>>4042892
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>Ask about the Covenant. What in their recent activities has lead ONI to think that Arcadia is under threat?
>Ask about Arcadia. What's the situation like on the planet, and how prepared are they for a Covenant attack?
>Ask about your ship choices. If you remember correctly, you could choose between a prowler, a corvette and a frigate?
>Other (write-in)

>>4042941
>Ask about the Covenant. What in their recent activities has lead ONI to think that Arcadia is under threat?

>>4042941
>>Ask about Arcadia. What's the situation like on the planet, and how prepared are they for a Covenant attack?

>>4042941
>Ask about the Covenant. What in their recent activities has lead ONI to think that Arcadia is under threat?

>>4042941
>Ask about the Covenant. What in their recent activities has lead ONI to think that Arcadia is under threat?

>>4042941
>>Ask about the Covenant. What in their recent activities has lead ONI to think that Arcadia is under threat?

File: Jackals.jpg (76 KB, 1024x692)

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"What makes you think that the Covenant will attack now? They've known about Arcadia for a while now." You asked the spook the most obvious question, why now rather than at some other point since the Covenant had first made planetfall.

"Nearby systems have seen a spike in activity from Covenant patrol groups. Corvette and frigate teams being used to scout out to see if we have a nearby rally point. Additionally, incursions into the system by Covenant raiders have increased. The Covenant already knew that the system existed, but the sudden spike means that someone took an interest." Agent Fabian told you as the holographic display changed once again, this time showing a regional map of the local space. And sure enough, six nearby systems had been investigated by the Covenant. Only one of them had previously hosted a full UNSC colony, and the Covenant had already put it to the torch.

"If someone in the Covenant took an interest, why are they just sending raiders rather than a whole fleet?" You asked a question that you felt bore a bit of merit. The Covenant didn't half-ass things, hell there was even a train of thought going around that the Covenant was only taking so long to wipe out Humanity because they didn't see the UNSC as a major threat. Or at least, not a threat worthy of taking up more of their resources.

"At the time we were sure that it was just a pirate gang of some sort. Covenant raiders are most often crewed by Jackals, and they spent more time going after merchant shipping than actually fighting the system defense fleet. They've also been scavenging some of the leftover hulks from the first invasion, though that only limits them to a couple of already gutted ships." The agent's reply answered your question well enough. After all, the Jackals were quite probably the most wealth-oriented faction in the Covenant. An early theory about them was that they were a mercenary race, though a lack of any interest from them to set up trade talks with humans had killed that theory. As you digested the information, the display on the deck changed to show a map of the system, showing you where human freighters had been hit by the saurian species.

"However, around a week ago all raiding activity in the system ceased. The locals think that it's because they hit a refueling station in orbit of the system's gas giant. Though we know that it's a hallmark of the Covenant getting ready to make a move on the system. Nearby assets on known pathways used by Covenant units have also reported a noticeable increase in activity. Something big is coming, and we need to get what's ours when we can." The agent finished off his explanation as the display focussed on the system's gas giant. Before projecting a scaled-up image of what looked like an improvised space station. It bore a lot of the hallmarks of Covenant architecture but had been assembled out of whatever scraps the Jackals could scrounge up.

>CONT

>>4043142

>Ask about Covenant force projections. What are they likely to send against Arcadia?
>Ask about Arcadia. What's the situation like on the planet, and how prepared are they for a Covenant attack?
>Ask about your ship choices. If you remember correctly, you could choose between a prowler, a corvette and a frigate?
>Other (write-in)

>>4043142
>Ask about Covenant force projections. What are they likely to send against Arcadia?
And if they arrive early, what are the best methods to gtfo?

>>4043144
>>Ask about Covenant force projections. What are they likely to send against Arcadia?

>>4043144
>Ask about Covenant force projections. What are they likely to send against Arcadia?

>>4043144

>Ask about Covenant force projections. What are they likely to send against Arcadia?

File: glassing destroyers.jpg (220 KB, 1920x812)

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"Any idea what the Covenant is likely to send?" You asked Fabian, who leaned back in his chair as the holographic projection disappeared, whatever program controlling it had apparently decided to clear the display while it figured out what to display.

"Standard glassing fleets usually contain a dozen destroyers, some cruisers and a single carrier running the show. They might just go with a fleet that size due to the lack of defenses around Arcadia, those cruisers alone could blow right through the meager defenses. Though if they're looking for a fight then they may send more ships." Fabian explained as the display began to fill out with miniature projections of each vessel class. Though soon the table began to fill out as more and more vessels were added, both split into two distinct piles. "I'd estimate somewhere in the region of fifteen to twenty vessels at a minimum, heavy destroyers and cruisers will make up the bulk of the fleet. Though if they bring escorts then that number can jump up to thirty or forty vessels."

"Jesus, there isn't much of an option to fight them, is there?" You sighed as you lent back in your seat, getting a nod from the agent. You couldn't win this fight, and you felt a horrible feeling in your gut. There wouldn't be many survivors.

>Ask about Arcadia. What's the situation like on the planet, and how prepared are they for a Covenant attack?
>Ask about your ship choices. If you remember correctly, you could choose between a prowler, a corvette and a frigate?
>Other (write-in)

>>4043354
>Ask about your ship choices. If you remember correctly, you could choose between a prowler, a corvette and a frigate?

It certainly sounds like we should be grabbing something snippy and evasive. Does anyone have any good reasons we shouldn't take a prowler to sneak in and out?

>>4043354
>Ask about Arcadia. What's the situation like on the planet.
They obviously can't be prepared enough for a Covenant attack

>>4043354
>Ask about your ship choices. If you remember correctly, you could choose between a prowler, a corvette and a frigate?

>>4043404
Doesn't prepared 'enough' involve something like an entire fleet and a score of SuperMACs?

>>4043354
>Ask about Arcadia. What's the situation like on the planet, and how prepared are they for a Covenant attack?

Need a tiebreaker

>>4044238
>>Ask about your ship choices. If you remember correctly, you could choose between a prowler, a corvette and a frigate?

>>4044238
>>>Ask about your ship choices. If you remember correctly, you could choose between a prowler, a corvette and a frigate?

"So, what can you tell me about the ships? A prowler, a corvette and a frigate, right?" You asked the spook, who nodded in confirmation. Almost instantly, the holographic display shifted to show three small, hand-size ships. All of them were recognizable as being the ships you had been shortlisted.

"Our prowler, the UNSC Pale Rider, is a modernized Sahara class heavy prowler. She comes with a mixture of modern active camo systems, conventional stealth systems, and electronic countermeasures. She doesn't come with any offensive weapons, but she's stealthy enough for that not to be an issue. However, we can mount some select weapons depending on what you want." The spook briefed you as the model of the prowler exploded in size, giving you a good look at its bat-like hull. The ship rolled belly-up as three sections of the lower hull opened up. "Her standard equipment includes a network of Matos pulse lasers, refined versions of the weapon that you helped to test on the UNSC Hoel. She has a pair of ventral hangers and four modular bays for additional weapons and equipment. She can also embark two squads of marines."

"Speaking of the Hoel, we were able to snag her as an option for her as a ship for you to take. Like all corvettes, she's small and fast but lacks the armor to survive a direct hit from most ship grade weapons. Unlike the prowler, she's armed with a decent mix of weapons including a small MAC gun. However, she also doesn't have the extensive stealth systems to hide from prying eyes. She's still somewhat stealthy, as you well know from taking part in anti-piracy patrols." As agent Fabian continued the briefing, the prowler returned to its original size and orientation as the model of the first warship you ever served on was scaled up. You could make out the ship's crest on the flanks of the ship. "Her biggest selling point is that she's the fastest ship available to you, and comes with a mix of speed and firepower that can get you out of most trouble. However, that comes at the cost of only having two modular equipment bays, a single external claw for small craft and a single embarked marine squad."

>CONT

>>4044397

"Finally, we have the Stalwart class frigate, the UNSC Winter Gale. This is going to be the biggest stick available to you, and while that may seem good it also has some negatives. For a start, this ship is not stealthy in any way. Everyone in the system will know you've arrived, and undoubtedly people will start asking questions about why a UNSC frigate has rushed into the system and started sending ships out into the middle of nowhere. However, your mix of decently powerful weapons and a large number of embarked ships and marines makes you a tough cookie unless you get the attention of some of the better-armed locals." As the spook told you about the final ship, the frigate expanded and filled up space on the table. The sides of the ship opened up, revealing the insides of the ship's hangers as the spook told you about her compliment. "She's in the middle of the pack in terms of speed. But she trades any inkling of stealth for comparatively heavy firepower and decent armor. And you'll get a lot of attention from the moment you drop out of FTL. However, you get two hangers capable of holding three ships each, and space for at least four modular equipment bays. Not to mention a very large complement of marines and equipment."

"Ok, so the prowler and the Hoel are for if I want to go in stealthily, and the frigate for if I expect trouble." You concluded, gaining a nod from your ONI handler as the Stalwart returned to its original size. The tiny models could probably fit in the palm of your hand.

>Ask about getting another ship for the mission. (name ship class and roll 1d20)
>Choose one of the ships. The sooner you get this done the better. (PROWLER, CORVETTE, FRIGATE)
>Ask about Arcadia. What's the situation like on the planet, and how prepared are they for a Covenant attack?
>Other (write-in)

>>4044401
>>Ask about Arcadia. What's the situation like on the planet, and how prepared are they for a Covenant attack?

>>4044403
Also
>Choose one of the ships. The sooner you get this done the better. (PROWLER, CORVETTE, FRIGATE)
Voting for the prowler, if we get into a fight this mission we've screwed up

>>4044401
>Choose one of the ships. The sooner you get this done the better. (PROWLER, CORVETTE, FRIGATE)
>Prowler
Honestly I think we just get in take whatever the spooks want and get out, no need to get into a fight

>>4044401


>Ask about Arcadia. What's the situation like on the planet, and how prepared are they for a Covenant attack?

>Choose one of the ships. The sooner you get this done the better. (PROWLER, CORVETTE, FRIGATE)
>Prowler


The space of the prowler is actually enough for do the mission ? If there is additional needs of space it will be a problem, especially if this facility and what it has is valuable.

>>4044401
>Choose one of the ships. The sooner you get this done the better. (PROWLER)

>>4044401
>Choose one of the ships. The sooner you get this done the better. (PROWLER)

File: Sahara_Heavy_Prowler.jpg (602 KB, 1920x1080)

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"I'll take the prowler. If your projections for the size of the Covenant fleet are accurate, then I don't want to run the risk of getting spotted when they show up." You decided fairly quickly. You didn't want to get into a fight on a time limit, and you didn't want to hedge your bets on being too small to be worth a fight. As such, you decided to go for the stealthiest option, if not the fastest or most aggressive.

