All rights go to their owners, as I own nothing!
Man cannot control the current of events. He can only float with them and steer: Otto Von Bismarck, Iron Chancellor of the German Empire.
It had been a couple of hectic hours since Jerome and his ground team had touched back down on the ship. As they had come on board with trooper casualties of all kinds and saw that Cutter was trying to handle the efforts in ensuring that Pelicans with badly injured personnel were given priority to land ahead of other dropships.
For his part Jerome, Douglas and the other three Spartans had lent a hand in helping with the crew members on the landing deck.
What followed this was the longest couple of hours of their lives; as Jerome and the other Spartans spent hours helping medical personnel with either stabilizing, testing, or in the worst-case scenario transporting injured personnel to the medical bay.
It was only now that Jerome had been able to detach himself, seeing that the situation was fully under control and did not require his immediate supervision.
Still, that did not mean that his day was over, as Jerome had to create and deliver his report to the captain, something which took another couple of hours. But it had been completed and he was on his way to the bridge to personally deliver the report to the captain.
But as Jerome entered through the doors that lead to the bridge, he noticed how quiet it was.
As it was quieter than it should have been, but he guessed that this was due to the situation regarding the compilations regarding some of the crew remaining in cryo-sleep for close to fifty years.
There were bound to be issued with freezer burn for anyone kept in cryo for that length of time. Then again Jerome was not fully aware of the extent of the problem, only that it affected a good percentage of the crew members. Especially those who were in storage the longest thought this was not a rule. As those who were assigned to be a part of the skeleton crew were also suffering from freezer burn so bad, they had to be put in med-bay to recover.
Jerome knew that the Spartans of Red and Omega teams were lucky that they had MJOLNIR. As it did offer some protection from freezer burn, but the rest of the Spirits crew were not so fortunate.
"-was a mistake. Why did not wait until you have more Intel?" The familiar voice made its way to Jerome's ears.
Jerome knew exactly who this was, as he then approached and found two people at the main holo-table.
The first-person Jerome saw was the captain and standing across from him was Spirit of Fire's local firebrand, the former Insurgents turned Hellbringer commander: Morgan Kinsano. Who was currently locked in what looked like a heated conversation with her CO over the mission that had taken place on the surface of the world below them.
This was understandable in Jerome's mind, as the whole operation could easily be described as a failure. As they had not gained anything worth the losses, they had suffered ground side, and that alone was more than enough to count as a loss in Jerome's books. But there was also the fact that Jerome himself had put together the away teams; as such he bore some of the blame for the mission's failure.
But there was nothing that any of them could do about it now, as all they had to do was accept what had happened and move on. Something which Cutter himself had already done, as this was not the first time that a decision that Cutter had made had not panned out as expected due to unexpected developments.
Nor would it be the last he expected, but that was something that Cutter would have to reflect on later as he was still in the middle of his conversation with his Lieutenant Colonel.
"Because I believe that we didn't have time to do it," Cutter stated firmly.
It was becoming obvious from his tone of voice that Cutter was starting to grow a little bit irritated at having to defend his choices. As he and Kinsano had been at this for over an hour now, and though he knew she meant well; Cutter could not help but feel a bit attacked for the choice he made. But despite that Cutter knew that this was merely her way of showing her concern, as the Spirit of Fire local firebrand had lost everything to the Covenant and had come to value the lives of her men greatly because of this.
But despite knowing that, Cutter knew that this argument was not going to change anything. And besides, Cutter had already seen Jerome walk through the door behind her, as it was a not-too-subtle reminder that he had other duties to attend to. Still, Cutter knew that he could not afford to end this conversation in a way that might alienate Kinsano from him.
As Cutter knew that if he was to do so, then Kinsano could easily make her displeasure felt throughout the ship. Which was something that neither Cutter nor the ship's crew could afford to deal with right now; especially considering their current situation. As a divided ship, compounded with all the other problems they currently must deal with could easily lead to a completely avoidable disaster should people not be at their posts.
