>>6017840

>Check in with your fellow commanders. Now that the ship is secure, what’s the next step?
>Check in with the xenotech team. How do they plan to tackle the ship?
>Check in with your sensor officer. Are there any external threats that you need to worry about?
>Check in with Diana, your AI. How is your prize looking, at least from a systems perspective?
>Other (write in)

>>6017841
>Check in with the xenotech team. How do they plan to tackle the ship?
WB, Thunderhead. Been looking forward to this.

>>6017841
>Check in with the xenotech team. How do they plan to tackle the ship?

Ah ya, We're back.

>>6017841
>Check in with the xenotech team. How do they plan to tackle the ship?

I got 5 the eggheads are already on Caffeine IV drips.

>>6017841
>Check in with the xenotech team. How do they plan to tackle the ship?

How's it going my fellow gaylo appreciators?

>>6017841
>>Check in with the xenotech team. How do they plan to tackle the ship?

THUNDER LIVES

>>6017841
>>Check in with the xenotech team. How do they plan to tackle the ship?

>>6017841
>>Check in with your sensor officer. Are there any external threats that you need to worry about?
We're fucking back

>>6017841
>Other (write in)
>"Diana, i want the marines to grab the commander and high officers bodies for any special codes or data they might possess, control their personal quarters too. Can you tag the corpses ? Now lets see if we have forgotten anybody, there is discrepancies in their crew and troops list ? If there is, make a total count of all corpses and if it doesn't match the number control the ship structure for anything unusual. Done this proceed with controlling the ship last naval logs and communications, we need to know what they where doing here and if they had friends with them."
>"I also authorize you to download any of their data on board the cruiser after having shifted through it for potential viruses."

welcome back, lets get going to the main business and resolve the main problems of moving this ship.
- Checking their naval logs (we know their orders and all comms they have done with this !!)
- Finding the bodies of their leaders for anything useful (most of the command structure died at the start with what Diana did, so they did not have time for do anything !)
- Making sure there is no one else on board beside the official list of aliens (no funny special agents and the like)

>>6017840
>>Check in with the xenotech team. How do they plan to tackle the ship?

>>6017841
>Check in with your sensor officer. Are there any external threats that you need to worry about?
Paranoia saves lives

>>6017841
>>Check in with your sensor officer. Are there any external threats that you need to worry about?

>>6017841

>Check in with your sensor officer. Are there any external threats that you need to worry about?

My first 100 concerns are whether the Covie knows that we bushwhacked their carriers and are sending forces en route accordingly.

Also, welcome back QM!

>>6017841
>Check in with your sensor officer. Are there any external threats that you need to worry about?
Secure the perimeter.

“Comms, patch me through to the xenotech team.” You ordered, deciding that it would be better to get a handle on the ONI specialists before they stuck their noses in something they should probably stay well away from. Like a power main or something equally asinine.

It took a few seconds to connect the call, but before long your ears are graced by the sounds of an angry academic-type yelling orders at people to leave his equipment alone. You make a point to ignore that little hot potato for as long as possible, and loudly clear your voice before speaking to the man on the other end. “Doctor Cartwright, how are things looking over there?”

Doctor Cartwright was, according to his personnel profile, once a moderately well respected xenoarchaeologist from some inner colony world. Outside of some weird theories, he seemed on-paper to be a fairly average scientist. Before now, you didn’t really have an idea why he’d been shuffled out to a risky DESRON posting. But the snooty, nasally voice that answered you over the radio instantly gives you an idea about why. “All things considered, things are alright. Though I’d be a lot happier if these brutes stopped throwing our equipment around like damn grav-balls!”

“I’ll ask the marines to be more considerate of your equipment.” You lied as easily as you breathed, before quickly moving the subject along. “Speaking of which, do you have everything you need?”

“Hell no. We came here with the first load of equipment, and once everything has been delivered and a proper lab established, then and only then will the work begin.” The scientist snorted, sounding confident that you’d simply let him get on with his work. And to be honest, it probably would have worked, had someone not chosen that moment to turn your check-in call into a conference call.

A small beeping noise announced the arrival of a third caller, before a gruff voice butted into the conversation. “Commander Wells, Sergeant Robins, would you mind telling the eggheads to cart their shit somewhere other than our primary supply hangar? They’re getting in the way of pelican operations.”

“Maybe if your men helped us set up our equipment, then we’d be out of your hair a lot faster!” The scientist snapped back as you switched over to a security camera feed from inside the forward hangar. Sure enough, one of the two dropship-size landing zones was occupied by a pelican -your pelican- as a handful of men in ONI fatigues unloaded boxes of equipment, and started laying out what looked like a tent.

>Cont

>>6019078

“I’ve already had a look at the cargo manifest, and we simply don’t have the space to set up a mobile lab without impacting cargo handling operations. And personally, I’d prefer it if you kept that back aboard one of the ships. I simply can’t afford to spare the men to play lab monkey, thanks.” The sergeant fired back as you picked them out on the camera. She was standing in the make-shift FOB that had been set up on the island-like structure that separated the two sections of the hangar bay. And while you didn’t have the best angle, it looked for all the world like she was doing her level best to not look at the scientist.

“You’d sacrifice our time with the most important xenotech find since Harvest, simply because you can’t spare some space and some men? Commander, I thought the marines recruited men, not mice?” Cartwright asked, and you could see the female marine bristle at the remark. This would get ugly if you didn’t step in soon.

>Order the marines to make space. The egg-head is right, you can’t afford to sit on this find.
>Recall the xenotech team. If they’re gonna cause problems, then you can’t have them aboard the cruiser.
>Put a pin in this, for now. You’ll bring up the problem with the other commanders, and whoever will take responsibility for that cruiser.
>Other (write in)

>>6019079
>Put a pin in this, for now. You’ll bring up the problem with the other commanders, and whoever will take responsibility for that cruiser.

>>6019079
>Put a pin in this, for now. You’ll bring up the problem with the other commanders, and whoever will take responsibility for that cruiser.
Us, is the answer to that eventual question. I was hoping they'd at least have a desire to get the cruiser moving before any more show up.

>>6019079
>>Put a pin in this, for now. You’ll bring up the problem with the other commanders, and whoever will take responsibility for that cruiser.
"I intend for us to, hopefully, move the whole thing back home, so other than getting the thing moving safely time is of no object."

>>6019079
>>Put a pin in this, for now. You’ll bring up the problem with the other commanders, and whoever will take responsibility for that cruiser.

>>6019078

>Recall the xenotech team. If they’re gonna cause problems, then you can’t have them aboard the cruiser.

“Dr. Cartwright, we don’t HAVE the cruiser yet. When it’s parked in a UNSC orbit free and clear of the Covenant, then we HAVE it. Our primary, secondary and tertiary concerns are to bring this ship back in one piece. Your lab cannot impede operations before this ship is parked in a secure orbit.”

>>6019147
Supporting, at least tell Cartwright this.

>>6019079
>>Put a pin in this, for now. You’ll bring up the problem with the other commanders, and whoever will take responsibility for that cruiser.

>>6019079
>Other (write in)
>"The cruiser is not yet even mobile Doctor Cartwright and my marines are doing their best. But you are already there. So instead of starting some idiotic contention that just wastes time, where my marines and your team try to one up each other in moving vital crates before devolving in to a fist fight, you and your team shall remain on board the cruiser but assigned to a more spacious part. It is more work yes for your team, but we need the Cruiser hangar to be a place where supplies, equipment and men are very fast moving in and out, for the sake of this operation success. I am sure you can understand Doctor yes ? For the sake of efficiency since we are not in UNSC space, and i cannot have this supplies enter from anywhere else."
>"Once the hangar is better organized the rest of your equipment should be easily brought in. Now when you have moved your equipment out of the hangar, and in the designated part that Diana will tag for you, i have a suggestion for you since you will be not free to start your work. Something very important for the UNSC."
>"Can you look at the Cruiser commander and high officers corpses, and anything they might have on them or on their personal rooms ? Those corpses will be also tagged by Diana."

My idea is simple.
The ONI team is already in and they have some equipment. Bringing them out again will just slow things, because it means a pelican need to go in and wait for them to get in the Pelican and put all their stuff inside it.

So instead we just have them relocate on another part of the cruiser while they bring with them the stuff they have already brought in, and since they can't start their work because they need all their equipment, they can look on the VERY VERY important covenant corpses so Diana can connect to any data and special codes they find on said corpses.
Two birds with one stone.

>>6019079
>Write-in
Order the xenotech team to help the marines unload. Once they're done first, the tech team can have a squad of marines to help them unload and take a hangar or relocate somewhere else in the ship.

>>6019079
>Anons there's like 6 hangers.... just air drop the people in a different one... but once we land with the AI. We all warp to our random destinations then go to the black site.

>Goals are to load everything we need onto the cruiser to be able to jump to the drop off location.

“Doctor, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t cause my marines more problems.” You sighed as you considered how best to handle the situation. Sure, you could point out how making problems over who gets what space allocation in one of the ship’s four hangars was entirely asinine. Or you could point out how the ship was still nowhere close to being secure as long as you were anywhere other than a heavily reinforced ONI research facility, preferably one with its own dedicated super-MAC batteries. But pointing that out wouldn’t do you any good.

Thankfully, your respite came in the form of a communications request on the ship-to-ship channel. A quick check confirming your suspicions that your meeting with the other three commanders of DESRON 35 gave you the perfect opportunity to kick the can down the road. “I’ll bring this up at the commander’s meeting. I hope that the two of you will play nice while I’m gone?”

The doctor opened his mouth to say something, but you were already switching channels as he started to form the first word in his reply. The moment you connected to the meeting, the head of DESRON 35 -commander Trafford- started the meeting.

“Good, we’re all here.” The commander stated, a slight edge in his voice telling you that, no matter what came of this meeting, he’d probably prefer it if you stopped sitting out in the void like sitting ducks. And on reflection, it was a sentiment that you certainly agreed with. “Now that we’ve secured the Covenant cruiser, we now need to tackle how we’re gonna get this thing back home. As such, I’ve asked the Longinus’s AI, Diana, to put together some proposals based on what she knows about the Covenant ship. Diana, the floor is yours.”

“Thank you, commander.” Your AI began, a small hologram of her appearing in the projector tank next to your seat. An act that you were fairly sure was being repeated on the three other destroyers in your flotilla. “Right now, I believe that there are three options available for how to get our captured cruiser back home.”

>Cont

>>6019941

“The first option is the simplest one. We’d stick with the data link between the Longinus and the cruiser, and we’d remote control the vessel back to UNSC space.” Diana began with the simplest, but one that set off alarm bells in your head as she explained it. “A small staff would remain aboard the cruiser for damage control and to serve as an emergency crew in case the data link is lost. But in the event of an emergency, this crew would be recalled either by pelican or by the cruiser’s own escape pods. This would be the simplest option, and gives us an easy way to move the cruiser within realspace. The biggest sticking point is when we jump to FTL. We won’t be able to maintain the data link through slipspace, so as soon as we dropped back into realspace we’d have to take the time to reestablish the datalink. However, if we ever had to cut our losses and run, we could easily do so. Especially if we didn’t put anyone aboard the cruiser in the first place.”

“How long would it take to get the vessel moving? Could we use it to move to a more secure location?” Trafford asked the question before you could. Even though relying on a datalink to get all the way back home would be a sketchy proposal, it could be useful to get you out of this system as soon as possible.

“Around half an hour, handling the slipspace drive wouldn’t be much longer than that. The biggest issue would be handling the slipspace jump data. Calculating and transferring the data would take a while.” Diana replied, before moving onto the next proposal. “The second option would circumvent that by placing a prize crew aboard. This would be led by a senior officer in the flotilla, and would be supported by a smart AI and a volunteer crew. Given my current experience with the cruiser, I would be the best candidate for that AI. The prize crew would man the cruiser, and would operate the vessel for the duration of our journey to the nearest ONI recovery facility. As the vessel was designed for alien occupants, the prize crew would have to undertake the entire mission without the use of cryopods. As such, we’ll have to provide them with enough supplies for potentially months worth of time in slipspace. This would give us the best amount of insurance against potential loss of control, while also allowing the cruiser to operate independently. However, I’m not going to lie and say that this would be a risk free mission, and the fact that we’d have to bring aboard a nuclear device to serve as a scuttling charge should be ample proof of that.”

>Cont

>>6019943

The AI paused to let the nuclear threat hang in the air. It made sense, in a certain way. It was already standard operational practice to scuttle a ship by removing the safety interlocks on its reactor if the vessel was about to be captured. As you couldn’t rely on the Covenant ship having a similar system, bringing a nuclear device aboard would guarantee that if the ship were ever about to be lost, then you’d still be able to deny it to the enemy. But even so, the prospect of spending a cruise with an armed nuclear device didn’t sit well with you.

“The final option is one that only became available following a detailed assessment of the cruiser’s structural design and systems layout.” Diana began again, piquing your interest once more as a pair of blueprints were projected onto your screen. The first was an Able class destroyer, the same as the Longinus; and the other was a representation of the Covenant cruiser. A series of sections on the outer hulls of both vessels were highlighted in flashing green as your AI started the final briefing. “As you all know, all modern UNSC vessels are designed with hardpoints on their dorsal and ventral sides. In the event that the vessel is crippled, another UNSC ship can dock, lock systems, and carry the wounded ship away. As it turns out, Covenant ships have a similar system, which we may be able to exploit to allow a ship to control the cruiser directly.”

“But it would leave us a vessel down, rather than half a crew down.” You pointed out, seeing the problem with the third option right off the bat.

“But it would also allow us to maintain the best level of control over the vessel, while also having a slipspace-capable lifeboat in the event of an issue. On the balance of things, I’d say the loss of one destroyer’s fighting capabilities would be worth it in order to have better control of the cruiser, should push come to shove.” Diana replied almost instantly, and with a conviction that told you that she probably had the numbers to back up that statement.

