Greetings children. I'm sorry about the long delay. I don't have a excuse. But I am now determined to finish this before the end of this year. So onwards!
Andreas waved away a medic who tried to tend to the burn mark over his eye. The battle on the surface had ended three hours ago and they were only just now returning to Thermopylae. Andreas stepped out of the Pelican and into the bustling hangar bay of Thermopylae. There were currently six of the twenty four Pelicans aboard disgorging an array of battered, bruised but jubilant ODSTs and Spartans. Andreas spotted Grant in among the crowds and gave a respectful nod. No doubt, Grant would soon be boasting about the time he saved Andreas from a wraith. He would probably embellish it but Grant's over the top stories always gave Gamma company something to laugh about. Laughter was something they always needed. Especially after the fall of Reach. The shock of seeing a three hundred and fifty strong force of Spartans reduced to just fifty three in only forty eight hours would have been enough to totally break the survivors if it weren't for Grant and his stories. Andreas watched three of the Gamma company survivors as they formed up behind him. They had all removed their helmets and all seemed to be enjoying their victory. Marcus was happily cradling his new Plasma mortar. Zhao was wearing his coolest smile. Meghan looked the weariest of them all. Andreas knew it was probably his fault she looked so tired. Meghan was effectively the second in command of the company. It was her job to keep order when he wasn't around. And the company had also volunteered her for the difficult task of making sure Andreas didn't get himself killed. He admired her hair which was now free of it's bun and was flowing freely from her head. He then embarrassedly looked away. Why was he staring at her so much these days? And why did he get a nervous feeling in his stomach whenever they were together off the battlefield? Andreas shook his head as if the action would fling the thoughts out of his head.
After walking to the end of the hangar and engaging in some post victory banter with other Spartans, Andreas noticed that Kelly was waiting for him at the entrance. Linda was standing behind her. The red haired woman towered over her smaller commanding officer. The titanic frame of her Mjlonir armour added to the effect of Kelly looking smaller. Andreas and most of the other Spartans immediately came to attention and saluted the Major.
"I take it that you lot enjoyed yourselves?" Asked the Major as she returned the salutes with her own. A chorus of yes sirs came in reply.
"Staff Captain I'd like a word before you disappear for down time. The rest of you are dismissed." There was another round of salutes from all the Spartans aside from Andreas. They all walked off to the armoury for the laborious process of taking their armour off properly. Linda smiled at Andreas and walked after them.
" I see you have found a suitable trophy Captain." Said Kelly, gesturing to the Chieftain's helmet still clasped in Andreas' hands.
"You like it? The man who sold it to me gave me a good price." Joked the Spartan III. He put the helmet on his head and grinned proudly. The helmet wasn't to big for him. A little tinkering and he would be able to wear without it sliding into his eyes.
"Captain I need you to be serious for a moment." Andreas removed the helmet and stood to attention. There wasn't even a hint of his previous joviality.
"Once you and your men have had a rest I'll need you to get them ready for a new deployment." said Kelly.
"Of course Major. May ask as to the target?"
"Multiple targets actually. I need you to divide our ground forces to support two ongoing engagements. We are making a push into the ruins of new Alexandria and they want some Spartans to be present. The 172nd armoured company are also asking for support in an assault on a Covenant position in the Veaeri territory."
"We'll get it done Major." Said Andreas.
"Thats not all Captain." Continued Kelly. "I also have a mission that I want you to take care of personally."
"What is it?"
"I'll forward you the details. For now go and get some rest and a meal. After that I want you to draw up strike forces from our available troops suited for each of the two missions. But remember to keep two squads at least for your mission." Andreas nodded. Kelly swiftly dismissed him and went off into an elevator. Andreas took off for the armoury.
"So how was it on the surface Master Chief?" Asked one of the armour techs. He was middle aged man who, if Linda remembered correctly was from Reach.
"Very barren. There isn't much more than dust and echoes." Replied the red haired Spartan. The techs and servo arms began to undo the clasps of her chest plate. After a minute of this two of the techs were finally able to lift the chest plate away from her and place it out of the way.
"Well you certainly brought some of that dust back with you chief. Its gonna take me a while to get it all out." said the same man.
"Don't worry about it. The Major doesn't want me of the front lines for a bit. But could you run a diagnostic on my helmet software? I noticed a couple of glitches." Said Linda.
"You didn't get hit too hard on the head did ya?" asked the tech.
"Lost it during a fight with a Brute. It could have taken a blow... I don't know." As Linda spoke the armour techs lifted the back of her armour away. With it off she could remove the rest herself. She tossed the tech she had been talking with her plain Mark IV helmet which had been magnetised to her waist armour. The man caught it and examined it.
"Well it has taken a few knocks. I'll run a diagnostic and touch up the paint work for you." He said.
"Thank you." Linda was now out of her armour and stood there in the tight fitting under armour. To the man's credit, he didn't stare at her body. Linda had noticed a lot of male personnel, particularly the younger men tended to stare at the female Spartans when they had been removing the armour. Linda wandered off to the lockers to get back into her uniform. The armour tech took her helmet and plugged a lead into the AI port. He initiated a diagnostic program on its software and then turned around to help the other techs put Linda's and the other Spartan's armour into storage. If he had not turned around however, he would have noticed a stream of covenant letters flash on the screen before disappearing.
