I know, I know... I haven't finished The Hollow Strawberry And The Black Wagtail yet but I got kind of burned out on that story for the moment. I'll continue it once I get this annoying voice that keeps telling me "Write the story... you know the one you tinkered with of Rookie in the land of Ooo, I know you want to." out of my head. So for the sake of my sanity let's get started, before we begin there are some differences regarding Rookie's age. Also some of his past is made up, mainly due to the fact that he's a classic "Silent Protagonist" with no name, face or real past besides what is in the game and books. His date of birth has also been pushed up by about five years to make interaction with Adventure Time characters less awkward.
Chapter 1: Out place, out of time
Year 2542: Alluvion
The first thing he heard were the screams, men, women and children all screaming in horror, fear and agony... a chorus of pain and suffering. The second thing he did was open his eyes; he knew what he was going to see and feel all over again... Yet he still opened his eyes to see the all too familiar sight of sheer pandemonium, people running in all directions clutching what was most valuable to them. The streets flooded with people, flooding the sidewalks and squeezing between the unmoving vehicles stuck on the road.
Everyone towered over him; he wasn't able to see the facial features of any one person before they disappeared into the crowd. He had forgotten how it felt to be so small, so weak that he couldn't even help himself much less anyone else. The memories, relived over and over again as his dreams... his torture... his reason for fighting.
Their shadows combined with their height made their faces impossible to see. Even so he could make out people that had children or loved ones in their arms, dragging them to what they thought was safety. Some took whatever they could carry, clothing, food, water... even credits for some reason. Not many of what they frantically grabbed would be useful, most of them would not live long enough to make use of whatever was actually useful anyhow.
The crash of shattering glass brought his attention toward what was left of a store, a few thieves or greedy citizens had taken the opportunity to loot a store amidst the panic and confusion. Scum and criminals that could still attempt to get away with crime while their fellow man suffered around them. Their ability to keep calm enough to plunder under the circumstances however was impressive nonetheless.
A steadily growing blue glow brought some of the crowd's attention skyward, what looked like a violent lightning storm brewing above. Everyone knew though, all that gathered on the street frantically tried to escape. Even when they knew the chances of survival were slim and escape was near impossible they still ran.
A searing white hot beam of light broke the clouds, as wide as a city block and steadily growing larger by the second. Everything caught in the beam was disintegrated instantly those people… those poor souls that were caught in the beam were quickly and painfully vaporize. There was little left of the victims save for a charred and blackened skeletons coated in a layer of quickly cooling glass, if anything was left at all that is.
He felt a sharp tug on his arm, a woman with long black hair held onto his upper arm. She was turned away from him so her face was hidden from view. He couldn't hear her however; the screams of panic from the crowd had drowned out her voice. This was the last he saw of his mother before he whipped his head around to see the beam of white hot plasma was rapidly approaching them.
"Mom!" The boy cried, desperately grasping his mother's sleeve.
He barely recognized the shrill, high pitched voice as his own when he heard it. It was so long ago, he was at a tender age... seven if he remembered correctly. The details escaped him, the events that followed however remained clear as day in his mind.
He felt the heat against his skin despite the beam not actually touching him physically, the heat still stung. That heat was the last sensation he felt before a sense of weightlessness overtake him. His mother, her arm outstretched-had thrown him. A sharp crack followed by a stab of pain spread along his back, the pane of glass he had been thrown through bursting into a million razor sharp shards. The world went black an instant later.
"Hey, we have one alive over here!" A voice called.
When he awoke on a floor covered in shards of broken glass and blood, his body littered in cuts and scratches no doubt received when was thrown to the ground. A red mist seemed to cloud the vision of his right eye. Raising his hand to his brow, his fingertips brushed against his head and felt a warm wetness. He let out a winch of pain as his fingers traced the edges of a large gash that ran down the right side of his head and running his face and ending at his cheek. The blood from the gash stung his right eye, forcing it closed.
It sickened him, not that his fellow human had died or even the fact that his mother chosen to save him instead of herself. What sickened him was himself, how weak and helpless he was to need saving. How he could do thing but watch as people died around him whilst he survived the carnage that the Covenant brought.
