Mess Hall
October 5th, 1743 Standard Time, 2552
Of all the ships that Fairfire had ever been stationed aboard, the Dominion's Mess Hall was the quietest. It probably had something to do with the relatively small crew of the vessel, either way, it was a pleasant change of pace. While she didn't mind loud and crowded spaces, that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate a moment of quiet. It also offered her a bit of peace as she read through Ben's personnel file, and there was a lot to unpack.
It took a lot to shake Fairfire, it took even more to outright disturb her. She took great pride in the fact that she could fearlessly stare down swarms of Covenant forces, but it would be a lie if she said she wasn't the least bit disturbed by what she was reading.
Unlike Yu, she had never bought into any of the rumors about the Spartans, but Fairfire had always been convinced that there was something controversial about them that made their intense secrecy so necessary. While she hadn't been able to accurately guess what that controversial secret was, she no longer had to guess.
Even though she had always been convinced that something was always wrong about the Spartans, she was still quite surprised by what she was reading. It did give her a sense of unease, knowing that all of the rumors that plagued ONI's reputation were completely justified. And yet, for all of the top-secret morally ambiguous crap she was reading, the most surprising thing to her was his short combat record.
She knew that Ben had only recently come out of training, but she had at least expected him to have a more extensive career than he did. He only had two official operations that had involved actual combat, and she had been present for the big one. The other was a training accident that left him and two other trainees left in untamed woods, where they fought off a pack of timber wolves with rocks and sticks.
Bunch of kids on steroids fought a pack of wolves with rocks and won. It's a good thing they were hardasses otherwise some ONI prick would've gotten quietly court-martialed. Fairfire thought. The photos of the dead wolves that were involved revealed that the kids had done just about everything right, they had clearly been trained very well.
Fairfire had actually been permitted to a considerable degree of information regarding Ben's training and how qualified he was. Even despite the knowledge that this brutal regimen had been pushed onto kids, the knowledge that they had all volunteered for it eased her mind a little bit.
She did quite enjoy reading about the exercises in which he competed with other Spartans. The highlight was an instance in which he beat five other candidates with the assistance of Curie. The out of the box thinking was admirable to her, even if it did involve breaking the rules of the match.
I've gotta ask Curie for the video that this file mentioned, I wanna see that. Fairfire thought. She was honestly quite curious as to how Ben and Curie had pulled a victory out of such a pitched battle.
Ben's psych profile was exactly what she expected and lined up with what she knew of him. Unquestionable loyalty and feverish determination were common traits that the propaganda ONI loved to shit out, so she wasn't surprised to see he had both in spades. It also listed him as somewhat abrasive, which was apparently normal for Spartans.
He certainly had no trouble voicing his complaints about the squad to me. Fairfire thought. Although I do find it funny I ended up taking life advice from a child soldier. Maybe next time, I'll try giving him a few tips.
Despite her unexpectedly large degree of access, she did encounter a fair amount of redaction and metaphorical black ink. The biggest place in regards to this was a large portion of his file labeled "Augmentations", which was completely redacted. Even then, it didn't take a genius to figure out what they had been doing.
Brutal training since childhood, crazy scientific modification, and powered armor. All part of your balanced supersoldier…. I guess. Fairfire thought.
She also wasn't expecting to find references to Commander Richard, who had apparently played a critical part in Ben's training. Fairfire remembered her own instructors as being brutal hardasses who had pushed every ODST candidate through the wringer, so she was surprised that a man who was seemingly as soft-spoken and professional as the Commander could perform those same duties.
By far the biggest unanswered question that lingered in her mind was why she even had access to what she did. While it was true that she was technically his superior, that did not mean much when confidential information was concerned. ONI was infamous for sending soldiers on dangerous missions to retrieve or destroy vital assets that the soldiers involved did not even know about until they were in the thick of the action.
Her only rough guess was that they were supposed to get some sort of briefing on their purpose as a unit once they arrived at Tribute, which had never happened. Getting stuck in the middle of nowhere seemed to have also taken away any chance that Fairfire had for an answer.
I suppose I could ask the Commander. He might know what we were meant to be doing. Fairfire thought.
"Hey Liz, where did you get the corn?!" Fairfire heard a voice yell at her from somewhere towards the galley, she didn't even have to look to know it was Yu.
