>>5914295

And in spite of that, humanity is loosing. On average it took 3 UNSC warships to be lost for every single enemy vessel killed. The enemy would be officially identified as "The Covenant" a few months after the first battle of Harvest. This alliance of religiously fanatic aliens had declared a holy war against humanity, and they would not stop until they were wiped out. Over a two dozen worlds had been lost as the alien invaders slaughtered the outer colonies. Each world burned into a ball of broken glass by Covenant orbital bombardment. Victories were still won by the UNSC, but at the cost of great heroes. The last stand of Admiral Cole at Psi Serpentis still burned brightly in the minds of many. Both for the loss of the brilliant admiral, and the sheer number of enemy vessels he was able to take down with him.

And as the alien menace carves their way towards earth, it falls on the shoulders of a select few to strike back against the enemy, no matter the cost.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the UNSC Military Personnel Database.

Classified information requested.

Establishing a secure connection to local servers.

>[25%]
>[50%]
>[75%]
>[99%]

Secure connection confirmed.

Please log in to access your profile.

>Commander N.Wells, assigned to destroyer DD-457
>Commander N.Wells, assigned to [DATA ERROR]
>ERROR STACK OVERFLOW

========================================
First option will result in the quest continuing from the last thread, you’ll have the old MC and the shit from then, but it’s also later in the war.

The second option will be a soft restart, same character but with the option to do stuff differently at a different time in the setting, your choice on when.

The third option will be for a hard reset with a new character.

>>5914299
>ERROR STACK OVERFLOW

>>5914299
>>ERROR STACK OVERFLOW
Ayyyyyy I've missed this

>>5914299
>Commander N.Wells, assigned to destroyer DD-457
Good to have you back, QM.

One thing I would change is chalk up the final fight we had to sheer luck.

>>5914299
Why would it be later in the war now?

>>5914338
The original start date was 2545, and events in the quest took things forward to 46/47 at the very least. That leaves less than 5 years left before the end of the war, unless something dramatic happens.

Either restart option would give you more time (and battles) to enjoy before the absolute murder fest that would be the end of the war.

>>5914299
>Commander N.Wells, assigned to [DATA ERROR]

>>5914299
>ERROR STACK OVERFLOW

>>5914299
>ERROR STACK OVERFLOW

>>5914299
>ERROR STACK OVERFLOW

>>5914357
Well guess we can try to win again.

>>5914299
>Commander N.Wells, assigned to destroyer DD-457

Guys if we do a restart as another person we don’t get Dyad back

>>5914299
>>Commander N.Wells, assigned to destroyer DD-457

>>5914299
>Commander N.Wells, assigned to destroyer DD-457

As Halo 3 said, finish the fight.

>>5914357

Thunderhead, can you collate the Wells posts since it’s split between two options?

So maybe it’s
>5
>4
>7

But since the Wells options are 9 in total we go with one of those?

If that’s the way anons go of course

>>5914299
>ERROR STACK OVERFLOW

>>5914299
>Commander N.Wells, assigned to destroyer DD-457
Or
>Commander N.Wells, assigned to [DATA ERROR]

>>5914381
Sure, but I'll give it another half an hour before calling the vote to make it fair for the full reset option.

>>5914299
>Commander N.Wells, assigned to destroyer DD-457

>>5914299
>Commander N.Wells, assigned to destroyer DD-457
Or
>Commander N.Wells, assigned to [DATA ERROR]

Welcome back thunder. Been too long.

File: [email protected] (53 KB, 400x400)

53 KB PNG

Preparing to send

Connection Established

Sending

Decrypting

Verifying User Data

Name
>Norman Wells

Rank
>Commander

Age
ERROR: DATA CORRUPTION

Current Data:
ERROR: DATA CORRUPTION

Assigned Vessel:
ERROR: DATA CORRUPTION

WARNING: Significant data corruption detectd. Attempt file reconstruction? [ Y / N ]

Y

Attempting to reconstruct corrupt data

>[5%]
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>[15%]
>[19%]

AUTOMATIC RECONSTRUCTION FAILED

It looks like the file you requested has suffered significant corruption. Would you like help?

Y

In order to help us with reconstructing your profile. Please confirm the current date.

>2535
>2540
>2545
>Other (write in)

>>5914430
>2545

>>5914430

>Clippy
That bastard haunts me in my nightmares

Can someone who knows Halo lore deeper than ‘Master Chief goes hard’ give me the tldr on the significance of the dates?

I came for the ships

>>5914430
>2535

>>5914430
>2540
Missed the first vote, oh well. Glad to see it back, Thunderhead.

>>5914437
Individually the dates don't matter much without more context but on a grand scale of the war, 2535 is the last year of the war before things go from bad to unwinnable as the Covenant begin the siege of the inner colonies instead of just glassing backwaters.

>>5914430
>2535

>>5914430
>>2545
Give me back that elite duel we had......

>>5914430
>2345
Weird

Alao welcome back !!!!!!

>>5914430

>2540

>>5914446
Thanks

>>5914430

>2545

File: hilly.jpg (1.64 MB, 3840x2160)

1.64 MB JPG

>>5914437
On top of what this anon said >>5914446 the earlier you start, the more time you'll have to get promoted up to commanding more survivable ships before things get bad.

The earlier dates give you more outer-colony battles to distinguish yourself in, such as New Constantinople and the glassing of Kholo. With outer colony battles generally being smaller engagements due to the lack of defensive infrastructure around those colonies. Once you start reaching the inner colonies and prepared defenses, the covenant are gonna start bringing out larger fleets, and your ability to swing things on your own merit is gonna start falling off.
On top of that it affects what kind of ships are available. With the fewer and fewer CMA / pre-war vessels being available as time goes on. And that's a big one as the Sins of The Prophets guys made some beautiful CMA and pre-war ships that would just go to waste.

>>5914430
>2535

Dammit I missed the opening vote. I miss our original character, especially that epic fucking duel.

>>5914461
SotP has some crazy good models, hopefully you'll get the chance to show some off.

>>5914430
>2535

Wait, did full restore lose? I would miss the comeback we had against the zealot(?)

>>5914469
Unless I’m counting wrong continuing got more votes? Maybe the OR options did it?

Compromise between staying as Wells and a full reset I suppose.

>>5914465
Yeah it was super kino, that moment was pure halo : super harsh mission, no aid and alone, risk of very heavy losses, need to do everything and more for have a chance of winning, and only humans. And gained through good rolls and good thinking, very disappointed it didn't won, is like throwing a legacy of badassery away.

Newcomers don t know what they just missed ........

File: elite skull.jpg (26 KB, 550x550)

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Input date:
2535

Recorded date:
2548

Please confirm the current year?

>2535 (soft restart with more time for fights)
>2548 (continue from the last run, including the duel with your zealot)

>>5914499
>>2548 (continue from the last run, including the duel with your zealot)
Kino

>>5914499
>2548 (continue from the last run, including the duel with your zealot)
I'd prefer this but either one are fine to me

>>5914499
>2548 (continue from the last run, including the duel with your zealot)

>>5914499
>2548 (continue from the last run, including the duel with your zealot)
I'm a newcomer but it would be a shame to let a legend go uncelebrated.

>>5914499
>2548 (continue from the last run, including the duel with your zealot)

>>5914499
>2548 (continue from the last run, including the duel with your zealot)

RETURN MY PLASMA SWORD

>>5914499
>2548

>>5914499
>>2535 (soft restart with more time for fights)

I do think we can use a refresh.

>>5914499
>>2548 (continue from the last run, including the duel with your zealot)

>>5914499
Honestly though what are your opinions on starting anew or where we left off Thunder?

>>5914499
>2548 (continue from the last run, including the duel with your zealot)
Thank god.

File: halo sotp destroyers.jpg (358 KB, 2500x2500)

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Date reference point set. Please describe military service history.

Originally posted to UEG police and patrol vessels as liaison between the ship and the marine complement. Awarded the purple heart for wounds sustained on mission. Later assigned to the corvette UNSC Hoel, taking up the navigation station. First command was the frigate “Dawn’s Early Light” where multiple kills were achieved against Covenant raiders and light escorts. Later reassigned to DD-457 as part of DESRON-35.

ERROR: Conflicting use of hull number DD-457.

Please specify the class of the vessel.

Halberd Class Destroyer

The “right-hook of the fleet”, the Halberd class is a ship purpose built to pack a punch. With 3-4 ship formations being enough to endanger even large covenant capital ships. In spite of being only a little larger than a frigate, the ship weighs much more and carries far more firepower. Chief among said weaponry being a pair of MAC guns. On their own, they are a significant threat. But when backed up by close to 800 archer missiles, they form a deadly punch. However, while the ships are certainly powerful, they lack the speed and multi-role capability of the lighter frigates that they serve alongside. And their point defense grid is lacking to say the least.

Armament:
>2 light MAC guns
>26 missile pods (variable load)
>4 point defense guns

Resolute class Destroyer

The oldest option by far, the Resolute class is so old that they still used extendable radiators for secondary cooling. Commissioned out of the same program that resulted in the CMA’s Diligence class, and once bearing the hull-code of cruisers, the Resolute class was built without the now-standard MAC guns seen on other UNSC vessels. However, extensive modernization has allowed more modern weaponry to be back-fitted to these ships, and the modularity of the outrigger hulls gives them room to grow. From mounting frigate-like hangar pods, electronic warfare systems, and even outrigger MACs to match the more modern Halberds.

Armament:
>1 Light MAC gun
>20 missile pods (variable load)
>6 naval coilgun systems
>8 point defense guns

Hillsborough class Heavy Destroyer

The CMA’s answer to the MAC-equipped Able class, the Hillsborough class has a reputation for survivability that is the envy of many vessels it’s size. These ships were the first to ever survive an encounter with the covenant, thanks to their over-built hulls, designed to survive the structural rigors of early MAC guns. While refitting the MAC gun has proven difficult, recent upgrades to their armor scheme and missile suite -with the number of missiles jumping up from 58 to over 700 when armed with archers- these vessels become surprisingly survivable missile boats.

Armament:
>1 light MAC gun
>28 missile pods (variable load)
>4 naval coilguns
>6 point defense guns

>Cont

>>5914588

Able class Heavy Destroyer / Destroyer Leader

The first ships in the UNSC fleet to mount a MAC gun as standard -beginning with the first command of the now famous Admiral Cole- the Able class was intended to serve as a destroyer leader style vessel, sitting between the expensive Halcyon class and cheaper frigates in the pre-war UNSC’s lineup. Unlike all other UNSC destroyers, the Ables mount the same heavy MACs as seen on larger cruisers, trading potential rate of fire for raw damage. However, as the largest destroyers in service, these vessels present an obvious target to even the dumbest enemies.

