Team Winter: After Wars

Getting Familiar

All bleeding must stop.

A phrase used in an old old popular show that's resurfaced among many medics across the stars. All wounds must be patched, which stands to reason that all bleeding must stop. Yet the phrase applies to so many other places. When you lose something the grief must subside. When you fail, the embarrassment must end. And yet, for Spartan Kibbles, He feels that his failure to accommodate 2 AI's was a grief he must carry for as long as he's alive. His inability to assess both AI and make room in Winter for both, lead to the eventual self destruction of AI Izy.

The Team moved on but this made his responsibility as a leader feel all the more real, as he watched this AI chip go dim before the spark disappeared entirely. The AI enacted the old "Cole Protocol" on it's memory which wipes all programming entirely from the chip, making it little more than a flash drive. When Commander Kibbles brought this to ONI's attention he was met with little more then curiosity. Once everything was explained, all remaining logs transferred, and a personal testimony from any team member was spoken (Which was only Spartan 291), ONI admitted that they were surprised either AI survived and ordered Kibbles to go on without incident.

This was about a week ago, with the pain down to a dull ache, Kibbles nights are more sleepless then usual, but the assignments don't slow. They're small assignments left to the ODST's with a Spartan leader. They say "Investigate this!" and "Inspect the wreckage of _____" And it all ever turns out to be civilian engineers fucking with things they ought not to. This was a waste of Spartan power, especially in such a public place as this. Sargasso used to be a vibrant planet, since the Covenant attacked nearly 10 years ago, the economy has slowly returned to a shimmer of what it once was. Unfortunately with that attack it's opened up the eyes of the UNSC. Even with the prophets "Silenced" it seems that they weren't the only voice of the covenant. Other smaller organizations have risen from their ashes and with how unpredictable they can be, everywhere needs to be ready for anything.

With all this in mind, Commander Kibbles noticed just how quiet ONI has been, and how menial their tasking has been too. Do they really mean to keep such a high tier fighting force away from the action?

Frustrated, Kibbles looked over his current files again. As action packed as this looks, it doesn't look like more than a quick in and out.

Spartan Scourge had been sharpening his blades. Though he would never admit it with words, he missed his old blade before they'd broken off in the now limb corpse of some nameless Sanghelli. ONI happily issued him another set, but they'd taken some... liberties with these. Does everything really need to be so high tech? His weapons were cleaned so all he really had to do was sharpen his blades.

"You aren't too busy are you?" A voice piped up from behind him. He looked back. 'Right. That newbie Commander'.

"No" Spartan Scourge said simply. His words to the point, nearly as much as his knives seemed to be.

"Right, well we've got an assignment and wanted to brief you personally as you'd had the most experience of all these Spartans. To say simply, ONI wants us to investigate a situation that seems to have gotten out of hand out at the beach. The on site marines are struggling to contain what seems to be just a terrorist attack from some splinter group that thought it would be a good idea to go for an inner colony world like ours. You, Spartan Dragon and Spartan Shrimp are the team I've chosen to go." Commander Kibbles explains. Spartan Scourge looks at him for a moment.

"Is that all?"

A silence hangs in the air for a moment. 'I suppose talking to a Spartan II was never supposed to be easy I guess' Kibbles thought. It's as if Scourge was intentionally making this uncomfortable.

"Yes that's all, Here's the pad with your version of the brief, make sure to grab the other 2 on your way out, give them some sort of brief and get what needs to be done, done" Kibbles says finally.

"Roger" is all Scourge says before his back is turned and he makes his way out. It isn't until he turns the corner does Kibbles make his way back to his office.

"Well that could have gone better.

Spartan Scourge, Dragon, and Shrimp are all loaded up on a hog, Shrimp on the gunner, Scourge on the wheel. The ride is uncomfortably silent on the way there. Plasma bursts could be see disappearing into the sky, a phantom providing covering fire, but true to the pad, it's all slapped together and a mystery how they slipped past orbital defenses. None the less, the threat was real and would be handled efficiently. Dragon took deadly aim from the passenger seat and allowed herself to squeeze the trigger.

POP

A limp body fell from the side gunner of the phantom. The Warthog pulled up and Shrimps grip allowed him to light the enemies before him, turning them into little more than fertilizer. Unggoy and Kig-Yar fell side by side before the realized just how much trouble they were in. The Phantom began to fly lower to the ground, allowing the few troops that stayed aboard to jump out the now opened sides. Spartan Scourge saw this as an opportunity. He launched from his seat and latched on to the mount the turret used to be attached to to pull himself aboard the ship. Her held on to the shaky sides as the phantom bucked to get him off. When he reached the locked door he pulled the pin on his only frag and allowed it to roll into the downward slope of the doorway.

Scourge jumped to the rear of the phantom and braced himself as the door blew open revealing a now concussed Sanghelli. Scourge marched forward and grabbed this Sanghelli by the mandibles and threw him out of the phantom entirely before grabbing the controls of his newly acquired bird and using the ship-mounted turret to obliterate the last of this splinter group.

The jaws that dropped when the Phantom landed and Scourge motioned for his other two comrades to join him in this newly acquired bird were immeasurable. Surely enough, Scourge parked the Phantom in the rear of the landing bay and turned in the pad back to Commander Kibbles.

"Next time give me a challenge." Scourge says as his visor locks onto Kibbles eyes.

"Oh and by the way, You have a new toy." Scourge says before leaving the commander's office. Kibbles poked his head out, saw the tech, and shook his head. What the hell was he even supposed to do with that?