Hello there.

So, judging by the fact that you're reading this, I'd guess that the summary and title interested you to at least some extent. I have little to elaborate upon—this is a chronicling of events that happen at the Halo 3 multiplayer map 'Ghost Town', and is part of Obsidian Thirteen's 'Multiplayer Chronicles' series.

With that, go ahead and try reading a bit. See if it interests you any further. Without further delay, here is…Ghost Town.

---'Helljumpers'

The memories from before we got to Ghost Town are foggy at best. Since the Brass apparently didn't have any pelicans to spare, we had to go it on foot. And, obviously, we were all used to it—but everybody's got limits.

We spent days and days trudging through those jungles. Bugs definitely would have been a problem if it wasn't for our armor—they didn't have a chance of getting to our skin through that. Unfortunately—and I'm not one to criticize the armor—it wasn't exactly ideal for a jungle environment. It could have been worse, I guess.

But like I said, our platoon—Askar Squad—humped our equipment through that jungle for quite some time. And we had a lot of equipment with us, too—but I guess that was our own fault for not packing heavy.

In addition to my weapon of choice, the MA5C Assault Rifle, I carried four fragmentation grenades, five clips of ammunition, a combat knife I'd never used, and my trusty M6G sidearm. Some of the other guys were unlucky enough to carry much more than that; as our RTO and Radio-man, Abraham Zhao carried a BR55HB Battle Rifle, a M7 Caseless Sub-Machine Gun, as well as one of those big communication-backpacks attached to the back of his armor. Mitchell Henley, the biggest guy in our entire platoon, toted around the M90 Shotgun, a pistol, four grenades, and not one, but two combat knives (I have no clue why, to be honest)—which probably says quite a bit about his personality. There was also Dennis Lansing, our medic—he carried around two M6Gs, one on each hip, as well as the assorted equipment that all medics have with them constantly (primarily morphine and a hell of a lot of dog tags). Our man in charge, Alem, used a BR and an AR—he always had one of them attached to his back. Then there was the rest of the team—Rodgers, Hutson, and Fisk. I guess you could call them the heart and soul of our team. Rodgers was our sniper, Hutson was his spotter (he, like Mitch, used a shotgun), and Fisk…well…I guess he was our comedian.

Maybe the most frustrating thing about our time in the jungle was how quiet we had to be. If any of us had fired one bullet, we would all be dead in a matter of minutes—Covenant seemed to be everywhere. We had to sneak by more aliens than I can count—and at night we had to go dark. That might have been the worst of all—all lights off, just crouching there, listening to the sounds of the Covenant. Sometimes they were looking for us, some times they weren't—but either way it was scary as hell.

But, we made it—all of us. There was quite a bit of relief when we finally entered the clearing that held the Ghost Town base—but, at the same time, there was disappointment. It was shit—a dilapidated water processing and purification facility that had obviously seen better days. Thankfully, though, we weren't the first ones to get there—about eighty or so marines were waiting for us. What we hadn't counted on was being the only ODSTs—and, as such, there were high expectations set for us.

We knew our mission, even if the others didn't. The brutes were going to come for us because, in an attempt to keep them from discovering Crow's Nest, they had 'discovered' the location of Ghost Town through several comm. relays shortly after we arrived at the base. And now they were going to come and claim it for themselves. Or try, at least.

It's true, we could have ordered a massive evacuation—but where to? Not Crow's Nest, obviously—that would just make the entire plan worthless. Rat's Nest? No, it had already been wiped off of the map. Wherever we went, the Covenant would follow—better to just hold our ground.

The sentiment among our little team, though nobody said it outright, was that everybody would be leaving this mission in a body bag.

---

I hope you enjoyed it enough to try reading the next chapter!

Several things you may have noticed: firstly, it is written in first person. This is not a recurring theme—this chapter serves as a sort of prologue to the rest of the story (explaining why it was this short), which follows the same character, but in third person. Hopefully, however, this gave you a fairly good idea of our protagonist's personality. A second thing you may have noticed is the chapter's title—while this title cannot be identified as being part of a trend, I hope that how I name my chapters becomes evident over the course of the story.

Reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading.