September 15th, 2537, 06:35 Hrs
Supply ship, UNSC Brisbane Star
Ships Bridge, Algol system
The peaceful void of space was shattered as the UNSC Brisbane Star, a former Phoenix-class colony ship, refitted as a supply ship, careened out of slip space, aboard it, the ships A.I began the wake-up procedures for its crew in cryo, the skeleton crew moving to receive them, all whilst the ship continued on course to the planet Algolis, to the untrained eye, the Star was on a standard replenishment mission, just to pick up some munitions and aircraft before it returned to the fleet train of supply, repair and hospital ships, which were the backbone of the UNSC's naval operations.
However, there was an additional, more covert purpose to the Stars journey, one only the Captain, the senior officers and the A.I itself were aware of, their assignment was to drop-off a contingent of Spartan's at the planet's weapons research facility, a covert ONI site, specialising in all the covert projects associated with the infamous Spartan program, even the secret ones, nobody onboard had been allowed to see them board the ship, and they had immediately entered cryo before the ship had left, but the A.I had seen them, it was impossible to remain undetected to an A.I, especially when the A.I was the ship.
Had there not been an order forbidding the A.I to speak about the Spartan's to anyone, even those that were aware of their presence, it probably would have informed them that whilst they looked like they were in their late teens or early twenties, none of them were older than 17, the A.I sighed to itself, clearly some serious laws had been broken, but with the threat of early final dispensation if the order was defied, the A.I would remain silent on the matter, as it went through the specific wake up procedure for the Spartan's, one with a noticeable difference to a regular wake up, but the A.I wasn't in any position to question it, orders were orders after all.
September 15th, 2537, 06:50 Hrs
Supply ship, UNSC Brisbane Star
Cryo Bay G, Algol system
Rosenda stumbled out of her Cryo-pod, not out of disorientation, but because her joints were stiff, a normal side effect of being in cryo for weeks, as she stretched her aching joints, she noticed Beth make a more dignified exit from the pod opposite hers, simply stepping out of her's, whilst combing her hands through her blond hair to remove the ice crystals which had formed during their stint in the pods. Rosenda was about to offer Beth a friendly greeting, but Thom coughing his lungs up, caught her attention and priority.
"You ok Thom?" she asked genuinely concerned, whilst coughing was another side effect of cryo, it was not usually at the level that Thom was suffering from.
"No, I slept with my mouth open, and it's full of chemicals and shit" He replied wheezily, the other Spartans in the bay, having heard both the question and its answer, adopted the appropriate response, they began laughing their heads off, Rosenda did too, even the quiet Beth let out a little chuckle, It was his own fault really, he shouldn't have had his mouth open in the first place.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, laugh it up" Thom muttered as the room descended into howls of laughter, which lasted a few moments before it started to die out, "Right if you're finished, I suggest we wake up his majesty" Thom announced drawing everyone's attention to Jake, who had been left in cryo whilst everyone else woke up, which brought everyone to their senses as everyone knew the exact reason for why Jake was still in cryo.
"Yeah, we really should let him out, alright guys you know the drill" Rosenda ordered as she moved to the controls next to the pod, with Thom taking up a position near the pod's door, Beth meanwhile had retrieved a canteen and a disposable bag, normally found on a pelican from a nearby storage locker. Quickly Rosenda activated the pod's reanimation procedure and watched as the pod hissed and opened allowing Jake to exit the pod in the usual fashion, by almost falling out of it, only Thom catching him prevented it, then staggering into the centre of the bay and collapsing to his knees on the deck, before grabbing the bag Beth was holding and proceeding to violently throw up into it, Rosenda and Thom watching from a distance, Beth meanwhile stroked Jakes short brown hair reassuringly.
"Morning boss, how was your sleep?" Thom asked sarcastically, only to receive a glare from Rosenda and the other Spartans in the room, jokes were ok under normal circumstances, but this reaction to cryo had been worse than proceeding ones, Jake meanwhile had taken the canteen from Beth, and was rinsing his mouth out with it.
"You did something different this time? because it didn't help" Beth asked Jake as he wiped the excess water on the arm of the cryo suits all of them were wearing, even Spartans had some modesty and the suits negated the effects of freezer burn, so there were no drawbacks.
"Yeah, I didn't eat much before I got froze, I figured if there was less to me I wouldn't have enough to throw up, guess I was wrong" Jake answered weakly, as he shakily got to his feet, his skin a sickly white colour rather than his usual fair complexion, even Beth had more colour in her and she was the pale on a good day.
"Alright people, we've got an hour before we leave to pick up our new gear, so get cleaned up and fed before then" Carter announced taking charge, as the oldest of the Alpha's, everyone looked up to him, which prompted everyone to file out of the bay and into the adjacent wash and changing area, with Grizzly bringing up the rear with the unsteady Jake.
