinforcements arrived. Your eyes only." A communications officer said.

Eric strode over to his terminal and read the message.

United Nations Space Command Order 221003-1A
Encryption Code: Retina unlock -- // YOUR EYES ONLY //
Public Key: CLASSIFIED, UNAVAILABLE.
From: UNSC/NAVCOM Sector One
To: Admiral Klix, Eric S.; Admiral Vardy, David.
Subject: Orders
Classification: CLASSIFIED (SecOrd Directive)

/... Loading file .../
/... Retina confirmed. .../
/... Identity confirmed. .../

Admirals, you won't see me type this twice, but NAVCOM made a potentially disastrous mistake. I feel almost bad not informing Rear Admiral York that we planted this message in his computer network, but it needed to be kept for your eyes only; this message purged itself when it was sent. This is encrypted to the highest level and contains valuable and tactical information, so destroy the message entirely when you are finished reading it. Lock the information into your neural lace and don't let yourself be captured.

Reach is near defenceless. We made a mistake, and it might cost us if the Covenant find out. We deployed the 14th, 22nd, 9th and 6th fleets from our system in one week anticipating reinforcements from an outer colony still producing warships. Those reinforcements never came since ONI informed High Command that this particular colony was close to Covenant patrols, so we've had to dispatch yet another fleet to protect it.

Reach is being defended by a mere forty seven warships and the orbital defence grid.

Admiral Vardy: // EYES ONLY // ((Only Dave can see this: Your orders are to return to Reach and reinforce her defences with at least forty warships from the 22nd and 14th fleets; leave Klix enough warships to combat the Covenant. Immediately after reporting to Fleet Command you are to prepare a war game to simulate a Covenant invasion into the system. Cause? This message was leaked and read by the Covenant. Delete and purge after reading - Cole Protocol style, NAVCOM out."))

Admiral Klix: // Access granted, classified, your eyes only. // Your orders are to engage the Covenant - if able - in a series of hit and run attacks until reinforcements from Heredia III (4.2 LY away) and Tamia II (5.6 LY away) arrive; they have already been dispatched and should arrive in between the 12-14 hour marks. Your fleet should consist of eighteen active warships, not including any auxiliary vessels and prowlers in system. Forces from Heredia include: (1) Marathon Cruiser, (2) Virtue Attack Carriers, (4) Halberd Destroyers, (10) Paris Frigates; reinforcements from Tamia II include: (1) Marathon Cruiser, (5) Halberd Destroyers, (9) Paris Frigates.

Overall fleet composition, if no casualties are inflicted, is:

(1) Marathon II class cruiser
(3) Marathon I class Cruisers
(2) Virtue class carriers
(1) Punic class super carrier
(19) Halberd class destroyers
(26) Paris class frigates

NAVCOM out.

Eric finished reading the secured and encrypted order before erasing it from his computer and informing the AI on the Iowa to 'purge it into hell'.

"Right... Open a channel to York." Eric ordered.

A moment passed and the communications officer nodded.

"Nice of you to join us, Rear Admiral. I trust your journey is slipstream was uneventful?"

[Huka]

Task Force Commander Sanj ‘Aquiree
Aboard CCS-class battlecruiser Righteous Monsoon, Combat Information Center
Rally Point of Covenant Task Force
True Combat of the Stars


The Monsoon quivered at the strikes landing on her bare hull, energy shields were down by a surprise volley while she was making evasions for the enemy’s flagship. Sanj sneered under his mask, the bubbles rupturing to his mandibles’ hisses. Hand gripping tight around his symbol of combat. “Shipmaster, they have punctured into deck 03! Huragok maintenance working seal!”

It was only a matter of ticks before the Operations Master quickly revised his last warning, “Enemy forces spilling! Infiltration!”

“Quiet, Operations. Alarm the Security. I am joining them.” Sanj ordered much more calmly, his voice resonating through the respirator’s audio filters. “B-But we need you here, sire.” Another of the bridge officers said, the Aquir shipmaster didn’t even give him the grace of his eyes’ direction to that bout of doubt. “I trust my crew to work efficiently in my absence. Second, you have command of this battle for now.” “Aye, Shipmaster.” The major growled with a hint of eagerness, stepping forward in two long strides forward from the command chair while Sanj lifted his frame.

His quill-mantled cape flowed to the back of his left leg, the Task Force Commander made one long look at the battlefield visualized by the viewscreen. The heretics were down to five ships from their original thirteen in the battle. Their corpses pulled for the gas giant behind them, a couple motionless to the parasitic raid of his Kig-yar ships. Everything was a high note despite the loss of one of their corvettes.


In that regard, Sanj turned on his heels and marched through the leftmost door in a swift pace. A number of his clan rangers marching at his flanks, their weapons drawn and plasma coils humming in desire for bubbling blood. One of them - noted in decoration of veterancy along his thoracic cage’s collar - pulled out a plasma rifle from his waist to pass to his Shipmaster. “Do you think the ground campaign is handling well?” The trained specialist queried without breaking stride. The Zealot glanced down at the weapon and took it with a casual examining.

It was humming of a recently replaced energy core, fresh from the weapon lockers. However, like many of his rank, Sanj had little urgency to use projectile weapons and put it to his waist holster. The magnetic clip snapping the firearm securely. “Field Marshal ‘Muramai have faith in his Chieftain and I have faith in him.” He answered simply, speaking over the security alarms that soon blurred in the hall. The hunting party twisted and moved through the sleek maze that consisted a Covenant naval ship’s innards, memorized to the faintest detail with constant reviews out of combat.

“What we need to care for, is the humans and their ships.” Sanj said sharply, squinting in his transparent visor to the constant scenarios in his mind. He have reviewed the Field Marshal’s previous encounters with this enemy fleet a number of times. They were exceptionally resilient and mused experiences that few of their kinds were allowed to live through twice for. Veterans of this war and survivalists. He had to cunning and if their original plan work, the Humans will be overwhelmed and the Heretics may be crippled in the crossfires.

