Chapter 13: In Spirit
The SPARTANs watched as the four Constructor drones silently hacked away at the meter-thick plating that was barring their entry to the UNSC vessel. Joining them in the icy cave was a full company of GC Marines of all species, outfitted with gear to protect them from radiation or chemical leaks, as well as a squadron of fifteen Sentinel drones. For reasons known only to himself, Lasky had made planetfall with the rest of the Marines. He was in his full Promethean form, Forerunner Alloy plates shifting endlessly with every minute movement. He towered over even the SPARTANs, and appeared unarmed. Everyone with him knew how powerful his "true" form was… he had no need for weapons
The Infinity was prepared to offer full orbital support in the event of the Hood Protocol going into effect. No chances would be taken here.
After what felt like hours of watching the small drones sear their way through the armored plating, a large plate of titanium alloy fell free from the rest of the structure, allowing the Marines and SPARTANs access to the internals of the relatively ancient vessel. The fifteen Sentinels made their way inside, scanning every inch of material before them. As they gave a satisfactory beep, Lasky gave a quick motion with his flattened hand. "Move in." He ordered.
The SPARTANs led the way, their array of Hard Light armaments pointed outwards as they stepped through the new door to the vessel from a bygone age. The interior was a rather drab gray, with seemingly no active power. They appeared to be in an armory of the old ship, with MA5Bs, MA5Cs, BR-55s, M6Cs, SRS-99Cs, and M7s lining the walls. Munitions and ordinance crates were scattered around the room, thrown about by the presumed crash landing.
"Someone get that door open." Lasky said, gesturing to the locked blast door that separated the Armory from the rest of the vessel. Wordlessly, one of the Sangheili SPARTANs walked over and began working to wrench the door open.
As the SPARTAN worked to open the door, Lasky reached over to one of the wall-mounted weapon racks, grabbing an M6 Magnum from its resting place and looking it over. It seemed almost too small for his metallic hands, but felt sturdy and well-made. It had survived such a long time buried beneath the surface of Hoth with no maintenance… these things certainly were well-made.
Memories of his time aboard the old Infinity came flooding back. Every mission, every Slipspace jump, every vid-call with Admiral Osman… he always had his Magnum at his side. For the past nine hundred years, he had only seen these weapons in museums or cheesy war movies. To actually hold a functional, original model was almost too much to bear for the centuries-old Admiral. Whether it was a fit of nostalgia or his inner historian, he wasn't sure, but he decided to hold onto this one.
Lasky was shaken out of his remembrance by the sound of metal grating against metal. The blast door had been pried open by the Sangheili, and Marines were beginning to file out of the armory and into the belly of the ancient machine of war. "Orders, Admiral?" Alice asked, looking to her superior.
"Gamma, look for a Cryo Bay… see if anyone's still on-board." Lasky began. "Sword, head to the Reactor Deck with the Constructors and get power to the rest of the vessel."
"Right away!" Alice said, nodding and leading her team deeper into the ship.
"As you command." Shae nodded, motioning to the rest of her team to follow.
Lasky was the last out of the Armory, making his way through the labyrinth of pitch-black hallways. He was searching for the Bridge.
After a few minutes of wandering through the ship, occasionally wrenching a door open, Lasky finally found his objective. After tearing the bulkhead clear, he stepped onto the bridge of the vessel. Strangely enough, the windows seemed intact, but the metal blast shields had deployed over them. His low-light vision gave him a clear picture.
The bridge was completely empty. There were no remains, no bodies, no lights. This ship had laid dormant for centuries at the least, and it showed. A thick layer of dust had settled over much of the bridge's equipment. Knowing full-well the nature of UNSC designs, he made his way to the center of the bridge, finding himself surrounded by ancient computers and consoles.
He knelt down, his metallic knee clanking against the floor. He brushed his hand across the dust-covered floor, unearthing the ship's emblem. He had evidently started at the bottom of the seal, unearthing the hull pattern first. It read out in a simple three-letter, two-number designation. "CFV-88." He recognized that designation, it was a Phoenix-class Colony Ship from the mid-2400s. That threw a bit of a wrench in his suspicions. There were no records of the UNSC ever sending a mission to Andromeda, not even in ONI's old Section One files. As Lasky began working to reveal the rest of the emblem, he found himself well and truly floored.