"Alright, now let's get you sorted on what you'll be going in with." Agent Fabian smiled as the screen in front of him flashed as information filled itself out. You began to suspect that the agent had a personal AI, though you didn't put too much thought behind it as the lights dimmed again in preparation for the holographic display to come online.

"For aviation, your only choices are going to be either Pelican dropships or a Black Cat-class subprowler. The Pelicans can haul more stuff in total but are easy to detect. The Black Cat is stealthy, but you'll only be able to haul around as much equipment as a single pelican. Alternatively, you can forego the aviation equipment and use the hanger bay to haul atmospheric entry equipment. The Sahara is rated for atmosphere, but the trip can damage the vessel's stealth systems. Once you're on the ground, you cand then use the hanger as a cargo bay to haul out equipment." The spook explained as three models were projected onto the desk. A single Pelican in the black markings of ONI, a familiar scaled-down prowler, and what looked like a roof-mounted crane and a number of boxes.

"Will we need to recover some large pieces of equipment?" You asked the ONI officer the most pertinent information. If you had to then you'd go with an empty hanger to make room, but if not then you'd have to make a choice.

"Probably not, so you'll just be needing the bay in case you want to take some supplies from the base before you leave. You know, just in case you want to stay out there for a bit longer. Even if you recover the entire facility's crew, you should have more than enough supplies to make it back to a resupply base in time." The agent shrugged, leaving you to make your decision.

>Take a pair of Pelicans. You'll want to get the base's population out as quickly as possible.
>Take a subprowler. If doing this quietly means doing it slowly, then you'll just have to deal with it.
>Take reentry equipment, you don't want to make this mission more complicated.

>>4044737
>Take a subprowler. If doing this quietly means doing it slowly, then you'll just have to deal with it.

>>4044737
>>Take reentry equipment, you don't want to make this mission more complicated.

>>4044737
>Take reentry equipment, you don't want to make this mission more complicated.

>>4044737
>Take a pair of Pelicans. You'll want to get the base's population out as quickly as possible.

>>4044737
>>>Take reentry equipment, you don't want to make this mission more complicated

>>4044737
>Pin him down on just HOW likely re-entry is to damage the stealth equipment.

Seriously 'can' is weaselwording that covers anywhere from 'will certainly degrade effectiveness' to 'hardly ever happens, as long as you don't have a birdstrike'.

>>4044861
Actually, yeah we need to do this. And if the chances are high, we better be sent off with an engineering crew that knows how to fix it.

>>4044897
I mean, ideally the base will have personnel onhand and equipment to fix it.

But knowing the dice, the Covies will attack right around then and we won't have time to effect repairs.

>>4044737
>Take a pair of Pelicans. You'll want to get the base's population out as quickly as possible.

"No ships it is then, we can work with that. Next up will be what modules you want. We'll start with weapons first." Agent Fabian continued on, more lines on his terminal filling out as whatever secretary program he had filled in the information.

"The first system is a self-defense missile pod loaded with Streak anti-fighter missiles. The primary threat to a prowler will be enemy fighter craft and bombers, so mounting this system will provide you some means with which to engage them should you be detected. You can also use them for in-atmosphere fire support. Keep in mind however that there is no way to make them stealthy to launch, so your position will be given away the moment you fire them. Additionally, they are useless against ships" Fabian started off with a system that you knew and understood. And a system that you knew the merits of, after all the system had saved you from getting killed by multiple missile attacks during previous missions. The agent didn't stop to let you think, however, as he moved on to the next system. "Next up is a CAPTOR missile launcher. The CAPTOR system is our equivalent to the Archer missile system. Each magazine contains seven missiles and a deployment tube. The missiles are encased in a deployment jacket, which allows them to be cooled to nearly absolute zero, allowing the system to blend in with the void for stealthy deployment. The missiles can be used to directly attack enemy ships or can be used as improvised mines by laying them in a set sector and ordering them to fire on a trigger. They're effective against human ships, but they suffer the same problems as the Archer when going up against Covenant ships."

"The final weapons system is a Hornet mine system. You should know what they are, but just to reiterate, they're nuclear mines. Put one of them near to a 'covie ship and you can say goodbye to its shields and most of the hull. Each module carries around thirty mines plus their deployment chambers. Hornets may work for delaying a Covenant fleet to buy you more time on the planet. But remember that the more time you spend laying a minefield, the less time you have on the planet anyway, so take it or leave it. Additionally, carrying nukes out of slipspace produces Čerenkov radiation. If you drop into the system with even one device onboard then the locals will know something's up. And that may be more trouble than it's worth." The last option intrigued you, as while you had no experience with the system, you knew full-well how deadly a field of Hornets could be to a Covenant fleet. Battles had been won all thanks to the contribution of a prowler and a well-laid minefield. However, the system also relied on the Covenant actually wandering into it. And with you not knowing what vector the Covenant would jump in on, you would be laying them blind.

>CONT

>>4045004
"Next up will be loose systems, these are things that aren't weapons, but also don't have as large of a category to fill out." The agent only stopped for a few seconds before continuing with his next set of optional extras. "First up will be a contingent of orbital drop shock troopers. The ODSTs will replace your marines, and each bay holds their equipment plus ten SOEIV drop pods to get the squad planet-side in a hurry. Due to how the system is designed, you'll only be able to launch five pods at a time, before having to reload the system with the next five pods. You can jettison the first wave of pods and have them float in orbit for a bit before having them burn towards the planet along with the second wave, but keep in mind that the pods aren't stealthy, so enemy forces may be able to spot them and destroy them."

"Next up is a contingent of CLARION spy drones. Each module will be fitted to carry four drones. These drones are standard issue UNSC surveillance platforms, though our varients of them are optimized for stealth. They can perform a wide variety of surveillance roles, from being able to covertly relay communications, to gathering topographical information and locating enemy formations. Your prowler can do the same, but having an eye in the sky will be useful if you end up going into atmosphere. However, the drones are not in any way built to survive any sort of attention from the enemy. Additionally, they are slow to relocate so deploy them with care." The spook moved on to the things that helped prowlers do their best, intel drones and probes. And it really didn't surprise you that you almost had as many intel-gathering options as weapons options. "We can also give you an enhanced SIGINT module. This module uses modified black widow communications probes to monitor local chatter and should give you a heads up on if the locals have noticed you. Or if the Covenant has arrived and everyone has started panicking. You'll get around thirty probes, plus the systems required to integrate them into your systems."

"How many modules can I carry?" You asked a bit of a redundant question, and both of you knew that. Though you asked it more to see if the spook wanted you to take anything specifically.

"You can haul four modules, though I should stress that you don't have to carry that amount. You can use the space for modules as additional cargo space for food and water supplies. Or just keep it as empty space in case you want to loot anything from the research base. Alternatively, if you have an idea for something else that you would like to bring with you then feel free to ask."

>CONT

>>4045005

MULTI-CHOICE VOTE:
You can select up to four options and can have more than one of the same module (EG, getting two CAPTOR missile launchers), alternatively, you can ask if something else that's not on the list is available.
>STREAK defense missiles
>CAPTOR missile launcher
>HORNET nuclear mines
>ODST squad
>CLARION spy drones
>BLACK WIDOW comms drones
>Ask for something else (write-in)

>>4045006
>>STREAK defense missiles
>>ODST squad
>>CLARION spy drones
>>BLACK WIDOW comms drones

>>4045006
>STREAK defense missiles
>CLARION spy drones
>BLACK WIDOW comms drones
>CARGO space

Honestly, we're using the re-entry method so we're basically gonna have our Marines with us, and without Pelicans we'd have to either fly our ship to pick up ODST troopers we deploy anywhere but our LZ.

Or leave them behind, and I don't like us being the sort of officer that automatically considers elite troops expendable.

We may need the cargo because there's always surprise extra passengers, or a new breakthrough, or research that home office doesn't know about but MUST HAVE, or the scientists won't cooperate, etc etc. I'm sure we've seen these movies in character.

>>4045006
>STREAK defense missiles
>CAPTOR missile launcher
>BLACK WIDOW comms drones
Spare cargo room for surprise stuff.

>>4045029
Actually yeah I'll switch to this

>>4045043
And if there aren't any surprises, we can probably grab a few civvies and feel a little better about ourselves.

>>4045029

support

>>4045029
Backing

"I'll take a battery of Streak missiles, the Clarion drones, and the black widow probes. The Streaks will give a last resort against incoming fighters and an option for fire support, meanwhile, the probes and drones will let me keep up situational awareness that I'd loose once going planet-side." You decided, making sure to give your reasoning for the choices to the spook. While the option to take a team of ODSTs appealed to you, you weren't sure about their viability. Sending them in via drop pod was a no-go as you had no means to recover them, and having cargo space to expand into was always a useful thing.

"And keep one bay spare for cargo?"The spook asked, you nodded in confirmation and the agent continued with the briefing. "Alright, now we're on to the final section. Crew. This one should be fairly simple, do you want to take any members of your crew from the Dawn with you on this mission? You'll be cutting into their shore leave, so you might not get a good reception from them. But if you think that they will be helpful during the operation then feel free to call them in."

>Write in

>>4045128
>>Write in
Nah let them enjoy their break considering all the crap we went through last mission

>>4045128
>If our AI isn't busy, We would like it.

>>4045137
Oh yeah this considering EW is Diana's speciality

>>4045137
Hell yeah

>>4045128
>This includes our AI? I'd also like to ask my former Executive Officer if she'd like to come.

She...she was really incredibly helpful, but she also deserves a break so it's more of a request.

Definitely want Diana though!

>>4045137

support for have our AI
our crew deserve a good rest, plus is better if they don t know this.

>>4045128
>>4045137
Support. Diana could be very helpful.

"My ship's AI, Diana, would probably be very useful given her background in electronic warfare. She'll be useful just in case we have to start spoofing things. As for human crewmembers, the only person I can suggest would be my XO, Lieutenant Commander Dyad. Though I'm a bit reluctant to rob her of her shore leave." You decided after a couple of seconds. Diana was a no-brainer, as an AI you didn't have to worry about giving her leave, if anything you were making the best use of her given her rather stunted lifespan. Your XO was a completely different matter. Not only was she entitled to leave, she had damn-well earned it by having to put up with you. You were sure that she'd come along if you asked, but you also didn't want her to feel pressured into it.

"Well, we can send her a message asking if she's available if you'd like? Though if not we can always provide someone else." Agent Fabian asked, the spook giving you the final say on if your XO was to have a say in her attendance on the mission.

>Call in your XO, see if she wants in on this mission. (roll 1d20)
>Leave her alone, you don't want to pressure her into giving up her leave.

