Rough Landing

(Disclaimer: I don't own Halo)

'Fuck my life," Corporal James Dawn thought as the Pelican Drop ship suddenly lurched to one side as it was hit. He jumped in a seat and quickly buckled himself in. He waited for a long ten seconds and looked around almost in slow motion observing the other men buckle in too. With a sudden crunch the ten seconds ended and his head snapped back and everything went suddenly dark. 'Yeah,' he thought as it went black, 'It's gonna be a long day.'

* * *

"Delta 438, come in over," Lieutenant Amy Dawn tried for the third time to raise the downed Pelican Drop ship. She sighed and tried to fight off the panic she felt rising inside her. She had to raise that ship, just had too. It had been sent in with a team of ODST troops to survey a crash sight of a human warship. The UNSC War Games had been knocked out of action and had crash landed during a naval engagement over the planet of Draco VIII. The naval battle was done but the ground battle was just beginning to warm up.

"Any luck Lieutenant?" Captain Ambrose called to his communications officers. She turned to face him in his command chair on the bridge of the UNSC Kiowa.

"None sir," She replied, "I'm trying on different frequencies as well as listening for an emergency beacon."

"Keep trying," the Captain said, "We can't afford to lose one of only three teams available to our small fleet."

She nodded and immediately resumed her work. Lieutenant Sarah Parker saw her friend's distress from across the bridge and got up from her work station at the weapons console and made her way over. She placed her hand on Amy's shoulder and leaning in close asked, "James was on that ship?" Amy nodded.

"Take a break," Sarah told her, "Go get some coffee for us and I'll keep trying to raise them." Amy shook her head fighting back tears, "I have to know if he's ok," she said in a whisper. Sarah nodded in understanding and turned to get the coffee herself when the radio suddenly squelched and a transmission garbled by static emitted from the earpiece Amy wore.

"I've got something," she said excitedly punching keys on the console to clear up the transmission. The next transmission came through only slightly garbled.

"UNSC Kiowa, this is Corporal James Dawn of Delta 438," Static broke it up and the next they heard was distressing news for everybody on the bridge, "We've taken heavy casualties and are down to fifty percent strength all wounded. We're making our way to the downed ship send reinforcements. Over"

"Corporal Dawn," Captain Ambrose called, "All troops are committed to the ground battle. You'll have to hold on until we can dispatch them. How many are you facing?"

The radio squelched and the whole crew could hear gunfire erupt before the signal died and they all waited tensely for it to resume. When it did a collective sigh of relief could be heard around the bridge.

"Several hundred Grunts, a couple score of Jackals and a score or so of Elites," James responded over the noise of gunfire erupting again. A sudden swooshing noise could be heard along with a Marine in the background yelling out in surprise. "Ah, shit," was all they heard before the signal died out again. It resumed a moment later. "Make a pair of Hunters and a dozen or so Brutes." A Sniper rifle sounded twice and James came back over the radio, "Make that, ten Brutes."

"What's your plan Corporal? And where's Staff Sergeant McPherson?" The Captain asked.

"DOE," was the reply before gunfire erupted again and the signal died.

'Dead on Entry,' the captain mused the term usually referred to orbital entry in Human Entry Vehicles, but it told the captain what he wanted to know. He waited quietly for the transmission to resume; the whole bridge had stopped in fact, waiting on the word.

It was a long thirty seconds while he waited on the transmission to continue but it was even longer for Amy who waited on the edge of her seat, once again fighting back tears. "He'll be ok," Sarah told her soothingly, "James has luck that would make the Irish jealous." Amy gave a slight smile at the true statement. She just hoped it would hold out.

* * *

James came to with a sudden jerk and stared for a moment at the darkness in front of him. It was a long moment with his throbbing head until he realized that it was the other side of the pelican and it was above him. "Fuck, shit, ass," he thought as he winced at the throbbing in his head. He unbuckled himself and rolled around to stand on his seat, almost falling over again as a sudden wave of dizziness hit him. He used his suit to run a scan on everybody in the ship. Out of his thirteen man squad only six showed signs of life. Staff Sergeant McPherson was dead as was Sergeant Kerner. The five others were Corporal Jackson, Lance Corporal Johns, Private First Class Ahmed, Private Reeves, and Private Williams. The last three were all new and so James didn't know them that well, but Corporal Jackson had been his rack mate at the ODST school and the teams Demo Expert. Lance Corporal Johns was just a rifleman but had been with James for almost a year.

James sighed as his Uncles voice came to him, 'One of the shittiest things about war is that you have to watch your friends die.'

