Diane looked at Jane curiously, she did not know that John even had a brother. She had never bothered asking him such questions. They were not important, and she didn't want to seem like she was prying for information. Actually, how was he even on the ship? It's not like he was part of the team, unless there was some sort of last minute recuitment that she had not been told about. Which was unlikely.
The two female Spartans walked together down the hall. They passed a few marines that stared at the duo. Seeing the two Spartans together gave off quite the superiority atmosphere. To the marines, the team walked around liked they owned the place. That was partly true, the main reason they were even aboard the ship were to deal with insurrectionists while the real war was being fought with the Covenant.
A few minutes of walking through the ship and they were at the debriefing room. The room glowed a faint blue due to the hologram emitter in the middle of the room that showed the team their objective, various console were scattered around. In the left corner of the room was Erika messing around with her knife. Shane was in front of a console doing some work. Shane took notice of the two and walked over to them. Jane and Shane exchanged glances before Shane rudely walked between the two and exited the room.
"That was odd." Jane said, obviously baffled by Shane's strange behavior.
"Yeah, wonder what's wrong with him."
Diane looked over to the device in center of the room. In front of it was her green and black armored captain without his helmet. Next to John was a marine in ODST armor, nothing was special about him other than he didn't carry a backpack. The marine must have been John's brother, no other soldier went into the debriefing room when the team was in there. Diane leaned in close to Jane.
"Is that him? The ODST?"
"Yeah, that's him."
He was a few inches shorter than John, his scruffy dark brown hair blocked his eyebrows and his brown eyes much more noticeable. His cheeks were rather chubby, his cheekbones stuck out below his eyes. His butt chin was his most noticeable feature, Diane found it kinda cute. He must have noticed Diane staring at him because he turned his head towards her.
"What?" He said
"Sorry, didn't mean to stare." Diane said while shaking her head.
Jane snorted at their interaction. It was funny how awkward Diane had gotten within a few seconds of just seeing the young man. Maybe she had a crush…. nah. Jane internally chuckled at that thought. He was cute but not in the way they felt attracted to. Jane walked up to John's brother and held out an armored hand.
"My name is Jane." She said with a smirk behind her helmet.
The young marine seemed to have been taken back by the sudden welcome. I hesitated before wrapping his own hand around the blue armored woman. His grip was not very firm, not a very good sign for a marine. Also not a good first impression for Spartan.
"M-my name is Ray." He said sheepishly.
"So you're John's little brother. I expected you to be a little taller. How old are you?"
Ray let go of Jane's hand and looked toward John. He seemed to be worried about something. John nodded to Ray and he seemed to relax.
"19, ma'am."
"I see." Jane said while nodding.
Erika stood up from her corner and in front of the holo-projector. She seemed to be a little on edge. John would have to keep an eye on that.
"What's the mission, sir?"
John brought up the map of an abandoned UNSC facility. On the map were various red dots that were scattered throughout the building. It could be assumed that these dots were soldiers. On the far side was a green dot. John pointed to it.
"This is an abandoned facility that the insurrection have been using as a base of operations. This here is the objective, it's a brief case that contains valuable information that could lead us to the leader."
"How did we obtain this information?" Diane chimed in.
"We were able to extract this information from the weapons merchant a few months back. We were only just now able to confirm the information was correct."
John spoke in a firm tone. He needed to get his authority across. They needed to know that he was the captain, he gave the orders. He wasn't just some newbie that didn't know what he was doing. He earned this role through his skill. But they knew that, didn't they? Maybe he was being a bit too gruff.
"The leader is this red dot, here. We do not know however how many soldiers there might be. Extraction will arrive once the kill has been confirmed. Erika and I will infiltrate the base silently. Diane and Jane will lag behind in case we are found. Shane will accompany the pilot and assist in extraction. Does everybody understand?"
Erika stared at the map of the base ignoring what the so called 'Captain' was saying, She had studied bases like this and infiltrated them easily albeit several people had to be killed. That was when she noticed the group of dots and where the green one was located, She looked up at John ignoring the voices of the AI's in her head and said when the others nodded.
"Your an idiot"
The other Spartans stared at Erika slightly surprised as did John who said
"Excuse me?"
Erika repeated as she looked back at the map.
"Your an idiot"
John did his best to remain calm as he said.
"You do realize I am your captain, right? IS there something you need to tell me, just say it."
Erika didn't look up as she said
"Your an idiot, If it took you this long to confirm the information then by now then your resources are bigger idiots and the insurrectionists most likely know that we have this information"
She pointed to the entrance saying
"It is obvious to not go through the front and back doors, They will have most of their men stationed there with squads of 6 patrolling the perimeter and 4 snipers at the top of the building"
She pointed to the green dot
"It is not hard to identify bodies and count them, let alone give orders to the man we captured to give us information leading to a trap. If they know we are coming, they will put false information or nothing at all in the brief case then leave it there with aforementioned men pretending to guard it with any heavy armor that can be spared most likely a handful of Hornets, Falcons, and Scorpion tanks"
She looked back up at John ignoring her comrades and finished
"You will get everyone killed"
She straightened and walked towards the entrance of the room but paused before she left saying
"But go ahead and order the mission, I will be sure to kill you first before I die"
-Later-
Shane walked down the path to the docking port. His SMGs strapped to his legs and a Sniper Rifle on his back. It was going to be dark when they arrived so Shane decided to bring a night vision scope. This was a mission with the potential to stop the main source of insurrectionist activity. Hopefully the mission wouldn't go south the moment they landed. That should not be possible unless someone down there knows of their imminent attack. Maybe Erika was right. What she said made sense and definitely got him thinking on whether the Captain is fit to lead them all. All in all, he should prepare for the worse.
Shane shook of this thought as he entered the port. The pilot was conversing with another soldier, the soldier nodded at the pilot and walked away. Shane stepped up to the pilot, he was almost a foot higher than the woman.
"Are we good to go?"
"Not quite. Just waiting for a last minute check up on the ship, then we're good to leave."
The pilot brought up a small tablet and scanned through the report. She scanned through the tablet and put it down seeming to be satisfied with the results.
"Alright, now we're good to go."
She gave Shane a thumbs up and proceeded to enter the Pelican. Shane walked to the back of the Pelican and walked up the ramp. The rest of the team was already strapped in and ready to leave. Shane walked to the pilot room and sat in the sat behind her. The thrusters began to set off and soon they were flying towards the insurrectionists base.
Sorry for the long wait. I've been focusing on my other stories. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Leave a comment telling me what you think, they really motivate me to write the next. See you around.