>Ask a question about one of the options (write in)
>Suggest something else (write in)
>Sit back and listen to the discussion.
>Other (write in)

>>6019944
>>Ask a question about one of the options (write in)
"Presuming we've latched onto the cruiser with a destroyer, would that destroyer be able to make the guns work? All the firepower on a Covenant cruiser might be able to make up for the lack of maneuverability inherent in such an idea if a fight happens."

>>6019944
>Sit back and listen to the discussion.
I say we go with the final option. It's essentially what Cortana did with the Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice and it gave her pretty robust control over the ship's weapons systems, being able to effectively control them better than the Covenant themselves. Weld our ships together and jump out. We'd be able to utilize it's shields, slip space, and weapons as our own for the duration of the trip.

>>6019949

This is a relevant question to ask and I’d support the ship-joining method if we retain control of the Covenant ship guns

>>6019944
>Sit back and listen to the discussion.

>>6019944
>>Sit back and listen to the discussion.

>>6019944
>Ask a question about one of the options (write in)
"Excellent proposals Diana. For your final option do you already have a plan in mind on how we can accomplish the lock properly ? Even with similarities, its not certainly something standard. And in case of emergency, how fast would we be able to detach from the cruser if needed ?

>Other (write in)
>"Moving on after we resolve this decision, there is the question of which path we want to take for get home. And i think the covenant might have helped us on that. Diana what you have found so far from the cruiser naval logs and the data recovered from the cruiser officers ?"

>>6019949
support write in economy

>>6020225
Support
Also, we should probably do a local scan using the battlecruisers sensor vanes.

>>6020225
>>6019944
>support
>Suggest our ship does it. And our ai controls the covenant ship.

>>6019944
>>6020225
>support

"Excellent proposals Diana. For your final option do you already have a plan in mind on how we can accomplish the lock properly? Even with similarities, it's not certainly something standard. And in case of emergency, how fast would we be able to detach from the cruiser if needed?” You started off the questions by focusing on the middle ground option, as you had the most questions about it. The remote control and prize crew ideas were both fairly simple concepts. But the prospect of mating a human and an alien ship together intrigued you.

“Locking on would require us to tackle two distinct problems, the mechanical connection and the systems connection. The mechanical connection would have to be handled first, and that would require some… creative problem solving.” Diana began, before the two naval plans shifted, zooming in on the hardpoints. On the human side of things, a series of covers were removed, and a series of titanium-A blocks were rotated into position. Meanwhile on the covenant ship, a series of needle-like blades extended from the hull. “Both UNSC and Covenant hardpoints rely on vacuum welding to achieve a mechanical connection between two vessels, before using either a short-range laser-comms node or umbilicals to link systems. Which is fine if both ships are made out of the same material and have the required umbilical ports, but unfortunately Covenant vessels aren’t made out of Titanium-A battle plates. As you’re all aware, we don’t currently know what their armor plating is made out of, which means that unless we can get the plates to weld together, we’d have to rely on mechanical fastening and compressive force to hold everything together. I’ve pitched the problem to the Longinus’ chief engineer, and he’s suggested salvaging material from either the destroyed rebel corvette or the destroyed covenant cruiser to help facilitate the process. Either by using them for welding trials or to begin construction of a mechanical brace.”

“Would that even be possible out here? Last I checked, none of us had brought a drydock with us. Not to mention that it sounds awfully permanent.” The commander of the Galaxy asked, their robotic voice making it hard to attach either a face or emotions to their words.

Unfortunately for them, Diana wasn’t interested in playing around. “Irrelevant. I believe that the work could be accomplished by a combination of standard repair drones and the flotilla’s existing engineering staff. It may take some time, but I’m confident that achieving a mechanical connection would be possible. As for severing the connection, a few bricks of C-twelve and a hard thruster burn should be able to blow through the connection on either side.”

“And connecting the electronic systems?” You butted in, bringing the conversation back on topic.

>Cont

>>6020835

“In theory, it would be as simple as running over a few armored umbilicals and splicing directly into the cruiser’s electronics grid. Sort of like how UNSC vessels dock with each other for underway replenishment, except we’d be transferring data rather than fuel. They use fiber-optics, which operate on the same principles as our own systems. So splicing in shouldn;t be a problem. As for the bandwidth we’d get, I don’t really know. This is unknown territory, and I’m not an engineering AI, sir. ” Diana replied with a verbal shrug, one that her holographic avatar acted out as she tacked on the final statement.

“How much time would it take to join two ships together, compared to simply sending over a price crew?” Commander Trafford asked, the unspoken point of ‘would all this extra effort be worth it’ going unsaid.

“I can’t put a solid estimate on how much time it would take to join the cruiser and a suitable destroyer together, but it would be a substantially longer time than setting up a prize crew. A prize crew would only need supplies and temporary living quarters brought aboard, and a suitable computer host system for a smart AI to run the ship. Meanwhile, joining the two vessels together would potentially take days worth of work.” Diana replied, before instantly giving another reason to justify the effort. “However, joining the two ships would give a far better basis for controlling the cruiser, as the AI that would be doing the heavy lifting wouldn’t be confined to a portable AI matrix and a few networked computers.”

"Presuming we've latched onto the cruiser with a destroyer, would that destroyer be able to make the guns work? All the firepower on a Covenant cruiser might be able to make up for the lack of maneuverability inherent in such an idea if a fight happens." Commander Buckwood of the Achilles finally spoke, focusing on the tactical considerations.

This time, the AI didn’t have a definite answer. “Maybe? Depending on where the connection was made, we’d inevitably block some of the pulse laser batteries, and potentially some plasma torpedo tubes. But ultimately it depends on how much bandwidth we can get out of the umbilical connection.”

"Moving on after we resolve this decision, there is the question of which path we want to take to get home. And I think the covenant might have helped us on that. Diana, what have you found so far from the cruiser’s naval logs and the data recovered from the officers?" You gently nudged the topic along, giving Diana a chance to show some data that she’d extracted from the ship to strengthen her argument to fuse two ships together.

>Cont

>>6020838

“Nothing so far. From what I’ve been able to gather the ship relies on data units built into the combat harnesses of the crew for key authentication. Doctor Cartwright and his team should be able to get that sorted once their lab is set up. But until then, we don’t have access to sensitive data storage.” Diana shook her avatar’s head as she replied, before allowing the conversation to drift back to the topic of how you were gonna get the cruiser home.

The barrage of questions and answers continued for another fifteen minutes before Trafford was satisfied that the meeting had run its course, and brought the meeting back to its original topic. “I’d say that covers both of the options in detail, so now we just need to decide on what to do. Galaxy, what’s your take on this? How should we handle that cruiser?”

“If we’re gonna move that ship, I’d suggest remote controlling it somewhere safe, and then trying to work on splicing a destroyer to the cruiser. I wouldn’t feel alright with putting men aboard that vessel without having a way to evac them.” The commander of the Galaxy replied, taking you a bit by surprise. You would have thought that they’d be opposed to the idea, owing to their earlier concerns. Though given how their voice filter betrayed no emotion, and you didn’t have a visual link, you cut yourself some slack.

“Achilles?” Trafford moved onto the commander of the other Able-class destroyer in the flotilla. You saw what your CO was doing, he was getting the less vocal commanders to lock in their opinions before either you or him could speak.

“Personally, I think that we can’t afford to waste time trying to splice two ships together when the Covenant could be on the way here right now. We should set up a prize crew, get them set up aboard the ship, and head for home as soon as possible.” Commander Buckwood replied, taking the more skittish approach. And you absolutely understood his point, even if you had your own reservations about it.

Finally, it was your turn to speak. “And Longinus, what’s your call?”

>We should combine the cruiser and a destroyer. It will take time, but the benefits outweigh the risks.
>We should send over a prize crew. It’s quicker and easier than messing around with trying to join two completely different ships together.
>Undecided. I still have some questions to ask (write in)

>>6020839
Can I do a write-in?
>Prize crew to a safe location then splice together a UNSC ship to the battlecruiser
If not then
>We should send over a prize crew. It’s quicker and easier than messing around with trying to join two completely different ships together.

>>6020843
Write ins are always an option (within reason)

>>6020843
Support this write-in. Get to a safe system and then get set up.

>>6020854
Perfect, I'll stick with it then. Seems like a good middle ground. Send some people over to get it moving and give us some time to set up something a bit more permanent.

>>6020843
Seconded, I like this idea the most.

With the caveat of putting our AI and second IC on it

>>6020892
Dyad was pretty miffed about the idea of us heading over when the boarding action was still ongoing. She'd probably be up for it if we don't.

>>6020843
Support, on the condition that we still check out the destroyed battlecruiser.
It likely has systems the Navy could use to upgrade or get the UNSC Infinity made faster. And if they don't want to use it in that capacity, then it can still be used to upgrade an existing ship.

>>6020924
As it's closer than the corvette we'll have to use it to pull weld blocks from anyways. No reason to do more than that though considering we have a fully functioning twin to it in the palm of our hand. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

>>6020929
Of course, the twin is much more valuable. My reasoning for wanting to break down the destroyed battlecruiser is that if we found parts of its shield systems still functional, a pinch fusion drive or a still intact borer could give the navy more immediate results. Since the fully functional Battlecruiser will most likely be for research rather than repair/upgrading.

Who knows? Maybe the destroyed one is less destroyed than we think. (If we roll well lol)

>>6020843
+1

>>6020843
Supporting

>>6020843

I second.

>>6020843
support.

>>6020843

Good logic here, I support

>>6020843
>>6020839
support i like this

>>6020948
I get it, good chance to maybe scavenge some serious equipment. One big problem is that we already did roll well, so well we managed to detonate the reactor and vaporize half the ship.
From thread 17:
> A massive cloud of boiling plasma engulfed the aft and middle of the ship, either vaporizing or flash-boiling anything it caught.
>And as one, the Loningus’ bridge crew burst into cheers. Lieutenant Bergen triumphantly calling the kill, his kill. “It’s down! Direct hit to the reactor, blew that bugger in half.”

File: 1600px-HR_CCS_layout_ref.png (970 KB, 1600x900)

970 KB PNG

>>6021270
True. That is a good point. But as you point out, it was the aft and middle sections. The front section should still be salvageable.

To my surprise, It still holds a lot of potential value. Checking on the Halopedia, it is likely where the plasma lance is located.

In this image, It mentions the front holds "energy projector 2" The wiki says Energy Projectors are Plasma lances, Excavation beams, and Plasma beams. But the image refers to the plasma beams separately in the front as well, independent of this second energy projector. The gravity lift section we also know is the excavation beam.

(cont)

File: HWF_T&R.jpg (369 KB, 2800x1200)

369 KB JPG

>>6021392
>>6021270
Secondly, there is another image showing the interior of the ship.

This image shows the sensor vanes, which on their page says they are a form of hyperscanner network. It also shows the secondary pinch fusion reactor is situated in the front section as well.

In total, this would mean the front section holds the plasma lance, the plasma cannons, a pinch fusion drive, the hyperscanner network, and potentially(?) the computing systems of the ship. It also being the bridge of the ship.

A lot more than one might think at first lmao. If the front survived of course.

>>6021392
>>6021395
You're right, there's a shitload of value in that wreck. Wrecks of which the UNSC would have had access to for 20+ years at this point around Harvest. We already have the largest reward we could possibly claim in the situation. Trying to cut out heavy equipment from the wreck is just a massive waste of time and man power better used to getting the ship we already have to a safe distance. At best we manage to pull barely functioning duplicates of equipment we already have in working order and maybe don't get jumped by another patrol. At worst we get our shit pushed in by a response group of ships we have no hope of actually beating.
Stop being greedy.

>>6021395
I think if it comes has an option it would include an estimate of time. Right now we are at a few hours after engagement probably. And we are bringing inside UNSC crew, marines, equipment and supplies for make it operational to use. That would take at least a few more hours.

So something like this (i included stuff we want to done for obvious reasons):

Engagement Ends
- Bringing through the hangar : UNSC materials, supplies, equipment, people (crew, marines, officers). (3-4 hours ?)
- Bringing in an AI or just connecting with cables cruiser to a destroyer (1-2 hours ?)
- Bringing in the rest of the ONI black site team equipment and setting them up not in the hangar (1 hour probably)

- Sending engineers and repair drones teams to get in and cut ship weaponry/machinery from the cruiser parts that arent on fire (probably 1 full day for being generous, we would be sending them to work in a ruined/burning work alien enviroment, that could break/detonate further)


>>6017840
>Of course, you still weren’t out of the woods yet. Even if the ship was secure, and it’s sister ship had been reduced to a hunk of burning metal on a tall elliptical orbit around the system’s star

From the first thread post this is the current condition of the other cruiser. Personally for the destroyed cruiser, i would only check with a drone if smaller stuff can be found and grabbed. But quickly and with no risks for human life. No big investments of time are needed for the burning wreck, especially when we still need to read through the cruiser naval logs and command staff data (learning if there are other fleets and ships in nearby systems, their patrols etc... is essential for get out of here)

>>6021400
Fair point? I don't know how to feel about it. You have a good point that there likely exists other wreaks out there. But researching it, I can't find any mention of a Ket pattern or larger ship destroyed before our kills. The battles within the Harvest system that have been shown had 1 Rasus interdictor for the first battle, with two Ket battlecruisers and "multiple" (2 shown) Sinaris destroyers present in the naval forces of the second attack.

