Redoubt Outpost Alpha.

[Marauder-1259]

//Load Info. . .
//Redoubt Outpost Alpha. . . .

Located on the Planet Redoubt, Outpost Alpha is over 5432 miles from the only settlement of the planet. Redoubt is a tidally-locked planet, with two monitoring stations, Alpha and Bravo, both positioned near the planets 'equator,' closest to Covenant space, with the settlement equidistant between the two. Being that the planet is tidally locked, both the settlement, and the two outposts are in a constant cool climate, with a permament Sunset/Sunrise type horizon.

//Load File XXXXXX

John sped along the narrow mountain trail towards his outpost, with a slain wild animal, similar in appearance to a deer, strapped on the back of the motorized bicycle. It wasn't that he needed the meat, or that he even needed to go hunting wildlife, but it gave him something to do.

As the biked ramped off a sloped rock and landed on the other side of a crevice, John saw the outpost up the mountain a few miles. Now, it wasn't that he was alone in the outpost, his A.I., Minerva, kept him plenty of company. If it wasn't for her shimmering body, and the ability to walk right through her, he wouldn't know the difference. However, there was still only so much you could do with an A.I.

So, he had put in a request for some reinforcements. He had said that he thought he had seen signs of Covenant forces. Of course, it was a load, but insubordination and lying to his superiors is what had gotten him stationed on this god-forsaken outpost in the first place.

He hopped over another crevice, landing in front of the outpost and heading into its underground garage. As he climbed out of the Grackle and slung the gutted animal over his shoulder, he wasn't surprised to see Minerva appear before him.

"Anything happen while I'm gone Sis?"

"Rico. . . you know it's against protocol to call me that. . . ."

"You know I don't care," he responded smugly, pulling off his helmet with his free hand and slamming the corpse down on a steel table, unsheathing his combat knife as he began slicing the meat of the dead animal.

"And no, nothing happened while you were gone."

"Really? Still no word on a few reinforcements?"

"You know all our data is linked to HIGHCOM. They can easily tell if your data was faked or not."

Rico shook his head and pointed a finger at Minerva. "Gee sis, thanks for bashing my hopes against the stones."

"Your welcome."

Rico couldn't help but laugh as he finished slicing the meat off the animal. He grabbed the rest of the animal and threw it in a nearby incinerator, then picked up the raw meat and placed it in a freezer device.

"Another boring day of worthless reconnaissance. Just because the Covenant 'declared' war doesn't mean they're going to attack. We'd be a lot better off just taking the fight to them. I'm telling you there has to be a reason that they declared war. . ."

"All speculation Marauder-1259"

"Didn't I tell you not to call me that?"

[Wolfhound]

"Wake up, SPARTAN. . ." a voice floated through his dreams as Chief Petty Officer Jeremy Murphy, SPARTAN-1012, slowly came to. "We've reached our destination." He shook his head, remembering where he was--the cryo bay of the UNSC destroyer Apollo. He blinked a few more times, trying to clear his vision. Jeremy hopped out of the cryo tube before he could fully see, spitting out the crap that filled his lungs as the Marines around him began exiting their tubes. He'd always been a fast waker, be it from cryo or conventional sleep, and was just as proficient at catching forty winks wherever he could.

That done, Jeremy stood up straight, stretching muscles that hadn't moved in weeks. "How far out?" he asked brusquely, still a bit disoriented. He moved to the showers, presuming that the ship's AI, one he'd never had a chance to get acquainted with, would manage to project its synthesized voice to him. Even if it didn't try, he'd still pick it up; thanks to the augmentations he'd suffered through, he could hear pretty much anything on this deck of the ship without trying. So when Jeremy turned the shower on, he was rather thoroughly unsurprised he could still hear Marines gagging thirty meters away.

"About an hour or two," the AI replied easily a moment later. "Plenty of time to do whatever it is SPARTANs do." The AI continued to speak as Jeremy moved to the footlocker his MJOLNIR had been stored in. He slipped on the components at a relatively relaxed pace, slowly enough so that the Marines would be able to get into their uniforms as he donned his.

"Good," Jeremy replied as he attached the chest plate. "I do love spending some time sitting around." He continued putting on his armor, timing it so that he put on the helmet and booted up the armor systems as the last Marine to dress put his boots on.

Precisely a hundred and six minutes later he was on a Pelican bound for the surface of Redoubt, for Outpost Alpha: supposedly Covenant had been seen there, Jeremy was to reinforce, blah blah blah. He checked his MA5K's attachments as he sat, ensuring the suppressor was attached properly and the underslung grenade launcher unobstructed. Jeremy's rocket launcher sat in a case above his head, ammunition carefully distributed across his entire body and assorted grenades kept in the soft pack at his left thigh. He was fully kitted for battle, whether he was headed into one or not.

