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7/11/2012 1:36:42 PM
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[FF] Halo: Only the Bold (Chapter 4)

i've been writing this story and i realized it's going to be much shorter and travel much faster than my previous stories. i resigned myself to writing a story with a contained plot, nothing too epic but just good old-fashioned Halo stuff, ya know? It takes place in 2546, just after Operation: TORPEDO. ONI has decided to send two [i]Prowler[/i]-class ships, [i]Nagamo[/i] and [i]Apocolypso[/i], to investigate a slipspace anomaly. With very limited resources, captains Galin Thorm and Amanda Greene must face overwhelming odds to secure the safety of the UNSC. At any cost. [Edited on 08.09.2012 10:25 AM PDT]
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  • *** *** *** As customary, Galin stood halfway into the joined collars, with Kandis two steps behind and to his right, and greeted Captain Greene with a smile and a handshake. Greene was about as plain as a woman could look, which was one of the reasons ONI selected her for training. Her dirty-blonde hair could be tucked up underneath her cap or draped over her broad shoulders, while her complexion was light enough to take on the hue of any light that was shone upon her. She was fit, but not overly muscular. "This is Lieutenant Kandis Jokling, ONI Analyst," Galin introduced. As the two women greeted each other, Galin could tell that underneath Kandis' smile was suspicious jealousy. Greene motioned to the other, younger woman to join her at her side. "This is Ensign Rolf Sorenson. She's still getting her feet wet," Greene added with an abbreviated smile. Galin nodded to the petite, blonde woman. Her skin was light, her face freckled, and Galin would place her age as barely out of her teens. Her forced expression spoke of someone on her first assignment, longing for the creature comforts of home. "Pleased to meet you." "Would you like to see the new and improved [i]Apocolypso[/i]?" Greene asked. The four of them traveled down the docking collar and into the darkened interior of the ship. [i]Apocolypso[/i] was identical to [i]Nagamo[/i] in layout, but the former had had many recent retrofits, as marked by the patchwork of cables running along the corridors' ceilings. Greene gave a brief tour, starting with the bridge and ending with the central conference room, and Galin was quite impressed. "It is just me, or are you carrying half the crew Nagamo has?" he asked, while taking a seat across from Greene. "We are running at 53 crewmen right now," she conceded. "Thanks mostly in part to Melissa, our new AI." The yellow avatar of a tall, slender woman with long flowing hair appeared on a pedestal on the right side of the large viewscreen at the head of the table. Melissa gave a polite bow. "Captain Greene is too kind." She merely smiled. "Yes, well," Greene said, more to fill in the awkward gap between small talk and business. "I'm afraid our planned debriefing will have to be put on hold. We received a Slipstream Packet from Reach while we were waiting for your arrival." She nodded to Sorenson who pulled out a datapad and linked it to the viewscreen. A few static images flashed up on the screen, mostly containing cropped areas of destruction and rubble. "I'm sure by now you've read the Operation: TORPEDO report?" "We have," Galin said soberly. "Then you know how dire the situation is becoming." Greene nodded to Sorenson again, and the holo-projector at the center of the table lit up to display a view of the know galaxy. The view zoomed in on a portion of space between their current location and Reach. A glowing red dot pulsed into existence marked with a triangle of coordinates. "A fellow [i]Prowler[/i]-class ship, [i]Raven's Call[/i], was returning to Reach for maintenance on their stealth systems when it caught a slipspace disruption in an uninhabited system." The holographic image showed the plotted course of [i]Raven's Call[/i] along with the signals approximate origin. Galin leaned forward. "That's nowhere near any UNSC outpost or even an Insurrectionist base." "[i]Raven's Call[/i] wasn't able to completely lock on to the source and Captain Ongro didn't want to risk being detected." "So we have no idea what it is?" Kandis asked a little too bluntly. "It could have been cosmic radiation bouncing off the local star. If Ongro's stealth systems were malfunctioning, his sensor could have as well." "I doubt it," Sorenson said apologetically. "It was a wide spectrum burst, not a solid wavelength. From that data Melissa and I can only speculate that it might be from a slipspace-capable ship attempting to enter the Slipstream but apparently failed to do so." Greene sighed. "[i]Raven's Call[/i] was the only ONI ship to be operating in the area, so we know it's not one of ours." "Are you sure this isn't some Spartan training exercise?" Kandis asked more gently this time. Green shook her head. "No. That system is only on the star charts for navigation purposes. There's no inhabitable place to set up shop." "Which doesn't mean the Innies haven't moved in," Galin pointed out. "So what are our orders from HIGHCOM?" Greene blinked her hazel eyes. "[i]My[/i] orders are to head to the contact zone and hold station. [i]Your[/i] orders are to rendezvous with the Frigate [i]Teveden[/i] and pick up some new . . . personnel." "Personnel?" Sorenson handed Kandis a pair of datacards as Greene nodded. "The details are in the files; I'll let you be the judge of them privately." She sighed wearily. "I think the Prowler Corps has us spread too thin, and my concern is that ONI wants us to tackle this with minimal resources on our own." Greene frowned. "I don't know what's waiting for us, but as soon as you pick up your new additions, [i]Nagamo[/i] is to join us at the target system." "I'll send Jovan the rally coordinates," Melissa put in. Captain Greene's shoulders slackened. "We'll recon the area and hopefully have enough data for a more in-depth analysis when you arrive." Galin chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment, mulling over the information. It wasn't a lot to go on, but nothing [i]Nagamo[/i] set out to recon ever had overwhelming amounts of datapackets waiting in the message queue. [i]A mystery ship, ONI looking to salve its own wounds from the loss of 296 Spartans, a few 'classified' personnel . . . I guess it's only a few degrees off our regular vector.[/i] He quickly stood, suddenly feeling a sense of urgency about the mission. "Then we should be going." He was pleased to find Kandis at his side before he got his words completely out. "Be careful out there, Amanda." Greene rose and Sorenson mirrored Kandis' position."You too, Galin." She opened her mouth as if to say more, but she merely nodded and threw a quick salute. Galin returned it swiftly and headed back towards the docking collar. Once they were inside the conjoined passageway Kandis came alongside Galin. Detecting her mood, he spoke before she had a chance to ask. "Greene and I go way back," he said with a partial sigh. "I've known her since officer training school and we're [i]just[/i] friends." Kandis was silent until they both were back aboard [i]Nagamo[/i]. As Jovan sealed the blast door and began to retract the docking collar, she turned to face Galin. "I'll upload the data to Jovan and get started on the analysis," she said plainly, without any trace of emotion. She spun on her heel and headed aft. Galin breathed a heavy sigh and was about to reach out his hand to stop her, but a pair of techs stepped into the hallway a dozen meters down and he knew he had to be discreet. He watched as Kandis didn't bother moving or slow down and the techs hastily parted to either side of the hallway to avoid a collision. She was upset, that much he had gathered, but it would pass. The tech on the left raised an eyebrow when they came to a stop in front of the Captain. "How'd things go, sir?" Galin paused for a moment, wondering if the tech was referring to Kandis or the meeting with Greene. Shaking his head to clear his mind, Galin looked at the man. "Like always. As soon as we're clear we're outbound for another rendezvous." He turned and started for the bridge.

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