The Spartan Effect

There goes the neighborhood

      The two Weeks following Eternity's departure from the Citadel were busy. Horizon agreed to allow Eternity and her crew to begin construction of Orbital Defence platforms, shipyards, an Anchor station, and the upper platform for a space elevator. The Strident commanders decided on board Eternity that two of her escorts would remain with all the essential Build teams to get the process started. 

     The frigates Hail to the Chief and Last Dance were assigned, along with several D-20 heavy lift vehicles, D-96 Albatrosses, and D-86 Darters, for transporting supplies and personnel into orbit. Once the space elevator was finished, the rest of the planned orbital structures could begin construction. It would take an estimated three months for both the base of the elevator and the orbiting platform to be finished and another month after to connect them. 

     After the first week, Eternity was told another colony could use a similar contract if they had the capacity. After a brief debate, it was deemed acceptable to depart for the Eagle Nebula and negotiate with the colony of Anhur. 

 With Horizon already under the UNSC's banner, Anhur was eager to discover what they could gain in defenses and technology. In addition, each colony being so disconnected from the Alliance meant that their planetary governments could declare their allegiance independently. Since the UNSC wasn't, in fact, at odds with the Alliance or council, they quickly agreed.

The day after they arrived, Anhur was also sworn under the flag of the UNSC, and plans were made for the colony's defenses. Another pair of Stridents was ordered to oversee the construction process, but the locals seemed oddly eager to begin construction. As it turns out, the colony of Anhur was in an economic deficit. Nevertheless, construction was the most prominent business on the planet, so within days, building methods would be updated and overhauled to quickly build up the stations and structures needed to support large-scale buildings, bunkers, and, eventually, ship production. In the meantime, Eternity and the frigates left to guard the planet would provide essential supplies, food, and medicine.

       Frigates Opal Star and Tennyson were assigned alongside a similar complement of heavy lift vehicles that Horizon was left with. Still, a heavier emphasis on the D-20s was made due to the colony's specialization in construction. Once the stations for both colonies were built, Thomas believed Anhur would make a great Shipyard, while Horizon would be better for providing food and troops.

      Thomas had been moved into the captain's quarters after much arguing with the other captains, who all said that he may as well take up the full authority of his position and that the room was much closer to the bridge. He relented only when Dimitri threatened to change all his meals to nothing but borscht for a month. The Spartan did not entertain the thought of either enduring the punishment or attempting to avoid it, the Russian man was an ex-ONI operative, and he didn't have any foolish ideas he would be able to sneak actual food out of that man's kitchen. 

      The room had been captain pillows before it was Thomas's, so some cleaning was required. Captain pillow was... messy, to put it mildly. Bottles of liquor were strewn all over the room, as well as many articles of clothing, several of which did not appear to be men's but belonged to a huge woman. Thomas did not need to know of Captain pillows... taste in partners, but the more petite man apparently had some specific ones. The spartan did not take very long to find all of the Ex-Captain's belongings and shove them into a box to be "lost" in a storage room. Or out an airlock. If anyone asked him later, he would say he had no idea what happened to it, but no one would bother to look either. So after some cleaning, a lot of bleach, and some modification, the quarters were fit for a Spartan. The only furniture that was not replaced was the bed, which strangely was rated for over three thousand pounds. The spartan was forced to wipe another image from his mind before it could manifest further nightmare fuel.