As he finished dusting off the old titanium allow, he got a full picture of the emblem. It was a Phoenix, painted black, blue, gold, and red, with faded lettering surrounding it. Some was in Latin, reading out "Exitus Acta Probat", while some was in English, reading out "Phoenix Class 2473." Across the top, however, was something he never expected to see. It was written in bolded, gold letters, and truly surprised him. "UNSC SPIRIT OF FIRE."
Not knowing what to make of it, Lasky simply settled on staring at the emblem for a moment. This old vessel had been lost in the first years of the Human-Covenant War after making a jump from Arcadia. He had expected this ship to be found drifting through empty space in the Milky Way, not sitting buried beneath the snow on a planet in Andromeda.
Lasky simply chuckled as he looked at the old emblem one final time before standing back up and looking around the Bridge.
XXXXX
Alice's communicator bleeped as Lasky linked up with her. "Attention Insertion Team, I'm uploading the schematics of this vessel to your HUD. That should make our trip go a little quicker. Welcome aboard the UNSC Spirit of Fire."
"No fucking way…" Willow said, watching as the layout of the vessel was linked to their HUDs from the Admiral's end. "How'd this ship get here?"
"That's what we're here to find out." Alice said, marking the location of the Cryo Bay on her team's HUDs. "Let's keep moving, we're not far from the primary cryo facility."
"What do you think the odds are that someone's still frozen in there, Alice?" Jane asked, following behind her commander as she looked around the old architecture.
"Depends on how long the reactors were active." Alice answered. "UNSC Deuterium Reactors could sustain themselves for hundreds of years in proper conditions, and Cryo Pods were able to stay powered indefinitely, even with the ship on the auxiliary generators. The only question is… could a Human survive this long in Cryo Sleep? It's never been tested."
After walking a fair distance across the 2.5 kilometer-long vessel, Fireteam Gamma found themselves at the blast door that led into the Cryo Bay. Just after they arrived, the ship seemed to flicker as the lights reactivated. A low, droning hum could be heard for a moment as power surged through the sleeping behemoth.
"Secondary reactor online, Admiral." Shae reported from the Reactor Deck. "Minor radiation leak has been sealed."
"Excellent." Lasky responded over the general communication. "Bridge systems are coming online. Any word from your end, Gamma?"
"We've just arrived, sir." Alice answered, looking at the strange computer next to the door as it flickered to life. "Entering now." She gingerly pressed one of the many buttons on the metallic surface, causing the long-dormant hydraulics of the blast door to grind and hiss as they forced the thick, plated door open.
The four SPARTANs stepped through the door, finding themselves practically surrounded by sealed cryogenic stasis pods. All of the glass viewports were fogged over with frost, and they all appeared active. Alice walked over to an active console in the middle of the room, scanning over the data that was streaming through the ship's internal network. She was stunned, all of the ship's crew, sans a few Marines and ODSTs, were alive in their cryo pods.
"Uhh, Admiral…" Alice began. "All crew are present and accounted for."
Without any response, a Slipspace rift opened behind the SPARTANs, and Admiral Lasky's metallic form dropped from the flickering portal. "I'm sorry, I think our comms are getting some interference." Lasky said, his metallic face giving an expression of surprise. "Did you say that all of the crew are alive in these pods?"
"Everyone except a few ground personnel." Alice answered with a nod.
Lasky walked over to the console, reading over the screen. "Well… that presents a bit of an issue…"
"Weren't we hoping for this, Admiral?" Willow asked.
"I was expecting a few to still be alive, not most of the crew." Lasky answered. "This brings a big question to the front: do we wake these people up?" Lasky tapped the screen, showing the last time a pod was activated. "The last person to enter cryo was Captain James Cutter in 2531… that was 1100 years ago. Everything that these people knew, everyone they loved… it's all gone, replaced by us. Their home has been gone for a millennia, and waking them up after so long could destroy them, psychologically speaking."
"So what now?" Alice asked.
