Chapter 3: Debrieffing
2 Weeks Prior...
"Ah… Wash, Carolina. Pleasure to see you two." The front desk lady greeted the two space marines. She was seating in a pristine white room with a desk fitting for a secretary. The room was mostly baron, outside of a simple potted plant and two guards who never spoke unless referred to directly. Despite the mundanity of her job, the front desk lady was decked out in high grade military armor, and armed with serious weaponry. It gave the impression that her front desk persona was more for fun then a job requirement.
"Good to see you too, Lola. Is Kimball ready to see us?" Wash responded.
"Yeah, I'll let ya in." Lola, turned to the door behind her and swiped a key card, opening the door. Wash and Carolina entered and the door closed behind them.
The room was lit with an orange hue. The orange skyline was bleeding into the room thanks to a large window with a grand view of the large city outside. There was a single person in the room. A woman garbed in full power armor. Despite a desk and multiple chairs being nearby, the woman chose to stand facing towards the window and consequentially, away from the entry door and the two entering guests.
"You're here. I guess we can begin." The woman said, turning to greet her guests. She presses a button under her desk and takes a seat. Her windows begin to tint black, with the room darkening as they block more light. But before visibility becomes a problem the room's ceiling light turns on, revealing the bleach white floors. The windows are now pitch black, and nothing can see through them.
"I'm sorry I called you here on such short notice. Please, take a seat. We have much to discuss."
The two marines do just that and sit facing the one who called them.
"It's no problem President Kimball. Considering the mess we just went through, we might be better off apologizing to you instead."
"Just call me Kimball, Wash. While this may be business, we are all still friends."
"So then what did you call us for?" Carolina asked.
"To begin with, let's talk about your new bases. I am afraid we can't build them."
"That's a shame."Wash responded.
"In fairness, it isn't because of your group or what they did to the prior bases that has me reject your request. Simply put, we can't afford to do it ourselves. Every bit of stone and metal we could spend on that project would be better used fixing our own broken planet… Which brings me nicely to the main course of this discussion."
Kimball rises from her seat and moves to the wall on her left, the wall has a monitor that she turns on once she reaches it. On the display is the schematics of of large ship.
"This is the S.S Mugunghwa, a generation ship that was lost 500 years ago, and right now is our planet's most important objective."
"Generation ship…?" Carolina pondered. "I've never heard of that ship class before. Have you Wash?"
"No… I haven't. Is this a chorus unique classification?"
"Close, but no. It's a class of ship only created by earth during the 22nd century. It was, by our modern definition, a colony ship. But we hadn't discovered forerunner technology then, so they didn't have access to faster-then-light travel. Instead, they were designed to accommodate millions of people with the intention of supporting said occupants until they had reached their destination."
"So people lived their entire lives on that ship, and others like it?" Wash asked.
"Essentially. That doesn't really matter though, Light-speed travel made this class of ship obsolete long ago. What matters is this ship in particular."
"How so?"
"The Mugunghwa was a Korean ship occupied with 10 million people. A vast majority of which were Chinese and Korean citizens. Its stated destination was a sector near here. But 100 years after its launch, all communication ceased. When Light-speed travel was discovered, an effort was made to find all unaccounted generation ships. The Mugunghwa was among the listed ships to have disappeared and considered MIA. The last official written reference to the ship was made 236 years ago to mourn the 10 million souls lost."
Kimball pauses, and turns to the screen.
"...and now that ship is within Chorus Space."
"If you don't mind me asking, what does this have to do with us?"
Kimball turns face Carolina, her posture indicating confidence and clear expectation for such a question.
"The last few years have been rather poor for Chorus. Our planet's population has almost entirely transformed into large military complex. But we're not at war anymore, and food doesn't grow itself. Most of our remaining equipment is military focused. And while we can sell it, our recent issues with the UNSC have left us without many willing buyers. To put it bluntly, 60% of food chorus consumes is imported. We are trying to get more farmland, but the civil war left most of our developed areas baron, and the tons of crashed ships have made nearby soil radioactive. Our colony was small to begin with, so we have a lot of undeveloped land, but as I said earlier the only working equipment we have it military focused. We can't shoot our guns at a forest and call it a farm."
"I get it now. Those ships must have self sustaining farms, or at least the equipment to support them."Carolina proclaimed, Kimball nodding in response."So you intend to claim that ship and use its resources to jump-start Chorus back to self sustainability."
"Exactly. While the tech will no doubt be out of date, it would be better then what we have now. There's only one issue, and this is where you and your team comes in."
The screen on the board changes from the schematics to a document. From where they are seated, Wash and Carolina can't see the lettering on said document. The only thing they can make out is the large UNSC lettering on the top.