>>4045276
>Leave her alone, you don't want to pressure her into giving up her leave.

Sup Thunderhead

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4045276
>>Call in your XO, see if she wants in on this mission. (roll 1d20)

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>4045276
>Call in your XO, see if she wants in on this mission. (roll 1d20)

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>4045276
>>Call in your XO, see if she wants in on this mission. (roll 1d20)

>>4045276
>>Leave her alone, you don't want to pressure her into giving up her leave.

>>4045320
>>4045326
>>4045356
The Dice have spoken. Dyad is a Ride or Die type.

"Yeah, give her a basic rundown on what we're doing. Nothing overly sensitive, just enough for her to know that I'm going on an op and she's invited to come along." You decided to pass the decision off to your XO, rather than forcing her to come with you. At least this way you wouldn't have to worry about feeling as if you pressured her into losing her shore leave.

Almost a second after you finished speaking, a small light on the spook's terminal flashed, causing him to give a small smile. "Alright, message away. It will take her a bit of time for the message to reach her, and for her to get back to us. So while we wait for her responce, is there anything else you'd like to know about before we wrap this up?"

>Write in

>>4045496
How soon are we leaving?

>>4045496
Why now? Will we have enough room for everything?
If I can pull the rest of the scientists should I?

>>4045496
>"Yeah, The Admiral, capital T, capital A, wants to see me after this. Is there a turf war or pissing contest between ONI and the brass I should know about before I head further on up Olympic Tower?"

>>4045496
>>4045524
Backing.

>>4045524
Are we even supposed to let him know that? Also IIRC the Admiral was part of ONI for a while as well

>>4045540
We probably shouldn't, but we've already thrown our lot in with ONI to the point where we can't easily back out.

In for a penny, in for a pound, and hope we get an opportunity to get out before it's too late.

>>4045540
He was head of section three IRRC. THey do the super secret DARPA shit, and are the ones that came up with the SPARTANS and MJOLNIR.
>>4045544
If there's any guy we want to get on the good side of in ONI it's probably VA Stanforth.

>>4045496
>>4045524
support, we're ONI's bitch already. when will they just give us loads of ODST's normally.

"When do I cast off?" You asked the agent the most pertinent question. While you knew that he wanted this done as soon as possible, you didn't know how long it would take to install the modules you had requested.

"It's going to take around an hour for the equipment to be loaded onto the prowler, though at that time you'll be traveling from here up to her dock, so she'll be ready to cast off the moment you get aboard. I'd prefer it if you cast off as soon as possible, as you'll need to spend a few days heading back to Tribute to pick up your AI and maybe your XO. But if there's something you want to change out then it should only take a couple of hours." Agent Fabian explained, and you were a little bit shocked at how quickly it would take to install the modules. Granted, the entire point of them was to be a set of plug-and-play systems, but even then you had this idea that it would take a bit of time to shove something into one of the UNSC's premier stealth assets without compromising it.

"Will I have enough cargo space to evacuate everyone on the base?" You asked another question, though you were sure that you had enough space to accommodate everyone on the base, you didn't want to have to start stringing up hammocks in one of the cargo bays in order to get by.

"The base itself is small and most of the defenses are automated, you'll only have to pick up around thirty people plus some small cargo crates. The prowler can support that many passengers through hot-bunking. Though make sure to pack some board games, it can get boring out there."

"Should I prioritize the scientists over other facility members?" You asked a slightly darker question, though one that you felt was pertinent given how you were already sacrificing a planet to get some last food shipments. At this, the spook seemed to bristle as if the thought of abandoning his colleagues offended him.

"The scientists are your top priority, they will be the ones best positioned to analyze all of the data they will be bringing with them. So I would prefer it if they were recovered first." Fabian informed you, before then adding. "Though if it's come to a point where you don't have time to evacuate everyone then things have definitely gone wrong and you need to consider scrubbing the mission. The data and the scientists are important, but they aren't worth as much as a prowler and it's crew."

>CONT

File: V.Adm Stanforth.jpg (580 KB, 1920x2651)

580 KB JPG

>>4046662

"One last thing. When I was receiving my medal, Vice Admiral Stanforth said that he wants to see me after this. Is there a turf war or pissing contest between ONI and the brass I should know about before I head further on up Olympic Tower?"

"I had hoped that I'd at least be able to make some headway with you before other people tried to snatch you." Agent Fabian sighed and rubbed his forehead, an annoyed grimace slowly began to form on his face before he suddenly returned to a neutral look. "To put it bluntly, the vice-admiral is probably the highest ranking officer that the office considers friendly to our goals. He used to head one of our sections before returning to the fleet, and he still retains a fair number of contacts within ONI. That said, he's spent enough time with us that I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't have his own pet projects and secret agendas."

"I didn't know that he was part of ONI. I thought he had worked with the fleet for the entirety of his life." This revelation blindsided you, though it did go some way to explain his meteoric rise up the ranks. "How should I handle this?"

"You don't get to make captain at twenty-one without making a deal with the proverbial devil. Just don't try and push for more information than you're entitled to, nobody who's worked in this tower likes having their service history out in the open." Agent Fabian cautioned you, before leaning back and thinking for a few seconds on how you could handle whatever the admiral's requests. "As he already knows that the mission is going ahead, he probably wants you to do something on Arcadia before the Covenant glass it. Listen to what he has to say, but don't do anything that will jeopardize the mission that I've given you. Recovering that intel and the base staff is going to be your top priority."

>Ask something else (write-in)
>Take your leave, you still need to see the admiral before you leave.
>Other (write-in)

>>4046665
>>Take your leave, you still need to see the admiral before you leave.

>>4046665
>Take your leave, you still need to see the admiral before you leave.

>>4046665
>>Take your leave, you still need to see the admiral before you leave.

>>4046665
Alright, so Stanforth probably knows ONI is recruiting us just from how quickly we were promoted. With any luck, his goals and ONIs won't be at odds.

>Take your leave, you still need to see the admiral before you go. And depending on what he has to say, we may have to reconfigure the prowler.

I bet he has family or something he wants us to grab on Arcadia. There's no way he doesn't know about, if not suspect this mission.

Having more cargo than standard was a good idea, the admiral has probably is own stuff on Arcadia.


>>4046697

i agree

>>4046665
>>Take your leave, you still need to see the admiral before you leave.

"Well, I'd better not keep the admiral waiting. Unless there's anything else?" You asked the ONI agent, you already knew that the vice-admiral wasn't someone to keep waiting and the knowledge that he was a former spook just hammered home that point.

"No, we've covered everything. I'll have someone tell you when your XO responds to your question. If you want to change out any of the modules then contact me and I'll pass the word on to the dock." Agent Fabian assured you as he tapped some buttons on his desk. The lights in the room began to brighten as the holographic display turned off. Both you and the agent stood up at the same time. "I suppose this is the last time I'll be seeing you for at least a month or two. So good luck out there."

"Thanks, I'll try not to scratch the paint." You thanked the agent as you shook his hand, before turning and leaving the office. As you left, one of the ONI security officers by the door called your attention and lead you back to the elevators. He punched in a number and the elevator took you up around a dozen floor, to the point that you could see over the tops of many of the nearby skyscrapers. You continued a bit further down the hall after leaving the elevator and stopped in front of the door to another office, this one featuring an electronic knocker. You tapped the button to announce your presence to the occupant.

"Come in." Vice Admiral Stanforth called from inside his office. You quickly walked in and saluted the superior officer, who casually returned the salute. "Captain, take a seat."

You quietly sat down as the admiral continued to speak. The old man was lent back in his chair, typing something into a standard-issue data-slate. An ONI sigil on the back of the slate made you reconsider just how standard-issue it actually was though. "So, I'm to understand that you're heading to Arcadia."

"Yes, sir. A basic recovery operation, pulling ONI assets out of a local facility." You confirmed, getting a nod from the admiral as he tapped a few buttons on a data-slate.

"I know son, I'm the one who approved the op. Did you decide to bring any communication or surveillance drones?" The admiral asked as he tossed the slate onto his desk. You were only just able to make out the profile of a large warship on the screen before it automatically turned off. You looked back at the admiral and nodded in confirmation and he continued. "Ok, good. I need you to do something. Once you get your network up, I need you to access the local data network and upload a self-replicating blinder virus. It will seek out navigation data and corrupt it."

>Write in

>>4047151
>>Write in
"Can I ask what's the purpose of this Sir?"
Though right now sounds like the Admiral wants us to execute the Cole Protocol for the entire planet

>>4047151
>"Yes, sir."

Admittedly I only have the general strokes of Halo lore, but doesn't the Cole Protocol kick in once Covenant ships show up? Or is that only for ship-board navigation data?

>>4047166
We were explicitly told not to ask questions beyond what we need to know. Since the covenant are invading to grab the ruins and goodies, it makes perfect sense that we wouldn't want them grabbing the locations of Reach or Earth at the same time.

>>4047151
>Yes, sir.

>>4047168
Cole Protocol is to prevent navigation data in general falling into Covenant hands. You really only hear about it for ships though. There was also the destruction of AI, random slipspace jumps, and even white noise broadcasts into slipspace to prevent any backtracking on communications.

>>4047166
I'll change to
"Yes Sir. Is there anything else we need to do when we get there?"

>>4047184
Seems cut and dried then. Also, changing to >>4047188

>>4047188
Supporting

>>4047188
Supporting

"Yes sir, Is there anything else we need to do when we get there?" You accepted the job, regardless of the potential moral issues. Deleting the rebel's navigational data wouldn't prevent them from performing random jumps, and they would be able to track their way back to Arcadia after those jumps. You could probably remain on-station to provide new data to surviving ships, but if not then some of those ships could probably astrogate their ways back to the safety of a nearby colony.

"Nothing official. But if you want to stay in wait for the Covenant fleet to arrive in order to track their approach vectors then that might be helpful with finding out where their mustering points are." The admiral answered, giving you very little instruction on what you had to do other than needing to upload a virus.

"Do you want me to try and follow the Covenant when they jump out?" You asked, the UNSC had absolutely no luck with trying to find Covenant infrastructure. If the UNSC could hit Covenant repair and resupply points, then it could hamstring the Covenant's advance and buy the rest of humanity.

"Only if it's you can do so while remaining undetected. It's very risky, but the possible rewards may be worth it." Stanforth cautioned you, before then asking you a question. "Got any questions son?"

>"Yeah, I have a question..." (write-in)
>"Nothing else sir."

>>4047363
>>"Nothing else sir."

>>4047363
>>"Yeah, I have a question..." (write-in)
>I assume getting the scientists out is still the highest priority Sir?