His monologue was cut short by a whole new stab of pain stemming from a separate wound that ran from the bridge of his nose and stretching horizontally under his left eye. Fresh blood oozed from both wounds, it was common knowledge that head injuries bled quite a bit more than an injury on any other part of the human body. That would mean that it hadn't been too long since he was out since he hadn't bled to death yet.
"Damn… The kid's lucky to be alive so being so close to the glassing. Somebody call a Medivac, we have a survivor here!" Another voice yelled.
Slowly, the boy felt his body being lifted off the ground. Sunlight stung his vision and temporarily blinded the boy and forced him to close his eyes. As his vision adjusted to the light, he was met with a sight he would never forget… a sight that would shape his future. An opaque blue visor attached to a charcoal black helmet hid his rescuer's head and face from view, the person had held carried him over to an awaiting medical Pelican. The roar of the aircraft's engine blocked anything the armoured figures might have said as he was placed on a stretcher and strapped down.
Craning his neck around and peering between the medical personnel that fussed about him, his eyes fell on the armoured figures that turned away from the Pelican. Their shoulder pauldrons had a single insignia painted on them, a single skull inside a sort of elongated pentagon with to prongs that extended over the top of it. The entire insignia was surrounded in stylized flames with a four letters painted under the insignia… O.D.S.T.
The present, Year 2552, Aboard UNSC: Say My Name
The scene on board the ,UNSC Say My Name, was a gloomy one, the darkened room serving as the briefing room, armoury and staging point for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper team Alpha-nine. Of the five-man team only four of its members present. Gathered around the hologram projection table were three of those soldiers, the last and newest member of the squad was resting peacefully in his HEV pod with his arms crossed over his Titanium chest plate in the far corner of the room. Their commanding officer, Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck, was missing from the all-important briefing he was supposed to be holding.
"The Navy put up a hell of a good fight." Private First Class Michael Crespo or as he preferred to be called, Mickey, commented.
Michael Crespo was an unusual ODST to say the least, son to an insurrectionist couple in Crisium City, Naniwa, Luna. His parents had blown themselves up while trying to wire a bomb to a government building and, obviously, failed miserably. As such he had never really known his parents all that well before he was put into foster care and joined the military as a per mandatory service in order to be released from foster care.
The man had the chance to build his own life and leave the military, yet he stayed on as to him… well it was the closest thing to a family he had ever known at that point. He was a pilot and then a crew chief on a Pelican for a time before undergoing EVA training. With three HEV drops under his belt, Mickey was an obvious choice for a position in Alpha-nine. Mickey was thankfully the exactly the opposite of his parents as far as handling explosives went, thus he served as their demolition and explosive ordnance expert.
"Of course they did, its Earth!" The gravelly voice of Corporal Taylor "Dutch" Miles grunted, crossing his arms over his yellow chest plate.
Corporal Taylor Miles was born in 2519, Losantiville, Seven Hills, Mars. Being a former road-train driver had already prepared the man for the mental and physical strain of a heavy weapons specialist when serving with the ODSTs. Surprisingly, his unique view of the world was formed when he was drafted into attending university and studying religion and philosophy.
The grizzled veteran was a soldier in the UNSC Marine Corps before eventually joining the ODSTs. Close friends of their other squad mate, Lance Corporal Kojo Agu, or as other call him "Romeo". Due to his self-proclaimed luck with women. In his case being involved with a woman was what actually got him into the ODSTs to begin with.
Corporal Kojo was rude, disrespectful to both rank and gender and an all around asshole. The only reason he was in Alpha nine was because of his unbelievable hundred percent kill-rate with a sniper rifle. In short, while having a personality as smooth as sandpaper and a near constant devil-may-care attitude he was the best marksman they had.
"Better late than never, am I right?" Romeo said, shifting his helmet over his lap as he leaned on the holo-table.
The team surveyed a holographic briefing of their mission; the ominous ship hovered over the city of New Mombassa. Damage from a multitude of weapons, ranging from Archer missiles and mighty ship mounted MAC canons littered the Covenant Super Carrier's pinkish purple hull. Holes and fires dotted the mighty covenant warship. Its shields were down and wouldn't be back up anytime soon, that was about as far as the good news went.
