This is the untold story of the men and women who served on the planet Mist and how saved humanity from destruction by it's own hand. The information has been gained by personal accounts and records from the time. It was asked that it be retold in story form and will be told from the perspective of the would-be Major Michael Syirus Rendar, the hero of the newly re-named Echo Company "Archangels." This story is in honor of him and all those old Echo Company "Reapers." We miss you.
ODST, First into Hell. Hoorah.
Chapter 1
UNSC Planet Mist
Planetside Military Base Tango43
1524 Military Time (3 months after the Spartan Project was made public)
Now the match had gotten intense. The entire company, new recruits and all were crowding around the ring cheering, cursing, and betting. All the bets were supposed to be "anonymous" but, it was easy to see who had bet on whom. The match itself was between the boxing champ of Echo Company, and an some idiot Navel Petty Officer who thought he could beat her. Right now anyone who had been in the company for more than a month could tell she was just toying with him. Izz was the best, no one beat her, and now her facial expression was one of boredom. In three powerful moves she knocked him out cold. After wiping of what little sweat she had off her face, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Nice match, Izz."
"Thanks Lt. Still, you know it isn't as fun beating up new guys," She smiled, "It's too easy, you know?"
"Yea I hear you," I smiled, "and will you stop calling me by my rank. We've know each other since we were kids."
"I do it to mess with you Mike," she said.
"Well stop i-"
"All Echo Company is to report to the briefing room. I repeat all of Echo Company is to report to the briefing room." The announcers called.
"B-e-a-utiful, another mission," I muttered. "Come on lets go."
"Damn and I didn't even get to change."
15 hours and 25 light years later, Echo Company was inside the UNSC ship, Chamber's bottom level barracks. The ODST Company was sitting inside the rec-room waiting for the Captain of the Chamber. I was sitting off to one side with my friends and comrades from countless ventures.
"So, I take it we got ourselves another mission?" asked 3rd platoon's Staff Sergeant Kyle Cox.
"Looks like it," I replied.
"Now hold a second, I thought those Spartans were the only ones getting those."
Turning, I saw my old friend Todd (he was in a naval flight suit, a Longsword pilot). He was the naval equivalent of a 1st Lieutenant.
Todd smiled, "It's been a while since Echo got one of their signature suicide mission."
"Are you flying the pick-up pelican?" I asked.
"No, I'm gonna be aerial support."
"Good, then we might make it," I said in a serious tone, "Remember the last time you flew a Pelican?"
"Shut up! There were 4 Banshees on my tail," he said annoyed, "plus without me you would have had three Covey platoons coming up your ass."
"Well, we wouldn't have had to crawl out of the burning wreckage of the Pelican," said Izz.
"Hey everyone was in alive, right? And what wreckage, the Pelican was in one piece."
"For about a minute," I muttered.
"Hey don't make me-"Todd was cut off by someone yelling.
"Company, A-ten-tion!!!"
I snapped to attention, cursing myself. With the C.O. away and X.O. injured I was the acting SRO (Senior Ranking Officer). I should have paid more attention to who came in and stopped messing with his friends. Looking at the Captain, he could tell he wasn't pleased.
"At ease," he said, never taking his glare off me, "Lt. Rendar."
"Sir?" I answered thinking 'this won't end well'.
"Meet me in my office once we are done."
"Aye, aye sir," I said thinking, 'great, so much for that promotion'.
"Now, back to the matter at hand. On Mist you were all told about the Spartans mission. As you know Echo Company is the best company in the ODST. Before the creation of the Spartans, this company was truly considered the best of the best."
He was interrupted by collective a, "HOORAH!!"
" I'm going to go ahead and assume that you've received your Operations Orders and that this report will just be a review. As you know, in 48 hour we are to meet with the Pillar of Autumn and/or, a captured Covenant ship. You are to be the Spartans back up. As incredible as they are, they don't have the man power to do it without your help, so be prepared. For this mission you will receive our new suits just cleared for field testing. "
"You will also be given new weapons. These weapons have been cleared for field testing and are now being sent to every UNSC planetary base for use. These weapons include: (1) a battle rife, the improvement of the MBA5. It has a 2x scope and fires in burst mode and semi-auto. (2) A new SMG, effective but inaccurate. Watch your ammo consumption. It's a good weapon if you aren't stupid with it. (3) A new and improved pistol, no more "the HE is hard to control when firing," bullshit. You no longer have the scope, but it is a good sidearm with stopping power. (4) Lastly a new Rocket launcher with an interesting lock-on feature. So you no longer need to predict where that Banshee's goin'. After this report, go to the training room and test out your new armor and weapons. When you're done you can do whatever you want, talk to family, clean the armor or guns, take a dump. Whatever. Good luck, Echo. You're probably going to need it." And with that he turned on his heel and left, signaling for yours truly to follow. It was a good thing I had already been briefed, because I was leavening as the Operations officer was going over the mission specs with the company.