Armament:
>1 heavy MAC gun
>24 missile pods (variable load)
>6 naval coilguns
>8 point defense guns

Looking through the options, DD-457 is...

>A Halberd class vessel, mass produced with massive firepower.
>A Resolute class vessel, old but not obsolete, especially for EW.
>A Hillsborough class vessel, you are the shield of your flotilla.
>An Able class vessel, you like big MACs and you cannot lie.

>>5914590
>An Able class vessel, you like big MACs and you cannot lie.

>>5914590
>A Resolute class vessel, old but not obsolete, especially for EW.
I like having options.

>>5914590
>>An Able class vessel, you like big MACs and you cannot lie.

>>5914590
>An Able class vessel, you like big MACs and you cannot lie.
Halberd's are cool but Ables are better.

>>5914590
Actually, are we stuck with only three rounds on the Able? If we're going by the ammo limit I think it'd rather stick with a Halberd or Resolute.

>A Resolute class vessel, old but not obsolete, especially for EW.

>>5914590
>An Able class vessel, you like big MACs and you cannot lie.

Big guns never tire.

>>5914590

If we have more then 3 shots,
>An Able class vessel, you like big MACs and you cannot lie.

If not,
>A Halberd class vessel, mass produced with massive firepower.

>>5914590
>A Resolute class vessel, old but not obsolete, especially for EW.

>>5914590
>>A Resolute class vessel, old but not obsolete, especially for EW.

>>5914588
>Resolute class Destroyer
When we can make an order to fill the marines armory with knives, daggers, kukris, machetes, axes, maces and hammers.

Never will be said our men aren't ready for melee's.

>>5914590
>>A Halberd class vessel, mass produced with massive firepower.

>>5914778
As far as I'm aware, the 3-round issue was only an issue aboard the Gorgon, which was the first ship to ever mount a MAC gun. As that was an experimental mount, so the magazine may have been kept small on purpose while the UNSC evaluated it in service.

Vessels either refitted with or built from the keel-up with a MAC would probably have larger magazines. And as the 2525 refit more than doubled the ship's weapons load -bumping the archer load from 8 silos to 20 pods and 4 howler pods- I'd argue that the anemic MAC magazine would have been expanded as well. I don't have an exact number for the post-refit magazine, but if it follows the refit rate, you'd have at least 9 rounds. Plus one in the chamber.

That being said, I've never been anal about overall MAC magazine sizes as no other ship has a noted magazine capacity. The Strident heavy frigate does have a limited magazine size, but that doesn't have any numbers attached to it either. Besides, while you're naturally gonna have fewer rounds than on other vessels. But there's nothing from stocking extra rounds in your cargo holds, resupplying underway or loading light MAC rounds instead.

>>5915275
Remind me if i am not mistaken where we looking at choice of upgrades, improvements and research options last time ?
I remember we wanted 4 more squads of marines and an ODST one. And we had many talks of robotics, weaponry and the like.

>>5915275
Perfect, I'll stick with the Able then. And cool, you didn't factor in hard ammo limits previously but considering the Able is one of the few ships we even have a number for I thought it was worth asking.

>>5915294
I'm still going through the previous threads to collate the upgrades and unlocks that have been unlocked, so I can't give specifics on that part. The only thing I distinctly remember are the nuclear MAC rounds, but those would come under the overall number of nuclear devices assigned to a ship and that's still up in the air as a few anons weren't happy at being limited to only 3 nukes.

>>5915327
Fair enough, i consider that quite good.

>>5914590
>An Able class vessel, you like big MACs and you cannot lie.

>>5914590
>A Resolute class vessel, old but not obsolete, especially for EW.

File: Resolute VS Able.png (1.06 MB, 2498x1232)

1.06 MB PNG

Need a tiebreaker between the Able and the Resolute.


Resolute: 111111
Able: 111111
Halberd: 1

>>5915728
Already voted, But I still want Able!

>>5915728
roll for it?

>>5915736
This is a fairly important vote, so I'd prefer not to leave it up to the dice gods if I can avoid it.

>>5915728
I’ll switch to Able

A Resolute class vessel, old but not obsolete, especially for EW.

>>5915743
Able boys have won!

>>5915728
>Able

I’m so happy this is back

File: Able-class_Heavy_Destroyer10.png (3.26 MB, 3840x2160)

3.26 MB PNG

Vessel identified.

Hull number:
DD-457

Classification:
Able class Heavy Destroyer, Flight 2 (REFIT)

Laid Down:
2503

Commissioned:
2507

Manufacturer:
SinoViet Naval Yard AS-3, Reach Lagrange Point 4

Battle Stars:
Naval Unit Commendation
Counter Insurgency Duty Medal
Outer Colonies Defense Service Medal
Harvest Campaign Medal
Engineering Excellence Award

Name:
ERROR: DATA CORRUPTION

Vessel name missing, please clarify the vessel’s name.

>Everyone rolls a 1d20 and nominates 1 name. The 3 highest rolling names will then be selected for a second vote.
>Please be serious, stupid names (like the "My Little Frigate" or "Pepe" or "Shipy Mc'Shipface") will be disregarded in spite of whatever they roll.
>The two runner-up names from the first naming vote (Ramiel and Samuel B Roberts) are automatically entered into the second vote.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>5915823
>Lancelot

>>5915823

Per Ardua ad Astra

Means “through adversity to the stars“

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5915834

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5915823
Enola Gay

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>5915836


Third time’s the charm..

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5915823
Heracles

/dice 1d20

>longinus

>>5915846
Dice+1d20

>>5915846
that goes in the options tab

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>5915846

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>5915823
>Humanity Soul
I was thinking of the spirit of fire thought about something like this. Old war beast that protects mankind

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>5915823
>Rolling Thunder

Ok, so the choices are:

>UNSC Samuel B. Roberts (smallest ship in taffy 3, stopped a massive Japanese battleship fleet in it's tracks, but was sunk in that action)

>UNSC Ramiel (an angel who guided the souls of the dead into heaven, was one of the 20 leaders of the fallen angels who were kicked out of heaven for taking a human wife and teaching forbidden knowledge)

>UNSC Per Ardura ad Astra (Means “through adversity to the stars“, a common motto for most commonwealth air forces)

>UNSC Longinus (The name attributed to the unnamed roman centurion that pierced Jesus' side with a lance to ensure that he was dead. Longinus would eventually convert to Christianity, and would eventually be venerated as a saint.)

>UNSC Humanity's Soul (The soul of humanity. Should be self-explanatory.)

>UNSC Rolling Thunder (After a long and drawn out sound of thunder. Also Operation Rolling Thunder, the first strategic bombing campaign of the Vietnam War)

>>5915896
>UNSC Longinus

>>5915896
>UNSC Rolling Thunder

>>5915896
>UNSC Longinus (The name attributed to the unnamed roman centurion that pierced Jesus' side with a lance to ensure that he was dead. Longinus would eventually convert to Christianity, and would eventually be venerated as a saint.)

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5915823
>>5915896

>UNSC Longinus (The name attributed to the unnamed roman centurion that pierced Jesus' side with a lance to ensure that he was dead. Longinus would eventually convert to Christianity, and would eventually be venerated as a saint.)

>>5915896
>UNSC Ramiel (an angel who guided the souls of the dead into heaven, was one of the 20 leaders of the fallen angels who were kicked out of heaven for taking a human wife and teaching forbidden knowledge)

>>5915896
>UNSC Per Ardura ad Astra (Means “through adversity to the stars“, a common motto for most commonwealth air forces)
After the shit we've been through so far? This is the most appropriate.

>>5915896
>UNSC Rolling Thunder (After a long and drawn out sound of thunder. Also Operation Rolling Thunder, the first strategic bombing campaign of the Vietnam War)

>>5915896
>>UNSC Longinus
We have quite the spear of our own.

Vessel Identity Confirmed

UNSC Longinus

Profile Reconstruction Complete

Name
>Norman Wells

Rank
>Commander

Age (chronological):
>35

Age (biological):
>31

Service History:
>UEG Security Liaison
>Navigation
>Second in command (corvette)
>Command (frigate)
>Command (destroyer)

Commendations:
>Navy and Marine Corps Medal
>Purple Heart
>Non-Commissioned Officer Development Ribbon

Current posting:
Command of UNSC Longinus, DD-457

Current assignment:
DESRON-35, 3rd Flotilla

Current mission:
…

>Operation Arcadian Vengeance (following up on Covenant fleet exit vectors after the battle of Arcadia)
>Operation Sword Breaker (Reconnaissance and opportunistic strikes against Covenant assets around Camber)
>Operation Titan Shield (patrol duties in the Titus system)

>>5916008
>Operation Arcadian Vengeance (following up on Covenant fleet exit vectors after the battle of Arcadia)

>>5916008
>Operation Arcadian Vengeance

>>5916008
>>Operation Arcadian Vengeance (following up on Covenant fleet exit vectors after the battle of Arcadia)

>>5916008
>>Operation Sword Breaker (Reconnaissance and opportunistic strikes against Covenant assets around Camber)

>>5916008
>Operation Arcadian Vengeance (following up on Covenant fleet exit vectors after the battle of Arcadia)

File: sahara heavy prowler.jpg (602 KB, 1920x1080)

602 KB JPG

Current assignment:
Operation

Description of Operation:
Following the glassing of Arcadia by covenant forces, the prowler Pale Rider was able to record the exit vectors for multiple covenant vessels. Following initial reconnaissance by the 3rd prowler flotilla, DESRON 35 is ordered to perform reconnaissance in force along the promising exit vectors.

Objectives:
1) Locate and identify covenant logistics and support infrastructure
2) Engage targets of opportunity
3) Survive and return home

Assigned vessels:
>6x Halberd class destroyers
>3x Able class heavy destroyers
>3x Resolute class destroyers
>4x DCS Unmanned supply vessels

Operational status:
Ongoing

Would you like to learn more about [Norman Wells] ?
[ Y / N ]

[N]

[Exit File]

Are you sure that you would like to close this file?
[ Y / N ]

[Y]

Closing file…

=============================

You hate cryosleep.

Cryosleep itself isn’t something too bad, at least at the start. It’s just a case of breathing in and letting the aesthetics and other gasses put you to sleep. Sure, there was the possibility of the pod failing, but the emergency auto-cycle was usually enough to allow the person in the failing pod to get out and receive medical attention from the ship’s automated medical facilities. And the chances were usually fairly slim.

No, getting in the pod isn’t the part you hate. It’s getting out of it.

As with many times before, you’re awoken from your dreamless sleep with a start. The drugs used to wake you up are meant to do it gently, but your body’s natural reaction to having your lungs choked with slime really puts a fire under your ass. The near complete inability to breathe provides both the motivation to move, and the brunt of your hate for the process.

