Blue Team came roaring into the hangar in an unusually noisy cavalcade, mounted on Mongooses. The Spartans were tending to the wounded, waiting for evac, and while the rest of Blue Team set about helping to tend the wounded, the Colonel motioned for 116 to step aside.
"A quick debrief before you evac, Spartan." she commented.
Raevynn had been kneeling in front of Charlie, wrapping a nasty plasma burn on his shin when she heard the rumble of the all terrain vehicles.
As the colonel motioned for her, she quickly finished up with her work and stood, patting Charlie on the shoulder before she turned and trotted over to Jane Doe.
"Things went smooth for Blue team, I hope?" She replied.
"Hopefully smoothier than it went for us?" Wise remarked.
He was a little less shooken up about everything that happened so far, especially those two giants. He was lucky to have saved raevyyn when he did, if he didn't the entire squad would be watching one more casket out into space for someone who risked their lives for him.
"Hopefully smoothier than it went for us?"
Rayden absent mindedly poked at the whole in the center of his burnt afro at these words. He sighed and yawned as the massive adrenaline spieks he had recieved died down. He felt his mind start to wander when he heard a dull whining noise outside of the room they were in. It was, more then likely, their ride otu of this hell whole.
"Sounds like Evacs arrived, people..."
The Colonel intended to spend a few minutes with the Spartan's leader, given the way their mission seemed to have gone, and the soldiers' openly voiced opinions on it, but there wasn't time. Her frustration at the situation came through, despite the words she couldn't say to the Spartans.
"I'll need to scan the tags of your wounded, dead, and missing. Our computer specialist should be able to do it fast--a minute or two once he has them." There was a note of great sadness in her voice that even the closed helmet couldn't hide.
As the tags were collected, she continued. "A smooth op has as much to do with luck as skill. And things can go badly wrong even when you have both. I've seen a company of hardend ODST wiped out by less than you faced here, and they werw better equipped. They didn't even issue you helmets. . ." She stopped, at the limit of what she could say without revealing her suspicions or her emotions.
The evac Pelican had docked while she was speaking, and now the rear hatch opened. Colonel Doe's head turned up and toward the craft. "Good work, Spartans. You are dismissed." She nodded toward the Pelican as Banken handed 116 the collection of tags.
Quietly, the Colonel said one last thing to Raevynn. "Every one of us is a casualty, soldier. War destroys humanity as much as it destroys humans. I'm beginning to think that, in this war, dying might be a better option than surviving."
Raevynn glanced down at the dog tags before looking up at her superior. She wasn't sure what to say to colonel. Although she had been sceptical about the woman at first, the only thing she felt for her now was respect.
"Thank you ma'am" She replied softly with a smile before turning and running towards the evac that awaited her. Raevynn's first mission was almost complete. She only hoped that she'd be able to cope with whatever waited for them back at Reach.
Once she had climbed up and into the pelican, she stood there, watching as her entire climbed aboard also. As Charlie limped passed her, he patted her on the shoulder as if he could see the worry in her eyes.
"Don't worry ma'am. We're Spartans. We're all gonna make it."
(since y'all are so close to evac, I just want to remind you of this:
Originally posted by Great the Vraya)
They landed in the hangar. Tak listened to the air pressure release with a good as new noise. It was music to his ears. A man came in to his room. "Welcome to Reach, cadet" the man said in a rough army trained voice.
Tak gasped. 'Reach?' he thought to himself 'this has to be some kind of joke, I'm no soldier I'm just a kid'
"What am I doing here?" Tak asked confused.
"Why you're here to become a spartan kid" the soldier laughed.
"What's that?"
"You have a lot to lear cadet. follow me."
Tak followed the soldier out of the room and off the cargo ramp. "whoa." Tak gasped in amazement looking at the state of the art technology in front of him. There were scientists and trainers walking around busily on their scheduled tasks.
"Where are we going?" Tak asked trying to keep up with the soldier's fast, steady pace.
"Administration. we've got to tell the folks that our ship isn't dead." The soldier said.
They arrived at the chrome, administration desk. A portly beuracratic worker turned to greet them.
"State your buisness," she said in a dull voice.
"The soldier saluted
"We are cargo ship #46228" he recited with rehearsed pride.
"46228...46228...ah, ohh. Sir, we really do not take jokes kindly around here. Cargo ship #46228 has been missing for over five years" she remarked scowling at him.
The soldier anticipated a rude remark and quickly bent over towards her and said "It's the Spartan007 project. We just had a small problem with the engine we got it fixed and we're back."
"I fixed it!" Tak shouted proudly. The woman bent over towards him and looked him over.
"yes, he does look about the right age. Very well, send him back" she said sighing and gesturing towards a burly guard at a door. The guard bumbled over and took him back in to an audience chamber.
A few minutes later a trainer came in and sat down on a chair.
"Excuse me sir, but what's a spartan," Tak asked confused at what the soldier had asked him earlier. The man went over what a spartan was and explained what he would be doing for the galaxy and the universe. 'wow," Tak said amazed.
"Yes, it is quite intriguing really. Now, if you'll come with me to the labs I'll start you up on the cybergenetic plan and add a few oof!" the man was interrupted by the ground shaking. An alarm saying intruder alert, intruder alert. went off. the man got back up. "you stay here" he said running out of the room and barring it behind him.
Tak breathed heavily. It could be one of the covenant that he had heard about. They sounded extremely dangerous. Tak paced back and forth wondering what was going to happen.
While pacing he noticed a large gun on the table. he picked it up just as a back door opened.
There was a grunt standing before him. It growled menacingly and pointed its plasma pistol at him. Just as it shot, he jumped behind the table in the center of the room. This was one of the aliens. He had to kill it or do something.
The grunt paced over to where Tak was hiding laughing at the terrible thing he was about to do. He rounded the corner only to be greeted by the repeated wack of the hilt of the gun in Tak's hand.
The grunt finally fell to the ground and Tak shot the gun killing the grunt. The smell was terrible. Tak huddled up in a little corner waiting for the situation to be taked care of. He didn't want to run in to any more of those hideous things anytime soon.
(I supposed that even a twelve year old techie could kill a grunt 😄)