"Lieutenant," he stopped in the hallway turning to face me.
"Yes, sir?" I responded. The Captain held out a letter.
I looked at it confused. It was addressed to Captain Lazo, Echo's X.O., from the Office of Navel Intelligence. Furrowing my brows, I looked up at the ship's Captain.
"This message came in about three hours ago," He said shaking it, "This is a special report. It is for Capitan Lazo's eyes only, understand?" I nodded. "If he feels the need to inform you of what it consist, he may, but only at his discretion. Take it to him right away."
"Aye, aye sir," I said, snapping to attention. I took the letter, and strode off to the elevator. I pushed the button for the infirmary deck and as I waited to arrive, I wondered what the Captain had meant by a special report. 'The Company had already been briefed on what the mission was to entail, so what's in this letter,' I thought privately. Shaking my head I waited for the doors to open. The elevator chimed and I stepped out on to the infirmary deck. As I walked to the X.O.'s room I saw very few people in the halls. 'Soon this place will be full of the dead and wounded,' I thought grimly shuddering. Sighing, I stopped at the entrance to Capitan Lazo's room and knocked on the door.
"Enter."
I stepped into the room smiling. "Yo, Alex, I have-"
"Stop, what are you suppose to do when you are delivering a report to a superior officer?"
'Oops,' I thought. "Sorry Alex, didn't mean to not salute-"
"What is my name?" he said, cutting me off again.
'Ah hell,' what is his problem? "Excuse me Capitan Lazo," I said snapping to attention and saluting, "I have a letter here for you about Echo's mission." 'Probably doing the this to piss me off,' I thought.
"At ease," he said, breaking out into a grin. Taking the letter, Alex looked at me, "See that wasn't so hard." I felt my eye twitch, 'I knew it! Damn bustard'.
He pulled out the letter and looked at it. I was surprised, for such a Top Secret document it was really short. I could see it was only about half a page. Quietly, I waited while he read. He looked pale when he finished reading.
"Mike," he said, his eyes never leaving the letter, "sit down." I realized whatever was in the letter must have hit him hard because he called me by my first name.
Taking a seat, I appraised my X.O. Alex suddenly looked very tired and old. Alex is as old as I am. We went to school together. Only difference between the two of us was Alex joined the Marines, while I transferred in from Planetary Defense Section, also known as the Army. Maybe that is why I still have a sense of humor. I waited for him to say something.
"Mike," he repeated, paused, the continued, "Captain Motley is dead… His ship got hit by one of those EMP storms as it was leaving Mist."
'Damn, that's the 3rd C.O.'s 2 months. Are we cursed or something?' "What about 4th Platoon, and Lt Clay?" I asked
"Unknown," He responded, "they lost contact with 4th about two minutes after Motley's ship went down."
I was numb. In one instant, an entire platoon, gone. And Lt Clay, he had a wife and kids… I shook my head. "What about the new recruits? They were supposed to be traveling with them?"
"Someone upstairs must have been looking out for them; they got delayed due to engine trouble."
'Finally, some good news.' "So…" I stopped; he was now looking at me instead of the paper.
"It says I've been promoted. I'm the new C.O. They're letting me pick my new X.O. from the officers we have left," he said.
We had three left. With 1st Platoon was Lt Haymes (His first name is Caleb). He was a smart choice, the company liked him and listened to him. He reminded me a lot of our Echo's old C.O., Major Stanfield (He was killed during our involvement on Salamis. He was ambushed by 2 pairs of Hunters. They knocked over the Hog he was in and killed the driver. Stanfield jumped on the back gun and took three down before the last one finished him off. He gave the passenger time to grab a rocket launcher, and shoot the last one). I was in charge of 2nd Platoon, and there was no way in hell that Alex could convince me to take that job. He could threaten to court marshal me and I would still say no (He wouldn't really do that, he needs me). Lt Frank (Chris) was in charge of 3rd. In my opinion, Frank was the best choice. Not only did he have the most experience, but he also had the most tactical mind out of the remaining officers. In truth he wasn't a very good platoon commander, but I could definitely see him as a great X.O. Still, it wasn't my call. I wouldn't say anything unless Alex asked my opinion. Again, I waited.