You snap open your eyes, and you’re almost instantly blinded by the You awoke from your deep sleep almost blind, with your vision blurry and your throat and lungs filled with slime.

“Commander, please sit up and cough.” A familiarly robotic voice advises as you fumble for the edge of your cryopod. Thankfully, this time you only have to cough before you’re rewarded by a long stream of clear fluids flowing out of your mouth. A mix of chemicals and medicines designed to stop your respiratory system from collapsing while you were asleep, and to help replace the nutrients your body lost during that time.

Still, would it really kill the egg heads to make it not taste like something you’d feed to prisoners?

"Are you alright sir?" The voice asked with a note of what you hoped was artificial concern. "Would you like some assistance?"

>Cont

>>5916117

You shake your head between deep coughs, even as your burning lungs are joined by an equally unwelcome pain in your side. A recently healed wound that the doctors had warned you could have some nasty flare-up when coming out of cryo. You nursed your side as you tried to center your groggy mind.

Ship… flotilla… mission… destroyer… destruction… Arcadia… covenant… vengeance…

You slap yourself as your mind continues to tumble, blinking furiously to try and get your vision to sharpen up just that little bit quicker.

“Commander, I don’t think that’s part of the post-cryosleep recovery protocol.” The disembodied voice points out in a lighter, more humorous tone. Your mind finally focuses enough for your to recognize the voice.

“Very funny Diana.” You grumble to your long-suffering AI as you wipe your mouth with the back of your hand, pulling away some of the awful tasting fluids.

You are Commander Norman Wells. And right now you’re cold and not wearing any pants.

>Take a few moments to get your mind in order. You’re not going to do anything with your brain still defrosting.
>Find the head, you’re cold and covered in chemicals. A shower will solve both of those issues.
>Get up and look around. You’ve just woken up from cryosleep, and you’re probably not the only one.
>Other (write in)

>>5916119
>>Find the head, you’re cold and covered in chemicals. A shower will solve both of those issues.

>>5916119
>Find the head, you’re cold and covered in chemicals. A shower will solve both of those issues.

>>5916119
>Find the head, you’re cold and covered in chemicals. A shower will solve both of those issues.
And get some clothes on.

>>5916119
>Find the head, you’re cold and covered in chemicals. A shower will solve both of those issues.

>>5916119
>>Get up and look around. You’ve just woken up from cryosleep, and you’re probably not the only one.

Make sure everyone got up ok.

>>5916119
Get up and look around. You’ve just woken up from cryosleep, and you’re probably not the only one.

>>5916119
>Find the head, you’re cold and covered in chemicals. A shower will solve both of those issues.

>>5916119
>Find the head, you’re cold and covered in chemicals. A shower will solve both of those issues.
Diana better take a picture it'll last longer.

>>5916119
>Find the head, you’re cold and covered in chemicals. A shower will solve both of those issues.
clean up and ready to go mr

luv our shotgun and knife

New to this quest OP, loved the universe Halo took place in. Gonna try and catch up.

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2019/3217699/
for any other anons looking for the first thread

>>5916474

thanks

>>5916474
i remember most of the stuff but this also helps, so thanks too.

File: Cryo pod.jpg (22 KB, 514x543)

22 KB JPG

Usually, you’d stick around to see if anyone else in your bay was being woken up. Standard operating procedure was for multiple personnel to be woken up at the same time, so that the associated support staff and medical personnel only had to be stood up once. And to go alongside that, it was also standard procedure for personnel exiting cryosleep to check on each other to make sure that nobody choked on the bronchial surfactant that covered the respiratory system. But you decide to make haste for the head for a couple of reasons.

The first of which being that you felt like absolute shit. Waking up from the deep freeze is never a pleasant experience, with the combination of chemicals and unthawed frost binding your skin to the point that if felt as if you were wearing a shirt a couple of sizes too small. And a mild reaction to some sedatives left you feeling groggy. But on top of that, your right side and left forearm were burning up. You’d been wounded in both places during your last ground-side excursion, the former by a near-miss from an energy sword and the latter due to a jackal shield gauntlet overloading. And while both had been treated to the best of the UNSC’s capabilities, the doctors had warned you that the process of thawing out could be painful. Something about rapid changes in internal body temperature agitating the nerve endings. Hell, that was part of the reason why your XO had stayed out of cryo, her wounds had been surprisingly worse than yours.

But more importantly, you knew for a fact that you were the only person being brought out of cryosleep right now. Courtesy of your neural interface module. The cybernetic implant wired directly into your gray matter, allowing for a direct feed of information right into your mind. Right now, the ship’s AI -Diana- was feeding you information as your mind bounced between subjects. It was how you knew that nobody else was waking up with you, even though your head was still spinning and your eyesight was still a bit blurry. It’s how you knew where the head and locker room was even though you’d only seen them once before getting fridged a few months ago.

It’s also how you knew what was being served in the cafeteria a few seconds before your stomach decided to make a sound somewhere between a backfiring engine and a dying whale.

>Cont

>>5917113

The deep-set Command Neural Interface had been a part of you ever since getting promoted to running a starship. With the plug installed during the trip to Anchor 5 to collect the Dawn. It was necessary in order to store the highly classified NAV and encryption codes that the UNSC relied upon, along with other things that you didn’t want the enemy to know such as the activation code for the ship’s self-destruct system. And as the device’s internal programming logic was partially based on the host’s own neurochemistry, the entire thing was superbly secure. CNIs were designed so that the information on them couldn’t be extracted via interrogation, coercion, or torture. As the distinct change in the host’s neurochemistry would lock down the unit. And conventional data extraction methods were absolutely pointless as any intruder would be trying to hack into an half of the device, and doing it in a completely unique programming language.

Of course, there were theoretical methods to crack the system, ranging from advanced AI intrusion, to re-implanting the device into a flash-cloned brain and puppeteering it to produce the right chemical signals. But those theoretical methods were exactly that, theoretical. As far as you knew, the only people interested in trying to crack the CNI were its designers, and that was only to find weaknesses to correct in future models. And as the Covenant hadn’t yet found earth or any other major colonies, if they were also trying to crack the CNI system were also failing. In spite of their combination of advanced technology and extreme savagery.

Still, the memory of just how deep the implant went into your skull kept with you as you entered the locker room, and into the adjacent showers. You allowed yourself to enjoy the warm water for a few seconds, before getting to work cleaning off, unconsciously paying attention to the area around your neural implant, and consciously paying attention to your arm and side. It took you a few minutes to rub the phantom pain out of the old wounds, and a few more cycles of rinsing to get rid of all of the chemicals that were stuck to your body. But once that was sorted, everything else fell into order. And soon enough you had dried off, and had gotten dressed in a basic service uniform.

Your revival must have been scheduled, as the uniform was crisply folded and still smelled of washing detergent. The standard officer’s uniform was a gray double-breasted tunic with your surname sewn onto the name board underneath the UNSC emblem. It was joined by a matching jacket and set of trousers, black shoes and belt, and your rank slides. But your more personal touches were also there, such as your pistol holster and a baseball-style cap with the ship’s logo in the place of the peaked cap. You couldn’t stand the peaked cap, it was too close to the formal dress uniform, not the working man’s attire.

>Cont

>>5917116

You quickly got dressed, stopping only to inspect the ship’s logo, depicting a Roman centurion holding a spear, looking up in a moment of spiritual awakening.

Longinus -more famous for his lance- was the name ascribed to the Roman centurion that stabbed Jesus to ensure that he was dead after his crucifixion. Personally, you would have thought that stabbing the son of god would be grounds to not become a saint, but apparently you were wrong.

Either way, you keep the cap off while you put on your pistol belt. While the M6 handgun served as a status symbol for officers, and you were required to keep it on you, they were a right pain to handle. Most M6s were the over-sized vacuum-rated models, and yours was no exception. And that added size made them oversized and unwieldy when you weren’t wearing a vacuum suit. Granted, the smart-linked scope made the hand cannon a lot more accurate than it had any right to be. And it had more than enough firepower to deal anything short of an elite, some days you’d just prefer something designed for normal human use.

Still, you finish getting dressed, and make your way out of the cryo bay, your cap hanging idly in your off hand as you made your way deeper into the ship.

>Head to the bridge. If you’re being woken up, then you’re probably not far off from returning to realspace.
>Head to your office. You ought to see if anything significant has come in over the secure net while you were out.
>Head over to the cafeteria. You never know when you’ll be able to eat once the operation is underway.
>Start roaming the ship. You haven’t been called anywhere yet, so you might as well have a look around your ship while you have time.
>Other (write in)

>>5917118
>Head to your office. You ought to see if anything significant has come in over the secure net while you were out.

>>5917118
>Head to your office. You ought to see if anything significant has come in over the secure net while you were out.

>>5917118
>Head to the bridge. If you’re being woken up, then you’re probably not far off from returning to realspace.

>>5917118
>>Head over to the cafeteria. You never know when you’ll be able to eat once the operation is underway.
Food is fuel, humanity wants to eat, our stomach is empty

Good gun

>Other (write in)
Ask Diana whats the current situation, and if the crew is all fine. Small conversation not too important, just checking.

>>5917118
>Go to the cafeteria
WE ARE SO FUCKING BACK I MISSED THIS QUEST

>>5917118
>Head over to the cafeteria. You never know when you’ll be able to eat once the operation is underway.

>>5917118
>>Head over to the cafeteria. You never know when you’ll be able to eat once the operation is underway.

File: unsc primary mess.png (2.46 MB, 1920x1080)

2.46 MB PNG

A quick check via your neural implant confirmed that the Longinus wasn’t slated to drop out of slipspace for another half an hour. Just enough time to either go to your office and make sure that everything was in order, or to grab something to eat. Your duty to your ship, or to your body. You tossed the idea around in your head for a couple of seconds, before choosing the latter. Your decision making skills would be compromised if you didn’t take care of yourself. And with the first leg of your journey already taking you into space that the Covenant was already aware of, the chances of contact would be up from the word go.

Thankfully, the Able’s dedication to crew comfort extended to the mess halls too. With one of the primary mess halls featuring a neat mix of benches and booths with ample window space. Granted, right now the windows were covered by armored shutters to avoid letting in unwanted radiation from slipstream space, but in realspace the windows would give superb views of the stars beyond.

The food was usually also good in the primary mess hall, where you could expect real cooks to serve real food. But a quick look around told you that you’d arrived in the dead hours between major meals. Thankfully, a pair of automated food and drink dispensers along the side of the wall gave you at least something warm and reasonably edible. You punched in an order for the “breakfast selection”, and snatched the tray as soon as the dispenser was finished, balancing the food and coffee with practiced ease.

“You know, why did I know that you were going to head down here?” Diana asked as you sat down in one of the window booths. Her holographic avatar popping into life on the table, courtesy of a brace of projectors embedded into the ceiling above the booth.

