Reach was fucked and that was putting it politely. Glassing had reduced more than half of the world into either glass or molten slag. The few supplies that were left that we had not taken were being destroyed but this was no supply grab and bag, we had picked up a signal, a failing one but a signal all the same. It's origins came from the shipyard, where the Pillar of Autumn took off in a last ditch attempt to escape, someone made sure it escaped and now it looked like that someone needed help.
The warthog's engine roared as it crested another dirt hill, catching a bit of air as it slammed back down into the dirt below us.
"Damn I miss the others in a time like this" I growled "They would be whooping and cheering after that"
"Whoo" A neutral voice came over the comms.
"When you are doing a 'Whoo' you usually put a bit more emotion in it" I replied "Like this 'Whooo!' Now you try"
"Negative" The voice replied.
The voice was Karliah, Spartan 026 in other words one of the few remaining Spartan 2's. She was an amazing shot and never failed to hit her target, she had saved my ass on more than one occasion and in return, I had managed to do the same. Currently she was about five hundered metre's away from the signal, apparently it looked like some Covenant meeting, maybe even an execution so instead of waiting for Sam I just grabbed our Warthog and gunned the accelerator towards the signal's source. Sam was another Spartan 2, his tag was 016. But I guess while I still am closing on the signal source I should explain who I am.
My name is Leo, now to any normal person I was a Sergeant of the ODST team FOX CRY, but actually I am one of the few survivors of the Orion project. The only reason I am not some grizzled veteran like the other survivors is because I have been in Cryo sleep for a very long time, courtesy of the Covenant and Insurgent not giving the techie's enough time to thaw me out. So I like the others I kept it quiet about who I am, not even Sam and Karliah know who I am, it makes it easier that way and it doesn't give people an aneurysm as they see my youngish face on a man who is technically in his fifties.
You could say the Spartan 2's are like my younger brother and sisters in that sense, and those two are my squad mates and they each bring a skill to the table of life.
Karliah is an expert at hacking into systems and picking locks so sometimes we do not even have to fire a shot to get to our objective with her stealth skills. On the other hand, Sam is our heavy weapons and explosives guy. So going loud his strong suit, he has modified his armour with the scraps we've found to improve the shield strength while Karliah has made herself as quiet as she could. I'm just unusually skilled in CQC.
Looking into the shotgun seat lay my shotgun, Foxtail. She was a beautiful weapon I have spent years modifying, changing the grip and various inside parts to improve its firing speed and I've even been able to modify the barrel itself, now I can fire explosive shells and standard buckshot; perfect for ripping through a Hunters shell.
My side arm was the standard for ODST troopers, the tactical magnum. While not as powerful as the magnum given to others it fired faster and was dead silent. So far, I have given it no name but maybe it will gain one soon.
Within a few minutes I could see Karliah signalling me so I pulled the Hog over and jogged over to her, the magnetic seals on the back of my armour holding Foxtail in place.
"Down there" Karliah pointed over the slope "Approach low"
Getting down onto a my belly, we crawled over to the slope and looked down, with a pair of binoculars I could see a group of ten elites with grunts and jackals standing in a small circle, a mixture of energy swords and the odd knife, no ranged weapons at all.
"You were not kidding when you said it was like an execution" I muttered, following a dirt path I could see a cage, plasma made up the bars and inside sat a figure, armour plating and nano-weave suit. "That's a Spartan they have there"
A deep horn blared and the cage slowly began moving towards the circle, the Spartan's head raised slightly, allowing me to get a glimpse of their face.
"Female Spartan, long black hair, pale skin" I listed off.
"Sir now is not the time to see if she is your type" Karliah cut in.
"True" I muttered getting up "I'm going to charge them, we need to be loud and remove them as fast as possible, you hit the Elites and I'll kill anyone I get close enough too"
Jumping over the edge I planted my boots sideways as I began to slide downhill. A sense of familiarity passed through me as I began eating up the distance between me and the cage, this was not the first time we had attacked a group of Covenant like this but it was definitely the first time we went on a rescue mission. Well one that will hopefully succeed this time.
Suddenly the air was punctured with a loud Crack! As Karliah's sniper Os Ruptor blew one of the Elites head off, the mangled corpse falling to the floor. Her sniper was probably one of the most powerful weapons. Also the most illegal. She had taken a sniper and has changed it so much. Now it was a bolt action heavy sniper that fired armour piercing, high explosive depleted Uranium rounds. Only she could use such a weapon and she used it with deadly accuracy.
The elites froze up after the first shot then the second shot caused another of their number to fall made them scatter looking around for the shooter as the shots rained down removing more of their number when they saw me running at them hell for leather so they charged me, screaming in fury. Only problem is that Karliah's depleted uranium rounds were too dangerous to be fired anywhere close to friendly for the fear the force of the bullet passing them could kill them.