Lasky gave a grim sigh. "I'm going to have this ship brought aboard Infinity… we'll decide what to do with everyone here after I've talked with President Lockhart."
XXXXX
"Well, Andromeda is certainly full of surprises." Lockhart mused, running a hand across her chin as she spoke with Lasky. "You're sure that there's nothing aboard Spirit of Fire's systems that can explain how it made the journey between galaxies?"
"Absolutely nothing, ma'am." Lasky confirmed, nodding. He was back in his synthetic body, and ran a hand through his hair. "The ship's systems ejected the old AI, Serena, after she went Rampant… there was nothing on board that could have recorded for so long. The last sensor readings that were taken before the databanks filled up were in 2751, when the ship was drifting through dark space not far from the old Outer Colonies."
Lockhart sighed. "Well, the crew won't be of much help if they've all been in Cryo the whole time…"
"That was another question I had, Madame President." Lasky added. "What should our course of action be when it comes to these people? They've been asleep for over a millennia, we can't just wake them up and expect them to handle it."
"Agreed…" Lockhart said, nodding. "Maybe bringing them back in an environment they're familiar with? Infinity is outfitted with a Simulation Deck… if we re-created the old Infinity's internals there, we could ease them into their… new situation."
"Their ship is also a possibility." Lasky added.
"It is, but I would prefer if the awakening happened with medical equipment that we are used to." Lockhart continued. "I'd rather not have our medics fumbling with ancient equipment if we botch one of the operations." Lockhart seemed thoughtful for a moment. "In light of this discovery, I'm pulling you and your crew back to Earth. We'll at least do them the courtesy of bringing them home."
"Understood, ma'am." Lasky said. "I'll transfer command of the fleet over to the Arminius."
XXXXX
Lasky sighed, making his way through the immense halls of Infinity in something that he hadn't worn for centuries: his old uniform. The grey fabric clashed with the clean white walls of Infinity, and the old metallic pins and rank identifiers added a weight that he was not quite used to. He hadn't worn this uniform since the formation of the Galactic Coalition almost a thousand years prior, but he had kept it for posterity's sake. To complete the image, the M6 Magnum rested in a holster at his side.
After his trek through the decks, he found himself walking through the simulation deck, where War Games were played and skills were honed. The SPARTANs of Fireteam Gamma stood by one of the doors, wearing their all-black gel layered bodysuits. As he approached, all of them saluted, which he quickly dismissed. "Admiral." Alice began, looking to her commander, clad in his old UNSC Admiral's uniform. "The medics are ready to start the awakening process. They've brought the Captain, Lead Scientist, and three SPARTAN-IIs, just as ordered."
Lasky let out a deep sigh. "Alright… let's get started." He said. He pressed a hand against a holographic glyph on the wall, causing a door to slide open. As the metallic plates of the door danced away, he was greeted by an eerily familiar sight: the UNSC Infinity's medical bay. Inside were a group of six human medical officers, along with all manner of their medical equipment.
"Admiral!" The lead medic declared, nodding. "We're ready to begin."
"Alright…" He glanced at the five cryo pods before him, all of them resting in the middle of the room. "Let's wake the good Captain Cutter, shall we?"
"Right away." The medic responded, pressing a few keys on the pod's display console.
Lasky and the four SPARTANs watched as the pod's main door clicked and hissed, releasing long-locked away pressure. The cryogenic material inside flash vaporized as it came in contact with the atmosphere of the ship, causing clouds of white steam to flow from the pod. Resting inside was a man, aged around sixty with a white beard and grey UNSC Captain's uniform. His eyes were clamped shut, and a thin layer of cryogenic material covered his face.
"Vitals?" Lasky asked.
"Stable." The lead medic declared. "Bringing him out of REM sleep now."
Slowly, the Captain's eyes opened. In an instant, his previously peaceful appearance gave way to a coughing fit. Cutter fell out of the pod, landing on his hands and knees as he coughed the cryogenic fluid up from his lungs and stomach. The four SPARTANs, having no prior experience with UNSC cryo pods, watched in amazement. It bewildered them that people slept in what was essentially a coffin with a glass window for long Slipspace jumps. Lasky simply watched, knowing full well just how much waking up from cryo took from you. And that was if you weren't allergic to the old cryogenic chemicals like he was.