“Is someone looking for me already?” You asked as you unpacked your cutlery. Usually it’d be a disposable pack of eating utensils, but with material shortages, it was just easier to clean and reuse normal metal utensils rather than restocking the disposable kinds.

“We’re less than half an hour away from Arcadia. And this is what’s on your mind?” The small woman crossed her arms and looked up at you with a disappointed expression. Unfortunately for her, that little bit of emotional manipulation wouldn’t work.

“Hey, better to eat now than later.” You pointed at the hologram with your fork, before spearing a piece of fake-sausage and dicing it into chunks.

>Ask Diana about the current situation, is the crew all fine?
>Ask Diana about the mission, have there been any changes?
>Ask Diana about the scuttlebutt, what’s the rumor mill saying?
>Shut up and eat. Diana’s right, you need to be on the bridge.
>Other (write-in)

>>5917330
>Shut up and eat. Diana’s right, you need to be on the bridge.

>>5917330
>>Ask Diana about the mission, have there been any changes?

>>5917330
>>Shut up and eat. Diana’s right, you need to be on the bridge.

>>5917330
>Ask Diana about the current situation, is the crew all fine?

>>5917330
>Shut up and eat. Diana’s right, you need to be on the bridge.
aquire energy then work

>>5917330
>>Ask Diana about the current situation, is the crew all fine?

File: dyad sorta.jpg (162 KB, 1000x1453)

162 KB JPG

While you’d love to sit and chat with your AI, Diana is right. You need to be on the bridge for when the ship drops out of slipspace. Outside of the point on how there was a not insignificant chance that you’d encounter Covenant forces lurking around the ruins of Arcadia, there was also the fact that it was commonly expected for a commander to be on the bridge for every time the ship dropped in and out of slipspace. And as first impressions are always important -both to the newer members of your crew, and the rest of DESRON-35- you wolfed down your food, before making your way through the unfamiliar decks towards the bridge tower.

While destroyers often got a bad rap for being cramped and uncomfortable on long operations, the Longinus was anything but that. Its full-size corridors and ample accommodation spaces were a legacy of the pre-war era. Back when it was normal for a ship to be deployed on patrol missions for months at a time, and required the crew to spend the majority of their time aboard awake. Meanwhile the smaller Halberds and other war-emergency vessels often cut back on crew accommodation, forcing the crew to hot-bunk as if they were back aboard a ye-olde submarine.

Unfortunately, a downside of all this added space was that it took a lot longer than you’d like to get from A to B. And you were only a few minutes away from slipspace translation when you finally reached the doors to the bridge. The pair of marines on guard smartly saluting you as you passed.

“Captain on deck!” One of the marines called as the doors opened, allowing you entry into the destroyer’s expansive bridge. In a similar vein to prowlers and some frigates, the Able class destroyers had a tiered bridge, with the commander’s chair elevated above the rest of the stations so that you could look over everyone’s shoulders to see what they were seeing. The activity on the bridge temporarily slowed down as your arrival caught a few people’s attention, but everyone continued with their jobs. While there were a few new faces in amongst the crowd, most of the crew were direct carry-overs from the Dawn.

And out of all of them, the most important was your XO. Lieutenant Commander Dyad. Who right now was enjoying your chair.

Your newly cyclopian second in command didn’t get up, instead pressing a button and turning the entire seat around like a super villain in an old B movie. But unlike the baddie of the week, she fixed you with a welcoming smile. “Been a while boss. Sleep well?”

>“No thanks to your driving.”
>“Slept like a log, thanks.”
>“No freezer burn, which is always good.”
>Other (write in)

>>5918433
>“No thanks to your driving.”
>Press the button to turn her back around

>>5918433
>“No freezer burn, which is always good.”

>>5918433
>“No freezer burn, which is always good.”

>>5918433
>>“No freezer burn, which is always good.”
Hello there wonderful XO

>>5918433
“No freezer burn, which is always good.”
Still not winning me over the AI this one.

“No freezer burn, which is always good.” You replied as you walked up onto the command platform. “Enjoying the seat?”

“Oh, you know. It feels good to lead for a change.” Dyad smiled as you finally got up on her level. Thankfully, you’d been able to foster a friendly working relationship with your XO, neatly side-stepping the kind of animosity that had seen you quickly reassigned off your first true posting, the corvette Hoel.

“How’s the ship been running while I was on ice?” You asked as you lent up against the small holographic tank next to the captain’s chair. Unlike the mess hall, the bridge wasn’t designed with ceiling-mounted holographic projectors, and they hadn’t been added in the ship’s most recent refit. So if Diana wanted to talk to you ‘in person’ then she’d have to project her avatar into the tank.

“All things considered the boat’s fine. She’s an older and larger vessel than the Dawn, so naturally she’s got greater maintenance requirements. But the guys at the Tribute yards know their stuff, so we haven’t had anything to worry about.” Your XO replied, gesturing to the modern screens that had replaced whatever had been installed before. The screens were modern Atlas Communications AS-2545 high-safety screens, which were integrated into a Hannibal Electrics primary data management system, which was itself a sub-system for Sino-Viet’s proprietary shipborne data networking system.

As it turned out, having a parent that worked at the same yard where other Ables were undergoing modernisation work gave you a lot of insight into stuff that you otherwise would have left up to the department heads.

“That’s good, from what I gathered some of the electronics had been a sticking point.” You nodded, earning you a raised eyebrow from your XO.

“And how’d ya find that out? Don’t tell me you actually read the pre-commissioning report for once.” Dyad asked, with a tone that told you in advance that she’d been hoping that you’d stumble into the reports for it, rather than her.

>“Nah, mom worked on one of her sister ships. Apparently the hannibal electric units were a pain.”
>“Are you insinuating that I don’t keep up to date on the condition of MY ship?”
>“No, I’m just in league with the gremlins.”
>Other (write in)

>>5918549
>>“Nah, mom worked on one of her sister ships. Apparently the Hannibal electric units were a pain.”

>>5918549
>“Nah, mom worked on one of her sister ships. Apparently the Hannibal electric units were a pain.”

>>5918549
>“Nah, mom worked on one of her sister ships. Apparently the hannibal electric units were a pain.”

>>5918549
>“Nah, mom worked on one of her sister ships. Apparently the hannibal electric units were a pain."

>>5918549
>>“Nah, mom worked on one of her sister ships. Apparently the hannibal electric units were a pain.”

Fucking elated to see Wolfpack back on the board. Was actually getting the courage up to try my own hand at being a QM for a Halo quest when it disappeared. Got a lot more time on my hands since I was transferred to Okinawa. In any case, I'm looking forward to what's in store QM.

>>5918549
>>“Nah, mom worked on one of her sister ships. Apparently the hannibal electric units were a pain.”

File: unsc shipyard.png (277 KB, 1024x534)

277 KB PNG

“Nah, mom worked on one of her sister ships. Apparently the Hannibal electric units were a pain.” You clarified with a smile and a small shake of your head. Your mom was a shift manager at one of Tribute’s orbital shipyards, doing odd jobs to take the strain off larger yards around Reach and elsewhere in the inner colonies. Her yard’s most recent project had been refitting some Able class destroyers with more modern systems, and almost every day she’d come home and complain about a new problem. Be it with the ships, management, or the quartermaster’s office.

You’d gotten the worst of it though, as the usual post-work venting morphed with her existing concern for your safety aboard UNSC vessels. As it turned out, working in a career that constantly exposed her to beaten up and broken vessels didn’t do much to alleviate her concerns about your career choice.

“Huh, that’s convenient. How’s she doing by the way?” Dyad asked, leaning back in her seat

“Practically blew a gasket when she found out I was home on medical leave. Blew another one when I told her that how I got it was classified.” Mom had a very bad case of helicopter parenting when you were younger. And one of the few things that really set her off was when one of her kids got hurt. Given your family’s circumstances, you absolutely understood her concern.

“You didn’t try the cover story?” Diana asked as her avatar popped into being in the tank next to you, part of her side missing as your elbow blocked the projector.

“Aw, come on. You can’t lie to your family.” You replied as you stood up straight, clearing the full tank for Diana, even as she fixed you with a questioning gaze.

“Or you’re just bad at lying.” Dyad suggested as she lent back into the captain’s chair, a smug grin on her face telling you that she apparently didn’t have that issue. Which wasn’t surprising, the simple fact that her parents were back on Earth meant that she didn’t have to say it to their face.

“I’m not bad at lying. I’ve got a mean poker face.” You wheeled onto your XO, fixing her with your most disappointed expression. Unfortunately, this just seemed to embolden her.

“Wanna bet?” Dyad asked, throwing the proverbial gauntlet for a poker game.

Well shit. If she’d suggested this elsewhere, you would have probably been able to worm your way out of it. Unfortunately, you were on the bridge, and you could feel dozens of pairs of eyes on you. As crew members watched how you’d react to the friendly challenge.

>“Bet.”
>“For shame, lieutenant commander. Regulations forbid gambling aboard UNSC vessels!”
>Other (write-in)

>>5918615
>>“Bet.”

>>5918615
>“For shame, lieutenant commander. Regulations forbid gambling aboard UNSC vessels!”
>but with a smile.

>>5918615
>“Bet.”

>>5918615
>>“Bet.”

Anything for best gi- ahem, XO.

>>5918636
How dare you, Diana is best XO.

>>5918615
>"Bet"
We will not be made a fool off around ai waifu and second in command.

Well, shit. If you accepted the offer, you’d be in breach of at least three UNSC code of conduct regulations right off the bat. But if you turned her down, you’d send a message that the command staff didn’t approve of one of the most effective means of stress relief in the fleet. Short of recreational drinking, binge-watching whatever shows or movies were in a ship’s onboard library, or whatever other effective but frowned-upon methods of relaxation the crew of a star ship could get up to.

When looking at it through that lens. The choice was clear, and could be summed up in a single word.

“Bet.”

If Dyad was surprised, she didn’t show it. Instead, she lent towards you and offered her hand to seal the deal. “Well I hope you’re not a sore loser boss, because I’m not gonna hold back.”

“Commander. We’re a couple of minutes away from translation back to realspace.” Your navigation officer, Elias Toulali, spoke up before you could respond to Dyad’s veiled challenge.

“Alright ensign, put the warning out, and inform us when we’re sixty seconds out.” You ordered, the relaxed and carefree tone in your voice falling away in a matter of seconds. It was game time, and everyone knew it.

“Sensors, weapons, I want both of you ready. We don’t know what we’re gonna face once we drop out, but if anyone’s there they’re gonna notice us and the rest of the flotilla. I want us ready for anything. Astrogation, work with Diana to get a fix on our location relative to known stellar markers.” Dyad jumped out of your seat as you continued issuing your commands. By and large it was stuff that everyone was going to do anyways, but you made sure to reinforce it. You couldn’t afford for anyone to slip up now.