The bad news? Their mission was to assault a Covenant carrier with the help of hundreds of other ODST teams ready to assault the Alien ship from the UNSC Navy ships hanging in low orbit. It was a near suicidal mission, disregarding the thousands of Covenant troops swarming inside the heavily damaged ship. The ship could also begin glassing the city at any point in time, they had no way of knowing if or when it's plasma bombardment system would come online. The other problem was the fact that the carrier was launching a small swarm of logistical support and dropships.
"How bout' you show some damn respect Romeo." Dutch growled, taking Romeo back slightly.
"Just saying Dutch, they missed one of the bastards." Romeo said, gesturing toward the holographic projection of the Covenant Supercarrier.
"No, they left it for us to finish off." Dutch said, shifting his helmet under his arm.
The last member, resting peacefully beside his pod was a... mystery? No that word wouldn't do the young trooper justice, he was an enigma...yes a complete enigma. He had only just been transferred into the 105th Shock Troops Division from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Force as part of a Rapid Offensive Picket until it's near complete annihilation just a month ago. His armour bore only a single mark of individuality, a white stripe that ran over the centre of his helmet. The armoured rucksack attached to the torso unit ODST BDU's usually bore the last name of the trooper painted in bolded white letters. In his case only his initials, J.D, were painted on.
The only information known to be true about J.D was that he was the youngest member of Alpha-nine, his blood type according to his MEDREF patch on his left pauldron and the fact that he shared the same birthplace as Mickey, Crisium City, Naniwa, Luna.
Not new to combat by any means, the details of his previous however operations remained shrouded in mystery. All that was known of Lance Corporal J.D "Rookie" was that he had participated in the tragedy of New Jerusalem and only weeks later the Raid on Mount Haven. While only Buck knew of the Rookie's exact action in those disastrous battles, to the rest of Alpha-nine he was competent soldier and he listened to orders... that was all that mattered.
Each ODST was well equipped, the standard ODST Battle Dress Uniform used by the 105th special forces of the UNSC. Vacuum-rated and capable of Extra Vehicular Activity, the full set would allow the user mobility in space for anywhere up to fifteen minutes. The Titanium A plating that covered nearly the entire body protected the ODST from ballistic protection and internal cooling and thermal insulation provided protection against extreme temperatures and to a limited degree covenant energy weapons.
While the standard ODST BDU is capable of any role, there are variants used by specialists to provide any number of advantages over the standard variant. Mickey's maroon striped CQB variant, used to aid ODST in close-in situations with the standard left pauldron being replaced by a much longer two piece ballistic plate that protected the user when he is in a firing stance. Romeo's blue decorated sharpshooter BDU with its removed right shoulder pauldron and enlarged left pauldron, his helmet featuring an optical enhancement device that could sync more effectively with the Oracle scope of the SRS99 sniper rifle.
Rookie and Dutch preferred the flexibility of the standard variant, small edits such as the skull and crossbones painted of Dutch's helmet and chest plate over his yellow paint scheme. The man also added extra ammunition pouches along the side of his chest plate. Rookie opted for the more a more low profile dull white stripe that ran over the centre of his helmet.
A sudden flash of yellow and blare of alarms signalled the start for the ODSTs to get into their SOEIV or as they are informally known as, HEV pods. The commanding officer of Alpha-nine, Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck, walked into the room, wearing the standard issue ODST BDU with his characteristic combat knife strapped to the right side of his chestplate. His combed dark brown hair and rugged good looks seemed more at home in a movie than a battlefield. Beside him was a woman, blonde hair tied back and sharp and attractive features pulled into a slight grimace.
Her armour was unlike any they had seen before, a standard ODST undersuit but with a specialized and somewhat less bulky chest plate. The shoulder pauldrons were missing entirely, no doubt to reduce the user's Infrared signature. The purpose of the green orb at the lower torso was anyone's guess.
"You know the music, time to dance." Buck called.
Romeo whistled upon laying eyes on the woman. "Why hello beautiful."
"Pods, now!" Buck grumbled, pointing to the waiting SOIEV's attached to the walls via docking clamps.
