The briefing room of the UNSC station was full of multiple conversations. Ranging from how the Covenant had invaded Earth and how many kills they were betting on obtaining. The other half of the conversations were about their mission and how it was pretty much suicide.

The door to the briefing room slid open. All eyes moved towards the door, upon seeing the man in the door they all stood from their seats and saluted.

"At ease ODST's". Major Dunsbar walked into the room as the 60 ODST's sat back down in their seats. He walked behind a holo table. It was easy to see the veteran face of this Major. Two long scars ran diagonally across his face leaving one of his eyes shaded a light gray instead of his hazel color. He was dressed in his black ODST armor, those also having multiple battle scars obviously from plasma.

"Now as you all know the Covenant have finally set foot on Earth". At that moment the lights to the debriefing room turned off and a hologram of a Covenant cruiser appeared on the table. "This mission comes right from the top ladies and gentlemen. It goes as this. Our forces on the ground are getting rocked and there getting rocked hard. At this rate the Covenant will take New Mombasa in mere hours and it is our job to stop that. All of you, including myself will drop in our pods and land on the Covenant cruiser."

He walked around the table and started to map out points. "We will be in 6 squads of 10". Dunsbar pointed to the engines of the cruiser "3 squads will drop in the engine room and plant charges on everything that looks important". Dunsbar then pointed to the middle of the cruiser. "The remaining squads will land here in the hangar of the ship. According to our Intel one of the leaders of the Covenant, The Prophet of Regret is on that ship. He is a priority one target." Dunsbar put emphasis on the last three words.

The UNSC needed this so called 'Prophet' maybe there could be a way to stop the war with him in their possession. If anything could happen Dunsbar wasn't going to have a hotshot on this mission. "If everything goes right, we grab the prophet and head back to the hangar. We open the doors and in rides our evac Pelicans. once we're clear of the ship we'll blow the charges and watch some real fireworks."

The lights came back on and the Major looked around at the faces of the ODST's. He could see the seasoned Veterans with admiration on their faces and a few of them had smile. Next he looked towards the lower ranked and easily see a good amount of them were frightened and they had a right to be. Not many people that invaded a Covenant cruiser made it out alive.

Something in the corner of the Major's eye caught his attention. there sitting in the corner was one of the men with his armor already on and his helmet with his visor polarized was sitting a top his head. Taking a glimpse at the man's armor he could see it was barely scratched or dented. That's when he realized that this man was the new Rookie just instated into Bravo squad.

He smiled and looked back at the crowd. "You're dismissed. we have 30 minutes until drop."

(*8*)

The 'Rookie' watched as all of his brothers in arms stood from their seats and headed out the door. He decided from the beginning of the debriefing that he was going to leave last and spend some time in his room alone before heading to the pod bay. His weapons were already stocked and ready to go in his assigned pod.

Because they were being dropped in a Covenant cruiser he sought it best to definitely bring a shotgun and of course his silenced SMG. He touched his right boot and felt his back up silenced magnum and in his left boot was his hunting knife. You could never be too careful when it comes to these covie bastards. His pod was full of ammo to last him a few months if necessary.

He heard the sound of boots die down and knew all of the ODST's were gone. 'Except one' he thought to himself as he looked up to the source of the staring eyes. Standing there was his C.O. Daisy Hershel. Her armor was on and her helmet was in her hands as she bore down on the young soldier with her harsh gray eyes.

"Rookie are you coming?"

He chuckled at the name. He been here for 2 weeks and no one had bothered to ask him his name, which was John Oltz.

John stood up and walked over to his commanding officer. "Sorry Mam, I was just thinking about the mission."

Daisy started to laugh as she enjoyed the try hard attitude of the young gun. "Alright Rookie just get down to the pod bay now."

The Rookie nodded his head and walked by heading down the long hallway of the UNSC Voyeur. The hall was filled with multiple Marines and officers heading to their station for the big drop time. He looked down at his watch and saw he had only 3 minutes until the pods were to drop. 'Where did the time go?' he thought as the last door came into view.

He reached it allowing the mechanical door to slide open. He saw dozens of ODST's cleaning their guns or putting the finishing touches to their armor. The Rookies pod was in the back as he walked by the veterans, some of them staring right at him.

The one minute alarm went off in the HUD's of all of the ODST's signaling drop time was immanent.

A large thud in the ship made all of the men and women drop to the floors in surprise. More of them followed as the ship rocked and jerked back and forth. The comm line came on connecting to everyone on the UNSC Voyeur. "Crew this is your Captain speaking" another explosion rocked the ship "We are being attacked by 3 Covenant battle cruisers. Everyone to the life boats and the ODST's heading on the cruiser mission need to leave now".

That ended the comm line to the Captain as the newbie ODST's and even the veterans immediately got off their asses and ran to their pods, hoping that the shields and defense weapons could hold off the Covenant cruisers in time for everyone to escape to the surface.

"Alright Rookie I'll be in the pod right next to you. Be careful and make it down there in one piece". With that Daisy jumped into her pod and sealed the latch shut. The Rookie did the same thing and felt the sweat and explosions of the ship around him get to his nerves as he felt the need to throw up his lunch ration. He looked around his pod to check off everything that he needed. His shotgun and SMG were strapped to the right of the pod, while the ammo to his weapons were on the left side of the pod. Above him was the emergency release latch, along with his water canteen and one month ration pack. Everything seemed up to date as the comm line went on again.

It was Major Dunsbar. "Most of the crew-not to mention your fellow jarheads-will be leaving the ship in lifeboats. They'll ride to the surface in air conditioned comfort, sipping wine and nibbling on appetizers. Not you, however. Oh no you're going to leave the Voyeur in a different method. Tell me boys and girls... how will you leave?"

The Rookie easily noticed the speech and yelled out the response with everyone else. "We go feet first, sir!"

"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

"7!"

"6!"

"5!"

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

The pods shot out of the UNSC Voyeur as the Rookie watched out his small window. He saw all of the other pods falling towards their objective and in a mere few minutes the Covenant carrier came into view. The Rookie felt his grip on the shotgun and prepared for a large fire fight.

That's when something terrible started to happen. "Major Dunsbar it appears the Covenant cruiser is attempting to jump into slip space" one of the smart A.I's stated as a black hole appeared in front of the cruiser.

"This isn't good. everyone brace yourselves. it's going to be a rough ride"

The Rookie watched as the Cruiser made the slip space jump and a gleaming white light came towards his pod. Even the visor couldn't protect his eyes as the Rookie covered his eyes. His pod started to shake uncontrollably and the Rookie started to scream as the white enveloped him and caused everything to beep uncontrollably in his pod. Then in one motion the pod jerked to the left causing the Rookies head smash into the pods ceiling, knocking him unconscious.

(*8*)