Halo: The Reaper War

Gateway

UNSC Infinity

Deep Space

With a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and a datapad in the other, Admiral Thomas Lasky walked easily onto the bridge. The two Marine bridge guards saluted, and Lasky nodded at them as the bridge doors slid open at his approach.

As he stepped past the threshold, the familiar sounds of the Infinity's command and control center drifted into his ears. Presses on holographic keyboards, the soft crackles of comms channels, and quiet conversation. His eyes took comfort in the sight of walls bordered by ops terminals and those who worked them, the central holotables, and the forward viewports, which gave a clear view into the inky blackness of space. This was his element, and where he had felt most at home for several years.

Lasky's eyes met with Sergeant Julius, the leader of the bridge guard. "Admiral on deck!" he acknowledged, snapping to attention and raising a crisp salute while the rest of the Bridge officers did the same. The Admiral touched his datapad to his temple and gave an easy smile. "As you were."

Admiral. The title was still something he was getting used to, even eight months after the fact. It certainly felt like it hadn't been that long since he was still just a Commander, back when he was running ground operations back on Requiem, alongside the Master Chief. The simple fact was that after a brutal thirty-year war of attrition, the UNSC officer corps was severely depleted. The venerable Lord Hood, being forced now more than ever to confront the eternal enemy - time - wouldn't be around much longer to serve as that most weathered and dedicated pillar upon which the UNSC had greatly relied on. Prescient of both of these facts, UNSC HighCom instituted a new program where younger officers who had proven themselves with distinction in the heat of battle were fast-tracked into high-command positions. It was part forwards-thinking pragmatism, and part desperate necessity. So now Lasky, whose main claim to 'distinction' was by not letting the UNSC's most expensive and advanced warship ever created meet an unforeseen fiery end, was the proud owner of the rank of Admiral. The four silver stars still felt heavy on each side his collar.

He settled into his command chair and took a swig of his coffee. Rich, flavorful, and warming. Navy coffee was always damned good. Marine coffee on the other hand... Setting the drink down on an armrest, Lasky began to thumb through his datapad, checking for any important messages. Not finding any, the Admiral tapped in a few commands and brought up his guilty pleasure: the weekly War Games results between the Infinity's Spartan-IV teams.

The recent wargame competitions had been the brain child of the Master Chief and the culmination of over 5 months of intense training courtesy of both Blue Team. There had been a noticeable improvement in the performance of the Spartan-IV's during their training, so much so that the Chief had rated their performance as 'Passing.' High praise indeed coming from the Master Chief. Nevertheless, a strong spirit of competition had risen amongst the teams as a result, and Commander Palmer had organized a tournament of matches to find out which team really was the best of the best.

Lasky checked his chrono out of the corner of his eye, Monday, 2:00 a.m. Not that night and day mattered that much on a warship, as you aligned yourself around your shift, but it did mean that all of the wins and losses would have been reported.

Scrolling through the data, Lasky raised his eyebrows upon seeing that Crimson and Majestic Teams, two of the top ranked S-IV squads on the ship, had fought each other to a draw for the top spot. Surprising, considering that Crimson had a long history of victory over Majestic, but that gap had been slowly closing over the past few months. Any more thoughts he had on that line were interrupted when he saw that Castle team had thoughtfully trounced Lancer team in an incredible upset in the third round.