The members of Alpha-nine turned and retreated without another word, heading toward the weapons racks to gear up. Dutch Slipping his helmet of his head as he left, giving Buck a slight nod as he glanced at him.
"Replacements?" The woman asked.
"Who isn't this many years into the war?" Buck mumbled, tipping his head as he remembered the original members of Alpha-nine before climbing the stairs.
"Well at least they listen." Veronica said, prompting Buck to turn and face her.
"They listen to me, and they're not gonna like what they hear." The Sergeant said, going back down the stairs.
"Orders are orders." She said, crossing her arms and giving her one-time lover a cold glare.
"C'mon Veronica, what the hell else is more important than that carrier?" Buck argued, trying to reason with the woman.
"My orders." The ONI operative scowled, pushing him back with a finger on his chest plate. "And buck, call me Captain."
"I'll pass on that dance, but you can show me where to sit." Dare said, brushing past the exasperated Gunnery Sergeant.
Weapon's rack, Alpha-nine mission staging area, UNSC: Say My Name
"Hey what the hell kind of armour was she wearing?" Mickey asked, as he approached Romeo and Dutch.
"Dunno Mickey, I wasn't looking at her gear." Romeo smiled, giving his teammate a playful punch to the arm.
The man sputtered as the turned his head to find Dutch inspecting an M7/ Caseless Submachine Gun.
"Seriously?" Romeo said, staring at the peashooter the older trooper had chosen.
Dutch glared at Romeo from behind his helmet's visor. "What? It's gonna be close quarters anyways"
Romeo reached back, picking up an M90 shotgun from the rack and offered it to the heavy weapons specialist. The great thing about being an ODST was they had access to better equipment than the ordinary marine. Special Operations Command or SOCOM gear was included the M7/ Caseless SMG that compared favourably in weight and stealth properties compared to the standard MA5B Individual Combat Weapon System. A common favourite among ODST was the M6C/SOCOM issue pistol that featured a smart-linked four times scope, sound suppressor, muzzle brake and a black polymer finish. Those were just the tip of the iceberg in terms of weapon they got to choose from in the weapons racks of the Say My Name.
"Exactly." Romeo grinned, nudging Dutch's chest plate with the barrel of the weapon.
Dutch huffed, shoving the offered weapon away.
"Second to last, right next to mine." Buck said, pointing to a pod down the hall.
Buck stepped into view, the ONI agent walking beside him before splitting off to her pod whilst Buck moved to join his team.
"Cozy." Romeo whispered, just loud enough for Dutch and Mickey to hear.
"You gonna tell us her name Gunny?" The marksman said.
"MISSNaval intelligence, our new boss." Buck said, snatching the combat shotgun from Romeo and slamming it back onto the weapons rack.
"Oh brother." Romeo sighed, none too optimistic about working with an ONI officer.
"So check your mouths, find your chairs and get SET for a combat drop!" The Gunnery Sergeant growled, grabbing an SRS99 and slamming the weapon into Romeo's chest plate.
"What fuck am I supposed to do with this inside a damn Covenant ship?" Romeo grumbled, walking over to the newest and thus far most silent member of their team.
Romeo grabbed the barrel of his sniper rifle, taking a lazy swing at the sleeping ODST. The butt of the weapon struck the soldier square in the side of his helmet. "Wakey Wakey buttercup!"
"Can't a guy get a decent nap before jumping into almost certain doom?" The young trooper thought, grumbling held his helmeted head in his hands to steady himself.
Dutch walked up, his armoured boots thumping along the metal floor of the ship as he approached the pair. The heavy weapons specialist pushed Romeo aside with his armoured forearm.
"Relax Rookie Romeo don't mean nothing by it. Besides, now's one of those times it pays to be the strong and silent type." Dutch said.
The Mars-born ODST pulled out and M7, offering the Submachine gun to the soldier. Rookie gave the man an appreciative nod as he took the gun, locking it down to the magnetic hard point under the pods right control stick and right armrest. The magnetic weapons rack under his left side already held a BR55 Service Rifle, usually his weapon of choice but in the cramped space within a Covenant carrier would only be a burden.