The largest quantity of wreaks I've been able to find up until this point is the battle for Psi Serpentis. Most likely the battle you are referring to casualty-wise. But I don't think any of those ships (which Ket battlecruisers were mentioned to have been in) could have been salvaged. As they died from flying inside of the gas giant when it was turned into a sun by Cole. So I feel like you might be overestimating the quantity of vessels that were salvageable from before this. (If I'm wrong please correct me)

But fair. Time is probably more on the covenant side than ours. So I concede. It would've been great if we'd found something cool. But yeah overreach is overreach :/

>>6021416
Good points as well. I'll just support it either way then. Though I don't think my vote would change that much, with how much of a landslide it is winning by XD

>>6021472
I didn't mean Ket's specifically, just general Covenant ship wreckage that the UNSC has had access to over the last 23 years of the war. Not every engagement has a listing on the wiki or even more than a passing mention on one of the ARGs. A lot can be left to inference as we know that the UNSC had a hell of a time reverse engineering even simple shit like plasma pistols. Even energy shields took over a decade for Halsey to figure out and only happened by chance after someone managed to take apart an out dated point defense gauntlet that had a manufacturing defect.

I don't mean to come off as overly antagonistic, and I appreciate that you're willing to dig through the wiki to learn more about the setting. But there's a reason why the war was such a big shitfest for the UNSC and it was mostly because the one thing the Covenant managed to do well on their own was asset security.

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>>6021480
I mentioned Ket cruisers specifically because I was mostly thinking about the Plasma Lances the Ket & larger ships carry. Because back in thread 6 we(I wasn't there back then) came up against a battlecruiser as well.

In that battle, the cruiser we were facing was likely an Elefen-pattern battlecruiser. It used a "blue energy projector" which was likely a Plasma lance as well. So I thought about it and concluded that the UNSC might not even know the difference between the Plasma Lance and Plasma cannon. Since most likely anyone who got into a fight with a ship large enough to field a Lance likely didn't survive to show its data back in UNSC space. As you said, Not every engagement is listed as most ended in catastrophic failure. Thus, I just thought it might've been prudent to get more lances (and general weaponry) back if possible. But yeah... We keep priorities.

...Also because I had a faint hope it might be fitted onto our ship. It likely wouldn't of course. But a man can dream of something cool.

And thanks. I am trying however I can. As a newbie to Halo, I've been trying to learn whatever I can wherever I can :)

>>6021499
>Also because I had a faint hope it might be fitted onto our ship.
Absolutely something to keep on our ONI wish list. And if we didn't have the more substantial prize it would have been something to ask the xenotech team about.
And as a consolation prize, it is currently 2548. I'm sure we'll have access to a few late late-war retrofits after this haul. Maybe we could even steal a pair of hangar modules from a frigate to expand our fighter compliment.

>>6021522
Nah I just want 2 squads of Spartans. And a larger ship to wreck shit with.

>>6021525
>And a larger ship to wreck shit with.
Cruisers are the next step up but they're difficult to get into. Have to be a line Captain to get into one but you can't become a line Captain without one already being available which is why we ate the demotion and took the Able (the largest ship we can have as a Commander). Keyes was stuck as a Commander for something like 17 years on a destroyer before he managed an impossible feat at the same time the Navy/ONI needed a poster boy for RED FLAG.
>2 squads of Spartans
No idea how Thunderhead will handle it but prior to '53 Spartans don't get stationed on a ship for no reason. Could get assigned on a mission with them though as Meridian part 1 is coming up and I know at least one fireteam was deployed there.

>>6021539
I mean, isn't pirating a whole covenant cruiser kind of an impossible feat? Then again, the guy in charge of this op might get the credit.

>>6021522
fighters and odst, alongside more crews and marines is something i want too. Probably even that ONI Prowler vehicle.

Frankly i might push for get those 3 : fighters (another weapon in space, and another support for ground. Cool fighting) not sure which type of them, odst (plenty of them around and we can access to them right away, also good soldiers) and ONI Prowler (stealthy ship nice)

>>6020839
>We should send over a prize crew. It’s quicker and easier than messing around with trying to join two completely different ships together.

>>6021544
>kind of an impossible feat?
You're not wrong. But the other half of the equation remains, is there a cruiser available for us to snag out from the nose of someone higher on the list? And yeah, not sure how the credit for the capture is going to work. Might inadvertently bump Commander Trafford up a paygrade and hull tonnage if he's better at politicking than us.

>>6021545
Good choices, and by prowler do you mean subprowler? We can fit a Black Cat on our ship, or hell maybe even an early Winter-class but a full blown prowler is a bit too big for us. DESU I really just want an actual fighter wing to screen for us and maybe some ODST's and a MAC upgrade. Like a proof of concept RED FLAG mod.

>>6021548
probably
i don t remember the name of the thing at the moment. It was in the option before this mission start is not the big one. is like pelican size i believe

>>6021548
The credit of the capture is not likely to go only to one person. We are basically all of similar rank, Trafford is just a bit higher here, and in charge of the mission.

The full report would show our initiative, and the fact we used the capabilities of the Longinus and Diana for take on the Cruiser. The orders for the boarding where also done all by us, and for first time boarding a Covenant Cruiser it went quite well. Dead and wounded of all kinds where all marines, and only a dozen. For hundreds of dead covenant in exchange.

Anyone high in command of all military branches of the UNSC and Government (this shit is getting directly sent on the tables of important people in the UNSC and any high heads of military) will want to see the entire mission report to the micron, is too much heat for attempt politicking.
Which means Norman is definetly someone getting more serious attention, if what he did already wasn't enough for have someone say "keep an eye on this fella".

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>>6021548
>is there a cruiser available
But anon, we have one right here!

>>6021563
Carlos!
Actually that might not be far fetched, if shit got harry and nothing changes for the better by Reach I could see us getting to command it for some glorious last stand or in support of RED FLAG.
>>6021559
Good assessment. And yeah we're already on Stanforth's radar so who knows who else might have an eye on us. Hopefully it's not bad attention.
I went back and checked, and it was a toss up between the Black Cat and the salvage team. Wouldn't mind having the Cat back but salvage is going to be putting in plenty of overtime for us.

>>6021563
Kek beat me too it. Bet the hinge heads would be super confused watching a covenant cruiser drop on them and start blasting.

>>6021522
personally, my biggest wish is still for a Point Blank class cruiser. If we were to get one of those, then with some potential upgrades we'd be a force to be reckoned with. As you mention >>6021539 we likely aren't going to be given a normal cruiser either. Since there aren't enough to go around. But ONI likely has at least a few in storage for their... favored captains.

>>6021832
I wouldn't mind a Point Blank but it's a massive step down in tonnage from an Abel and likely has a MAC comparable to a Paris rather than a cruiser though it does have more Archers which are IMO a lot less useful that a MAC in ship-to-ship combat.
Also the point blank is wildly inconsistent in it's given specs with it's size compared to other ships. IN Silent Storm one can hold 800 ODSTs despite being smaller than a Charon which is the the closest the Navy has to a transport frigate.

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>>6022048
There is a split, yes. Personally, I value the opinion of the Sins Of The Prophets creators more so since they were the ones who made the Point-Blank into a class of ships rather than just a singular ship.

SOTP has made all of the stats, weaponry, and capacity of the Point-Blank with the idea of the ship being 1.3km long. This would put its length between a marathon class and an autumn class size-wise. The split is because the official encyclopedias all go with the original length of 485 given to the Point-Blank ship. Something hilarious with the capacities that that original Point-Blank was mentioned to have. Which is why the SOTP developers scaled it up to be a cruiser.

I go with the cruiser length personally. Since otherwise the original Point-Blank would need to have non-Euclidian insides to fit everything. (It would also mean the MAC would be much better than the smaller version)

I also think we have a high likelihood of being put into one. Since we've continuously shown a willingness to work with ONI, and have shown ourselves to be competent in both battle and unconventional tactics. Thus we probably have a high likelihood of being recruited into the prowler corps. Agents have been given this type of position for less after all.

>>6022108
>of being recruited into the prowler corps.
I prefer the SOTP version to but the prowler corps would be the worst outcome of our career. It's a support unit and we're a wolfpack officer. You're essentially asking to stop being on the frontline, which is a stated character motivation, and being moved to a purely support function. Just to make sure, have you read the quest archive yet?

>>6022113
huh? To my knowledge, the prowler corp isn't just backline support but rather more specialized spec ops forces. But if I misunderstood, then fuck, that will be a problem.

And yeah, I read the entire archive. So I am fully up to speed on the quest. I know Norman works in the Navy to try and kill Covenant for what they did to his homeworld, and to avenge the death of his father.

I mentioned "Continuous willingness to work with ONI" as Norman has both given Huragok to them and finished the mission at Arcadia. Even attaching an ONI research lab to his Able-class destroyer. something ONI would likely see as an opening for more to join under their supervision.

If the prowler corps are indeed unable to fight at the frontline in any capacity, then yeah we shouldn't join them at all. It would probably be pretty hard though to get a Point-Blank outside of the prowler corps. Since nearly no one outside of ONI is allowed to touch their toys.

>>6022125
Prower Corps aren't spec ops, they deploy in support of the fleet for mine laying, recon, the like. The only time they're deployed on special operations is when someone in Section 3 or SPECWAR needs them for it like with Gray Team in the Cole Protocol. So it's not that they don't get to see combat, it's that their postings are typically only in support of other groups facing that combat.
And cool, glad you're caught up then.

“Personally, I think we should go for a mix of both ideas. Putting a prize crew aboard would help us get the ship moving, but we can’t exactly plot a long-range FTL jump home on Covenant computers. Not without violating at least a hundred regulations, including the cole protocol. Plus, if worst comes to worst, the cruiser can make an emergency jump on its own while the wolfpack holds off any pursuing forces.” You went for the middle ground between the two existing sides. It may have been seen as a cop-out maneuver, but you could see good reasons in both points. As such, it made best sense to combine them where possible.

Unfortunately, your point on network security earned you a disapproving huff from Diana, who theatrically put her avatar’s hands on her hips and pouted at you from the holographic tank. “Commander, I’ve been through those computers with a fine-tooth comb. I’ve already spotted several backdoors and monitoring programs, and I’ve neutralized them all. I’m confident enough in their safety that I’d be willing to partially host myself within the ship’s network.

“Nobody here doubts your skill Diana, least of all commander Wells. But I don’t doubt that you also know each and every rule and regulation regarding xenotech discoveries and the proper procedure for the recovery of Covenant technology. At the end of the day, we all have to follow the rules, even if we know that things are safe.” Commander Trafford spoke up in your defence, something that came as no small shock to you. It at least made you feel a bit bad about how you felt about him earlier in the mission, even if you still disagreed with him. Either way, your CO immediately returned to the topic you were all there for. “Either way, I’d say the splice plan takes it. Galaxy actual, would you be fine with swapping remote control for a prize crew?”

“Sure. As long as said crew is aboard quickly, and we leave as soon as possible. Buckwood is right, the Covenant will inevitably send a flotilla out here as soon as the cruiser misses it’s next scheduled report or whatever else these alien bastards use for check-ins. We need to be out of here [i]before[/i] that happens.” The commander of the Galaxy replied, reinforcing the point that nobody wanted to be around here when the Covenant realized that something was wrong with one of their cruiser teams. The crazy aliens had burned Arcadia to glass to send a message, none of you wanted to see what they’d do when it came to ensuring that their secrets didn’t get out.

You immediately agreed with that sentiment. “That would be for the best. We can get Diana ready for transport within the hour.”

“Now that you mention her, should we be sticking her aboard the cruiser in the first place? It seems a lot like placing all of our eggs in one basket.” Commander Buckwood spoke up again, taking issue with how you were risking the AI responsible for netting you the cruiser in the first place.

>Cont

>>6022462

“She’s got the most experience with that cruiser out of all of the AIs in this fleet. And all things considered, she’d probably be safer under it’s active shields. Unless you’d prefer for us to try and make our way home on our own?” You replied. If he wanted to play the security angle, the most pragmatic choice would be to send Diana back home on one ship, while the other three ships escorted the cruiser back home. But given how much of a game-changer the cruiser itself was, everything else was secondary to getting it home. Including the AI responsible for acquiring it.

Unfortunately, Diana must still have been smarting over your earlier comment. As she once again went against your argument. “While that may be true, the Covenant’s computer systems are… lackluster in certain areas. If given some time I could probably instruct another AI on how to handle the vessel’s computers, even if that would boil down to just sending them a software patch.”

“She’s your AI, Wells. It’s your call on if you want her on your ship, or off it.” Trafford stated, before sighing as you reached the next biggest issue in the meeting. “I know I’m going to regret this, but as we’re discussing who and what goes on that ship, are there any suggestions on who should lead the prize crew? Preferably an XO rather than one of you three, but if you have a good reason for otherwise then I’d be happy to hear it.”

Transfer Diana to the cruiser, or keep her aboard?
>Send Diana to the cruiser. She’s got the most practical experience with the ship’s systems, and she’d probably be safer behind the ship’s shield generators.
>Keep Diana aboard. If push comes to shove, you can’t afford to lose your only smart-AI, especially if another AI can do her job with a software patch.
====

Who to lead the prize crew:
>You. This was your idea, you need to take responsibility for whatever happens.
>Dyad.You don’t trust anyone else in the fleet to do this, and a captured cruiser would be a hell of a first command.
>Nobody. You want to hear what the other offers have to offer.

(writing in extra justification for whatever choice you make will help sell it to the other commanders)

>>6022465
>Keep Diana aboard. If push comes to shove, you can’t afford to lose your only smart-AI, especially if another AI can do her job with a software patch.

>You. This was your idea, you need to take responsibility for whatever happens.

>>6022465
>Send Diana to the cruiser. She’s got the most practical experience with the ship’s systems, and she’d probably be safer behind the ship’s shield generators.
>Dyad. You don’t trust anyone else in the fleet to do this, and a captured cruiser would be a hell of a first command.
I'm fine with us doing it too but Dyad will have a conniption if we do. And I'd rather only make one of the three most important people on the ship be mad at us instead of two.

