Meetra walked onto the deck of the Infinity once more, this time under escort by a platoon of Clone Troopers from her own Legion. Doctor Halsey, who had wanted to see what the Clones were made of from the get-go, was present alongside a squad of Spartans and an escorting unit of Marines, plus Lasky. The Admiral, meanwhile, stared with a bit of surprise at the newly-reinstated Jedi General and her troops.
Beside her, Commander Ordo looked, confused, at the troops. Meetra told them, "These are the people I briefed you about, Commander. They're our allies..." only to hear boots immediately click together, the Clones snapping salutes at their new found brothers-in-arms. Lasky blinked, but saluted back, a little surprised they now had their own Legion milling about out there on four new ships that just reinforced their own fleet.
"General Surik. I take it these guys are the Clone Legion you got as a gift?" Admiral Lasky greeted her with a nod and a smile. The Clone Troopers were surprisingly focused on him and the others, not speaking much. Part of the Admiral wondered if the Chancellor didn't send them with Meetra because he wanted to keep a good eye on everything going on with the UNSC.
"Indeed," Meetra offered kindly, smiling as she began introductions, "Admiral Lasky, the man beside me is Commander Ordo, of the 337th Clone Legion," Then she looked at Ordo and smiled, telling him, "Commander, this is Admiral Lasky. Leader of the UNSC Forces currently located within our galaxy," before the Admiral gave a short nod of greeting to the Clone Trooper.
"Admiral, sir," Ordo nodded to Lasky, staring straight at the man. He spoke as calmly as a Spartan, terrifyingly enough, when he said to them, "The 337th stands ready to assist the UNSC on the General's orders," while the Clone troop present in escort of Meetra and him stood there, at attention, completely calm. It was both soothing and terrifying to see a Soldier act so much like an automaton, though they were used to it with the SPARTAN-II family.
Meetra, having noticed this herself, rubbed the back of her neck and laughed awkwardly as she explained, "They're all fairly new. Haven't gotten to their individual selves yet, but... Maybe after combat..." before looking at the Commander. The Clone nodded, keeping himself steady on his feet, ramrod straight, hands behind his back. His own DC-15 was slung over his shoulder.
"Any extra gun's welcome," Lasky nodded, noting some of the stares from their own Marines and ODSTs. He told her, "Plus, they'll learn we're all in the same boat and open up, heh," as he watched them. Halsey, meanwhile, seemed to have simply been taking the new development in behind them, the Spartans escorting the pair of UNSC commanding officers staring.
"Indeed..." The good doctor murmured, then tapped 'save' on her tablet after writing a paragraph, only to look up at Meetra and request, "Commander, General, if I may make a request, I would like to check the troops over in the medbay. I understand there's an issue regarding artificially enhanced aging that you and your brothers are plagued by."
"Indeed, ma'am," Ordo replied, still as calm as ever. He told her, "As for the medical checkup, it should be no problem."
"Yeah. I'd rather they all be in top shape," Meetra backed it up. She trusted Halsey, honestly, even if the woman and her experiments with Meetra's blood felt a bit 'mad scientist'-y. She gave a nod of approval to Halsey, however, knowing very well the Doctor would take good care of them. Hell, she didn't do anything invasive to Meetra when she easily could have.
The Doctor simply gave a calm nod, replying with, "Many thanks."
"The fact the Chancellor decided to gift you an entire Legion is impressive, ma'am," Lasky told Meetra, arms crossed to his chest. Though he felt a light pit in his stomach, he pushed aside any thoughts that could arouse issues in his mind about the gift, adding, "Honestly, it's also probably welcome, considering we just got a request for fast deployment to a planet called Nathema..."
"Where the next piece of the Map should be located," Halsey completed, offering Meetra the tablet with the decrypted coordinates.
"... That's going to be interesting..." Meetra mumbled, well aware of the Chorlian sector's significance. It was where one of the last major battles of the Mandalorian War had occurred. One she'd commanded herself... She hummed, then ordered her Clone Officer, "Commander, take a shuttle back to the lead Venator. I have something to talk about with our comrades."