Rookie sat back, tucking his limbs in place and strapping himself in for the drop before hitting the button at his side. The hatch of the SOEIV pod came down with a loud mechanical hiss, slamming shut and sealing Rookie within its cramped space. Most would find being ejected from a perfectly good ship from orbit with only 5 meter tall, 2.7 meter wide and 2.3 meter long pod of Titanium-A, lead foil and a ceramic skin to protect them insane. They were correct to assume so, however ODST were not most people.
A dull grumbled filled his ears when the pod rotated and was carried off the staging room. A hatch opening below the Marathon Class heavy cruiser gave the Rookie a partial view of the ongoing battle from the narrow T-shaped window of his pod. The communication's screens built into the SOEIV's hatch came to life with a burst of static before displaying the helmeted heads of his squad's two commanding officers. Other screens also came online, altimeters, thermometers, Navigation systems, system diagnostics and various other instruments that relayed crucial information to the ODST.
"Latest intel reports covenant troops are massing beneath the carrier." Dare shouted back to the rest of Alpha-nine.
"They're pulling back? Why?" Buck asked, tilting his helmeted head in confusion.
"Well we aren't going to find out way up here." Dare finished, tapping a final button on her control panel to begin the squad's launch sequence.
A heavy clank signalled the docking clamps releasing the top of the pods and preparing all ODST's for launch. Now the only thing keeping them stuck on the belly of the UNSC Say My Name was a magnetic lock. Buck and Dare polarized their visors, hiding their faces beneath screens of blue and yellow.
"I always keep mine polarized anyways." Rookie smirked.
"Locks are off marines, I sure as hell ain't holding onto your pods!" Buck shouted.
Three high pitched beeps that all ODST's knew by heart prepared Rookie for the violent jerk that followed as all pods were ejected from the belly of Say My Name. The pod screamed as it crashed against the atmosphere, leaving a trail of blue as air resistance built up and brushed the hulls.
Rookie drummed his fingers on the control sticks in his pod as he saw a UNSC frigate broken in two amidships, flames licking its twisted metal.
"I take it back, Navy got its ass kicked!" Romeo's static-laced voice called in through the radio.
Buck rolled his eyes beneath his opaque blue visor. "Hey Romeo, remember when I told you to shut your damn mouth?"
"Yeah?" Romeo asked, curious.
"Consider that a standing order." Buck grumbled.
Rookie looked around as clouds covers his SOEIV's canopy, filling his vision with a blurry grey. A group of other pods raced alongside his own, if it wasn't for the precision of each pod's navigation and manoeuvring computer they would be at a real risk of crashing into each other mid-flight. The group of pods split off from his own team's with a blast of their manoeuvring jets, following their own set course to the carrier below.
"Captain that concludes Alpha-ten!" Buck called.
"Stand by to adjust trajectory, on my mark." Dare yelled, earning a shocked sputter from Romeo.
"What's she just say?" Romeo yelled.
"Mark!" The Captain hit a button on her panel, overriding the rest of Alpha-nine's navigation computers.
"Wait-what? This wasn't the plan!" Rookie gasped, tapping his instrument panel only to find his pod controls locked.
"That fucking spook!" Rookie mentally cursed, feeling his pod's manoeuvring thrusters firing against his will.
"We're way off course!" Mickey yelled, obviously having the same issue with his pod's controls.
"We're heading exactly where I need to go." Dare cryptically... prompting the young ODST to scowl at her image on his screen.
The pods of Alpha-nine shuddered as their course was suddenly and violently altered. The Covenant carrier now visible below them as they broke the cloud-layer and growing more distant by the second, this was most definitely not the mission they were briefed for.
"But we're gonna miss the damn carrier!" Mickey protested, he would have thrown his arms up in disbelief if his SOEIV's cramped interior didn't restrict his movement to only a foot in any direction
"Radiation!" Dutch's gravelly voice warned, prompting Rookie to shift his gaze from the images on his pod's screens to the alien ship that was Alpha-nine's original target.
A translucent blue wave travelled along the surface of the silver and black alien vessel, the nose of the warship became surrounded by a black sphere of energy.
"Did the Covenant set off a fucking nuke!?" Mickey exclaimed, pressing his helmet against the glass of his pod and staring on incredulously at the pulsing carrier.