Deep in the software of Thermopylae, Artemis sat, immersed in the data of the ship. Currently she had around twelve of her subroutines running various aspects of the ship. Currently she was preforming such tasks as firing the port manoeuvring thrusters to keep the ships orbit steady, scanning the surrounding space for potential threats, running three separate conversations with the AIs aboard the Lord Nelson, Antigone and Keep what you steal, and she was directing a lost ensign to the mess hall. While her subroutines were doing this, her main program was sitting in the ships primary AI core on deck six. She was currently monitoring long range sensors as well as scanning the planets surface for Major Kelly. Artemis paused in her tasks for a nano second. She felt something, a malevolent presence for the briefest second. She scanned the area of the ships network she had felt it in... nothing. Puzzled, she sent a burst of binary to Leonidas who was working on the the ships targeting sensors.
Did you detect something in port section of the network?
The reply was almost instant.
No. Why what have you found? asked Leonidas
I don't know. I'll investigate later. She said.
Little did the AI know that she was know being watched from the shadows of her own network.
Andreas flopped down onto a couch in the Spartan's rec room. It was fairly large and was filled with an eclectic collection of old furniture which had been liberated from various sources before Thermopylae had left dry dock. Large bay windows looked out on to the surface of Reach. A few ships of the fleet drifted past but Andreas didn't bother looking. He was engrossed in the briefing for the mission Kelly had given him. As it turned out, The Spartans aboard Thermopylae were not the only ones in the system. After the war, when the surviving Spartans were organised into the existing Spartan corps, it was decided that some Spartans were needed to fill the Spartans original elite black ops role. After the members of the Spartan II Grey team ( Adrianna, Jai, and Mike) were recovered from their damaged Prowler in former Covenant territory, this new body was formed and named Grey Team. Grey team was formed from the original Grey Team and a whole host of other misfits and lone wolves. Some of the Gamma Company survivors like Anthony G342 were selected, along with Headhunter survivors and promising Delta company recruits. They usually worked alone or in small groups. It turns out that a small team led by Lieutenant Commander Adrianna herself had been despatched to Reach weeks prior to investigate and eliminate any Covenant loyalists found sneaking on to the planet's surface. There last transmission had come from the ruins of ONI's Sword Base at what was once the Babd Catha ice shelf. They had now been out of contact for three days. A small force of marines had been sent two days ago but they had also failed to report in. Kelly wanted Andreas to deal with it. He had already decided on a team. Including his own team of Warhammer he had picked Halberd and Falchion from Gamma company. He hadn't taken any ODSTs because he wanted his team to be flexible and fast moving, the ODSTs, as elite as they were, would not be able to keep up. He hadn't chosen anyone from Delta company because he didn't trust them yet. This was their first major deployment, they needed to learn to work in the field. He also wanted to test their commander. Officially, Andreas had no right to interfere with Delta company affairs, he was the commander of Gamma company and not Delta. Hannah D267 was the field commander of Delta company. She had not yet led them in a proper deployment. As the commander of Thermopylae's ground forces, Andreas needed to know he could rely on the leader of one of his units. He needed to know if she could cope under pressure. If not he'd recommend she was replaced, either by one of the other promising leaders in Delta or a Gamma company Veteran.
Andreas sighed as he made the final tweak to the deployment schedules and set his data slate aside.
"Leonidas?" he called out. The voice of the ships secondary AI could be heard over the speakers.
"Yes Staff Captain?"
"Could you please download the deployment schedule from my data slate and distribute it to those concerned."
"Of course Captain." Andreas thanked the AI and sank into the battered old couch he was sitting on. He closed his eyes for a second and then promptly opened them when he felt other Spartans sit on his couch. He opened his eyes, to his right was Marcus, his team mate wore his usual contemplative face. To his left sat Damien G002. Damien was the commander of team Falchion and had been christened Gamma company's toughest son of a bitch. The evidence for his title was his prosthetic right arm. The gleaming metal had taken the place of his original arm during the fall of Reach. Andreas wasn't there when it had happened but it apparently involved a berserk energy sword wielding Elite and Damien choking the creature with his good arm, and cauterising his right arm stump with the elites blade. Nobody aboard was sure how it happened, and Damien, as with most things, was silent on the matter. In front of him stood the commander of team Halbered, Aisha G265. She was one of the shorter members of the entire Spartan corps being only slightly taller than Major Kelly who still held the title of shortest Spartan. Despite her lack of height compared to the others, Aisha was one of the strongest among the veterans of Gamma company.
"So Captain? Mind telling us about this secret mission you've chosen our squads for?" Asked Aisha. The expression of the usually silent Damien showed that he to was wondering and it didn't take an AI to figure out that if the two squad commanders were wondering, then Marcus the lowest ranked officer present, would also be curious.
"Sorry guys but its classified. I can't tell you until we are about there." Aisha and Marcus grumbled. In a rare occurrence, Damien spoke.
"I take it since our teams were chosen this will be high risk?"
"Wow, he actually talks!" Exclaimed Marcus in a mocking tone. In response Damien's usually impassive face broke into a dark frown.
"Not exactly. But I need a small group I can rely on. Which unfortunately means I can't bring the whole of Gamma company so I'll have to settle for you two and your pet miscreants." Said Andreas, his last comment earning a snort of amusement from Damien and a mock scowl from Aisha. Andreas then addressed them in his "Captain" tone as it had come to be called.
"Pelicans go skids up in two hours have your squads ready and waiting before then." The two squad leaders stood and saluted before walking off to gather their squads. Marcus also stood.
"Should I find Meghan and Zhao and get them ready?" He asked.
"Please do Marcus. I'll be right behind you when you head up to the armoury."
Marcus nodded and saluted before going to find the two other members of team Warhammer.
I just want to quickly apologise to anyone who has been waiting for an update from me. But there is a way you guys can prevent this happening again. Reviews are a great confidence boost for me. The criticism will help me improve and the good comments will drive me to finish this to the best of my abilities. So please review folks.