But thankfully it would seem that Cutter would get an easy out from this situation, as Jerome, seeing the situation had decided to wait where he could be seen. In case he was needed in any way, but by doing this he had unwittingly made his presence known to the firebrand; who quickly decided that it would be better to finish this conversation with Cutter at another time.
"We'll continue this talk later Captain," Kinsano stated simply, ending the conversation.
As Kinsano had her reasons for ending this now; mostly because she did not want to risk this conversation becoming common knowledge across the ship either. As Lieutenant Colonel knew if this goes out that this would cause some of her soldiers to lose faith in the Cutter, and turn, they might not follow his orders which might end up costing them their lives.
This was something Morgan wanted to avoid at all costs, as she had buried enough of her fellow soldiers already. Add losing her home world to the Covenant on top of this, and well the former Rebel turned Lieutenant Colonel did not want to be the catalyst that ended up costing good men their lives.
"Met me in my cabin later on today; there we can talk more freely if you have a spare moment that is?" Cutter then offered her the olive branch.
As he knew that this was not going to go away on its own, he might as well do everything he could to deal with this before it became a major problem.
"I'll consider it Captain." Then with a nod of her head, Kinsano left the table.
As she did so, however, she passed right by Jerome.
"Spartan," Kinsano said in passing.
"Lieutenant," Jerome replied in kind as she exited the bridge through the door he had entered.
At which point Cutter then turned to look at the Spartan from the holo-table. As he did so, Jerome could not help but notice how tired the captain looked, as it was obvious that he was exhausted from everything that had occurred in less than twelve hours. Still, that did not stop him from performing his duties, as he then waved Jerome over to join him at the holo-table.
"Jerome," Cutter then said in greeting.
"Captain, I'm here to deliver my report." The Spartan stated simply.
"Very well Jerome; bring it up," Cutter said as Jerome put a data chip into the holo-table.
As the report then sprung to life in front of them, for his part Cutter did a quick scan of the report. But when it got to the part with Sunray, Cutter could not help but let a small frown cross his face. Cutter knew full well that he was responsible for the casualties that the ground teams had sustained. And even though the captain knew that such things were not preventable due to the nature of their job; Cutter still could not help but feel that he had failed his soldiers on his mission due to how he had handled the situation.
And this feeling made itself known on Cutter's face, as Jerome felt obligated to speak up.
"For what it's worth sir, you did what you thought best given the current situation." Jerome tried to reassure him.
As Jerome understood the situation that the captain had been in now, and though he did not fully support or agree with it, Jerome could understand why he had made that choice.
"Still those men's lives were my responsibility," Cutter said shaking his head.
Because he knew that he had botched the response, then again, he was also working under the assumption that he was dealing with the Covenant. And in those circumstances, Cutter could not afford to be idle because he knew that he could not escape from any space engagement. This at this time would have been a death sentence for the whole crew if he had done nothing.
"They also were mine; I was the field commander of this operation, and as such I share some of the responsibility for the failure of this mission as well." Jerome pointed out.
But this only showed the silent double-edged sword of the Spartan training. As Spartans were trained for direct action missions, this often came into conflict with their larger strategic instincts. But despite that handicap, Jerome had managed to extract the remaining forces in one piece. Even though they should not have been down them there in the first place, at least not without more Intel.
The fact that they had been a failure on Jerome's part to push the issue with the captain was something that Jerome would not forget soon. Especially considering how close he had come to catastrophic.
Still, this did not seem to be any comfort to Cutter, who was the official commanding officer of all ground and ship operations, and as such bore full responsibility for any actions undertaken by the ship and its crew. Thus, the full responsibility for this debacle fell solely on him alone.
Even so, he could not allow this failure to cloud his judgment, as this was not the first time that he had made a similar mistake. Though this one had nearly cost him the lives of all the personnel that had gone planet's side.
"True, but I should have made such a rash decision. Anyway, Jerome can you explain this part of the report?" Cutter then asked as he brought up an image of one unknown aircraft that had attacked them.