Sanj had no intention of joining the countless ships to be claimed in their involvement, well-aware of the superstitious curse held.

His ship shuddered again, a soft groan of metal outside their hull being marred again. Energy shields should be up soon. The sounds of internal combat was drawing closer until one door blasted open to reveal a small lance of Unggoy led by a Sangheili. Oxygen was pulled in and vacuum tried to pull the force in, but the experienced warriors immediately clicked their internal commands in their helmets. Magnetism gripping their soles to the floor and zero-g suits twitching from external breathing instantly.

It took one quick check to know the newcomers’ allegiance. Their armor was off of the ship’s particular issue.

Immediately, the Rangers had their carbines up and fired in practiced volley of bursts. The radioactive beams cut through the Unggoy chitin and inner meat with little worry, their bioluminous blood spilling on Sanj’s deck. The heretical Sangheili tried to backpedal back in wild return fire, but he wasn’t expecting the Covenant shipmaster to be joining the fight. His shields were cut in twine by the time his first bolt fired, body jerked in the bolts striking, slicing and ending his body’s retreat with a pained scream ripping from his jaws.

Sanj stepped over the bodies, a couple twitched in midair and whimpered but quickly ended with bolts from one of the Rangers behind him. One each. Stepping through the threshold, the damage was more extensive than the shipmaster expected. There was a mild scar on his beautiful vessel with a gap made from the landed Tick. Huragok were already outside, knitting the metal like silkweavers with scraps and their own brought equipment. A number of security lances were already in, combating the Heretics and their infectious presence. Sneering under his mask, the Shipmaster whipped his command scepter into his hand and squeezed its pressure padding.

Its triple pronged top extended outward and speared end the same, the serrated points splayed and clicked soundlessly. “Get these mongrels off my ship.” He commanded before coiling his legs and lunged through the temporary zero-gravity. A Heretic tilted his head, perhaps catching a reading off his motion tracker and turned to this faster moving object. Eyes widened under their visor at the sight of the golden-armored commander before a knee drove his throat in and snapped his head up. The energy shield popped and carbine munition carved through the exposed bodysuit at the abdomen and leg.

Whirling his weapon in the middle of a graceful maneuver - almost worth to say the Aquiree moved like a sea-dancer, Sanj whacked a plasma pistol from one Sangheili’s aimed hand, snapped his speared bottom at the jugular notch. Piercing through and ripping out in one swift motion, the momentum of his current spin saving the Zealot’s energy shields from a slash of a ill-trained swordsman before his prongs soundlessly crackled projected electrical currents between themselves and thrusted down.

When the heretic came again with a little better use of zero-g, his weapon arm was caught between the prongs. The electricity zapped at the shields at an alarm rate, Sanj could almost heard the angered scream in the swordsman’s own pressured helmet as he used the trapped arm to motion himself to the floor. The bodygloved suit’s material scarred and melted to the high voltages, but its design saved him from instantaneous passing.

Magnetism gripping him to the floor again, Sanj yanked his weapon one way with his head swiveling to evade the Sangheili plasma blade in an overhead slash. A knee to the side. The heretic snapped a plasma pistol from his hip and tried to shoot the Zealot in the groin at the same time he managed to catch the veteran fighter in the lower jaw with a snapped elbow. Sanj’s built-in anti-grav thrusters shot him to the flank even more. Releasing and reactivating his boots to get a sturdy balance. In the new angle, thrusted his weapon out and raked the prongs along the heretic’s arm from wrist and back to biceps.

Those shields were overloaded and gave Sanj the opportunity to twist the weapon arm right by the elbow joint with the electricity stunning the desire of motion painfully so. Maximizing his thrusters’ power, the Zealot swept the heretic off his feet at the same time of his own trident’s electrical currency overloading the infiltrator’s systems long enough to shut out the magnetic boots. Bursting in a diagonal, he reversed the momentum in a hectic spin, sending his opponent into a disastrous spiral and one more burst, impaled the Heretic into the floor. Trident spearing through the stomach and from the short pause before driving even harder, the spine. Body spasming and steaming from its wounds as the electricity cooked its innards.

However, Sanj didn’t have time to savor as a couple more infiltrators came at his flank. Bolts hitting his rear and shoulder, with shields blurring in anger to someone attacking his form. Snapping his plasma rifle from his hip, he turned into a low stance with his thrusters used into mobility that his opponents had a similar notion to do.

One lunged forward to engage, but Sanj didn’t give him such a courtesy, immediately fighting bolts at him and the momentum just carried the Heretic into every one of them. A hole punched through the corner of the Sangheili’s abdomen, not enough to instantly kill him until the Shipmaster moved to slice his gut open with a flicked summon of his energy dagger.

Hurling the floating body aside, he nearly had his neck sliced by another dagger’s swipe. Instincts of honed combat and aquatic life full of ambush predators caused the shipmaster to roll his upper body in a sideways wheel’s motion before double hammer fisting the attempted assassin’s head and right arm. The sound of metal sliced by a couple inches and energy shields failing for that brief motion, Sanj caught the assassin had a second blade out.

When those burning daggers came again, Sanj elbowed the attacker hard across the jaws enough to redirect the attacks and pop the shields from the close-quarter force, twisting his other arm back around his neck and ‘flipped’ the fool when he tried to jet out of the Zealot’s grab. Wide open to see the zealot blast three clean shots through his torso, catching a thruster to malfunction and thrust the body off to the side for a bone-crushing crash to the wall.

The security had the rest in distracted combat, able to catch a short breath and restore his shields, the zealot quickly retrieved his trident and swam to the rest of the fray.

[MrKill]

Admiral Eric Klix
UNSCS Iowa
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser
15th Fleet

"Uh, sir, it appears that they are... shooting at each other." A tactical officer reported.

"What?" Eric recoiled, genuinely surprised at the news.