“All hands, prepare for imminent departure from slipspace in T minus one hundred and eighty seconds. Set for combat alert bravo throughout the ship.” Diana announced across the ship’s main announcement circuit. Even without being directly informed, you could feel the hundreds of people under your command getting ready for whatever came next. Specifying that everyone was to set for condition bravo was probably unnecessary, everyone knew the risks already and nobody was looking to get caught out.

Hell, the risks alone had been the biggest factor behind why some people hadn’t followed you over from the Dawn.

“If you’re going to say anything chief, now’s the time.” Dyad lent over and whispered into your ear. While you hadn’t considered making any announcements, the fact that she was bringing it up showed that she felt it would be important.

>Make an announcement (write in, what do you want to say?)
>Keep quiet. Right now, you need everyone to focus on the job at hand.

>>5918689
>Keep quiet. Right now, you need everyone to focus on the job at hand.

>>5918689
>Make an announcement (write in, what do you want to say?)

Ladies and gentlemen, time to give those Covie bastards some payback for Arcadia

>>5918689
>Keep quiet. Right now, you need everyone to focus on the job at hand.

>>5918689

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have in front of us a real chance to make the Covie pay for their crimes. Do your jobs well, and give the fucks a lesson they will never forget.

>>5918657
Dyad is an M16 expy, your argument is automatically invalid.

>>5918725
New art, Newfags
Disgusting.

>>5918689
>>Keep quiet. Right now, you need everyone to focus on the job at hand.

>>5918725
>>5918689
>>Make an announcement (write in, what do you want to say?)

*ahem* Forgot to make the proper vote.

>>5918689
>Make an announcement (write in, what do you want to say?)
All hands, this is Commander Wells. The situation on the other side is unknown, but the Longinus is well armored, well gunned and most of you are well seasoned. If there's a surprise, we're sure as hell going to be ready. As for you greenhorns, you couldn't ask for better company. Stay cool, stay focused, follow orders and remember your training. You'll do fine. Wells out.

>>5919011
>>5918689
>Make an announcement (write in, what do you want to say?)
support this one

>>5919011
>>5918689

This is good as well. Overall since this is a pretty major op it feels wrong to not make some speech.

File: yeah.png (352 KB, 1745x504)

352 KB PNG

okay, so i saw this quest, and i personally like halo lore even if i haven't played any of the games. so it took me by surprise when i found 16 fuckin threads on the archive. and i must say thunder, you are a beautiful anon. this is the good shit, and through you're writing you got me interested in possibly actually playing the games. i've read through all of the threads here in the last 2 days. genuinely great shit mate.

also, my autism is so boundless, that after having seen you used m16a1 as the visual for Dyad, i simply had to make a image folder. despite not even playing girls frontline i went through all 1.4k images on the booru for any that could be relevant.

to say the least, i am fucking hyped. let's fucking go!

You took your XO’s offered advice, before taking a few seconds to think up a basic speech to give to your crew. While you were usually a fairly confident speaker, thanks to officer training giving you a few lessons on public speaking. You weren’t nearly as spontaneous as some of your classmates, so the final idea only really came to you just before the ship translated back into realspace.

“Deceleration in T-minus sixty seconds. Starting the clock.” Ensign Toulali announced in time with the appearance of a countdown across multiple screens across the bridge, the number steadily counting down by both seconds and milliseconds.

“Diana, give me the main circuit.” You ordered as you pressed the button on the command chair to turn it to face forwards, giving you a commanding view of the armored window covers. The thick overlapping titanium-A plates keeping everyone on the bridge safe from the radiation outside.

Diana was silent for a couple of seconds, before finally announcing. “You’re live, sir.”

You nodded in thanks at the small figure of the AI in the tank, before starting your speech. “All hands, this is Commander Wells. The situation on the other side is unknown, but the Longinus is well armored, well gunned and most of you are well seasoned. If there's a surprise, we're sure as hell going to be ready. As for you greenhorns, you couldn't ask for better company. Stay cool, stay focused, follow orders and remember your training. You'll do fine. Wells out.”

“Deceleration in thirty.” Your navigation officer called out a few seconds after you finished, in-time with the ongoing countdown.

“Nice to see that you haven’t lost your touch, boss.” Dyad stated from her preferred perch in your blind spot, just behind and to the right of you.

“Hard to lose something like that. Thanks.” You replied as you looked over the shoulders of your ensigns, checking in on their progress where possible. “Any ideas on a plan?”

“Kick ass, kill aliens?” Dyad suggested, in a tone that practically spelled out how she was shrugging behind you.

You couldn’t help but sigh. “I don’t know why I bother sometimes.”

“Deceleration in three… two… one!” Toulali called out, his last word landing on the gut-wrenching moment when the ship punched back through the walls between dimensions, and dropped you back in your native material universe. Unlike the Dawn, the older Able class vessel buffeted a lot more on the way out. Thankfully, the extra padding in your chair helped absorb the worst of the shocks, but it could do nothing to stop the momentary feeling of vertigo that accompanied the shaking. “Deceleration complete, welcome to nowhere.”

Almost instantly, the reports started coming in, with your sensor officer being the loudest. “Slipspace ruptures off the port and starboard. The rest of the flotilla has dropped out with us.”

>>5919461
>Start an active sensor scan! You need to know exactly what’s out there. (roll 1d100-10)
>Focus on astrogation! You need to know what system you’re in, and what the lay of the land is. (roll 1d100)
>Data-link with the rest of the flotilla! You’re not the only one here, leverage that advantage.
>Other (write in)

>>5919462
>Data-link with the rest of the flotilla! You’re not the only one here, leverage that advantage.

>>5919462
>Data-link with the rest of the flotilla! You’re not the only one here, leverage that advantage.

>>5919462
>Data-link with the rest of the flotilla! You’re not the only one here, leverage that advantage.

>>5919462
>Data-link with the rest of the flotilla! You’re not the only one here, leverage that advantage.

>>5919462
>Data-link with the rest of the flotilla! You’re not the only one here, leverage that advantage.

>>5919462
>Data-link with the rest of the flotilla! You’re not the only one here, leverage that advantage.

File: Able Hilly and Halberd.jpg (3.51 MB, 3840x2160)

3.51 MB JPG

“Comms, set up a data-link with the rest of the pack. Let’s see what we can get by putting our heads together.” You ordered as the armored shields over the bridge windows silently retracted into their resting positions. Not that it did much to change that you could see. You could parse about as much information from the random smattering of stars as you could from the armored bulkheads.

“From the looks of it… we dropped out closest to the Achilles and the supply barge. They’re a couple dozen kilometers off our port, while the Iconoclast and the Galaxy are around a hundred kilometers off our starboard.” The sensors officer crowed as your tactical display winked into life, showing the approximate position of the other vessels in your wolfpack.

Your unit was DESRON-35’s third flotilla, and was intended to operate as its own wolfpack just like the other two formations. But unlike the other two, the third was a hybrid unit. The force was made up of two Halberd class light destroyers -the Ionoclast and the Galaxy, a pair of Able class heavy destroyers -the Longinus and the Achilles, and a single unmanned supply vessel. And on top of that little unique feature, there was also the fact that every vessel in the flotilla was carrying a smart AI. This far out, and with no chance of reinforcement, the high likelihood of losing multiple AI was worth it in order to boost the combat effectiveness of the flotilla.

That alone was a ringing endorsement of just how effective these wolfpacks could be, even if the risks were incredibly high.

“Standby, the Ionoclast is sending a handshake protocol. They’re booting the TAC-NET. Commander Trafford is also hailing us.” Diana informed you, pre-empting the comms ensign by a couple of seconds.

“Understand, patch him through.” You replied, stealing yourself to speak with your semi-official commanding officer.

Commander Tyler Trafford was an experienced officer, he’d been commanding vessels before you even joined up. From New Constantinople to Paris IV, he’d managed to rack up a good number of kills, even if his own vessel had been shot out from under him a few times. You would have expected him to be a cruiser or even carrier captain now, but something was holding him back. And while he hadn’t said anything obviously hostile, it was obvious that he wasn’t happy at the idea of you matching his rank and posting. Even if you were on an older vessel to his block 40 Halberd.

A holographic display was quickly projected onto the window in front of you, giving you a window into the surprisingly roomy command bridge of his Halberd class vessel. The old commander regarded you with a carefully neutral look, and an even more neutral tone. “Commander Wells. How’s the Longinus holding up?”

>“Green across the board. What’s the plan sir?”
>“We’re doing fine, how about the Iconoclast?”
>“Well the front hasn’t fallen off. So that’s always good.”
>Other (write-in)

>>5919669
>“Green across the board. What’s the plan sir?”

>>5919669
>“Green across the board. What’s the plan sir?”

>>5919669
>“Green across the board. What’s the plan sir?”

>>5919669
>“Well the front hasn’t fallen off. So that’s always good.”

>>5919669
>>“Green across the board. What’s the plan sir?”

Time to put our game faces on.

As tempted as you were to be a bit cheeky and comment on how you were happy at how the front hadn’t fallen off, you decided to keep things professional. Now wasn’t the time for jokes. “Green across the board. What’s the plan sir?”

“In a moment. Let’s see what the Galaxy and Achilles have to say. Speaking of which, Commander Buckwood, how’s the Achilles?”

“We’re having a couple of problems with the wiring with some of our missile pods, two of our archer-keyed pods aren’t accepting their arming keys. Other than that, we’re fine.” The commander of your step-sister ship replied. From what you knew from your CNI, the Achilles was an early model Ares while the Longinus was a tail-end vessel. And there had been enough changes along the way that it would be a bit disingenuous to call them exact sister ships.

“That’s unfortunate. I’m sure that the Longinus would be more than willing to provide technical assistance?” Commander Trafford replied, volunteering you to help out when everyone knew that it was probably an issue that the Achilles’ own engineering staff could handline. This was nothing more than the leading commander flexing his operational command over you.

Bastard. All right, if this is the style he wants to use then you’re game. “Of course, though in order to do so, we will have to remain within relatively close proximity to the Achilles to provide offboard technical support. I’m sure that won’t be a problem?”

“Not at all. Commander Penman, is everything alright aboard the Galaxy?” Trafford continued, brushing off your attempt to twist the issue back on him.

“Good to go.” The final commander replied, keeping her reply short and to the point.

“All right. Everyone listen in, the plan is as follows.” Trafford called your attention, as the shot of his bridge disappeared. Instead, a 3D recreation of a star-system took its place, the holographic projectors on the bridge window working overtime to translate the shot into an almost 2.5D projection. “Thanks to the flotilla’s combined astrogation capabilities. We’ve been able to identify the system as Canis Minoris Delta 2. Thankfully, we still have astrogation maps of the system from back when it was surveyed in the mid twenty-four hundreds. That leaves us with the main star, an asteroid belt with at least three planetoids. And a gas giant on the system’s edge.”

