Marine operations staging area, 03:29

The Staff Sergeant scanned the replacements slowly, as if sizing them up. He'd read their files; they weren't exactly experienced enough to be dealing with this. He certainly wouldn't have expected them to be with GHOST and suspected they weren't the replacements Jameson had his eyes on. How could command be concerned when people died if they were going to give them people who weren't ready for GHOSTs work?

And was there some rule that there has to be one wisecracking private with every group? If Wiley was going to keep this up, he might as well forget about the Covenant because he's shoot the private himself to get some quiet. He shook his head slowly, and loaded his rifle, checking it's sights before slinging it over his shoulders. He glanced around the room, checking for Jameson again. No where to be found. He frowned as he took his submachine gun from the crate. This was odd, he had expected at least some form of briefing by now, they were running out of time considering they were all ready to go. To say it was unnerving would be to go too far, but it wasn't comforting. What god forsaken op had they been roped into now? 

As harsh as he was being on him, PFC Wiley did have a point. They would be told when they needed to be told... but still, he would have prefered some information over silence, even if it was just confirming what they were here for and nothing more. It didn't sit right that they were not going to get any information on this, what could possibly be taking Jameson so long?
"Privates, you'll learn when the time comes. Wiley, Shut up." He said bluntly, loading his submachine gun before slinging it. He pulled his helmet on over his head, and the visor changed to its opaque variation. He glanced around the room... Still no Jameson. He proceeded away from the replacements, seeing little reason in hanging around if Wiley was going to spout jokes about Rabbi's, priests and prophets. He didn't want his intelligence to be insulted by whatever Wiley considered humour

He took out his tac pad and turned it on, tapping a few commands and getting their location. So they had arrived... But what could be out here? The colony had been destroyed a year ago, and surely there was nothing left worth coming back for? 
This didn't sit right, there was certainly more to it than met the eye, and considering that most of it was covered in a black sheet right now, he wondered how big this would actually get. Hopefully they wouldn't see too much trouble out here, he couldn't see why the covies would stay around a destroyed human planet, that wouldn't be their usual behavior. Maybe it was insurrectionists? They might have made a base among the ruins, but why the secrecy in that case?
He guessed it would all come out in the briefing, but he smelled trouble all over this. It seemed too strange there not to be