This was one of several in a slideshow that Jerome had been able to put together on short notice, but despite that, all the slides were named, and relevant information was available if Cutter wished to know further information on them. But he had not noticed this, so his attention was fully fixed on the unknown jet fighter on the screen in front of him.
"What can you tell me about this aircraft?" Cutter inquired as he then played a short clip of one taking off from its carrier.
"This, from what we could gather is their mainline fighter," Jerome explained as his eyes once again ran over the jet.
As it almost seemed like one you would find in a video game from the 21st century. With its swept-back wings, a sealed cockpit that looked like it might be them just for show, alongside its black hull, with the occasional gray, red highlights.
This jet fighter seemed to be either a full-on jet fighter or a drone. It was different to tell considering its size made it so that it settled the line between both.
But that did not detract from its performance, as a couple of the Pelican pilots had found out the hard way.
"From the reports, I've been able to gather; this is multirole aircraft, as reports vary from what its armament is. Some report that it has two light plasma repeaters, while others say that it had cannon and heavy machine guns. Simply put, we don't know its full capacities, only capturing one aircraft would reveal its true capabilities." Jerome informed the captain.
Jerome and Cutter both knew that they would be facing this enemy again soon. Because they both knew what UNSC protocol called for in this situation. Also, Cutter knew that most of the crew was chopping at the bit to strike back at those who had killed their fellow soldiers.
This was understandable as for the most part the aggression was unprovoked, at least from their point of view. As they were down there to investigate an unusually large plasma read, which had turned out to be created by some unknown technology to awaken a dormant volcano mind you.
Still despite this unknown's possession of extremely advanced technology, something did not sit right with the captain. As he then looked at the next slide to see a relic from another time.
"Don't worry Jerome; I'm sure we'll get the chance to capture one of those jets eventually. Still, what I don't understand is as to why they're using prop-driven aircraft; as it's rather obvious that they have better tech than this to deploy." Cutter pointed out.
As it was indeed an irregularity, why would you use such aircraft when you had access to obviously better ones?
Though there was some advantage that prop-driven aircraft held over their jet counterparts; neither man at the table could understand why this was. Well mostly as Jerome already had a theory as to why this might be the case.
"Permission to speak freely, Captain," Jerome then asked.
Something which he rarely asked for and knowing this Cutter knew that the Spartan had something worthwhile to say.
"Granted," Cutter said as attention then turned back to the Spartan report.
"Sir, I do believe that have an idea as to why this might be." Jerome then stated, surprising Cutter slightly.
"Why didn't you mention it in your report then?" Cutter then inquired, his attention once again turning fully back to the Spartan.
"Mostly because there's no evidence to back this up sir," Jerome stated simply.
"Understand Jerome; carry on," Cutter said once again giving the Spartan permission to speak his mind.
"Sir I believe the discrepancies we're seeing are because of the weapon requirements. As stated in the report, all ground teams reported encountering aircraft that were modified, some of which had 30MM cannons while using those lunch plasma. Alongside that, there are at least a dozen other examples of obsolete planes being used to carry heavy plasma weapons." Jerome pointed this out to the captain.
An interesting theory Cutter would admit, though he could see a rather glaring weakness in it.
"Then why have these weapons installed at all?" Cutter asked.
As this was a good question and one that Jerome did not have an answer for. Maybe if Serina were still in service then she could have unravelled this mystery. But she was not, and this only meant that Cutter and Jerome could only speculate as to the reason why their enemies' air wing was so diverse in the terms of the aircraft they fielded.
"I'm uncertain as to why that is Captain. You would have to ask them yourself." Jerome answered honestly.
As it was the truth of the matter, only their unknown attack could explain why they had only attacked using outdated aircraft and arming them in such a way. This also brought up another question, but before Cutter could ask it the doors to the bridge opened and stepped through it was the Spirit of Fire resident's Professor.
"Professor Andres, I'm glad that you could join us," Cutter said as he moved to give her some room at the table.
"A moment Captain," Andres said as she made a beeline for the table with only the other occupant.
