Hello everyone! Freerider2901 here!
First Chapter Rewritten for an easier read!
Now stop your complaining…
Enjoy!
1800 hours
In orbit of artic planet Alreaia
Epsilon Eridni system
Spartan E229 walked down the dark corridors of the USSC frigate Invincible. He continued down until he reached a weapons rack. He paused to examine the rows of weapons that lay neatly before him.
After careful consideration, he decided on the standard assault rifle and chose a silencer attachment. He also picked up a magnum with a built in silencer. He hoped he didn't have to use it, but as his mentor always told him, always, ALWAYS, bring a pistol, a saying he has always heeded to. He then proceeded grab several handfuls of ammunition.
After filing his ammo cache full of spare clips, he began to walk away until he spotted a under barrel grenade launcher. It would slow him down, and he probably wouldn't need it, but if things went from A-ok to absolutely crap shit, he would need all the fire power he could get.
After installing it, he then proceeded to run a systems check on his Type III armor. He sat down and executed the command. He then opened up his mission logs. He and another operative would be deployed from orbit by means of drop pods 5 miles down from the objective.
He and the other operative already agreed to spread out after launch in order to avoid detection and to avoid hitting each other, then meet up at the objective sight.
Just as he was reviewing objectives, a message appeared on this HUD.
Systems scan complete, all systems functional.
He closed his mission logs, the continued down the corridor until he reached a row of drop pods. He then sat down in one of pods and ran a systems check on the pod.
Ordinance scan complete, all systems go. He then fastened himself in and lowered the pod door. All fastened in, he glanced at the countdown timer. It read 00:03 seconds. Here we go, he thought to himself.
The pod launched from the Invincible. As he watched the small frigate grow out of distance as he fell into Alreaia's orbit, he spotted a second pod race out of the frigates pod launch bay speeding to catch up with the Spartan. The Spartan then proceeded to send a 3 quick burst transmition to the second pod.
After a notable second, he received a similar, 3 quick burst transmition.
Good, he understands, he thought as he altered his pods course ever so slightly. He then felt the heat of Alreaia atmosphere heating him up inside his pod and armor.
This must really suck for him, he thought as he boosted his pods shields to their maximum. The heal suddenly dropped and continued to drop as the two pods passed to atmosphere and began to travel into the cold, frigid air that was Alreaia's climate.
Soon an image of a massive mountain filled the Spartans displays as he altered his tejectoiry.
So far so good, he thought confidently as his pods stop chute deployed. He felt a massive jerk as his pod went from ten times the speed of sound to just the normal speed of sound in a half of a heart beat.
His stomach then dropped as he heard a sickening snap from his pod.
Oh shit, he thought as he looked at the display. His pods stop chute had snapped off. He pulled the emergency chute release cord.
Nothing happened.
He pulled again. Impact in 10 seconds appeared on his display.
He opened the display on his drop pods interface and typed in a flurry of commands. His second chute was jammed.
5 seconds to impact, appeared.
He pulled the Emergency cord again only to receive a heart stopping ERROR message.
1 second to impact appeared on the inside of his visor.
"Son of a bitch." he muttered aloud to himself as he braced for the massive impact.
His pod smashed the side of the mountain, slid off and fell into the thick clouds bellow. 229 lost conscience.
My name is Adam, Spartan identification number E229. I am a 1st lieutenant currently in command of a 4 man team of Spartans designated Gold Team. I am in service to the United Species Space Command. My entire life has been devoted to the protection of Earth and All its allies. I have been called the best, but I don't think I am. I'm just a soldier.
1800 hours
7 miles to objective sight
Adam awoke. He could feel his head thriving with pain as he struggled to open his eyes. When he opened his eyes, all he saw was black. His suits visor was malfunctioning.
He tried to lift his hand to his head only to discover to his horror that he couldn't move his body at all.
That's when he realized, My suits not broken, I'M broken. After a few second that seemed to last an eternity, his senses began to return, and he found himself staring out of his pods window, looking into the snowstorm that apparently brewed as his pod layed on the snow.
"Dammit how long have I been out?" he whispered to himself as he reached for the pod's door release.
