HRP Reboot - Chapter One: Breakups Suck

IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE
Chapter One takes place one month before we all are completely on the run. So use this chapter to set your scene. Your plans for leaving, interactions with others, if you planned anything or just winged it. Chapter One is a month in the past. Chapter 2 will be well into your escape and evasion, so you have some decent backstory, as well as some time to get to know your characters better.

Planet Demeter, UNSC Research Station 2133, South Coast

Saorise rubbed her eyes. This was ridiculous. All these calculations, calibrations, and trig. Just to get the ship to turn left!
Groaning, the girl stood and downed her coffee, heading for the bathroom. Splashing water on her face, she looked up to find...
"Rika..."
The girl had dyed her fire-red hair purple for kicks. The crazy team leader of Fireteam Blaze even had it beyond regs, much like herself. Tricky girl. Saorise smiled. "What brings you to this level?"
"Came to see you. Wanted to know if you were doing alright."
Unlike Ren, Rika seemed pretty chill and normal, unlike some of the others in Fireteam Blaze. Which just put Saorise at ease.
Turning around, she quickly surveyed the area, and gave Rika a hug. "I need to go into town today, so do me a favor and make sure Requiem has his scan done."
"Will do." The Spartan said. "See you when you get back."

As Rika wandered off, Saorise briskly walked out to the small room adjacent to her office. A bed, desk, and closet, she quickly changed into more...civilian...attire and headed out, purse over her shoulder, for the motor pool, where she signed for a 'Hog. The firetruck red civilian Hog was driven over, and she climbed in.

Ten minutes later, she was halfway to the city

Epsilon Eridani System. March, 2551. Aboard UNSC frigate Hammer Time

Aboard the Hammer Time, Sergeant Daniel Lampert walked through the halls towards the mess. It had been quiet lately, which was both good and worrying. He was at home in a fight, not in the quiet of a ship. But so far, Hammer Time had received no new orders. So he and the rest of Dragon Time were stuck finding something to occupy their time. He heard footsteps behind him, then a playful thump on his back as a familiar face came up from behind. "Why so sulky sarge?" Private Alvarez said. Shorter than him by a few inches, she was a striking woman with tanned skin and an athletic build.

"Just not used to the quiet is all Chris," he responded. She nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it can be difficult for people like us to be quiet,or stay where it's quiet." She took on a rather mischievous grin then. "But I think there are ways to break the silence." He frowned at her. "Careful private, fraternizing with a superior officer is a violation." She sighed, and shrugged her shoulders. "Still got that stick up your ass I see. Honestly, I can work it out of you no problem. Just need some alone time and my thumb."

Epsilon Eridani System. March, 2551. Aboard UNSC frigate Hammer Time

Marcus walked past the pair, feeling red from a berating from Doc. He was actually surprised at the medic's temper, and Marcus had left a bit in disgrace. He was rarely out his armor, he had heard Alexia had stormed this way. If anything...there was bound to be trouble. And he needed to break it up before some poor sailor got a broken limb...or worse.

He eyed the sergeant and asked, "Say, you didn't happen to see a blonde ODST, about yea tall, and with a bad temper, sergeant?" He gestured to indicated Alexia's size, "Because her ass is about to get into a world of trouble."

Jaryd was hip deep into an access console. Frayed wires and cords were splayed about him, power temporarily diverted from those metal strings so as to avoid him being electrocuted. He had his armor on, and thus his sidearms and knife. He was always ready to use them when he felt threatened. He was running wires and bypasses, trying to test and find new ways to power systems, hopefully with new redundancies and filters to allow greater margins of error should they be attacked. He heard footsteps, and was ready to grab a pistol and point.

Daniel blinked at Marcus, the most recent arrival aboard Hammer Time. It wasn't anything personal, but Daniel wasn't exactly fond of him. It was the same with everyone outside his squad, and family, and friends. Of which Marcus was none of the above. But he was an ODST, so that earned him some courtesy. "Nope," he responded honestly.

Ren was strolling into the engineering deck of the Long and Dark December, casually dressed in military fashion, jacket buttoned but untucked. His signature twin M60 handguns always at his side, he stopped behind Jaryd.
"Like your playground?" He said without any emotion.

Jaryd quickly let go of the wire he was holding onto, pushing himself out of the hatch and, in one fluid motion, grabbing a handgun and pointing it at Ren for several moments. "Jesus Ren, you know you shouldn't do that." He said, handgun lowering very slowly, but with his hands still in the proper places to shoot.

Ren rolled his eyes.
"You should have know it was me."
The Spartan 3 turned and began to walk away. "Rika wants to see us whenever you got a chance." He said, waving his hand back as he just walked away.

Marcus breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you...you just don't know how hard that woman is to manage, even for an ODST." He gave an ironic salute and headed for the mess, and waited for the inevitable trouble that would come. And a few seconds and a couple dozen feet later, he heard a string of foreign cursing, and then a bit of silence.

