- Footbutt
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- Exalted Member
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Professor Ellen Anders wiped the last lingering bit of tiredness from her eyes and straightened up when the lift doors chimed open. She walked into the small personnel lift and pressed the button for the Bridge, closing the doors.
Once she was released from her cryo-pod, Anders had raced to her lab down on the observation deck only to find most of her equipment on a hard restart. She knew her things were safe from other crewmembers meddling with the delicate artifacts, but it didn't rule out Serina poking her head in and turning off Ellen's computer gear. She had silently cursed the AI, knowing full well that Serina would just as soon wipe all of Ellen's recent findings just to spite her, let alone use some rant about shutting off the power to unused decks as justification.
The doors chime again, this time opening up to a fully lit corridor and other crewmembers in a state of self-collection. Anders let a smile tug at the corner of her mouth. She had always prided herself in combating the ill effects of cryo-sleep. She was even able to adapt her own cryo-pod to apply a thin layer of specialized coating to limit the itchiness and discomfort prone to one who wore clothing during the flash-freezing. It most likely was illegal to tamper with UNSC surplus, but the Captain had never voiced his concerns to her.
She moved quickly now, abandoning her hold on her white lab coat, and started for the bridge. She kept her pace somewhere between a trot and a fast walk. It wouldn't do her any good to look foolish in front of others, for that matter. The crisp sound of synced footsteps turned her head partway around.
"Excuse us, Ma'am."
It was the trio of Spartans that marched past, and Ellen mentally kicked herself for not picking up on their orderly gait. They, unlike every other person-- save her, appeared fully functional and walked with a purpose. She reckoned they were headed for the bridge as well, providing her with a little more data on the current chain of command. Forge was the leader on the ground, but now . . . Ellen frowned at her recollection. That damn sergeant had to go be a hero and save us all. She let out a sigh. Just when I was starting to like him. Well, if the Spartans were going to head up an assault team, it was fine with her. They had definitely proven themselves time and time again on that shield world.
Up ahead, the bridge doors hissed opened for the three soldiers, the two in back judging the distance so as to clear the doorway with a centimeter to spare on either side. Anders quickened her pace, hoping to make it through the door while it was still ajar.
Nope. It slammed shut and she took a sudden sidestep to avoid activating the sensor to open the door. She was sure the Captain was already filling the Spartans in on what Serina deemed important, but she needed to make her own entrance. Not in an arrogant way, Ellen explained to herself, just so everyone on the bridge knows that I'm as important as the next person. She cringed at her own semi-delusional thoughts and entered the bridge.
And was greeted by the most annoying sound she'd heard since her youth when she was pulled to a local dive and forced to listen to the stuff they called music. But unlike the rhythmic pulse of long ago, the static blaring over the bridge's speaker system seemed almost mathematical, binary. She saw Captain Cutter wave her over towards the tactical display, and noticed that the three Spartans huddled on the nearest edge were studying the floating blob before them. Serina stood on her pedestal, lifted chin and all, and smiled as the Professor took the only available spot around the tactical display.
The static cut off and James Cutter nodded to Anders. "Good to see you're not suffering too badly." His right eyebrow arched up. "Though I didn't expect you to take that long to get here."
Ellen pursed her lips. "I wanted to stop by my lab," she said, mechanically rotating her head to stare at Serina. "But someone already beat me there." She was pleased to see Serina frown, though briefly, and the AI opened her mouth to speak. But Anders cut off any side comment. "It doesn't matter. My equipment needs to have diagnostics run on them anyway." She pointed to the holoform before them. "What's this?"
The Captain sighed, more audibly than usual. "The source of that signal you just heard. But other than that, we don't know."
One of the Spartans, the biggest one, spoke up first. "Could this just be an interstellar outpost stationed by the Covenant?"
Serina shook her head, keeping the rest of her body completely stiff. "Highly unlikely. The transmission I just played was not under any of the usual Covenant frequencies, or UNSC frequencies. It's very weak and very low-fi." The image on the tactical display flickered once and the fuzzy image became slightly more detailed. "We're on an intercept course with it, thus the visual and audio scanners are updating every few minutes. But there's a very good chance we won't know what we're dealing with until we're right up on it."
