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Warren walked in the briefing room yawning, A lot of his smaller cuts had healed and most of his outer bandage's were gone, minus some under his clothes and one on his left cheek. He looked around and saw Ashton and Seth had already made it there. He nodded at them and took his seat. He rested his head against the desk, knowing he was half hour early he decided to take a cat nap.


"No luck today either, the vaccine for the flood infestation has been useless, several other groups I heard o, have begun testing on flood cures also. We were one of the first thou. Were on attempt #0678 and no luck, thou we have managed to give those who are infected a calmer state of mind, but it's only temporary.Will continue to try, but were not even close and running out of time. Chemis out"

Anthony stood at the doorway of the briefing room, where his CO sat, waiting.
"Sir, First Sergeant Anthony Karr of Able Company reporting." He saluted him.

"What's the matter, Warren? Have somewhere else you'd rather be?" Ashton held a straight face for a few moments, then cracked into a forced smile. These last four days had taken their toll on Able, and a little slack in discipline was probably the best that could be asked of them right now. Even so, a lack of professionalism wouldn't go a long way towards showing their CO's that they were ready to stand beside them through Hell and high waters.
Well, listen to you, "Brain Case". Since when did you become Drill Sergeant Dansmith?!
Well, I'd have to say that seeing 70% of my company wiped out, having an AI burned into my brain, and seeing the wrong end of a psychotic Monitor's well-intentioned protocol, all would have had a slight effect on anyone. And besides, you know I was joking.
Are you sure about that, Dansmith? Not even a streak of seriousness through that little verbal whipping?
I don't know, anymore, honestly. Too much s**t has hit the fan, and it's staining the walls, you know?
The ensueing silence left Ashton a bit confused, but it was as good an answer as any, he assumed.

Ignoring the empty question and glancing away towards the empty holo-projector, Ashton thought back to when he had last been in this room, not even a full five days ago. Seemed like a lifetime, and for some of their fellow men and women, it was one lifetime ago. He still carried a few Tags from the men and women he had tended, but not saved. He glanced at Seth's much-more-protruding pocket, and knew the weight he bore was not as bad as it could be. Even so...
"...I just wish I could save everybody." He finished out loud, not intending to. Returning his gaze to Warren, he was a bit more solemn because of it.
"Yeah, 'head in the clouds'. Feels like my head would be in space, but since I'm already here, that's not saying much. Sorry, Master Sergeant. Just a little jumpy, and not just cause I lost to some recruits at Grav-Ball an hour ago."

Looking over the Sergeant's hasty bandage-job (pretty crappily done, by anyone's standards, but they did have a high volume of needier patients.), and feeling the back of his calloused and sutured head, Ashton finally realized just how lucky they were, all of them, to even be here, to be alive.

No, not luck. They had pulled together when they needed to, and everyone gave their all. For some, that meant giving it all, so that the rest of them could live. Once more glancing at Seth's bulging pocket of Tags, Dansmith closed his eyes.

The Master Sergeant's copliment was not a lie, he knew that, he wasn't stupid. It just didn't carry any weight, not yet. They had all seen too much s**t to start grinning like idiots whenever someone complimented them.
You're being too hard on yourself. That's my job, remember?
I thought your job was battlefield tactics and reconnaissance?
If I did those tasks, while in your head, you'd be back to Asthon-the-Veggie before you knew it.

Smiling half-heartedly at Warren's compliment, however dry, he wagged a finger at the air.
"No, no no. If anyone deserves credit-" He laughed to himself, "-It'd be Commander Hammer for that form-perfect punch to that damned Monitor's eye. 'Bam!' A clean 'money shot'. I don't think I've seen a more satisfied man than him after he landed that shot."

Seth watched as the men filed in to the large debriefing room.

Dansmith was the first, "Alive," Seth commented grimly, he gave the man a nod and a half smile.

Seth watched Warren as he entered, the man didn't seem too worse for wear.

Mitchell wandered in along with a handful of other Marines. The man had a bad limp and was on crutches. Some of the other marines didn't look much better. Seth stepped up and called out to the man, "Go back to the med bay Marine, you're in no condition to be up and about. That's obvious." Seth breathed, "And an order."
He admired Mitchell's eagerness, but it would do him more harm than good to be up and about.

Slowly over time more and more Marines pored in. All Able company's Junior officers, very few were unharmed. But most of it seemed non life threatening.