After seemingly forcing all of the bitter fluid from his lungs, Cutter gasped for air, his coughing taking a few seconds to come under his control. Once he had his functions back under his command, he looked up. He looked surprised to see a UNSC Admiral, a medical team, and four women before him. At his confusion, Lasky spoke. "Welcome back, Captain Cutter." Lasky said, doing his best to mimic the UNSC's formal stance.
After two of the medics helped him to his feet, Cutter gave a crisp salute. "Thank you, Admiral."
Seeing that Cutter's confusion had gone nowhere, Lasky spoke up again. "I can see that you have some questions, so please… speak freely."
"Alright…" Cutter said, shaking his head slightly to clear it. "Where am I? Where is the rest of my men?"
"The rest of your men are quite alright, Captain." Lasky answered. "They're still in cryo sleep, and they've been brought aboard my ship for medical examination before we wake them. You, and your men, are currently aboard the Infinity. Professor Anders and SPARTAN Red Team are in this room, right behind you, actually."
Cutter sighed. "Thank God… Who exactly are you?"
"I'm Lord of Admirals Thomas J. Lasky." Lasky answered. At his answer, Cutter seemed to straighten up just a bit more.
"What happened to Lord Hood?" Cutter asked.
"He's… passed away." Lasky answered. "You and your men have been asleep for quite some time."
"How long?" Cutter asked, concern seeping into his tone.
"Well over a thousand years." Lasky answered.
Lasky was almost impressed at how well Cutter took this information. The only sign of distress was his eyes widening and a stutter. "W-where did you find us?"
"Believe it or not… on the outer rim of the Andromeda galaxy." Lasky answered.
Cutter nearly choked on the breath that he took in. "What?! Where are we now?"
"We're making the jump back to Earth as we speak…" Lasky said. "We'll be arriving in a week."
Cutter sighed. "Well… I take it that since a Human woke me up that we won?"
"Indeed we did, Captain." Lasky answered. "The Human-Covenant War came to an end in 2552. We've seen relative peace since the end of the 2500s."
"Well… that's good news, I suppose." Cutter said, still looking slightly shaken by the fact that he and his entire crew has missed centuries of history.
"With that out of the way, I suppose that it's only right that I drop the act." Lasky said, sighing, drawing a look of confusion from the Captain. "Let me start again… I'm Lord of Admirals Thomas J. Lasky, High Naval Commander of the Galactic Coalition Navy, and fellow veteran of the Human-Covenant War."
Once again, Cutter's eyes went wide. "Wait… you were in the Human-Covenant War? How? You barely look thirty."
"This isn't my… first chance at life, Captain." Lasky answered. "I believe that you've had contact with these before? According to your ship's records, at least." At his words, a Sentinel floated through the door, bleeping happily as it saw Cutter.
"Forerunners…" Cutter muttered. "What does that have to do with you apparently being older than my bridge crew put together?"
"I suffered a slight… accident while in command of my vessel, the UNSC Infinity, in 2561. My mind was transferred into a digital format and uploaded into the Forerunner information network known as the Domain. Putting it bluntly, I'm immortal."
Cutter let out a breath. "And… I assume that we've reverse-engineered a lot of Forerunner technology?"
"Beyond the wildest dreams of ONI's scientists, Captain." Lasky answered. He opened his hand, allowing a small Slipspace rift to open up. The grip of a light rifle dropped into his waiting palm, with the other components of the weapon constructing themselves around the grip. "Since the formation of the GC in the 2600s, Humanity, and our allies, have reached Tier-1 technology."
Cutter watched in amazement as an alien rifle built itself before his very eyes. Not knowing what else to say, he simply chuckled. "Anders is really going to enjoy talking with you."
Lasky cracked a small smile. "Well, let's wake her then."
