Chapter 6: Thoughts
Admiral Margaret Orienda Parangosky sat in her office deep aboard the Odyssey, absorbing the footage and it's associated report. It was unfortunate the commander had to land on the Infinity first. Now there was a massive security breech just waiting to happen in the form of an arrogance mercenary. He played them perfectly, and even admitted he was doing it.
If he had made contact with the Odyssey, that admittedly eye-pleasing ship would be tore apart in her engineering bays, and the intelligence from his head extracted for free rather than on the promise of unknown payment in the future. Without the risk of him simply lying and betraying them outright for known payment now.
Though perhaps it was best he did. She would have gave that order given their material state, and her personal emotional state. Perhaps she would have regretted that rash move. The commander showed a confidence not seen by her except in Spartans and a few others. Well not the spartan across from her at least, but that would be handled in a moment.
She identified two distinct points in the entire interaction in which the commander waited for moves to be made, orders to be given, and killing to be necessary. With the introduction of his alien construct, and scans of his person, a personal shielding system even on his suit with unknown capabilities; A plasma weapon she roughly knew the deadliness of; It was clear that he would have even possibly won a violent confrontation, at least if it had started in the conference room. Roland was not an infiltration program, but he was intel previously and no push-over.
Yes, perhaps it was best the bleeding hearts met with the bleeding heart. The bleeding heart was no fool, however. He was aware of his local history enough to be warded against the rookie mistakes, like, quote, letting spooks touch his ship. She would have touched it, and the UNSC, the remnants of it, would have been doomed in totality for it.
"What do we think, Osman." Parangosky said.
Osman was staring off, even rocking slightly back and forth in her chair. The XO of the Odyssey may has well have been out of action. She gently repeated herself, "Osman, what do we think."
Osman snapped her eyes to Parangosky, and then looked down in shame. She said, "Sorry Admiral."
"It's alright, Osman. You're a Spartan, and you failed your mission."
Osman looked like she was about to break, but Parangosky held up a hand, and got Osman's full attention to her again, "We all failed our mission. We all share the blame, so there is no point to blaming yourself. The only thing we can do it move forward with the intelligence we have."
"Yes sir." Osman said while collecting herself, but not completely.
The girl was easily manipulated, Parangosky thought. But when she would think back and realized all the little times she was pushed one way or the other, then she would be a good agent, and heir to the crown. She said, "Now, what do we think?"
Osman thought a moment, then said, "We think the commander is right. We have more immediate concerns right now, like basic survival. We're purely on the defense until we secure our position, and gather more intelligence."
"And the commander himself?"
"A massive security risk. We think they should have ordered the ship taken, but in hindsight that would have been a mistake. So maybe it's better he caught the Infinity first."
"He still could be lying, playing them for fools, delivering our person into the arms of any number of these boogymen for a payment." Parangosky countered the assertion.
"We're boogymen. I would suspect he knows we're out there somewhere. Even if he doesn't know exactly who we are, or how close. The first time someone mentions ONI, he'll know. But I don't think he would betray us like that, and have us and the whole UNSC after him to their dying breath."
"And if he does?"
"The Infinity Class can easily smash and grab supplies and technology in a reasonable time frame. Disappear into the black while we adapt it."
"If that becomes necessary. What of this balance of power some apparently painstakingly maintain?" Parangosky didn't know what to think about it, and she could decide either way. She wanted Osman's genuine counsel on that topic, but let the girl think shes only stating the obvious things her mentor already figured out.
"It should be maintained. A super power war while under alien threat is the last thing anyone needs. There's enough chaos to take advantage of without adding to it. The Commander was right again, if the numbers he talked about were true. If we caused problems for the powers that be, then we wouldn't be able to defend against them. Maybe we could even ingratiate ourselves with them if we show commitment to their game. Become shadow players ourselves. It seems like it's all out in the open."
She rose her eyebrow in thought. Actually joining the club, so to speak, was one even she hadn't considered. Either acting against them, or staying out of their way while helping their own position. But joining them?
