Angel stood on the bridge, scanning the darkness for any ships in view, waiting for something. Her hand had instinctively gone to the magnum clipped to her thigh when the alarms sounded off and it continued to rest there. After hearing Avalon's announcement, she pulled on her helmet and Iris pulled up the standard HUD on her visor, guiding her through the fastest route to the command room. Several ONI staff gave her interesting looks as she jogged by. "Lieutenant Edwards, you are not fully combat ready. I advise that--" Iris was interrupted by a somewhat irritated Spartan "We're not going into battle Iris, relax."

Angel walked up to the hangar, approaching the door and pressing the button for verification "Edwards, Dominique. Spartan #144 requesting access." The door opened in response and Angel walked in, looking for either the Colonel or this so called Spartan Gravedigger who was in command of the operation. "Iris, systems check." she quickly muttered to the AI, who responded by beginning standard system diagnostics, confirming that each system was completely functional and combat ready. She leaned over the railing, watching as marines prepped various vehicles and waited for any sort of notification as to where her team leader may be. Angel sent out a quick message over the Fireteam comms "This is Lieutenant Edwards reporting in. I need a location as to where team lead may be, over."

Before the ships exit from slipstream space colonel Morrel had moved from his position in the staff room up towards the bridge, relieving the current helmsman to take personal command of the vessel. Despite his anxieties towards space flight and, by extension, space combat he was none-the-less an extremely capable space commander. As soon as the marathon-class heavy cruiser decelerated from FTL speeds the allied battlenet came alive with multiple enemy IFF tags. "Colonel there are multiple covenant ships surrounding the planet." Morrel nodded his response, tone hardened as he gave his next order. "Sound general quarters."

Instantly the lights onboard the ship dimmed, skipping from their usual whites and yellows to dim red in non-essential areas. A warning claxon bellowed throughout the ship, alerting those still in their bunks to the imminent danger. "Attention all crew, prepare for battle stations, several Covenant CSS battle cruisers have been detected. Report to team leaders for further orders. I repeat, general quarters has been sounded." The ships itself became a bed of controlled chaos as crewman rushed to get themselves fitted and moved to their assigned duty stations. It would take a minute or so before the ship was full defensible but until then Morrel fully expected Avalon to be running defense.

"Colonel we're getting a hail from the covenant battlenet, it looks like they might want to talk." "Negative, kill all external comms. There's to be no evidence this ship ever came here. Our relations with the Sangheili are stressed enough without us killing another hundred thousand of them, even if they are 'heretics'." Leaning forward to view the three-dimensional projection of Horizon's battlespace on the display before him Morrel lifted a single hand. "Target their two frigates for MAC shots." The covenant frigate was small enough that a single MAC from a ship as large as the Blade's Edge would probably gut it bow to stern. Unfortunately they were likely to have less luck with the heavier cruisers, best to get the small fry out of the way early. "Avalon you have my authorization to engage, fire when ready."

The entire ship shook as two MAC shots were fired at the Battle cruisers. The two balistic shots glided towards their intended targets which oddly offered no resistance. As the shots impacted the hulls, fiery flames erupted from them, indicating that they hadn't had their shields active.

Knight looked up at the steel support beams above him that rattled with the force of the MAC blasts being fired.
"Avalon, who authorised those MACs?" Knight demanded as he rushed out the lab and onto the bridge to witness the two Battle Cruisers float helplessly in the space that surrounded them. Avalon appeared on the bridge in full size.
"Sir, the Col-" Avalon began to answer but Knight looked sharply at Avalon who stopped his explanation. Knight then turned back to the inferno with a confused gaze. A single MAC would have done that sort of damage if the shielding was engaged, nor are they in glassing position, so why were the shields deactive?
"Avalon, what's going on here?" Knight asked, hi voice reared with anger.

"Upon coming out of slipspace, these cruisers were detected, however, while I could detect lifeforms on board, the entire vessels systems were off line, a distress call was transmitted to us but the Colonel ordered their destruction." Avalon explained.

"So in short, we murdered a few thousand?" Knight sighed but then his interest perked up. "But what caused their entire ship to be knocked out without any external damage."

Upon hearing the MAC rounds fired off, Angel ran back through the ship, walking onto the bridge and taking off her helmet "Who the hell authorised-- Oh, pardon me Spartan." Angel went quiet and waved off a few salutes, clasping her hands behind her back.

Iris chattered in her ear quietly "It seems both ships were disabled upon our arrival. I picked up a hail but communications were cut off."

