Of all places on Terra, the independent city state of Siesta was by far the most natural location for the planet's main link to orbit and the UEG beyond.
Located on the planet's equator and having bedrock practically all the way down to the planet's mantle, it was the optimum location for a Space Elevator and the low likelihood of Catastrophes, especially after the Geo-Engineering Corps neutralized the threat from the volcano for the next few centuries, made it one of the safest locations on the planet for the critical piece of orbital infrastructure. The city also owing to it being the travel destination on Terra also possessed a very well developed airport that was pretty easy for UEG engineers to convert over to a Space Port.
All of this meant a few things. First, it was one of the most metropolitan places on Terra with heavy cultural and economic influences from other planets. Second, it was the de facto stopping off point for UNSC assets landing and leaving the planet. And lastly, if you had shore leave or R&R rotation on Terra, you were more than likely stopping off and staying in the tropical city.
SILVER Team's pelican was just one of the many air and spacecraft flying into the space port at the moment and was directed to the Air Force's connected base to one of its primary landing pads. As the VTOL craft swung its way over the landing platform and dropped its skids, its four passengers prepared for the landing. Alex placed a pair of polarized smart glasses on and synched the HUD up to his SNI and TAC Pad. Jin turned her Datapad off and returned it to her bag before standing up and stabalizing herself using the handholds above them. Elizabeth simply stretched in her seat and Yelena was applying her sunscreen, she burned extremely easily in the sun so she always did this when they would go out without their armor, and then placed one of the many pieces of hard candy she always carried in her mouth to suck on for a while.
Landing gently and dropping the rear door, the Spartans grabbed their bags and filed out of the Pelican as they saw a large group of Marines and Army move out towards the craft to ferry them back to Fort Accords, the UNSC's main ground facility on the planet.
Stretching her back out until she heard it crack, Elizabeth looked to the others with a pleasant smile on her face, "Well, we're here..." She sad while turning around and walking backwards to continue talking, "Now, let's find Clyde and get started on this excursion and enjoy this leave."
Everyone nodded at that and Alex brought up his message from the other Spartan up onto the HUD of his smart glasses, "He said he would meet up at the pickup area of the main terminal so we should probably get a move on." Alex waved for the rest to follow him which they dutifully did though were distracted by the vista of the seaside city and the thick civilian and military aerospace traffic over the city.
Eventually reaching one of the commuter trains that would deliver them to the other side of the massive complex. The other military and civilians aboard giving plenty of space for the seemingly uniform and quiet giants who boarded. The rest of the team began doing something, Alex just looked up at one of the media screens on either end of the cabin that were playing local news broadcasts. The anchor with a lock of bright red and blue feathers hanging from his hair was currently doing a segment on the ongoing Kazdel Civil War. "Yesterday, our correspondents embedded with the UNSC Army confirmed that a major engagement between Loyalist Forces with the UNSC in support and Rebel Forces over the major city of Gadiff. While General Hans Falkenberg and the UNSC's other command staff have refused to comment yet, our cameras were able to capture this footage." The camera shifted to show two soldiers wearing the Air Assault helmets of the UNSC Army Airborne laying prone on a rooftop and firing their M392 DMR and MA5K into a building across the street to suppress a target inside. The screen shifted again to show a squad of Sarkaz wearing surplus UNSC BDUs painted in the colors of Queen Theresa's Recognized Government breeching a door with a shotgun before drawing swords and running in. One last video showed an M808 Scorpion roll down a roadway firing its main gun at a rooftop enemy hardpoint before several Warthogs rolled up behind it and disgorged several squads of infantry. "According to our sources among the Loyalist Government and Babel,..." The anchor said as he checked his notes, "Rebel Forces were discovered with several squads of wanted Insurrectionists among their numbers and were discovered to have been using civilian hostages to deter the air, artillery, and orbital strikes that the have allowed Loyalist Forces to be so dominant in the field..."
Alex was jolted from his focus on the broadcast when he felt something metallic touch him. Turning he saw that Jin had placed her prosthetic hand on his shoulder and was pointing towards the open door, "Hey, train ride's over." She said while partially dragging him out of there.
"Sorry,..." Alex began, "Watching that report on the conflict here." He said while pointing back at the train as he walked off. It was something that all Spartans suffered from that they were hyper focused on conflict or potential conflict they hear about and the Kazdel Civil War was no exception.