"The UNSC is trying to claim the ship."
"Why would they want it?"
"The ship is a relic of 22nd century earth, and the Asian countries I mentioned before, China and South Korea if you can recall, want to reclaim what they consider is theirs. The UNSC is acting in their behalf and is trying to claim the ship for preservation purposes. If they get their hands on it; the ship, and all the equipment inside it, will become museum pieces never to be touched or used."
Kimball moves to her desk and sits down. The display turning off.
"Needless to say, that would be a bad thing for us. Luckly, the UNSC can't claim a ship that was created before its own creation. A loophole created by greedy politicians at the time. So by all legal standards, the ship is ours."
"I doubt the UNSC intends to give up so easily though…" Wash muses.
"They don't disappoint in that department. The UNSC is already pressuring us to relinquish the ship to them. And given our recent history, I wouldn't be surprised if they'd used this as an excuse to go to war and 'reclaim' the planet too. We managed to work out a compromise, but it isn't ideal for us. As I see it, the ship itself is unimportant, only the equipment within is. But we don't know the current status of the ship itself or the equipment. So each side are going to send a freelance investigators to inspect the ship and see what equipment, crew and resources it has. Once the inspection is finished; the UNSC gets the ship, and Chorus gets all equipment not vital to the ships systems."
"So far so good, but where do we…"
"But I don't trust them. Maybe its the recent blockade that has me on edge, maybe its a remnant of my former rebel life, but either way I can't help but feel they will screw us over and take valuable equipment my planet needs. So that's why I'm asking you for your help. Officially, you'll be bodyguards for the investigator, but unofficially I'd like for you to aid him and prevent inaccuracies from happening."
"You the Reds and Blues to be bodyguards?" Wash and Carolina stare at each other for a bit. Wash then raises his hand. "If we do this, can you get us new bases?"
Kimball leans her head back and takes a deep breath.
"I can promise you new bases if the job is completed."
"Then we'll do it, Wash and I will go get the others prepped and ready. In the mean time; whose our investigator, and when do they arrive?"
For the first time in the entire conversation Kimball stuttered. No sound came out, but the two realize pretty quick that it was a question she didn't want to answer.
"H-he's an…Eccentric fellow. Most definitely NOT my first choice for something this important. But I don't have many options. As for when, in about two weeks from now. Come here in a week and we will schedule where we want landing location and meet up."
"Will do."
Wash and Carolina both stand and give Kimball a salute. Then leave the room.
Present Day…
"Afterwards, we scheduled our meet up at Chorus Station 12B and from there you guys are up to speed."
Washington paused to look around the room, making sure that everyone was paying attention. Everyone except Carolina and Sarge had taken seats in or on the various furniture in the "Living Room." Carolina, who was aware of mission from the start, and Sarge, who paid attention to the first debriefing, were with Chris at the Command center.
"How long do you think this is gonna take?" Tucker asked. "Cause from what you said, we sent one guy to do an equipment check on a ship the size of a fucking country. That doesn't sound like a 20 minute job."
"Maybe, Chris has super powers and can run super fast!" Caboose stated with up-most glee.
"Uh… No. As far as I'm aware, we are only going to be here for an hour at most. We need to get basic documents from the ship and see what sort of state it's in. This will likely take 2 months of one hour long trips to survey the whole ship. We'd get it done faster, but we can't investigate if one side's investigator isn't present." Wash responded.
"Sounds incredibly inefficient and expensive." Simmons griped.
"So standard UNSC." Grif quipped.
"Hey Dudes!" Chris came in through the speaker system. "We have a visual on the Mugunghwa. We will arrive in Five minutes."
The Reds and Blues stand and face the southern wall which had massive windows. In the distance they see a massive behemoth of metal. Large, gray and of a design that they are completely unfamiliar with. The only sign that it was once a human ship is faded writing written in kanji they didn't understand and a faded illustration of a flower. Slowly the ship becomes larger and larger until it becomes impossible to see both ends and the window's view is entirely over taken by they rusted metal.
"The S.S Mugunghwa. The lost generation ship." Wash mused to himself.
Caboose runs to door in clear excitement and soundly declares.
"I hope the people inside are nice."
Author's note:
That took much longer to write than I intended. To be honest, recent events at school kept me real busy. I wish I could promise consistent updates, but I'm only able to write this on my free time, which isn't a lot. That said I haven't given up on this tale and I have a lot of notes on my phone. I just need time to get around to writing this.
So I've become that guy never updates and leaves people waiting on stories that take forever... Damn, I've become a monster.