"At ease, Spartan." Knight called as he turned back to the window. "Avalon, inform Fire Team Quantum that they are to report to the bridge."

Across all the regular feeds, Avalon informed all Fire Team Members that they were to report to the Bridge ASAP and to come fully prepared for orbital drop.

Jones was sat in the armoury when the MAC cannons fired. he was loading ammo into his DMR and then the room kinda shook and there were bullets all over the floor. "God Damnit. Hey Alan there might be a few rounds all over the floor. it wasnt me ok" he said as he made his way out of the Armoury with only half a magazine loaded into the DMR. He made his way up to the bridge it was the only place he could get answers.

as he entered the bridge he noticed the two other Spartans that were already there. He stood to attention and Saluted, he new at least one of them out Ranked him. "Lieutenant. I heard the MACs firing and figured now would be a great time to come and to talk to you about my reassignment here. i mean i got dropped off just before the jump with no information or anything"

"I'll explain once everyone's here. Situation has changed." Knight responded, pressing some keys into the console in front of him. "And Avalon, get Sparky up here. He should be introduced to the team."

Spartan Matthews had been taking of his new ride, when the MAC shots shook the ship. He was already in full armor, he felt naked without it. Turning on communications he brought up the comm channel as he made his way to a terminal to try and find out what the hell they were shooting at. "This is Captain Matthews, sir should I be getting ready to launch down here?" Asked the Spartan as he paused, the monitor showed Covenant ships, out here? That was strange.

This required more than just a call. So the Spartan quickly jogged up to the bridge. He snapped a quick salute. "Captain Matthews, Spartan, pilot, and alien relations specialist. If you don't mind I'd like to know whats going on and why we just fired on two possibly friendly vessels. Other then that I'd like to try and raise communications or take a wing of fighter out see what the hell is going on over their." Stated the Spartan, he knew he probably out of line but he'd never been one for ONI bullshit.

Colonel Morrel was staring at a view screen as the assembled Team Quantum entered the bridge. "Spartans, good, you're here. We've confirmed covenant presence in and around the planet," the colonel motioned towards the view screen, indicating a couple of downed or inactive covenant ships "which means it's likely they know just as much as we do about the technology Horizon holds. I'm going to have Spartan Gravedigger prepare and lead a drop onto the planet surface while I coordinate things up here. Once you've established a foothold I'll follow on later."

Interesting the colonel mentioned nothing about the circumstances of the MAC shots, the ship's combat status, or if they were even actively engaged. Although the bridge crew was currently scrambling between view screens and panels it didn't seem that the ship was currently in any danger, why the rush? "Gravedigger if you'll take it from here." The colonel motioned for his subordinate to take over before turning back to his controls, consorting a sub-routine of Avalon all the while.

"I suppose we should begin, Avalon an fill those who aren't here in later." Knight begun, turning towards the small group now beginning to form.

Walking into the centre of the room, a full display of the planet was projected indicating how far away the Blade's Edge was from Horizon and indicators show an estimate of twelve Covenant ships, all in active along with the UNSC Space Station in Orbit. No external damage can be detected.

"Now, as for the MACs that were fired without my authorisation is questionable, however it did help us discover a very important factor about the mission that could have resulted in the loss of crew." Knight explained, taking a small pause for those in the room to consider what he meant before explaining. The display then zoomed in to a live feed of the planet, which at first glance seemed normal, however as debris from the cruisers hit a certain point they were being pushed back by some type of field.

"There seems to be some kind of protective barrier currently protecting the planet. So Avalon has came up with a idea that has a... well I never like being told the odds on this ship. Avalon."

"Yes, while there is only a 21.74245247825782% percent chance of this working, it is by far the highest of all four thousand simulations I ran. While the shield protecting the planet tough, it doesn't run off the conventional shield system like we know and love. It's much more energy efficient one. Instead of constantly powering a shield all over the planet, a signal beacon of some kind creates a patch of energy that protects and blocks the debris." Avalon mentioned as he brought up a diagram of the Blade's Edge firing a MAC shot and a ODST pod following the shot a few metres behind it.
"Through my simulations and analysis I have came to the conclusion that lightening never strikes twice in the exact same spot twice. In theory anyway. So what we plan is the ship's main cannon will fire a shot, seconds before an ODST hits the barrier, and with any luck, the system would not be able to deploy the shield in the same place within the small time frame. Any questions?"