>>4047381
Yeah, something along the lines of 'extraction is still the primary goal, sir?' If there's anything extra he wants us to grab on or off the books, that's a good opening.

Though from the tone, I think he'd have told us that much already.

>>4047363
>"Nothing else sir."

>>4047363
>>"Nothing else sir."

"Nothing else, sir." You decided not to ask any more questions. Admirals often had a lot of work to do, and you could only guess that a vice admiral with his fingers in many of ONI's pies had even more work to handle. Either way, Stanforth seemed to appreciate you ending the impromptu briefing there.

"Alright son, get this done right, and ONI might just keep you around for good." The admiral gave you a good-natured smile as he reached into his desk and pulled out a small thumb-drive. While the tech behind it was hundreds of years old, the system remained in use for holding sensitive data. "This drive contains the virus, hand it over to your ship's electronics officer. You're dismissed."

"Sir." You stood up and saluted the vice admiral, before taking the thumb-drive and leaving the room. The door opened automatically for you and closed the moment you were through. You felt a massive weight being lifted from your shoulders, but you didn't have time to enjoy it, as the security guard that had been escorting you through the tower stopped you.

"Captian, agent Fabian has asked me to pass on a message. Your XO has confirmed that she's able to join you on your mission, and she'll join you aboard your prowler when you collect your AI. Would you like to make any final changes before heading to the dock?" The security officer asked the man's cold and shark-like eyes gave you the impression that even now he was sizing you up.

>Swap out or add an equipment module (>>4045006)
>Ask for another crewmember from the Dawn (write-in)
>Ask for something else (write-in)
>Head to the prowler, you don't want to waste any more time.
>Other (write-in)

>>4047649
>>Head to the prowler, you don't want to waste any more time.
Let's go save some scientists

>>4047649
>>Head to the prowler, you don't want to waste any more time.
What year are we in again? 2549?

>>4047649
>>Head to the prowler, you don't want to waste any more time.

>>4047649
>Head to the prowler, you don't want to waste any more time.
The sooner we leave, the sooner we get there, and the better the chance we get out before the Covenant even arrive.

>>4047649
>>Head to the prowler, you don't want to waste any more time.

>>4047649
>Head to the prowler, you don't want to waste any more time.

"No, let's head to the prowler." You decided. Staying in the dark spook hive was giving you the creeps. The security officer seemed agreeable to this and nodded.

"Understood sir, if you'll follow me to the landing pads, we have a pelican waiting to take you straight up." The security officer informed you, before turning and leading you back to the elevator. Once again, you followed him back to the elevators, and straight down to the landing pad level.

The multi-floor section of the building featured four hanger/landing platform sections, with each one facing a cardinal direction. And your ride up into orbit sat in the east-facing hanger. The dropship was a standard UNSC Air Force bird, which was either on loan to ONI or was just one of their birds in disguise. Either way, you quickly entered the dropship and strapped in as the hanger bay doors opened and the landing platform was extended out of the building. Within a few seconds, the engines cycled on and the OD-green turkey took flight. Whoever was dictating air-traffic control for New Alexandria was obviously under orders to give ONI aircraft right of way, as the pelican instantly took a steep ascent profile and pushed straight into the void. The aggressive ascent profile took you into orbit in under an hour, and fairly soon after, the dropship docked to the outer docking claw of your temporary command. Due to the hanger bay already being loaded with supplies, you had to enter your ship by climbing a ladder up through the hatch on the pelican's roof, where it was docked to the prowler.

"Welcome aboard captain." A short, scarred man greeted you as you climbed up the ladder. The compact agent offered you a hand to shake while the both of your heads were at the same level, even if half of your body was still in the boarding tube. "Lieutenant Karmann, I'll be your intelligence officer for this operation and probably the best medium between you and the ONI officers you're likely to encounter on this mission."

"Nice to meet you, lieutenant, I assume you've been breifed?" You asked as you shook his hand. The short spook nodded as you climbed out to your full stature, the hatch automatically closing behind you after you pulled your bags out.

"Yes, I have. I'm not a fan of it, but if that's the will of the office then I don't have much I can do about that." Lieutenant Karmann seemed to be a bit conflicted, but he quickly changed the subject. "Would you like to look around the ship, or would you prefer to prefer to cast off now?"

>Take a tour of the ship, you might as well see what you have to work with.
>Head straight to Tribute, you want to get this operation started as soon as possible.

>>4047885
>>Take a tour of the ship, you might as well see what you have to work with.

>>4047885
>Take a tour of the ship, you might as well see what you have to work with.

>>4047885
>Take a tour of the ship, you might as well see what you have to work with.
Ask if there are any... ah, less important components in case shtf.

>>4047885
>Take a tour of the ship, you might as well see what you have to work with.

>>4047885
>>Take a tour of the ship, you might as well see what you have to work with.

"Sounds like a plan, lead on." You took the spook up on his offer, the short officer simply nodded in acceptance and got on with the tour.

"Of course. Just through those doors and towards the bow is the forward sensor cluster, I can't show you anything inside there as it's all horribly classified." Karmann gestured to your right, pointing at a set of armored double-doors. A set of cameras by the side of the door seemed to provide obvious security, but you were damn sure that there were at least three other surveillance devices and probably a sentry gun behind one of the wall panels.

"I get the feeling that's gonna be a running theme." You started, before asking your guide a question. "So, what do you usually do on ships like this?"

The short spook led you aft as he answered the question, pointing out the habitation sections of the ship as you went. "A whole lot of gopher work I'm afraid. To be honest I just have a secretary program do most of the work while I analyze whatever I can get my hands on. On the left are the primary quarters and on the right is the mess hall."

"How much time do you spend in either of them?" You asked as you looked into the incredibly spartan mess hall. The tell-tale markings on the floor told you that much of the tables and seating folded away into the floor. Lining the walls of the room were various pieces of folding exercise equipment and a couple of auto-chef stations.

"As much time as I can. Though that varies dependent on just how much of a slave driver my CO is." Karmann said as he led you past a set of stairs and a storage room, and into the hanger. The floor of the spacious room was dominated by a massive set of blast doors and the roof by a massive gantry crane. Large boxes and crates were packed in the room, along with what looked like EVA servicing packs. Essentially scaled-up versions of the early astronaut propulsion unit, but with mounts for wealing torches and other pieces of maintenance equipment.

"What's in the boxes? I was told that there should be equipment for helping us land on Arcadia." You asked the agent as you walked deeper into the room. You stopped for a few seconds to tap your foot on the hanger door, listening out for the solid sound of your foot slamming against at least a foot of armored plating. And sure enough, you heard the tell-tale clang that let you know that the hanger door was safe to walk on.

>CONT

"And it is. Most of it is either a stealth ablator coating that keeps the ship hidden while entering the atmosphere or an underlying heat ablator for just in case the descent gets too hot. The rest is either the equipment required to quickly eject it the moment we're through or spare parts to replace equipment that's most likely to be damaged in the descent." The spook explained as he casually walked over the armored door and towards the stowed supplies. His familiarity with the ship giving him the confidence needed to walk over a very real safety hazard.

"How long does it take to apply the coating?" You asked as you followed the lieutenant towards the crates.

"Around an hour or two, it depends on how much we're interrupted." The spook stated as he ran his hand along one of the boxes, before shrugging. "Not that I'm expecting much, we use rebels as training aids these days.

>Ask about what threats you're likely to encounter in Arcadian orbit.
>Ask Karmann about his previous service.

>>4052154
>Ask about what threats you're likely to encounter in Arcadian orbit.

>>4052154
>>Ask about what threats you're likely to encounter in Arcadian orbit.

>>4052154
>Ask about what threats you're likely to encounter in Arcadian orbit.
>Also ask if he has experience with landing a prowler and how often re-entry damages stealth systems.

Not prior service per se, but some specifics relevant to our mission without prying.

>>4052154
>Ask about what threats you're likely to encounter in Arcadian orbit.

>>4052154

>Ask about what threats you're likely to encounter in Arcadian orbit.

"What threats are we likely to encounter?" You asked the spook as you turned to inspect one of the maneuvering rigs. The system looked like it was propelled by an ancient mono-propellent system, though knowing the budget ONI had, it probably ran on some extremely exotic fuel.

"Aside from the obvious warships, our biggest threat will be from local satellites. Thankfully, the ship is equipped with a set of pulse lasers to destroy them, and we only need a small window in order to get through reentry and ditch the unused ablator. Once that's off, we can use optical and electronic camouflage to remain hidden as long as possible." The short spook said as he walked towards one of the large doors leading off from the hanger, and pressed a button to open it. Inside, you saw dozens of cylindrical containers, each one marked as containing a missile. "Normally fighters are an issue. And over a rebel-held world, they may be using older fighters and gunboats for orbital patrols. But their only window to spot us is after we put the ablator on as that stops us from hiding on optical. And that should only be a one-hour window. Thankfully, the pulse lasers and these streak missiles give us good protection against them."

>"And in the atmosphere?"
>Continue with the tour, you're satisfied.

>>4054160
>"And in the atmosphere?"

>>4054160
>>Continue with the tour, you're satisfied.

>>4054160
>>Continue with the tour, you're satisfied.

>>4054160
>"And in the atmosphere?"

>>4054160
>"And in the atmosphere?"

Sounds like he's not worried about re-entry futzing with our stealth too much. Here's hoping the dice go along with it.

>>4054160
>"And in the atmosphere?"

File: UNSC_Hawk_Chaingun.jpg (77 KB, 800x600)

77 KB JPG

"And in atmo?" You continued on the line of thought as you lent into the modular bay. All of the tubes lacked any way to vent into the rest of the ship, instead, it seemed as if the missiles were cold-launched from their tubes by compressed gasses. So no real change there from the regular system.

"Anti-aircraft guns will be our biggest threat, we can't jam bullets after all." Karmann pointed out, before pointing towards the neighboring module, it's doors remaining locked shut. "If we had ODSTs, we'd have a couple of options at our disposal. But I can see the reasons for more space. Aside from that, we can deal with any missiles sent our way through much of that will have to be with jamming."

"Why not the pulse lasers? Don't they work in the atmosphere?" You stopped for a second and asked. You had been warned about that when the Hoel trialed ONI's experimental pulse laser system, though you had been told that the issue had been rectified in a later version assigned to some frigate.

"They work, but they aren't as effective. Air acts as a great diffuser to such a low powered beam and allows the missiles to partially radiate the heat into the atmosphere. We do have some backup guns, but they're meant more for close-in defense against infantry, I wouldn't trust them to swat missiles." Your guide explained, before shutting the door and keying in some kind of code. He didn't seem to care that you were watching, so you had to assume that each key had a fingerprint reader built-in. "It's a shame, really. The guns are the standard chainguns you'd find on most gunships like the sparrowhawk or vulture, but nobody ever thought of making better anti-aircraft rounds for them."