"Perhaps." She said, "Very well, Osman. Remain passive, for now. If this commander does come back as he said he would, then have people ready to embed with him to become commanders themselves."
"Yes sir." Osman more confidently nodded.
Parangosky smiled, "Go. Get some rest. Send the crew on rotation, and ensure everyone gets a day off. They need it after what we have all just been though." And if they though of her as a benevolent commanding officer and captain, then all the better.
"Yes sir." She said again as she got up and snapped a quick attention before turning on her heels and marching off.
Now that her second in command was squared away, her next topic of consideration would be on the future leadership of the UNSC. Blame hood for what happened and usurp power? No, to bold even for ONI. Hood is still a hero that gave everything he had, and would have went down with Earth if it wasn't for the Master Chief making a snap decision to preserve the leader of humanity. Well their humanity. Front Osman as the heir to both the crown and the throne? No, she is no where near ready for that. Lasky is in all honesty. And if he took the throne, then any plans to purge ONI after the UNSC had the space to breath were null and void. The UNSC needed whoever remained without worrying about past grievances. Even she wished that boon didn't cost what it did.
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"We were dismissed. Outright." Fred lamented in the same conference room the meeting with the commander took place.
"Like we weren't a threat to him." Kelly said.
"Because we weren't. He called us from the moment he stepped out. I saw him eye every one of our positions." Linda said.
"Are we losing it?" Fred asked the group.
"No. I refuse to believe that. We were a threat, one he didn't know or understand the nature of. Cortana, what happened?" Chief said. His helmet was off in the private of the room with his fellow Spartans. Cortana connected from it to the table, and stood there with her arms crossed, and an annoyed expression on her blue avatar.
She huffed, "The used his suit to substitute physical access. Roland and I thought the cargo bay would be a natural shield. They were designed to shielded against someone ramming a ship into the bay with cyber attacks going out. The ship sensors picked up the suit, and she conceded to the rest of the systems with the close proximity. A basic injection attack, and it went right past me. If she was actually hostile…"
"If Dr. Halsey had given the order..."Linda said.
"We would be dead. The commander would put holes in our people in the conference room, and the construct would douse the cargo bay in ship grade missile fire, with us in it." Fred lamented more.
"It's just one guy. Some random guy had us beat from the first moment of contact." Kelly said.
"We're losing it." Fred said again.
"No. We aren't. I still contend he didn't know or understand what we are. We would destroy him, and you know it."
"What's it matter when he so clearly had the drop? On our own fucking ship! Some random fucking guy!" Kelly slammed her armored fist down and nearly broke the table entirely. As it stood there were cracks and an obvious indent.
"Kelly!" Chief barked. He couldn't let them do this. To fall apart as they currently were. They were the only thing he had left at that point in time.
Lina huffed, "I need a day off. I've need one for a while. I need to go down to one of those beaches, and pretend for a day that we didn't fail the only mission we had ever been given."
"It's not over yet. We're still here. The UNSC is still here. There's an alien threat out there, a threat to Earth and all her colonies, and humanity will need us. You heard what the commander said about Seo Jin-ae. The Thargoids are planing something, and we have to be ready for it."
"Can we at least agree to a day off, John? No training, no mission briefs, hell no exercise even. Just a day of rest. The first one since they took us." Lina asked, nearly begged.
Chief was silent for a moment. He was a Spartan. He had to keep moving, they all did especially after what happened. But Lina was right. A day off wouldn't hurt, and maybe even put them back to green so they could plan their next moves.
"Request approved." Was all he said, to everyone's, especially Cortana's relief.
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"What do you think, Verity?"
"I think you were selfless in taking the fall for my bunk generation ship theory."
Doe smirked as he stretched some, in sweats and a p-fed t-shirt. He was happy to sleep under gravity and out of his flight suit any chance he got. If something happened he might be screwed, but something probably wasn't going to happen.
"I will wake you in five hours. Sleep well commander."
"Thanks." Doe said as he crawled into his ships A rated bedding. A far step up from the E rated stock option.
All in a day's work, he thought as he closed his eyes.