I hope they only know I tolerate getting called "Liz" because I know "Staff Sergeant Fairfire" is a mouthful to yell in a firefight. Fairfire grumpily thought. She'd always hated how formal her name sounded. To her, "Elizabeth" gave off the impression of a pampered Inner Colony Girl who grew up to be Trophy Wife, not a Helljumper with years of combat under her belt.
"I got the last one!" Fairfire yelled back.
A few seconds later she heard two sets of boots walk up to the booth she was sitting at and was unsurprised to see Yu and Meadows sit down across from her with their own food.
"I can't believe you would do this to me, I thought you were my friend!" Yu said. Her voice carried a sense of teasing drama, but Fairfire knew that she didn't really mind.
"That was the idea." Fairfire said, playing along for the sake of it. "But I never really was on your side."
Yu laughed. "Darn, you had me fooled."
"Me too." Meadows added. "Especially when you took a needle for me on Beta Gabriel."
"Shut up!" Fairfire replied, laughing as she remembered the occasion. But she calmed herself down and gave him a more serious look. "Hey uh, on the note of injuries, how's the shoulder?"
"Non-strenuous labor for the next three days, then Doctor Chase wanted to have another look at it." Meadows said with a degree of irritation. Every marine seemed to get injured at some point in their career, but Meadows more clusters on his purple heart than anyone else in the squad. Hell, he had enough wounds on record that Fairfire had spotted even some Officers asking Meadows about the litany of experiences the man had.
"Good to hear." Fairfire said. She knew how much it sucked to get stuck in Sickbay, so it was good that Meadows was staying on at least some kind of active duty. "I've heard the Commander's working on a very strongly worded letter to send planetside."
"I think Fireball already sent one when she let loose with that cannon." Meadows pointed out. "But yeah, I think he should. I wanna know who the hell those dickheads were."
There was a brief moment of silence as they all ate their food, before Yu asked a question totally out of the blue. "Whatcha reading?"
Fairfire looked down and saw that she was still holding her datapad up, she turned it off and placed it down. She decided to lie for now, knowing that Ben would face a lot of shit from Yu if the proud Helljumper knew that Fairfire had access to his file.
"Oh, just this romance novel I stole from Nathan's collection." Fairfire answered in an obviously joking tone. "Isn't he such a romantic?"
"Uh-huh." Yu said, with a sentiment of vague disapproval as she wolfed down another bite of her burger, before putting it down and speaking with her mouth still partially full. "I'll be back, forgot ketchup."
As she walked off Meadows looked at her with a look of suspicion that she's grown unfortunately used too.
"Something on your mind?" Fairfire asked.
"Why dodge the question?" Meadows asked back.
"Because I wanted to." Fairfire stubbornly answered. "Why can't you use your amazing people-reading powers for good and not evil?" She protested.
"Oh, I can be evil if I want." Meadows reassured. "I'm like Atticus Finch, immensely skilled but I don't like using that skill, it's not fair to everyone else."
"Who the hell is Atticus Finch?" Fairfire asked as she finished the last of her own food. "Dude's name sounds like a furniture company."
"It's from an old... ah nevermind." Meadows said, not willing to keep up the fight. "In all seriousness, what don't you want her knowing?"
"That I've got Ben's personnel file right here, which I was reading." Fairfire answered as she shook her datapad.
"Ooh, I take it back…. good call then." Meadows said. "How much?"
"Enough. Before you ask, yes, some of the rumors are true." Fairfire said.
"Huh." Meadows said, obviously thinking about how Yu would react to the news. "Don't worry about her, sooner or later she'll realize it's not worth being competitive to such a ferocious extent."
Fairfire made a quick gaze towards the Galley, seeing that Yu was talking to someone else.
"I'm not so sure about that." Fairfire said. "Sometimes her age really shows, and it seems like she's developed some bad habits. I feel like she's trying too hard to be a hardass ODST, and while I appreciate that she's tough… she doesn't have to be so standoffish."
"Didn't you almost end up in a fistfight with the Lieutenant?" Meadows asked.
"Don't get me started on that prick." Fairfire growled. "And don't act like you're some patron saint either."
"I'm not, but I didn't call the Lieutenant a "Prophet of the Holy Field Manual"." Meadows countered. "Or a Fobbit, or-"
"If you listened to one of his rants you'd see what I mean." Fairfire insisted. "It's like his personal handbook from God or something."
"Hey, there ain't nothing wrong with a bit of worship." Meadows argued. "Nathan's religious."
"Yeah but he doesn't try to copulate with his Bible." Fairfire protested before checking again and seeing Yu was coming back. "Also, I can tolerate him."