He started kicking them awake and found that the crew chief was alive but both the pilot and co-pilot were dead. He had six men with him and he happened to be the ranking marine on hand. When they were all awake he moved them outside the pelican as he searched it with the assistance of LCPL Fatima. The removed food, weapons, ammo, and destroyed anything that could be used against them or provide intelligence to the enemy. They moved their fallen to a ravine where they collapsed it on them.

He looked over his remaining men. A crewman who had never been on the ground before and two Rookies straight from school and two he knew who were solid. LCPL Donald was the team's heavy weapons expert and toted a Model Six Non linear Rifle or Spartan Laser along with a M7 case less submachine gun on a neck sling. The Spartan Laser was a man portable, shoulder fired energy powered weapons capable of penetrating and taking out heavy gear such as tanks. The M7 case less submachine gun was the M7S model used by Special Forces; it fired a 5 mm case less round with a sixty round clip and was known as the bullet hose, the S designation meant silenced as it had a silencer attached to the muzzle. LCPL Fatima was armed with a single M7S.

LCPL Bunker was now the head demo man for the team and toted a M41 Rocket Launcher which was a shoulder fired weapon with 102 mm surface to surface missiles carrying two in it and Bunker toted a half dozen more on his body. He had a satchel with M165 Demolition Charges inside which they could set and then trigger remotely. LCPL Tyler was a new guy and toted a Battle Rifle Model 55 which was a shoulder fired weapon, firing three round burst of 9.5 mm ammunition out of a thirty six round magazine and also had a 2x zoom scope. Tyler also toted an extra four rockets for Bunker, and had the job of being his assistant gunner. PFC Menendez toted a MA5C Individual Combat Weapons System firing a 7.62 round in fully automatic mode from a 32 round magazine, it was a bull pup design fired from the shoulder. To make up for its small magazine capacity he also carried a M7S in a sling from his neck and shoulder.

James was the team's marksman and somehow the close quarters battle expert as well. He carried his Sniper Rifle System 99D-S2 Anti-Material in front of him, which fired a 14.5 mm Armor Piercing, Fin-Stabilized, Discarding Sabot round from a four round magazine. It was a high powered rifle that many called instant death. The scope was a 5x and 10 xs zoom and provided night vision and heat vision as well as elevation and distance. As his secondary weapons James carried a M90 Close Assault Weapons System on his back, which fired an 8 gauge shell from a 12 round magazine underneath the barrel, it was a pump action system and James loved hearing the sound of a racking shotgun before heading into a fight.

Everybody present carried a new M6C SOCOM as their sidearm pistol which fired a 12.7 mm magnum round from a 12 round magazine and was a special issue to the special operations forces with a built in sound suppressor, muzzle brake and laser aiming module underneath the barrel. They also had half a dozen frag grenades each.

James spent a few minutes thinking on how to improve the load out and then realized the crew chief only had a sidearm. James shot him a questioning look through his un-polarized face shield and the man ventured inside the ship to retrieve his M7 sub machine gun standard issue.

All of the ODST wore Body Suits in all black which had built in heat and cooling systems to mask their signature. It was pressurized for space use and had a fifteen minute supply of air for use in a vacuum. The newer helmets had state of the art communications gear along with a Head Up Display with Thermal and motion detectors. They all wore the standard suit but the three older members had personal decorations on theirs. James had a cobra coiled to strike on his chest piece and they all sported the Chinese symbol for badass on the right side of the suit. The rookies were the only ones with their names still stenciled legibly on their suits and without blood type on it.

James was checking over his team one final time before transmitting to the UNSC Kiowa about their status. He doubted he had the power after such a harsh landing but he would try. Suddenly plasma bolts started flying over their head as a half dozen Ghost came in view. The Ghost was the standard ground gun platform used by the Covenant and was lightly armored.

"Take cover," he shouted as he crouched in the opening of the ship. His men scattered into kneeling and prone positions around the ship and in a depression not far away. "Bunker!" he shouted, "Take out those Ghost, and make it quick." He watched as Bunker raised his rocket launcher and triggered two quick shots before reloading. The lead ghost went up in flames and the driver of the one behind it was tossed off by fragmentation splash of the second round. Four left, James hummed to himself suddenly in a good mood, headache gone. He raised his sniper rifle in one fluid motion and shot the third driver through the head. The Elite flying it collapsed onto the controls and it turned to the side colliding with a fourth ghost which caused James to be way off on his second shot.

Bunker had reloaded now and took out the fourth ghost as its driver regained control. James took out the driver of the fifth one and Bunker took out the sixth one completely destroying it. That done James tried to raise the Kiowa. He got no reply but heard a call for his team. He tried again.

"UNSC Kiowa, this is Corporal James Dawn of Delta 438," he called.