>Ask something else (write-in)
>Continue with the tour.

>>4056047
>Continue with the tour.

>>4056047
>>Continue with the tour.

>>4056047
>Continue with the tour.

>>4056047
>>Continue with the tour.

File: ThirstforKnowledge.gif (940 KB, 627x502)

940 KB GIF

>>4056047
I'm loving the tour. I can't wait until a shackled Tribune is giving us a tour of a carrier.

File: engineers be here.gif (3 KB, 270x130)

3 KB GIF

"I'll keep that in mind, shall we?" You gestured towards the door at the far wall of the hanger, and your impish guide nodded as he took the hint to continue the tour. You followed him out of the hanger and into a crossroads.

"Just through the doors to the left and right are aft-deck escape pods. They're the standard three-person unpowered units, no gimmicks aside from a boosted comms unit in each. Just above us is the cryo-deck, which I'm sure we'll be taking a closer look at in a few hours."

Lieutenant Karmann explained as you looked around. To both, your left and right sat rows of what you could easily identify as vertically-oriented escape pods. Red hazard-lines marked out a one-meter box around the chambers, where the grav-plating would turn off during an emergency to allow people to sling themselves into the pod's seats. Most pods didn't need such a feature because they were mounted horizontally, allowing people just to drop into the seats and strap in. Mounted to the walls of each escape-pod corridor was a set of wire-mesh stairs that led up to the decks above. The spook gestured in front of you, where a set of standard floor markings indicated the engineering room lay. "The reactor and engineering are through that door. Much like the sensors and other parts of the ship I can't show you anything within. They're protected by armored doors and have an internal armory, just in case the worst comes to pass."

"And the primary armory?" You asked as the spook lead you towards one of the sets of stairs, you followed just behind him, which put your heads at around the same height for the first time since the start of your tour.

"We have a small one just next to the marine barracks, it's not much so if you want to make a stop there to grab something then we can. Maybe one of the marines can give you an inventory." Your guide called back to you as he stopped to look at you, and you only just realized that his uniform included a holster mount on his leg, probably for a gun better scaled to his size. "If not the armory, then we'll head straight for the bridge, there aren't a lot of non-classified areas up here."

>Head to the armory, if only for a checkup.
>Head to the bridge, it's time to go.

>>4058261
>>Head to the armory, if only for a checkup.

>>4058261
>Head to the armory, if only for a checkup.
Need to know anything and everything we can.

>>4058261
>>Head to the armory, if only for a checkup.

>>4058261
>>Head to the armory, if only for a checkup.
Might as well.

>>4058261
>>Head to the armory, if only for a checkup.

>>4058261
>>Head to the armory, if only for a checkup.
Engineering on a ship is a dank dark place indeed. Also want to say as the resident Navyfag, that I love the quest so far.

>>4058261
>Head to the armory, if only for a checkup.

>>4058261
>>Head to the armory, if only for a checkup.

"Let's check the armory, it'll be nice to know what my marines have to work with." You decided, and soon you were on the way. On the route, you were shown the packed cryo bay, a small gym, and the medical deck. According to the lieutenant, the standard procedure was to put anyone with major wounds into cryo, as the medical deck simply didn't have the space to support multiple casualties. Aside from that, there was also another few sections where you simply weren't cleared to go.

The door opened to a small and packed room, with all of the walls stacked with lockers, crates, and supplies. A trio of marines were stood inside, and all of them turned to face the door. All of them instantly straightened up and saluted as the one closest to you called out your arrival. "Captain on deck!"

"At ease, I'm just here to check in on our stocks. How are the men?" You returned the salute as you entered the room, a pair of marines turning and returning to their tasks as the closest marine kept his attention on you.

"We're all fine sir, though it's a bit rare for us to get a ground side deployment." The corporal assured you, before handing you a tablet with a full inventory list of what your deceptively small armory was stocked with.

The armory was outfitted with enough weapons to arm three marine squads. That came in as twenty-five MA5B assault rifles, five battle rifles, a pair of sniper rifles, a pair of MA247 light support weapons, and a pair of rocket launchers. There was also a selection of weapons for the crew, mostly a mixture of assault rifles, shotguns, SMGs, and pistols. Aside from the guns, there were also a wide variety of explosive devices. Half a dozen boxes of assorted grenades made up the majority of the ordinance stocks, mostly basic fragmentation, and smoke grenades, but also incendiary and smoke grenades too. There was also a case containing ten cans of C-7 foaming explosives, which in even it's base form could take down a building.

Armour and equipment stockpile was fairly minimal, outside of what the marine squad was equipped with. There were twenty full sets of marine BDU and armor sets, with an extra five sets of body armor. A pair of backpack transmitter units allowed each squad to communicate with each other and the prowler, but with both squads needing the prowler to land to be deployed, you didn't see much need for them. There was also a set of medical kits, but they weren't good for much other than keeping someone alive until they could be dragged into a complete medical ward.

>Ask the sergeant if he thinks all of this equipment will be needed.
>Take a weapon for yourself, you'll feel more comfortable.
>Head to the bridge, you need to get moving.

>>4059784
>Take a weapon for yourself, you'll feel more comfortable.
Shotgun; 6 slugs, 12 buckshot
>Head to the bridge, you need to get moving.

>>4059784
>>Head to the bridge, you need to get moving.

>>4059784
>>Head to the bridge, you need to get moving.

>>4059784
>Take a weapon for yourself, you'll feel more comfortable.

a shotgun and a pistol


>Head to the bridge, you need to get moving.

>>4059784
>Take a weapon for yourself, you'll feel more comfortable.

>>4059796
>>4059860
>Take a weapon for yourself, you'll feel more comfortable.

"Mind if I grab something?" You asked the marine as you handed the tablet back to him and gestured at one of the wall lockers, a neat row of M6 magnum pistols were sat side-by-side, with another row beneath them was stacked with satchels that probably contained a few spare magazines so that a crewmember could defend themselves.

"If you want, then I can't stop you. Though I don't see much point. You probably won't be leaving the ship anyways, and you won't need it on the ship anyway." The marine shrugged as he took his device back, but still tensed up at the possibility of you taking a weapon. You had seen that before, a good number of marines saw officers as incompetent with firearms. You didn't mind though, you could probably outshoot him.

"Just checking, I might be needed planetside. Carry on, corporal." You held up your hands as you assuaged the marine's concerns. While you had considered grabbing something to wear around, you remembered that the lieutenant had mentioned that you would be going into cryo within a few hours. So you decided to hold off until you got to Arcadia.

"Yes, sir." The marine saluted you, before returning to taking inventory, you turned and left him to his work. You left and continued on your way to the bridge, passing a line of escape pods. Thankfully they bumblebee pods, which would give members of the bridge crew a far better chance of surviving a situation that would force you to abandon ship.

"Captain on deck!" Lieutenant [xxxxx] called as you entered the bridge, causing all of the people on the bridge to stand up and salute, you returned the gesture as you entered and looked around the room. The large room was separated into two sections. The first being a large platform where the commanding officer could look over the shoulders of crewmembers working at every station. The second section was the lower floor where the rest of the bridge crew toiled away at their consoles.

"Captain, thrusters are primed and the drive is charged. We're able to depart on your orders." One of the members of the bridge crew called up to you, you assumed that she was the helmsman. She remained standing as she waited for your call, while the rest of the crew sat down.

>Head to Tribute, you still have an AI and your XO to pick up.
>Jump to Arcadia, you don't have time to waste.

>>4060005

>Head to Tribute, you still have an AI and your XO to pick up.

But before we go "Marine, you have no fucking idea what may happen on this jaunt"

The dice! THE DICE! THE DIIIIICE!!

>>4060005
>Head to Tribute, you still have an AI and your XO to pick up.

>>4060005
>Head to Tribute, you still have an AI and your XO to pick up.
Man, I've got a feeling that this is going to put us in a bad spot when we make it to Arcadia.

>>4060005
>>Head to Tribute, you still have an AI and your XO to pick up.

>>4060005
>Head to Tribute, you still have an AI and your XO to pick up.

>>4060005
>Head to Tribute, you still have an AI and your XO to pick up.

>>4060005
>Head to Tribute, you still have an AI and your XO to pick up.

"Take us out of dock, we'd better get going." You confirmed, before specifying further. "And chart a course to Tribute, we've got a couple of things to pick up."

"Understood, should we jump to Tribute? We can piggy-back off the system's slipspace buoy network to cut the journey time down massively." The navigation officer remained standing as she asked about using the slipspace buoy network. You were a bit surprised that you could use the network for an in-system jump, as the system in the Epsilon Eridani system used civilian-grade buoys rather than the military-grade slipspace guidance beacons.

"Sure, time is of the essence after all." You accepted the officer's choice as you looked around for a seat for the captain. And unfortunately, you couldn't spot one. You decided to take a hike down to marine country to ask if there was a field stool you could borrow as the ship slipped its moorings. You got one last glimpse at the surface of reach as a set of armored bulkheads dropped into position over the bridge windows, and took your leave to go and hunt down a seat. Around half an hour later, you had to stop rooting around in one of the supply rooms as the ship translated into slipspace. Though if it wasn't for the ship-wide warning then you really wouldn't have noticed.

You arrived back in time with the bounty of your hunt -a full-scale camping chair and a stool for your XO- in time for the ship to drop back into realspace. And you had to admit to yourself that it was a bit disconcerting to see the planet so soon after leaving Reach, and all of the local traffic that the massivly built-up system played host to. From there, you were quickly diverted to a seemingly innocuous station, which just happened to have a large hangar bay capable of supporting a prowler. You made your way down to the prowler's hanger in time as the team of ONI technicians waiting by the deployable ramp seemed to be in a hurry. They dropped the ramp the moment the pressure in the hanger bay was safe, and given the fact that people were already beginning to filter into the hanger as you descended into the hanger, you felt that they were in a hurry for another reason.

"Captain, congratulations on the promotion." Dyad greeted you as she entered the cavernous hanger. Behind her trailed a group of technicians that were tending to the cart that carried your still-powered AI. Smart AI couldn't be powered down after being created without the risk of them never reactivating. And while a standard AI matrix chip could keep an AI going in hibernation for a few minutes, such carts were needed when transferring an AI between locations. However, due to the power draw of such a system, the cart had to be directly tethered into the station's power grid and then tethered to a power line from your prowler before it could be brought aboard.

>CONT

>>4060374
"Thanks, sorry that you didn't get one yourself." You shook your XO's hand as the techs met up with their ONI colleagues. Two of the ONI engineers set about plugging a power-cable into the cart while others performed visual inspections of the cart.

