>>6337319

The brain damaged prisoner served as a good smoke screen to keep your fellow Spartans from worrying for either of your health. As expected, poor bastard didn't come back with a clean bill of health and Rita had him sedated so she could perform invasive surgery to fix the worse of the damage

The diagnosis for Shika and yourself was more complicated, and had gotten Rita excited and thrown her into what you'd describe as a scientific fervor.

"No lasting damage or neural scarring" She'd explained, thumbing her holographic fingers of light over the rosary beads wrapped around her wrist as she read out the diagnostics flashing across her eyes "But there have been changes, which in of itself is concerning. New connections have been made, both of your synapsis have undergone adjustment and rerouting"

"That is concerning" Shika agrees which, as she is the Spartan's resident bone saw and medic is in of itself cause for concern "How extensive of a rewrite are we talking about here?"

"Hard to tell. Its subtle. Akin to the subliminal training performed during Cryosleep" Rita explains and you nod along, latching onto the term you understand. It was the same thing that Halsey had used to get you all ready for MJOLNIR, that made sense "Which would explain the Lieutenant's lapse of consciousness and why the information assumedly implanted into his psyche was more extensive than your own, primarily sensile and perception based alterations"

"It affected different areas of our brain differently" Shika, cupping her chin explained even though the projection of the affected areas of both of your grey matter was being projected in front of the medical charts and readouts that Rita had displayed throughout her inspection "Your Wernicke's Area and Frontal Lobe, My Visual and Auditory Areas"

"And my short term memory also took a bigger hit than yours, if I'm remembering what the temporal lobe is responsible for" You speak up and Shika nods, eyes gleaming with the pride only siblings could share "Would explain my blackout. Guessing however they beamed this into our heads, she and I were given different programs"

"And this is only what I've been able to detect. It is possible there are more subtle or dormant changes than my equipment and examination have detected" Rita explained, with a look of guilt passing across her face "I would posit, that the damage is only as minor and temporary, because of the effects of your augmentations. In layman's terms"

She turned to face the Einherjar in a medically induced Coma.

"We already survived having our brains rewired once" Shika interrupts "Our minds were just better equipped to adapt to and handle it than an unaugment person"

"Precisely" Rita says with a nod "Which is why the both of you are still of sound mind and body, no lasting or permanent damage done as far as our current level of technology can detect"
Cont

>>6337320

"So we have a clean bill of health then, Sister?" You ask the holographic Nun as you sit upright and crack your neck

"We should be" Shika answers before she can, and Rita nods along

"I will insist on regular checkups, to record the healing process for posterity, as minute as it will be" She tells you and that is a request you can easily agree to.

"If I blackout again, you'll be the first to know, Rita" You tell her as you swing your legs off the med table and slide off of it, feeling exposed without your power armor "Shika..."

"I know, I'm free to return to duty. Thanks for the check up, Rita" She says kindly as she follows a step behind you out of the operating theater

"Check and make sure Daisy has gotten Whiteshirt's suit stowed away" You tell her, lowering your voice conspiratorially, and she nods "Might be based off Project: Rhodes, but, Halsey will want to see the work the Einherjar were able to do with scrap, hope and a dream"

"While pressed for time" Shika adds, voice barely audible as the two of you watch lockstep with eachother "Almost reminds me of..."

"My looting habits?" You ask and she just smiles

"Your words, not mine, Sven" She teases, punching your shoulder "Glad neither of us got labeled for medical discharge"

"Discharge" You repeat, wondering if anything could get an active Spartan discharge short of being killed in action. And, while on that train of thought, realized that you were trying to make certain of that with the Washouts. But they'd appreciate it, they all wanted to get back into service. in the field. it was what you were trained for. Made up into. To be the perfect soldiers. Having that stolen from your, robbed from you it...it just wasn't right.

"Would've fought it tooth and nail, if we had been" She adds, before pulling off her usual disappearing act. Made easier since neither of you were in MJOLNIR.

Once you exited slipspace, you were scheduled to rendezvous with the rest of the wolfpack and talk shop. Every Captain would have their own after action report, but you wanted them all to be accurate to the action of the day. And while you'd insisted on and set up the joint meeting, it was an easy bet that there'd be questions concerning the capture of the Halcyon and the activities on the unclaimed world.