He glanced over at the holographic table, body following through with the motion, and immediately noticed the man was right.

One of their CCS Class Battlecuisers had been hit by another Covenant warship. Multiple smaller purple dots 'swarmed' the impact site, but the sensors were to far away to make any real renders of what the small craft were. If Klix had to guess, it was either some form of repair vessel or the perpetrator to the attack - the Covenant vessel that had fired on the CCS Cruiser - had launched boarding craft.

Eric closed in on the table to examine the information better. He watched at the dots closed in and disappeared when they got closer to the wounded warship.

"We need to take advantage of this," Eric muttered. His XO had joined him by then to view the information as well. "But how do I proceed to deploy the 15th?"

The XO remained quiet for a moment.

"Well we can't shoot 'down' into the planet, sir. What if we moved our fleet here." The XO said.

The younger officer created a scenario for the holographic table. Within a moment he had put the UNSC fleet into a firing position on a perpendicular plain in order to fire on the Covenant without hitting the planet at all. Unfortunately this put the UNSC fleet into an orbital position away from their main unit on the ground, but it could get the job done. The large group of Covenant warships could be engaged easily by this defensive position, however the smaller pocket of Covenant ships could not. They were on the other side of the planet with this approach.

"If we did it this way, sir, we'd be able to focus on the larger Covenant fleet while there is still some kind of... infighting going on." The XO said.

"Do it," Eric ordered sharply. "Move the fleet into position, send these coordinates to the rest of our fleet."

The Iowa lunged forward as the navigation officer also received the coordinates from the XO. Eric felt the warship accelerate rapidly a moment later as it cleared any UNSC reinforcements that had arrived. The XO cleared the scenario, watching as the renders of Paris-Class Frigates and Halberd-Class Destroyers formed up on the Iowa as it started to head for the planet once again.

The angle of approach would put the larger fleet into the firing lines of the smaller pocket of Covenant ships, so at least one problem was dealt with. Of course, with the time it would take to get into position, the Covenant could respond to the rapid movement of a UNSC naval deployment. But now was the time to capitalise on what ever the fuck was going on with the two battle-groups.

"Comms, open up a channel with the Paschendale, I was the CO." Eric ordered.

"Channel open, sir." The communications officer replied in a moment.

"Iowa Actual to Paschendale Actual[/i][/color], my XO has sent you coordinates that we're mobilising to, so inspect them on your holo-table when you get the chance. If you noticed, there seems to be... some kind of disagreement between two ships that has lead to armed conflict between the two. We're going to take advantage of that and get us in range so we can engage. We will close to about fifty thousand kilometres and begin firing on the larger Covenant formation with our primary weapons, if they don't react to our movement in the first place. Thoughts?" Eric said.

He had more to do, however, and manually switched the channel over to an encrypted channel between the Iowa and Tassafaronga.

"Admiral York, Klix, I have to make this brief. My XO has sent you deployment orders, but we're going to need fighter cover. Deploy all available assets and blanket the formation, you'll receive more 'official' orders soon. Klix out." Eric said, hoping to get in the transmission before Matvey responded. He was pleased when it was sent through the encrypted channel.

"Deploy our longswor-" Eric was beginning to say.

"Sir! One of the Covenant Warships is heading into the atmosphere!" The tactical officer shouted.

Eric once again returned his glare onto the holographic table. Sure enough, one of their warships had begun descending into the atmosphere.

"Motherfucker." Eric said under his breath.

There was little to nothing he could do.

"Options?" Eric asked.

"We could send in the longswords." The XO said.

"I don't think that would work," Eric replied. "PDG's would tear them apart."

"No, sir, I meant all of them." The XO corrected.

"Missile barrage." Eric muttered.

"Sorry, sir?" The XO asked.

"A missile barrage, on the ship entering atmosphere." Eric said.

"Wouldn't the missiles burn up on entry."

God damn it. Eric though. "Yeah, probably."

"I go back to the longswords, sir."

"Five hundred longswords against a single warship entering atmosphere. I don't know if that'll even crack the shields, besides how many would break through the PDG network?"

"I think enough would, sir, and if we put a SHIVA on them... well, it only takes one to create a EMP. Another to blow it into a million atoms!"

"Cooler heads, XO. You would leave the fleet defenceless to boarding parties and strafe attacks. Casualties would be unreasonably high, as well."

The XO scratched his chin for a moment.

"We're going to have to force it to come up then, sir."

"Exactly." Eric replied, turning his focus on the Covenant fleet.

"Stay on course, sir?" The XO asked.

"Best we can do for now, XO." Eric said, scratching the stubble that had started to come in since his last shave.

The Iowa, along with the rest of the 15th Fleet, had been mobilised. It was only a matter of time before they got into position. Now, like any chess game, he had to wait and see what the Covenant did before he could plan further ahead.

[Cabel]

[Inner Colonies: System: Panis Eterni Sector: Planet: Esperanza II: Current Location: Outer Panis Eterni System: 14th Tactical Response Fleet: UNSCS Passchendaele: Marathon Class I Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser: Bridge: Captain Matvey Daniilovich Galina]

“Iowa Actual to Passchendaele Actual, my XO has sent you coordinates that we‘re mobilizing to, so inspect them on your holo-table when you get the chance. If you noticed, there seems to be…some kind of disagreement between two ships that has led to armed conflict between the two. We‘re going to take advantage of that and get us in range so we can engage. We will close to about fifty thousand kilometers and begin firing on the larger Covenant formation with our primary weapons, if they don‘t react to our movement in the first place. Thoughts?” he‘d heard Admiral Klix‘s voice over transmission directed towards the Passchendaele.

“Lieutenant, open a channel to the Iowa using an encrypted frequency, and keep rotating that encryption and transfer it to my station here at the holo-table,” Matvey replied having heard the Admiral‘s plan, and had even started the own gears in his mind moving on how to execute that plan.

