Ch 7 Prologue "Force Recon"

We've been using the time the Tesseract and the Nirvana have been using trying to locate the Pillar of Autumn crashsite by giving Idris a crash course lesson in piloting one of the many UNSC Longswords in our hanger. We've got more than enough Verein units and spare Zakus in the hanger with more than enough equipment to arm two or three to the teeth but we really need more capable flying units since we haven't got the flight upgraded AG-01 or the UFO and the Leoship comparatively sucks...

Easy come easy go. Dan has a gut feeling that there's something very wrong with the ring like structure we're currently on, the Tesseract and Nirvana unable to properly locate the Pillar of Autumn's crashsite. He has no real option other than to cut loose and go out on a solo man operation to check the ring world on his lonesome leaving the rest of the team to continue the rescue operation without him. Easy come easy go...

There is an upside though, he's leaving Rin in our care whilst he's out. Our own fairy, now we'll never be alone! Captain scientist will call for a mission briefing as Idris continues to work on locating the crash site .
John's still a little butt hurt about the Jackie affair back on Amatsu but someone needs to inform the Master Chief about how a bunch of kids in hastily put together mechs fended off an attack all on their lonesome. At least he's a realist but if he wasn't so confrontational about it maybe he'd be a little more popular.

Idris has managed to locate where the crash site is and with an adjustment to the two ships' course we should make it in about four hours. The conversation then moves onto what should be done about the ring world and the heavy Covenant presence.
The thought of blowing the whole place up makes Jean let slip a piece of information she shouldn't know. Master Chief will grill her a little on where she aquired this information but she's been sword to secrecy based on her honor as a mercenary for hire. Magno eventually joins the briefing as well via a communications link and is about to be brought up to date on the plan when Hotariko decides to throw a few questions she's been meaning to ask Dan.
Rin's habbit of being all moe and speaking in one word sentences acts as a cockblock buffer but Hotariko still manages to extract what she wants to know with a bit of psychological analysing. The sly devil...nun. There's a multitude of cute new facial expressions for Hotariko here as well.

The rescue operation will involve a scouting team who'll be responsible for actually locating our downed allies and make sure the place we find them in is secure enough for the ships to move in on. It's going to have to be small so as not to draw attention to itself. Magno is commiting a Dread to the operation, whilst Natalie decides Emma, Ikarane, Jean and Keeruu will be best for the scouting unit as well.

If Emma doesn't have the highest possible relationship so far with Anderson then she'll be really worried about being left in an almost all girls team with Keeru around and will be replaced with Hotariko. Otherwise...
Emma's a good girl who want's to rescue Anderson even if it means having to put up with Keeruu for the next few hours. With the debriefing over if you picked up the battle mastery from the last mission the Natalie will request Tenea and Master Chief's help in putting together a new frame for the Verein Zero, not that it'll be ready any time soon.
Ramuiko, Anderson and Caile have currently set up camp, trying to get a hot meal down their throats as Keyes, Gaiablade and the prisoner scout out a Covenant position blocking their way further down a valley.
The meal comes to an abrupt end when the scouting team return with a covenant patrol coming after them. With the jig being up it's time to head out and meet them head on, Anderson will tinker a bit if Keyes took the Warthog so that it's rear mounted LAAG can be fired from the driver's seat without a rear gunner. Even the grunt prisoner we've caught seems to be fired up, more due to a desire to stay alive than to fight his friends since he's now pretty much conidered a traitor for what he's done.