>>6378205

A electric tingle went down your spine, as Vice Admiral Stanforth, personally, removed your Lieutenant bars from your collar and replaced them with the three bars and oak leave cluster. Shortly after, one of his aids did the same for the insignia on your shoulders. There was a brief & brisk round of applause, lasting longer in the officers you'd commanded during Hvitserk. They didn't say anything out loud, but you could tell they were astonished to witness the youngest Lieutenant Commander to ever receive that rank. A honor that continued from your promotion to Lieutenant, and one you'd had probably since you'd made Ensign right out of Basic.

"And in recognition for the excellence in leadership you displayed in the campaign to dismantle the terrorist organization and extremist insurrectionist front known as the Einherjar, along with the Outer Colony Counter Terrorism Award, have been selected to receive a second Military Star" He said, as a polish, gun metal black box was presented to you, and he took and pinned the star beside your first. It wasn't the only Military star prepared, three in total. One for James, and Kurt & Fred, when the latter two reached the station to receive their next orders.

It was soon joined by an additional purple heart, before the last of the medals you'd earned in bringing the Einherjar to heel is presented. A silver star. You lifted up your chest as it was pinned, just below the higher decorations of the Colonial Cross and Legion of Honor, beside your purple hearts and Military stars.

"I argued in favor of a higher commendation, in consideration the level of threat they represented to the on-going war effort" Stanforth explains "But it was decide by committee that your personal actions across Operation: Irminsul met the criteria only for the Silver Star. Wear it proudly, Lieutenant Commander'

Every medal was one worn proudly, when it was pinned to a Spartan's chest.

"Thank you, Vice Admiral" You say, bowing your head as you replace your cap and adjust it, feeling the weight of the attention of the gathered officers and commanders "I hope that my subordinates receive similar or higher honors then myself"

"They'll receive their new ranks as a unit" He explained "along with their individual decorations, I've only singled you out because I believed that the officers in attendance needed to see what a Spartan Commander looked like"

"Only a Lieutenant Commander, Sir. Lets not get ahead of yourselves' You say, and got a few chuckles from the crowd

"And" He says, ignoring your joke "I wished to inform you of your next deployment personally, and hear your opinions concerning proposed Spartan-II field operations"

"Of course, Vice Admiral" You say, as you follow two steps behind the Vice Admiral as he leads you past the other officers in attendance, who slowly stop applauding your Silver Star recognition.
Cont

>>6378206

Captain Mahmoud tips his hat to you as you walk by, and you have to stop yourself from saluting him on reflex and instinct.

"Now, the next mission that has been selected for the UNSC Skidbladnir and her compliment of Spartan-II super soldiers" Stanforth began, as a AI that styled its avatar like a musketeer appeared and swept off their feathered cap "Is a series of diversionary actions in close proximity to Battle Groups X-ray's advance and the planned battleline to retake harvest. You and your crew are to divert Covenant Attention from Cole's approach and perform acts of sabotage and harassment behind what is now Covenant lines. Porthos will show you our projections of the outer colonies and worlds the Covenant have occupied after harvest"

Your attention was immediately taken by one of the colonies listed and shown in red on the holographic star chart that Porthos projected with a theatric whip of their cape.

Alpha Corvi II

"I thought the Covenant glassed Alpha Corvi" You say, surprised. Anyone else would've been breathless, in disbelief maybe.

"We believed so initially as well. But...we've received concerning reports from refugee ships escaping from the colony after it was abandoned" Stanforth explained, in a tone that made your veins fill with ice, he didn't need to go into detail to get what sort of reports he'd received to get the point across "That the Covenant have occupied it, which goes against their usual MO. As for the other worlds, the Prowler Corps have recorded increased alien activity in the vicinity of these habitual worlds, and colonies that have gone completely radio silent"

"I see. We'll be behind enemy lines. But we've been trained to fight and survive in circumstances like that, with minimal support and none back up" You say and Stanforth straightens his back, hands clasped behind your back

"I will allow you to organize these planned strikes via their perceived tactical performance, by your discretion" he says "Then, we will discuss the planned deployments of the Spartans outside of your direct command. Porthos, present the locations and details of the strikes the UNSC Skidbladnir is now authorized and commanded to carry out"

"At once, Vice Admiral" The AI said as they did a sweeping bow and your eyes flicked across the fast moving scroll of a number of planned operations, behind the theorized Covenant frontline. Without your augments or training, you wouldn't have been able to read the initial reports and planning, or gather any details. If the Vice Admiral was allowing you to pick and choose which took priority, it'd have to be...
Cont

>>6378208

>Returning to Alpha Corvi II and disrupting the Covenant activities on the world

>Hitting a non colonized world believed to be a mustering ground or staging point for the Covenant advance

>Going to Colony Ambition, and performing a covert denial op before the Covenant come back to the world with a fleet

>Assassinating a Covenant Fleet Commander, whose heading and location have been determined to be heading towards Harvest

Remember, Brutes are coming.

>>6378210
Ack. Just noticed I forgot to update Sven's Officer Quality from [Lieutenant] to [Lieutenant Commander] in the OP. Please ignore that

>>6378210
>>Assassinating a Covenant Fleet Commander, whose heading and location have been determined to be heading towards Harvest

Im so unsure of the best choice to give us the best impact to the war effort

>>6378210
>Returning to Alpha Corvi II and disrupting the Covenant activities on the world

More forerunner ruins, which Sven has shown some skill

>Assassinating a Covenant Fleet Commander, whose heading and location have been determined to be heading towards Harvest

Taking out a king is always viable if we want to take harvest and we ha a ninja and infiltrator to make it work

>>6378210
>Returning to Alpha Corvi II and disrupting the Covenant activities on the world
Honestly just being a thorn in their side seems suitable and it will give us experiance fighting the aliens before we try to knock off one of their big wigs whom would no doubt be surrounded by their most skilled guards.