A yank later, he was greeted by a loud bang, followed by an instant barrage of cold air.
That's right, it F-ing cold, he thought to himself as he grabbed his assault rifle, leapt out of his pod, and swept the entire area for anything that could give him a warm reception.
Clear, he thought to himself as he flipped on his guns safety and fastened it to his magnetic strip on his back.
He then activated his overhead map of the area. He noticed the waypoint over the objective area, and then he saw him, 7 miles away.
"Dammit." He said to himself aloud. This is going to set us back, he thought to himself as he started up the mountain.
Although there was no time table for the mission, both he and the other operative had agreed, the longer we stay here, the more change we don't get off this rock.
As he climbed, he replayed the pod incident in his head over and over again. Although it didn't really matter what went wrong, he always liked to know the details of things that go wrong.
Always plan that things will never go as planned, his mentor always hold him and the other trainees. Rarely most operations go off without a hitch, he forgot to take into account that his drop pod would fail, just like always, from his very first drop to the present day.
He had never had good luck when it came to ODST drop pod, from the simple mechanical error of a pod door being jammed to a catastrophic failure of a stop chute ripping off; he's lived through them all, never suffering more than a few broken bones or a concussion.
As he was marching across the snow covered clearing, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched and followed. He looked at his motion sensor on his HUD. The sensor read blank.
Nothing, he thought as he continued.
Always trust your instincts, for they are more accurate than any piece of technology, His mentor always told the trainees over the years, advice that has saved his neck plus the necks of the soldiers under his command numerous times.
The feeling then formed a lump in his stomach.
There's something here, his mind flared as he pulled his rifle and shouldered it. He then walked in circles as he swept his rifle 360 degrees around the area.
He then felt something was behind him. Just as he was turning around, his motion sensor flashed a single dot.
White.
Something was there; he thought as he dropped to one knee and aimed down his sights.
HE then saw something move, and at the same time, he didn't see anything move. Whatever was there, it was using active camo because he noticed the disturbance in the air around the object.
Although he couldn't see the mass in front of him, he could see some features. It was heavy, almost 8 feet tall, and appeared to be holding a rifle, aimed directly at his head.
Whatever it was, it wasn't human.
Since he couldn't so the mass clearly, he aimed his rifle at the center of mass, knowing that if it had active camo, its shields would be considerable weaker.
The two masses in the snow continued to sit there staring at each other, waiting for the other to flinch.
This is getting ridiculous, he thought after several minutes. He then opened his comms and broadcast a 3, quick burst transmition to anyone within 100 feet of the lone Spartan.
After a notable second, he then picked up a similar, 3 quick burst transmittion from directly in front of him.
"Just wanted to make sure." He said aloud as he flipped on his guns safety, rose, and placed his rifle on his back.
"No problem." a low, booming voice said as the figure lowered its weapon and materialized out of thin air.
The Spartan than stood there looking straight at a Sangheie Elite.
"I thought we agreed that we would meet at the objective?" he inquired to the elite.
"Yes, but I saw your pods chute snap off, and your backup didn't deploy, so I altered my course to make sure you were able to continue the mission." The elite replied.
The Spartan continued to face the elite. Although the Earth military and the elite military didn't really intertwine, the elite was officer rank, essentially the same rank as lieutenant, which meant that the two were the same rank and in joint command of the mission. The elite then flexed his mandibles in what appeared to be a smile. "You seem well enough to me." The elite said to the Spartan.
Sanghelie elite Zahr Zehiomie, an elite that Adam has known for almost his entire military career and his life. Zahr was an Arm of the Arbiter, an elite Sanghelie branch of military trained to handle high risk missions with high probability for casualties. The AA was founded after the end of the Human-Covenant war, when The Arbiter took power of the Sangheili government after the fall of the Prophet of Truth. From birth, Sangheilie youth are trained in the art of war from the best, handpicked by the Arbiter himself. For an experiment, the AA and the Spartan IIII's were trained side by side and then one human and one elite were paired up and then ran though numerous trials. The result of the trials would decide if the two man team would stay together and work together on missions. Adam and Zahr were one such pair that excelled.