And until ONI and Command received the urgent message you'd sent, detailing what had been found on the world and recovered from Whiteshirt's ship and the request you'd sent to Stanforth asking for permission to keep his exo-skeleton in the Spartan-II programs hands, you were the one who had the final call to decide who was in the need to know.

What they needed to know, you had the whole slipspace to jump to decide. But on that first night, as you hit your bunk, you suffered a nightmare. The first you'd had since the early days of training.

A dream of

>Ragnarök

>Boot Camp

>What could've been

>The Future

>>6337321
>What could've been
I wouldn't be shocked if our chat with Mom is still lingering in the back of Sven's mind.

>>6337321
>Ragnarök
Genetic memories let's go!

>>6337321
>Ragnarök

>>6337321

>Ragnarök

What could've been is tempting, but this fits a bit better, I think.

>>6337321
>Ragnarök
Baaah, that's just too tempting an offer, especially after we learned that the gray matter's been jumbled up a bit.

>>6337321
>Ragnarök

Lets see what the end looked like.

>>6337321
>What could've been

>>6337321
>>The Future
I LOVE existential dread! I LOVE the sensation of powerlessness at the unknowable infinite of variables that is life's possibilities!

>>6337321
>Ragnarök

>>6337321
>The Future
This is the way the world ends.

File: shepherd-excuse-me.gif (149 KB, 220x123)

149 KB GIF

>>6337321
>Ragnarök
Time to get our commander Shepard on

>>6337321
>>What could've been

>>6337290
The fantastic analysis will never help Daisy or Purple Team and i say this with a 100% certainty, 404....but thank you for the compliment. If nothing else this is an excellent set up for a tasty (and tragic!) group social interactions when the Purple Dragons find more of this ruins.

Now back to the war, after the business of this victory is dealt with (i am sure more than one anon is interested in seeing how Vali can interact with the recovered artifacts before they are taken from our hands) we have to pick between OPERATION: TANGLED-HAIR or OPERATION: DANELAW. With hopefully.....dare i say offering theories to consider to High Command before going ? Such has ONI not having done the homework when it comes to actually understanding and searching for the religious part, ceremonies, sacrifices and rituals of a death cult like the Einherjar..... or the Einherjar being awfully familiar with the alien ruins found .....
>>6337321
>Ragnarök
Nightmare ? Some side effects from the ruins are here to stay it seems. I wonder if someone will hear us beside Rita. A sea of dead Einherjar and Aliens, while they try play gods over New Noregr .... could happen. Or perhaps no.

>>6337321
>What could've been

hopefully we dodged a flood release

>>6337321
>What could've been
it ain't gonna win but damn it I'm interested.

>>6337321
>What could've been

>>6337319
Hmm I think this only 2nd time we completed a mission with all objectives including secret ones so nice we did amazing here.

>>6337321
We probably want to keep S2 a secret since it broke too many regulations. But atleast explaing a super soldier unit with specialized equip could be enough.
Vali might actually be more explainable since it's just a VI created using covenant data.

>>6337321
>Ragnarök
sign me up for the prothean beacon experience

If I could add one weapon to Sven's kit, just as a flight of fancy, multi-lock-micro-missile-launcher. Back or shoulder mounted. Just a ton of fwipfwipfwipfwipfwip bangbangbangbang. Cause it's cool. Like a missile launcher had a baby with a shotgun.

Quick vote count for help 404
- What could've been 6
- Ragnarök 8
- The Future 2


>>6337818
I am not sure, i think we did pretty well in most missions alongside looting just about everything we could. Really Halsey has only complained about MJOLNIR battle damage. And i guess in the COLLATERAL DAMAGE operation, Nesta blasted a tortoise-worm priest on Alpha Corvi alongside his Svalfatar guards that James and Innies could have captured. But that would have been complicated to do with how many Covenant forces where being deployed for capture Black Reef in their attempt to swarm the defenses of the Innies militia there. So i think it was a good call (realistically that could have been only tried if the Black Reef Innies Militia was far more numerous in numbers; but a lot of them where already dead in the fights inside the caverns and in the desperate defense of Black Reef). And we didn't have time to take with us on the Leviathan submarine/ship, the Covenant tank Shika managed to grab from the alien military camp. Only so much you can grab when hundreds of them get angry and want to kill you (we could have tried grabbing the tank, but more Covenant would have arrive after us making a mockery of their siege camp, and drowning hundreds of their troops. And we only had a portion of Purple Team with us at the lab, plus security squad Skua. If we took some marines squads alongside that Scorpion it might have been possible. But eh its alright).