XXXXX
Cutter couldn't quite believe it, even after spending a few hours with Lasky and his SPARTANs. He was currently standing on a fifty-five kilometer long starship that was tearing through the Slipstream at speeds that the UNSC had only theorized. This ship had a crew of hundreds of thousands, sported an on-board city, and a garrison of SPARTANs that doubled the entire SPARTAN-II Program. Above all, he couldn't believe that he was having a civil conversation with an Elite.
A Sangheili Field Marshall had joined Lasky, Cutter, Anders, Red Team, and Gamma to the Captain's quarters, where they were all sharing a drink and talking. Anders was more than willing to pester Lasky with question after question on Humanity's new technology, the SPARTANs seemed to be trying to reconcile the fact that an Elite was sitting with them, drinking, and talking with them. Gamma seemed to be the only ones they felt comfortable talking with.
"What's going to happen with us, Lasky?" Cutter asked.
"Honestly, I have no idea." Lasky answered, honestly. "The President should be able to answer that once we arrive over Earth."
x One Year Later x
Vice Admiral Cutter walked through the metallic halls of the Earth Megapolis' capital: Unity. The Forerunner Alloy gleamed with a blue glow as he passed, making his way towards his destination. There was a small smile on his face as the metallic door shifted to make way for him.
On the other side, Admiral Lasky sat behind his official desk, a window overlooking the immense cityscape beyond. The beauty of the city never ceased to amaze the centuries-old man. The way that nature blended with technology on Earth was breathtaking. The rounded, smooth architecture seemed to blend in with the rolling hills, and silver spires pointed towards the heavens in defiance of their gravitational boundaries. The view nearly distracted him from the second figure in the room: President Lockhart.
The ivory-haired woman was elegant in appearance, standing tall and slender with white hair done up in a neat bun on the back of her head. A few stray strands fell down to the back of her neck. Despite being reconnected with the galaxy for the better part of a year now, this woman was still an enigma to Cutter. He knew so little of her. All he had managed to gather about her was that she comes from a long line of successful businessmen, politicians, and military leaders, she was forty five, and she had been President for almost six years
As she turned around to look at Cutter, he made out her brightly glowing violet eyes. He was still getting used to the new faces of the Human species. Humans were often born with highly varied hair and eye colors, many of them a far cry from the commonplace appearances of Humans from his own time. Out of reflex, Cutter snapped into a crisp salute. "Madame President." He said, his boot heels clacking together.
"At ease, Captain." Lockhart said, waving her hand.
"Admiral, I'm glad you're here." Lasky said, looking up from a datapad in his hands. He placed it against the desk, standing upright. "Your crew's psych evaluations came back with flying colors for the most part, and most have accepted the offer of joining the GC Navy."
"For the most part?" Cutter asked.
"The only notable exceptions were Red Team." Lasky added. "They did, however, fall in line with what we expected from SPARTAN-IIs. They'll be wrapping up their training on the Ark by the end of the week, and they'll be formally inducted into the ranks of the SPARTAN-Vs."
"That's good to hear." Cutter said, giving a curt nod.
"The inspection of Spirit of Fire has also completed." Lockhart added. "I'm amazed that you and your crew not only encountered the Flood a full two decades before the rest of the Galaxy, but managed to survive with minimal casualties. It's a true testament to your command abilities."
"Respectfully, ma'am… my men did all of the work." Cutter responded.
"Precisely why they will be under your command again, Vice Admiral." Lockhart said, smirking. She keyed the room's hard light projectors through her Neural Lance, causing a holographic image of an Infinity-Class Dreadnought to shimmer into view. "And this will be your ship."
Cutter was forced to suppress a nostalgic grin at the name of the vessel, highlighted on the port side in white letters: In Spirit of Fire. "My entire crew will be on this ship?"
"All of them, even Professor Anders." Lasky answered. "Naturally, the crew of an old Phoenix-Class isn't enough to crew an Infinity, so we've had to pull in sailors from academies around the galaxy."
"And a certain SPARTAN Fireteam has personally requested to be stationed on your vessel." Lockhart added. "Gamma will be placed under your command, and you'll be dispatched to Andromeda with the 3rd Fleet once In Spirit of Fire finishes construction next month."
"Better for them to be on the battlefield, where a SPARTAN belongs, rather than sitting on Earth while their commanding officer plays politician on the Ark." Lasky snarked.