"No! It's going to jump, it's a slipspace rupture brace yourse-" Dare yelled, only to be cut off by a burst of blue energy scrambling their communications arrays.
Rookie found his pod slowly being drawn into the gravity field of the Slipspace portal. His eyes widened in shock, panic was begging to settle in as he ran his finger over the manual overide for his thrusters only for the computer to give him a bright red error message.
"Dammit, Rookie's being drawn in! Veronica do something!" Buck screamed, watching helplessly as his newest squad mate's drop pod began veering sideways uncontrollably toward the Slipspace rupture.
"I can't! His Nav unit's locked, she'll need a reboot before he can overide the controls!" The Captain yelled.
A sudden lurched from the rupture sealed his fate as the nose of his SOEIV pod faced the expanding blue mass of energy. The Covenant ship's departure into the black void of slipspace sent a massive shockwave into the air. Rookie grimaced as his instruments sparked with arc of electricity, the entire pod shuddered as the Electromagnetic Pulse overloaded his SOEIV's systems. Finally his pod's thrusters gave out, sending the pod and the soldier inside tumbling into the portal.
"Rookie, kid no!" Dutch cried, slamming his fist against the reinforced glass canopy of his SOEIV pod as he watched J.D's pod spinning uncontrollably into the Slipspace portal's black maw.
As quickly as it had expanded, the portal began to collapse and compress into a glowing ball of small light. Like a miniature supernova the tiny mass of energy exploded outwards, releasing a wave of electromagnetic energy that struck the vulnerable SOEIV pods during their decent.
The tiny pods bucked and shuddered from the assault, each trooper was forced to pry his or her hand away from their control sticks and shield their faces from the arcs of energy that burst from every electrical system within the confined space. The pods lost their manoeuvring thrusters, knocking them off course and sending each member straying wildly off course.
"Shit! EMP, were losing power brace for hard landi-" Buck gasped through the radio, his voice filled with static before the ODST team's communications went dark.
Land of Ooo, Unknown Year
Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum was not a happy camper, raising a delicate hand to brush a long mass of biomass behind her ear. Hunching over her desk within the dark confines of her underground laboratory, the princess had been seated there nearly the entire day. Her attention was drawn to a small metallic box, the box was featureless save for wires that hung limp from the side of t and the small instrument panel or some sort that she had guessed was made for external access. The device, like all human inventions before and during the Great Mushroom War, worn with age, time and exposure to the elements over a thousand years. Yet it remained in one piece and still undamaged, a testament to the engineering and workmanship of the near-extinct race.
The girl-no, the woman could easily be mistaken for a human herself if one disregarded her bright pink complexion, pink pupils and near outlandishly long hair that cascaded down her back in thick, sweet, sticky locks. Under the surface however it was completely different story, the princess was but a parody of human form. Her skin was a single sugary, thick layer of elastomer, high molecular weight polymers, resins, waxes, emulsifiers, fillers among others. The thick layer of bubble gum helped keep the viscous, semi-liquid biomass inside her body that served as organs. The sludge would take food-namely candy and convert the glucose and nutrients from the ingested material and add it to her biomass and grow.
The woman was old-far older than she appeared and older than she cared to admit, her age was only matched by one other in Ooo as far as she knew. Since her separation from the mother gum, the princess had built and created her own kingdom. At the beginning the kingdom was little more than a small village populated by her creations, slowly the village grew into a hamlet then a town. Over the centuries her kingdom had become the most influential and powerful in all of Ooo. How did the princess do this?
"Oh my glob, how long have I been sitting here" The princess sighed, rubbing her tired eyes.
She owed much of her accomplishments to a race of people that in their war, made life in Ooo and the world at large possible. Bubblegum had found the technology reverse engineered whatever she could, turning what probably seemed like the most boring and mundane of invention to the humans back then were engineering marvels to the people of Ooo. Despite nearly a millennia of study and exploration, a great many human secrets seemed determined to stay secrets even a thousand years after their fall.
The patter of small, leather shoed feet outside her door face the princess's attention away from her work. The door was pushed open the small disk-shaped form of Peppermint Butler came into view. Created to be a loyal servant to Bubblegum herself, the mint dressed in a neat swallowtail coat and dress pants. Despite his rather... unsavoury interest in the dark arts, the mint candy butler was competent and faithful to her and that was all that really mattered.
