The hatch unfolded, and technicians immediately ran up to the ship, one towing a cable with something that looked like a claw attached at the end. The other end was on a track on the ceiling of what looked to be a huge docking bay. It was separated into three levels, with a domed roof. Pelican dropships, Longsword Interceptors, and ships resembling Colonel Butcher's and the boxier dropship they were just in were held in place along catwalks by magnetic clamps. In rows along the curved ceiling were suspended Warthog all-terrain vehicles, Scorpion battletanks, and some smaller one-person ATVs, all painted jet black.
The technicians detached the Marines' Warthog from the dropship and hooked the claw mechanism onto its chassis. It held the Warthog magnetically, and lifted it up along with the other vehicles. The whole bay was clinically clean and organized, lacking the array of tools, parts, and vehicles most UNSC bays had scattered on the floor.
The Marines disengaged their seatbelts and stepped outside. A technician approached and asked for their weapons. They relinquished them, and the engineer placed them on a rack with tags indicating their owners, "UNSC Marine Corps."
Colonel Butcher descended the ladder from the cockpit of the dropship, dismissing the salutes of the Marines and surrounding engineers. "Sorry 'bout all this, Marines. If you'll follow me…" she said, turning on her heel towards a small lift.
They entered the exposed lift and the Colonel hit the button marked "2". When they reached the second level, Butcher walked towards a heavy steel door. Nearby was some sort of scanner, with a hand-shaped depression and some sort of visor. She walked up to it, and with her hand in the depression, placed the visor over her eyes. A flash of red light, and the security door opened.
She motioned the Marines through the door into a short corridor, then closed the door with a panel on the wall. Colonel Butcher turned to face the men. "Marines, as you well know, ONI doesn't get many good soldiers. Most of us are strategists and covert agents. Some times, we have to resort to…other measures to acquire traditional grunts. Follow me to the briefing room."
She keyed open the next door and continued down the hallway, trailed by three somewhat confused Marines.
After a short walk and another elevator ride, the group reached a room, marked "Briefing 1". They entered the room, and found another group of Marines, Privates and Sergeants like themselves, already seated. There were nine of them, three squads of three.
"Take a seat," said Butcher, motioning towards three empty chairs. As the Marines were seating themselves, Colonel Butcher walked towards the front of the room, turning on a projector as she walked. It flickered, then displayed an image of a rotating planet. A blue globe, very similar in appearance to pre-industrial Earth of old, with lush, sub-tropical, forested continents outlined in black and two white ice caps, spun in the foreground in front of a star-dotted spacescape. As it rotated, a blue dot appeared on the largest continent, as well as blue text reading "Alpha Post" above it.
"Marines, be forewarned that this mission is not exactly FLEETCOM…'authorized', but is ONI endorsed. The papers for your transfer from your respective vessels to the Panther have come through, though. Back to the screen—" she said, pointing at the planet as the words, "THETA PRIME," appeared at the top of the screen and a red dot appeared on one of the smaller continents. This was marked, "Objective Alpha."
"Objective Alpha is a cavern system of some sort, which the Covies seem very interested in. We need to stop the Covenant from obtaining whatever is inside it. Outside—" the projection zoomed in on the area, providing a detailed topographical image of the mouth of the cave and its surrounds, "There is a Covenant command post of some sort." Several blobs were outlined in red. "We expect two Wraith mortar tanks, two to four Shade stat. guns, two to four Ghost hovercraft, twenty to twenty-five Grunts, and four Elites, of a lesser leadership class. Two teams, teams A and B, will assault this position as the other two, C and D, sneak in behind to enter the cave."
The camera panned to show the winding passages of the cave. "This will be the more difficult aspect of the mission. Troop estimates are uncertain. Expect ten to thirty Grunts, three to ten Elites, possibly of the yellow Commander caste, five to twenty Jackals, and there may be a pair of Hunters. We will set NAV beacons at the turns to aid in navigation through the lengthy tunnels. The lower third of the tunnels are uncharted, though, so it's guesswork from there. Ten minutes after teams C and D enter the tunnels; teams A and B will break off from the enemy and retreat down the cave system as well. At this point, they will radio the Panther with the enemy's location and strength and hold their ground 25 meters inside. Four Pelican dropships will strafe the area in three passes with 20 mm machine-gun fire after this radio signal. Teams A and B will mop up the enemy, police any vehicles possible, and secure the mouth of the cave. If teams C or D radio for assist, only one of the teams will be sent to assist. Clear? One team will stay topside at all times. We don't have men to spare for heroics. It's more efficient to collapse the tunnel than to lose another three soldiers."
The camera zoomed out slightly to show the relatively flat terrain extending about 10 kilometers from the objective. Four blue triangles and one green triangle popped onto the screen in a delta formation, the green triangle in the rear of the formation. "The blue symbols indicate Pelican dropships, one ship per team, each carrying standard-outfit Warthogs. The green symbol is a Bulldog-class dropship, carrying a Scorpion main battletank outfitted with two 7.62 mm machine-guns and a 204 mm main gun loaded with high-explosive fragmentation rounds. This main gun is not to be used if there is a chance of friendly fire.
"The second-ranked soldier of team A will pilot the Scorpion. The highest- and lowest-ranked soldiers will man their dropship's Warthog. Team B will use their Warthog and also carry heavy weapons. Teams C and D are to carry medium weapons, with one sniper rifle and one rocket launcher between the two of them, preferably wielded by the passengers of the 'Hogs.
"Teams C and D's objective will be the seizure and retrieval of a weapon, beacon, something that the Covenant are trying to protect or obtain. It will be up to the ranking officer of these teams what this object is.
"After completing their objective, all four teams will report to NAV Omega for extraction." This NAV beacon, outlines in orange, was about 5 kilometers away from the insertion point.
"Teams A and B will consist of Corporal Burnside's and Sergeant Noles's squads respectively. Teams C and D will be Staff Sergeant Baker's and Specialist Donaldson's.
"Report to the armory at 0600 hours for outfitting. At 0700, report to level 2 of Docking Bay 1 for vehicle prep and boarding. We land at 0830 hours. Dismissed."
The lights came back on in the room, and Colonel Butcher turned the projector off. As the Marines filed out of the room, they were greeted by four guards who directed them to their quarters and left the men with directions to the bay, galley, and recreation areas.