"Look on the bright side, at least you get to enjoy my company for a bit longer!" Dyad grinned at her own joke, though you were a bit taken aback by it. Dyad seemed fairly ride-or-die, and you didn't know if that was due to her loyalty to you or her drive to get her own command.

>Ask your XO if she really wants to command her own ship.
>Take the joke, now's not the time.

>>4060378
>Take the joke, now's not the time.

>>4060378
“If you’re not careful, I’ll get you a command just so I can get rid of you”

>>4060378
>Take the joke, now's not the time.
We really aught to sort her out. Dyad is great but gimping her chances at promotion isn't something I want to do.

>>4060378
>Take the joke, now's not the time.

>>4060378
>>Take the joke, now's not the time.

>>4060378
>>Take the joke, now's not the time.

>>4060378
>Take the joke, now's not the time.
We've basically ushered her aboard the ONI gravy-train so there's every chance she'll be getting a promotion out of this too, and a shot at her own ship.

“If you’re not careful, I’ll get you a command just so I can get rid of you!” You assured your XO, the two of you laughed at the joke as the station technicians disconnected their power cable from the AI transport cart.

"Careful old man, once I get my own tub you're gonna have some real competition!" Dyad laughed as the ONI technicians carefully led the transport cart into your ship. Both you and your XO followed them in as she asked about why she was here. "So, what's the mission?"

"We're going to Arcadia to grab some stuff for ONI." You said as the ramp began to retract into the prowler, taking you and your XO with it. The two of you rode the ramp up into the hanger, stepping off and into the hanger itself at the last second.

"Arcadia? Isn't that a dead world?" Dyad asked as the hangar doors began to close. The two of you walked around the perimeter of the hole in the floor as it closed.

"The covies found the world, but they didn't glass it and haven't gone back, so ONI set up a research base. Now ONI thinks that they're gonna finish the job, so we have to pull out ONI's assets." You clarified as you walked out of the aft-leading door, the two of you walked into the cross-shaped room, and you led her towards the stairs that led up to the cryo bay.

"Anything else?" Dyad asked, her question punctuated by the metallic clang as the hanger doors closed.

>Tell Dyad about how you're meant to handle the locals.
>Keep quiet about the more controversial parts of the mission.

>>4061799
>Tell Dyad about how you're meant to handle the locals.

>>4061799
>>Tell Dyad about how you're meant to handle the locals.
Would be pretty obvious anyway since they're only sending us

>>4061799
>>Tell Dyad about how you're meant to handle the locals.

>>4061799
>Tell Dyad about how you're meant to handle the locals.

"Arcadia still has a standing population, and we're not helping them." You said as little as possible to get the problem across, knowing that your XO wouldn't like it.

Dyad was silent as the two of you climbed up the stairs, and sighed the moment she reached the top. "I hope that's ONI speaking and not you."

"Fortunately you're right, the orders come from the top." You assured your XO, before continuing with the issues. "We can't warn the locals of the coming attack, and we have to deploy a computer virus that will purge their navigational databases."

"So they won't know that the Covenant are coming, and when they do arrive, they won't be able to escape." Dyad summarised the issue, and the look on her face told you that she was looking less and less enamored with whoever had given you those orders. You briefly considered telling her that half of those orders came from a Vice Admiral, but you thought better of it.

"They should still be able to jump out, and they'll be able to backtrack their way to Arcadia. They just won't have any data that the Covenant can take." You explained that any survivors wouldn't be absolutely screwed, though your XO didn't seem to take it.

"So they're gonna be stranded in a burned system with no way out." Dyad countered, the Lieutenant Commander gave you a scathing look. "How is that anything other than a delayed death sentence? If the Covenant doesn't get them then they'll run out of air and supplies eventually."

>"And how do you propose we help them while accomplishing our mission?"
>"Our job isn't to look out for innies Dyad, we need to ensure the safety of our people first."
>Other (write-in)

>>4061956
>Other
"And if the covenant get that navigational data? How many other colonies will suffer the same fate? There's no right answer here, and all we can do is choose the lesser evil."

>>4061956
>>4061973
This.

>>4061973
+1

"And if the covenant gets that navigational data? How many other colonies will suffer the same fate?" You asked your XO, who looked a bit surprised that you'd use that argument. You shrugged, before showing that you agreed with her. "There's no right answer here, we both know that all we can do is choose the lesser evil."

"We can't damn the few to save the many, sir." Dyad insisted, leaning up against a bulkhead as if to insinuate that she wouldn't be moved from her position.

"And at the same time, we can't just leave intel like that lying around for the Covenant to grab." You hammered home your point, Dyad had chosen her hill to die on, and you had to talk her off it. "Can we really justify damning the inhabitants of a safe colony just to save a few survivors of a damned world?"

"There still has to be something we can do." Dyad hun her head, having realized that she couldn't convince you off this course of action. You reached over and patted her on the shoulder.

"Maybe, but until we figure something out we have to put our mission first." You gave her a little bit of hope, before gesturing towards the front of the ship. "Come on, we should be leaving dock now."

Dyad nodded and followed you towards the bridge, you pointed out key parts of the ship as you went, but as you were limited to only the route to the bridge a lot of that was limited to the cryo bay, the medical deck and bunch of rooms that neither of you was cleared to enter. Dyad didn't seem to care too much, though she did give you a look as you stopped to pick up the camping chair and stool you had robbed from the marines. The wisdom behind your actions revealed itself as the two of you entered the cavernous bridge, with Lieutenant Karmann stood on the raised center. The short spook turned to face you as you entered. "Captain, we're out of dock and are departing Tribute's gravity well. Slipspace drive is spooled and ready to go."

"Let's not waste any more time." You decided you wanted this mission to be over as soon as possible, and you didn't have anything else to do here. So you saw no reason to stay.

"Alright sir, I'll set the nav-computer to fly us in automatically." The navigation officer called out, before asking you for some clarification. "How close do you want us to be to Arcadia when we drop out of slipspace?"

>Drop out close to Arcadia, it's riskier but you'll save a lot of time.
>Drop out over one of its moons, it's the best middle of the road option.
>Drop out just outside of Arcadia's gravity well, the more distance you have the better chances you have of not being detected.

>>4062194
>Drop out over one of its moons, it's the best middle of the road option.

>>4062194
>>Drop out over one of its moons, it's the best middle of the road option.

>>4062194
>Drop out close to Arcadia, it's riskier but you'll save a lot of time.

"Put us in orbit of one of the moons, we'll need some distance in order to start deploying our satellites and drones." You decided to take the middle of the road. The moons of Arcadia were generally considered to be worth very little before the war due to only having a small amount of hard-to-reach metal ores. As such, there was very little in terms of industry built up over them.

"You know, I've seen my fair share of officers, both from ONI and the fleet. But I don't think that I've seen one that won't even try a standing bridge when offered the chance to use one." Lieutenant Karmann stated as he gestured towards the camping equipment you had pilfered and was in the process of putting down.

"Standing bridges are stupid and uncomfortable. Who wants to spend that long standing up." You insisted. While you had never used a standing bridge before, you had spent a lot of time at standing stations during your career, and it wasn't something you enjoyed doing for a protracted period of time. You then took the time to introduce your XO and the spook. "Lieutenant commander Dyad, meet lieutenant Karmann. Lieutenant Karmann, lieutenant commander Dyad."

"Ah, the new XO? It's good to finally meet you, the captain holds you in high regard." Karmann offered his hand to your XO, who shook it as the armored bulkheads over the bridge windows.

"The feeling's mutual, you can't have gotten a better boss for this mission." Dyad smiled at the short spook as the ship shuddered into slipspace. You couldn't help but smile at this, at the very least you could be sure that you wouldn't have an issue with the two of them being at each other's throats.

Almost as soon as you were in slipspace, the rest of the bridge crew filtered out of the room and into the cryo bay. You and Dyad broke off from the main group to drop off your personal effects, before returning to the cryo bay to enter cryosleep. Or at least, the hallway just outside the cryo bay as people filtered in a dozen at a time in order to slowly fill up the room. As you and your XO had arrived last, you were both part of the last group in. By the time you were inside, almost all of the cryotubes had been taken, but both your pods were left open. The two of you quickly stripped and packed up your clothes into small foot lockers.

As you approached the pod, the interface mounted to the side of the pod chimed. An automated female voice spoke up."Neural interface detected, welcome Captain Wells. Would you like to set a wakeup time?"

>Leave cryo before everyone else, you want to take a look at the mission spec before you arrive.
>Leave cryo with everyone else, you should do this by the books.
>Leave cryo after everyone else, you'd prefer to have the room to yourself.

>>4062406
>>Leave cryo before everyone else, you want to take a look at the mission spec before you arrive.

>>4062406
>>Leave cryo before everyone else, you want to take a look at the mission spec before you arrive.

>>4062406
>Leave cryo before everyone else, you want to take a look at the mission spec before you arrive.

>>4062406
>>Leave cryo before everyone else, you want to take a look at the mission spec before you arrive.

>>4062406

>Leave cryo before everyone else, you want to take a look at the mission spec before you arrive.

"Wake me up early." You ordered the computer, before climbing into the pod. The semi-liquid gel shifted a bit under your nude form, before setting into the most comfortable position for long-term habitation.

"Understood, setting systems to early waking. Have a good rest, captain." The cryopod computer said as the lid closed. You shut your eyes and slowly began to regulate your breathing, ignoring the cold feeling deep in your chest as the mixture of cryogenic gasses and anesthetics quickly and gently put your body into hibernation.

Usually, going into cryosleep is a fairly cut-and-dry experience. You close your eyes one day and wake up a few weeks to a few months later, maybe even years later if you were incredibly unlucky. But one of the things that remained constant was that the entire thing was dreamless. At least, that's how it usually went. Sometimes people would wake up claiming to have had dreams during cryosleep. Officially it wasn't something that could happen, as various studies throughout the years had both confirmed and denied that dreaming was possible while in the induced hibernation of cryosleep.

>roll 1d20

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4062631

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>4062631

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>4062631

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>4062633
Oh god.

File: 1523369945450.gif (2.51 MB, 360x360)

2.51 MB GIF

The absolute abhorrent luck we have with roles is insane. I've never been in a quest where it's been so consistently bad.

File: City_Glassing.jpg (110 KB, 1536x1152)

110 KB JPG

And now you could definitively say that dreams did occur while in cryosleep, even if they were rare. This was the first one you had ever had, and you had to admit that it wasn't a good one.