"Hmm… I'll think on that later," he said putting the letter down.
'Bastard,' I thought. With him still injured and no named X.O., I was still the SRO in charge. 'Damn, I hate my luck.' I realized I was complaining to myself and almost grinned before I remembered why we were having this conversation. It felt wrong to be making joke about feeling sorry for myself, but sarcasm just seemed to be how I coped with things. That and gallows humor. 'Guess war does that to people... Just have deal with what we can, numb the rest and focus on the mission...'
"We need to think about this problem about 4th Platoon," Alex said, breaking me out of my metal stupor. "Without them we are now an under strength company."
"We were already that," I retorted, stretching out my legs and trying to be my relaxed self. "Now we just have less."
He shot me a dirty look, "Not helping."
"Ok, ok, relax," I held up my hands in defense. "We can't have a platoon made entirely of recruits. We'll just have to integrate the new kids into the platoons. We don't have enough for a 4th. We don't even have an officer or an NCO for it."
"So we stick with what we got?" he asked with his brow raised.
"That's my take on it," I said simply.
"I'm gonna have to talk with the 1st Sgt about it, but I think that might be our best bet," He sighed, "Alright, did you and the rest of the company get briefed on the mission?"
"Yea, the Captain gave me the letter right after his speech," I look up at him, "What about you?"
"I got the basic rundown from a report he sent me. I hear we get new weapons and equipment."
"Yea, I haven't seen the stuff yet but it sounds like it's pretty nice. The company is down in the training area checking it out."
"Alright, I think we're done here," He said. "I'll call a meeting about this for the officers and the staff later. You better go down there and make sure they don't do anything stupid."
I smiled as I stood up and walked over to the door, "Sure thing X- Oh...," I stopped myself from finishing my usual sign off with him. I glanced back and saw he was staring hard at the letter in his lap. "I mean... see ya later Alex."
"Yea," he muttered barely looking up. "Later."
I closed the door.
I was born on Earth, one of the few people I know who is an actual earthling. There aren't many, especially this far out. See, my family moved to Mist when I was about 10. They were scientists who got stationed on the planet. I grew up on one of the orbital space colonies, the planet side colonies had not been finished yet. Progress was slow because the cities had to be built in "safe areas," or areas that were away from the massive storms. The orbital colonies were small, no bigger than a usual space station. They were basically big floating cites.
I don't really remember much of the highlights of my childhood. One strange thing I remember was my first day of middle school. At my first day of middle school, this lady showed up while I was on the playground. I remember she had a weird coin in her hand, she said it was really old and special. She asked if I wanted to play a guessing game with her. She said I could keep the coin if I got it right. All I had to do was yell heads or tails when she flipped it into the air. I don't remember what I said, but I still have the coin. She told me I was lucky, and I thought so too. I wear that coin around my neck at almost all times. It's my good luck charm. And, considering I'm about three years into this thing and not dead, I figure that it must be working. Oddly enough, the same thing happened to my friends, Ford and Elizabeth. Elizabeth has never been all that lucky, but Ford was. We both enjoyed rubbing it in her face. Ford's family moved that year. I heard later that Ford died. The strange thing is that the doctors couldn't find out why it had happened. One day his heart just stopped working. Elizabeth got his coin. She made a necklace out of it too. Neither of us ever saw that strange lady again. It's a subject we try to avoid.
I made a lot of friends when I was in middle school. Todd and Liz were the only ones who ended up joining the military. When I turned 14, my parents sent me to a military school. That is were I met Alex and thought about joining the actual military. It was after High School that I decided to join the PSDA (Planet Side Defense Army). I needed money to help pay for college, even kids with parents who work for the ONI science department need money. I was going to a Military College anyway.
The college was on the Flux, a planet relatively close to Clam. The planet itself was not much to look at. The environment and certain areas were very similar to that of earths. But there were to very important differences: (1) the majority of the planet was covered in hostile terrain, such as desserts and barren wastelands, and (2) the gravity on Flux was close to 1.5 times that of earth's. The planet itself was really only good for the important metals and minerals that were found in the barrens. To try and fight these two deadly aspects of the planet, the colonizers build the cities in the habitable regions and made gravity regulators.