September 15th, 2537, 08:12 Hrs
Weapons Research Facility T12A
Algolis, Algol system
-Grizzly Team-
Jake could only marvel at the equipment laid out before him; When he'd stood there that night in 2531 and had seen Lieutenant Ambrose, or rather Kurt-051, as he was better known, clad in his armour had been an inspiring sight, so when he'd been told during training that he was among a select group of candidates who were suitable for augmentations which would allow them to be equipped with MJOLNIR, he had been giddy with excitement, he'd pushed himself to the limit, but not at the expense of those in his Team, he hadn't been prepared to sacrifice their chances for the sake of his, that too had been noticed as when the team leaders were announced, he'd been surprised to see his name on the list, Rosenda hadn't like that at all, so his first decision as team leader was to placate her by making her his second in command, which had worked surprisingly well. But being told he could have MJOLNIR was one thing, being issued with it was another, and here he was staring at his own suit of the legendary armour, tailor fit to meet his specifications and needs.
"So, what do you think?" Asked the technician assigned to help him with the armour, she already knew the answer by the grin plastered all over Jake's face.
"I don't know what to say" Jake replied, as he walked around the support frame that was holding the armour up, looking at all the details, "should I say thank you?" he queried, he was lost for words.
"Well, that would be nice but not really necessary, as you can see this is a Mark IV model MJOLNIR powered armour, you'll be fully encased in titanium armour, under that Titanium Nanocomposite Bodysuit, which is also resistant to ballistic and plasma based weapons so you don't have to worry about weak spots, and as a bonus it also prevents freezer burn, so you can wear it in cryo" the Technician explained, which caused Jake to grimace, the thought of cryo made him sick, and the thought of being in a fully sealed suit when he knew he was always sick afterwards, didn't help. "But anyway as you've already guessed this set's been tailor-made for you, now starting from the top we've gotten a standard Mark IV B variant helmet, standard for your unit, but we've added additional armour to the front, giving it a protective peek and a hardened uplink module as well, Then we've given you a chest rig with additional pouches for ammo and other essentials, with another on the left thigh plate and around your waste, A commando variant shoulder pad on the left arm, which you lead with and an operator variant pad on the right, with the additional knife because you need the extra freedom of movement, finally there are the FJ/Para knee guards because again freedom of movement, is there anything you'd like to add" She informed him, as Jake took the set in, it really was tailor made for him, apparently an A.I had been tasked with reviewing their combat footage and performance reviews in order to work out what they required in their armour, but it was missing something, the set was unique yet was the standard green as with all MJOLNIR armour; looking around the workshop they were set up in, everyone had unique armour, yet they were all painted in the same green paint, and all were fitted with the standard gold visor, then out of the corner of his eye he saw Beth, her armour standing before her, yet she wasn't admiring it or looking for issues with it, she was looking at it like it was a blank page in her art book, one which would soon be filled with an impressive drawing of something which had caught her eye, and suddenly it clicked in Jakes mind, a unique armour deserved a unique look.
"Can we change the colour, it's just I think it should look more distinctive?" Jake asked, the Technician meanwhile just looked surprised, she hadn't been expecting a request like that, but one glance around the room at the armours, and how unique each one was, and how each were painted identically, made it clear that Jake had a point.
"Sure, I don't see why not, it's your suit after all, so what do you fancy" She responded, pulling up her data pad so as to note down Jake's request, with the other technicians following suit as their assigned Spartan's cottoned on to what Beth and Jake were doing.
"Well, first of all, how about a grey base, then black shoulder pads, and lower legs, with a couple of strips running up the thigh plates, you know make it more unique looking" Jake requested, the technician noting it all down, a surprising smile had taken form on her face.
"Yeah, that'll make it look more unique, the grey matches your eyes kid. It's nice to see soldiers with some personality, I was there when the Spartan II's got their armour, man were they dull like they had no personality at all, whoever trained you lot must have like their soldiers to have some people skills. Do you want me to change the visor colour as well? it doesn't take much fuss, and we can make it any colour you want, we just have them Gold because that's what Halsey wanted for her Spartan's" she mentioned, which caught Jake off guard, the technician didn't look older than 30, so they must have been straight out of whatever place ONI sent their people to learn and to be compared to the people that he and every other Spartan III idolised, and told they were better than them in that area, although not an area that killed the bad guys, was surprising; but then he remembered that she had asked him a question regarding the colour of his visor.
"Yeah, can you make it black as well please" Jake proposed, a quick glance showed that Beth was bombarding her assigned technician with what she wanted for her armour, which told him two things, firstly that his requests weren't that big, and secondly if he wanted to get Beth talking, he just needed to talk to her about art, always good to know.
"Sure kid, I'll get the guys who handle the aesthetics around here to sort it out, and yes we really have people for that, even ONI like their stuff to look good, or rather terrifying depending on what they want, and it should be done before you guys start testing this stuff tomorrow" she announced, Jake was wondering what his teammates had in mind for their armour.
Authors notes
Ok so there's a couple of reason that this is late, firstly I've been sick and have only just got better, and secondly, I've got no incentive at the moment for this project, I have got the story all planned out in my head, but compared to my other projects, this one is just the odd one out. If anyone actually likes this please let me know, because I'm fighting the urge to drop it again, and I really don't want to, but I'm struggling to see the point in continuing.
Anyway, I realised I've neglected to do some character development, so the next few chapters are going to be focused on this, so its a nice change from writing purely about the action.