>Cont

>>5919751

As the commander spoke, the various points of interest in the system -the star, the gas giant, and the dwarf planets in the asteroid belt- were all marked out with small text boxes. The live-editing of the map continued as now arrows were added to mark the flotilla’s course through the system. “The plan is simple. As we have enough stellar data to make an in-system jump, we’ll start with the gas giant. Once we’ve cleared it, we’ll do an in-system jump to get us closer to the asteroid field. We’ll then sweep it using standard counter-insurgency tactics. Drones and picket screens up front, larger vessels taking a sector each. That’ll give us the best chance of catching anything while keeping on our toes.”

>“What’s the plan of action for if we encounter the enemy?”
>“That’s a lot of space to cover. How is the flotilla gonna break down for this?”
>“And after this system? From the looks of things, this place is dead.”
>Say nothing, you don’t want to keep this going for any longer than it needs.
>Other (write in)

>>5919752
>“What’s the plan of action for if we encounter the enemy?”

>>5919752
>Say nothing, you don’t want to keep this going for any longer than it needs.

>>5919752
>>“What’s the plan of action for if we encounter the enemy?”

>>5919752
>“What’s the plan of action for if we encounter the enemy?”

>Other (write in)
This isn't really a write in but more of a side question.
Is doing a slingshot manoeuvre using the gas giant to enter the inner system an alternative to in-system jumps? Or is something like that simply not feasible with the distances/time involved? The flotilla could potentially split up on the other side of the gas giant and head to different parts of the system.

Just asking because I thought human slipspace jumps lit up like a christmas tree on sensors, putting a bullseye on us for any covenant in the area and ruining any chance of surprise.

>>5919752
>Say nothing, you don’t want to keep this going for any longer than it needs.

>>5919752
>>“What’s the plan of action for if we encounter the enemy?”

>>5919822
>I thought human slipspace jumps lit up like a christmas tree on sensors
All jumps do without specialized intrusion equipment, doubly so if you're carrying nukes conventionally which most UNSC ships do. If there are Covenant ships in system they already know we're here.
>Is doing a slingshot manoeuvre using the gas giant to enter the inner system an alternative to in-system jumps?
UNSC ships IIRC can accelerate at 50g or so which makes in system transit possible but not the best options when trying to search for potential threats. A slingshot wouldn't be a bad idea but probably not the most optimal.

>>5919857
Fair. I suppose moving quickly does have its own advantages, especially if we're going with the assumption we've already been detected. In-system jumps would also be considered an unconventional human tactic, so they wouldn't be expecting it.

>>5919752
>>“What’s the plan of action for if we encounter the enemy?”
Need to know

“What’s the plan of action for if we encounter the enemy?” You asked as your weapons officer finished bringing the Longinus’ weapons grid online. The single MAC was fully charged, your nuclear inventory had been pulled from secure storage and moved to their staging positions, and the missile grid was fully operational. You weren’t carrying a full load of Archers this time. Instead, the Longinus had traded two pods of Archers for streak anti-fighter missiles, and four pods of Howler anti-ship missiles. Giving you a mixed missile load of 648 archers, 96 Howlers, and 80 Streaks.

“With any luck, any Covenant forces in the area will think we’re second-line assets and will get cocky. Once they commit, the pack will break down into lockstep pairs. Preferably, the Longinus and Achilles will hang back and provide supporting fire while the Iconoclast and Galaxy will move in closer to give our archers the best chance of making it to the target. But we’ll adapt to the tactical situation at the time.”

You nodded to yourself at the plan. From a command perspective, breaking down into pairs made more sense than trying to do tactical maneuvers in perfect unison. Pinning the Halberds to the Ables would rob them of their superior thrust to mass ratios, courtesy of their smaller size and additional thrusters. But even still, there would just be some foes that you wouldn’t be able to beat. And that concerned you enough to bring it up. “And in the case of overmatch?”

“We’ll adapt to the tactical situation at the time.” Trafford repeated his last sentence again, his flat tone telling you that it was the most he could really plan for at this time. Even so, he continued on. “Hopefully we’ll move fast enough that the hinge-heads won’t be able to scramble a QRF in time. But if they do, or we encounter a force that we can’t reasonably handle without unnecessary casualties, we’ll scatter and regroup at Arcadia.”

“Do we have an approximate ETA on when the signals from our slipspace ruptures will reach the inner system?” The unnamed commander of the Galaxy asked, her voice quiet enough that you had to strain for a second to hear her properly. Diana must have picked up your difficulty though, as the AI automatically boosted the volume.

>cont

>>5920677

“Around six hours for the light emissions, maybe two or three times that for the radiation? It’s hard to say, we don’t exactly have good data on how our signature returns will compare with stellar emissions and local background radiation. Hence why we’re gonna have to rely on an in-system jump to do this quickly.” Trafford replied, before switching the display over to a map of the nearby gas giant. “That brings us onto the first point of interest, the gas giant. It has two moons, one in an elliptical orbit, and one in geosynchronous orbit above the north pole. The elliptical moon appears unremarkable, but we all know that looks can be deceiving. The polar moon on the other hand would be an obvious location for a power and communications hub, assuming that there is other infrastructure in the planetary system. The gas giant would be an obvious host for that infrastructure, probably in the form of helium harvesting stations.”

“We’re gonna want one vessel per moon, one surveying the gas giant, and one on a roaming patrol as a quick reaction force. Who wants what?”

>Investigate the gas giant! Any orbital stations should be fairly easy to pick up.
>Investigate the polar moon! It’s an obvious location for any support infrastructure.
>Investigate the elliptical moon! If the innies have taught you anything, you can’t discount hiding in plain sight.
>Roam around the system! Someone needs to keep an eye on things.
>Let the other commanders choose. You’re fine with anything.

>>5920679
>Investigate the elliptical moon! If the innies have taught you anything, you can’t discount hiding in plain sight.

>>5920679
>Roam around the system! Someone needs to keep an eye on things.

Fire brigade

>>5920679
>Investigate the elliptical moon! If the innies have taught you anything, you can’t discount hiding in plain sight.

>>5920679
>Investigate the elliptical moon! If the innies have taught you anything, you can’t discount hiding in plain sight.

>>5920679
>Investigate the elliptical moon! If the innies have taught you anything, you can’t discount hiding in plain sight.

Do have experience.

>>5920679
>Investigate the elliptical moon! If the innies have taught you anything, you can’t discount hiding in plain sight.

>>5920679
>>Investigate the elliptical moon! If the innies have taught you anything, you can’t discount hiding in plain sight.

>>5920679
>>Investigate the elliptical moon! If the innies have taught you anything, you can’t discount hiding in plain sight.

“We’ll handle the elliptical moon. Digging innies out of an asteroid belt is practically no different to digging aliens out of a moon.” You volunteered for one of the more boring jobs. Granted, the other moon and the gas giant would have you doing much the same. But there was a much higher chance that they’d actually find something.

“We’ll handle the other moon then. That’ll leave the two halberds for guard duty and handling the gas giant.” Commander Buckwood was the next to speak up, dedicating both of the Ables to the moons.

Trafford was next, taking the mission with the higher chance of facing the enemy. “We’ll stay on overwatch then, we brought a squadron of Nandaos that we can put on picket duties. Unless the Galaxy wants to take the role?”

“We’ll handle the scan.” The unnamed commander agreed, putting up absolutely no resistance to being stuck with a mission. Part of you wondered if that was down to them being a greenhorn, or if they were just naturally apathetic.

“Then it’s agreed. EMCON is restricted to laser or multi-bounced communications, I want each ship to launch at least one clarion drone to maintain comms link with the rest of the flotilla. Galaxy, you’ll probably have to use multiple drones. Everyone good with the plan?” Trafford finalized the plan, leaving a few seconds for anyone to speak up or voice any concerns. When nobody did, he brought the mission to a close. “Good. Let’s get this area cleared as soon as possible.”

At a moderate burn, the gas giant wasn’t too far away. At a 20g burn, it only took the wolfpack a few hours to reach it. But with the ever-present threat of a Covenant ship dropping out of slipspace without warning, you couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Even as the small moon -small being relative, it was around the size of Luna- finally appeared in your rear-facing cameras. Nobody spoke for that entire time, outside of Dyad offering to grab you a drink when she stepped out to get one herself. The silence was only broken when your navigation officer announced your official arrival above the moon. “Sir? We’re on final insertion now.”

“Comms. How’s the downlink?” You asked, turning in your seat to look directly at the ensign rather than straining your neck by looking over your shoulder at their station. The ensign gave you a single thumb up, before returning to their work. “Good. Let’s try and get this sorted quickly people. Sensors, this is your show.”

“Got it boss. Nav, drop our altitude to below a hundred kilometers. EW, keep an eye out for transmissions.” Your sensor officer swung into action, making full use of their rare grasp at the reigns of a starship to set the Longinus up as best as possible for a scan.

>Roll 1d100, best of three

Rolled 72 (1d100)

>>5920991
Scratch one flat-top

Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>5920991

Rolled 13 (1d100)

>>5920991

>96

Ah he’ll ya

Also did we ever get the upgrades from last thread? I remember that we were do some right?

>>5921023
From the last thread, you've got the boarding pelican, as that's an easy upgrade to your existing birds. The point defense gun upgrade on the other hand was a specific upgrade to the Halberd, and the Ables have a far better grid as standard. if anyone has an idea on how to solve that missing upgrade, then feel free to suggest it.

And so, you let the ensign get to work, leaving bridge command to her as she put the Longinus through a pair of high-speed orbital passes. One over the northern hemisphere, and one over the southern hemisphere. Every so often, calling out incremental course corrections to your navigation officer. It took a few hours, soon enough, gave her report. “Sorry boss, no dice. I’m not picking up any thermal, radiological, or other emission sources. The moon’s dead.”

“Maybe, but we’re not leaving empty-handed. Have a look at this.” Dyad pointed out as she tapped a PDA from her perch behind you, having grabbed a camping stool as an ersatz seat. Within seconds, the main viewing screen over the bridge window snapped into life, showing you a series of tightly clustered craters, which glimmered in the low ambient light. “Those are plasma impact craters, a quick check by Diana puts the approximate yield well above escort vessel firepower. If I had to guess, whoever did it, they were going gunnery drills.”

“Any idea what might have done it?” You asked, leaning forward in your seat. The images weren’t very bright, and they’d had to jack up the contrast in order to bring out the details.

“No clue. But given that the craters were cold enough for the ensign to miss them, I’d say that whoever did it probably isn’t around anymore.” Dyad said as a simulated 3D model of the craters was projected onto the screen, showing most of them to be dozens of meters wide and abnormally smooth. As if someone had just deleted a perfect sphere on the surface of the moon.