"Hey, that's ok." Jin said while leading him out, "I was reading about it on our flight in. But that's work and we're not here for work. We'll be worried about that soon enough." With that they finally caught up with the other two who were waiting with varying degrees of patience near the set of doors leading to the pick up area where they would meet with Clyde.
Walking out with the rest of them, they began to scan the area for where their teammate and his companion would be waiting for them. Looking around, they saw large crowds of all sorts of figures, Terrans leaving the planet, other civilians arriving, large numbers of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen arriving for and returning from leave, and while she may have just been seeing things Yelena swore she saw at least one Sangheili in the crowd. However they didn't see their fellow Spartan in the crowd.
That was until Alex got a message that displayed on his smart glasses, "Hey, over here." It said before a waypoint was pinged. "Hey guys, I just got a waypoint pinged and a message from Clyde." He gestured for them to follow as he lead them away from the area and towards a large parking complex on its second deck.
Rounding a corner, they saw Clyde and the woman they recognized as Elvira as they sat on the hood of a large car sipping some sort of fruity non-alcoholic beverage. As they prepared to say something to get their attention, the Spartans caught a glimpse of a red and black blur rapidly moving towards them and Alex and Elizabeth felt something small hit them at just under the muzzle velocity of a Super MAC. "Mommy, Daddy, they're here." The entire group smiled as they looked down to the small Lupo hugging the legs of the two Spartans.
All the members of SILVER Team formed a semi-circle around the young girl and took knees to get closer to her eye level. Yelena began rubbing her on the head between her two wolf ears as Jin rubbed her back and Alex looked her in the pair of soft brown eyes she got from his teammate. "How's my favorite niece doing?" Alex asked her while placing a hand on her shoulder.
Abbigail, Clyde's secret daughter and the collective niece of SILVER Team, giggled at the affection and attention she was getting before looking her uncle and aunts. "Great!" She said before the Spartans began standing back up, though Aunt Elizabeth let her climb up on her back as they all walked over towards Abbigail's parents.
"Clyde." Jin greeted him with a handshake and fraternal hug before making way for the rest of the team to go up to and greet their teammate and his unofficial wife.
"So guys,..." Clyde started while gesturing to the excited young girl hanging onto Elizabeth's back, "I see you've met the welcoming party and the young lady of the hour." He said as he went up to his daughter on SILVER-4's back. "I've got her." Clyde said as he began reaching for her.
"Nah,.." Elizabeth waved him off, "She's fine right there and I think she like it up there." Elizabeth turned her head to see Abbigail beaming from ear to ear from her perch on the Feline Spartan's back.
"Alright then." Clyde responded while taking another sip of his drink. "Abbigail, what do you say to your Aunt for that?" He asked the soon to be 10 year old with a smile on her face.
She beamed more in her position and looked Elizabeth in the eyes, "Thanks Aunt Liz." Elizabeth guessed from what she did next that it was to show further her joy at the moment as she brought up two fingers and preformed the Spartan Smile in front of her own face. Elizabeth responded by preforming the same gesture over her own face as she smiled at her niece.
While they did that, Yelena walked up to Clyde's other Plus 1. "So Elvira,..." She asked, "Clyde said you would be out guide today. What's the plan?"
Elvira smiled as she looked at the Cautus Spartan, "Well, I've got the whole day planned out, though I want it all to be a surprise. But first though, I can't let you and your teammates be caught outside in that." She pointed at their civies, "I'm taking you all down to the commercial district and we are not leaving until you all look spectacular."
All the Spartans began to look nervous at that.
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It was a bright and sunny day at Camp Currahee on planet Onyx.
Another day in paradise would be what Chief Mendez would say about days like this, though the humidity and the heat in the deep jungles was something that Spartan Irina-B332 had found uncomfortable from Day 1 of training. She had been raised on a temperate planet and was descendent from Russian stock so extreme heat was something she was not used to unlike her partner Maxwell-B312.
Speaking of these two Spartans, they were currently lying down on the long distance section of the firing range in their SPI armor with Irina on an SRS99C-2 and Max on the spotter scope.