>>6022465
>Send Diana to the cruiser. She’s got the most practical experience with the ship’s systems, and she’d probably be safer behind the ship’s shield generators.
>You. This was your idea, you need to take responsibility for whatever happens.
We stormed it, we captured it, now we must take it home. There is no glory, only the future of humanity and the course of the war.

>>6022465
>Send Diana to the cruiser. She’s got the most practical experience with the ship’s systems, and she’d probably be safer behind the ship’s shield generators.
>Dyad. You don’t trust anyone else in the fleet to do this, and a captured cruiser would be a hell of a first command.

>>6022465
>Send Diana to the cruiser. She’s got the most practical experience with the ship’s systems, and she’d probably be safer behind the ship’s shield generators.
>Dyad.You don’t trust anyone else in the fleet to do this, and a captured cruiser would be a hell of a first command.

I'd personally like us to do it but this is the logical choice. So I'll vote for this

>>6022465

>Send Diana to the cruiser. She’s got the most practical experience with the ship’s systems, and she’d probably be safer behind the ship’s shield generators.

>Dyad.You don’t trust anyone else in the fleet to do this, and a captured cruiser would be a hell of a first command.

These are most optimal in my opinion. Not to mention, we have to command our actual ship

>>6022465
>Send Diana to the cruiser. She’s got the most practical experience with the ship’s systems, and she’d probably be safer behind the ship’s shield generators.
>Dyad.You don’t trust anyone else in the fleet to do this, and a captured cruiser would be a hell of a first command.

"And my reasoning for this choices ? The safety of the cruiser is an imperative for the UNSC has a whole, and Diana was able to interface through it quite well so far. If she is able to familiriaze herself further with the ship, then i believe our possibilities to bring the cruiser home increase further not to mention she might better use the Cruiser weaponry. This would leave the Longinus without a Smart IA, but is a sacrifice i am willing to make."

"Dyad my XO, will lead the cruiser. She is more than capable to lead in difficult situations and keep a firm grasp on the crew. I wouldn't give anyone else a task like this, so i put forward her to take this role. I will remain in command of the Longinus instead, i am confident enough in my crew capabilities to be able to finish this mission with the rest of the Wolfpack even without my AI and XO."

>>6022465
>Send Diana to the cruiser. She’s got the most practical experience with the ship’s systems, and she’d probably be safer behind the ship’s shield generators.
>Dyad.You don’t trust anyone else in the fleet to do this, and a captured cruiser would be a hell of a first command.

I trust them to do this.

>>6022465
>Send Diana to the cruiser. She’s got the most practical experience with the ship’s systems, and she’d probably be safer behind the ship’s shield generators.

>Dyad. You don’t trust anyone else in the fleet to do this, and a captured cruiser would be a hell of a first command.

Now, there is one unfortunate aspect. And that is the fact that if we are to have the ship melded together with ours as to bring it back home. We'll likely be away from the wolfpack for several weeks to potentially months.

Unless we have the Ket battlecruiser be the leading ship in warp drive and thrust. Then we might potentially get back home in days instead of weeks.

Although, it will still take quite some time to get back to the wolfpack. Time in which we aren't doing shit that is helpful to the war effort.

I hope you guys took the time to read back all the way through again. I decided to reread all the way.

>>6023159
i have read some of the stuff back, not all. I will probably read all soon. Wells has an interesting life, the combat against that elite was really cool.

>>6023197
Got to the point where we got Diana, we killed the first AI we tried to pick.

>>6021565
>Hopefully it's not bad attention.
Shouldn't be, with our record. But we are "near" ONI a lot so..... it wouldn't be strange. They would be still on humanity and UNSC side if nothing else. Just either cold stone killer or cruel stone killer variety.
>but salvage is going to be putting in plenty of overtime for us.
Possibly, still a Black Cat would be nice. Eitherway i remember anons back then wanted odst's under us, and re-reading it confirms it. In more than one thread. I feel like we should get them for that. And fighters too, fighters i already said why.
Damn we need to keep our crew under us if we switch ship, we had good crews and could make them veterans. I wouldn't mind staying in the Longinus maybe we can put more upgrades on her.

>>6023507
i am re-reading when Dyad was in charge and Wells was a sleepy head.

>>6024012
>I wouldn't mind staying in the Longinus maybe we can put more upgrades on her.
It's the largest ship we can get as a Commander, it definatly has the tonnage to spare for upgrades. Plus a lot of basic shit like hangars are modular on UNSC ships so we could probably snag some bays off a scrapped frigate and call it a day. The longer we stay on the same ship until a direct upgrade to a cruiser the better. It'll familiarize our crew and build up a stronger working relationship with them.

holy shit i forgot some of the sheer kick ass material of both Norman AND Dyad. We need to get them to do some muscle work and gun range shooting, when they have time. And also put some additional shotguns in the armory for them.


>>6024016
That would be good then. I think we need to try and keep under us more crew and marines, when we switch out to other ships i have noticed that we lose some crew and marines that had gained some experience and survived. I would prefer to avoid that if possible in the future.
If we can keep under us some experienced and veterans it would be great.

“I think that sending Diana over gives us the best shot at getting the cruiser home. As such, I’d also like to recommend my XO, lieutenant commander Dyad, to lead the prize crew.” You started without a second thought. You’d been thinking about this little issue ever since the rest of the commanders had agreed with boarding the cruiser. Someone would have to bring it home, and given that you couldn’t do it, that only left one other person who you could trust.

Unfortunately, even though you’d been thinking about the issue, the sudden announcement still came as a shock. You heard Dyad take a sharp, shocked, breath. And the meeting went quiet for a few seconds, before the unnamed commander of the [i]Galaxy[/i] snorted, and asked the question that was probably on everyone else’s mind. “That’s a bold play, Longinus. Care to explain your reasoning?”

“The safety of the cruiser is imperative for the UNSC as a whole. And as Diana has interacted with it the most thus-far, she has the most operational experience to work with. I’m confident that, once plugged in, she’ll be able to better familiarize herself with the cruiser’s systems to provide us with a valuable tactical edge, and by extension a better chance of bringing the vessel home. Plus, she’ll be safer once we bring the cruiser’s shields online.” You started with Diana, as you could give the best case for sending her over to the cruiser. Sure, she could make a patch or instruction guide on how to work with the Covenant computer network, but this was a situation where you couldn’t settle for less. As for Dyad, you had to go off feelings rather than concrete information. “As for my XO -whilst I can’t go into detail about specific situations- she’s the only person I trust to handle both the safety of the AI, and the cruiser. She’s more than capable of leading in difficult situations, including one where I was unconscious from combat injuries. As such, I’m confident that she can keep a firm grasp on the prize crew, regardless of the situation.”

“And what about you and your ship? Losing either your AI or XO is bad enough, but parting with both is a significant loss.” Buckwood asked, sounding genuinely concerned at the loss of both your AI and XO. Typically, there was a lot of overlap between the duties of the XO and the AI. The AI could exercise some authority over the crew, while the XO could verify the complex calculations that various bridge crewmen did as part of their responsibilities. Everything from MAC gun laying, to slipspace astrogation, and complex maneuvering. If you lost one, the other could take over in a pinch, but losing both entirely removed both capabilities, leaving you entirely reliant on your crew’s competence.

>Cont

>>6024265

Thankfully, you weren’t working with a green crew. Much of your bridge crew had been with you ever since your first mission aboard the [i]’Dawn,’[/i] and you were more than willing to boast about that. “Thanks for your concerns, but I know my crew. A lot of them followed me to this posting from my last command. And given how my sensor officer was the one to pick up the signs about a possible Covenant threat in the system, their level of competency and skill should be obvious to see. I’m confident in their capabilities to finish this mission, with the rest of the wolfpack, even without my AI and XO.”

>roll 2d100+10, best of three

Rolled 22, 57 + 10 = 89 (2d100 + 10)

>>6024266

Rolled 14, 14 + 10 = 38 (2d100 + 10)

>>6024266

Rolled 52, 61 + 10 = 123 (2d100 + 10)

>>6024266

Rolled 18, 44 = 62 (2d100)

>>6024266

>>6024288
>>6024275
well thats good enough.
Whats the rolls for ? How long it takes for bring inside the cruiser the supplies, crew, Diana and the rest of the ONI equipment ?

>>6024288

Sort of mediocre-ish, hopefully this is good enough?

>>6024701
That's a good roll, average maybe. Mediocre would be worse.

In the end, you don’t think you did that good of a job convincing the other commanders. As your recommendation only spurred the other commanders into trying to push their own XOs into the position. At least, almost all of them. The commander of the Galaxy didn’t recommend their XO, and when asked about it they simply said that they were needed aboard. Which left only two other contenders, the XOs of the two other destroyers in the flotilla. And unfortunately, that left the three of you to argue in circles.

“UNSC regulations do require a ranking officer from a vessel’s command staff to accompany a ship’s AI for operations outside of UNSC controlled facilities. If we want Diana aboard, then Dyad would have to go with her” You pointed out, quoting the book at the other commanders.

Unfortunately, commander Trafford was just as well-versed in UNSC regulations as you were. “Except in extreme circumstances. I’d quantify this as an extreme circumstance.”

“And in spite of that, you want to send over an officer with negligible experience in combat operations.” Commander Buckwood wheeled around against the boss. At the very least, you and Buckwood could agree that you needed to assign an officer with combat experience to the post. Unfortunately, what exactly quantified as ‘combat experience’ remained a bit of a sticking point.

“Ideally, we shouldn’t need to assign a combat-experienced officer to this posting. If we’re ever engaged, the main priority of the cruiser should be to escape and return back to UNSC space.” Trafford explained, causing you to frown. While you could agree with the sentiment, you didn’t like the idea of having the wolfpack’s most potent combatant turn-tail and run at the first sign of trouble.

“And give up our best source of combat power? That would put the rest of the wolfpack at risk, and you know it.” You pointed out. Between the ship’s plasma torpedo batteries, plasma lance, and shields. The cruiser -if properly handed- could probably double the wolfpack’s firepower. It’d be an awful waste to get rid of it.

“You said it yourself, this is an opportunity that we can’t afford to lose. Even if that entails sacrificing a vessel in the process.” Trafford coldly replied, taking your earlier justification for seizing the ship in the first place, and throwing it back in your face.

“Enough.” The commander of the Galaxy finally spoke up, throwing their hat into the ring and ending the argument all together. “I don’t want to go around in circles again, so I’m just gonna throw my vote in with Commander Wells’ suggestion. At the end of the day, we stand a better chance of keeping the ship moving if we have Diana aboard, and the regs say that his XO has to go with her.”

“Is there nothing I can do to convince you?” Trafford asked the mysterious commander, trying one last time to get his XO the job.

>Cont

>>6026972

There was a short pause, before the commander of the Galaxy replied. “Sorry sir, but I’m afraid not. All of this arguing over who’d be the best XO doesn’t really matter if we don’t have the best possible AI to handle the ship itself.”

>Switch POV to Dyad, or stick with Wells?

>>6026973
>Dyad
This sounds fun.

>>6026973
>stick with Wells

>>6026973

>Dyad

Plus good practice for you, QM

>>6026973
Stick with Wells. If needed I'm sure Dyad will heed our orders if we get into combat.

>>6026973
>Stick with wells

>>6026973
>Dyad

>>6026973
>Dyad

>>6026973
>Dyad

The only thing I'm sad about is that we'll likely be out of the fight for a relatively long period traveling back to UNSC space after welding the ships together. Travel time with UNSC ships is pretty crap after all, even if we were to use the battlecruiser's drive and thrust system to get us back to UNSC space much faster since there will still be the travel back out here to the rim.
(as it means we have less time to do cool things and loot covenant ships.)

Also Thunder. After Diana gets access to the internal workings of the cruiser, can we make it a skill to try and roll for immobilizing covenant ships for potential boarding actions? I would love to see this become a thing we can do in the future :D

>>6026973
>Dyad
I am not sure of the POV change since Wells is heathy and alive, but i don’t mind switching for a while.

>>6026973
>stick with Wells

>>6026973
>stick with Wells

>>6026973
>Switch to Dyad
Good experiment, and we'll be Wells again eventually right? Sounds like fun!

>>6028454
Wells is the MC. We had some Pov changes in the past with Dyad, though when he was healing from wounds.

You are Lieutenant Commander Dyad, and you can’t believe your luck.

If someone had come up to you before the UNSC Longinus had cast off from it’s anchorage above Tribute, and told you that before the month was out you’d be on the prize crew for the first Covenant ship ever captured by the UNSC, you’d have called for a medical team. Everyone knows that the Covenant’s ‘death before dishonor’ bullshit usually means that they’re more than willing to blow themselves up before even coming close to losing a ship. Sure, people always talked about how neat it’d be to recover one of the advanced alien warships. But that had always been the same kind of likelihood as people who hoped that they’d see a peaceful retirement. Or people who hoped that the alien bastards could be negotiated with.

And now here you are, watching on as your commanding officers put the final touches on a plan to bring one of those massive warships back home.

Admittedly, you’re running on a few hours of sleep yourself, so you’re probably not in the best state to make an informed strategic judgment call. But you can’t be the only person to see the problems with this operation, right? Even ignoring how quickly Diana had taken control of the ship, or how convenient it was that most of the crew wasn’t wearing pressure suits, you couldn’t be the only one to be concerned at just how well things had gone so-far?

The Covenant hated leaving anything behind for humanity to take. They’d fight tooth and nail to recover crippled vessels during fleet actions, and would often destroy them if they had to flee the field of battle. And now you were expected to believe that they’d just ignore the fact that a hunter-killer team had gone missing?

You shook your head in an attempt to clear the paranoid thoughts from your mind. The navy shrink that had been assigned to you after the Arcadia mission had warned you that the loss of your eye could cause hypervigilance, which could easily turn into paranoia. Maybe it was your nerves getting to you. The cruiser would be your first command. Even if it was only for a few days or weeks while ferrying the ship back to the closest ONI recovery facility. As soon as you got there, hopefully the spooks in charge would assign one of their people to the ship, and you could get back to the Longinus.