UNSC NAVEY SHIP CHAMBER
SECTOR D: ARMORY/TRAINING FACILITY/RIFLE RANGE
1023 MILITARY TIME
Most UNSC ships come standard with two sets of facilities. Those necessary for the Navy crew and those need for the Marines on board. Even ships as small as the Chamber come with them. Currently, I was just outside the entrance to the Marine training facilities. I could hear the members of Echo on the other side shuffling around, the orders being called, and the clack of armored boots on the floor. I was still in a state of shock. A whole platoon, and our C.O., 43 men... gone. And not even from an enemy engagement.
Captain Motley hadn't been the best C.O. to command E company, but, he hadn't been the worst. He was nothing compared to Major Stanfield, but he had been loads better than Captain Martin. Motley wasn't incredibly tactically proficient, but he could keep his cool in a battle situation, he never froze. And Lt Clay was the same way. He and I had some bad blood and rarely ever saw eye-to-eye, but we knew we could rely on each other when the plasma and the bullets started flying. But now they were dead. Both them and 41 other soldiers, men I had taught and fought with. And just from a freak act of nature.
"Fucking this shit," I muttered, shaking my head. 'Come on Mike, focus. Forget about what happened and focus on what's next. Focus on the mission and how you can complete it and keep your men alive.'
I stepped up to the door and pressed my hand to the unlocking mechanism. The airtight door slid open to revel Echo suiting up in their new armor, with instructors and technicians helping them sort out the equipment and suit up in it. Lt Frank was currently supervising, trying to keep everything under control. He walked over to me and gave me a questioning look.
"Later," I said tiredly. "Let's finish this first."
"Well, your platoon already suited up and in the training facility. 1st is at the Range, and Caleb is with them. Your armor is over there," Lt Frank pointed. " I'd hurry and suit up and go join you men."
"Alright, thanks Chris."
I walked over to the area that Chris pointed. A rather large box, with my name on it sat there. My armor was inside. I have to admit, I liked the look of the new armor. It was black, sleek, and intimidating. The Tech Sargent told me to strip out of my flight uniform, so he could attach the monitor systems. He then handed me the black "under-jump-suit" that was used to help insulate and make the uniform and make it more comfortable when it was worn. The suit was tight, but not unlike the under suit for the old T3 armor. Over the under suit went various padded under armor. Next came the cybernetic parts, the cammo over suit, and the over armor. The final step was for the tech to seal the suit together. All of the suit was designed to link up together and monitor various bio-readings, as well as to be an air tight vacuum environment. With the helmet on, an ODST unit would be able to fight in areas with adverse environments. The suit could filter the air free of toxic elements and recycle the air that the soldier breathed. Supposedly, the suit could keep a soldier alive in a "air-less" vacuum environment for up to 2 and a half hours if the soldier was in a state of rest. If a soldier was in a state of movement, that time would be cut in half. And if the soldier was in combat, you would be lucky to have more that 30 or 45 minutes. Not very ideal in extreme situation, but luckily the Covenant occupied planets that were hospitable. And it was very unlikely for an ODST unit to be fighting in the vacuum of space. But, in a watery environment, this wasn't a bad deal.
The final pieces of the Drop Armor Suit (DAS) were the spare mini-HUD (nicknamed the Internal Helmet Scanner, or IHS), the Utility and Accessory Belt (UAB), and the helmet. Each of these items were incredibly important to the over all suit. The IHS was the fall back if the helmet's HUD failed and was also the device that held the maps and direction finders (for those planets were "magnetic north" is difficult to determine). It also served a basic radio communicator. This version looked newer than the older Army converted Marine one that units were usually issued. The UAB held multiple pouches for ammunition, medical supplies, grenades, paper, and anything else an ODST soldier or officer might need. The belt was empty right now, I hadn't been to supply yet. I grabbed the belt and the IHS. I clipped the IHS on to my right ear and the belt over my shoulder. I turned on the IHS and it flipped open and booted up. After I saw it worked fine, I turned it off, causing it to flip back to the closed position. The tech plugged it into the battery system located on the back of the DAS. And handed me my helmet. I placed it on my head and clicked the air tight lock, sealing the suit.