"That's not very comforting," Anders murmured. She let her eyes fix on the semi-transparent blob and ran a thousand images in her mind in which to compare. While resembling a chewed-up asteroid, there was one side that was smoother than the others, as if worn down from thermal reentry. "What's your take on this thing?" she asked, partially wanting to see if her deduction was an original thought.
"Serina believes it to be an asteroid of some sorts," Cutter offered.
Anders eyed the Captain. "But that's not what you think," she inferred.
Cutter placed both his hands on the edge of the display, gently supporting his weight. "I'm not sure what I think now. With everything the Spirit of Fire has been through over the last few engagements, I doubt I'd be surprised if it was a Covenant Prophet heralding a peace treaty."
That remark earned an abbreviated shoulder bob from one of the Spartans, the other male, Anders noticed.
"Either way," Cutter continued, "it has to be some type of sentient lifeform."
Ellen felt a wave of stiffness shoot down her spine and it straightened her up. Thoughts of those parasitic beasts they battled on the shield world came right into the forefront of her mind. The new categorization of that species was still, since her freezing, being debated by a collection of medical officers on board. It was another wildcard to throw in the deck, but after dealing with both the parasites and the Covenant, Anders knew there was no way the two could have anything to do with one another. Still, it was unnerving to think they could run into those interesting specimens again.
"You alright, Professor?"
Ellen snapped out of her daze and gave a lopsided grin to the Captain. "Yes, Sir. If it will help, I'd like to run a few tests of my own on the signal." Out of the corner of her eye she could see Serina turning to face her, but Ellen avoided making eye contact. "I have some analysis equipment down in my lab that could clean up some of that noise."
"Sir, with respect, I believe that will not be needed," Serina chimed in. "As we get closer to the source our chances of interpreting the signal increase. We are still well outside weapons' range for any known capital ship, and if my calculations are correct, our sensors should be able to make complete sense of the anomaly in approximately 2.2 hours."
"We're still that far away?" Ellen blurted out. She studied the floating holoform again, trying to find some hidden detail she had not seen before.
"Yes," Cutter confirmed, "and we're going to need everyone ready when it comes time to deal with this." The Captain looked across the tactical display at the three soldiers. "I can't thank the three of you enough for sticking with us after evacuating the Arcadian civilians. None of us could have anticipated the path that has lead us here-- wherever 'here' is." He sighed and pushed himself upright. "After loosing Sgt. Forge and over half of my officers, I need some leadership my guys can follow on the ground. I know it may seem unorthodox, but ONI brass isn't here to debate with me." Cutter gathered his arms behind his back. "If you'd be willing to lead the taskforce team in the Sergeant's wake, I would greatly appreciate it."
The center Spartan remained unmoved for a few seconds. Anders tried to stare past the golden visor of his helmet to see the man's expression underneath, but she failed to do so. She could image the thoughts swirling about his mind.
Ellen, like the Spartans, was commissioned by the Office of Naval Intelligence, and knew the various protocols, or sometimes lack thereof, given on each assignment. But Red Team was a special case, being hauled off to track down Anders herself. I had gotten them into this mess in the first place. She dismissed the guilt within half a second, realizing that without the Spirit of Fire following and rescuing her, they never would have halted the Covenant from using those ancient ships.
While she assumed that Dr. Halsey was soaking up most of ONI's funding, she couldn't deny the valuable resource these super soldiers had become. She may be a total b-tch, but she knows how to get things done. She smiled internally. If Catherine ever heard me say that about her, things might get even more heated between us. Even with a compliment thrown into the insult.
The Spartan-- Jerome 092, Ellen finally remembered-- turned his head to his left then right, catching the glances from the soldiers at his sides. "While I feel we function better as a support group, I understand the circumstances." He straightened himself up to his full height. "Duty accepted. We are in your command, Captain." In unison, the other two Spartans snapped to attention.