“Dyad? Dyad!” Commander Wells called you back from your wandering thoughts. From the looks of it, the meeting had finished, which meant that your time left aboard the Longinus was limited.

>Cont

>>6029885

“Sorry boss, I must have zoned out. You were saying?” You asked as you fixed your CO and friend with a winning smile. Sure, he’d once again managed to drop you right into an assignment that’s guaranteed to put you at risk of moderate-to-severe bodily harm. But at least this time he was awake for it.

“I just wanted to see if you were OK with the operation. It’s your first command and all, and it’s a hell of a jump in displacement.” Wells gave you a sheepish smile, and you had to fight the urge to sigh. He’d gone from being the XO on a corvette to the commander of a frigate, a big jump in itself, but still small-fry compared to what he was asking you to do.

>“All good here boss, just raring to go.”
>“I’m a bit nervous. I’ve never commanded a ship before, and you wanna make it a cruiser?”
>“I’m a bit worried. Everything’s gone a bit too well, don’t you think?”
>“This is a shit order boss, why are you sending me?”
>Other (write in)

>>6029886
>“This is a shit order boss, why are you sending me?”
Does Dyad not enjoy going along with our BS?

>>6029886
>>“All good here boss, just raring to go.”

>>6029886
>>“I’m a bit worried. Everything’s gone a bit too well, don’t you think?”

>>6029886
>>“I’m a bit worried. Everything’s gone a bit too well, don’t you think?”

I do like this sort of byplay.

>>6029886
>“This is a shit order boss, why are you sending me?”

>>6029886
>>“This is a shit order boss, why are you sending me?”

>>6029886
>>“I’m a bit worried. Everything’s gone a bit too well, don’t you think?”

>>6029886
>“I’m a bit worried. Everything’s gone a bit too well, don’t you think?”
>“This is a shit order boss, why are you sending me?”

>>6029886

>“I’m a bit worried. Everything’s gone a bit too well, don’t you think?”

Dyad is obviously sharp and competent, and therefore is appropriately terrified

“I’m a bit worried. Everything’s gone a bit too well, don’t you think?” You replied with a shrug that you hoped was as relaxed as possible. Bringing up the fact that you were all probably marching head-first into a trap probably wasn’t a smart idea, especially when your boss was the one leading the charge.

“That’s why I want you on that cruiser, you’re the only person I know who can keep a handle on things if shit goes sideways.” Wells replied with a smile, but you weren’t convinced and he could tell. So he got up from the captain’s chair, and handed off navigation command to someone else. “Nav, you have the conn.”

“Understood, I have the conn.” The ensign on the nav console replied, but neither you or Wells were watching him. Instead, the pair of you were already making your way out of the bridge, and into some other part of the ship. Wells led you out, casually saluting to the two marines on guard duty as he passed, before leading you deeper into the ship.

As soon as the pair of you were around the corner from the two guards, you started speaking. “Not comfortable with talking about it on the bridge, boss?”

“I don’t think the office would like me bringing up Arcadia in front of them. Speaking of, how’s the eye?” Wells asked as he slowed down just long enough for you to catch up, and walk at his side. One of the little things he did to try and treat you as an equal, rather than his subordinate.

“Better, I guess. Though dealing with the reduced field of vision is still a bit tedious.” You replied, feeling a little bit self-conscious about the injury. If you’d been talking with any other officer, you’d have said that everything was fine. But the boss hadn’t kicked you off his boat as soon as you were injured, so you felt more comfortable being honest with him about the fact that you still weren’t used to missing around half of your field of view.

“You’ll get used to it. I’m sure of it.” Wells nodded, accepting both your report, and the fact that you’d given a quick and simple answer in order to get back to the real reason why you were talking here, rather than on the bridge. He led you into another corridor, before sighing and finally getting on with it. “Personally, I think this op is gonna go the same way as Arcadia.”

“Surprise aliens, or ending in a bloodbath?” You asked as the two of you made your way through the ship, the conversation only pausing for a few seconds as you passed some techs.

“Well we’ve already had one, and I hope we don’t get the other.” The commander replied as you rounded another corner, and made your way towards the ship’s accommodation block. “In truth, I expect something to go wrong. Maybe Diana missed some sort of failsafe. Maybe the ship has trackers on it, and it’ll ping a QRF as soon as the vessel jumps out of the system. Or maybe the ship is bait to try and find a human world.”

>write in

>>6030885
>Or, maybe, this really is a gift horse and we shouldn't look it in the mouth. Besides who'd we rather have on our ass for stealing the cruiser? FleetCom if we give up after already snagging the damn thing or the Covenant after dropping it off?
I'm not wholly sure how to stay in character with Dyad on this. She always seemed pretty trusting of our judgement.

>>6030914
>>6030885
>Support
Seems in character for her.

>>6030914
+1

>>6030885
>Write in
>".....Maybe i should reconsider what i said. Who would really let this happen in the Covenant ? They are already quite fast in their genocide and do not have issues in finding more worlds on their own, nevermind when catching ships that are too slow and don't apply the Cole Protocol properly. They don't need this at all."
>"The aliens we have been briefed on wouldn't do this, neither the ones of their special forces we killed on Arcadia despite being uncoventional forces. They were and are too proud. Too zealous."
>"I still can't go off of that feeling that the situation is too good. Something else perhaps ? Something in the ship ? Or this system ? Perhaps i am overly worrying and not considering our efforts, and we genuily did find a weakness to use against them and we were the first to use it in all the conflict. And the Covenant simply weren't prepared to us and none of them will arrive immediately here with a war fleet at their back. Its .......... difficult to believe that we gained another victory."
>"The ONI team and Diana should be able to find the answers we need hopefully."

“Or, maybe, this really is a gift horse and shouldn’t look it in the mouth. Besides, who’d we rather have on our ass for stealing the cruiser? FleetCom after already snagging the damn thing, or the Covenant after dropping it off?” You pointed out the simple fact that what’s done is done. You’d already put the effort into taking the ship, and you could hardly hand it back to the covenant, now could you?

“That still doesn’t change the fact that things have gone a bit too well. And given what we’ve just grabbed, they’re probably gonna drop a fleet on our heads.” Wells sighed, you turned to look at him, and for a second you saw a hint of tiredness, or something else just beneath the surface. But your commander caught you staring, and he quickly put on a poker face.

“Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it. Like we always have, boss.” You confidently stated, before gently elbowing your boss in the side and giving him a smile. “Wells. It’s gonna be fine. Come on, what’s gotten into ya? You’re starting to sound like Trafford or that onee Destroyer captain.”

He stared at you for a good few seconds, and for a moment you wondered if you’d gone too far. Not by comparing him to Trafford, but to the destroyer jockey who abandoned his post as soon as the going got tough. Wells just seemed to deflate for a bit, before shaking his head. “I guess it’s just nerves. Or maybe I’m just tired.”

“Come on boss, you wouldn’t have even thought about posting me to that cruiser if you weren’t confident in my ability to handle it alone, and you’ve been the boss for a lot longer than I have. We can do this.” You complained.

“It was my idea, Dyad. I should be the one taking the risk out there.” The commander grunted as he led you into another corridor, one that you recognised as the commissioned officer’s rest block. You figured out his destination as soon as you realized your location.

“I know, you’ve been repeating yourself like a glitchy AI. Look, whatever happens, happens. There’s no point worrying about something we can’t change. We’ll just have to deal with it.” You replied, forcing yourself not to roll your remaining eye, if only to avoid making yourself dizzy. Wells was a good man, but ever since Arcadia, he had an annoying tendency to want to do risky things himself. You kept the thought to yourself, if only to avoid an argument.

>Cont

>>6033053

“Maybe. But that doesn’t mean that I’m gonna be happy about it.” Wells replied as he reached the door to the captain’s quarters, and waved his hand over the touch-screen pad by the door. Thankfully, the Able-class Heavy Destroyers were insurrection-era vessels, and had been designed with both long-duration missions and crew comfort in mind. As such, the captain’s “cabin” was a bit closer to a small apartment than the broom closet you’d find on a Halberd or a corvette. They were good rooms, you had the suite’s sister on the opposite side of the corridor. Though unlike you, Wells had yet to settle in. Either way, the boss gestured for you to follow him as he made his way in.

>“So, what’s so important that we can’t discuss it on the bridge?”
>“Come on boss. What happened to the big man that I agreed to follow out here?”
>“Inviting your XO to your room boss? Aren’t there regs against that?”
>Other (write in)

>>6033056
>“Inviting your XO to your room boss? Aren’t there regs against that?”
>“So, what’s so important that we can’t discuss it on the bridge?”
I think a combination of these two would be good. Open up with the first as a way to lighten the mood. If not just the second will do.

>>6033056
>>“Inviting your XO to your room boss? Aren’t there regs against that?”

>>6033056
>>“Inviting your XO to your room boss? Aren’t there regs against that?”

>>6033063

Support - I think Wells and Dyad are too professional for anything risqué to occur but Dyad seems like the comedic type of the two

>>6033056
>>“Inviting your XO to your room boss? Aren’t there regs against that?”

Well, even if we do get into a relationship, the war is going so poorly I doubt they'd sack two of their finest naval officers.

>>6033056
>“Come on boss. What happened to the big man that I agreed to follow out here?”

“Inviting your XO to your room boss? Aren’t there regulations against that?” You asked as you stepped over the threshold, putting as much of an innocent tone on the question as you could possibly muster.

It took Wells a second or so to process what you’d just said, and he paused halfway through the cabin’s small kitchenette before turning to face you with a game winning poker face. He said nothing for a few seconds, before his surprise finally broke through, and he raised a single eyebrow at you. You couldn’t help but chuckle at the small display of emotion, and the chuckle quickly spread to your commander. The two of your laughed at the joke, before Wells lent up against the divider between the combined kitchenette and study. His features finally calm, and his shoulders relaxed. “Really?”

“Oh come on, you needed to lighten up a bit.” You said with a smile. The commander said nothing, but instead he shook his head. The two of you enjoyed the lack of tension in the moment for a bit longer, before you got back to business. “So, what’s so important that we can’t discuss it on the bridge?”

As soon as you said that, the smile dropped off Wells’ face. The man automatically switched back to the hardened officer that you’d served with for the past few years. “Three things. First up, I want to go over contingency plans. What do you plan to do if the wolfpack is engaged?”

“Shouldn’t be too difficult sir. The main priority of the mission is going to be getting that cruiser back home. If we’re engaged, I will join the battle line. But if the fight is unwinnable, or I receive orders from a commanding officer, I will break contact and return home independently.” You answered automatically. You’d been just as involved as your commander in the previous meetings, so you already knew the plan. And you knew that he understood that fact, so he was probably asking just to make an official record that you knew what was expected of you.

“Even if that means abandoning members of the flotilla?” Wells asked, keeping a neutral expression as he touched upon that unfortunate subject. It wasn’t a topic that a lot of officers enjoyed talking about, but it still had to be brought up before he could let you go.

“I think we all knew that when we agreed to this plan. I won’t like it, but I understand the strategic reason behind it. The mission, and the safety of the personnel under my command, comes first.” You replied, repeating the lesson that had been hammered into all UNSC officers at the naval academy. Sure, it was always heroic to put your ship on the line to save another, but that didn’t matter if it came at the cost of your own vessel, or the mission.

>Cont

>>6034038

“I think I already know the answer to the next question. But I need to ask anyway.” Wells started, a sour expression tugging at the edges of his poker face. You had a hit at what was coming next, but it still sounded almost surreal to be told it. “Due to our inability to guarantee the security of the cruiser’s computer network from Covenant intrusion, we’ll be requesting the deployment of a Shiva tactical nuke aboard the cruiser. In the event that the vessel is about to be lost or recaptured by the Covenant, you will be expected to employ the device, even at the cost of the life of all aboard the vessel. Do you understand the risks of the deployment of that asset, and your responsibilities in both the handling and employment of that device?”

“Boss. I may not have my neural plug yet, and I may never get one, but I’ve still gone through the exact same training as you. I understand that, in the event of the vessel being lost, it is my duty to both the crew and the UNSC as a whole to activate the vessel’s scuttling system. Be it through the use of a nuclear device, or by overloading the vessel’s reactor.” You reminded the commander, reaching back and rubbing the back of your head to emphasize that even though you didn’t have a CNI implant, you’d gone through the exact same training on the responsibilities of an officer. Including what you needed to do, if the worst came to pass.

“Thank you, Dyad.” The commander replied, smiling a bit and letting out a small breath at your near-textbook response. With that matter sorted, he was free to move on to the next issue. “Second off, I want to know who you’re going to pick from the bridge crew to join you aboard the cruiser.”

You raised an eyebrow at your boss, a bit confused by his next point. “I thought that the Longinus’ would retain it’s bridge crew, so that losing DIana isn’t as much of a blow?”

“But Diana will have her hands full aboard the cruiser. Sending over a trained ensign from the Longinus would help her out significantly. Besides, we have enough personnel aboard for shift rotations for a reason.” Wells explained, and you could see his reasoning well enough. Losing someone -say, a navigation officer- would force the other two people on the navigation station to switch to twelve hour shifts to cover for that loss. It’d put a greater strain on the crew, and usually that would be compensated for by the ship’s AI. But even having a single ensign aboard would help Diana significantly, and could improve your chances of getting the ship home.

>Take some members of the Longinus’ bridge crew. Wells is right, you’re going to need all the help you can get.
>Leave everything to Diana. She’ll already be handling the cruiser, so the Longinus will need the crew more than you.
>Other (write in)

>>6034039
>Take some members of the Longinus’ bridge crew. Wells is right, you’re going to need all the help you can get.
We don't need many. Just one from the night shift to goffer for us.