“Line open, Sir, at your station on a rotating encryption,” Lieutenant Louise Denrae reported from her station at the Communication‘s stations.

“Passchendaele Actual to Iowa Actual, we are with you. I assume you know this has to be executed with speed and haste. Passchendaele Actual, out,” Matvey said, having picked up the hand-unit at his station at the holo-table before turning face the rest of the bridge crew. “Commander Qelar, and Nadezhda increase the ship’s status to TAC Con Alpha One. Bring all weapons up to the increased readiness. Cycle ARCHER Missiles again, and feed more coolant into the MLA turret lines. Bring all crews back up to readiness status. Charge both cannon, use one or two of the auxiliary reactors if you must. Commander Kantle, bring the main reactors online to give enough thrust to keep us in formation. Set the main reactor to eighty percent with twenty percent on the secondary main reactor. Keep two of the auxiliaries to charge the main cannons, and the other auxiliary in reserve. When I give the word, push the primary reactor to one hundred percent and the secondary main to thirty percent,”

Moments after he’d conveyed his orders, the increase to the ship’s readiness, amber indicators replaced the soft-white lighting on the bridge and throughout the ship. He’d known the crew had been at TAC Con Alpha Two, a step down from the highest tactical alert of TAC Con Alpha One due to the distance between the Covenant Fleet and the UNSC Fleet having been great enough for the second lowest alert to have been possible. The increase to TAC Con Alpha One had meant that weapons had been charged again, primed, and crewmen had taken the extra measures while those crewmen that had been fortunate enough to have gone off-duty had been wakened from their bunks before racing to their stations.

“All hear this; All hear this. TAC Con Alpha One has been initiated. TAC Con Alpha One is in effect. We have been given orders with the rest of the Fleet to meet the Covenant Fleet currently engaged in dissention. Say again, TAC Con Alpha One is in effect,” Matvey conveyed over the hand-held com-unit before setting it back on its hook and cradle at his station. “Lieutenant Denrae, open an encrypted frequency to our escorts and to the Iowa. Inform them of our readiness, and to bring their own status to TAC Con Alpha One if they haven’t done so,”

“Aye, Sir,” Lieutenant Louise Denrae replied from her station and followed through using a rotating encrypted frequency to contact the rest of the ships involved.

[Wax™]

Rear Admiral Jonathon Michael

USNCS Unto the Abyss

Epoch-Class Heavy Carrier

Tag: MrKill

Two star Admiral Jonathon stood patiently in the centre of his bridge a meter or so away from the 'Captain's' chair. He stood up tall with his back straight and shoulders square. Both hands behind his back with one hand clasping the opposite one's wrist. He waited patiently for the Unto the Abyss to exist slip space alongside the Gemini. Two of many ships sent to assist the newly formed 15th Fleet lead by none other than Admiral Eric Klix. Jonathon was once considered the ageing Admirals prodigy, but an unforeseen chain of events landed Jonathon in a different system, on a different mission and forcing him to give up his role in the Admirals former fleet, also forcing Jonathon to give up his prized possession the UNSCS Athenian, which was destroyed in a mission he had no control over. Jonathon looked down to the set of two silver stars which were clipped to his collar. He wore them with pride and distinction and they meant a hell of a lot to him considering they once belonged to Admiral Klix himself. Jonathon was knocked out of his little day dream as his navigation's officer Lieutenant Hendricks spoke.

"Admiral Sir... We're exiting slip space in five." The man spoke.

"Thank you Lieutenant... Lieutenant Wilson." Jonathon said, addressing the ships weapons officer Lieutenant Clair Wilson.

"Sir?"

"Arm all archer missile pods and begin the charging of both of our MAC cannons as soon as we exit slip space... We don't know what we're in for."

"Yes sir."

"Exiting slip space now Sir." Hendricks said over the pair.

Jonathon turned his head forward to look out of the main view port of the bridge which was currently covered by the blast shields which lower themselves during slip space travel. As they rose up the planet Esperanza II instantly filled up the view point including a few nearby USNC ships, they were small but large enough to notice.

"Sir... Ships coming up on the holo now." Operations officer Commander Joshua Kelly spoke.

Jonathon left his spot and made his way closer to the front of the bridge to step in front of the centrally located holo-table. He watched as ships both UNSC and Covenant in nature appeared on the view port. He instantly noticed two Covenant ships attacking one another and a third ship entering if not already in Esperanza's atmosphere.

"Hendricks... Plot a course for us to join Admiral Klix's ship."

"Yes Sir."

"Lieutenant Smith." Jonathon said to the communications officer. "...Open up a channel between myself and Admiral Klix."

"Yes Sir." There was a slight delay of several seconds before Smith spoke again. "Opening up a channel with Admiral Klix now Sir... You're live."

"Admiral Klix... This is Rear Admiral Michael of the UNSCS Unto the Abyss... I have alongside me Commander Vickers we're here to do whatever we can and assist with the mission at hand... Navcom has made it very apparent that I am under you command for the duration of the mission. Be advised I have marine assets on board and a full arsenal of vehicles and weaponry should any ground units need reinforcements."

[Huka]

Task Force Commander Sanj ‘Aquiree
Flagship CCS-class battlecruiser Righteous Monsoon, Deck 03 -- Secondary Cargo Hold
Rally Point of the Covenant Task Force

Nearly tearing the last Sangheili’s torso wide open with a sizzling gash of gore and bone with one savage arc of his trident, the Shipmaster reangled himself to swat the spasming heretic’s body clear off its feet. Head swiveling quickly to clear his flank and sides, Sanj moved his own body along.

“Clear!” One ranger barked out, mimicked by others with the stench of death and hissing overheated plasma sticking in the air. Sanj looked up at the exo-geared Huragok working as diligently as possible, even using the still gripping Tick’s hull to knit his ship’s wound. “Second, report!” Sanj ordered, flicking his weapon to let the prongs retreat into inactivity and their energy flow cutting.

