January 22nd, 2549
New Jerusalem, UNSC Orbital Shipyards
Aboard the ONI Stealth-Destroyer "Dawn's First Light"
New Jerusalem, UNSC Orbital Shipyards
Aboard the ONI Stealth-Destroyer "Dawn's First Light"
The briefing room was filled with members of the newly formed 430th Contingent, many of which were wondering why they were sitting there, waiting for something to happen. Little did they know that they had specifically commissioned for this unit, the United Nations Space Command Office of Naval Intelligence had recently been tasked with forming an elite unit of soldiers, capable of leading the UNSC in key battles wherever they were deemed as "needed". All of the candidates however, were hand-picked, and all the more less did they know, but most had seen each other once before, though under undoubtedly worse and more chaotic circumstances. Jonah sighed and brushed his sweaty palms over his slick, yet short, chestnut brown hair, watching the security monitors as the last members took their seats. Just from the vantage point he had, he recognized several of them already, but none could see him through the electronic surveillance equipment.
All the better for me, best save them seeing my ugly mug for a dramatic entrance and all that, Jonah thought, looking now at the monitor showing the small briefing hologram which sprang up in the center pedestal. A small, stout AI appeared, glowing a deep crimson color, typical of AI's of its caliber. Made simply to exist and control simple ship-based functions, it was obviously a very stern and harsh AI, something of an inferiority complex ravaged the mind of this little photonic being, but brushing past his anger, he focused on speaking. The Ai, at first appearing very small suddenly became taller as it revealed its true form, in the shape of a man wearing a cloak, with a raven perched on its shoulder. This AI was Poe, named for some nineteenth century poet of the morbid and macabre subjects. It fit the tone with which the small, "dumb" AI spoke, disinterested, but showing a keen observant aptitude around it.
"I am Construct MIL AI 4723, you may refer to me however, as 'Poe', most of the crew does anyways. I am the shipboard construct and I am here to orient you as to the workings, functions, and protocols aboard the UNSC 'Dawn's First Light" tuning out the slightly disorienting voice, Jonah focused back on the room-based noting the faces of several members he had identified off the bat. His XO, a First Lieutenant by the name of Topfer, the face still looking eerily similar to when Jonah first saw it two years before. It had been while Jonah was the last commissioned officer in command of the ill-fated 218th ODST Contingent. They had held out inside a hellhole for nearly ten days before they had to be evacuated and before the city was leveled by a UNSC Strike Force by the name of Juggernaut.
Another face, standing out among the others, was that of his ONI liason, another Lieutenant by the name of "van Klooster". Looking sharp as he had when Jonah had met him on the evac birds out of the aforementioned battle in which he had met Avaran, he recalled the look on his face, tired, hungry, most of those whom had been stuck in the city until the evac by the 212th Marine Company. And once again, another, a sharp, but elegant jawline, with red-hair framing the face, that would be his new tactical recon sniper, Lucy Holden. As lethal as she might be beautiful, the only thing detracting any man from doing so were the large (undoubtedly non-standard, but uncontested) knives on her person and the single Sangheilli canine tooth she had taken from a zealot in a fierce hand-to-hand combat encounter. Impressive for someone of her size and frame, but not inconceivable.
Turning away from the monitor, Jonah made his way through the door to his right and made his way into the briefing room. The troopers now were just receiving the final words of the introductory speech from Poe, but suddenly a small backlight went out and the hologram flickered out of view. The problem was on ships like the "Light" nowadays was that half the time they were rolled out of the shipyard only 75% complete. With most of the weapon's systems still not handling properly, and even more critically, with the cryogenic tubes were offline, and the slip-space drive not yet properly mounted, they risked losing the ship if they moved anywhere in the next few days, so they'd have time to get comfortable. The hydroponics bays were active and working quickly to churn out new, genetically augmented vegetable and fruit-like supplements. While they weren't the most rich in texture or flavor, Jonah made sure to allow for a generous amount of "fresh" food to also be stored.
On top of it all, the crew quarters were indeed double-bunks, with the exception of women's quarters, somehow, even after struggling for equality all throughout the twenty-first century with the Feminist movement, the UNSC still failed to allow for Co-Ed bunking. Meh, Jonah thought to himself,probably better adn then pausing and thinking to himself, and safer for all the men. Looking around the room, he began to speak...
A few seconds before
"Furthermore, I expect you all to always obey the aforementioned procedures and never break protocol. I don't care how many times you wish to move to the restroom during your shifts, you are only to be excused by a CO. Seeing as how this ship is still in dry-dock, it will be several days before we can undock and make for deep space. Above all, I expect nothing but the utmo-"
The door opened, and a split second later the backlight for the holographic pedestal blew out and now the Captain was left standing before his troops, the fourteen of them now seeming highly spread out within the darkened room. Moving towards the front, he cleared his throat and began," As you were, I assume you were all enjoying Poe's speech, however now we have real things to talk about. Fenris, lights and block out all fragments bound for this room."
A slightly grating noise responded, having no anchors in English or Hungarian, which likely left some wonndering, until about a second later when the Captain admonished the AI for his wit," Now now Fen, no need to speak Lekgolese in front of non-qualified translators."
The grating dropped in volume to become a deep gravelly voice of a male-oriented AI," Understood Captain, it has been done as you asked, all connections secured, deleting this fragment now."
A split second later it was silent again as the Captain turned and looked over the members of the two fireteams before him," Welcome, you are all now members of the Four-Hundred and Thirtieth Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Contingent under the command of the Office of Naval Intelligence. We are small, but we are built to work in these small numbers for a particular reason, we do what no else should. I recommend you all begin to settle in and prep to leave drydock in three days. As I'm certain most of you know, the Covenant have now engaged and successfully besieged Paris IV. We have been given express orders to move behind enemy lines planetside and recover some intel of particular use for the ONI Spooks. That is all that is to be revealed to you as of right now about the mission. Particulars will be revealed on a need-to-know basis as the mission requires. As for your personal status, with your indoctrination into the Four Hundred and Thirtieth, you all now have been marked as Killed-In-Action. There are no safety nets, we are all 'dead men walking' as one might say, and I expect none of you to believe you have any worth to anyone alive if you failed in your mission objective. We are here to get results, and those results will come at a high price. However, we are here to die, to save the lives of perhaps countless millions after, and likewise, we are going to be given the toughest missions available that ONI wishes to have done that certain, other assets of theirs would be incapable of actually doing so."
The sound of his voice and the inflection of his tone at the word assets implied the one major rival in the service the ODSTs had: the SPARTANs. Now, it wasn't to be mistaken that the ODSTs disrespected the SPARTANs, they knew that the SPARTANs often gave up their lives in the line of duty, but it had been no secret that in their training they had "trained" on ODSTs and likewise many ODSTs had fallen at the hands of the SPARTANs. Well, actually this wasn't a well-known fact to those whom hadn't been in the service longer than fifteen or so years, but it wasn't hidden information either when someone dug enough. The Captain concluded the short opening brief," Over it all, you have been selected for notable excellence displayed in combat on the battlefield or in training. If any of you have questions, you may now approach me, everyone else, dismissed."