"I'll get you a briefing after team lead runs through our current situation." the Lieutenant responded to Jones as she turned to face him "I read your service record, glad to have you with us."

Edwards seemed slightly blown away by the Captain's boldness but remained silent as from what she had looked up on him before arrival, he outranked her. She had no intention of being kicked off the operation for something as simple as insubordination.

Luke looked shocked at what he heard, was that small a chance actually worth the risk. "Sir, lets say this idea works what type of resistance are we expected to be facing. Im all for dropping in the pods but ive served my time with the Hell Jumpers ive seen guys torn to shreds by a couple of Elites straight after their pods opening." he turned to look at the Lieutenant "Pleasures all mine Lieutenant. Glad to be fighting something that aint Prometheans for once"

"Hostile types and numbers are unknown, but if the shield was up before the fleet arrived, then in theory there should only UNSC staff and colony citizens."

"So, I assume we're going to be testing this theory with an empty pod at first, yes? I'll be damned if we're sending down anyone if we don't know if it'll work. With all due respect sir, I don't trust a sim with only 20% success rate."

Angel seemed uneasy about the whole situation and paced back and forth across the bridge and Iris began running her own simulation when Angel put her helmet back on.

Joshua stepped out of the pelican; he was in full armour including his helmet. After all the years he still hadn’t got used to the attention that being part of the Spartan program. He made his way to the CIC hoping that he’d catch the briefing. It seemed that he was not in luck when he realised that there was barely anyone left in there. Luckily he had read through the main briefing on the pelican ride to the shuttle. He went to his quarters and through his clothes down into the room, he called up the ship AI and asked about the journey, it was a 12 hour trip it would take him some time by the looks of things. He found he could never sleep during slip space jumps it was impossible. He went down to the armour room and had his armour unattached, it had been a while since it had been removed but it felt good to finally have it off. He made his way down to mess hall in a cap as he always did, hiding his scarring. He sat alone on a table reading through carnage reports of recent battles.

When the ship exited slipspace it didn’t take long before the ship went into alert. ‘Bloody covenant’ he thought to himself. He got up from his quarters and sprinted to the quartermaster to regain his armour, He called on the ship AI asking about the current state of the ship, and mainly what the hell was going on. Was he was suited up he made his way to the bridge to find out for himself what was going on, as he entered the bridge he received a salute and asked them to be at ease. He picked up on the conversation. "Sorry i'm late," He paused as he saluted "Spartan 029, reporting for duty sir,". He had joined just in time for the brief, "Empty pod sounds good, I'm sure we'd all agree It's better not to spend a life before we've begun."

Jones couldnt believe what they were saying "Sir, If what your saying about the people down there being civilians and UNSC personnel then wouldnt ODST drop pods cause mass Hysteria in the population. Surely if its at all possible we should do this with a Pelican instead or even hailing them and asking them to drop the shields. If you dont mind sir id like Avalon to run a sim on that idea" He put his helmet on and looked around the room. it obviously was something they had already considered but this was something most of them were probably thinking. "Anyway Lieutenant can you tell me why i got pulled off the Infinity to come here"

"We'll run it through with an empty pod first, make sure it's possible." Knight agreed, looking over at Jones and while he understood the concern it was negligible compared with a fully populated planet. "The entire population of the planet is only three millions and most of that are in Northern complexes anyway. The ONI Research Station is in the south. As for the shield, whose to stay its our own. ONI holds no records over it and we can't get any uplink with anyone planet side. Safe to say its our only option. And when we get down there, we may lose contact with the ship."

Under his helmet Jones cringed. how could he have not thought of that. "Sorry Sir, that information must not have crossed my mind. If i may make a request Sir, after the practice pod id like to be the First Spartan with boots on the ground Sir." he looked around the room again. He probably had more experience on the battlefield than some of the Younger Spartans of Fireteam Quantum. After all he had served alongside the likes of Spartan Palmer, Fredric-104, Linda-058, Kelly-087, Spartan Buck, Spartan Agu (Romeo) and The Master Chief Briefly on Requiem.

Matthews sighed looking at them all. "Wait... My Sabre has atmospheric seven stage launch system. I could use that, it's got mag locks can use to hook a few drop pods to it, use it fly a whole squad in... Should the drop pod make it through I assume with a pilot and brakes the odds or survival and success would go up. Plus a ship could be used to spread out the Spartans we have, between the ONI base and checking in with the colony." The pilot stated, a little angry no one had even wanted to try talking to the other ships at the moment.