"Professor, what can I do for you?" Jerome then asked as she started reaching for something.
"For the moment, just keep still," Andres said as she brought out a scanning device.
Doing as instructed: Jerome stood as he was as the Professor moved the portable scanner across his armour; as Andres did a full sweep of it. Only after she was done did she consult her device before sharing the results with tables two other occupies.
"I'm sorry for the lack of explanation Spartan. But I had to confirm something." Andres said much to the confusion of her compatriots.
"Care to explain what it is that you were looking for Professor?" Cutter then asked.
"In a moment Captain, Jerome I've finished the project you asked me to do," Andres informed Jerome.
"Thank you, Professor, I appreciate it," Jerome said as he gave her a nod.
"No problem, Spartan, anyway Captain I came here to inform you that while in the medical bay, we found something," Andres said as she put the scanner away.
"Does this have something to do with the scanner you have Professor?" Cutter then inquired.
"It does Captain, as the ground team has come into contact with some sort of nanotechnology while on their mission to the planet. I'm still investigating and will hand in my report once my investigation is done." Andres informed the two men.
This immediately grabbed their attention, as Cutter knew the implications of what Andres was telling him.
"How certain are you of this Professor?" Cutter asked a hit of concern colouring his voice.
"Let me show you, Captain," Andres said as she took out her data-pad and placed it on the table.
From it popped a report from one of the chief doctors on the Spirits. Cutter quickly read and confirmed their report.
"So, we have ideas as to what their purpose is for?" Cutter asked as he once again skimmed through the reports.
As he could not shack the feeling that he was not going to like the answer he got.
"We don't know for the moment, Captain. Still, we do have an idea as to what it might be." Andres said.
"If you have an idea as to what they might be Professor. Then I'm more than open to hearing it." Cutter said, all the while the feeling of dread grew within him.
"It might be easier to show you and then explain Captain," Andres said as she then bought up a recording.
For a moment Cutter was not sure what it was until it started playing, at which point he knew the recording all too well, as it was footage of when the convoy had come under civilian attack. An attack they were still trying to puzzle out.
"Is there any reason as to why I'm being shown this Professor? As I've seen this recording multiple times already," Cutter inquired, as he still did not understand the reason, why they had shown him this again.
"This is my doing sir, and given the situation, I believe that it will become self-evident." Jerome then explained to him much to Cutters' confusion.
Even so, he did not question it, as Cutter knew that Jerome would not be doing this if it was not a good reason.
"Andres, cut out the background noise," Jerome said as Andres did as she was told.
Cutter was surprised that it was not louder given the size of the crowds surrounding them.
"And this is what you can hear when only the civilians are heard," Andres said as she adjusted the video and played it again.
For a moment Cutter thought the video had glitches, but no it was playing back as all he could hear was the faint sounds of bodies moving. None of the sounds that usually accompanied a terrified crowd could be here. And this gave Cutter a bad sinking feeling as he then commented.
"I don't hear anything," Cutter said becoming more confused.
"That's the point, sir," Jerome stated as it finally clicked for Cutter.
"Professor, does this have anything to do with the nanobots you were scanning Jerome for?" Cutter inquired, hoping all the while he was wrong about this.
"Though I don't have any solid evidence at the moment Captain; I would guess they were involved in this," Andres confirmed what Cutter had been dreading.
As there was extremely tight regulation around nanotechnology in the UNG space, and for a particularly good reason; the last time a rampant AI got control of the technology, the UNSC was forced to nuke the colony off the face of the universe. Because of this most nanotechnology was relegated to the medical fields. And the mere accusation of trying to use technology for military purposes had gotten so bad in the UEG, that even ONI was not risking the backlash should they be found messing with such technology.
But it seemed like someone here was doing exactly that. This had Cutter extremely worried, as he could only imagine what they were doing with it. And without Serina, they were even more valuable to it, as such he knew that immediate action was required as he then turned to Jerome.
"Jerome, I want you to ensure that everyone who was on the ground side gets tested for this. I want to avoid a Quick Silver event." Cutter stated.
