Author's Note: This is the second time I'm posting this story because I had it pointed out to me that I had many of the dates wrong for the story, so it was quite confusing to follow along. I hope that this next posting is easier. All initial questions will be answered in the coming chapters and I hope to clear up any questions that you may have with them. Good reading.
-Prologue: The Days Before-
"Alright, Commander," a dark haired man said from the weapons station, "ODST's are in the tube and ready to drop. Standing by for your command."
"Good."
"Sir," the communications specialist, Lieutenant Jennifer Hulse, warned, "Picking up a lot of chatter from the brass at CENTCOM. They want to know why you haven't jumped into Slipspace yet."
The commander took a deep breath, "Do you still have that Shiva warhead ready?"
"Yes, sir," the man at weapons said, "But--,"
The commander turned in his chair to face the younger officer, "No buts, Lieutenant. Do as I say, or get off my bridge."
"Sir, yes, sir." The young soldier turned back to his station.
"Alright then." The grizzled commander turned to his bridge crew, standing up out of his chair, with difficulty, as he turned. "Men and women... of the UNSC Spirit of Fire: I speak to you as a friend, but also as a commanding officer. Today, we must face our fears, knowing that the Covenant has just made a full scale invasion on Earth. Our homes... our families... our survival is now at stake. What I ask of you from this point forward, is that you do everything in your power to make sure we come out on top. Is that understood?"
"Sir, yes, sir!"
Captain Cutter sat back down and swung around to face his NAV map again. All he saw in the bridge window was deep, black space. "Strap in and be ready to enter a hot combat zone. Jump on my mark; 3... 2... 1... mark!"
The Spirit of Fire shot forth into a Slipspace stream that carried them from the outside of the Sol system, to Earth in a matter of minutes. As they exited the stream, a loud crack reverberated through the hull; one of the side effects of refitting a Slipspace engine with Covenant based equipment. Instantly, a very different scene met Cutter's eyes. Hundreds of ships, Covenant and UNSC were engaged in combat above the Earth, blossoming blue and orange as the tried-and-true slingshot maneuver carried the Spirit of Fire. As expected, the gravitation pull of the planet was pulling them over a major Covenant battle group. Cutter hoped his specialists in the drop pods were ready for a fight.
The AI, called Ivanna, popped up her avatar on the pedestal nearest Cutter's chair. "Shiva on stand by."
"Johnson!"
"Ready, sir!" The young Lieutenant had no comment this time.
"Fire!"
In the free fall from the thousands of miles between the Covenant battle group and Spirit, the bomb turned end over end. No debris, ships, or wind was able to stop this weapon from reaching it's target. The crew of the Spirit watched on the bottom ship camera as the Shiva got smaller and smaller until they could no longer make out it's outline between the Covenant forces and the black of space. The only warning they got that it met its target was a small, orange and red explosion that knocked the shields of every ship in the battle group out. Cutter breathed.
"Deliver the ODST's now!" Cutter smiled to himself. Although the crew had no clue as to what was traveling down with the Helljumpers, the fact that the plan had gone off without a hitch, so far, sparked optimism throughout the bridge. Cutter just hoped that the hardest part of this whole plan, stayed the hardest part.
---
Four hundred and seventy-five orbital drop pods jettisoned into space, aimed straight for the crippled Covenant ships beneath them. Through screens in the pod, the troops could see that the Shiva had successfully taken out all of the shields on the enemy ships, and that the salvo of MAC blasts from multiple orbital gunstations hit many of the targets. This would shake 'em up just enough for the Helljumpers to do their work.
"You know what I miss?" Came over the open comm.
"What do you miss, Jund?" Came a sarcastic answer.
"I miss the old days; the days before we had to go on suicide missions."
Silence for a moment before the second man said, "Yea? Well get the over it. This shit's only getting' worse from here."
---
On the bottom camera view on the Spirit of Fire, Cutter could see that every ODST pod had impacted and shot through the Covenant battle group. He let himself relax a second as the Spirit rounded the other side of Earth and began it's run out-system. I just wish this was like the days before.