The butler carried a silver tray, a bowl filled with steaming brown liquid. "Here you go Princess, a nice warm chocolate soup."
"Thank you Peppermint Butler." The Princess sighed, giving the candy person a tired smile.
"You really should be rest Princess, you're been working on that relic for nearly a week now." The small round butler said, his beady black eyes filled with concern for his home's ruler.
"I will just as soon as I finish finding out what this-" A dull rumbled interrupted Bubblegum's sentence, followed soon by muffled screams emanating from beyond the castle's candy walls.
"What is it now?" The candy woman grumbled, pushing her chair aside and rising from her seat.
The Princess walked briskly out of her lab, leaving Peppermint butler scrambling to catch up to her. The butler's tiny legs struggled to keep pace with the gum girl as she hurried up the winding stairway leading to her private bedchamber. Throwing the large doors to her bedchamber open, the princess stood upon her balcony to find the source of her citizen's distress.
"Oh…my… glob…" Bubblegum gasped, taking a step back.
The Candy Kingdom was in utter chaos, the myriad of multi-coloured sugary organisms ran in around in a blind panic. The candy people were famous for many things, their wide variety of colours and shapes, their friendly disposition and their general cheerfulness was matched only by their lack of intelligence.
The state of her people wasn't what bothered the princess; the candy woman was more focus on the giant black sphere in the sky. The thing was massive, blocking out the sunlight behind it and shrouding Ooo in an unnatural eclipse. Arcs of energy danced across the sphere's surface every now and then as the thing began to shrink. The void seemed to collapse on itself slowly, the arcs of blue energy that a moment ago been so small grew in intensity.
After a moment, the… thing had seemed to reach critical mass, sporadic bursts of energy seems to emanate from the object and travel across the surrounding clouds before it exploded. A blinding flash of blue light and a deafening crack forced Bubblegum to turn her head away and shield her eyes from the light.
When the light had died down and the ringing in her ears had ceased, she had looked back at there the sphere had once was. She had almost missed what had come next, in place of the back awe-inspiring void was a small back object in the far off distance.
"That's actually kind of anticlimactic…" The princess whispered, resisting the urge to look away and rub her sore eyes.
The object seemed to hover in the sky, just below the cloud layer before it started falling. She couldn't know if it was merely a rock falling from the sky or some monster or demon that had opened a portal to Ooo, but the scientist in her was burning with questions. This situation called for some field work.
"Peppermint, get my scanning equipment ready and call Jake!" The candy ruler yelled, leaving her small Peppermint servant to carry out her order as she rushed through the castle, eager to investigate the anomaly for herself.
Meanwhile, 4000 feet above the Grasslands
J.D felt his head pound so hard that it felt as if his brain was slamming against his skull and his eyes threaten to pop out of their sockets. He was spinning if the how quickly the view from his SOEIV's canopy was to be believed, that and the fact that his arms the flailing around and slamming against his pod's interior.
"Shit... c'mon, c'mon..." Rookie grunted in frustration as he tried to lift his arms and reach the system restart button.
The task proved physically impossible; every time he tried to reach for the manual restart button the pod's wild spinning threw his arm off to the side's pod. Rookie felt panic settle in, limbs slowly losing the strength to struggle. Black crept into the edges of his vision, the immense G-forces pulled at him at every angle as the pod spun out of control.
"Well… I guess this is it, it's been short but sweet I guess..." Rookie sighed, resigning himself to his fate.
The tiny pod suddenly lurched upright, the force behind the sudden stop jerked the ODST in his seat. The air was forced from his lungs when his harness held him in place, like a flower in full bloom the top panels that formed the pod's roof exploded outwards and spread open.
This was a feature included in all pods, SOEIV's didn't get break into the atmosphere and land on Titanium-A alloy alone- they wouldn't be able to without the occupant being roasted alive inside. Instead the underside of a pre-launched drop pod was coated in ceramic plates to act as a heat shield, after the plated flaked off from the heat and velocity a small explosive would detonate and wrap a layer of lead foil around the pod. While the ceramic plates protected the pod against the worst of the heat, the lead foil further protect the ODST inside from the heat of atmospheric re-entry before ripping away.