>>6034039
>Take some members of the Longinus’ bridge crew. Wells is right, you’re going to need all the help you can get.
Take some, like 3-4. The Longinus has already been weakened enough and it almost feels like Wells is ready to die already in this mission (i really don't want him to die). Lets fix that growing concern by moving on, surely the hangar work, the ONI team work and bringing Diana inside the Cruiser will not take too even more time (they should be working has we speak, so a few more hours ?).
>Other (write in)
Take most of the Longinus marines and some of our technicians/engineers too, we are going to make it impossible to board the cruiser for the aliens. The Covenant are unlikely going to be able to even board it, but if it happens there are going to be marines in, with well defended positions, even more traps/surprises and killzones making any boarding a massive waste of covenant soldiers.

>>6034039
Take 2 ensigns: one for nav and one for sensors
Additionally, I think sending two people from the engineering team with one or more of the captured Engineers and one or two small marine escorts to patrol the vessel as one or two damage control teams might be a good idea. Even if nothing happens, it’s still a good way of getting people familiar with the structure of the vessel, and might give intel on potential places to aim for in similar craft.

>>6034159
Any boarding actions aboard the captured vessel and/or the Longinus are going to be harried by heavy direct manipulation of the life support systems akin to what we order Diana to do during our own boarding action. And given that the other commanders were watching what was happening, I’m sure they would engage in the same unconventional, asymmetrical strategy as well in the event their ships are boarded. I’d be a bit more worried about eating plasma torps and strike craft bombing runs than boarding at this point. Plus the current plan is to get out of dodge to relative safety and then stick the two vessels together. I do agree with the engineers and technicians though. It’ll likely help with figuring out how to make the combination happen more fluidly when it does.

>>6034039
>Leave everything to Diana. She’ll already be handling the cruiser, so the Longinus will need the crew more than you.

>>6034538
>Any boarding actions aboard the captured vessel and/or the Longinus are going to be harried by heavy direct manipulation of the life support systems akin to what we order Diana to do during our own boarding action.
Except we also did use killzones and creating well defended positions, traps and surprises during the boarding. And it helped quite a lot, a lot of covenant died thanks to that. It also helped the covenant in the armories to have well defended positions.
I am not interested in giving less defensive options in case of the cruiser being boarded. I prefer to have all defensive options available, in our hands immediately.

>using captured Engineers
That is remaining under lock, its a bad idea in a warzone when the enemy is a genocidal empire. It wouldn't exactly make the crew happy if you get what i mean, even when is a harmless sack. The ONI agent might also disagree and i frankly don't want to touch the murky waters of "who has control over that war prisoner".

>I’d be a bit more worried about eating plasma torps and strike craft bombing runs than boarding at this point
Boarding is still in the cards they could put. So the marines are better placed in the Cruiser than the Longinus. This is a sacred war ship, if they find us they will make at least a serious attempt to recover it no doubt motivated by religion and zealotry. I am confident there would be more than one zealot, pressing the point that a sacrifice of troops is acceptable for "washing away" the dishonor/heresy.

“Well, if you’re offering. I’d like to take three or four ensigns, including one trained for nav and one for sensors. Not Lieutenant Bergen or Helena], but some of the spares. Enough for a night shift or an emergency either way.” You decided after a couple of seconds thought. While you knew that you were taking arrows from the Longinus’ quiver, the boss was right. Diana couldn’t properly control the whole ship on her own, and taking someone who wasn’t on the bridge ‘A-team’ would ensure that there wasn’t a massive impact on the ship’s performance.

“Nobody on weapons?” Wells asked, and you shook your head at him. At this point, getting into combat was probably gonna be a last resort. So you wouldn’t look for one of them specifically. The commander seemed to get the idea, as he nodded before continuing. “Ok, we can make that work. Anything else?”

“Some people from engineering would also be great, but only people you can spare. Same thing for the marines, and preferably the same from the other ships in the flotilla. If we get damaged, I want the best possible chance to fix up the damage. And if we get boarded, the more marines we have the lower the chances of the enemy getting a foothold, and me having to nuke the ship.” You continued,

“The marines should be easy enough, though I can only guarantee half our compliment at the time. Same thing with the engineers. And for both, the force would probably be relatively small, due to the fact that we won’t be able to easily resupply that ship with fresh water or food while underway.” Wells explained, and you simply nodded at the news. A part of you had always figured that your prize crew would be smaller than you would have preferred due to the supply situation. But hearing it said out loud made it all the more real.

Wells paused for a couple of seconds as a thought crossed his mind. “On the engineering front, how about one of the floating aliens? They’re not doing much here, but one of them could help with keeping the cruiser running.”

“I’ll think about it. They could be useful, but I don’t want to put two valuable assets in one place.” You shrugged, neatly sidestepping the question to give yourself more time to think about it later before moving on. “But aside from that, I can’t think of anything else. What’s the last thing on the docket?” Wells nodded, before silently turning away, and entering the suite’s bedroom. A couple jokes flew through your head, but you simply grinned and shook them out of your head as you followed him into the room.

>Cont

>>6035665

As befitting a room that hadn’t been occupied for the duration of the journey -thanks to the commander spending most of the trip on ice- the entire room was bare. The bed had no covers or a blanket, no clothes were strewn around, and no personal effects had been laid out. The first object of the commander’s own possession to touch the bed being a large duffle bag, which he quickly emptied out, tossing shirts and socks aside before he finally found what he was looking for. With a smile, your boss reached in, and pulled out a familiar hunk of metal and plastic.

Your breath hitched in your throat as you recognised the weapon instantly. To anyone else, it would have been a plain M90 combat shotgun. A cheaper derivative of the older M45 tactical shotgun, holding twelve eight-gauge shotgun shells in a strong and utilitarian frame. It was powerful enough that a lot of people thought that it could knock an elite on its ass, but both you and the commander knew that it was a fact. You’d both taken the weapon into combat. You’d both killed the best of the Covenant’s soldiers with it. And you both owed your lives to that shotgun in particular.

“I think between the two of us, you’re more likely to get into a firefight than me. And if that happens, you might as well be prepared.” Commander Norman Wells said softly, before flipping the shotgun that had saved both of your lives in his hands, and offering it to you grip-first.

>Take the shotgun? (Yes or No)
And
>Take an alien engineer? (Yes or No)
>Other (write-in)

>>6035666
>Yes
>No

>>6035666
>Yes
>No

>>6035666
>Yes
>No
I can't think of anything else. We should be good, how much time passed from the ending of the boarding ? I believe its just a matter of putting stuff in the cruiser and make it operational at this point. And waiting while moving for anything the ONI team reveals

>Write in
Ah well right.
Do grab a spare armor, pistol, grenades and other useful things and put them in a bag. If it comes to boarding and we are at risk they get the full package.

>>6035666
>Yes
>Yes
Huragok are pretty tame and just want to tinker with shit, taking one with us would be a net benefit imo.

>>6035666
>Yes
>Yes

>Grab some spare armor and a normal 'load out' kit that the Captain would normally use.


Man, Usually you get'em a ring but I guess a shotgun works too.

>>6035666
>Yes
>No
>Grab some spare armor, medkits, and pistol with a few magazines.

>>6035666
>Yes
>Yes

>>6036088
>Man, Usually you get'em a ring but I guess a shotgun works too.
Lol

>>6036088
>>6035666
>Support

>>6035666

>>6036088
Supporting. especially because I would like some potential chemistry between them later on.

You couldn’t help yourself. You grinned dumbly as you gently took the shotgun, hoping to lull your boss into a false sense of security as you carefully checked the weapon and made sure it was safe. The old eight-gauge was no different to how you’d last seen it, except for the lack of blood and the faint smell of gun oil. You gently cradled the weapon in your arms, before looking up at your boss and innocently commenting. “Man, usually you get ‘em a ring. But I guess a shotgun works too.”

“What? This isn’t how they do it in America?” Thankfully, Wells got the joke almost immediately, as a smile spread over his face. At least, before he plastered over it with an expression of mock shock and played up the innocent foreigner routine.

“Wayyy off the mark boss. But if you’re looking for a shotgun wedding, at least wait until one of us is outta the force. Don’t wanna go breaking regs and all.” You shook your head as you cut the joke a bit short. Even if it wasn’t dangerously close to what some in the fleet would call conduct unbecoming for officers, it was still a bit awkward. Wells was like a brother to you, jumping from friendly ribbing to anything more lewd rubbed you the wrong way.

“Fair enough.” The commander chuckled, enjoying the break in the serious conversation before returning to business by gesturing at the lent shotgun. “Wanna stop off at the armory before you catch your flight over to the cruiser?”

“Sure. I could use something a bit more substantial than command slacks if there’s a chance I’ll get shot at.” You replied, pinching and pulling at your service uniform jacket. Sure, it was comfortable, but cloth would never stand a chance against a plasma bolt. Plus you also wanted to grab some more general stuff too, like a medical kit and some frags too.

With that, the commander led you back out of the room, the pair of you exchanging small talk as you left the room, and made your way back into the hallway. Though about halfway to the armory, the topic of work finally came back up again. “So. The alien, what do you think about bringing one back aboard the cruiser?”

“It’s tempting, and we could certainly use the help. But all things considered I don’t think that putting all of our eggs in one basket is a good idea.” You answered. At the end of the day, you needed to make sure that at least one valuable piece of loot made it back home. Putting two-thirds of said loot on one ship would be a damn stupid idea.

And, if you were being honest, a part of you figured that if worse came to worst, the old destroyer would need their techno-sorcery more than your new massive cruiser.

“Fair enough. I just thought you might need it.” Wells replied as the pair of you passed an ensign who shot the pair of you an understandably uncertain look. After all, it wasn’t every day that you saw the two ranking members of the ship’s command staff walking by with a shotgun.

>Cont

>>6038399

>Yeah, now that the boss mentions it… (write in)
>No, you’re all set for your first command!

>>6038401
>No, you’re all set for your first command!

Damn, Can't believe we got Friend-zoned.

>>6038401
>No, you’re all set for your first command!

>+make sure there's a hardwired ether net cable from the nuke to the HQ on the cruiser. Don't want no signals to be interfered with.

>>6038401
>No, you’re all set for your first command!

>>6038401
>>No, you’re all set for your first command!

>>6038401
>>No, you’re all set for your first command!
lets go hahaha

>>6038401
>>No, you’re all set for your first command!

...... j believe

Sorry for the long time between updates, I've been a bit ill.

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

“Nope! I just need to grab some spare clothes from my room, and then hit the armory. But aside from that I’m good to go.” You replied with a smile, slinging the shotgun over your shoulder by it’s heavy-duty sling. You idly noticed the non-standard shell holder on the fabric belt, but given the clear ODST insignia on it, you figured that it was a gift from the last helljumper that you’d both served with.

>Cont
“Oh, right. I’d forgotten about that. Should I wrangle an ensign to go grab your stuff for you?” Wells winced as he realized that, yes, you did in fact need to get a spare change of clothes. While your standards for personal hygiene had been certainly tempered at boot camp, you weren’t about to wear the clothes on your back for potentially weeks at a time.

“Hmm.” You paused as you gave the commander’s suggestion some mock thought, dragging out an answer that had only taken you a few moments to decide on your own. “Nah. I’ll put in a request with the armory staff to prep a loadout for me while I grab my stuff. I’d prefer to avoid having someone rooting through my stuff.”

The commander seemed content with that, and nodded as the pair of you came to a stop. “Fair enough, I’ll stop in at the armory and tell them to just deliver your gear selection to the Pelican, it’ll save you a trip. While you’re handling your personal effects, I’ll make sure that Diana and one of our nukes are ready to get shipped over to the cruiser.”

“Damn, we’re not even getting sent over separately? I’ve gotta ride-share with a shiva?” Now it was your turn to wince. From a reasonable perspective, you should have been fine with being close to a nuke, given how they’re generally designed to do almost anything but explode when damaged. But even so, shaking the suspicion of the city-killing weapons was something that a lot of people struggled with.

Though from the smile that your boss gave you, you figured that he was one of the few who didn’t mind being around them. At least, until he offered you another ride. “Would you prefer to join the ONI team? I’m sure that a bunch of crazy xenobiologists would be thrilling company.”

“I guess not, boss.” You chuckled as you recalled just how annoying their boss had been. You shook your head, before cocking your head back towards officer’s country, and your room. “Well, I’d better grab my stuff. I’ll see you down at the hangar?”

“See you there.” You answered with a smile, before turning and making your way back up to your room, just opposite off Wells’ mini-apartment. Unlike the commander, your room was certainly more lived-in than the man who’d just come out of cryo. And compared to that, it was like someone had set off a bomb in here. Clothes were strewn about, the bed wasn’t made, and one of your bags was on the floor nearby.

>>6041886

You frowned a bit at the lack of organization. You didn’t think that you’d left it in that bad of a state earlier. But then again, the last time you’d been in here, it had been before the engagement with the two cruisers. You’d thrown on some clothes and rushed out when the alarms went off, so maybe you’d tossed some stuff around in a panic? Either way, it made finding matching sets of everything a lot more annoying that you would have preferred. Hell, for a lot of your stuff you didn’t even bother folding it, just shoving shirts and pants and panties into the same battered gym bag.

You’d just finished stuffing the duffle bag, when a light in the corner of your eye drew your attention to your personal terminal, and the fact that you still had a number of personal messages left to view. Including a long string of ones marked “urgent” from your mother and father. They’d always been protective of you, ever since… well since before you went to officer’s school. It was almost like clockwork that they’d sign off every message by bringing up new UNSC postings in the home system, and very un-subtly hinted that they wanted you to take a safer posting. But ever since they received an automated medical update, one that detailed your servere injuries after the Arcadia mission, they’d practically lost their shit over how their baby girl had gone and almost gotten herself killed. It had gotten so bad that you’d simply not responded to their most recent messages, ones that had arrived after the Longinus connected to the FTL comms buoy in the Arcadia system.