"You accepted the position, Lasky." Lockhart returned in jest. "Nevertheless, there is oen more thing, Admiral Cutter… you need to meet your ship's AI."
Cutter turned his attention to a second Hard Light projection, this one taking a strangely familiar form. It was a human man, standing at around 6'3. The full-color projection showed him as having brown eyes and brown hair, an image that Cutter was certainly more used to. That wasn't what sparked the recognition… it was the uniform. The AI was wearing a full UNSC Admiral's uniform, complete with a nameplate: "R. Adm. Preston J. Cole."
"A pleasure to see you again, Cutter." Cole said, smirking. At this, Cutter's mouth hung agape.
"How…?" Was all Cutter was able to manage, his eyes focused on the legendary Admiral before him.
"ONI kept extensive neural records for officers of HIGHCOM during the Human-Covenant War." Lockhart began. "We simply… filled in the blanks in their imperfect replications."
"If you were an Admiral, you had a neural implant." Cole began. "And if you had a neural implant, your neural patterns were on record… they had to be in case a mistake was made during implantation. ONI kept the memories and personalities of their HIGHCOM Officers on record… for posterity's sake, I suppose."
"You… actually remember everything?" Cutter asked, still amazed that he was having a discussion with his long-dead mentor.
"Everything up until January 15, 2543." Cole responded. "That was the last time I had one of the standard implant diagnostics checks." Cole smirked. "The President tells me that I went out in a rather spectacular fashion that April, though."
All Cutter could manage was a small chuckle. His eyes drifted to Cole's nameplate, denoting him as a Rear-Admiral. "You got demoted again, Preston?"
"Wouldn't make much sense for a ship's AI to outrank its captain, now would it?" Cole returned with a smile.
Cutter chuckled. "I suppose not…"
"Well, I'm glad that went well." Lockhart added, bringing the two reminiscent officers back from their discussion. She handed Cutter a small storage drive, meant to house an AI and project its avatar. "You're dismissed, Admirals."
"Aye, Ma'am!" The two said in unison, walking out of the office.
As the two left and the door slid shut behind them, Lockhart sat down in the cushioned chair on the other side of Lasky's desk, letting out a sigh. "He didn't even have a year to get used to peace before HIGHCOM decided to throw him and his men back into a war."
"We've been at peace for hundreds of years, Erin." Lasky said, closing his computer terminal with a quick swipe. "Officers with real battle experience are a rarity, and we can only pull so many people out of ONI's old archives before we run dry. The Clone Wars is the GC's first real conflict, and our war effort's suffered as a result. Our commanders are over-confident and assured of a quick victory."
"And it's pretty damn obvious we're getting the exact opposite." Lockhart huffed. "A whole year, and only three planets have been liberated since Ryloth. This war's certainly dragging its feet, and I'm getting real sick of hearing about good people dying. Parliament wants the GC to take full command of this conflict, but I keep holding them back."
"You're doing the right thing, Erin." Lasky consoled. "This is the Republic's war, first and foremost."
Lockhart chuckled. "You're right… That damn galaxy's more of a shit-show than ours used to be."
"All the more reason for us to… gently guide them on a peaceful path, as my inner politician would say." Lasky smirked. "Once this war's over, we can quietly monitor them from the Andromeda Ark and intervene when necessary."
"Thank the Mantle for that." Lockhart let out another heavy sigh. "Maybe then I won't have to get a report that my daughter's stuck in an underground lab surrounded by a lethal viral weapon in the middle of the night."
"It's a part of being a SPARTAN." Lasky said, smirking. "They tend to have this strange habit of doing the impossible."
"Like marrying their commanding officer?" Lockhart asked, smiling. "You both knew that was against regulations at the time."
"And then I got those regulations changed." Lasky smirked. "Rules have two purposes: to be bent and changed."
Lockhart cracked a genuine smile for the first time in a long while. "Let's go, Joint-Command meeting's starting soon."
Lasky groaned. "Don't remind me."