Marcus froze, and then bolted, knowing who that cursing belonged too. It wouldn't end well for the poor sod who pissed her off. He ran, hoping to break up the fight before it escalated.

Jaryd started holstering his pistol. "And she couldn't just page me on the intercom?!" He called out to the retreating figure. He was annoyed, and it showed in his voice. He slowly hunched over and reached into the hatch again for the wires.

Chris looked after the running sergeant. "Huh, I wonder what's up with him?" Daniel simply shrugged, and went back to walking to the mess. "I don't know. Maybe he said the wrong thing to the girl."

The rest of Dragon was scattered around the ship. Lin Tanaka, the team sharpshooter, lay on her bed flipping pages through her book, every now and then looking at an actual photo of her smiling with another cute girl in her arms. It had been a while since they last met and her name was hard to remember.

Ozren was already in the mess, helping himself to some food. He sat with other crewmen but kept to himself.

The girl that Lin was currently forgetting had just pulled over and was currently typing instructions into her PDA. She typed fast, and finally was nearly done.

Hey Lin. Saoirse here. It's been a long time. Please don't forget about me; I miss you.

-Saoirse

Sending it to Lin's PDA, Saoirse continued driving, going for her usual afternoon drive then bar run at the little bar downtown called Mal's.

He made it to the mess, feeling slightly winded, even for his level of fitness. Damnit...I'm getting too old for this shit. He opened the door, and didn't know whether to be mortified, shocked, or outraged. He saw the whole scene: Alexia pinning a sailor to the deck, his arm behind his back and Alexia close to dislocating it. Marcus' eyes narrowed: he was NOT amused.

Marcus barked, "Lance Corporal, stand down. And I mean NOW!" The two on the ground, and most in the mess froze. Marcus' voice could halt a platoon in their tracks. And Alexia let go of the man's arm, noting the fierce expression in Marcus' face.

Jaryd continued working on the wires, now just putting them either back where they belonged or into their new slots if they were already ready. To the untrained eye, it would look like a tangled mess of nonesense, which actually was pretty accurate, but Jaryd had been trained, and so while it was still a massive tangled mess, he could at least know where to go to start working on sorting it all out, the tools inside the hatch moving quickly in the cramped space.

The message itself probably wouldn't reach Lin for a few more hours at least, having to go through the relays and all. So Lin continued reading, on the verge of forgetting the girl.

Ozren whipped his head around to see one of his fellow ODST's about to rip a mans arm off before she backed down before her commanding officer. It was dinner and a show.

Alexia straightened up, letting the sailor fall to the deck unceremoniously. Marcus strode up to her, his expression still fierce. He wanted an explaination, and now he looked like a damn fool. "Lance Corporal Tarivin, you better have a good explanation on what happened here; or so help me God, I will plant my boot up your ass five laces deep." He stopped about a few feet before her, "Now, explain yourself...NOW." "Sir, he insulted our squad record, sir. I couldn't take the insult lying down, so I had to use for--" Marcus glared, "Now, I don't care if he insulted your damn MOTHER. Apologize to this man, before I place said boot up your ass this SECOND."

Alexia looked down to the deck in shame, "My apologies, sailor. My response was out of line." The sailor, his pride damaged, and mutely accepted the apology. Marcus sat down and gestured for her to sit down next to him. He sighed, feeling mildly annoyed at this point, his fury having died down.

It'd been two weeks, roughly, since we were deployed on this planet.  In the first week, we mostly just watched them, seeing their supply routes, watching patrol shifts.  We made an old Covenant bunker our little temporary home, setting up flares and other traps that would either explode or alert the enemy to our attention, which would later lead it to exploding.

I was making a quick patrol on the top of the base.  Shrouded by my active-camo, I walked at a bit of a brisk pace, but still gazed intently at the surrounding terrain, that being mostly forest.  I started making my way down into the base.

=had been working on patching the roof of the base that was leaking from the rain the previous night but was having trouble with it so comms dan=

yo dan mind giving me a hand here, trying to get the makeshift cover on the ceiling

I stopped as Marik comm'd me, then spoke back through the radio.

"Yeah... Want me up top or down here?"

Pulling to a stop outside Mal's, she headed inside, where the bartender, Reynolds, motioned her over, having her favorite vodka martini waiting.
"Hey Saoirse. Good day at the lab?"
"No. Have to do enough calculations to fill ten math finals for ten schools just to get the damn thin to turn left."
Reynolds nodded. "Ah, the wonders of science."

Saoirse just gulped down her drink. "Keep them coming."

Before either Daniel or Chris reached the mess hall, the speakers on the ship came to life and the captains voice sounded loudly. "Attention crew," the captain said in a tone of pure authority. "We have received new orders. Report to your posts immediately, and prepare for the jump to slip-space.