>explanation
We don't have to explain anything to the captains of this Wolfpack. It's already above the majority of their pay grades. There is Mahmoud that knows already something about Spartans, but thats because High Command allowed him to know quite before this mission. So no worries for us.

>it's just a VI created using covenant data.
Thats not how we talk of our 2nd hand crafted creation ! That we made with the help of our other two brother geniuses (Dimas, Mike) after brainstorming and experimenting together for months on unknown alien technology and prime ONI viruses and malware. Narfi would shake his feline digital head in hearing such an heartless comment on his slightly crazed and bloodthirsty sibling...

[ Rebooting....Monitor 404TormentedCache, Back Online ]

Internet crapped out on me again, so I'm a bit late.

>>6337941
Thanks for counting it for me, double checked and your count checks out.

Also it was Grace who exploded the San'Shyuum on Alpha Corvi 2 Not Nesta. But anyways

You'll dream of Ragnarok

[ Decision made ]
[ Proceeding.... ]

Also, Sven's AP upgrades and the AAR report should come in the update after this one. Sorry it keeps getting pushed back, but writing after action reports both takes a lot of energy out of me and also I feel there should be at least one more vote between then and the update with it. If that makes sense

The crashing of the waves, the silence of the wind heralds the end of days. The sky is darkened, besotted with clouds of ash and filth. The mountains crumble, the earth itself trembles and upheaves as though it gasps for its final breath. The air wavers with the heat of funerary pyres vaster than the sea and taller than the skies. Death surrounds you and circles overhead, shadowing you with its great carrion wings. The stars wink out and fade to black and the sun gutters like a untended fire. All is coming to an end. The pen leaves the page bereft of ink and meaning, pulling away as the story of all things and lives is suddenly snuffed out. But in the last flickers of the candle light, as the conclusion of everything dries and comes to be, the final battle of the last war rages.

Ragnarök has come. Like flood waters bursting from a cracked dam, this had all been foretold. Preordained. The end had been unavoidable, despite all attempts to thwart its arrival and then to stall the looming doom that rose like a mighty wave to sweep the world, all worlds clean and devoid of life and purpose. The face of the enemy was unknown, vague and smeared in the dream memories, but you knew, even if it was futile and doomed to fail, that you had a duty to stand in its way, spit defiance and fight to the last breath to slow its unrelenting march for but a few moments longer. Betting everything on a faint glimmer of hope that this doomed defense would open the path for what small, victory could be achieved. And it would be. You and all the other soldiers on the wall would gladly give their lives, minds and souls to ensure it would come about. It was the duty and responsibility of a soldier.

The cloud glutted sky was rent asunder, as if cleaved in two by a great burning blade. And out of the fissure poured all of the thralls of Hel, descending upon the darkened world like a swarm of crows over the battlefield. The sea raged and swelled, rising higher and higher as it battered against the wall, a living, hateful thing. In one moment, it was the wine dark see, seeking to crush and pull under the fortress, in the next an army of the damned and dead besieging the citadel and attacking it with all the cunning and tenacity of man, and for a flicker of consciousness, it was a great, Levithan thing of writhing tendrils and seething flesh. The ash clotted sky lit aflame, and the sight of the horizon being consumed in a firestorm lifted your spirits and your hope as the sea and army of Hel continued their assault, even as the conflagration swept across their lines and expanse. They did not relent, even as the very ground they stood on was melted into rainbow hued glass and the waters they sailed across were transmuted to great clouds of flesh searing steam.