We need experiance before we try going big game hunting.

>>6378210
>Assassinating a Covenant Fleet Commander, whose heading and location have been determined to be heading towards Harvest
This or disrupting the Covenant's Forerunner treasure hunt on Alpha Corvi would definitely do the job. Though I would also really like to take Shika to Ambition.

>>6378220
Oh yeh the rest our crew still don't have xp against covenant

>>6378222
Shikanis definately bound for ambition yeh probably daisy too. Hopefully we save the rest of her family. If we can maybe bring Oscar with us there.

>>6378210
>>Returning to Alpha Corvi II and disrupting the Covenant activities on the world
A lightning strike maneuver to cause them big issues. Fast and hard. And then get out of that hornet's nest.

Since we can shuffle around the various Spartans we can send Shika back to ambition with whomever. I trust her enough to get her closure AND play her part in the mission itself.

>>6378210

>Returning to Alpha Corvi II and disrupting the Covenant activities on the world

>>6378228

Yeah, Shika should probably get some closure on Ambition.

>>6378216
>Im so unsure of the best choice to give us the best impact to the war effort
here bud, consider.

Alpha Corvi II
Alpha Corvi II cities were destroyed, and we spartans have personally killed one of their worms prophets here. We detonated a cave system that would have lead to some forerunner ruins. What that says ? The Covenant might have done a special thing here because one of their worms died. There is probably fully built military bases with garrisons and work crews near ruins. At least we know the place, and can access to human structures with ease but any force we deploy needs to be done with care and stealth. We deny the Covenant again ruins, we kill more of their own. Its a distraction, good help for the war.

Mustering Ground
The planet wilderness will help us approach the covenant military bases and support depots no doubt built here hopefully. But that's it. We are going to see their numbers and whats there, then we decide what to do and what to deploy. We make a lot of shit explode, war supplies gone. Temporarily slow fleets and armies. Very helpful for the war.

Ambition
We have home advantage. Plus CMA and locals. The Covenant shouldn't be in high numbers at the start. Covenant spec ops have been here though, so we can expect a squad of them at least. We have to dismantle anything of importance and make sure the population also gets away. We deny all Ambition has. Helpful for the war.

Assassination
Extremely difficult. Covenant troops numbers will be very high. We need to somehow get in an admiral ship, likely at the head of a covenant full war fleet. There might be a ridiculous number of covenant special military units on board (blademasters, etc..). And this might be the same head honcho we denied a intrigue victory more than once, the elite in charge of the fleet of Sublime Deception. So a crafty guy. Its death would be a blow to the early strategic Covenant plan about this war (helping tremendously Cole plan for Harvest), a temporary minor morale loss for the aliens and more importantly the very rare opportunity to jump at the data and information at the fingertips of an alien admiral. I have heavy doubts we can do it. I am impressed High Command considered to even do this 99% suicide mission, because it means they are starting to see Sven and Spartans in general has exceptional. Extremely helpful for the war effort.

In all of them we can expect brutes to be present in some capacity. Looting Covenant war gear/tools/equipment and capturing Covenant aliens might be difficult in some of this missions. Mostly for keep stealth. If stealth is broken then we can take has much as we can before hitting the road really. And i intend to loot and capture.

>>6378210
>Going to Colony Ambition, and performing a covert denial op before the Covenant come back to the world with a fleet

Lets save some humans. I am genuinely considering to tell Stanforth that 4 op might be a tad too much and to cut it for something else. I like the trust and wanting to give us another new rank, but that shit is guaranteed spartans death if we err.

>>6378210
>Assassinating a Covenant Fleet Commander, whose heading and location have been determined to be heading towards Harvest

Time to kick off thread 7 with a bang!

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>>6378231
Ah forgot to add a few things for Assassination : there is likely no guarantee for infiltrate that war fleet, no guarantee for reach the admiral ship and no guarantee we board it safely. It will be all careful planning and rolling. And the only way we get away, is by putting Vali in the admiral ship command deck. Otherwise is pretty bleak for gtfo.

The cherry on top of this cake of alien zealotry legendary difficulty is that, if this is the fleet of Sublime Deception, this guys are specialized in stealth and intrigue. No pressure. And I don't think we can afford to use a small team here. We might need all spartans on board the Skidbladnir. I wouldn't even be against using all marines and ONI field agents on board. The risk of total failure is very high.

>>6378210
>Returning to Alpha Corvi II and disrupting the Covenant activities on the world
What's that? You thought you'd won here?

I'd love to assassinate a Covenant fleet bigwig but, alas, I don't think we can do it without an unacceptable risk of catastrophic failure.

>>6378210
>Returning to Alpha Corvi II and disrupting the Covenant activities on the world
I'd prefer to do Ambition but we already know Alpha Corvi and could be disrupting some big ritual or getting into more Forerunner ruins, resulting giving the UNSC a heads up on world's that the Covenant will occupy instead of glass. Trying to off a fleet commander without any more intel on hand is genuinely a bad decision.