A dying corvette hovered in view before plasma torpedoes torn it apart for a silent death. “The battle is won, Commander.” His Second finally answered, voice raw of combat urgency. “The Heretics ships are downed, the Kig-yar shipmaster have the destroyer under its own defenses. However, the Shipmistress...she isn’t in position.” Sanj blinked his third eyelids, as if feeling the repercussions at that.

“Signal all of the task force to repositioning. We are moving to the planet, immediately!’ He ordered, turning his back and marched towards the bridge. “Aye, Commander.”


Shipmaster Chur’R-Suf
Aboard Covenant frigate Bloodied Coin, Bridge
Rally Point of the Covenant Task Force

Inhale. Exhale.

Suf breathed the wispy vapors of his ga’la’ga-la concoction from his nostrils and toothy maw, thumb tapping under his commissioned pipe at the same motion, letting the mouth piece drum on his bottom teeth. Dull eyes staring at the beautiful sight of a ruined enemy. The ships rolling in a sea of infinite black and majestic twinkling stars, beautiful enough to paint.

With a press of his command chair, the image was taken for reference to his nest painters. A number will be made, for his house and for selling in a very high collectors’ pricing. Maybe a few similar versions for his grand-chicks. The Heretics’ Drifting Pyre.

“Boss, we have the prisoners.” Sun Bol growled through communications, letting Suf tap on his controls and summon a side screen of the boarding party dragging a number of survivors from the heretics’ destroyer. Mostly Unggoy and Kig-yar, only two heavily-bound Sangheili. Their people had a tendency to kill themselves anyway, so it was less trouble to Suf.

The Rhuu’Shan was about to slip from his chair when an alarm came to his attention. Tapping the glyph, the Second to the Righteous Monsoon could be seen standing in his master’s command center platform. “All of the task force, we are leaving. Prepare for slipspace plan Secondary. Those of heavy damage, you will retreat to safe zone for repairs and await further orders.”

Clicking the roof of his maw with his tongue, Suf quickly looked back to the first screen and readjusted his command. “Belay that, pick the good load and reject the rest.” In the screen, the armored Championess looked for a moment and gave their usual question, “Who want to live and who want to die?”

The quickest in a quarter-rook was spared, the rest were immediately met to the firing squad from behind and hurled through the containment field. Suf didn’t even blink to this, a little less half were spared. Nevertheless, they will be put into the brig for further interrogation while Navigations adjusted to the upcoming command.

[MrKill]

Admiral Eric Klix
UNSCS Iowa
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser
90, 000 KMs from the planet

"Sir, we're less than one hundred thousand kilometres from the planet," The XO begun, but stopped briefly as he watched the Covenant ships on the holographic table turn around. "But the Covenant have dealt with what ever they had to deal with. They're returning to the planet." The XO finished, tapping on the holo-tables rim. Eric could see for himself that the Covenant warships were returning to their previous positions around the planet.

"Our weapons are at the highest readiness, correct?" Eric asked.

"Yes sir." The XO replied, but before he could add anything else, the tactical officer took the moment to speak up.

"Sir, we're picking up another UNSC friend or foe identification tag. Friend-Foe track radar has confirmed an Epoch class heavy carrier and its escort have entered normal space." The tactical officer reported. Eric looked back towards the holographic table, something he seemed to do frequently at this age, and noticed that there had been a new addition to the total fleet numbers.

An Epoch? Eric questioned. The aged Admiral had been serving in the Navy since the insurrection and he had never seen, much less received, an Epoch class carrier before. He knew they existed, read about them from time to time, but never really dedicated the muscle memory to remember such a rare warship. Even the Punic class super-carriers seemed more frequent than the Epoch's, and there were only four of the behemoth super carriers.

"We're receiving a transmission, sir."

Eric listened as the commanding officer, one Rear Admiral Micheal, relayed the purpose for his arrival.

"Issue them orders to join the fleets formation." Eric said.

"Aye, sir." The communications officer replied. "UNSCS Unto the Abyss, UNSCS Iowa, come to heading one-seven-seven and hold until zero. Rejoin the fleet and assume tactical position in a capital staggered formation. Five hundred meter spread, five hundred meter offset. Iowa out."

"Good," Eric thought. "Open an encrypted text line between the two of us." Eric though.

A moment passed and the aged Admiral sat down at his command chair.

>> ADM. KLIX, E: Good to see you well, son.
>> ADM. KLIX, E: Not a lot of time for pleasantries, I'm afraid, Covenant are bearing down on us and we don't have the numerical support.
>> ADM. KLIX, E: But we do have one thing: The Punic.
>> ADM. KLIX, E: If you remember anything from the most recent refits, the Punic got two 'super' MACs installed.
>> ADM. KLIX, E: So when you get into position deploy your fighters and defend the fleet, like a warm blanket, Klix out.

Klix wish he could have spoke longer with his former apprentice, but time simply didn't allow them the favour of luxury. The distance to target had closed ten thousand kilometres already, leaving only ninety thousand between him and his target position. The speed was honestly child's play for the UNSC and Covenant alike, but this close to a gravity well you took caution not to overdo it... Ironic, considering what Eric had done to deploy his Marines. He overdid it then, and he was planning on overdoing it now.

"Sound general quarters, set condition to Alpha One." Eric ordered. He took the ship to Alpha Three and stood down general quarters so crewmen and Marines could 'freshen' up in a manner of speaking, but they were about to engage.

"Comms, open a fleet wide channel." Eric ordered. The communications officer nodded when it was ready.

"15th, this is actual, we're a few minutes away from being in range of the planet. Deploy all interceptors, power your main cannons and get ready for combat. Cruisers and Carriers, focus on the heavier targets first, use the larger MAC to your advantage. Frigates, Destroyers, work in pairs and take down the lowest tonnage but highest threats first by focusing fire, one at a time. Good luck, Klix out."

