Emerald Spartan

Secrets and Shadows

UNSC Here Be Dragons

There was always one thing that Petra hated about the morning. It seemed to follow her around wherever she went and never left here alone. Even now, in her private quarters, surrounded by walls that were made from several inches thick of Titanium A2.

Morning, it was the thing that always felt like a Swift kick in the ass by a fully armored Spartan. You feel cranky from being forced to get up, groggy from trying to clear the lingering sleepiness from the conscious. And then there was the fact that she'd stayed up till 2am last night watching the distant stars she was able to see from the observation deck

But the obvious downside to that was the fact that her eyelids now felt as if they were made of lead.

But she powered through it and slowly sat herself upright in the memory gel, queen sized bed that took up almost a quarter of her quarters. With a desk and terminal being the only other things of note. Everything else was tucked into the walls of her warship.

"Arthur, do me a favor and set the coffee maker for immediate use." She finished with a yawn as the excess sleep was wiped from her eyes.

The familiar image of the ship's AI appeared life size from a holo projector that was located on the ceiling. His six foot figure was clad head to toe in medieval Knight armor. Only with a partly see through white tint.

"Yes captain." He said with a simple nod before he vanished as quickly as he'd arrived.

Petra got herself dressed and made her way to the nearest kitchen. Walking through several hallways and raising two decks on her way. As well as waving good morning to the also groggy crewmates that were getting ready throughout the near 2 kilometer long brute of a cruiser.

They needed to get her fully combat ready in case some extraterrestrial tried to make a shot at Earth herself. Or if some dumbass pirate tried to take them on. Although it wouldn't get far through the point defense guns that dotted the hull.

Even if they did, there were several thousand Archer missiles and heavier coilguns waiting for them.

She opened the doors and instantly beelined for the already prepared coffee maker. The heavenly aroma of fresh coffee beans already surging through her nostrils. Soon to fully awaken her with it's magical bean juices.

Petra was just taking her first sips and pouring a bowl of cereal when Arthur sent her an alert through her neural interface that she had a private message.

She brushed it off and told herself she'd look at it after breakfast. If it was private, then it wasn't military and it could wait the few minutes she needed to eat in the still nearly empty mess hall.

A decision she regretted on her way to the bridge as she took out her Datapad and looked to see who sent her the message and what it had written.

Her surprise was so much that she inadvertently dropped her mug of coffee. The ceramic cup dropped through the air in what felt like slow motion.

But in a blur of motion that was damn near instantaneous swooped in and caught it. Stopping the fall that would have spilt coffee and ceramic shards all over the deck plate.

Petra looked at what had caught her mug and had to crane her neck up to look into the golden faceplate of one of her Spartans. He held out the mug to her and she grabbed it eagerly from his titanium weaved mit.

"Thank you Lieutenant, I would have really missed that mug." She thanked the leader of the Spartans aboard the Dragon.

He nodded his head at her acknowledgement. "Can't have this ship run be someone who's only half awake. That would be almost as bad as letting Tucker have free reign in Vegas." He said with a shudder.