Welcome to Gaia! ::

"It's just Lieutenant for now Lance Corporal." Seth looked about at the gathered group of people. This was Able company.

"Let's go." He said, and with that, Karr keyed open the door. "Enter if you dare Marines." Seth said quietly and entered the room.

In the room stood The Lieutenant Commander Hammer, the CO of the S3 Battalion. and the Captain of the UNSC Monterey. Seth saluted sharply and paused a moment noticing the change of adornments on Hammer's uniform. "Captain, Commander." Seth said in greeting, holding his salute. "Lieutenant Seth Adams and Able company reporting as ordered sirs."
He felt and suppressed a small grin at the Commander's new ranking. Seth had worked with Hammer in the past, he had seen the man in action. He'd even saved Seth's life whether he knew it or not. The man was in a class of his own.

Karr brought himself to front to show himself. "Sir, First Sergeant Anthony Karr reporting as ordered!" His hand was still in saluting position.

Anthony couldd feel sweat bead down the side of his head. WHat it was from was a mystery, but it became annoying standing there in saluting position.

Seth looked over the room one more time and dropped his salute calmly, moving towards an open seat, Seth pulled it back and sat down.

The rest of Able company did as the Commander had instructed, ready and waiting.

Seth watched both the Captain and the commander steadily, unmoving with a kind of calm that came before a storm. The calm that came before you were sent out to serve your species. To serve all of humanity.

Seth's eyes glued themselves to the image on the screen until Hammer uttered his last.
"Sir, yes sir!" Seth responded automatically to Hammer's questions, sitting straight in his chair. His eyes slowly wandered back to the image on the screen.
If there was enemy activity, Hammer would have warned them. But there was never any telling who or what was inside that structure. It could be covvies, or something worse.

The Captain flashed a worried glance at the Commander before focusing back on the Marines again. Michael reached into his breast pocket grabbing a pair of dog tags that were supposed to be delivered to the Captain of the Armengald, but instead were brought back. He held then in his hand and looked at the dog tags on the table. "There will be burial detail as soon as we get back to Earth, but for now we focus on that station; if there's another Marine in there, we're not about to let him die."

Lipton had followed at a distance, after all there was no need for him to draw attention to himself at the moment. The Major stood and held a flawless salute. He sat when prompted and behaved as a model officer. He was a Marine through and through. But more importantly, he was a Helljumper. After the brief but somewhat moving commentary by CDR Hammer and the Skipper, Lipton was curious. The man watched as a Marine casually tossed a bag of ID tags across the table. He watched with a small amount of disgust as the man's posture changed. It was as though he left his past in the pouch among the names of the dead. He supposed that the man had either been in command for too long or not long enough. Every death in a unit was felt as a personal loss. Each man contributed to the whole, they were not useless additions such as fingernails. When they were cut, the entire body felt the pain. The loss of a finger can be a crippling wound. Humanity had been forced to rethink their tactics, at least the Covenant left no prisoners. They killed quickly, whereas humanity had previously been shooting to wound, not to kill. The mentality of taking ten men out of the fight had been harshly stripped away when the brass realized that the Covenant didn't stop for their wounded. A good commander grieved for those lost under his command and did not cast away their memories as easily as a bag of names. He shook his head and turned his attention back to the CO. Hammer looked competent, and had probably been in Belfast during the skirmish. The baptism under fire was visible to all veterans. Hammer bore the look of both an experienced soldier and an experienced leader.

The Major was ready for the upcoming mission, but he wasn't sure if he was going to take part in it or not. After all, a high ranking officer was never sent into a combat zone first. They were usually sent in last. That was his biggest complaint with being a desk jockey. He moved with the Company HQ and spent less time in the field with his men. Of course, if the CO gave him another Company, well maybe he'd have the chance to be a real Marine again. He raised a hand while keeping his eyes focused on the image of the ancient structure. He did not like the looks of this. The structure could have been any age, new or old. But it wasn't Covenant and it wasn't Human. He didn't know who built it, but he knew that his job was to go in there, find the survivors if any, and get them out again.

"Do we know anything about what that is and who built it? It doesn't look like any Covenant tech I've ever seen, and I'm willing to bet six months pay that it isn't human."

His question was strictly about the mission. After all, that was why they were in the Briefing room. To get as much intel as they could on the upcoming Op.