[Cabel]

[Inner Colonies: System: Panis Eterni Sector: Planet: Esperanza II: Current Location: Near the Planet Esperanza II: 15th Fleet: UNSCS Passchendaele: Marathon Class I Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser: Bridge: Captain Matvey Daniilovich Galina]

“Fifteenth, this is Actual. We’re a few minutes away from being in range of the planet. Deploy all Interceptors, power your main cannons and get ready for combat. Cruisers and Carriers, focus on the heavier targets first, use the larger MAC to your advantage. Frigates, Destroyers, work in pairs and take down the lowest tonnage but highest threats first by focusing fire, one at a time. Good luck, Klix out,” rang the Admiral’s voice, the designated commander of the gathered composite 15th Fleet over the ship’s intercoms. Matvey had given permission, with a gesture to Lieutenant Louise Denrae to have switched the incoming transmission from the Iowa over the fleet-wide encrypted rotating frequency over the intercoms linked throughout the ship. For all of his gruffness and experience, the Russian-born aristocratic officer had known one thing bound a crew together and gave determination for an entire crew had been the commanding Admiral’s voice blaring over the intercoms.

“Our orders are given. Deploy all Interceptors on a screening pattern, but give them discretion when to attack if given the opportunity. Bring all defenses online. Close the blast shutters, and reinforce Nadezhda’s Faraday cage core. Initiate all electronic countermeasures, and infiltration programs. Keep a rotating encryption on all outbound and inbound transmissions, and archive said transmissions. Reinforce the cameras against incoming fire, and have them ready to retract into the hull,” Matvey ordered, looking around the bridge. The Senior members of his crew, the Department Heads, lay busy at their stations while auxiliaries or back-up crewmen in those departments lay in wait at auxiliary stations and monitors to take over when a crewman had been injured, as amber indicators cast lines on hardened faces creating an otherworldly surreal quality twisting the known faces. The Passchendaele's bridge had been designed with only armored bulkheads rather than the risky portal Matvey had felt granted Captains and Admirals out of vanity a view of the stars unfiltered by video-feeds, and had at worst represented a vulnerability that had the tendency to have been exploited in an engagement. Blast shutters throughout the ship slid into place over port-holes and other potentially vulnerable spots along the titanium-A battleplate covered hull.

The order for several marine squads reinforcing the security on the bridge hadn’t even been given, or at least Matvey hadn’t had to give it when two squads of marines had emptied out of the lifts onto the bridge and took up defensive positions with barricades in the likely event the Passchendaele had been boarded, and as with the marines the entire bridge crew including the auxiliaries had been issued M6D magnum sidearms. Though, Matvey had girded the scabbard of the Cossack saber on his right side due to having been left-handed and trained in left-handed sword-techniques, complete with the leather bound and silver hilt of the Cossack saber designed to have been drawn with a flick of the wrist with an M6 magnum sidearm firm in its holster for easy draw on his left side. He’d taken the time to have visited his quarters to arm himself, and had decided on the proven Cossack saber and the M6 Sidearm with two spare magazines for the magnum tucked into the belt for the holster.

“Status on the cannons?” Matvey asked.

“The Primary cannon is at ninety-seven percent charge and rising, while the Secondary cannon has achieved ninety-five percent charge and rising. We should achieve one hundred percent charge in ninety-seconds,” Commander Alice Qelar reported from the primary weapons station.

“Status of MLA network?” the Russian Captain inquired.

“The MLA turrets have been primed, with a belt fed supply of ammunition and coolant. We shouldn’t have any problems as long as the coolant lasts,” Nadezhda, the Passchendaele’s ‘Third Generation‘ SMART A.I. reported having transferred herself to a more reinforced holo-pedestal on the bridge.

“What of the ARCHER Batteries?” Matvey asked.

“The ARCHER Missiles have been cycled, and primed. SHIVA Warheads have been placed on rapid stand-by with only your voice and code required to activate them,” the Passchendaele‘s A.I. explained.

“Good,” Matvey, son of Daniel, said having taken his place at the holo-situation table. The individual ships, with smaller holographic representations of the hundreds of Interceptors deployed from the amassed composite 15th Fleet had been projected above the table and presented to Matvey a means to keep an eye on the engagement while plans were formed in his aged mind honed from decades of experience within the UNSC Navy.

[Bippwatt]

Petty Officer Second Class Siobhan-007
Gold Four
Approaching Esperanza-II Orbit, Panis Eterni System
Onboard Diligence Class Fast Destroyer UNSCS Doberman
"The Waiting Game"
(Tags: Llau, охотник, Spartan 999, SuperCommando, SPARTAN-A120)

Siobhan checked her gear over one last time. Well...probably not the last time. But every time she checked it, she told herself it was the last time. She was probably just being overly cautious at this point. The woman shook her head. Overly cautious? More like obsessing.

The Spartan didn't want anything to go wrong here. Or, at least, not on her end. She knew better than most that everything went wrong the moment the battle started. It was just a matter of who had the least go wrong for them and how well they handled shit blowing up in their faces. She was determined for her and her partner to be the ones on top of both categories. Speaking of her partner. Siobhan turned her head to look over at Courtney.

Now there was an enigma wrapped in a mystery locked inside a puzzle. Oh, Siobhan liked her well enough. In fact, she was rather fond of her. She'd only had a couple other teammates over the years since her...recovery that she would be just as willing to lay down her life for. Of course, if the latest news was to be believed, they might just all wind up on the same battlefield today. For the first time in forever. Jethro, though, was relatively simple to figure out. Silas was harder but still relatively straightforward. Courtney though....clearly there was something Siobhan was missing.

One thing was for sure. Siobhan had learned really damn quick not to come up behind her. Sometimes, Siobhan took awhile to form habits. But the habit of always maneuvering to make sure she was in front of Courtney, or if she couldn't, at least making sure Courtney knew she was there had taken all of about two weeks to make...and only three bruises. The first one was the worst. It was actually the first day they'd met.

