[_First_Person_]
I woke up from my frozen stupor to the muffled sound of alarms, I quickly look around the room to see a cryo bay with several others doing the same as me. I quickly scramble out of my pod and towards the equipment rack to my right, I spot my ODST gear set up neatly on a set of compact shelves. I slipped on my bodysuit with practiced efficiency and start slapping on random pieces of armor.
When I finished putting on my custom ODST armor, which is simply repainted with red highlights and a longer and more ornate knife on the right shoulder, I grab a DMR and socom magnum off the rack and put them on my right hip and back respectively.
I look up to see most of everyone ready and moving out the door, I follow suit and run through the maze of corridors only to end up in the hangar. I turn and dash to a seemingly random spot behind one of the pelicans looking over a spot where soldiers were meant to light up, right next to a man dressed in an officers uniform.
"Major Litch, reporting," I said crisply as I turning to face him.
"At ease, major," Said the man calmly. As he finished, another solider rushes and solutes us.
"Sargent Miller, reporting," said the new arrival, which had basic ODST armor on, was holding a Silenced SMG in his free hand, and had the same magnum as me on his hip.
"At ease, newbie," I say turning to the new solider. Two more soldiers with ODST Armor rush in.
"Staff Sargent Smith/Anderson, reporting" said the two soldiers at the same time, both turning to glare at each others helmets. The first was wearing custom ODST armor with yellow highlights and a ridiculous amount of grenades on his chest. He was wielding a shotgun and had a rocket launcher on his back but no sidearm to speak of. The other had ODST armor with green highlights and a communication backpack on. He was holding an assault rifle and had a datapad instead of a magnum on his thigh.
"At ease, both of you, and no bickering, I honestly don't want to hear it," I ordered as I turned back to the rest. Then a sixth person arrives and quickly solutes.
"Lieutenant Kat, reporting," said the ODST in a feminine voice. She had on custom ODST armor with ocean blue highlights and a jetpack on her back. She had a battle rifle in her free hand and a socom magnum on her hip.
"At ease," I repeated in the same calm tone. "Now that everyone is here let's go through our mission one more time before we leave," That comment got several muffled groans from my audience.
"As you know we are going to infiltrate a small covenant carrier and steal it for some technology to use against them," I stated in an authoritative voice. "We unlock the hangar and head to the bridge, then insert the A.I. and we meet up in the hangar for extraction while the annihilation squad sweeps the ship, ARE WE CLEAR?"
"SIR, YES, SIR," Is my response.
"Now load up," I order then I turn to the captain,"A.I. chip?"
"Here you go," he says handing me said chip. "God's speed, Major"
"Thank you, sir," I say as I enter the Pelican. The bay shuts behind me as I move to sit down in the seat next to Kat.
"Think we can do this?" She asks as I sit down.
"Probably but we need to be careful, this is a spartan's work that has been dumped on us," I say grimly.
"Shut the fuck up, Smith," I hear from where Anderson was sitting.
"WHAT DID I SAY FIVE MINUTES AGO!" I yelled at the two bickering soldiers.
"Sorry, Captain," I heard them say at the same time again causing another glare.
I heard the rookie chuckle a bit from his seat. "Are they always like this?" he asks amused.
"Sadly yes, they act like an old married couple," I sighed out.
"Hey!" I heard them shout, but a quick glare from me shut them up again.
"Get ready we are taking off," said the pilot over the intercom. The back hatch closed and I felt the craft lift off of the hangar floor and accelerate forward, then I heard the two of them start bickering again.
"This is going to be a long trip," I thought out loud.
[_]
"We are two minutes out, get ready boys," I heard the pilot say over the intercom.
"Fucking finally," I grumbled while gathering my stuff and checking my weapons, the others doing the same.
"We are here, now get off my ship," I heard the pilot bark before the back hatch opened. I jumped out and landed on the hull of the enemy vessel, scanning for an opening, finding one into a room, I stalk up to the edge and wait for my squad. When we were lined up I held up 5 fingers and counted down, when it hit zero we jumped in guns blazing, taking out a few elites and double the amount in grunts. I fired at an elite ranger and destroyed its shield and put a round in its skull, then stole a kill from smith earning a curse in response. When we cleared the room we found the door, and pushed to the hangar with no injuries surprisingly. When we got to the hangar we found to loaded to the brim with troops that were getting in boarding craft, we went unnoticed behind a few crates. I decided to radio command.
"Command we have multiple covenant boarding craft in the hangar, most are taking off so be warned," I said into the microphone.
"Copy that, Anvil squad," said a voice on the other end. By this time all of the craft were gone leaving a few guards remaining.
"Hey, Miller and I will take the high ground, the rest of you take the enemies on the ground," I ordered as me and the newbie rushed up a ramp to our left as the rest sat still behind the crate. I saw an elite and decided to draw my knife to take it down, I walked up behind it, and stabbed it in the back of the neck before the shield could activate, and the body fell to the floor with a thump.
"Ok, open fire," I ordered over the radio, I took aim on a grunt and fired, blowing its tiny brain to bits as the rest opened fired, I repeated the process until we were the only living thing in the hangar.
"Open the door Anderson," I ordered as I picked up a few grenades. since I had decided to use mine on a few particularly unlucky grunts.
"No can do, controls are shot to hell," he mumbled out.
"Well we have to do it from the bridge then," I stated as we moved to a door leading in the general direction of the bridge. "Anvil form up on me," I ordered, they formed up with Smith in front, then the rookie, then Kat then Anderson, then finally me in the rear. We made it to the to the bridge entrance with minimal resistance but we had no motion in the room, which was weird to say the least.
"Hold up, I think this is a trap," I said. "This is a vital part of the ship, there should be more resistance," as if to spite me the door opened and multiple shots came burning out but missed. "God I hate my mouth, scatter and shoot whatever you see," I ordered the squad as we dived for cover.
"Wait, Smith see if you can't blow them up with that rocket launcher of yours," I ordered quickly.
"Though you would never ask, sir," he said mockingly polling out the beast of a weapon and pointing at the still open door. "Eat This Covenant Assholes," he yells just before firing his first rocket killing a good portion of the troops.
"The rest of you, there should be another door over there, and Smith, don't destroy the consoles," I ordered as we dashed off leaving the demo alone. We rounded the first corner and spotted the other door. As we approached with our guns raised it opened to see a grunt on the other side who was dispatched quickly by my DMR. When we passed the threshold we dived for cover on the other side, and gunned down some more troops. Soon we got all of the troops in the bridge and we took a small breather.
"Hey Anderson, get the hangar will ya?" I ordered rather sarcastically. Then an alarm started going off in the ship. "Anderson, what is that?" I asked in alarm,
"No clue, oh shit, the slipspace drive is active, and we are about to go through," he yelled quickly.
"Well abort the maneuver now," I yelled.
"I Am Trying," he yells back at me. "SHIT, no time hold on to something, that thing is not stable," He orders as the ship enters the portal. There was only one thing I could get out.
"Oh, son of a Bi-" I started before being interrupted by the ship shaking violently, I started to feel light headed before I felt the blackness of unconsciousness take over my body.