Seth recognized many of the Marines, mostly faces in the crowd, but he had a place they all fit in in his mind.

Finally the room filled, thirty Marines total all his junior officers. The others had been debriefed by the junior officers...that or they were too injured to be here.
The large debriefing room felt full now with a kind of subdued energy, weariness, curiosity. A few sat at the large table that seemed far too small for the size of the room, the rest stood waiting.

Seth himself got up from the chair he took in the corner and walked to face the assembled group, standing at the head of the table.
"Alright, Listen up Marines," He said cutting into the low murmur of chatter, "Three days ago, we received transmission-- a UNSC distress signal emanating from a large forerunner installation." Seth clicked a control on the table panel, causing the holographic display in the middle of the table flipped on to a projected image of the forerunner installation, "This particular Installation was unlike anything we've encountered thus far. It was vast, and of a mass far greater than previously encountered Installations. We have dubbed it Installation 79."

Seth, clicked the panel again, causing the holographic display to switch to Lee's helmet camera starting from touchdown, "We landed on the Installation at approximately 1200 Hours. On the surface we found abandoned huts and buildings." Seth switched over to Karr's head camera, for the first glimpse of the two story building that the cryo tubes were found in, "Just before we arrived to this location, we were passed by a large group of Sentinel caretakers," At his word the footage of the Sentinel fly-by was shown on the display, as they stopped to water and trim the plants briefly.

Switching to another view, Seth continued, "Once we arrived at the building emitting the UNSC frequency we began to explore, which is where our first incident occurred," The view switched to Henry's as he used the hand panel to access the forerunner building and enter. As he entered the video became fuzzy and broke up.

"We found the Master Sergeant bloody and unconscious outside of the building."
Seth let that sink in a moment, his tone was grave. He kept his eyes on the display.

"We then loaded up the cargo, to be interrupted by the Artificial Construct that identified itself as Transient Shadow. The A.I. then demanded we go into cryo-sleep. We did not comply." Seth flicked to an image of the Marines making their way to the hangar bay.
"We activated the cryo-tubes, revealing a number SPARTAN-II's and more SPARTAN III's, Chief Mendez and Doctor Halsey. All who up until now had been presumed dead." He paused a moment.
"Lance Corporal Dansmith experienced Slipspace field in close proximity. The extent of the damage has been put into question."

Seth brought a sped up video of the battle in the cargo bay, "Our Evac arrived shortly after, Transient Shadow then attempted to stop us from leaving with use of his Sentinel Drones. It was here we sustained most of our casualties."
Seth slowed the video to normal speed, it was his helmet cam. Timing his words with the events he finished up, "We then evacuated the Installation, destroying the Artificial Construct known as Transient Shadow."

Seth flickered off the holographic display, "We went in there with 200 Men. We left the installation with 58, one of whom died of severe injuries en-route to the Monterey."

He took a moment to let that information sink in, "Now, I think we'd all be interested in hearing exactly what happened to a few of you down there. I think we'll start with you Master Sergeant Henry. Exactly what were you thinking when you disobeyed direct orders not to access any of the forerunner devices; and in doing so inflict severe injury on your person, and endanger the rest of your Company?"
Seth's tone was harsh, but cold. There was not heat or passion in his voice. He didn't want to hit the Marine over the head with this, but if he made a practice of disobeying orders, Henry would be removed from duty immediately.

Seth flicked up an image on the holographic display of Henry's camera. "You were given orders--along with the rest of able to scout out the surrounding buildings and to not touch or activate any of the panels. We were at the time, outside of all the buildings."
Seth sped Henry's display to the moment where he used the hand panel to enter a building-the one he emerged wounded from, "So would you care to explain what possessed you to enter this building, and why you emerged in the condition you did?"

Seth gave the Marine a dead level gaze, and waited in silence after Henry's words, "It had better not Master Sergeant, or I will personally see fit that the rest of your Military career is spent making munitions checks in Calcutta."
Seth's words were cold.

He took a calming breath, "You can sit down Henry, but I'm ordering you a full psyche check-up next time we're on leave." It was more of a waste of time than anything Seth suspected, but he knew Henry was a good soldier, and did not disobey orders so lightly.

Seth nodded at Henry then turned towards Dansmith.
"Next, Lance Corporal Dansmith--would you care to enlighten the group to your...Condition?" Seth had heard word of it and didn't understand the science of it himself. But it merited some explaining.