You were walking through the streets of some city, you couldn't make out anything that would identify where you were, aside from being in some metropolitan area. The buildings were blocky and lacked detail, as if they were low-poly background models in some video game. The people walking around seemed to blend in with each other, colors running from one person to the next until you could barely tell where one person ended and another began. You seemed to walk in slow motion as you saw the groups of people go about their daily business until three bright-blue explosions ripped through the city. The shapeless mounds of human life seemed to run, only to run into the shadowy forms of Covenant foot soldiers. You watched as a good section of them were cut down, but something -you couldn't tell if it was something in the dream or your own disgust- caused you to turn away. The buildings seemed to snap more into focus with each plasma bolt they soaked, but your head was looking skywards now.

You saw the curved and luminous profiles of covenant cruisers as they descended into the atmosphere above your head. They passed overhead with their glassing beams charged, but they didn't fire until they were out of sight. You could feel the ground shake every time they released their powerful energy weapons. The ground began to rumble as something sinister came your way. You cast your eyes down the street in time to see the bulbous bow of a Covenant carrier peek into view, the gargantuan vessel holding its position close by as it delivered the coup-des-grace. You felt the very air around you boil as the massive Covenant energy weapon was unleashed on the city around you. You guessed that you felt your skin peeling away in the heat, but all you could focus on with any clarity was the shockwave tearing up the street before you. The wave of semi-molten tarmac hit you...

And you awoke with a start, your body struggled as it attempted to suddenly breathe in, only to find that your lungs were coated by the cryogenic survival slurry that had accumulated inside you during the first few days of your stay in the pod. You slammed the emergency release button on the inner-right wall of the pod, and shoved the lid of the pod open just in time to throw up. More of the semi-clear and cyan liquid ended up on your chest than on the deck, in between what little rushed breaths you could get as your body tried to get the air it needed to keep you from blacking out.

>CONT

>>4062797

"Detecting abnormally high blood pressure and heightened BPM. Captain, are you alright?" The familiar voice of your AI, Diana asked as you slowly regained your composure. Your body felt both hot and cold when it should only have felt cold. You glanced around the cryo bay, but your eyes were blurry and you could barely see. Diana noticed this, and filled in for what you couldn't see. "Don't worry sir, you're the first awake. Are you alright?"

>Write in

>>4062797
EARTH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

>>4062805
First dream in a long while Diana, I'm fine. LEts get the show under way.

>>4062805
>"Just a bad dream. Have we arrived?"
I doubt it's prophetic, or at least not in the supernatural way. Though it doesn't bode well and makes me think that we might have problems with cryo.

>>4062805
nightmare of a human city about to get glassed. I'll be fine.

Anything I should know?

>>4062805
"A very bad dream, but for be sure run more medical diagnostics on my body before i get up from here. Especially for temperature, it might just be usual reactions from cryo sleep or it can be one of those worse cases."

>>4062805
>I don't often drink, but do we have any whiskey on board?

"Just a bad dream. Have we arrived?" You asked your AI as you rubbed your eyes clear of the cryofluid that had built up over it. Your vision almost instantly cleared, but it would still take around an hour before you were fully rid of that crap.

"Captain, are you sure? Your biological readings are a bit erratic." Diana asked, the Ai adding a layer of faux worry to her voice. Or at least, as faux as you could get with a smart AI. Either way, you could see why she was worried, you were having to put a bit more effort into calming down yourself.

"I'm sure, though run a couple more medical diagnostics on my body before I get up from here. Especially for temperature, it might just be usual reactions from cryo sleep or it can be one of those worse cases." You ordered the AI. You had heard a couple of horror stories about people coming out of cryosleep with bleeds on the brain and worse, and with your return to consciousness having already been a bit more heart-racing than usual, you decided to play it safe.

"Of course, sir. Please lie back and relax, this will only take a moment." Diana instructed you, and you lay back on the cold gell bed that had been your home for however long you had spent in cryosleep. You closed your eyes as your AI did her work. "Hmmm... Nothing so far sir, BPM and blood pressure are dropping back to normal levels, body temperature is within a normal post-cryosleep range. How are you feeling sir?"

"I don't often drink, but do we have any whiskey onboard?" You said as you sat up and wiped the worst of the cryofluid you had vomited up off your chest. You'd need a shower, if not to clean up then simply to warm up. That weird warm feeling that had lingered from the dream was dissipating fast and you were starting to shake.

"I haven't seen anything in the ship's inventory, maybe there's some in the captain's office?" Diana wondered as you got out of your cryopod and wondered about your next move.

>Head to the captain's office, you need some booze and a place to read.
>Head to the mess hall, working on an empty stomach isn't something that you're good for.
>Take a walk around the ship, you need to clear your head.

>>4063022
>Head to the mess hall, working on an empty stomach isn't something that you're good for.

>>4063022
>Head to the mess hall, working on an empty stomach isn't something that you're good for.

We are -not- attempting to booze on an empty stomach for sure.

>>4063022
>Head to the mess hall, working on an empty stomach isn't something that you're good for.

>>4063022
>>Head to the mess hall, working on an empty stomach isn't something that you're good for.

>>4063022
>>Head to the mess hall, working on an empty stomach isn't something that you're good for.

"Later, food first." You told your AI as you made your way to one of the attached shower rooms to rinse off the worst of the cryofluid. You were out after a long ten minutes and dried off in short order.

You were about to get dressed when you noticed that laying just on top of your footlocker with a note taped on the back of it was a data tablet with the ONI logo embossed on the back. You pulled the note off and read it.

Forgot to give you this earlier, don't break it. -Quartermaster

You shook your head and made a mental note not to forget as you got dressed. With all of that done and dusted, you grabbed the tablet and left. The walk down to the mess hall did wonders to warm you up, but not enough to settle your mind, as flames still flickered in your mind's eye as you entered the mess hall. Many of the tables had been lowered back into the floor, leaving space for a couple of exercise machines and what looked like a martial arts area. You noticed a couple of people who were already up, or most likely had never entered cryo in the first place. From their uniforms, you guessed that they were engineering techs.

You decided not to bother them for the moment as you walked up to the catering unit and randomly slapped one of the buttons. The machine whirred, and after a few minutes dispenced a warm burger. You didn't know if it was actual meat or some substitute, and frankly, you didn't care. You snatched it up and hammered in the buttons to get a steaming cup of coffee as it was prepared, you considered your options.

>Eat alone, you need to do some reading.
>Head to your office, there's nowhere more private for you.
>Talk with the engineers. You might as well be sociable.

>>4063158
>>Eat alone, you need to do some reading.

>>4063158
>>Head to your office, there's nowhere more private for you.

>>4063158
>>Head to your office, there's nowhere more private for you.

>>4063158
>Head to your office, there's nowhere more private for you.

>>4063158
>Talk with the engineers. You might as well be sociable.

As soon as your drink was ready, you picked it up and walked out of the mess hall. You wanted to go through what intel you had access to, but you weren't too keen on doing so in a section of the ship that would probably be seeing a lot of traffic very soon. However, you stopped at the comms terminal just before you left as you encountered a fairly big issue. "Diana, can you please direct me to my office. I wasn't shown it during the tour."

"Upstairs and towards the bridge, I'll open the door as you get close," Diana instructed you, before then adding. "It's a bit odd that the captain and XO have to share both an office and a set of quarters. Wouldn't it be more efficient if the captain and the XO simply had their own spaces to themselves?"

"Diana I learned to stop questioning how ONI makes it's decisions a while back, you ought to do the same." You joked to your AI, before following her directions up towards your office.

As you made your way around the ship, you couldn't help but dislike the prowler even more. Entire sections of the ship had been left dark and without light, allowing for places where you were sure a group of particularly skilled soldiers could hide. You could think up a couple of reasons why those areas were left dark, but a lot of those issues could simply be solved by simply installing a few more lights. The added power draw wouldn't light them up like a Christmas tree and it would do wonders to make the ship seem less gloomy.

You found your office just outside of the bridge, just a few meters down the hall. The office was spartan, with everything painted grey or metallic. Even the seat wasn't spared this fate, as the entire thing looked like it had been machined out of a single block of steel. You sighed and put your breakfast down on the desk, before taking the only seat for yourself.

>Find out how much time you have to complete your mission.
>Read up on Arcadia, what are things like on the planet?
>Read up on the ship, what happened while you were in cryo?
>Other (write-in)

>>4063256
>Find out how much time you have to complete your mission.

>>4063256
>>Find out how much time you have to complete your mission.

>>4063256
>Find out how much time you have to complete your mission.
>Try to schedule out a quick time table of everything that needs to be done.

>>4063256
>>Find out how much time you have to complete your mission.

>>4063256
>Find out how much time you have to complete your mission.

I swear to God, if we just became psychic and our dream was Arcadia going poof...

Your first order of business was to figure out how much time you had to complete your mission. You knew you were on the clock from the moment you took this mission, but it would really help to know just how much time you had to play with. However, you ran into a problem almost as soon as you booted up the tablet. Namely the fact that you had basically no concrete information on how much time you had to play with. ONI intelligence was always spotty about exactly when the Covenant would attack. Predicting the alien bastards was always hard, but they were predictable enough that a basic estimation about when they would arrive could be made.

In the few occasions where a Covenant raiding fleet had found a human system first, they would harass it for a few weeks to a few months, before then leaving the system in peace for a couple of months before the main fleet would arrive. ONI had assumed that this was because someone in the raiding fleet would leak the information to someone in a higher and more official position in order to get a quick promotion. Either way, you didn't have much of a solid estimate on how long it would take.

Your travel time, on the other hand, was a known factor. The prowler's travel time had been precisely calculated, based on the efficiency of the slipspace drive and the previous cruising output of the engines. Technically speaking, you would have already arrived Arcadia if you had retained that cruising speed, but as you approached the system the prowler's speed had been decreased in order to reduce the thermal output of the ship's reactors and thrusters, which would allow your ship to enter the system almost undetected. In spite of that, you were only a few hours out from your transition point in the shadow of one of Arcadia's moons.

A little bit of mental maths later, and you were pretty sure that there was a high likelihood that you'd arrive into the system with around a week to play with at best, and a couple of days at worst. There was still a chance that the Covenant would get there first, but it was minimal. You doubted that they were in any hurry to glass Arcadia, so you could take your time.

>Read up on Arcadia, what are things like on the planet?
>Read up on the ONI facility, just how much has the office invested?
>Read up on the ship, what happened while you were in cryo?
>Other (write-in)

>>4064092
>>Read up on the ONI facility, just how much has the office invested?
>>Read up on the ship, what happened while you were in cryo?

>>4064092
>>Read up on Arcadia, what are things like on the planet?
>>Read up on the ONI facility, just how much has the office invested?
>>Read up on the ship, what happened while you were in cryo?

