The Orion: An Autumn Class Heavy Cruiser that is roughly based off of the Pillar of Autumn's design. This heavy cruiser has been upgraded with new technology and equipment to make it a much more powerful, effective and deadly ship than its predecessor. When the UNSC needed another heavy cruiser to keep up with the Infinity, the plans to create the Orion were quickly put into place and production began. Ten Years passed while the ship was built upon a top secret ONI facility within a massive asteroid belt, hiding the facility and it's secrets from those who were not authorized to know of its existence. When its construction was complete, the Orion was still kept a secret from many people, never leaving its hanger for an actual mission. Test flights were carried out however and the ship handled exceptionally through all the simulations and real life challenges it was put through. To this day, the Orion remains silent and still inside of its hanger within the secret ONI facility, waiting to be brought to life and offer its advanced services to all those who called it home.
Shortly after the discovery of Requiem, the Forerunner Shield World and the return of Master Chief, ONI discussed the option of officially bringing the Orion online adding it to their military forces. When the all clear was given, a large number of UNSC and ONI members were trained on how to operate the Orion's new technology. Colonel Icarus, a long time surviving pilot and veteran of many wars was hand picked by his superiors to lead the Orion and her crew across the stars. Alongside Colonel Icarus is Commander Andromedai Morgenstern, a generation four spartan. Andromedai is in control of all the Spartan teams upon the Orion. She has proven herself in combat time and time again, going above and beyond that of many other Spartans that she has worked alongside.
Within the cargo deck of the ship, large numbers of equipment, weapons, gear and vehicles are stored and ready to be used at a moment's notice. Among these are the M808B Main Battle Tank, M12 Force Application Vehicle, M312 Heavy Recovery Vehicle, HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark IX Armor Defense System, M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle, HRUNTING Mark III [B] Exoskeleton, M510 Siegework/Ultra-Heavy Mobile Anti-Aircraft Weapons Platform, D77-TC Pelican, AV-14 Attack VTOL, Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle, AC-220 Gunship, D81-LRT Condor, D96-TCE Albatross, GA-TL1 LongSword, with many others and their assorted variants.
Alongside all of the new technology that had been installed into the Orion, the interior of the ship was made to be much more comfortable for those living upon it. Many disagreed with this costly addition but in the end, came to realize that this was no ordinary UNSC Naval ship. Every member of the crew came to be thankful for the costly addition, quickly spreading rumors and words of praise about how advanced the ship was, including how clean and new everything looked and felt.
[Inner Colonies - Space Station Colistis - Year 2557 - Universal Time: 10:05]
A soft, electronic beep came from the personal data pad that sat upon the metal desk to the left of Andromedai's bed. For a moment, it seemed as if the female spartan would sleep through the alarm, though with a sudden movement, she rolled onto her left side and quickly got out of bed. Her left hand lightly brushed across her personal data pad and its alarm instantly stopped, now leaving the room filled with the soft hum of a fan she kept on for white noise. Daily tasks were taken care of before she equipped the under armor that every other Spartan wore before fully suiting up in armor. The door to her private room shut closed behind her with a soft hiss as she left her room. She walked right past the mess hall where other Spartans and crew of the station were eating breakfast and conversing about any number of topics. After a short while of walking, she found herself upon the Command and Operations floor of the Colitis space station. "Morning Andromedai, skipped the mess hall again?" a normal sized man with average military physique and dark brown hair stood in near a large interactive holographic projector in the middle of the room.
"I am not hungry, Colonel Icarus, so I made my way here immediately." Andromedai folded her arms over her chest and stared at Icarus before he waved her over to his side. "Neil has something for you to look into while I take my leave for a little while, I need to check over some reports of my own in my personal quarters." Icarus left the command and operations floor without another word. Neil, the stations AI, quickly saluted Andromedai then brought up the image of Requiem and began to talk. "I trust that you remember the Forerunner planets we have discovered in the past, correct? Very recently, we managed to find another one of these precious and unique planets near the outer-rim colonies." Andromedai nodded her head a couple of time to let Neil know that she knew of the Forerunner planets they had discovered in the past.
"That does not surprise me at all Neil, what makes this planet so unique though?" Asked Andromedai, watching Neil closely with sapphire blue eyes. "Well Commander Andromedai, we have received an encrypted message buried deep within an SOS message that is coming from the planet. Here, let me play what I have been able to piece together." There was a moment of silence before the sound of what appeared to be a male human speaking quickly in between panicked, painful sounding breaths. "This...Spartan Solares...Argent Dawn...We...Forerunner world...attacked by...forces. Shortly...sky...crashed...surface. Those...appears to be Covenant forces...surface...Due to...I was only able to offer...I am alone...the enemy...captured...energy..."super weapon"..."composer"...I...but in the end...good for us...shit..." This was followed by the sound of some sort of weapon being fired. Neil glanced up at Andromedai who was now lost in thought.
Suddenly and out of nowhere, she asked a number of questions including when the message had been received and how long it would take for him to completely decode the message. "My systems are telling me that we received this message last night, around six hours ago. As for completely decoding the message, I should be able to do that rather quickly." At that moment, Icarus returned with his own personal data pad before asking if Neil had played the message back to Andromedai. "One moment, alright I have the message completed and you are not going to like what you are about to hear." said Neil before playing the completed message.
"This is Spartan Solares of the Argent Dawn. We approached a Forerunner world and were immediately attacked by the planet's defence forces.Shortly after, we were shot down from the sky and crashed on the planet's surface. Those that survived the crash were picked off by what appears to be Covenant forces who have set up bases upon the world's surface. Due to the fact that I am severely wounded, I was only able to offer some help to the others, but now I am alone and may fall victim to the enemy or end up being captured. I did manage to do some scouting while I had the energy, I heard talk of a "super weapon" and a "composer" device. I am unsure of what they plan to do with these but in the end, none of it can be good for us. Ah shit, here we go..." This was followed by the sound of automatic gunfire before the message went silent.
"Spartan Solares? She left with the Argent dawn over six months ago. The crew was never heard from again until now, we have to go after her. Did you inform ONI of the situation?" asked Andromedai only mere seconds before Neil responded. "I just sent the message and a request to engage to ONI, I am currently awaiting their reply." Suddenly, Colonel Icarus's Data Pad received a message informing him to report with Andromedai to a station known as "Obsidian" and that star-chart directions would be directed to his personal ship momentarily. "Well, it seems ONI came through on something for once and we will be heading to this planet immediately. Andromedai, there is a message for you here as well, it says that ONI is getting Team Rogue Seven back together again for this. If I remember correctly, you were the head of the team, weren't you?" Andromedai nodded her head, "Yes sir, that is correct. We were one of the best squads around, it will be good to see my old squad mates again." After saying goodbye to Neil, Icarus and Andromedai went their separate ways to prepare for the mission.