“But it proves that the Covenant have been here before, and that whatever they were doing here was important enough to send a large vessel, even if it was just one.” You sighed, rubbing your forehead. While part of you was glad that you finally had some news, it certainly didn’t do anything to calm your nerves.

>Make another pass. Maybe you missed something. (roll 1d100+5, best of three)
>Assist either the Galaxy of the Achilles with their searches. (choose either the gas giant or polar moon)
>Join the Iconoclast on security.
>Other (write-in)

>>5921062
>Join the Iconoclast on security.

>>5921059
As far as upgrades go maybe either have an extra hanger tacked on for that ONI Sub prowler we had. Say it was an extra add on for our block of Ables to have an extra hanger say near the bridge. Or maybe first round of experimental MAC rounds, a few EMP, Flechette, nuclear, etc each.

OR and I would vastly prefer this one, have it so the next time we board a Covi ship/wreck/base, etc we are guaranteed to get a pair of engineers and our pals in ONI will green light it to see what we can do with them in the field and give us the translation tech to speak to them.


>Make another pass. Maybe you missed something. (roll 1d100+5, best of three)

Rolled 8 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>5921086

>>5921062
>>Make another pass. Maybe you missed something. (roll 1d100+5, best of three)

Rolled 83 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>5921086
>>Make another pass. Maybe you missed something. (roll 1d100+5, best of three)

Rolled 86 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>5921062
>>Make another pass. Maybe you missed something. (roll 1d100+5, best of three)

>>5921062
>Make another pass. Maybe you missed something.

>>5921059
Welcome back, Thunderhead. Missed this quest a lot and just had this feeling today that if I checked for it in the catalog it might be there. Fucking ace, man.

For upgrades, I'd back anything along the lines of what this guy said >>5921086. Additionally, we could consider:
Up-gunning the ship's armory for our marine complement so we can better put those boarding pods to effect or raid ground targets with a bit more vigor
Getting a second marine complement
Tacking on some more Howler Pods to increase the pressure on covie pd during missile strikes or for targeting their lighter fighter screens
Additional server banks or upgraded processors for Diana's EWAR mod
Some sort of engine upgrade, since I vaguely recall we aren't bringing the retrofit over from the Dawn

>>5921059
More marines and fill the armory with more weapons, including melee weapons like here >>5915104
Maybe one ODST squad too if possible. Otherwise just more marines and more+different weapons in the armory. It would badly help them against enemies.

>>5921062
>>Make another pass. Maybe you missed something. (roll 1d100+5, best of three)
If Light flying drones exist they could help, for better scouting and targeting on ground.

Yes reintroduce in the armory even murderous weapons like flamethrowers (burn bunkers, burn rooms. Make an hole in, chemical fire type enters, cleanse aliens. When the covies are melting on the ground you will not recognize if they are elite or brute, their shields and armors will not protect them. Extremely deserved anyway for them, die die DIE. The marine with the flamethrower might die an horrible death if they hit him, but honestly is a strong weapon that will kill having it on the battlefields is too useful) different ammo like uranium or even poisonous why not. Phosporous, incendiary grenades too. Full war crime, an armory well filled is a good armory.
Maybe grab some mines and turrets too if our men need to stay in a place for a while for an objective, they bring them out, set up and ready to make the covies bleed

>>5921727
My brother in christ we are on a spaceship

>>5921732
We had missions were we deployed on ground and continued the missions there. Its likely there are going to be more, if our captain keeps bringing home victories.
Our men need some stuff to be on par or above down there. So thats why.

I prefer a room burning with an overgrown ape screaming, than a squad of our men butchered or with severe injuries.
I dont want them going down with the usual, because thats not enough. The usual in Halo, means death for humanity. We need to give them the serious stuff in my opinion.

>>5921743
I can agree with using them on ground operations, but in space can be extremely dangerous if the life support can’t keep up with the burn rate or there’s enough catalyst in the air to cause a gas explosion. Sticking to more reasonable options in space such as nerve gas, I would be more willing to support - so long as gas masks and the proper filters are provided.

File: Mako class (1).png (226 KB, 1000x563)

226 KB PNG

“Lieutenant Helena, have another look around those craters. Let’s see if they were firing at anything specific.” You ordered after looking at the craters for a bit longer. The tight grouping could easily make sense as gunnery training, but the fact that there were no obvious missed shots made you doubt that conclusion.

Thankfully, now that you had a point of reference to work with it wasn’t too long before you had another success. “Got something. A large concentration of high entropy materials, approximately south-east of the main cluster of craters. Diana, can you give me a hand here?”

“Already on it. I’ve also detected emissions from decaying radioactive materials, and a handful of smaller clusters of HEM’s, consistent with small plates of Titanium-A battle plate. I’m already collating the readings with known vessel classes.” Diana explained as she pulled up the scan results on the main screen. It didn’t take long before she found a rough match, and the profile of a very familiar small and blocky vessel appeared on the main screen. “Given the size and shape of the section, there’s a high probability of it being the remains of a Mako class corvette.”

You were making record speed on solving this mystery. Makos were one of the most common vessels to fall into less than friendly hands, owing to the fact that the few left in service were in less-than-second line roles, while the rest had been retired due to their notorious maintenance issues. It wasn’t that unlikely that a Mako in either innie or private security service had fled Arcadia and been destroyed here.

But that still left one question, how did it get there? Might they have been forced down? “Sensors, is there any indication that the ship came down hard? Impact markers, disturbed regolith, stuff like that?”

“Already checked that sir. The only surface disturbances that I can see is from the bombardment. That ship was landed intentionally, though it’s impossible to determine the reasons behind it.” Lieutenant Helena replied, bringing up a long-range camera picture of the site. And sure enough, you couldn’t see an obvious crater or disgorged material from where a ship may have come down hard.

“Drive discharging? Discharging their static buildup here could be safer for older vessels, or if they wanted to avoid being obvious.” Dyad suggested, and you had to agree with her assessment. With the known maintenance issues of the class, taking it anywhere close to a gas giant would be risky. And with their small slipspace drives, you didn’t need a large gravity well to discharge into anyways. Put those two together, and any sane captain would probably choose the moon.

>>5921821
>Take a closer look at the crash site. Even if you find nothing, you’ll have a chance to discharge some static from your own drive. (roll 1d100+10, best of three)
>Assist either the Galaxy or the Achilles with their searches. (choose either the gas giant or polar moon)
>Discharge your drive into the gas giant. You should probably take this opportunity to clear your static backlog.
>Join the Iconoclast on security. You don’t think that you’ll find anything else worthwhile around here.
>Other (write-in)

>>5921821
>>Take a closer look at the crash site. Even if you find nothing, you’ll have a chance to discharge some static from your own drive. (roll 1d100+10, best of three)

>>5921086
>>5921086
>>5921243
The black cat was loaned to you for an op, it wasn't a permanent assignment.

So just to make sure that I'm good, the selection of upgrades you'd like to look into specifically would be:
>Exotic MAC rounds (EMP, Flechette, Nuclear, etc)
>Extra Howler missiles / complete replacement of your Archers with Howlers
>EWAR / enhanced electronics and processing suites
>Getting the sub-prowler back
>Either more marines or ODSTs (>>5921252)
>A bigger and more varied armory for your marines, including warcrime sticks (>>5921727)

Rolled 69 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>5921824

Rolled 88 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>5921823
>Take a closer look at the crash site. Even if you find nothing, you’ll have a chance to discharge some static from your own drive. (roll 1d100+10, best of three)

AI, Zoom.

>>5921827
can we also include into that a possible salvaging team or dedicated "research team" to make salvaging covenant tech more easy?

my idea in mind, being essentially a storage facility within the ship being dedicated solemly to being a "black box" where all covenant tech is stored while we travel, where it is looked over again and again by technicians for if it might have trackers on it. and i especially want more options for tech to be able to be brought back to the UNSC that isn't strictly military tech. like i wanna see agri or industry be able to be brought back and possibly help the war effort in ways that actually change the overall flow of the war (of course, if that is even possible. since that would of course need a herculean feat to be able to be done)

also, that kind of ties into a question i've had since i began reading. this is of course fan fiction, but are events still going to play out the same as they did in the halo games or has the war already irreversibly been altered by our presence? if so, is the war going better or worse in comparison to the cannon?

Rolled 80 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>5921823
>Take a closer look at the crash site. Even if you find nothing, you’ll have a chance to discharge some static from your own drive.

Rolled 92 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>5921823
I think it’s obvious that the ship was being used as a testbed for discovering weaknesses, or maybe testing a new weapon, but theres already two dice on the counter and we need a third.

>Take a closer look at the crash site. Even if you find nothing, you’ll have a chance to discharge some static from your own drive. (roll 1d100+10, best of three)

>>5921823
>Take a closer look at the crash site. Even if you find nothing, you’ll have a chance to discharge some static from your own drive. (roll 1d100+10, best of three)

>>5921827
I'm in favour of anything that boosts our ship's killing power. How big are Longswords vs Pelicans? Nabing a couple of those might help with scouting/point defence/antiship/antiordinance work.

>>5921827
I'd actually want like better/thicker armor or some type of layered stuff.

Didn't we capture shield tech in the prior run or something like that?

>>5921903
>I'd actually want like better/thicker armor or some type of layered stuff.
Armor doesn't mean diddly squat, not even Covenant nano-laminate armor is especially effective against plasma weapons. IIRC the shields we got were a cache of Jackal shield gauntlets.

>>5921961
More armor, Also didn't the Covenant Nano-laminate actually do rather well against plasma weapons until Cortana fucking super fine tweaked those one?

>>5921975
It does much better than the UNSC's titty-A armor but not substantially better. It'd be pretty cool if we could do some field expedient up-armoring though with some scavenged plates.

For the second time, you considered leaving the moon and the mystery ship behind. Commander Trafford was right, you were on a schedule. But at the same time, you couldn’t help but feel as if there was yet more to find. By that point, Diana had finished matching the largest chunk of the Mako’s remains to it’s blocky bow. And enough of it remained that you felt confident that something could be recovered. And even if you came up empty handed, what the hell it gave you a a chance to discharge some static from your own drive.

“All right, let’s take a closer look then. Security, FlyCo, prep a squad or two in vacuum gear to head moon-side to survey the wreck. I want them to look in the nose section for any surviving comms or computer equipment. Comms. Spin up a message to the Iconoclast via laser-comms. Request permission to discharge our static moonside.” You pressed on with the inspection. If you remembered correctly, the bow was where a Mako’s main sensors and computer systems were stored. So if the blast doors had slammed shut in time, then there was a not insignificant chance that the main computers could have survived.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? We’ll be low, blind, and vulnerable while that’s happening.” Dyad asked as your crew snapped into action, your head of security already sending word down to marine country to suit up for an op.