And now you were about to take command of a covenant cruiser, and try to fly it back to UNSC controlled space. How would they react to this?

You shook your head, before transferring the private messages to your personal datapad. At the very least, it’d give you something to do if you got bored aboard the cruiser. Part of you was glad that you hadn’t told them about your most recent posting, while another part of you felt bad for the new commander of the “Dawn’s Early Light.” As far as your parents knew, you were still posted to that ship. The thoughts and mental-images of your parents trying to storm aboard the massive frigate to try and find you accompanied you down to the hangar.

The hangar aboard older vessels like the Able class weren’t like those aboard the newer Paris that you’d previously worked aboard. Rather than having one aircraft to a hangar, with it decompressing as needed, the Longinus’ hangar sat deep in the ship, behind the massive two-bird wide airlock that allowed dropships in and out. The inner door to that massive airlock was raised, and a pair of pelicans had been moved up to the airlock for final fueling and loading. Neither of them were native to the destroyer’s air wing, you could tell by the lack of boarding equipment. A crowd of people were gathered around one of the birds, moving a variety of boxes.

>cont

>>6041888

But the other bird is the one that had both your attention, and that of your boss.

“Damn boss, I thought we were just getting the warhead section, not the whole front?” You asked commander Wells as the front-end of a Shiva nuclear missile was wheeled up on a mobile rig. A pair of ordinance technicians moved the device into place below the rear of the pelican, and gestured for the loadmaster to start lowering the pelican’s landing gear so that the cargo clamp could engage the top of the rig.

“Apparently it’s easier to uninstall the motor assembly and delete a few lines of code, rather than trying to rig a new computer to the warhead.” Wells stated without turning to face you. Instead, he followed regulations and watched as the nuclear device was mated to the dropship’s cargo clamp, and hoisted off the deck as the pilot adjusted the landing gear’s stance. Satisfied, the commander turned around, only to raise an eyebrow at you when he noticed just how heavily ladened you were. “Got enough stuff there lieutenant commander?”

“Well I don’t think anyone’s bringing over a washing machine, and I don’t think the Covenant stock fresh bras either.” You replied with a smile as you hefted the bulging duffle bag on your shoulder.

“Fair enough. Diana and your gear are already onboard, plus your pick of the command staff.” Wells gestured back to the dropship, before giving you a reassuring, if awkward smile. “So. I guess this is goodbye.”

>How do you say goodbye? (Write in)

>>6041889
>Farewell, not goodbye. I'll see you on the other side Captain.

Not much to say I don't think. We're dropping off the face of the galaxy.

>>6041889
>Farewell, not goodbye. I'll see you on the other side Captain. We're gonna get a fat promotion for this make sure to bring me to the next ship you command.

>>6041889
>Farewell Captain, we are going to bring back this cruiser home together. No heroics this time okay ?

>>6041889
>Why are we saying goodbye, See ya at the dock.

>>6042975
+1

“Why are we saying goodbye? It’s just farewell, not a permanent goodbye.” You correct the commander, before shaking your head at him. The boss's vibes were way off, it was getting a bit disconcerting.

“I guess so. I just want to keep my bases covered, you know?” Wells smiled back at you, even as he hinted that one of you might not make it through the brief jump back home.

That wouldn’t stand, and it only takes you a small step before you're close enough to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “We’re gonna bring this cruiser home together, and get a fat promotion for it. So no heroics this time, okay? I can’t be your XO if your next ride is a coffin.”

“Aww, but the heroics are the most fun parts of the job!” Wells gave a theatrical huff, and you laughed at the joke. Though given how he liked to throw himself into engagements, part of you wondered just how much of it was a joke.

“Maybe, but spare me a thought for once, eh? It doesn’t do me any good if you drop off the face of the galaxy.” You grin back, the man could be an asshole at times. But your time with him has been some of the best in your career. Even if your medical history would disagree with that. You would have continued, but a loud klaxon from somewhere else in the hangar-airlock cuts you off. It was the warning for everyone to either get into a bird, or get out. As such, you take a step back and smartly salute. “Lieutenant Commander Dyad, requesting permission to disembark.”

Commander Norman Wells returned the salute, beaming a warm smile back at you. “Permission granted. Fair winds, Dyad.”

“And following seas, boss.” You finish the anachronistic statement with a smile. He must have found out that your dad was once an admiral in the United States Navy. Yeah, terrestrial navies were little more than free military service for aspiring politicians, but there was history there.

Either way, you drop your arm, and make the short walk over to the waiting dropship. By the time you’d made your way up the ramp, Wells was already joining the small convoy of people who were leaving the massive airlock. And given the fact that the loading technicians were angrily stalking out and the yelling from the other dropship, you had to assume that they just got bored and tossed the crates aboard without care for what the ONI pipsqueaks had to say about it. Either way, you wait for him to make it past the massive armored doors, before closing the pelican’s ramp.

With much of the dropship’s passenger bay taken up by the AI transport cart and it’s ancillary gear, you and the five other people in the dropship -the two ensigns you requested for bridge crew and three AI techs- are cramped into the six seats at the end of the bay. You quickly find the only remaining seat, and strap in as the airlock outside depressurised. Massive pumps draw out the air in the room, before the outer door opens and the dropships make the short hop to the cruiser.

>Cont

>>6045142

Entering the Covenant ship was extremely different to any UNSC ship you’d ever been aboard. Rather than needing to wait for the hangar to run a pressurization cycle, the dropship simply juddered a bit as it passed through the atmospheric shield over the hangar. Less than a minute later, the dropship bounced slightly as the pilot set it down on the hangar floor, and popped the hatch.

The first thing to hit you was the air aboard the ship. And you couldn’t help but be shocked by how clean it was. You couldn’t smell any of the gunsmoke or blood that you’d expect after a battle. Hell, you could barely smell any of the fumes you’d expect from dropship exhaust. The ship’s air conditioning seemed to be working overtime to keep things clean.

You only wished the same could be said about the new owners. As you stepped out and onto the deck of the ship, you saw multiple examples of your fellow man making a mess. In one corner, a group of marines on corpse duty were busy stripping the Covenant corpses of their armor, and preparing them for transport to a freezer aboard one of the escorting destroyers. In another area, you saw some ONI scientists trying and failing to set up a tent, and in another area you saw some technicians

>Get settled in at the bridge! You’ve got an AI to plug in, and a command chair to occupy.
>Check in with someone! You’re in command now, you need to do your due diligence. (marines, engineers, scientists)
>Other (write in)

>>6045144
>Get settled in at the bridge! You’ve got an AI to plug in, and a command chair to occupy.
Sooner we get going the better.

>>6045144
>Get settled in at the bridge! You’ve got an AI to plug in, and a command chair to occupy.
>Other (write in)
Comms Diana and ask while we walk "Diana anything important to report that could be a issue ? How are we doing on time for loading supplies and crew ? ... Are the ONI egg heads still having issues in setting up ?"
If Diana can't answer now, we can ask later when she is connected.

>>6045144
>>Get settled in at the bridge! You’ve got an AI to plug in, and a command chair to occupy.

>>6045144
>>Get settled in at the bridge! You’ve got an AI to plug in, and a command chair to occupy.
>Other (write in)
Snicker at the scientists, and if we see anybody lazing about on our way have them help the poor bastards.

>>6045144

>Get settled in at the bridge! You’ve got an AI to plug in, and a command chair to occupy.

You couldn't help but snicker at the scene in front of you, even if it was both rude and unbecoming of an officer. Thankfully, the only person who heard it was the ensign who disembarked the pelican after you. Though he missed exactly what you found so amusing. “Something funny, ma’am?”

“Just a bit of irony is all.” You replied to the ensign. You didn't recall the man's name, so he was probably from the midnight shift between yours and Wells’ shifts. Either way, you gestured to the scientists before continuing. “They're probably the smartest people on the ship, at least as far as education goes. And they can't wrap their heads around setting up a tent.”

“In fairness ma’am, I think a lotta people in the fleet would be in the same boat. The navy doesn't teach field craft, its more of a security thing at best.” The ensign shrugged as the pelican started tk stoop on its rear landing gear, getting the beheaded Shiva nuke ready for offloading. The implied ‘because security loves to roll around in the muck like the marines’ went unsaid, not that it needed to be said. The belief that security was little more than navy boys LARP’ing as marines was fairly commonplace.

Still, you hadn't got this far by letting implied stigma get in the way of a conversation. Especially when you could use it to try and get to know more about the person you were talking with. “What, your parents never took you camping?”

“Its a bit hard to go camping when the atmosphere outside the hab is toxic.” The unnamed ensign shrugged as the nuclear bomb finally touched the hangar floor, and was released.

“I suppose so.” You replied noncommittally before turning to face the man. And almost instantly you could tell that he wasn't kidding when he said he hadn't gone outside in his childhood. His pale skin and thin-set features screamed to a lack of natural sunlight that you'd find in anyone from a sealed colony, but he lacked the oddly stretched body of someone born a belter or who lived on an orbital hab.

“I know what you're about to ask, I'm from Neos Atlantis. Woulda been the next Emerald Cove if those meddling scientists hadn't been so worried about the algae.” The ensign put a home to the face, and a smile that at least seemed genuine. Though given how he'd just up and said where he was from, you guessed that it might be a sore spot.

“Speak for yourself, ese. Me? Id just prefer it if those split-lips woulda just fucked off after Hellas. Been a long time since I've been home.” The other ensign said as she disembarked from the Pelican. The bronze-skinned woman was the complete opposite of the Atlantean, both from her physical appearance, and the status of her homeworld, abandoned nearly a decade ago due to the fall of Hellas and the threat that the Covenant might stumble across the ill defended resort world

>Cont

>>6045895

“You and me both.” You said as the nuke was moved away from the pelican, and the ramp adjusted so that the massive AI cart could be rolled out the back. You flagged down one of the techs as they disembarked the dropship, and cleared a path for the AI storage device. “Hey, are we ready to move?”

The tech replied almost instantly. “Yes ma'am, though we don't really know where we're going.”

“If I know anything about Diana, she would have already left us a map.” You grumbled as you dropped one of your bags onto the deck, and started rooting around in the other for your personal data pad.

“Or, you can ask the local expert.” A smooth and familiar voice spoke up from a few meters away, causing the two ensigns to jump at the sudden intrusion, while you simply turned to face the source. As you did, a man in a stained marine BDU snapped off a weary salute at you. “Lieutenant Norden, two-sixty-fifth shipborne marine regiment.”

“Lieutenant. I thought you were heading home?” You asked as you returned the salute. You hadn't heard anything about him staying aboard the ship, but given how out-of-the-loop you were, you couldnt exactly say that you'd been involved with the decision-making process.

Thankfully, the lieutenant seemed to not be a fan of his new deployment either, as he sighed before continuing. “Orders change. The commanders thought you could use someone with some… local knowledge.”

Great. So the other officers didn't think you could cut it without keeping the ‘strong reliable marine’ around as a safety blanket. It was galling, but you put on a polite smile and deferred to the man. He didn't want to be here, and you doubted that Wells had wanted him to stay aboard for your sake. So you decided to be diplomatic with the man, and took him up on his offer. “Fair enough. Lead the way, LT.”

>Talk with Lieutenant Norden. What's the situation aboard been like ever since they took the ship?
>Chat with your ensigns. You know where they're from, but you don't know who they are.
>Ask the AI techs if they can get you a direct line to Diana. Everyone is nice and all, but you'd prefer a familiar face.
>Other (write-in)

>>6045896
>>Talk with Lieutenant Norden. What's the situation aboard been like ever since they took the ship?

SITREP first.

>>6045896
>Talk with Lieutenant Norden. What's the situation aboard been like ever since they took the ship?
Any more AM bombs we should know about?

>>6045896
>>Talk with Lieutenant Norden. What's the situation aboard been like ever since they took the ship?

>>6045896
>Talk with Lieutenant Norden. What's the situation aboard been like ever since they took the ship?

>>6045896
>>Talk with Lieutenant Norden. What's the situation aboard been like ever since they took the ship?
eh since he is here, lets move. Hopefully the techies can get Diana online quickly


Lets see what he can answer us. Let begin with something more fundamental than our entire wolfpack fleet here like :
"How much time is left for the loading of all the supplies, equipment and crew ? Including the ones of the ONI team. Have the techies found a proper place for Diana and there is any estimate of their work time ?"

So.
At least 4-5 hours have probably passed from the end of combat, as an average guess. Considering neither covenant vessel was amble or considered, to even attempt to send a FTL message out during the quick battle we should be in okayish waters. The problem of course is that we don't know the tremendous amount of data on board the cruiser (such data would include covenant military orders, deployments, messages from other ships and so on. None of its data was likely destroyed since most of their command died, leaving only low officers that we killed afterwards. Low officers wouldn't have the command credentials afterall) because the ONI team isn't working in it since all their equipment hasn't arrive (but has that changed since time passed...), and they have apparently stubbornly avoided to not move somewhere else more spacious, and remained in the hangar.

>>6045896
>Talk with Lieutenant Norden. What's the situation aboard been like ever since they took the ship?

“So, LT. What’s the situation aboard?” You asked as the marine lead you into the ship. Talking with him would help keep your mind focused, and not focusing on the odd feeling that was already starting to form in your gut after only a few minutes aboard the ship. The whole ship had never been designed for human use, and everything felt distinctly wrong compared to what you were used to finding in a ship. And the lack of ubiquitous hand-rails along the off-purple walls made you almost miss the fact that UNSC ships had been designed with so many things for those ‘just in case’ scenarios.

Unfortunately, the lieutenant must have picked up on your apprehension towards being aboard a ship that no human was ever meant to be aboard. Though he misinterpreted exactly why you were worried. “No echo tangoes, if that’s what you’re worried about ma’am. Me and the boys have spent the last few hours sweeping the ship during corpse duty, ain’t no way there are any survivors. Well, aside from the worms.”