"Yeah and that's only because you-" Meadows began.
"Fairfire, one of the navy crewmen stopped me, she said Curie needs to talk to you about something." Yu said, interrupting Meadows mid-sentence, much to Fairfire's relief.
Uh oh, should've guessed that would happen. Fairfire thought. She wasn't worried about what the Artificial Intelligence would have to say, in all likelihood, she just wanted to remind Fairfire to keep the information confidential.
"I see, I'll get to that then. I finished my food quite a bit ago anyway. You all stay out of trouble." Fairfire replied as she climbed out of the booth and made for the nearest holotank.
UNSC Dominion
Bridge
October 5th, 1901 Standard Time, 2552
Richard and Thomas had gone over half a dozen different plans on how they could make the UNSC's presence known to the people Remnant. But every single one of them featured some sort of critical flaw, some would cause a panic, some would simply not be believed, along with many other problems. Occasionally, some of the other bridge officers would contribute, pitching in their own suggestions and ideas. But even with their contributions, brainstorming was taking a long time. Eventually, Thomas finally had a stroke of genius.
"We're looking at this from a faulty perspective." Thomas pointed out. "We're approaching this problem using the average UEG citizen as an example."
"You think that's unreasonable?" Richard asked, somewhat surprised. "What we do know about Remnant's people points to substantial cultural similarities between themselves and us."
"That may be true, but hear me out at the very least." Thomas insisted. "Back home, there are literally millions of ways information can travel. From Waypoint all the way to hand-delivering physical letters, we have a lot of ways of spreading the news."
"And you think Remnant doesn't have that?" Richard said, trying to see his point.
"I can do better than that, I can prove it." Thomas stated. "We touched down in Kuo Kuana, an urban, densely populated area. We landed with a little over a squad of marines, not to mention a damn Pelican. The leader of a major nation literally announced our existence. On any other Colony, the whole planet would have known about us since the day we arrived. On Remnant, we're still a conspiracy theory that barely made the evening news."
"So what you're saying is that we need to think on a broader scale?" Richard asked. "We could always perform a landing in each Major Nation, at least, all of the ones that don't try to shoot us down."
"We could, but that would take substantial effort, and more importantly, time." Thomas said. "We need to find an organization on Remnant that can distribute the knowledge of our presence, whilst also being taken seriously."
"Is the media not sufficient?" Richard asked. That was a surprise to him, especially given Thomas's background in public relations.
"The media isn't all-powerful. Not everyone cares to pay attention to big events around the world, and not everyone will trust what major news outlets are going to say. Especially if it's something as monumental as "Aliens are real and they're visiting our planet right now."." Thomas explained. "I will admit that's from the perspective of our civilization, but I believe it's a reasonable assumption, especially given the developing state of their communications tech… and all of the conspiracy theorists"
Richard nodded. "Menagerie proved that we cannot trust the infrastructure of Remnant, at least in regards to electronics. But if we aren't going along with the media, who would we work with?"
"I have a suggestion." Curie interjected, her hologram appearing around a second after she spoke.
"Go ahead." Richard said. Thomas also gave her a curious look, signifying that he was open to the suggestion.
"I would suggest the Huntsmen Academies." Curie proposed. "They possess substantial renown and respect from effectively all of Remnant's people, and they have pre-existing connections to the media."
"The Huntsmen Academies?" Richard repeated the name of the organization, it sounded vaguely familiar, so he'd probably read about them briefly from one of the reports had been sent to him. "Refresh my memory, what do they do again?"
"They train government-sanctioned mercenaries." Thomas summarized. "They have a strong track record of engaging Grimm and winning, and they seem to use some sort of technology called "aura" in order to fight more effectively."
"Aura?" Richard asked. "From what I read, it was called "Semblance"."
"You are both incorrect." Curie said, interrupting them both. "I will prepare a better put together explanation on their combat capabilities. What is important to know is that they are an exceptionally popular institution that has widespread respect and recognition nearly universally… despite some less than reputable individuals defecting to a life of crime once they complete their training."
Thomas scoffed at the comment. "The planet's largest criminal organizations were also founded by people these academies trained… they're easily corruptible and seem to have a very poor screening process." He seemed to think for a moment "What about public outreach? We need as many people as possible to hear about this, so that we don't start a crisis later down the line."
