It was strange really, how fast someone's life could change. Barely 2 months before John had finally managed to kill the leader of the Red's and accomplishing his lifelong ambition of attaining status on the streets. Nobody messed with the Red's, and certainly nobody messed with the Red's leader. Fast forward 60 days, and here he was, crouching in the dirt next to half a dozen strangers firing a sniper rifle into the advancing infantry of the covenant war machine.
"Oh shit. Oh shit. Man we are so screwed!" John's HUD highlighted the muttering marine as Jack Randall. The man held a standard issued assault rifle, and currently the weapon was blazing away at top speed, jolting the panicking marine's aim. Popping his head out of the makeshift trench the garrisoned marine's had dug up, John lined up the rifle sight on a jackal and laid the targeting reticule right over the exposed part of the aliens arm behind the glowing forearm shield it carried. Exhaling out just as Rooster had taught him, the teen pulled the trigger. A deafening boom cracked out from the rifle, and the aliens arm disappeared in a shower of purple blood. The shield clattered to the floor and the reptilian alien stumbled a bit and stared down incomprehensively at the stump where its arm had once been. It gave another squawk as half a dozen smg rounds slammed into its body, dropping the invader where it stood.
"Nice shot man!" Corporal Jenkins on John's left seemed much calmer then Jack and it had been his chattering smg that had finished the jackal.
"Thanks. Though that's the last round for me. Don't suppose you're carrying around any sniper mags?" John had carried 6 spare magazines with him from the Crimson fist, giving him a total of 28 rounds including the ones already loaded in his rifle, and though he had been careful to make his shots count, it wasn't that surprising that he had run dry after spending 2 hours on the surface of Reach. His pod had basically fallen right next to the trench he was currently defending, and he had barely moved since he had bunkered down to back up the local marine detail. In fact if he squinted hard enough he could still see part of his pod half hidden behind the rubble of the bakery he had torn down on the way in.
"Heh yeah, right pal. I got 1 mag left for my smg and 3 rounds in my pistol. You can have my toothbrush if you want. Doubt I'll have much use for that soon."
Upholstering the M6D magnum on his thigh, John drew a bead on a charging grunt whose fists were glowing an alarming blue with two well placed head shots. The diminutive alien's suicide rush came to a halt and the explosive in its hand discharged sending a blinding shower of plasma cascading in all directions. A secondary explosion rocked the ground as the grunt's methane tank ruptured and caught fire.
The corporal whistled and turned to pat John on the shoulder. "Hey nice one! We would have been toast if that-" A beam of blue light cut off the rest of the man's sentence as his head exploded in a shower of gore, covering a shocked John in gray and red. Jenkin's body still stood for a moment with blood shooting out of the neck in timed rhythmic pulses. A heavy weight hit the Mindoir survivor from behind and sent him to the ground just as another deadly beam shot by overhead.
"Sniper!" screamed Jack as he squirmed off the boy. "They got Jenkins! Somebody take that fucker out!" Scrambling to his feet, John cautiously peered out in time to catch a third beam coming out from the building adjacent to where the troops had placed themselves.
"The roof!" he hollered. "9 0'clock! Third window from the left!"
"FRAG OUT!" The handheld explosive was lobbed high, but the aim was true. The unsuspecting jackal had a chance to get off one more shot before the grenade clattered into the room it was holding position in. A dull thump and a cloud of dark smoke followed by a shower of glass signified the end of that threat. Grabbing the dead corporal's smg while trying to avoid looking at the dead man's body, John's mind began racing. The rooftop there was an excellent place to shoot from, and most likely the sniper's beam rifle still had a few charges left. It would be worth the risk to try to get a hold of that position to get a better idea of what the hell was going on.
Making his way down the lines toward the building from where the alien sniper had been shooting from, John paused long enough to yell his intentions to a nearby sergeant. Seeing the woman nod and order the nearby troopers to give covering fire on the pack of grunts charging forward, the boy vaulted out of cover and made a beeline for the doorway 20 yards away. Green plasma bolts streaked by with deadly hisses, and John returned fire blindly with the smg, legs pumping for all their worth. Streaking into the darkened hallway of the doorframe the teen hunched over his knees and sucked in air. Revitalized by the feeling of pumping blood, John peered cautiously over the corner to make sure nothing had followed. Not seeing anything behind him, the pseudo ODST dropped the now empty smg before he took to the stairs and began climbing. It had been on the 4th floor, and within seconds he had found the destroyed room. Taking care not to step in the pooling blood of the shredded alien's body, the teen picked off 2 blue spheres and a plasma pistol with half a charge off the corpse.
Spying the elongated and oddly smooth rifle laying underneath the window, John quickly pocketed the two grenades and used a magnetic clip to attaché the alien pistol to his left thigh. Snatching up the particle rifle, he tested the weight and stumbled slightly in surprise as his HUD linked up with the beam rifles targeting sights. Nosing the gun gently out the window, John allowed the rifle to zoom in on an Elite taking cover behind the wrecked shell of a family van. A quick twitch of his finger and the things brains decorated the pavement with a flash of light. Noticing the slight drop in what he assumed was the battery meter of the rifle, he estimated about 2 shots left, perhaps 3 before the rifle ran dry.
"The hell do you see up there trooper?" The sergeant's voice filtered in through the helmet as he took sights on another elite, this one blazing away with 2 rifles.
"Aliens. Lots of them." Another twitch of his finger and the covenant lost another soldier.
There was along static filled pause in which John took the time to take out another Jackal before the woman's voice filled his helmet again.
"Shit! We just got orders from HQ, civies are evaced and we can pull back. Haul ass space ape, or we're leaving you behind!"
A clatter from behind caused the boy to turn around and roll out from underneath the brutal melee of an elite minor just in time. The needler slammed into the window frame hard enough to leave cracks. Panicking, he fired the beam rifle from his hip, wasting the last shot on a near miss that caused the elite's shields to crackle and fail. Rolling out from beneath another melee strike, the boy fumbled for the plasma pistol and got a rough kick that sent him flying to the opposite side of the room where he collapse in a gasping heap on top of the dead jackal.
"Get up human." Though the words were English, somehow the alien managed to say it in such a twisted and gruttled way, John knew no human could ever manage to emulate the deep baritones that grated harshly against his ears. "I want you to see your death coming!"
Stumbling to his knees, and praying that the alien wouldn't open fire until he fully stood, John fumbled for one the blue spheres in his back pouch bandolier. "Why are you doing this? What have we done to warrant this genocide?"
The alien's mandibles spread out in what might have been a sneer. "You existed. But not for long. You're dead."
Tightening his fist around the walnut sized globe, John felt the grenade pulse and warm in his hand before expanding to the size of a peach. "You first asshole!"
Arching his arm back like a pro baseball pitcher, the teen let loose and hurled the explosive straight into the alien's face where it caught and began glowing even brighter. Diving behind the dresser, John had enough time to wish he'd jumped in the other direction before the concussive force of the exploding grenade slammed his head against the wall. Darkness claimed him in an instant, and the ODST volunteer collapsed to the ground next to the dead jackal.