At first all I saw was the dim light refracting through the face plate. But, as soon as the tech activated my self-sustaining battery, that changed. The faceplate became glass. It looked as though no screen even existed. Then, multiple monitors appeared on the HUD. Bio-systems, motion detector, FOF tags, motion detector, COM channels and directional systems. I tapped the activators located over the right ear and inserted my information/FOF chip. Now the Helmet, IHS and suit itself contained my information.
"I'm finished with you, sir," the tech told me, "You might want to head off to supply and get you equipment."
"Thanks," I said and headed off.
UNSC NAVEY SHIP CHAMBER
SECTOR D: RIFLE RANGE
1037 MILITARY TIME
"Yo John."
"What?" asked Sargent 1st Class John Mathena as he looked to face Sargent Chris Largen. He had been resting his eyes against the side of the training room. He was still dressed in his DAS, minus the helmet. He didn't have his IHS because that was an item only suppose to only be for officers.
"My squad is done," said Largen.
"You guys the last ones?" asked John stretching.
"Yea," he stopped and looked around, "Hey where's our LT?"
"I dunno. LT Haymes said something about a meeting with the XO," John stood up. "It doesn't look like he's back yet. I tried him over the COM about 30 minutes ago, but I didn't get a response."
"Try giving him again," suggested Largen. "He should have his suit by now."
"Alright," said John as he put his helmet back on. He clicked on the COM and opened a private channel.
"Sargent Mathena to LT Rendar. LT are you there? Over."
"Roger that Sarge. What's up? Over." came the response from the other end.
"Sir, we just finished with the range. Where are you? Over."
"I'm finishing up with supply. How is the platoon? Over."
"All of them qualified with the new weapons. None of them are to hard to use. Over," said John.
"Roger that. Take care of the clean up and get the platoon back up the OP room. I think the CO is going to have a word with them. Over."
"The CO is here?" asked John surprised. As far as he knew, Captain Motley was still en route.
"The situation has changed. Just get the weapons turned in and I'll meet you up there. Understood?" The tone sounded firm.
John got the message. "Roger that sir, meet you up there."
"Very well. Out." the line went dead.
John shook his head and turned to Largen. "Get your rifles secured and get ready to move back to the OP room."
"Roger th-," Largen and John where both suddenly knocked to their feet as the ship was rocked by a massive explosion.
"What in the hell?" asked John.
"General Quarters, general quarters! All hands man your battle stations. All hands man your battle stations. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Incoming Covenant Hostiles." The message was screamed over the ship's speakers and FLEETCOM.
"A Covey fleet?" asked Largen looking nervous, "Here?"
"Looks like it. Get your squad ready. Oh, and," John motioned toward Largen's rifle, "you might want to keep that."
UNSC NAVEY SHIP CHAMBER
CONTROL BRIDGE
1044 MILITARY TIME
"Damage report," cried CAPT Anderson.
"Sir, decks F through H have sustained damage and have been sealed off. But, there do not appear to be any major damages. The casualties are unknown," replied the A.I.
"What about the rest of the fleet?"
"It appears we were the only ones hit, sir."
"Enemy strength?"
"About 120 ships sir," was the reply hologram's.
"What!?! What the hell are that many ships doing here?" asked Anderson.
"Sir the ships are disengaging. It looks like they are jumping into Slipspace."
"What?" Anderson looked through the viewing screen and the ships. The space around the ships shimmered and then the entire fleet vanished is a swirl of light.
"Sir, it is unlike the Covenant to disengage from any combat situation," the small holographic image said.
"That can only mean one thing. We must not have been their main objective," Anderson said thoughtfully, "So why... No.." He looked at the A.I.
"Yes sir, I believe they are headed to Mist."
"Turn us around, we need to beat them there."
"What about Reach sir? Are mission was to transport the ODST to Reach and reinforce their units in case of an attack," said the A.I.
"Mist takes priority," Anderson said sternly. "I doubt the Covenant know about Reach, but if they take Mist..." He turned to the AI, "Get us there Sara. Now."
"... Yes sir," Replied the small holographic female.
End Chapter 1
:::Author stuff:::
Well, this is my first story in years and is the one I started on way back with Halo 1. I hope it's good and people read it.
If you see anything wrong, let me know. I'll take some of the that Constructive Criticism stuff any day.
Also, chapter Two will be short, but up soon I think.
Man, I hope I actually get reviews...
Well, later.