This fortress would be your tomb.
Cont

>>6338055

But you had been aware of this from the start, as were the faceless soldiers who stood beside you. Sometimes, when you glanced their way, they were vikings. Other times they were Spartans in Mjolnir covered in suit, hiding their ID tags and numerical designations, and rarely, they were warriors wearing armor as alien to your eyes as the Covenants own.

Whoever they were in the moment, for every a hundred foemen they cut down, one would fall. And the enemy was infinite, in number and strength. This was a last, defiant stand. Doomed from the start. A skirmish in the dying days, a last stand like countless others in the final push of a war that's outcome had already been decided. Your side would lose, but so would the enemy. You stood and fought, and would die, probably in agony, to make certain it would be a draw. And, it felt like a real fight, every movement strained muscles, worn out from days, weeks, months, perhaps years or decades of fighting. Old scars and new would ached and pained movements, slowed parries, weakened guards. The sword or gun in your hand, would blunt, would jam, would break and be replaced by what could be grabbed and taken from the hands of the dead.

Retreat. Fall back. Reinforce. The wall had been broken, yet you fought on, pulling back to the next defensive line as the enemy pursued just a step behind. Draugr, Covenant, Einherjar, Spartan, faceless shadows and shapeless mists, they all blurred together and became little more than a shadow of impending doom. Adrenaline flowed, blood poured, your heart hammered then just as suddenly stilled. Shouts, wordless and muffled rung in your ears as the air boiled, as the dead rose, as the walls fell, as your sword broke, as your rifle jammed, as you retreated, fell back and reinforced.

Defend. Fail. Pull back. Fight, Fail, lose, refuse to surrender. Reinforce. Reinforce. You knew the signs of a lost battle, knew the rhythm, the cadence. Like a dance. Like coloring between the lines. It could be done subconsciously, fighting like this, performing a last stand to by time. It was what happened in between the mechanical actions, the loop of defeat and stubborn refusal to give up and surrender, that made this a nightmare, more than the calm acceptance that this was a death march, that this was the end of days, that you were fighting a Ragnarök. Glimpses, flashes of horror, of burnt corpses, mangled by shrapnel, torn asunder by bullets and explosives, injured squad mates, left behind or put out of their misery. The moments of the worst aspects of war, and worse. Far worse, nightmare delusions and impossibilities. Things you couldn't make sense of, even in a dream. Colors, shapes, sounds that could not exist in human perception or understanding. And pain, very real pain, worsened by growing fatigue and exhaustion.
Cont

>>6338056

Fight. Fall back. Fall back. Hold the line. Hold the line and die. Then you were back on the wall, the first wall. A hole in your chest where your heart had been, replaced by sparking wires and turning gears. And with the crushing knowledge of what was to come. It was a grueling campaign of looping time, against a superior enemy. The routine, the endless struggle, was ended by a storm of super heated air and plasma. And once more you were on the wall, more machine than before. The battle fast forwarded, repeated, and no matter what you did, the outcome was the same. It always would be. Like Ragnarök, this day was always destined to come, but no matter how many times you died, how many times the fortress fell, how many lives were lost, you kept fighting and struggling to last even a second longer.

Why? Because every seconded counted. But what was the goal? You knew there was a plan, to turn the tide, but what was it.

The realization that you did not know why you were fighting, what you were fighting for, broke the nightmare and let you escape from the loop of failed defenses, constant retreat. And all you were left with were a jumbled of fast to fade memories and flashes of nightmarish visions and horrors you'd dreamed up. And the sweat soaking into your bed.

What an awful dream. Fighting from an unwinnable position, fighting in a war already lost, witnessing the end of days from the front line. You got out of bed, and found an incomplete sketch book and flipped through the drawings inside of it until you found a clean page and began to sketch what you could remember from the dream.

A wall. A flood sea. An army of the dead. Covenant soldiers fighting through deserts of molten and burning glass. Spartans, crippled and dead, revealing wires and gears inside of them rather than flesh and blood. First person points of view, some with the Mjolnir HUD overlay, some without, of the more gruesome dream deaths you'd suffered through. Melted alive by plasma, impaled by an energy sword, crushed under a pile of marching bones, shot against a wall execution style, falling into the sea, being eaten alive by crows and Tengu or Jackals as most of the military had come to call them...