"Well," Daniel said. "So much for food. But you heard the man, back to our quarters." He was a little put off when Chris grinned. "Oh yeah, back to bed."

Flashing a green light, I headed down to where Marik was messing with the hatch. I scan the room as I enter, seeing a bunch of scrap metal Marik had laying about.

"Point me at what needs done, Marik."

Marcus and Alexia perked up, and got out of their seats, Marcus giving her a look. "Lance Corporal, your punishment will come later. Now, move it, trooper." Both of them started back to the squad ready room, Alexia dealing with a scrape to her face.

Well...at least the swabbie put up a fight. I'll grant the man that...he had some serious balls taking her on.

He smiled, knowing Doc would be livid at seeing Alexia with an injury that wasn't from combat. It was going to be an interesting gathering.

Jaryd soon had everything at the very least making a connection to where he was happy with the results, and hopped out of the vent, storing the tools he was using in various slots in his armor, such as behind one of his leg armor pieces, or in his chest plate. Once they were all secure, the tiny handles sticking out haphazardly, he started jogging off, heading towards where he guessed Rika would be; the lab. His first stop would have to be the hanger to pick up a Falcon or Hornet, then head out towards the location she would want him at.

Looking down I saw the tools where Marik said they'd be. I lowered by body and grabbed them before walking over to the parts. I set the tools down and knelt down. Using the tools, I shaped the metal and did my best at making suitable hinges.

"Isn't a hinge a little overboard? I mean, just placing the metal over the hole should be suitable enough. We won't be here for THAT long... or atleast I hope not..."

Dragon Squad met up in their quarters, part of the on board barracks for the frigate. They, along with the other ODST's and Marines aboard, were housed there. Hammer Time was unlike most frigates, built to house a larger compliment of marines and ODST's for longer periods of time. She was also one of the few stealth frigates left in the fleet, her design based off the Midsummer Night. For the past few weeks they had been undergoing to retrofits on Reach, preparing her for some mission. They had no idea what it was though, this late in the war.

Rika paced in her room, waiting for the others.

Ren already had warmed up a Falcon. "Come on." He called in a bored voice to Jaryd. "Rika's gonna have our asses on a platter. We need to pick up Lina and Michael from their scuba training too."

"Alright. Not that it much matters. We're out on reconnaissance half the time anyway."

I added a couple finishing touches, before handing it to Marik.

"Here, that should suffice."

Jaryd jogged over. "Scuba training. That doesn't sound fun." He hopped up quickly into the back, taking the center seat, the guns on the sides angled down and unarmed for the time being. "I hope they're learning to use the buddy system."

=finshes the hinge and tests it before jumping down into the room=

hey we go through that and seal it up they gotta go through the entire base again hitting the traps they missed before hand while we get alot of distance between em,plus it makes it harder to see the bunker now that it's covered in green like the area around it

"Hopefully they don't find us here. But atleast we have a fallout plan."

I take my Battle rifle from my back, inspecting the weapon, making sure it's still good to go.

Can never be too careful.

"What next? A supply ship should be making a delivery at one of the Covey FOBs later. Should intercept if we get the chance."

=puts away the tools and spare items=

how are we on supplies?

Lin was the first to speak up, walking up to the sergeant. "What's the situation sir?" Daniel shook his head at her, sighing. "No idea Lin. Probably has to do with why we got the retrofits." Chris folded her arms, frowning. "Still don't make sense. Why put stealth tech, on a frigate? Wouldn't a prowler make more sense?" Ozren responded to her question. "You can't drop ODST's off from a prowler Chris."

"Last check I counted another week on rations. Ammo is steady, 'less we stop picking our shots, we should be fine."

Looking down at my ammo pouches. I was carrying five extra magazines on me, then we had more in one of our ammo packs, set inside somewhere in the base.

"Explosiveswise... we got enough to level a Covey AA."

"It's unstable. We don't want to start it up until we blow it. The Split-jaws damaged it before they left this place. Didn't want anyone else using it, I guess."

Pretty smart really. If someone didn't see it was unstable, they could have blown themselves up, if they tried using it to power something. One small mistake, and it could have been the end of us.

"Well then what the hell is our mission then?" she half shouted. "Why the hell are we here? We should be out on the front lines man!" Daniel simply shrugged. "Look Chris, we have our orders and they put us here. I wasn't for this, believe me, but we didn't really have a choice. ONI said 'You will go here,' and here we are." Lin couldn't help but snort. "So now we just role over for the spooks?"

Saoirse downed a third martini before cutting herself off. Ahe ordered a soda pop, downing half the highly caffeinated beverage in a second.
"Seemed someone doesn't have a designated driver." Reynolds quiped.
"She's out on a frigate. Here's to hoping she doesn't forget me." She held up the glass and downed the rest. Reynolds refilled it.
"On the house "
"You are a god among men Reynolds." She raised the glass. "To you, you damn space cowboy."