"Sir!" The Trooper snapped a crisp salute, then motioned to his men to follow him back to the shuttle. Meetra cast a glance at the men as they strode back in a perfect, rhythmic march, before sighing deeply. Looking a gift horse in the mouth, as the UNSC saying went, was probably a bad idea, but she wanted to make sure all was well. Noting the concerns in her two fellow officers' eyes, she turned to face them.
Then, she requested, "... Admiral. If I can ask a favor," only to sigh deeply. Hard to explain, it would be. Yoda would've been laughing his little green behind off at that, though, so she continued, "I know this might sound insane, considering the Chancellor seemed more than open to befriend you all, but... Deploy any ONI Agents you have to spare to keep tabs on him. There's something about him that feels... Wrong. Dark. But he's concealing it incredibly well..."
"... I..." Lasky almost seemed blindsided by the request, eyes shooting wide open. Halsey herself, meanwhile, remained terrifically calm, cradling her tablet and staring straight at Meetra. The Admiral continued, "Those are some pretty hefty accusations to bring up against a man who just gave you a personal army, General... Mind you, I'm not trying to defend him, but it feels off."
"I know," The four millennia old Jedi replied awkwardly, then added, "I would've said nothing if I didn't feel something when I was called by him. I hope I'm wrong, but knowing the Republic's current track record, I wouldn't put it past anything for there to be something off about him beside the usual political backrooms items, like under-the-table deals or something. This feels far more personal, far more vile..."
Before Lasky could interject, Halsey, known de-facto leader of ONI for now, told her, "I will have any available ONI Agents play the double role of ambassadors and keep tabs on him, General," only to show her trust in Meetra as she added, "As much as I dislike giving credence to the almost magical properties of the Force, if your Jedi senses feel that there is something off, I don't think we can toss aside the possibility or ignore the risks."
"Thanks, doctor," The blonde beamed at the old woman. She had received the request for further examinations when she was coming up to orbit to meet the UNSC fleet, so she'd go later to talk to Halsey about her little display back in the Council Chambers. She hummed, then looked to Lasky and switched thoughts, telling him, "By the way, since we have Venators, small tip. They're not Battleships, they're more akin to your Carriers. Deploying fighters and supporting them. We also have bombers and a load of Gunships aboard."
"We'll keep that in mind," Lasky gave a nod of approval, then smiled, "Even more fighters are gonna be great to have. And if that's all, we'll get them following us."
"Good plan," Meetra smiled, "I'll contact the Commander, have him and the ships follow us..." and she quipped, "I haven't given any of them names yet, funnily enough. Their Captains are Clones and they expect me to do it, but I'll leave it to the UNSC to decide what we should name the girls. You're the admiralty under which they're serving now," to which Lasky nodded.
... It wasn't long after that Meetra had returned to her usual stomping grounds:The UNSC barracks and rooms of the Infinity. Namely, she'd decided to join the two adopted brother Spartans in the Mess Hall, bringing her own tray over to their table as she watched them talking rather openly about the idea of switching to blasters for lighter combat missions. She chuckled at that, then greeted them, "Hey, you two. Been busy while I was downstairs?"
"General," Both men greeted her with nods, their armors on. Their faces were visible, rather obviously, due to them having to eat and the helmets being rather obstructive of anything like that. It was nice, seeing the boys' faces, even for a little while like this, she thought. She sat herself down in front of the two as they ate, preparing to start her own lunch.
"We mostly stuck around, as usual," Six shrugged, nursing a coffee, from the looks of things. Must've been a busy day of doing nothing for him, she thought partially as a joke, all while staring right at him. The Spartan furrowed his brows, then looked at Richard as the boy started snickering at the sight. Meetra, meanwhile, avoided saying anything simply because she didn't want to stir up any issues...
Richard, however, ignored the glare the Lieutenant was giving him and simply doubled over and refocused, stating, "Blues are still not back, but I hear we'll be doing the next bit of the job without them," as he twirled his fork between his fingers like it was a pencil, making it dance while trying to make sure it wouldn't slip out of his fingers. Basically a floating knife game to him.