You stopped drawing, losing the last of the passing memories of what you dreamt, as you drew the close up face of a Svartalfar, their mandibles spread open to mimic a human corpse's rictus grin. That'd helped to ease the lingering feelings of panic and dread, but the exhaustion remained. Hadn't gotten a good nights sleep. You'd work out the fatigue with exercise. Sparring, probably.

At least there were still a few days of subspace travel before you were scheduled to meet with the other ship captains, the official end Operation:HVITSERK and tie it up with a neat bow. That was a small mercy. You'd have hated to have to go to that meeting tired, grumpy and with little patience for bullshit.
Cont

>>6338057

All three of which you had in spades after that nightmare and restless night of sleep. Must've been stress related. Or an after effect of the ruins. Should see Rita about it, once you'd finished with your morning routine...

>Just share information the Captain are already authorized to know

>Explain exactly what Vali was and what exactly your kill shot was.

>Explain why you and the other prowlers lagged behind, and the ruins that may belong to an ancient, alien civilization.

>listen to the more experienced Captains' review of the battle and their strategy, and only add your thoughts and point of view when its apt

>Write in option

Also, tomorrow is Wednesday. So chances are I won't have time to write cause I'll be running Cyberpunk for my friends

>>6338058
>>listen to the more experienced Captains' review of the battle and their strategy, and only add your thoughts and point of view when its apt

>Just share information the Captain are already authorized to know
honestly breaking oni's "trust" by immediately whistle blowing is not a very good idea. reflects poorly on halsey and just give ammunition to her enemies.

>>6338058
>Just share information the Captain are already authorized to know
>listen to the more experienced Captains' review of the battle and their strategy, and only add your thoughts and point of view when its apt

>>6338058
>Just share information the Captain are already authorized to know
>listen to the more experienced Captains' review of the battle and their strategy, and only add your thoughts and point of view when its apt


someone's nightmares are more like a memory from the past of the Forerunner-Flood war

>>6338063
+1

>>6338058
>listen to the more experienced Captains' review of the battle and their strategy, and only add your thoughts and point of view when its apt
Seems kinda redundant to vote for both the first and last option. And fun fever dream.

>>6338058

https://youtu.be/PCpi1sZEZ1U?list=RDPCpi1sZEZ1U


>Just share information the Captain are already authorized to know.

>Write in: Apologise for the lack of clarification.

The other captains fought well and had our back, even those who didn't really trust us. They probably don't need the apology for how much of this OP wound up under black ink, but they'll probably appreciate the courtesy.

>>6338058
>>Explain why you and the other prowlers lagged behind, and the ruins that may belong to an ancient, alien civilization.

actually while we cant explain vali and spartans. The ruins tevhnically arent classified yet.

>>6338058
>Just share information the Captain are already authorized to know
So the dream was Sven's brain struggling to make sense of implanted memories from the Forerunner-Flood war, yeah? I'm sure that won't negatively impact his mental state.

>>6338058
>Just share information the Captain are already authorized to know

>listen to the more experienced Captains' review of the battle and their strategy, and only add your thoughts and point of view when its apt

>>6338058
>listen to the more experienced Captains' review of the battle and their strategy, and only add your thoughts and point of view when its apt

>Just share information the Captain are already authorized to know

>>6338058
>>Just share information the Captain are already authorized to know
>listen to the more experienced Captains' review of the battle and their strategy, and only add your thoughts and point of view when its apt

>>6338058
>listen to the more experienced Captains' review of the battle and their strategy, and only add your thoughts and point of view when its apt

That was not good.
And it explains if some Einherjar couldn't keep it together in the ruin complex beyond their zealotry, being brain blasted with PTSD of an apocalyptic war might be overwhelming. We really need to get a brain scan at least. And i would insist on telling our fellow spartans too, if we have time .... sooner or later they will want to talk about it. I don't think Daisy and Naomi would just stay silent, same for Shika (if she had any similar symptoms to us, she would be the first to go have a brain scan from Rita).

>>6338023
Np and thank you for correct me. I can't remember all the details time to time.

>>6338058
>Explain why you and the other prowlers lagged behind, and the ruins that may belong to an ancient, alien civilization.