"All four academies coordinate directly with public news organizations, partly as a public relations campaign, but more so to alert citizens when Grimm are coming and what to do." Curie answered. "I recognize it is not a perfect solution-"
"It's a lot better than any of my ideas." Thomas interrupted her. "But we're going to need to do some investigation of our own if we're going through with this."
"We'll have to make it quick." Richard said. "We haven't gotten a reply back from Ironwood since this morning, and that worries me about what he's doing."
"If you would like an answer, I will need authorization to breach his firewalls." Curie said.
Richard thought for a moment before speaking. "Don't do it. If he's going to betray us, we wouldn't be able to convince him otherwise."
"Some warning would be nice." Thomas pointed out.
"Our course of action won't change either way." Richard countered. "We're making this announcement. If we don't, it's going to cause a lot of problems later down the line. Not to mention it's better to do this at our own pace."
"Not to mention that we have a duty to these people." Curie added. "There are terrible epidemics of disease that we could be preventing, lackluster infrastructure that could improve, not to mention the Grimm! These people need our help!"
"They aren't UEG citizens." Thomas pointed out. "Most courts would strike intervention down."
"Well most courts won't get us home. Or in a worst-case scenario, this might have to end up serving as a home." Richard countered. "If we don't intervene, things are only going to get worse for us."
Thomas sighed in reluctant agreement. "What's our backup plan for Atlas if this fails?"
"We try further diplomacy to see if we can work out some sort of deal. If that doesn't work, we'll start crippling strategic assets until they come back to the diplomacy table." Richard said after a moment of thought.
Thomas nodded. "That's a solid enough backup plan. What about the other nations?"
"Too many unknowns to say, maybe we could get some contacts on the ground to help us?" Richard said.
"We'll also need to consider how we're going to fund the massive industrial expansions on Remnant that we are going to need to produce a Slipspace Drive, not to mention any other UNSC Operations." Curie pointed out.
"Asteroid mining." Richard immediately answered, it was just an obvious solution. "Inform Bradford to start the planning, look for targets with high concentrations of platinum group metals. We'll need to see about getting those mining kits for our Cyclops units operational as well."
"Rare metals?" Thomas asked. "I'll admit, economics isn't my strong suit."
"Mine is espionage and teaching, war pushes us into roles where we're not at our strongest." Richard said with a grin. "But the first trillionaires were the first people to start mining asteroids, so maybe we can emulate that success."
Thomas sighed with bitter acceptance. "If you told me that you were going to have me be an economist, I would have requested a transfer."
Richard deadpanned. "Are you joking? I'm going to have Bradford handle this. You're already far too busy."
"I am?" he asked, clearly not understanding. "I've got a lot of gaps in my schedule you know."
"Not for long. You're the only person on the ship with any experience in public relations." Richard said with a nod. "In related news, congratulations on becoming the official representative of the UNSC to foreign powers."
Atlas
Schnee Manor
It said a lot about a man when his personal residence had a waiting room. Admittedly Ironwood hadn't visited his house in weeks, what with his extremely busy position. Not to mention that he now had another extremely important task, perhaps the most important task he had been given, with the exception of Ozpin's operations.
Relax, all I need to do is negotiate a peace between some unimaginably powerful alien force and the most arrogant man who has ever placed his feet on Atlesian soil. He jokingly told himself. But Ironwood's nerves of steel weren't strained easily, he was up to the task.
"General." The secretary said, getting his attention. "He's ready, in the study."
"Thank you." Ironwood said. It wasn't his first visit, nor was it the first time he'd ever felt sympathy for a woman who was no doubt not paid enough for her job.
Ironwood did his best to avoid letting his personal opinions on people impact his line of work. Jacques was by far the best example of his unwillingness to let that happen, as the man truly was a prat in his own unique and awful way. This was made even more important that effectively all of the Atlesian Militaries dust was sourced from the SDC, making a healthy functional relationship all the more important. But still, Ironwood had been quietly hoping some of the rumors around his mines were actually true, but only just enough so that he had an excuse to stop being polite to the man.
If Jacques was truly running a slaving operation, I'd take him in myself. He thought as he arrived outside of the study. But he's always been careful to operate within the law, at least publicly.
A quick knock on the door was answered with a muffled "come in" from Jacques. Ironwood took a deep breath and opened the door.
Jacques was sitting at his desk, his demeanor suggesting something that Ironwood couldn't discern, but he could guess the man wasn't happy.
"Have a seat, General." Jacques said, looking up from his computer.