"Swapping to safe rounds, this will take a while" I heard her say but that was no problem for me. Now I was in my element. As the first few targets got within range I let Fox Tail roar and Grunts and Jackals fell, limbs and face's mutilated and torn apart. An elite lunged forward in an attempt to gut me but skipping aside I raised Fox tail and blew his head apart.
"Watch out behind!" Karliah almost shouted over the mic as I twisted to avoid a slash by a crimson zealot.
Looking at who remained there were three grunts, claws clicking together as they waited for the right moment to tear and scratch. On their own, the little bastards were no problem but more than two of them and they were a problem. A Jackal crouched over, it's bird like crest twitching as it drooled over the thought of more food but the biggest threat were the two elites standing beside each other, a zealot and a low ranking trooper, both wielding energy swords.
"Need help with this lot?" Karliah asked, I heard the all too familiar click of the bolt on her rifle slamming into place.
"Keep an eye on my back in case they try to group up on me but don't get too excited" I chuckled as I pushed my shotgun onto my back, the magnets taking hold of it as I reached towards my hip, pulling a six inch, black knife from its sheath. Reaching down further I pulled another similar knife from my boot. Spinning them round until I held them in a underhand grip I looked towards the aliens and activated my external speakers.
"All right you freaks" I said slowly so they could hear the venom in my voice "The great journey ends here"
Roaring in defiance they charged forwards, the Jackal launching itself in front of the group, hands outstretched to grab me but I was already moving, ducking to the side I brought one of the knifes up and cut deep into its throat it gurgled as it fell down as the grunts closed in, throwing themselves at me, regardless of their fate. Swinging my knife down I buried the knife in its eye as I threw my other knife in an underhand style, the blade singing as it buries itself up to the hilt in another grunts chest causing it to shudder and fall down dead. The last on hesitated and turned to run but with a roar I leapt forward and grabbed it's little head, twisting it savagely. My augmented strength easily snapping it's neck.
The elites watched me warily as I moved between the bodies retrieving my knives. Looking up I grinned behind my polarized visor.
"Come on then" I taunted them and while the zealot refused to rise to the taunt the other roared in anger and charged me, wildly swinging it's swords in an attempt to cut me apart. Dodging left and right I waited until the perfect opportunity to counter him. My chance came as he lunged forward but over extended himself, as he stumbled forward I cut deep into his side gaining a scream of pain from it as he turned to face me, a hand resting on the wound to stop the blood flow.
"You are fast human" I heard a voice behind me say, turning slightly I could see the zealot had taken a stance "But against the both of us you will only perish"
"Ok let's test that theory" I retorted and kicked forward pressing the attack on the blue elite while the zealot was forced to cover the distance between us before it could attack. After scoring another hit on the blue elite I turned my attention to the Zealot who began a series of precise thrusts and jabs in an attempt to catch me off guard with a different style of attack. Weaving in and out of the blades I kept an eye on my motion radar to see when blue boy decided to attack, suddenly the red blotch moved forward and I kicked up from the floor, bringing my feet up in time to avoid the slice directed at the top of my head, coming down in the empty space between them I buried the knife in the blue elites head, causing it's crimson eyes to roll into the back of it's head as I turned to see the zealot lunge forward.
With no other choice I let go of my knife and rolled out of the way, feeling a stabbing pain in my chest as I watched the energy sword melt my knife into molten slag.
"That knife was my favourite" I growled.
"You killed my brother" The zealot retorted, spittle flying from its mouth in rage.
"Well you can find him in death" I countered pulling out my tactical magnum and letting a small spray of bullets fly, causing it's shields to spark as I ran forward. Raising it's hand to protect it's face it made a blind swing at my head, dropping onto my knees I slide under the blade and buried my knife deep into the it's hip, tearing it out roughly causing blue blood to splatter on me and the ground.
As the zealot stumbled forward I grabbed the fallen energy sword it's brother had held and activated it, plunging into it's back the twin prongs producing from it's chest.
"That is for the ODST core" I whispered beside it's head as he gurgled from the blood filling his lungs. Gripping it's head I twisted it rapidly causing an audible Snap! To echo around us. "That is for however many people you killed"
Gripping the energy sword's hilt again I deactivated it and shrugged before attaching it to my hip.
"Always wanted one of these" I muttered before moving towards the cage, as the Spartan simply watched me approach.
"You are no normal ODST" She simply stated as I began pressing some of the buttons on the side of the cage.
"That is for me to know and you to find out" I replied, a slightly forced smile on my face as the bars faded. Stepping out she was a bit taller than I was, her dark hair swaying gently in the wind. "Now come on, my arms and legs are going to hurt like hell by the time we get back to our little hideout"
"You have not got a weapon for me?" She asked, surprise and a little bit of hurt entering her voice.
"Ask our resident sniper if you can borrow her rifle, maybe she will say yes" I chuckled, taking Foxtail off my back as I trudged back up the hill.
"That is not going to happen" Karliah growled over the communication system and I could not stop myself bursting out in laughter.