[2-042 Monitor Iridescent Logic]

Lucy had awoken, about an hour before the other Marines in her bay as she had requested. She preferred to do her things before the other awoke, it was just something she had always done. She was fully fitted in her MJOLNIR when the other Marines started to wake. "Rise and shine Marines, we've got a job to do." she said to the Marines in various stages of waking up and getting ready. All she got was grunts and groans followed by spluttering. Waking up always was the worst part of the job.

She walked out of the Cryo Bay, making her way to the Apollo's mess. She sat down at one of the tables, opening her TACPAD. The planet was on display to her, one side covered in what appeared to be permanent ice. The other a mess of dry cracks and molten rock. The equator however was a lush environment, the galaxy always did produce wonderful things. Wonderful when they didn't try to kill you, which up to this point in time every sentient species met by the Human race -and some non-sentient- had at least attempted to.

Time flew as Lucy learned all about the planet her assignment was on and those that would be accompanying her. A SPARTAN was already on the planet, the sole inhabitant of Outpost Alpha. Before she knew it she was on board a Pelican heading for the Outpost, along with another SPARTAN, who checking his weapons... She looked lovingly at the Type-51 Repeater in her hands, a fine piece of Separatist engineering it was. And an honour to use it, specifically against the Loyalists, who had refueled the war and given her the reason to get put on this backwater.

"This place is going to suck..."

[Marauder-1259]

John sat at the table eating some of the kill, which he had now cooked, and had his feet propped up on the table when Minerva appeared before him, her 'body' cut in half by the table.

"John, scanners have picked up an incoming vessel headed toward the station."

"What?"

"It's UNSC. Someone has sent reinforcements."

John finished his food and got up, clipping his helmet onto his waist. It was odd for anyone to show up without announcing themselves. Even the service tech he had gotten a few months ago had been announced a week in advance. Minerva seemed to read his thoughts as she spoke up again.

"We've received no transmissions stating any reinforcements were en route. It is possible that solar flares are blocking or scrambling our long range communications. We did fail to receive the standard reconnaissance information transmitted daily from outpost bravo."

"They probably just died of boredom."

He looked out the window to see a pelican headed towards the station. Well, hopefully he'd get a squad to screw around with. It was too much to hope for a fellow Spartan, but he'd live with what he got. Of course, maybe they had just been sent to arrest him to be court marshaled for falsifying information. Then again, they'd probably just chew him out and drop him another rank 'til they needed him for another mission.

"Sis, open the docking bay for our guests."

He hopped over some railing and fell about twenty feet, landing in the wide open docking bay of the station. He walked over a bit and crossed his arms, ready to meet the reinforcements.

[Wolfhound]

Jeremy leaned back, resting the butt of his MA5K against the Pelican's deck plating before he glanced around the troop bay at the other occupants. There were a few Marines, probably to replace those who had requested leave or else just to bulk up the garrison a bit; whatever the case, Jeremy didn't particularly care enough to find out. It didn't matter how many Marines there were to him, not unless they got into a rather large gunfight.

The SPARTAN across the way caught his eye, though. It was as much the plasma repeater in her hands as the MJOLNIR: neither were particularly common sights, though Covenant weaponry was probably less so--at least in the hands of humans. He'd never been a fan of the stuff, himself; good old-fashioned lead had always been more Jeremy's style.

Well, lead and explosives.

He glanced up from the deck as the other SPARTAN spoke. "This place is going to suck..."

"What gave it away?" Jeremy asked with a bit of a grin beneath the helmet. "Was it the fact that this is an outpost in the middle of nowhere? Maybe that we're not just invading some strongly-fortified Covenant position?"

((Feel free to bring in the Pelican to land if you'd like Sue. I must be too lazy for my own good or this post is being cut short by the gods.))

[2-042 Monitor Iridescent Logic]

"Was it the fact that this is an outpost in the middle of nowhere? Maybe that we're not just invading some strongly-fortified Covenant position?" the other SPARTAN said, she looked him over, trying to figure out his personality. Which is a hard thing to do when your looking at armour. She had a good idea what he was like.

She smiled to herself, it was true that if this was a strongly fortified covenant position it would be a much more enjoyable trip. "Well I was thinking more along the lines that we're landing on a planet in a constant sunset, and I've got no time to go for walks down the beaches. Oh the inhumanity." she joked, it was best to befriend your fellows quickly, rather than later.