XXXXX
Kathryn sat on her bunk in her team's barracks, absentmindedly thumbing through a news story from the GC's Core Worlds. Her fireteam's new home aboard In Spirit of Fire was still rather barren, with only Willow's casually discarded civilian clothing littering her bunk giving the room any sort of character. Everything else was neat, tidy, and clean.
Willow was sitting on her bunk, her compression top providing her upper half with a sense of decency as she thoroughly dismantled and cleaned her Light Rifle. Jane and Alice were having a quiet discussion near the center of the room, with Alice quietly dismantling and examining the inner workings of her captured Lightsaber. "So that's how it works…" Alice muttered, pulling the small red crystal from its central casing.
"Figured it out?" Willow called out.
"Nope…" Alice responded. "All I did was find the power source and the focusing element for the beam. Still working on figuring out how the hell this thing's casing doesn't melt."
"We should just settle on Space Magic." Jane added.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Alice rebuked. "And this is technology, meaning I can figure out how it works."
"Why not just give it to R&D on the Ark?" Willow asked.
"I offered, and they didn't want it." Alice responded. "Director said they already have enough of a handle on energy direction and plasma focusing. They've already made working prototypes using our tech."
Kathryn tuned out most of the remaining conversation, focusing on her datapad. It wasn't long before something caught her ear, however. "Did Admiral Cutter say where we're going?" Willow asked, walking over to her footlocker as she set about removing her compression top. She casually tossed the exercise garment onto her bunk, grabbing a more comfortable T-shirt from her footlocker. "Or are we just playing this one by ear?"
"We're jumping to regroup with General Kenobi and Skywalker's joint fleets in the Outer Rim." Alice answered, pointedly ignoring her friend's bare chest. "Something about an ancient Jedi distress code."
"That's all they told us?" Willow asked, pulling the white T-shirt on.
"The Republic's message was rather… vague, to say the least." Alice continued. "They're expecting it to be some sort of Separatist trap, so they've asked the 3rd Fleet to send a few ships for support."
"Maybe now that we're back this war can start moving again." Willow commented, plopping back down on her bunk, tossing her reassembled Light Rifle into the Slipstream. "It seems like this war only moves whenever the GC's doing the brunt of the fighting."
"Republic's probably getting lazy, knowing that their ally's as powerful as we are." Jane commented. "They'll be in for a rude awakening when we finally pull our forces out and let them defend their own damn galaxy."
"The Mantle isn't exclusive to the Milky Way." Alice interrupted. "Sure, we can pull back to the Ark once the war's over, but we still have to be involved here. If the Republic really is dependent on us for their defense, us just pulling out won't do them any good. If a galactic-scale war can start over a simple trade dispute, the GC's in for the long haul."
As the conversation died down again, Kathryn turned her attention back to her datapad. Having a long time away from the war was a nice distraction, but it was just that: a distraction. Fireteam Gamma had spent an entire year training Red Team with Hard Light weapons, overseeing their transition to SPARTAN-Vs, and drilling a few squads from a newly-graduated class of SPARTAN-Vs. Deep down, everyone was happy to be back where the action was.
A/N:
I decided to put the time-skip mid chapter instead of at the end. I really didn't want to write out a whole chapter of politics, training, and all that jazz. Especially not after the stress of the holidays, working a lot more than usual, and traveling.
For everyone who correctly guessed that it was Spirit of Fire, congratulations! I'm surprised at the amount of people who guessed that it was the Everest… given that it immolated itself in a brown dwarf. On the bright side, one part of the Everest did survive. I figured that if Halsey could essentially make an AI copy of herself from her own brain, the GC could easily re-produce someone based off of neural implant data.
As for bringing Chief back… I really can't bring myself to do it. John's had his fill of saving the galaxy, I think it's time he finally got the rest he deserves. It's time to let some other SPARTANs take up the mantle of the Chief (pun absolutely intended).
As always, I love all of the reviews, favs, and follows. If you have any questions relating to characters, any insight, or a suggestion in general, feel free to PM me. I try my best to respond to all PMs, but I've fallen behind a bit because I've been traveling a lot lately. I'll be better about it now that stuff has finally calmed down.
Sidenote: Updates to the other stories soon(tm), I promise.
Until next time:
-TallYapflip