Siobhan smiled sadly at that memory. It seemed so long ago, even though she couldn't actually remember how long it had been. Shit, it could have been two days ago or two centuries ago. Siobhan's days ran together, only the difference in terrain and stars told her that today was different from yesterday.

She shook her head, remembering how easily Courtney had flattened her out the first time Siobhan had inadvertently snuck up behind the other Spartan. Of course, in her defense, the Scotswoman hadn't exactly been expecting a full-on melee assault from an ally.

Well, not that the flip over Courtney's shoulder to land with a loud thud on the decksole could actually be called a "full-on melee assault", but still. The general concept remained the same. Courtney had apologized, which Siobhan had shrugged off and had apologized herself for startling her. Of course, had she been in armor, she wouldn't have even gotten the bruise...but thank god Courtney hadn't been in armor, or the deckhands would have been scrubbing the paste that had been her off the deckplate.

From there, it had gotten easier, but Siobhan was still curious as to why Courtney so disliked people behind her, even her own teammates. And then there was the fact that she was so...not shy, exactly. Just very...soft spoken and not very forthright with her opinions. Whenever they'd had to interact with other fighting forces or even civilians, Courtney usually left the talking to Siobhan, which tended to give people the impression that she was in charge of their little two-woman team...which was, in point of fact, wrong.

Of course, ultimately, as part of Gold Team, they answered to Gold One, Silas-009. And he, in turn, answered to none other than Lieutenant Commander Moretti, Office of Naval Intelligence. Well, sorta. The chain of command was weird for Spartans. Or, at least, Siobhan had always thought so. But generally, she just followed orders given from anyone higher up the totem pole than her, unless those orders conflicted with orders from someone even higher up the totem pole. Or they were just downright crazy.

Her comms suddenly burst to life and Moretti's voice came through. Speak of the devil.

“Gold Three and Four. What is your ETA? The sooner you two get down here, the sooner we can apprehend this bloody Shipmaster.”

She looked over at Courtney and, assuming that Courtney wouldn't want to take point on that conversation, she went ahead and replied herself, glancing at the display on the bulkhead to ensure she gave Moretti the correct information.

"This is Gold Four to Ombra. ETA thirty mikes. Dinna worry yourself too much, sir. We'll be there.", she finished, a slight tinge of mirth lurking behind her accent. It wasn't anything she could put her finger on that she found...amusing. Rather, it was just a general feeling that it sounded like Moretti already wanted to pull his hair out by the roots.

Siobhan shook her head...and checked the gear again. Maybe she ought to pick up a hobby. Maybe knitting.

[охотник]

Commander Caitlynn Evanna Woods

Diligence Class Fast Destroyer: UNSCS Doberman

Near planet: Esperanza II

Current assignment: Escorting UNSCS Unto the Abyss

Secondary assignment: Drop remainder of GOLD team into combat zone.

Tags: Bippwatt Wax™ Llau

"Moving out of slipspace, distance to Unto the Abyss remains at five thousand kilometre distance, holding position relative to the Epoch."

"Aye Lieutenant, maintain what we have until we get the green light to do our special delivery. Lieutenant Viskal, ensure all weapons are primed and our MAC is ready to go, do not start charging until the Unto The Abyss does or we get within one hundred thousand kilometres of enemy forces, whichever is first."

Woods sat on her chair staring out the windows as the guards dropped from them exiting from their jump. A rather steely look in her eyes as she then spoke up again.

"Lieutenant Grant, please contact the Unto The Abyss and request permission to branch off, then contact... Urr... Morietti and alert him to our ETA. I'm sure the SPARTANs have but better safe than sorry."

"Aye aye Ma'am." The reply from Grant allowed the woman to lean back in her chair, the order to drop off the SPARTANs was quite new, and came from him, and in theory she could override it if she wanted and delay it until the ship was in a better place to branch off but she went with the idea. Seeing a SPARTAN reinforcement request as quite serious. Still though, she couldn't do anything if she didn't get permission to break formation.

After a couple of seconds speech seemed to play out over the noise of the ship and the technology, Grant was always probably a bit louder than normal when relying orders, either that or Wood's bridge was just overly quiet.

UNSCS Doberman to UNSCS Forward onto Abyss, permission to break formation and move towards orbit to drop SPARTAN reinforcements, over.

UNSCS Doberman to Lieutenant Commander Moretti, Please be advised that the Doberman is now awaiting permission to break formation to commence drop, ETA: 30 minutes.

"Ma'am, archer pods A through J are primed, MAC is ready to charge, Nuke launch on your command." The weapons officer spoke up suddenly, causing Woods to nod. Right, so everything was ready to go. Just needed permission to branch off now.

SPARTAN-II: Courtney-021

Gold III

Approaching Esperanza-II Orbit, Panis Eterni System

Onboard Diligence Class Fast Destroyer UNSCS Doberman

Courtney sat quietly, overlooking the DMR she had picked for this mission whilst constantly knocking her helmet with her elbow next to her to check if it hadn't been taken. She didn't like the fact she didn't need it on, of course, she could just put it on and leave it on but sometimes a little wriggle room was nice. Even if it had to be beside her partner, whom whilst she didn't mind being there, was kinda annoying to have to constantly be aware of. Especially as the SPARTAN picked up on the other turning to look at her.

Siobhan to Courtney was... Odd. Not a bad odd, but an odd. Her Scottish accent seemed to fit her too, she always seemed confident, able, easy to get along with for someone who was a SPARTAN which of course nearly made her the opposite of what Courtney was, even down to weapon usage. Then again, Roy preferred CQC. So it was not something she'd readily hold against her.

Eh, who she had to work with was rather irrelevant to her, though she wished 077 would stop trying to work her out. She had noticed the other SPARTAN watching, or looking at her thoughtfully from a distance, ever since the flip. Still, as long as she continued to do the talking, and followed Courtney, then it was fine.