As she downed the drink, Reynolds rolled his eyes. He never was gonna live down his space cowboy costume from October. Never.

The Falcon winged its way over the water, away from where the frigate was being built on an island, and acrozs the ocean until they finally arrived at UNSC SCUBA Dive zone 5. Hovering over the water, Ren signaled the rest of Blaze, who surfaced five minutes latero and climbed aboard.
"Hey Jaryd!" Lina shouted over the whomp-whomp of the propellors.
Michael hung out, keeping an eye on the ground. "Our ride nearly space-worthy?" He directed at the engineer, as Ren directed the dual prop aircraft towards the lab, and Rika.

Jaryd had to speak up now over the whup-whu-whup of the engines. "Should be soon. Just a few more wires to re-route and hatches to button up. Assuming Ren here stops sneaking up on me." He gesutured at the cockpit, the current location of Ren at the moment.

Marcus came to the ready room, seeing that there was one more ODST than he had earlier. "Okay...NOW command gives me my demolitions man?" Jose just sighed, used to the lack of speed by the top brass of command. As if on cue, the demolitions man turned and straightened, "Sgt. Mitchell Jager, reporting for duty, sir." Marcus smiled and sighed, "At ease, sergeant. I'm sure you met Doc and Lily here." He gestured to each of the troopers respectively. Lily, usually the silent one, asked "So, what do the spooks want, sir?"

Marcus shook his head, "Don't know, Corporal. I'm too old to care. I just go where sent."

"Shut it down. Figured we didn't need the lights on, at the time."

I ponder for a moment, before walking over to the door, staring out from it, into a hall.

"I found some Covey comm gear. Should be able to tap into their communications. Won't be able to understand what they're saying, but I think I can bring their comms down completely, for a short time."

The Falcon angled a bit. Lina sighed. "It's Ren."
"Attention passengers, get ready to land. Thank you for flying Air Ren, and if you would please tip your pilot, that would be nice."

As the Falcon settled onto the airfield, Hornets and a few Skyhawks took off, followed by a Pelican. Ren hopped out of the cockpit.
"She's at the Warren." He said, then started off.

Picking their way through the forest on the west side, they came upon a stand of boulders. Ren started to push one rock aside, and the other two came to help. Revealing an opening, they all led Jaryd down, pulling the rock back before heading down.

Rika was standing before a table, manipulating a hologram of the surrounding area.
"We've talked. We all want out. Being a Spartan means nothing if we all die. Alpha's gone. Beta decimated. And now Gamma."
Rika looked up. "We're getting ready to run. So, tell me guys. Who really wants out?"

Jaryd raised his hand. "I want out of here. I want to go some place where I'm not going to be told to attack something just because it looked at humanity funny." He was part of Beta, he was there when Cartwheel went on, and contrary to what people know, it wasn't that much of a success. He had tripped, and was trampled into the mud and dirt by various feet and wasn't able to make it back to extraction normally, presumed dead amongst the bodies that were left in the fields. He had to hitch a ride on various covenant transport vehicles, and just hope he made it to a planet where he could take a small transport or something and make a break for human territory. It had been a long time that he had been out there, and it was something he still never quite got over.

Hey Kira,
I was part of the ground defense on >REDACTED<. Most of the others... didn't make it. I was lucky, the ODSTs were deployed before the Covenant could regroup after their last attack, the Iris was called back after the battle for repairs, so we're on our way back to the main battlegroup now.

After what I saw on >REDACTED<, I can see why you joined up with the Helljumpers, I think I might do the same, when I get the chance.

-Dávid

I read the message again, I wasn't sure how I felt. On the one hand, I was overjoyed that Dávid was still alive, given how many battles the UNSC Iris had been involved in lately, but him wanting to join the ODSTs? I wasn't sure. The ODSTs were dangerous, moreso than the marines.

I didn't want to lose my little brother, but he was an adult, and I couldn't stop him if he wanted to.

With a sigh, I closed the message on my datapad, and opened the newest one, a notice from ONI, informing me of my redeployment. It had been nice, staying in a hotel and being able to wear civilian clothes, instead of sleeping on the ground in my BDU.

I put my datapad back in my bag, making sure to close it down and enable the encryption. I'd had my ear chewed off last time I forgot, and continued to walk through the street towards a bar I'd promised a friend I'd drink if I ever came here, part of the reason I'd chosen to stay here instead of Reach.

"I don't like it either Lin. But I'd rather not get on their bad side, and you wouldn't need this many ODST's or marines on a simple frigate if the job wasn't important." That seemed to end the conversation, as Dragon squad simply shut up and went about checking on their gear, or just sitting down.