"Yeah, we're going planetside on an Agri-World that the CIS are also aiming for. Looks like we have combat coming up," Meetra nodded, starting to chow down on her own food. She did worry in regards to how her Troopers were gonna fare out there, considering they were probably about to deal with one of the worst situations:A trial by fire. Unlike local Jedi, though, Meetra had combat experience, even if the last time she'd properly led anyone in a war was a couple centuries ago.
"Testing the Clone Legion. Should be fun," Six quipped, taking her out of her momentary stupor. He stared straight at her, seemingly aware she was worried. Body language and all were apparently fairly easily readable for Spartans, meaning her fidgetty nature was something he could easily spot. He even had the look of 'we should probably talk about what happened'.
"They'll need DIs to learn how to work with the UNSC," The girl wasn't trying to avoid that discussion, but she did not really want to have it now. As she asked, "You two mind being that for them?" she saw the slightest nod from Six, who understood, and one quick one from Richard, who also seemed like he understood the request. Thankful for that, she let out a small sigh.
"We'll get other Spartans to help," Six nodded, arms crossed to his chest. He then continued, "Them or Johnson and his Marines," before picking up a surprisingly empty tray. The three had finished their food without even noticing and Meetra could barely taste the fettuccine alfredo she'd just had, as if she'd eaten without a thought. So, that was what worry did to people... She'd forgotten.
"Bet Sarge's gonna enjoy that," Richard joked, trying to somewhat lighten the mood as they walked to surrender the trays.
"Heh," Both Six and Meetra let out.
RAS Prosecutor
The Chief and Boss crept forward through even more maintenance tunnels, past a multitude of ruptured pipes and damaged wiring. Strung wires, metal exploding outward and even the remnants of small, three-eyed drones with drills attached to their bellies that the Commando had called Scavenger Droids surrounded them in the maintenance tunnel, the Spartan and Clone Commando utilizing their suits' in-built Night Vision.
Pushing through, the pair came upon an exit, leaving the tunnels to the sole Mouse Droid that strolled on through, chirping fearfully. Entering one of the major hallways of the ship, the pair was greeted by faint lights, blaster damage to the walls and the various, strange containers poking out of the walls being perforated and clawed at from the looks of things.
Overhead wires hanged low, the panels up above torn and seemingly destroyed. On the floor lay more and more debris that the Spartan and Commando had to wade through, but, thankfully, the recessed lights in the ceilings and walls still worked, bathing the hallway ahead in a shimmering white light. The Spartan and Commando had swept the area with their rifles, assessing the damage while maintaining silence.
Both paused, however, when a trail of blood came into view below a flickering light, leading into an adjacent hallway hidden behind a broken door. The door itself had been dented inward and the plating, cracked. Sparks flew from the control console off to the side of the door and the locking mechanism seemed to be fused together as if by a plasma torch used to weld it in place.
Distantly, the two heard groans. Not the ship's own hull and superstructure, but what sounded almost like human voices. Almost. They couldn't quite make it out, pointing it out to be the ship itself. Cortana whispered to herself, "I don't like this one bit..." as she tried to enter the ship's central network and mainframe. She could recover bits and pieces from the ship's inner network, but everything was locked down tighter than the security systems in CASTLE during Rush Hour.
She was about to speak, but paused as two IFF tags, both friendly, flared up on the Motion Tracker, a few dozen meters ahead. She spoke, "Chief, Boss. Picking up Sev and Linda on the motion tracker. I'm gonna ping them and say hi," before doing just that. She connected to their armors and said, "Lin, Sev. Looks like we linked up, heh. How're you folks doing?"
"We're alright. Place is terrifyingly quiet, though. There's not even a hull groan or an engine hum..." Linda replied, though their movement was audible over the com, boots clanking against the metal floor. Sev hummed in agreement while Chief and Boss both looked to one-another, nodded, then started pushing forward, toward another door. Fixer, Fred, Scorch and Kelly all piped up, confirming that the place was dead silent.