>>4064092
>Read up on the ONI facility, just how much has the office invested?
>Read up on the ship, what happened while you were in cryo?

Does anyone know why I can't see this threat on the board?

>>4064116
Can you find the thread in the catalog?

>>4064127
No, Can't find it on mobile date either, can only get to the thread through twitter

>>4064092
>Read up on Arcadia, what are things like on the planet?
>Read up on the ONI facility, just how much has the office invested?
>Read up on the ship, what happened while you were in cryo?
>>4064141
I see it, it's just about half-way down in the catalog.

>>4064092
>Read up on Arcadia, what are things like on the planet?

With that out of the way, you decided to read up on what had happened on the prowler while you had been asleep. A small skeleton crew had remained out of cryo for the duration of the trip. Mostly made up of engineers and a couple of systems techs, this group had ensured that pre-mission repairs and calibrations had been performed. Usually, a slipspace-crew like that would also include cooks and command staff, but the former was irrelevant due to a lack of cooking facilities and the latter because Diana could fill in for their roles. Either way, they hadn't reported any major issues and had finished what few tasks had needed to be done during your inter-system journey.

Speaking of your AI, Diana's installation had gone well. While she didn't have full access across the ship, she could still fill in for certain roles and could dedicate more of her processing power to electronic warfare and surveillance. She had spent most of your time in slipspace processing exponentially harder calculations, which you supposed kept her occupied rather than wasting away, though it didn't seem to be that productive.

With the confirmation that your ship hadn't developed some major fault while in slipspace, you turned your attention to the ONI facility that you'd be giving your attention to.

Unlike a previous ONI facility on Arcadia, which had to be abandoned following the last Covenant invasion. ONI Ploughshare base was compact and bristling with defenses. The facility was built in the shape of a square, with a large open section apparently reserved as a landing pad for aircraft and ships. The rest of the facility covered an L-shaped corner of the perimeter and was mostly made up of prefabricated structures, not unlike those used in UNSC prefabricated bases. That also included a network of sentry gun turrets. The entire base was surrounded by three high-wire fences, with the middle fence being directly electrified by the base's reactor. The base had only a minimal human presence, even though it was built to support around five times the number of people. The breakdown of staff came in at six scientists, seven maintainers, a squad of ODSTs, three reactor technicians, four unassigned crewmembers and a pair of pilots for the facility's complement of falcons. That came to thirty-two people who you had to handle.

"Captain. We are only an hour away from arrival, would you like to head to the bridge?" Diana interrupted your reading with the one-hour announcement. "Bridge crewmembers are waking up from cryosleep as we speak."

>Head up to the bridge, you need to be there for when you arrive.
>Read up on Arcadia, what are things like on the planet?
>Read up on the previous ONI base, it's not like the office to simply leave stuff behind.

>>4064372
>>Head up to the bridge, you need to be there for when you arrive.

>>4064372
>Head up to the bridge, you need to be there for when you arrive.

>>4064372
>Head up to the bridge, you need to be there for when you arrive.

>>4064372
>Head up to the bridge, you need to be there for when you arrive.

>>4064372
>Head up to the bridge, you need to be there for when you arrive.

"Alright, I'll be on the bridge." You informed your AI, before quickly getting up and unwrapping your burger to eat on the way. You chased every bite of your burger with a slug of coffee, the mix of bland food and drink didn't taste good, but it covered your bases. By the time you reached the bridge, you had finished your meal, and you tossed the rubbish into a nearby bin before entering the empty and cavernous bridge. With nothing better to do, you simply stood in the middle of the room with your back to the door and waited for the sound of the door opening as someone joined you.

You were only standing there for a minute or two before your XO barreled through the door. You turned to face you XO, and couldn't help but smile at her surprised expression. Dyad straightened up and tried to pat the creases out of her uniform, though she seemed to be covering for her own surprise. "Captain, you're up early."

"Enjoy your lie in?" You asked your XO as you took the chance to relax. You didn't have to act as much of an officer around your XO, you had been in enough fights to afford a little bit of a casual air between you.

"It may come as a surprise, but I find it hard to relax in a room full of cold and naked people." Dyad smiled as she walked in, and made a break to where the folding chair and stool were stashed. She tossed the stool to you as she continued. "What's got you up so early sir? I would have thought you'd be down in the mess hall nursing a cup of joe?"

>Write in

>>4066448
>"Half right. Figured i'd get some reading done, and ate on the way."

>>4066448
>Why aren't you? deflect it with a smile.

>>4066448
Supporting >>4066452

>>4066452
+1

>>4066452
support

>>4066452
supportin

"Half right. Figured I'd get some reading done, and eat on the way." You told your XO the truth, discounting the nightmare. You doubted that she'd believe you anyway, while people could say that they had experienced a dream in cryo, there was a culture of dismissal around it due to the lack of evidence.

"Really? I'd have thought that you'd have done as much reading as possible on the op before we made the jump." Dyad smiled as she walked over to where you had stashed your camping seats. She carried the seating over as you answered her.

"Well, ONI doesn't give you much to go off..." You stated as the doors opened again, and more of the bridge crew filtered in. Each of the specialists filtered in rubbing the sleep from their eyes.

"If you knew everything about the mission then you wouldn't have any need for me!" Lieutenant Karmann grinned as he lead the bridge crew in, having heard your conversation. The short spook walked over as he rubbed the cryo-chill out of his hands. "Ready for the mission?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. How much longer until we drop back into realspace?" You asked, hoping to get an answer from your AI.

"We're right on time." Your navigation officer answered for your AI as she dropped into her seat. "We're transitioning in thirty seconds."

"Any idea on what we're going to find when we get there?" Dyad asked, your XO playfully sat down on the camping chair, only to give you a grin and get up for you.

"Hopefully a bunch of living innies, an intact ONI base, and absolutely zero split-lip bastards." You answered your XO as you took the chair, and put your feet up on the stool. You grinned up at Dyad as she laughed, recognizing that you were getting her back. You put your feet down and freed up the seat for her.

"So just like last time, eh?" Dyad grinned as she picked up the stool and sat it next to your seat. You began to feel the prowler shudder as the vessel made ready to return to realspace.

The navigation officer called out the transition as the ship decelerated. "Exiting slipspace in three... two... one..."

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

And that's gonna be it! Sorry for not being able to post recently, but things IRL prevented me from doing much more. Not to mention that everything in Arcadia and potentially everything after it deserves its own thread. It's not that big of a loss, considering that this thread was meant to make up for things that weren't done last thread. Oh, and for the record, the nightmare was purely based on a bad roll and not any latent psychic powers. Arcadia is fucked either way, so there wasn't much in it that you didn't already know from previous posts.

If you have any questions, then feel free to ask. I’m open to answering any questions before the thread falls off the board.

>>4077566
Thanks for running

>>4077566
Thanks for the run, Thunderhead.
>the nightmare was purely based on a bad roll and not any latent psychic powers.
Well there goes that pipe-dream. Not that there was much establishing such powers in-universe anyways.

>>4077566

thanks for the run


with superior military ranks, it would be possible for us to start projects (prototypes ecc ..) as well ? Or it s only for the higher ranks like the Vice Admiral ?

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>>4062797
I usually hate dream sequences, but that was a very well done one. The inclusion of the boiling air and shockwave tearing apart the very tarmac made it feel very vivid.

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>>4079160
Sorry for the late reply, I'll repost this in the next thread if you don't see it.

The general system for RnD is going to be a two-part system of coming up with an idea, and then trying to find people you can pitch the idea to. The first part is suggestion based with limited feedback from me to help you refine your suggestion. There isn't going to be a table of options like in the skills system, it's all up to you. I'll tell you about what issues I can see so that you have an idea on what needs to be worked around. Of course, there will still be the option to roll with the original idea, but your chances of success will be lower.

tl;dr the more detailed and workable an idea becomes, the more likely it is that you'll get what you want.

>Example:
Saying "I want nuke rounds for the MAC" will give you a low chance of success, but saying "I want a MAC round filled with fission material that will compress on impact to make the material reach critical mass and cause a nuclear explosion" will get you a far higher chance of success.

Once you have an idea, you have to get it through bureaucracy and actually built. Your options for doing it on your own as a captain are limited, but you can still get small things through. Getting promoted will give you the option to get larger things built, but it's gonna be a while before you're getting entire ships built. A better option for you is to cultivate contacts in appropriate fields (shipbuilding, RnD, weapons tech, NAVSPECWAR, etc) you can go down the route of knowing people who can do it. This option gives faster results at a lower rank, but if things go wrong it's on your ass. The scientist you met at the promotion ceremony is one contact and you've already got him researching nuclear MAC rounds.

If you have an alternate idea for getting new tech, then by all means suggest it. Just keep in mind that you have regs to follow, so please don't do stuff that would get you in the Hague.

Before you ask, salvaging Covenant tech is a great research option. You can use it for a quick-and-dirty boost to more mundane research (EG, shield breaking weapons can be tested better if they have a shield to shoot), used as the basis for exotic research that needs a working example to copy (EG, warship-grade shields), or to directly upgrade your ship. Giving tech over for research takes longer, but you can actually fix it properly if it breaks. Meanwhile directly installing stuff gives you it instantly, but presents a bunch of sustainability issues. The best place to look will be in dead Covenant ships, but you'll need a good salvaging system and a lot of hanger space in order to get it out quickly. This actually gives hangers more of a reason to exist other than as ablative armor. Obviously there is the option to actually STEAL a Covenant ship, but good fucking luck doing something that the concentrated force of the entire spartan-II branch couldn't do with the rolls that this quest gets.

>>4085823
I like the system that you have planned out, although I'm wondering with our rolls if we'll live to see any projects come to fruition.

The main R&D idea I have for the UNSC fleet is the use of stealth technology on a few missiles per pod. It seems like it's a coating that is applied to the surface of a ship, is there anything stopping us from covering some missiles in each pod with the stealth coating so that while the enemy thinks that they've shot all the missiles down, they can't see a few that sneak by point defense guns? Or would this not be cost effective due to the cost of the stealth coating?

also next thread when?

>>4086447

While it's a decent idea for some missiles, it doesn't really work for your mainline Archer missiles due to the cost of the stealth coating, their low explosive yield. You'd need to make some changes to how the missiles would look in order to make them stealthy before applying the coating, but that isn't much of an issue. Getting the stealth coating will be an issue as it's a very heavily controlled substance. You can't just go to a local supply depot and get a tub of RAM coating, you'll need to get it from someone in ONI. Additionally, Archer missiles use conventional explosives, and while a single missile can cripple smaller human ships, it does not scale well to covenant ships, and that's not counting enemy shields.

It may work better with other missiles, but you need to think bigger.

Now >>4087229