operation wildfire book 1

chapter 8

Spartan team Majestic was successfully extracted from the planet and were just landing in the Pelican bay. As they exited the drop ship, they were immediately greeted by Sarah Palmer. Instead of greeting them with a sarcastic remark, she only stared at the five Spartans with an emotionless expression. The five Spartans knew that something was up when they didn't hear her trademarked 'Glad you can join us,' or whatever other sarcastic remark she usually said. Paul DeMarco stood at attention in front of the superior Spartan. He thought about asking her what the problem was but knew not to ask otherwise.

"Spartans," she finally began. "While you were gone, Infinity was boarded by a single Xenomorph that managed to grow to a staggering height of fifteen feet tall. Thanks to the efforts of Crimson, the threat was eliminated." She paused and exhaled a long breath. "However," she looked at the five Spartans with a hurtful expression, something they never would have thought of seeing in her eyes. It was completely out of her formal posture.

"There was a causality." None of the Spartans spoke but they all had that faint grieving look in their faces, especially Gabriel Thorne. Palmer inhaled lightly. "Stanton was killed."

"What?" DeMarco asked quickly.

Palmer focused her gaze on him. "Jon's dead, but his death might have saved the ship." Every member of Majestic held their head down. "Alright. You guys have any more information on that new ship you discovered?" She switched the mood instantly after asking that question. Despite them being Spartan IV's, they still dealt with death of fellow Spartan the same way a II or a III would, with silence.

"Yes ma'am," DeMarco replied. He pointed at Grant. "Talk to her, Grant."

Palmer only turned her head implying the same question. Grant brought out a datapad that she brought along the trip. "Situation changed, ma'am. We managed to pull information from the Covenant ship's archives and it seems that-"

Palmer held up her hand. "Save it, spill the information when we get to the bridge." Grant nodded and put her data pad away. The six Spartans then headed off to the bridge.

…

The captain requested the presence of Crimson and Majestic at the bridge. The first to arrive was Majestic along with Commander Sarah Palmer and they stood at attention in front of the skipper.

"At ease, Spartans," he said holding his hand up. The Spartans eased their stance and gathered around the briefing table. "So it comes to my attention that you guys have some intel on that C shaped ship."

DeMarco nodded and gestured to his fellow female Spartan. "Yes sir, Grant here has all the intel we could gather on the ship."

"Sir," Grant began as she took out her data pad. "It isn't much intel but it's the best I could get."

She handed the pad to Lasky. He connected the pad to the main briefing table. Roland immediately uploaded the ship's blueprint and scans of the ship's diagnostics. As each scan finished for its diagnostics, each scan read not available and began flashing red. Roland then materialized from his hologram station and brought a hand to his chin.

"Well this wasn't what I expected," he commented.

"Why are the scans showing up red?" Tom asked the AI with a confused look.

"It appears that the scans are not picking up anything from the diagnostics," he replied flatly.

The captain rolled his eyes. "Well obviously, but the question still stands, Roland."

Roland shrugged his holographic shoulders. "Sir, I can't say. It's almost like they are being told to stop or cancel. I'm trying to override the command but it just won't crack. I don't understand why it isn't giving in. I mean it's just a simple scan, it's not like I'm trying to hack a Covenant supercomputer or a system guarded by a Forerunner construct." Lasky glanced over to Commander Palmer with a confused expression. Roland, one of the UNSC's best AI's besides Cortana, couldn't crack the code to simple diagnostic errors. Roland stood there in his hologram with his hand brought up to his chin then he turned his gaze towards Spartan Grant.