"We're on our way to you, Linda," Chief voiced as he and Boss approached a locked door. The Commando attempted to open it, then let out a hum as a warning blared, written in the local alphabet, Aurebesh. Boss looked at the Chief, who was about to ask, but paused as his Motion Tracker flickered again. He could see himself, Boss, Sev and Linda... And a fifth contact, flickering in and out.
He put his hands between the door's seams while Boss asked, "What are you doing?" only to pause upon seeing the Spartan pull the door apart, forcing it open. When the magnetic locks detached, the door's lights glowed green and its two constituent parts slid aside, revealing an open hallway with even more blood splatters, one of the walls painted entirely red, as well as even more scattered debris.
"We should be to your left, Boss. Observation window'll give you line of sight," Sev commented. The leaders of the two elite squads nodded, pushing forward toward the open-view window. Down below lay a circular room, in the center of which resided what looked to be a massive server pylon of some kind. It glimmered with lights, wires poking out from above it and into the ceiling. Several wires seemed cut, but the console next to it worked.
The Snipers ascended the elevated platform and waved to Chief and Boss, the Spartan and Clone nodding in greeting. Sev spoke, "Should only be a sec, Boss," as he approached the terminal. Cortana hummed and began assisting Sev in terms of hacking, while Linda seemed to be keeping watch. Chief hummed, looking around the place while Boss kept an eye on their two snipers. There was an elevated point above and to their right that looked like a vent of some kind. To their left was another door, presumably descending down into the Data Core Sev was now accessing.
Another flicker appeared on Chief's Motion Tracker.
Then another.
Then a dozen more.
He radioed, "Spartans, Commandoes, contact!" as he aimed his rifle up at the ventilation shaft. It burst open, revealing creatures with sickly green skin, clad in strange yellow jumpsuits. Lizard-like faces greeted them, filled with what the Chief could really only describe as fear, their eyes wide, snake-like slit pupils dillated. They cradled weapons in their arms as they screamed, their voices hoarse, loud, filled with fear.
None got to raise blade or gun against the Spartans and clones. Bullets and blaster bolts tore into their skulls and bodies, the alien creatures collapsing onto the floor, bleeding from multiple entry wounds. Boss balked, spitting out, "Trandoshans..." with the same kind of tone one would use when looking at a bug. He told Chief, "Damnable Slavers and scavengers... What are they doing aboard a Republic ship?"
"Boss, Chief, you alive up there!?" Sev asked, both him and Linda training their weapons on the windows. Chief flashed his acknowledgement light green as he pushed toward the Trandoshan corpses, noting that the fat lizards' own uniforms were torn, marked by claws. He gave a chop of the hand to the right to Boss, who turned and aimed at the hole they came out of.
One Trandoshan, surprisingly alive despite the four bullet holes and two blaster marks on its chest, coughed blood and looked up at the Spartan. The barrel of Chief's rifle was pressed against its head as it spoke, "Do... It...! I don't... Want... To... To come back..." making Chief's heart momentarily stop before its right hand wrapped around the barrel and cowling of the weapon. It begged again, "Do it, Human...!" its voice a hiss filled with fear.
Chief demanded, "What do you mean 'come back'?" well aware of what it might mean.
It hissed, breathing raggedly, before pressing its forehead against the weapon's barrel. Chief squeezed the trigger, splattering its brain across the floor once he realized it wasn't going to answer. Green blood painted the floor as Boss approached, stating, "What did it mean by 'coming back'..." as he kept his weapon trained on it and its comrades. Chief, however...
Both men blanked as they heard the distant groans grow closer, Sev calling out over the com, "What was that...?" terrifyingly calm.
Chief waited a heartbeat as the noise drew closer, his motion tracker flickering, then radioed, "All BLUE and DELTA elements, this is Chief. Go to BIOHAZARD LEVEL ALPHA. Possible PROTOCOL UPSILON in effect! All previous mission objectives are superseded! Proceed to Rendezvous with your closest unit then come to us..." only for Boss to stare at the Chief with concern.
The Spartan told Boss, "These Trandoshans, they scavs?"