“I don’t like it either, Norden. But the boss wants this whole thing gift wrapped and ready for the spooks. So they’ve gotta stay.” You fixed the LT with a glare, before cocking your head back towards the ensigns behind you. You weren’t sure if they’d been briefed on the fact that the ship was currently carrying antimatter bombs, and that said bombs were being maintained by alien worms. And a part of you wondered if they even had the clearance to know.

Thankfully, the marine got the obvious hint, and didn’t mention the city killers. “That isn’t gonna change how I feel about all this, but I suppose we can’t really kick ‘em out an airlock.”

“I guess not. Are there any more surprises I should know about?” You changed subjects, moving on to making sure that the marines had properly swept the ship. Part of you figured that they already had, as Norden was a professional. But you had to ask, and he would probably have considered it an insult if you didn’t.

The marine shook his head and confirmed your suspicions. “Nada. We checked the cargo spaces, and aside from some service equipment they’re empty. From the looks of it, the ship was fitted out for a secondary carrier role with a lot of the fighters either mounted externally or in the large cargo bay adjacent to the hangars. So we can account for where they stored all those fighters that the flotilla encountered on the way in.”

“Good, ONI’s always wondered how they did that.” You replied with a lie. As far as you recalled, ONI had inspected enough wrecks to get a decent understanding of how cargo and vehicles were stored aboard the massive cruiser. But you wanted the marine to feel as if what him and his men were doing mattered. “Speaking of cargo, how’s UNREP going?”

>Cont

>>6046632

The lieutenant raised an eyebrow at the naval term for underway replenishment, and the fact that you’d just slung the term at a jarhead. A breed of the navy famous for knowing somewhere between sweet and fuckall about what a ship actually got up to. Still, he got the link with cargo, and successfully figured out what you were asking before you needed to clarify. “Resupply is going pretty well. We’ve expanded our operations to the other three hangars so that we can avoid the egg-heads, so we’re bringing in supplies about as fast as we can get them delivered.”

“How long do you think it’ll take to get everything aboard? Crew, equipment, supplies, that sorta stuff.” You asked as you continued through the ship, and finally started passing some areas that you recognised. The blown open doors on the path from the hangar bay to the armory. Some of them had been left as they were, while others had been expanded to allow for people to walk through the doorways without needing to stoop. Either way, it made getting to the bridge far easier.

“We can get it done within the hour. We’ve got all of the marines aboard, and volunteer crew from the other ships in the flotilla have almost entirely transferred in from the other ships. We’ve already brought over the essentials. Food, medical equipment, field bunks, field kitchens, stuff like that. We’re waiting for some mobile barriers to get shipped over so that we can reinforce the approaches to the bridge, should the worst come to worst, but those aren’t as important as ensuring that everyone has warm food and a mattress to sleep on.” Norden explained as he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a data-pad. Your viewing angle wasn’t great, given how the LT was just reading it for his own benefit. But you’d gotten fairly good at the art of reading poorly positioned screens, so you saw the various reports as he read though them.

And unfortunately, you also saw a problem. One that you hinted at, rather than telling the LT outright that you’d been sneaking a peak at his pad. “I’m sensing a ‘but’ here.”

The lieutenant sighed, either expecting the problem to be brought up, or for you to check for any issues. Either way, he was forthright about the problem. “Right now our biggest problem is water. This ship has millions of litres of water aboard, but we can’t consume it until we know it’s safe, and for that we need the science team to stop fucking around. Until we’ve sorted that, we’ve got a couple of those large bladder-tanks that we’re transferring potable water into from the Iconoclast and the Achilles. That’ll give us something to work with, but not enough for extended use, and you can forget about showers.”

>Cont

>>6046633
“I’ll talk with them. They’re civilians, they’re gonna feel the grime far sooner than we will.” You replied as the pair of you walked through another set of samey alien doors, and you found yourself in what could only be the ship’s bridge.

The bridge was somewhere between a more standard UNSC bridge, mixed with a CIC. There was a raised platform in the middle for command staff, with what appeared to be five stations arranged in a circle around the perimeter of the platform. The holographic displays all still displayed a variety of alien script and sigils, which made human use impossible without an AI to translate. Speaking of which… “Where should we put Diana?”

“Techs set up a little nest for the bot over there. A lot of the jargon passed over my head, but it should serve as an adaptor between our human computers, and the ship’s computers.” Lieutenant Norden gestured towards a trench set underneath the command platform, where a series of portable computer stacks had been bolted to the floor, and wired into the ship. Just nearby, a series of portable computers had been set up on top of overturned supply crates, one of which the LT pointed out as he continued on. “We took the liberty of setting up an interim comms system over there with one of our portable computer units. You can use that to contact the other ships in the flotilla.”

“Sounds good. Thanks LT.” You thanked the marine, before gesturing for the techs to get Diana plugged in. Though by that point, the technicians had already spotted their area of expertise, and were already wheeling the massive AI transport cart towards its home for the next few weeks. So while that was sorted out, you made your way over to the indicated computer terminal, punched in your access code, and connected to the flotilla’s command frequency. A small part of you hoping that Wells would be the first to congratulate you on officially taking command of the prize ship.

But the first person to greet you wasn’t Commander Wells. Instead, it was your temporary boss for this mission, Commander Trafford. “Lieutenant Commander. Thank you for joining us so soon. How’s your first command?”

>It’ll need some work. But we’ll make a fine UNSC ship out of her, mark my words!
>I’ve always wanted a cruiser for my birthday. It’s even in my favorite color!
>Ask me again after a few weeks aboard. I’m already feeling a bit weirded-out!
>Other (write in)

>>6046635
>It’ll need some work. But we’ll make a fine UNSC ship out of her, mark my words!

>>6046635
>>It’ll need some work. But we’ll make a fine UNSC ship out of her, mark my words!

>>6046635
>It’ll need some work. But we’ll make a fine UNSC ship out of her, mark my words!

very good. that water problem might need sometime, but i think we can wait for solve that and getting those mobile barriers

>>6046815
>support
>>6046635
>we could uhhh just boil the water... to ya know make it safe to drink...

>>6046928
i reckon they might need to do some tests for see if there is particular chemicals, metals in it or something. There is probably some different requirements for each race of the covenant in their food/water supplies and humans ? The grunts did have their private areas for breath without needing gas masks/helmets. Might be something like that.

>>6046928
>>6046961
Yeah, boiling water works for bacteria and most viruses, but doesn’t help if there are - say - heavy metals/ radioactives/ high levels of arsenic in the water. Although, given how much control Diana had over life support (basically pick and chose what goes into the air) It probably wouldn’t be too difficult to use the innate systems to handle filtration once we know what needs to be.

>>6047015
Seems reasonable.
I dont know much of how covenant handle food/water for themselves.

I remember brutes eat everything including humans. There is probably a ton of variety on board, i wouldn t be surprised if its all very divided be for natural differences, to health reason, to cultural ones depending from where they were recruited.

>>6046635
>It’ll need some work. But we’ll make a fine UNSC ship out of her, mark my words!

>>6046961
>>6047062
Funny thing about that. We know that Sangheli can at least survive on human food, since the Portal at Voi on Earth took 3 weeks to travel from Earth to the ark and another 3 weeks to travel back again. So our big friend Thel 'Vadam aka Arby must have been surviving on the leftover human rations in the half-eaten Forward Unto Dawn while he was travelling back towards Earth.

>>6047715
Well I know the rule of thumb for humans is 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food before you die. I'm just gonna assume that Sangheili are roughly the same in that regard. So yeah he probably was tearing into some chilli mac MREs and whatever else he could scrounge up from the ship's galley. In my experience, we'd always be stocking up on snacks and shit before any deployment so chances are he also had to get by on instant ramen and energy drinks.

“It’ll need some work. But we’ll make a fine UNSC ship out of her, mark my words!” You replied with a strong smile. Sure, the ship would only ever serve as a hulk to extract technology and equipment, or maybe even as the casing for a massive bomb. But either option would still count as service.

“That’s good to hear. Any problems?” Trafford asked, a small hint of satisfaction in his voice that everything appeared to be going well.

Unfortunately for the commander, you had to put a bit of a dampener on his mood. As you did have one option that could potentially be a problem. “We may have an issue with water. The cruiser does feature a large amount onboard, but we don’t know if it’s potable. I’ll assign Diana and our ONI research team to investigate as soon as possible, but if worst comes to worst, we’re taking on a supply of water from the flotilla that we can rely upon for a short period of time.”

“Keep us up to date on that. If you can’t use the cruiser’s reserves, we can keep you topped up with our own systems.” Trafford instructed you, before moving on to a more pressing issue. “But we can cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, we need to figure out where we’re going next. Any ideas?”

Wells was the first to speak up, you recognised his tone without needing to look at the computer’s screen. Instead, your attention was focused on the technicians, and their work to connect Diana to the other UNSC computers. “Gamma Pavonis could be a viable location. It’s on the route between us and the ONI artifact recovery facility that Longinus has provided. We can stop off there, make an informed decision about if the cruiser is still a viable choice for long-term habitation, and then go on from there.”

“‘I’m sorry, isn’t the plan to try and mate the cruiser to one of the other ships in the flotilla? I don’t think that there are any wrecks in that sector which we can use to mate the ships together.” The commander of the ‘Galaxy’ spoke up. You didn’t know much about the commander, aside from the fact that they’d apparently suffered some significant wounds during a previous engagement with the Covenant. Part of you wanted to ask, but the more sensible parts of your mind figured that bringing up a traumatic event purely to satisfy your curiosity would be a bit rude.

“I was thinking that we could break down the supply barge. The damn thing is meant to be expendable anyways, and once we ditch the containers we’ll have access to the structural steel keel.” Wells replied, and your attention was brought back to the computer as a small graphic appeared on one of the screens. The graphic showed the highlighted keel of the supply barge, and the process of the drive section and armored containers being detached from it. “Plus, Gamma Pavonis is officially classified as a compromised system. There won’t be anyone there who could be put at risk by our arrival.”

>Cont

>>6048130

“Yeah, but that’s not going to be enough for our purposes. Arcadia, on the other hand, still has some wrecks in orbit that we can scavenge for material. And the Covenant have already seen its… depopulation. So we wouldn’t put anyone at risk if we went there.” The commander of the Galaxy suggested, and you felt your skin crawl at the idea. You hadn’t seen the Covenant glassing the world first-hand like Wells, and part of you hoped you never would. But the idea of heading back to that world left a bad taste in your mouth.

“Yeah, except for the other flotillas in the squadron, who are using Arcadia as the main fallback route. And given how quickly these cruisers were on our asses, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Covenant hadn’t set up observation satellites to monitor for traffic. They’d instantly report that one of their cruisers was sailing in concert with a human flotilla, and we’d have a fleet on us before we could get started.” The next one to speak was the commander of the ‘Achilles,’ the other Able-class destroyer in the flotilla. And for once, the man suggested something that you agreed with. “Or we could just jump right to the ONI facility. Right now the biggest risk to us isn’t going to be from any observation systems, but from a tracker aboard the cruiser itself. If it’s being tracked, then the Covenant will follow it wherever it goes. So if we head to the ONI facility first, there will be more time for the office to figure out what we’re gonna do before the Covenant sends someone to come look for us.”

“If we’re worried about trackers, why not wait until our ONI boys have given the ship a sweep before we jump out?” Wells asked, and you had to stop yourself from pointing out that the team hadn’t done anything to inspire confidence in you. Sure, they probably knew their stuff, but not being able to do something as basic as set up a tent didn’t inspire confidence in you.

And thankfully, the other commander brought up a better counter argument. “Because the ONI facility will have the manpower and the equipment needed to perform a proper sweep. Once they’re done, we can relocate somewhere else.”

“If we’re worried about trackers, we can just take the cruiser’s power grid offline once we’ve configured a ship to carry it back home. And we’ll only be able to do that once we go to Arcadia, and get the resources we need.” The commander of the Galaxy continued, bringing the conversation back to Arcadia, and rounding the conversation almost back to where it had started.

At this point, Trafford spoke up again, and promptly dragged you into the conversation. “Lieutenant Commander. You’re the one in the cruiser, what’s your opinion?”

>cont

>>6048131

>Gamma Pavonis is the safest call. We can drop in and get our work done quickly and safely.
>Arcadia gives us the resources we need to mate two ships together. Let’s stick to the plan and go there.
>Let’s just go straight to the ONI facility. We can conduct a tip-to-tail sweep of the cruiser, and move on from there.
>I don’t have a strong opinion either way.
>Other (write in)

>>6048136
>>Gamma Pavonis is the safest call. We can drop in and get our work done quickly and safely.

>>6048131
>Gamma Pavonis is the safest call. We can drop in and get our work done quickly and safely.

>>6048136
>Gamma Pavonis is the safest call. We can drop in and get our work done quickly and safely.

>>6048136
>Gamma Pavonis is the safest call. We can drop in and get our work done quickly and safely.
Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. The other two will either compromise an ONI facility or compromise our plan on stealing the ship if we're spotted. Gamma P doesn't have any immediate benefits but it does contain or prevent any further issues.

>>6048136
>>>Gamma Pavonis is the safest call. We can drop in and get our work done quickly and safely.

No major benefit, but no major risk. Do what we have to, then move on, nothing else matters.

>>6048136
>>Gamma Pavonis is the safest call. We can drop in and get our work done quickly and safely.

>>6048136
>Gamma Pavonis is the safest call. We can drop in and get our work done quickly and safely.
Arcadia sounds a bit too risky, if they left satellites.... not that Gamma Pavonis isnt either but still. At least is not a very important place. So that counts for something.

When the work in the cruiser hangar is done we can send some people to help the ONI team in setting up their tents and what not. And with that accomplished the ONI team can do what we need.