"Yea well you had stop chute," the Spartan replied, "I landed the old fashion way."
"Indeed," said Zahr. Adam then pulled up his map, "Do you think we were detected?" he inquired to the elite.
"Not likely," the elite replied, "That snowstorm was pretty thick; I don't think they saw us."
Adam closed map. "Good," he replied, "we should get going, were on a tight schedule."
Zahr shivered before repling, "Very well, I don't think we're that far from the base."
Adam noticed the shiver and couldn't help but ask, "You chilly?"
The elite looked away before replying "Yea, if I know it would be this cold I would have brought my mittens."
Adam climbed up a wall then stopped to help Zahr up. "Well, the mission briefing said this rebel base was located on an Arctic planet, what the hell do you think that meant? "The Spartan asked the elite.
"Well I figured that we would at least get some hot chocolate or something" the elite replied.
"Alright I'll make you a deal," Adam started, " I'll get you some hot chocolate after the mission, alright?"
The elite looked over at the Spartan, "I'll be holding you up to that." The elite replied.
The rest of the trip up the mountain was relatively quiet, with Zahr occasionally cracking a few jokes to lighten the mood.
After climbing up the mountain for the better part of the day, the pair layed on a snow ridge a few yards from the objective sight.
"That's definitely it," the Spartan stated . "Got foot activity, definitely not USSC." He said to his partner.
The elite looked through a pair of Thermo-noculars. "Not many patrols outside of the base, its mostly focused on the inside." The elite said. "Light security at the entrances, no watchtowers, I don't think they ever expected anyone but their own to ever enter the base." Said Zahr.
Adam pocketed his thermo-noculars, "Well that's about to change," the Spartan stated with a serious tone.
The elite then got up. "I'm going to go around to the second entrance, get in and install plan B." he said.
"Agreed." The Spartan replied. "I'll go though the main entrance and make my way to the objective."
The elite nodded in acceptance, turned on his active camo, and vanished into the snowstorm that was still raging.
Over dramatic much? Adam thought as he marched down to the enemy security checkpoint.
He made his way to the open door of the security station, noticing only two guards, if you could call two full grown men playing with Pokémon cards on the table at the far end of the shack guards. Adam upholstered his sidearm from the side of his leg, charged into the shack, and put one bullet in each of the guards heads.
After hiding the bodies, the lone Spartan then continued out into the base, being careful only to stay to the shadows.
After several minutes of traveling in the shadows, Adam reached a building that stood out from the others. His HUD displayed the objective waypoint.
This is it, he thought to himself as he eased open the door and went inside. The entire building was empty, save for the intruder.
He then got the feeling of not being alone again, but shrugged it off to just anxiety.
Finally after several minutes of searching, he found a terminal in an office that was turned off.
Bingo, the Spartan thought triumphantly as he turned the computer on, hacked the password system, and began to transfer valuable rebel data to a storage chip he brought with him.
After several minutes, he removed the chip, turned off the computer, and began to make his exit.
"Zahr, this is Adam, I've got the data and am making my way to the other end of the base. Looks like we won't need plan B. Acknowledge."
Adam waited, and then a blue light on his HUD flashed once. "Good, proceed to the rally point, I'll contact command that we're…"
Adam didn't get to finish his sentence because at that moment, a massive door opened and he was facing 20 armed men with all guns pointed at him.
Adams heart skipped as he counted all the armed men standing before him. There was no way he could get out of line of fire before all those bullets broke through his shields.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a voice inquired from behind all the men. "Looks like we have an intruder."
The man was Jacob Isac, a known rebel leader.
"Zahr, I've been compromised." Adam said into his comm.
"To think, one of the USSC elite sneaking around in a place like this. My, the USSC must have nothing better for you to do." Jacob continued. "Well here's the deal, how about you just drop your weapon, and I'll let you live long enough to reevaluate your life." Jacob stated. "I'll even give you ten seconds to compile, OK?" he said in a babyish kind of voice, that pissed Adam off to no end.
Realizing no other solution, he placed his weapon on the ground. "Good! Now was that so hard?" Jacob continued in the baby voice. "Biggs, Presley, please escort the Spartan to an interrogation room," HE ordered and the two men stepped toward the Spartan.