Waving her off hand in the air next to her, Irina talked to her partner, "I'm serious Max. You can't tell me that Tom and Lucy don't have something for each other. Why else would they have sat next to each other in the cafeteria together every meal for the past 5 years, volunteered together for anything that requires two people, and have you seen the way they look at each other?"
Max just shook his head at his partner's antics, "Irina, I think you think too hard about things like this. I mean, they're both 12."
"So,..." Irina responded, "We're all 12. Also, you can't tell me that you and Kat have something between you two."
"Irina,..." Max addressed her and looked her in the visor with an annoyed tone in his voice, "I think you talk too much and shoot too little."
Irina just shrugged at that. "Fair." She then returned to looking down her ORACLE optic, sighted the target, adjusted her aim, and then slowly squeezed the trigger. The 14.5x114mm round thundered down range and landed squarely in the head section of the target at around 2.1 km down range and knocked the humanoid steel plate to the ground. Removing the now empty magazine from the rifle and sitting up on the mat, she called out, "Clear." Before looking back at her old friend and partner.
"Nice shot Irina." Max complemented, "Though I think I could have done that too."
Irina could tell he was smirking under his visor as she gently nudged his shoulder and began packing up her rifle, "Keep telling yourself that buddy." She smugly said as she placed the longarm on the magnetic strip on the back of her SPI armor and removed her helmet letting her brown hair blow a bit in the wind.
Max laughed at that and picked up the spotter gear before removing his own helmet as he smiled at his partner. "Well you should probably keep practicing then or I'll have you spot as the best sniper in Beta Company before you know it." They both laughed as they began their walk towards the main camp.
As they walked down the dirt path through the jungle though, the camp's PA system began a broadcast that they caught on their coms. "Fireteams VICTOR, WHISKEY, X-RAY, YANKEE, and ZULU , please report to the auditorium. Bring your equipment."
Max looked over to Irina, "That's us, lets double time. Don't want to leave any of the instructors waiting."
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Spartans Irina, Maxwell, and the third member of Fireteam VICTOR, Spartan Raymond-B181, walked into Camp Currahee's main auditorium and took a seat on one of the many benches.
Around them, they could see their peers and other Spartan IIIs of the other 4 teams called down waiting for whoever was going to address them to come on stage and were chatting among themselves in the meantime.
As they sat down, Ray was the first to talk. "So you two, what do you think this is all about?" He asked as he ran an armored hand through his short blonde hair.
"No clue." Max simple stated.
Irina simply leaned back where she sat and placed her hands under her head as she reclined, "Well, they finished our augmentations last month. According to Alpha Company, they first shipped out just days after they finished their augmentations. If anything, they've been delaying our deployment." Irina noted from her knowledge of the timeline for the Spartan-III program.
Ray waved that off, "Well, Alpha was finished during wartime. They were needed to fight. They've probably been delaying us due to lack of a target."
Irina shrugged, "Still, I have a feeling that we're about to have our first deployment." She said with barely contained excitement in her voice.
"Officer on Deck." One of the other IIIs present called out and everyone shot out of their seats to attention as they saw their main trainer and the closest thing they had to a father figure walk up on stage.
Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose, Sierra-051, looked at his assembled Spartans before ordering, "At ease. Everyone take a seat." Kurt walked over to the center of the stage as the holographic projector activated and showed the camp's AI, Deep Winter, was projected in the room. "Good evening Spartans and congratulations on your graduation from the Spartan-III program."
That got everyone's attention. It meant their training was over, and now it was time to get to work as soldiers as they had been preparing to do for years at this point. Kurt smiled when he saw the small celebratory actions of the assembled Spartan-IIIs, "That's correct, you have completed your training and are now ready for war. Fireteams, you will be the first elements of Beta Company to see combat deployment." He looked at them with a proud look, "I expect great things from you Spartans, and I know I will not be disappointed. Now, Deep Winter, give them their briefing."
"Yes sir." The AI responded before bringing up a holographic representation of a planet, "Spartans, this is the planet Terra. It's a UEG member planet, though its situation is highly unstable. The Office of Naval Intelligence has recently founded a task force with to goal of stabilizing the world through military and political means. You will help form the military wing of Task Force Templar and will be operating beside and under Spartan-II SILVER Team. You will be shipping out in 12 days when Onyx is resupplied by frigate UNSC Forward Unto Dawn and will be delivered to the planet on the frigate after the long flight."