The altimeter would trigger the explosive pack that released the back panels to form a drag-chute at a certain altitude. This feature proved to be his saving grace, the violent as sudden righting and deceleration would have smashed his head against the reinforced plexiglass canopy had the harness over his chest held him firmly in place yet. Going from nearly 10-G's to none was not too kind to the young soldier's ribs, if not for the padding under his titanium chest plate his ribs could have been bruised or completely broken.
The air was forced from Rookie's lungs and his head jerked downwards from the force. No scream of pain escaped Rookie, his air-starved lungs would only allow him to let out a short grunt of agony as his chest ached from the pressure. Working through the pain, Rookie brought up his right fist and slammed it into the control panel on the wall. Instantly, the red emergency lights within the SOEIV cut off, static filled screens that displayed numerous red error warning went dark and all was silent.
"Work you bastard… work!" Rookie silently prayed-not that he believed in god or any other deity, he just didn't want to die.
The pod only remained silent for a good half second and a half, yet to Rookie it felt like an eternity before the screens flashed back to life. Rookie slumped back- well as far as the rigid backrest would allow him to anyways and took in a painful gasp of air. His lungs burned and his ribs ached, being send tumbling through the air for a couple thousand feet gave him a pounding headache and his vision was still spinning when the SOEIV fired its braking thrusters around two hundred feet from the ground.
Bracing himself for the impact almost immediately, an automatic reaction upon hearing a dull beep that punctuated the hundred foot mark. It was second nature to him- to every ODST in UNSC service to know these things by heart, every foot they fell in their drop pod had a level of metal and physical preparation involved.
When the pods get released from their clamps each ODST would think of whatever loved ones he or she were defending, some such as the Rookie himself could only avenge those that no longer stood beside him. As they broke into the atmosphere some that had a religion would pray, atheist or freethinkers would steel their will and listen to their commanding officers. Even in a drop as disastrous and disorganized as his own, a trained albeit and semi-experienced thoughts were clear as crystal and organized.
" Alright... Step 1: Try and contact Buck and the others. Step 2: Find Captain Dare and get her to explain the sudden change in our mission, if she still refuses to tell... shoot her in the head. Step 3: Provided step 2 worked and I don't kill Dare, would be to carry out their mission and kill as many Covenant as physically possible."
The heavy thud of a titanium pod more than half a ton in weight smashed a sizeable crater in the open grasslands of Ooo. While the pod's velocity was immense and even with effective heat shielding the pod's surface was hot enough to dry and burn the flora immediately surrounding the SOEIV.
The shock from the impact was barely felt by the ODST inside. Moving all the haste a shock trooper like himself was supposed to, his right hand flew under his weapon clamp under the right armrest while his left stabbed the hatch controls. With a loud hiss the pod's airtight seals followed by thin wisps of pressurized air. The hatch flew open, the two hydraulic arms within the two odd prongs of the SOEIV pushed the sturdy reinforced plexiglass and titanium up.
Practically leaping out of the pod, Rookie skidded to a stop on his armoured boots and raised his M7/SOCOM to his shoulder. His helmet's gold-tinted Head's up display burst to life and sent him a basic grid on his medical status, weapon status, ammunition reserves, a compass and finally a small map that linked with his helmet's internal motion sensor.
It took a moment for the soldier to process what he had been looking at, not the rainy besieged city of New Mombasa that was crawling with alien invaders but a wide serene plain as far as the eye could see.
"What on Luna...This isn't New Mombasa..." Rookie mentally gasped, wide eyes scanning the horizon.
The soft crunch of a foot stepping on burned grass forced him into action, his motion sensor picking up movement behind him. Swinging his compact weapon around to face who or what flanked him, Rookie lowered his gun's holographic sight from his eye.
Facing him was a pink... girl, shapely and tall with bright Magenta eyes and long dark pink hair that actually looked like it had fused together. Beside her a bright yellow bipedal dog, resembling a bulldog in shape yet having eyes too large to be anatomically possible.
"Who... or what are you?" He asked, his weapon lowered in disbelief.