The Pelican was soon entering the docking bay, backwards as usual. With a thud it landed, its wheels skipping a little as the pilots got it to rest. "Show time." she said as the atmospheric entry door dropped to form a ramp. She got up from her seat and stepped out to greet the lone SPARTAN stood there. "To be honest I was expecting atleast a squad of Marines here, not just a lone SPARTAN. NAVCOM being selfish when they sent you here? Ah, sorry. Where are my manners." she ended with a salute, "SPARTAN 1019, 42735-61074-LA, Alexander, Lucy." she robotically spurted out, she had done this many times. And this was hopefully not the last time she would be doing it.

[Marauder-1259]

John looked at the Pelican as it opened up, surprised to see not just a group of marines, but even two SPARTANS step out of the pelican. He had expected maybe a couple marines, or a squad of ODST's, but definitely not any additional SPARTANS. But, he ignored the oddity for the moment, just glad to see that there were a few fellow human beings on the planet.

He waited until the group finished their introductions, then chuckled as one of the marines jumped as Minerva appeared beside him. "Nice to meet you all. SPARTAN-1259, Lieutenant Marauder. To answer Lucy's question, I got thrown here for insubordination. This is Minerva, my A.I."

John stepped back and turned to Minerva, as she brought up a hologram of the Outpost and began speaking. "Welcome to Redoubt Outpost Alpha, a monitoring facility 5,433.24 miles away from the city of Redoubt. You are currently here in the hangar. . ."

John pretty much stopped paying attention to Minerva as she detailed the facility to them, and how they would be taking shifts watching the monitor and going on patrols, taking the opportunity to size up the new arrivals for the first time. A few of the marines seemed shaky, probably never having seen a battle before, but the rest were relaxed, clearly not new to the military scene. The two spartans he didn't recognize at all, from previous missions, training, or his old squad. That just meant he'd have to get to know them well.

[Wolfhound]

"Show time," the plasma repeater-armed Spartan said as the dropship's rear hatch opened. Jeremy stood with a brief nod, grasping his MA5K one-handed and the SPNKr case from the storage rack with his other hand. Careful not to hit anyone, he extracted the beast and then hopped off the dropship. "To be honest I was expecting atleast a squad of Marines here, not just a lone SPARTAN. NAVCOM being selfish when they sent you here? Ah, sorry. Where are my manners," she continued, throwing up a salute as she introduced herself by both name and serial number. "SPARTAN 1019, 42735-61074-LA, Alexander, Lucy."

"Selfish, no. Mean? I wouldn't put it past them," Jeremy said dryly, setting down the equipment case long enough to toss his superior a salute. "Chief Petty Officer Jeremy Murphy, SPARTAN-1012. You can call me Wolfhound, if you like, sir. I'll respond pretty reliably to either." Then he picked up the case again, simultaneously mag-clamping the rifle onto his back in one smooth motion.

An AI appeared next to one of the Marines then, and Jeremy grinned a bit as he jumped visibly. "Nice to meet you all. SPARTAN-1259, Lieutenant Marauder. To answer Lucy's question, I got thrown here for insubordination. This is Minerva, my A.I." Insubordination? Oh, this was going to be a fun time indeed if that was the case. The question, then, was how soon Redoubt would be invaded by Covenant forces. The sooner the better, preferably; but Jeremy couldn't get everything he wanted.

He tuned the AI out almost completely for a few moments, up until she began detailing how to take shifts watching the monitor and patrolling.

"Great," Jeremy said with a sigh once the AI finished. "Don't mind me asking, but how is it that you haven't killed yourself yet?"

[2-042 Monitor Iridescent Logic]

Lucy removed her helmet as the A.I talked, shaking her hair from the loosening sock bun and letting it drop, the A.I hadn't exactly said she had to do anything for awhile, so she took that as an invitation to get used to this place.

She looked to the side at the other new Spartan, Jeremy was it? He'd begun to speak after the A.I had finished. "Great, don't mind me asking, but how is it that you haven't killed yourself yet?"

"Killed himself? Maybe he went insane and killed the marines that were supposed to be stationed here." she faced John with a friendly smile, before letting out a slight sigh. "Why is it that these outposts never come with an in-built swimming pool? Or a sauna? I bet the Separatists have a sauna." she smirked before nodding slightly at the two Spartans and gave a slight wave to the Marines before heading off further into the facility, she always felt like she had to be nice to the Marines, they didn't have inches of resistant material covering their bodies and a personal shield... They didn't have that long a life expectancy, and they knew it, brave sods.

She decided to check out the sleeping arrangements, two separate rooms. Not that bad, only she was the only woman currently at the outpost, the thought didn't really bother her that much, its not like she slept that much.. And if she did, she'd no doubt have befriended the various occupants by then which always makes it much less awkward, for the men.