The Stratavarius was a marvel of modern technology and a testament to the technological advances the human race had made after the war. It is also used as a mobile mission command for any large Spartan ops that came to Command.

---

The Pelican drifted into the hangar and settled gently onto the deck. The hatch hissed open as it depressurized the cabin and allowed the Spartans to disembark. The first thing they saw upon exiting was an officer waiting for them. "Glad you made it, the briefing is taking place in the center of the hangar, if you'd follow me I will take you there."

"Must be a lot of people going in if they are briefing us in the hangar." Aaron said as he hopped down and followed the officer.

Or they wanted it out in public. Tavish wasn't sure why. Maybe news reporters? No, they wouldn't do that while they were trying to keep the goos quiet. What kind of operation was this?

Spook stepped off the pelican after Tavish and pulled off her helmet, needing fresh... er air. Her hair was wet with sweat and the pushed it out of her eyes, still a hint fatigued from the intense run to the pelican on the planet.

"Public briefing?" Scorch asked, disembarking from the pelican. "That means we're moral support, doesn't it?" He sighed and shook his head lightly.

"Moral support for who?" Aaron asked in response to Scorch's comment, "I doubt they'd just use us for moral support considerin' how much money they spent training and augmenting us."

"But you have no problems with them using us as janitors?" Scorch asked in retort. They were being sent as cleanup

"You do know they don't mean sweep literally?" Aaron asked, "They aren't going to be handing us brooms or anything."

"Hey..." Spook said speaking up. "Where's Stitch? Did he stay behind to see to the wounded?"

"Pretty sure I saw him heading back into the compound." Aaron said, "They can put his skills to good use down there. Hopefully save some soldiers."

"He really wasn't that good of a shot down there." Tavish said with a small shrug "He'll do better trying to patch some people up."

"I get the feeling that by the end of this, we'll be wanting to have stayed behind and tried to patch some people up too." Scorch said with a groan

Aaron smiled under his helm. "I think you would be used to this by now."

The group rounded another Pelican bringing into view nearly fifty marines milling around a vacant spot in the hangar. "Here we are. Go ahead and pick a spot and the briefing should start soon.

"I think this explains why we're briefing in the hangar." Aaron said as he looked over the crowd. "This is going to be very interesting." he added as he found a spot in the back of the crowd as to not block anyone's view of the podium.

Spook stood next to Tavish, so far finding nothing very interesting at all. She did however put her helmet back on after noticing a few sideways glances her direction.

Tavish stood practically in the middle, catching a glance down at Amala as well. He hadn't removed his helmet, so he just stood there, staring at the person who was going to brief them.

Scorch kept in the back by Scorp. He wasn't much for crowds, personally. "So...where's the fish-faced general?" He asked Scorp with a slight chuckle. He was of course making some obscure reference that he didn't expect anyone else to understand.

And as Scorch expected, Aaron hadn't understood the reference and just assumed it was someone Scorch dealt with before their squad was formed. "Looks like the briefing officer is still getting his info together." he said and pointed at a man chatting with a information specialist and thumbing through some folders.

Scorch chuckled and shook his head. "Doesn't surprise me at all. When are they ever prepared for the meeting?"

"They got all the time in the world, they ain't the ones going in." Aaron said as he watched the briefing officer shut the folder he was skimming through and, seemingly, thank the information specialist. In return, the specialist saluted and then departed.

The briefing officer walked up to the podium and quickly started the already delayed briefing. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a very dangerous mission as we really don't know what we are getting into. We have a disabled enemy ship about the size of an UNSC Battle Cruiser, nearly 2,500 meters in length. Scans show minor life signs and major energy signatures all across the ship, which we are assuming are surviving enemy Armors. The ship's major energy supplier is down or destroyed and it is working off, what we believe to be, emergency power. That is about all we know concerning this ship. No knowledge exists about possible ship defenses or capacities or anything like it. We are making many assumptions here and that is why we are taking precautions here. All transports are taking two squads to the ship, one will move through the ship to their objective while the other will stay with the ship and keep it secure should the need for a quick retreat arise. Full enviro-gear will be used in the case unsafe environmental conditions or attacks. Extra ammunition is being allotted to each Marine and an extra crate of ammunition will be stored in the transports should the extra allotments not be enough. Each squad will also be required to carry two flamethrower in order to make sure the...'oozes' are killed outright instead of simply fleeing their disabled armor. Each exploratory squad will have their own mission or missions they need to accomplish and they will each be given their own briefing on the way to the enemy cruiser. Do we have any questions?"