As she moved to her pistol, her comms sprung to life, and Moretti's voice could be heard asking about an ETA. Urgh. Why was he asking them? They didn't command the ship they were on. Still, after picking up at Siobhan looking at her, and giving a dismissive glance back she heard the other SPARTAN respond before she shrugged lightly. Almost in a "I don't care when we're there." In all honesty. Courtney had the patience of a saint, so whether it took them a day or a year, it made no difference to her. Though she did understand they were needed.

(Sorry Bipp! I did try and match your kinda writing about Courtney but too good, I'm too drunk, and just eeh. xD But here it is! Sorry couldn't put us planetside, gotta wait for Wax on that one.)

[Huka]

OOC: I am super sorry about this lateness and wait, but finally, the Covenant is coming with its navy. WAR!

Task Force Commander Sanj ‘Adantee
Aboard the CCS-class battlecruiser Righteous Monsoon
Jumping

The moment that Sanj returned to the command center, he made personal recount of the warband. Almost all, but a couple corvettes, were accounted for. May the losses’ names be recorded on the Righteous Monsoon’s Hall of Memory after this battle. “All ships, plot to given coordination and jump on my command.” The Aquir Zealot commanded, folding his arms over his chest as he strode towards his chair and sat. The throbbing of adrenaline still fresh in his veins, it has been too long since he had personal combat. Real bloody combat.

Underneath, tactical concern boiled as a screen kept a eye on the Humans’ fleet. More came in support of the first fleet while their own numbers repositions and gained some second wind. Damnations, the foolish heretics delayed them - as usual. Time was now, he could see their formations. “Jump!”

Twelve Covenant Frigates were the first to make their jump across the distance between the planet and the heretical colony, using their heightened shields to protect the triplet lances of eight Corvettes slipping right behind them, charging for plasma salvos and seraphs destined to unload their choirs’ deadly graces.

The remaining three Destroyers in Sanj’s visible command formed in inverted triangular formation around the Righteous Moon before they made their jump in different locations. Destroyers pounced through space over the frigates like larger cousins in defense, joining their heavy bomber choirs to the fray in attempt to bombard the Human fleet’s hulls. The furthest charging its energy beam and the Righteous Monsoon making its appearance between forces.

Her presence rolled like a quiet leviathan protected by her brood, but seemed ready to unleash her own form of vengeance. Where the choirs from the lesser ships were meager, the Righteous Monsoon released her swarm as a provoked hive.

[Wax™]

Rear Admiral Jonathon Michael
USNCS Unto the Abyss
Epoch-Class Heavy Carrier

"UNSCS Unto the Abyss, UNSCS Iowa, come to heading one-seven-seven and hold until zero. Rejoin the fleet and assume tactical position in a capital staggered formation. Five hundred meter spread, five hundred meter offset. Iowa out."
Jonathon received the transmission from the UNSCS Iowa just as quick as he sent his, instead of saying anything to his communications officer who was intently looking toward him he simply nodded and waved a hand toward the officer, prompting him to return the message to the Iowa that he understood the orders and would be complying.

Jonathon took a few steps back and sat down in his chair, sure enough shortly after he took a seat and the transmission line between the two capital scale ships shut off, an alert went off in his neural lace to let him know that an encrypted text channel was established by Klix between the pair.

>> ADM. KLIX, E: Good to see you well, son.
>> ADM. KLIX, E: Not a lot of time for pleasantries, I'm afraid, Covenant are bearing down on us and we don't have the numerical support.
>> ADM. KLIX, E: But we do have one thing: The Punic.
>> ADM. KLIX, E: If you remember anything from the most recent refits, the Punic got two 'super' MACs installed.
>> ADM. KLIX, E: So when you get into position deploy your fighters and defend the fleet, like a warm blanket, Klix out.
>> RADM. MICHAEL, J: It's good to see you too Sir.
>> RADM. MICHAEL, J: I'm sure there will be plenty of time for pleasantries after we're finished up here.
>> RADM. MICHAEL, J: I will be sure to deploy all my fighters as well as the fighters of the ships under my command when I am in range.
>> RADM. MICHAEL, J: I understand the Punic is a priority asset in a situation like this.

Jonathon stopped messaging the Admiral there but left the text channel open so that the two Admirals were free to speak to one another without anyone necessarily overhearing. Soon after he stopped messaging Jonathon was alerted by his navigation's officer that a second ship which was assigned to escort him had exited out of slip-space and was rejoining the Unto the Abyss, shortly after this alert a transmission echoed from the COMM's console.

"UNSCS Doberman to UNSCS Unto the Abyss, permission to break formation and move towards orbit to drop SPARTAN reinforcements, over.
" As the message was received, Jonathon had already thrown himself out of his 'captains' chair and made his way over to the communications console, he pushed the manning officer aside for a moment so that he could respond to the UNSCS Doberman himself.

"Doberman, this is Rear Admiral Michael, negative on your request, Covenant are all over friendly forces on the planet and one ship has even descended into atmosphere, you are to follow these orders, given from the Admiral of the Fleet: Make your way to heading one-seven-seven and hold until zero. Rejoin the fleet and assume tactical position in a capital staggered formation. Five hundred meter spread, five hundred meter offset, Break." There was a significant pause between Jonathon's first half of the transmission and the second half of the transmission. "Commander Woods." Jonathon said addressing the commanding officer by name, it had just come to him has he recognised the name of the ship. "I will give you two options, you may drop a pelican right here and now with the SPARTAN assets on board and allow them to high tail it to the planet along a trajectory the Covenant hopefully wont notice, or you can descend to the opposite side of the planet, away from the Covenant and insert them there via Pelican, Before re'joining the fleet. It's either that or you wait until we can push the Covenant back away from the Planet, I'm afraid those are your options as the Covenant presence above this side of the planet is too great to drop any reinforcements via ship, and I am not one to take unnecessary risks..."

After that lengthy transmission Jonathon waited for a reply from the Commanders ship.