Ironwood sat down before responding. "How's business, Jacques?"
"Doing better than a few days ago." Jacques said, his demeanor shifting to one that was more positive. "The White Fang have been docile lately, and without their interference we've been doing rather well."
"Any trouble from the Grimm?" Ironwood continued.
Jacques sighed. "I don't enjoy being rude, but cut to the point if you would."
Ironwood bit his tongue and nodded. "We have an update on the people who attacked your mine, the rural one."
"You do?" Jacques seemed pleasantly surprised. "Well that's good news, who are they?"
"They call themselves 'The United Nations Space Command'." Ironwood said, noticing Jacques scowl at the name.
"The security forces did say that, although I expected it to be some half-baked excuse for trespassing." Jacques replied. "Are they delusional to the point that they truly believe they are aliens?"
"That's where this gets... unusual." Ironwood began, speaking tentatively. "Because they weren't lying, they aren't from Remnant."
Jacques scowl morphed into an outright frown. "Are you quite all-right General? You seem to be speaking nonsense. This isn't a matter to joke about."
I'm well aware of that you pompous... Ironwood interrupted his own thoughts to continue. "I'm not joking, they contacted me directly, explaining how they attempted to make contact with our planet."
"They what?!" he sprang out of his chair in surprise and outrage. "And you just let them go?!"
"They used the CCTS, capturing them was never an option. Tracking them would've been equally difficult, considering they called me from their spaceship." Ironwood said, reaching into his pocket to draw a picture of the vessel that he had taken a screenshot of earlier. He placed it on the desk in front of Jacques, who picked it up and examined it, his frown deepening.
"They also shared some footage taken during the battle, I watched it firsthand." Ironwood said, carefully watching his expression as his face reddened. "I'm afraid they weren't lying."
"Peaceful." Jacques spat dismissively. "What kind of peaceful envoy lands in the middle of nowhere?"
"Apparently they intended to land somewhere that minimized the risk of an aerial collision." Ironwood added. "They must have managed to do that elsewhere, which is how they've accessed the CCTS."
"They butchered my men!" Jacques shouted in protest. "That is not peaceful, that's an act of war!"
"Your men threatened to execute them where they stood and then attempted to arrest them. I don't recall your security forces having the authority to just kill people like that." Ironwood stated, trying to stay as professional as possible on the matter. "I managed to negotiate a truce with-"
"You what?!" Jacques asked indignantly. "I thought we agreed that we don't negotiate with terrorists!"
"Terrorists?!" Ironwood asked, trying to keep himself reasonable. "I watched the entire encounter myself, I would hardly call them terrorists, especially considering that they outright stated they don't want to fight, they even offered to leave your land."
"You believed them?! You're beyond gullible, you're ignorant!" Jacques shouted. "That footage could well have been doctored, you have been played!"
Alright, I can see how this is going. Ironwood said, standing up from his own chair. "I will not allow our Kingdom to bear the repercussions for the crimes of a few lawbreaking mercenaries. We will have peace with this UNSC, and I will not send Atlesian citizens to die for your pointless, reasonless conflict!"
Jacques seemed rather taken aback by his response, but Ironwood wasn't done speaking.
"I think you misunderstand the situation. You attacked a foreign power, with little justification, that has to have a level of technology we cannot even fathom. Your men and by extension your company vastly overstepped their jurisdiction. The aliens have attempted to extend an olive branch and end this before it gets worse, one I will be accepting! What kind of weapons do you wager a spacefaring civilization has Jacques? We can't exactly fire back at something outside of our atmosphere!"
Jacques narrowed his eyes in hatred. "So you're scared."
Ironwood fumed, but forced himself to calm down before responding. Despite the way this conversation had gone, he would not resort to petty insults. "No, I simply have a duty to protect our citizens. I have already made my decision, I came here to ask how you're going to respond."
"We will Fight!" Jacques insisted. "If you don't have the balls to take on a few terrorists, we will! The council will certainly be hearing about this!"
"I already discussed this with them. They have backed me on this matter." Ironwood said, not lying but not exactly telling the truth either. The vote was 3-2, with Ironwood's extra seat saving his proposal to keep the peace. Jacques was extraordinarily influential, and Ironwood was afraid he was going to have to seek public backing to get his resolution passed.
"We'll see about that! Get out of my house!" Jacques shouted, pointing to the door.
Gladly. Ironwood thought, already imagining the logistic mess that Jacques was going to cause in retaliation.