Quick Silver was the UNSC emergency code for nanotechnology disasters. This was a code that no naval task force wanted to hear from Fleet COM, as that usually mean the colony in question was to be razed to the ground due to how dangerous such an event was. And now Cutter might just have such a thing brewing on his ship. This made him on edge, as he could not stomach the idea of this happening to his ship.
Nor would he allow it to happen if he had any say in it!
"Understood Sir, also I would recommend running a charge current throughout the ship," Jerome suggested.
As this was standard protocol when dealing with a potential Quick Silver event.
"I do so as soon as I'm able," Cutter assured Jerome as he then sent the request to the bridge crew that was on duty.
"Captain, Professor if you would excuse me. I'll get started in ensuring the ground teams get tested." Jerome said.
"Understood Jerome, keep me informed," Cutter said as Jerome gave him a quick nod of his head and walked off the bridge.
It was at this point that Cutter let out a long sigh. As it had been a long couple of hours; and from the look of things, it was going to be longer still.
"Long day Captain?" Andres asked as she then handed him a coffee.
"Very much Professor; thank you." He said taking a drink from the mug she had given him.
This was his third cup of the day, and a necessary one as well. As Cutter expected that he would not be off duty until at least twelve hours. But considering everything that was happening, that was his more optimistic guess.
"So, Professor, do you have those reports I asked for?" Cutter inquired.
As he had asked her to compile several reports from other officers, though not the best use of Andre's time, it was necessary considering the situation on board.
"I do Captain. Also, if I may point out, this isn't the best use of my time. So, I recommend that someone else handle this." Andres sounded annoyed as she said this.
But unfortunately, she was the only person Cutter could count on to have this report ready on time.
"That is noted Professor, can you give me an update regarding the casualty regarding freezer burn?" Cutter asked.
As it turned out that despite their best efforts, close to fifty years in cryo still took a toll on those inside of it. Because even Cutter was suffering from light freezer burn.
But other members of the crew had it worse, sometimes so bad, in fact, they already had some crew members die from their skin quite literally falling off and bleeding out. It was a problem and one that he had to solve, and soon.
"Regretfully Captain, we're still trying to figure out how many crew members are affected. As such we can only have medical staff on standby until we can confirm their condition." It was not what Cutter wanted to hear from Andres.
But there was little he could do to change it sadly. Still, Cutter had one last thing to ask, and it was an important one.
"Do we have enough medical supplies on board to deal with it?" Cutter asked as Andres mentioned another report.
"Given our current situation, the staff Sergeant estimates that we have enough medical supplies on board to handle at least one-third of all freezer burn cases we might have," Andres stated simply.
Along with the other unspoken fact that they needed resupply, despite being overstocked with parts and other essential materials for what was supposed to be a long siege of the Covenant forces on Harvest. They had ended up using a good percentage for it during their battle on the alien shield world.
Though part of that problem had been solved; as it turned out some of the nearby planets were rich in metals and ores that the onboard facility could process into parts and other needed materials. But this meant that their only source for the other resources they needed was currently located on the planet whose residents were caught up in some worldwide conflict.
A conflict that Captain Cutter wanted to avoid at all costs, as he and his crew had nothing to gain by becoming involved with this planet's internal affairs. As the Captain had his priorities now, chief of which was getting his ship and crew back to UEG-controlled space.
"Understood Professor, have you learned anything else about the planet?" Cutter asked as he brought up one of her reports.
As it showed why they had not picked up any signals on their first pass. As the people on the planet below were using short-range radio signals that had not been used in over a century. This had come as something of a surprise to the Spirits bridge crew. As they had not been expecting this, but once they had switched over, they had quickly started to gather information on what was going on in the ground. What they heard had left them both baffled and surprised.
Some of what they heard sounded as if it was either from some old Anime or Si-Fi movies. And as such were to be investigated, as they needed to know just what they were potentially dealing with down there; especially considering what the ground teams had encountered during their mission, as Cutter was not taking any more chances.