"Usually, yes..." Delta-38 replied, his voice unusually quiet, "Chief, what does PROTOCOL UPSILON mean?" then paused as the noise drew ever-closer. The lights around them dimmed, then went out, causing the entire group to tense before alarms began to blare, the shipboard PA warning of a 'Contaminant' in the area. Ahead of them, figures appeared in the darkness and flashing lights.
At first, they could faintly make out the helmets of Clone Troopers, Phase-1s with the crest on top. Blasters, too. DC-15s and DC-15A rifles. Then, they saw that the helmets weren't placed quite... Right. They weren't central to the body. Half the armor was missing on one trooper, replaced with a strange, purulent bulge of some kind that poked out where his left arm would've been.
They couldn't activate their Night Vision, but their helmets marked the incoming as friendlies. Those were not Friendlies at all. Chief barked, "FIRE! LINDA, SEV, RALLY UP ON US!" before he squeezed the trigger. Scarlet flashes and orange and blue light bathed the room in an incandescent dance of colors, the Spartans and Clone Commandos laying into the advancing hordes as muddled words escaped the mouths, altered by the helmets' speakers.
The Clones ahead were infected by something. Boss could barely make them out in the darkness as they pushed toward the door, but he could see them. Malformed, modified, ugly and emanating an aura of evil. They stumbled forward on broken legs, arms outstretched and aiming their blasters. Their other hand or arm had been modified, transformed into claws.
It was the first time in his life that Boss could say he was afraid. And going by the coms filtering in from Sev, Linda and the other members of the Joint Task Force, the others fared no better. As they descended into the core itself, they backed into Sev and Linda. Chief looked back to Linda and told her, "Prime frags and keep your pistols topped up. Troopers, stay close to us. We'll push us out of this."
"It's that bad, huh!?" Sev asked as he switched places with Chief, he and Boss covering the rear, "What the hell are these fierefeks?!"
"Something horrible from our world," Linda replied, terrifyingly calm. She and Chief primed and long-armed grenades into the Data Core, thumps echoing as they cleared a path forward. She called out, "Run!" before bursting into a sprint alongside them. Ensuring she covered both Chief and the Clones, sniping creatures that crawled on the walls. Creatures that looked like mutated Trandoshans, same as the ones Chief had just killed. They crawled, hissing as they held their vertical approach, being shot at, their thick hides like armor for the Infection Forms burrowed deep beneath.
Scorch called out, "We're seeing a kriffing nightmare, boss! All of these Regs are infected by something! Hell, I can make out some of the names in the distorted tags... Can't see the Captain anywhere among them, but..." He then stated almost hopefully. Boss huffed affirmatively over the com, while listening to Fixer and Fred exchanging fire quietly over the com, just proving they were still alive.
Boss said, "Damn everything else, Scorch. You, Kelly, Fixer and Fred get to us. We'll rendezvous, figure out a plan of action like Chief said!" then he looked to Chief as he fired his blaster into the Darkness, asking him, "Chief... How bad would it be if these things got away from here...?" as he turned and felt his hand get grabbed by one of them. Thankful for his armor, the man planted a vibro-blade gauntlet into the maw of the beast, sending it staggering back and screaming. He saw the tag. CT-4512, 'Cradle'. A maintenance Trooper...
"If the Captain hasn't been infected, they shouldn't be able to..." Chief, too, sounded hopeful. Hopeful for something not to repeat itself, Boss thought. He recognized that tone of voice. However, the drop in Chief's own voice when he added, "If they have and a Gravemind's under the process of forming... This ship has to be destroyed, with or without us on it."
"Suicide mission, then," Sev scoffed, "Had a bad feeling..."
"If this thing is as virulent as it seems to be, we're not taking any chances!" Boss barked, then rallied the team, telling Chief, "Follow me and Sev. We know our way around this ship... We'll make it to the RV point and prepare..." to which Chief nodded. The group surged forward through what seemed to be crowds of infected now pouring out of every hole in the ship.
The twisted forms of their Reg Brethren hunted them... Corrupted... Under control of something...
Delta would free the Prosecutor, blow it up if necessary.