ODSTs

A Short Story By SPRK

Alex

Way Too Long After Drop

New Mombasa

Africa

Earth

Sol System

Milky Way Galaxy

The Universe

Existence

Alex Keyes awoke, he was trapped inside a dark space, wait, he was in his ODST drop pod or SOEIV. Alex clutched his head with one hand and tried to remember what happened. He was at Las Vegas when suddenly, no, that wasn't it. He remembered being aboard a UNSC ship when they were given the orders to drop and then…. That carrier went to slipspace!!! He must have hit something and been knocked out!

Alex armed the explosives on the pod, ejected the door, then jumped out which turned out to be a bad idea because his pod was buried in a building and more than a couple feet off of the ground. Alex realized this a bit too late as he looked down at the cement and braced himself for impact. He hit the ground feet first and quickly silenced the annoying warning noise in his HUD that warned him that he was injured.

He looked around and observed his surroundings. His first thought was, "What the hell happened here!?!" The city of New Mombasa looked like it had been hit by a nuclear bomb, or a gigantic twister. As Alex looked up he noticed the crowning feature of New Mombasa, its space elevator, was gone. What was left of the space elevator was burning or charred. If a twister had hit New Mombasa, it was a twister made out of fire and brimstone.

Alex looked around again, he had two choices; he could either take a road leading off into the dark city to the right, or the dark road leading off into the city at the right. Alex chose the right path. He walked along the road for awhile before stopping, he heard barking noises near him, Grunts. Alex ducked behind a nearby building for cover and held his gun up, ready to fire if the Grunts spotted him. "Hey!" Alex swirled around to find a lone Grunt behind him, its plasma pistol holstered at its side.

"Are you a human?"Alex was bewildered; he knew Grunts were not the brightest beings in the galaxy, but asking him if he was a human? Alex decided that he should take advantage of this Grunt's particular dumbness.

"No, I'm a Sanghelli(Elite)." He replied. Alex watched as the Grunt stumbled backwards and suddenly pulled out its plasma pistol and aimed it at his head.

"Brutes told us that Elites are bad now! Me no listen to you!" The Elite's were not part of the Covenant anymore? What backwards universe had Alex stumbled into? Either way he had to get rid of the grunt before it raised the alarm. Alex punched the grunt in the head, knocking the little alien out cold. He knew he had to move fast, he had to link up with the other surviving ODSTs, finish the mission at all costs. As long as the cost wasn't higher than $9.95.