Just as the two men moved, a small, shiny blue ball landed in the middle of the group of the men, then began to smoke. "What the fu…"One of the men stated as the plasma grenade went off killing most of the men instantly.
Adam then, in a heartbeat, picked up his weapon and mowed down the few soldiers that survived the blast, including Jacob, than sprinted outside the structure.
He ignored the blind gunfire as he pumped his body forward just as a massive explosion shock the entire base.
Zahr, he thought to himself as he ran to the other end of the base.
Just before he could get to other end, he was confronted with at least 30 angrier, cold rebels all aiming at him.
Just before the horde opened fire, a warthog speed across the road and ran over the unfortunate SOB who happened to be the closest to the Spartan.
It was Zahr. "Get in!" the elite screamed to his comrade.
Without missing a beat, the Spartan jumped into the rear seat, spun up the light recon vehicles chain gun, turned his head, and yelled "FLOOR IT!" the warthog then speed through the fewest number of rebels and started down the mountains.
"Command this is E229! Objective secured! We Had to go with plan B, We are moving to the backup extraction LZ using enemy transport! Acknowledge. "Adam screamed into his comm while using the chain gun to mow down pursuers.
" Roger that 229, extraction bird is already on it way. Out" Adam heard a second later.
"Roger that command! 229 out!" Adam replied then turned to the driver and said "Get us there!"
"Working ON it, but I don't really drive human vehicles that often, so my memory's a little rusty!" The elite replied matter-o-factly.
"I'll enroll you in driving school after this!" the Spartan shouted, "Just drive!"
Just then a sound of what sounded like jet engine screamed into the Spartans ears.
"A hornet?" the Spartan stated blankly then turned to the driver and asked, "Why the Hell didn't you take the hornet?"
The elite replied "Well excuse me sir, but I didn't train to be a pilot!"
The Spartan spun around to face the new pursuer. "You got to be kidding me!" he swore to himself as he opened up the chain gun on the hornet. T
he warthog then started to go down a slope. "Extraction points just down there!" the elite stated.
"GOOD!" the Spartan replied. "FLOOR IT THEN!" the hornet then began shooting at the speeding jeep with not much accuracy.
The Spartan on the other hand, didn't have that problem.
One lucky round happened to tear into the hornets fuesilodge, causing the aircraft to spin out of control, crash, and erupt into flames.
"HELL YEA!" the Spartan cried out in victory. "F YOU PIECE OF SHIT! YOOO!"
The elite then started to panic. "Uh-oh" the elite muttered.
The Spartan then turned around and saw what panicked the elite. The long slope ended in a strait, vertical drop.
"Brake…" the Spartan started, "Brake!"
The elite struggled with the wheel. " I am stopping! There's too much ice!" he bellowed.
The hog then continued closer and closer to the edge.
"BAIL!" the elite shouted as the hog spun out of control.
The hog then proceeded to go off the edge, with Adam still on it.
With all his force, he sprung off the end of the warthog, causing his jump to be awkward.
HE hyperextend his arms, only able to find purchase in one of his hands. He gripped his hand with all his might. He then sat there, dangling there watching the warthog disappear from view into the clouds below.
He then heard cracking.
Oh son of a bitch, he thought to himself as the rock broke loose and he began to fall.
Just as he broke off, a sudden flurry of snow washed over him and he felt something grab his arm.
"Gotta!" Zahr cried out as he held up Adam.
He then proceeded to pull Adam up and onto solid ground.
"Thanks." Adam said to his alien counterpart.
"No problem," Zahr replied, "but now you owe me two."
Adam smiled behind his visor. "Come on, let's go." He said as the two began to walk to the pelican.
After dust off, the two removed their helmets. Adam shook his head.
"Alright," he began, "remind me when we get back to cook you some hot chocolate."
Zahr looked up at him, smiling. "Looking forward to it." He replied.
Several moments later Zahr asked "By the way, what is hot chocolate?"
The pelican then exited the planet's atmosphere, and began its trip to meet up with the USSC frigate Invincible.
Hope you guys had an easier time reading the chapter.