"I'm guessing you don't want me to talk about the conflict taking place surface," Andres stated simply.
As she was guessing that the captain wanted her to talk about what they had encountered on their last mission. Even she was still going over the data they had acquired from it, trying to make sense of it all.
"Other than that, what more have you learned about the planet's unusual seismic activity?" Cutter then asked as he was interested in what Anders had learned about this.
"Well for starters, it seems that those unusual seismic activities are all similar to that which the ground teams encountered," Andres said as she once again brought up the plane-wide chart he had seen when they had first met.
"Meaning they're connected?" Cutter asked, all the while looking at the possible scale of this.
Because this means whoever was doing this had an extremely long reach.
"Possible Captain, though I would have to travel there in person to confirm it," Andres stated.
As she would have to go there in person to confirm her suspicions; but she suspected that Cutter would not allow her to leave the ship for the next little while. At least until they got a better idea as to what was going on; so needless to say, what Cutter said next came as something of a surprise to Anders.
"I'll see if I can have you accompany one of the next ground teams Professor," Cutter said, catching Andres by complete surprise, as Andres had not been expecting the captain to allow her to go planetside for at least another couple of days.
"Ah, understood Captain. May I ask the reason I am being permitted to go?" Andres then asked.
"I want you to accompany a group team to one of those sights. As there's also a small settlement located near one of these events, I was hoping that you could also help in gathering information there as well." Cutter informed her.
Normally Cutter would not have taken such a risk. But he knew that he could not put this off any longer, as he needed more information on what was happening on the planet's side, especially regarding this. And besides, the location Cutter wanted Anders to investigate was located near a small remote town. As such Cutter felt comfortable enough sending her down with a large ground team who could easily claim to be a part of her research team.
"Understood Captain; and if I may ask, what are you planning to do regarding the planet's local inhabits?" Andres then inquired.
"For the moment Andres, I'm exploring my options regarding them" Cutter stated simply.
As it was the truth of the matter. As they were still gathering information from the planet, both from ground agents and from what they could gather from the radio signals they could intercept.
"Do you intend to intervene in their conflict?" Andres then asked.
As she and many other members of the crew were asking this question.
"No Professor. As I haven't come this far to waste lives on war not our own." Cutter stated simply.
As this was true, as the UEG did not have any stacks in the ongoing conflict taking place on the planet below. Still, Cutter knew those words were hollow given what had taken place only hours before, as he knew that one way or another, he was most likely to be drawn some way into the conflict raging on the planet below. But that did not mean that he was going to rush in like last time, especially since Cutter was the one who held most of the advantages in this situation.
"I understand Captain, though may I point out that we don't have many options in what we can do here." Andres points out this obvious fact.
And a glaring one as well, because if they were to get what they needed from the world, that meant interacting with the local inhabitants.
"I know Professor. But that's what I'm trying to find the best course forward regarding this situation." The captain informed her.
"I'm more than aware of that Captain. Just make sure you make the right decision." Andres warned him.
As they both knew that once they committed themselves to a group then there would be no going back.
"I will strive to do so Andres; though I doubt that it will matter in the end." Cutter conceded to her.
As he was fully aware that if he was to make any sort of alliance with any of the major powers then he would be inevitably drawn into the ongoing conflict happening on the planet below.
"I understand Captain," Andres said as she approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "If you needed a sounding board, I'm available to do so." she offered.
As Andres knew that Cutter would consult certain members of the crew before he made his decision. And honestly, she wanted to ensure that she was a part of the process.
"Thanks, Andres, that will be all for now." Cutter nodded to her as she took her hand off his shoulder.
Cutter then watched as Andres left. Leaving him alone at the planning table Cutter then took another sip from his mug. All the while he pulled up the latest reports and maps as continued with his duties to those on his ship, and himself. All the while knowing no matter what action he took it would lead them all to the same place; a fact that was not lost in him.
As Cutter knew, he was in the unenviable position that most ship captains dread: Playing diplomat.
That's all she wrote, hoped that you all enjoyed it, and until next time have a good one.