“I’d prefer to have our drive as responsive as possible. And we may not get another opportunity to do this.” You replied, reminding your XO about how drive static could increase the amount of time it’d take to power up for a slipspace jump. And given how you had at least two jumps before you had even a remote chance of discharging your drive again, it wasn’t unreasonable.

“Message sent. Standing by for their response.” Your comms officer dutifully reported. Thankfully, given how the Iconoclast was just on the other side of the gas giant -a couple of relay bounces away- you didn’t have to wait too long before you got word back.

Discharge at your discretion, just be ready to move as soon as the order is given.

“Nav, take us surface-side, prep for slipspace drive discharge. FlyCo, launch our remaining Clarion drones and establish a surveillance network in our local area. Sensors, bring in our main array and begin insulating from static discharge.” You ordered as soon as you finished reading the commander’s message. While you would have preferred to keep them out when possible, some absolute genius decided to put them on the underbelly of your vessel. Which meant that for discharge ops, you had to retract the delicate sensors to keep them safe.

>cont

>>5921992

Still, the loss of your main sensor grid simply couldn’t be alleviated by the deployment of your entire drone complement to take up the slack, and you couldn’t help but worry about how exposed you were right now. After all, the ship you were investigating was destroyed as they discharged their drives, and you were doing the exact same thing. Thankfully, the departure of your marine salvage squad gave you a small distraction on the way down, and soon enough, the Longinus was holding position a scant few hundred meters above the surface.

“Alright, we’re in position for drive discharge. All stations sound off.” Your navigation officer called out to the room, waiting for and eventually receiving confirmation from his colleagues on the comms and communications stations that the sensitive parts of the ship had been locked down and made safe from the discharge. “All stations report good to go. Grounding the ship, now.”

Although you couldn’t see it, you knew that below you, a massive coil of wire was being unwound from your vessel’s underbelly. The massive wire falling away, and descending in the low gravity towards the surface. You didn’t feel it hit the surface, but you did notice the slight shift in the background noise of the ship’s reactors. The sudden presence of a proper place to discharge the ships grounded electricity finally taking a weight off the reactors themselves. “Line deployed, time to full discharge, around two hours.”

“Commander. The marines have arrived, and are beginning their search.” Dyad reported, having taken responsibility for monitoring the operation in your place. “What do you think they’ll find?”

>“Hopefully some visual data on what killed them. We need to know what we’re facing.”
>“Preferably, some of their sensor logs. I want to know how a covenant ship snuck up on them.”
>“Some information on just what they were doing out here. Why come here of all places?”
>“Data on the innies. It’s not our mission right now, but we need as much intel as possible.”
>“How the hell this mako fell into unfriendly hands. I mean seriously, are we just handing them out now?”
>Other (write in)

>>5921993
>“Hopefully some visual data on what killed them. We need to know what we’re facing.”

>>5921993
>“Hopefully some visual data on what killed them. We need to know what we’re facing.”

File: Posseidon basic.png (110 KB, 1289x505)

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>>5921887
The war hasn't already been massively affected by your actions, but that doesn't mean you haven't already made a difference. Remember that engineer you yoinked back in the 2nd thread? It's doing some neat stuff in the background. That was a lot of the reason behind wanting a soft reboot, as it gives a lot more time to make lasting changes

As for going forward? I'm not sure how to handle it. In the existing lore, a lot of things come together at the same time to shape the timeline. And that leaves things fairly ridged. Granted, we've already kinda spun off a separate timeline already, so moving around some dates or just deleting some stuff outright could give some room to drag out the war. I need to have a bit more of a look at things before committing to a plan though. Though if the timeline remains rigid, and you survive the battle of sol, then there would 100% be scope to extend into the immediate post-war era.

>>5921900
Longswords are double the size of a pelican. Back on the Dawn you had either 1 longsword or 2 pelicans per hangar. Though if you want longswords you're gonna have to carry them externally, like how the SoTP guys figure the Posseidon would do it.

>>5921978
You have repair drones that can weld battle plates. If you can find a more extensive source than the head of a Mako then you could give it a shot.

>>5921993
>“Some information on just what they were doing out here. Why come here of all places?”

>>5922002
>If you can find a more extensive source than the head of a Mako then you could give it a shot.
Dank. Any chance we could pull nanolam off potential kills in the future?
>there would 100% be scope to extend into the immediate post-war era.
I'd love to see your take on post war stuff. Need 2553+ content that isn't tainted by 343. Also, instead of Longswords couldn't we stock larger quantities of Baselards/Nandao/Broadswords? End war also gives us the option of shielded strike fighters like the Pegasus and Sabre.

>>5922002
Post-war period will be interesting, gimme all those experimental lasers

>>5922019
Stripping down kills is 100% an option, just keep in mind that you'd have to ditch the nanolam armor before returning to a UNSC system as it would come under regulations against returning to undiscovered UNSC systems with covenant artifacts.

Smaller fighters are also an option. The Iconoclast has a much smaller hangar than yours and still carries a full squadron of Nandaos. You'd probably only manage to fit half a squadron of larger craft (baselards, broadswords, and sabres) without a hangar upgrade.

>>5922027
Good to know, general hangar space would be a good upgrade for a solid fighter screen. Also maybe I misread that but aren't Nandaos comparable in size to Pelicans while Baselards and Broadswords are the smaller A/X fighters?

>>5921993
>“Some information on just what they were doing out here. Why come here of all places?”

>>5922039
Just checked the dimensions, and yeah I got that completely wrong. I thought that the nandaos were smaller based on how a each of the halberds in Task Force Pantea could carry an entire squadron of them. I guess that means that means that they had hangar extensions.

>>5922002
Are we on Halsey's radar after that Gamma Pavonis VII excursion from the previous thread, given her interest in the battle and her daughter? Also did the spooks get any useful information from that data we extracted? It's neat to think that our actions may be changing things in the background, even if they don't necessarily affect canon, like for example maybe the data we got contained the location of a human colony world that humans didn't know the covenant knew about, which gives the unsc a chance to evacuate civilians before a fleet arrives to glass them.

>>5922087
While Halsey would probably know that you were commanding a nearby prowler, that wouldn't be enough to get you on her radar.

>>5922027
>baselards
What did he mean by this?

>>5922027
How about hijacking vessels via blood, sweat, EW and duct tape?

>>5922128
S-14 Baselard, it's on the smaller side of space fighters for the UNSC and old as hell but they're cheap and good enough to fill out hangar space. Also, keeping with naming conventions, a baselard is a type of oversized dagger.

>>5922128
A small, delta-wing space fighter. Basically halo's equivilent of a mirage 2k or something like that.

“Hopefully some visual data on what killed them. We need to know what we’re facing.” You shrugged as the main display activated, showing you the marine squad as they made final preparations to disembark, checking the combat gear over their vacuum suits. “But I'd settle for some information on just what they were doing out here. Why come here of all places?”

“We’re only a single jump from Arcadia. I think we can infer what forced them to make the jump.” Dyad countered as the marines in the pelican were jostled about one last time. The dropship coming into position above the detached bow of the corvette. Silently, the marines got up, walked over to the rear cargo hatch, and simply jumped out. They descended into the ruined vessel on basic maneuvering packs, landing gently and unslinging weapons in low-ready positions.

“Weapons live, your orders Longinus?” The sergeant asked over the TAC-NET, before gesturing for his men to follow him. The Mako’s bow had been buried nose-down in the regolith. So the men walked along the carbon-blackened walls.

“Looks like there is a door in the middle of your squad sergeant, that’ll lead through to the comms room. It may have been flash-welded in the explosion, put a hole in the wall to check for atmosphere.” Dyad ordered, beating you to the punch by a couple of seconds. You looked back and gave her a funny look as the sergeant knelt down on the wall, and pulled out a basic hand drill. The small device made no noise as it carved a tiny hole into the already weakened wall, and when nothing blew out from the other side, the sergeant stated the obvious. “No atmosphere on the other side. Kal, cut the door.”

A few seconds later, a small explosive charge blew a hole in the door, and the marines shone a light through the hole, illuminating stacks upon stacks of computers, processors, and memory banks. The sergeant reported back, as one of his men jumped through the hole, and started affixing a device to the nearest stack as he hovered with his maneuvering pack. “Eyes on the main server hub, splicing in now.”

“Diana? What have we got?” You asked your AI as soon as the

“Everything. The ship is the former CMA corvette New Oxford, discharged from service back in twenty-five twenty-five when the UNSC took over all CMA assets. The UNSC sold it off to the New Harmony Defence Force, but that force was disbanded in late thirty-seven after New Harmony was glassed. The logs then record its transfer to at least three different parties over the past twelve years.” Diana gave you the dead ship’s history, and you couldn't help but feel as if you’d heard it before.

>Cont

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>>5922150

“So either it was a front for the innies the whole time, or they snapped it up at a scrapping auction and put her back together. What can we get from it’s nav logs?” You grumbled. Unfortunately, such a story was all too familiar. It’d happened with basically every bit of former CMA equipment that the UNSC had distributed to the outer colony defense forces to try and ward off the covenant early in the war. And all it had accomplished was handing equipment over to the innies.

“Multiple trips between Arcadia and locations in the outer colonies that are behind the lines. The vessel arrived at Arcadia a few hours before the glassing, and jumped out approximately five minutes after the Covenant fleet arrived. After following a series of random cole-protocol compliant jumps, they jumped here and made their way here. They landed to discharge their drive, and attempted to cycle up to full power a few days later. The logs end then.” Diana replied, charting out the vessel’s course. Someone at ONI would be interested in those charts, but you couldn’t see any locations that you could reach without taking a massive chunk out of your limited fuel reserves.

“Do we have any visual data from around the time of her loss? Cameras, other stuff like that?” Dyad asked next, focusing more on the ship’s end rather than it’s origins.

“Child’s play. Coming on screen now.” Diana answered, before turning her avatar to face the screen. You and Dyad did the same just in time to watch the last few seconds of the corvette’s life. The corvette sat inert on the surface, its cameras pointed up into the void. A few seconds later, a familiar blue dot appeared in the sky for a couple of seconds. Just long enough for the cameras to zoom in, and to spot the corvette’s killer. A single, manta-ray-like vessel, with four fin-like antennas mounted beneath its bulbous bow. It dropped out of slipspace, and within seconds detected and targeted the Mako.

That ship was a Covenant cruiser, its flanks glowing hot with super-heated plasma just before it fired.

>Pack up and get moving. If that thing is still around, or if it comes back, you’re a sitting duck.
>Keep discharging the drive. The operative word is “IF” it’s still around, even if you missed it, the rest of your wolf pack probably hadn’t.
>Other (write in)