Chapter Two: From the Black
[07:00 Zulu [00:00 Local], June 11, 2649 [Military Calendar]/
Xin Taiyuan/
Shanxi [Colony 138-A], Shanxi System]
Xin Taiyuan did not sleep. Multiple detonations shook the capital of Shanxi Colony, as they had for each of the past five days and nights.
The origins of the blasts varied. Many of the smaller explosions were joined by rapid bursts of gunfire, as General William's tenacious army troopers fought a guerrilla campaign against the occupying aliens. They struck quickly, emerging out of the night to ambush patrols, before vanishing again.
The reason for speed was twofold—the soldiers had multiple targets to strike in a given night, and allowing a patrol to call reinforcements compromised their plans. The second reason, however, was what was on the mind of William's men when they attacked—the large blasts.
Each of these originated kilometers above the surface, visible only as a flash of light mere milliseconds before the ground itself erupted. The enemy was fighting for orbital control, but they called in airstrikes when they could.
Of all the impacts, blasts and explosions that shook Xin Taiyuan on the night of the eleventh, it was neither the largest blasts nor the smallest blasts that were the most important. That prize did not belong to either the army or the occupying force. Instead, it belonged to something that was not a true explosion, but was felt throughout the city all the same.
Some five hundred matte black pods fell to Shanxi. Each one was ballistic, rather than powered, and their entry into Shanxi's atmosphere had been unmarked, as all attention was on the battle raging throughout Shanxi's orbit.
[05:22 Zulu [05:22 Local], June 10, 2649 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Winter Is Coming/
Transit approach, Charon Relay, Sol System]
Orbital Drop Shock Troopers filled the room from wall to wall, with the exception of the platform at the front. Colonel Lee had decided to address the 7th Battalion directly, and they were gathered in hangar 3, which had been given over to the ODST battalion for the briefing.
The room itself was massive, containing mostly of the various equipment that the regular marines required for a spaceborne assault. The D78H-TC/I Pelican IV dropships that were a part of hanger 3 were variations of the century old workhorse of the UNSC, with light shielding installed for additional protection. Parked in the back were M950A/I Keyes pattern Main Battle Tanks, which had replaced the Scorpion MBT in 2632.
Corporal Jon Nieve took all of this in after a single glance, before turning back to the Colonel. The 7th Battalion had been rotated to Earth for light duties after a three year deployment to the edge of Brute Space, and like most of the troopers, he wanted to know what was important enough to pull them from the rear.
"Alright, boys and girls," Lee began, "I'm sure you all want to know why your precious leave time had to be canceled. And before you ask, no, I'm not happy about it either.
"At 13:59 Zulu on Saturday June 6th, UNSC ships opened fire on a formation of unknown ships in the Shanxi System. The ships' hulls were of an unknown design, and they refused to stop when ordered to do so by Task Force 121. By 14:30, all of TF 212 had been destroyed, with the exception of the frigates Gettysburg and Verdun, which were under orders to hold position at the edge of the system elliptic and report to UNSC HIGHCOM in the event of a loss. However, it would appear that TF 212 did not go quietly, and the enemy took at least equal casualties during the fight.
"As of 13:59 Zulu, June 6th 2649, the UNSC is officially in a state of war. We are spearheading the war effort, with Operation RECLAIMER. RECLAIMER is a twofold operation to retake the Shanxi system. The first part is the Navy's business, not ours, but the short version is that they're going in with two Second Fleet battle groups under Admiral Drescher and pounding anything in their way. Winter Is Coming has a different task, and that's our part of the bargain. She'll come on station in low orbit of Shanxi and drop us into Xin Taiyuan, the capital. It'll be a mid battle drop, and risky as all hell, but if there's a ship in the fleet that can pull it off, it's Winter Is Coming. The bad news, however, is that she's going to be clearing orbit right after we drop, so we won't have air support.
We've been tasked by General Holland with securing the city's power plant, AI core, and Army compound, as well as three LZs, Albany, Falcon, and Bravo, so the marines can move in and relieve the army. Nobody else can land if there's a major AA presence in the city, so blow any guns you come across.
"A ONI prowler launched probes from the edge of the system two days ago and was able to get readings on the occupations—there are at least five thousand hostiles in Xin Taiyuan alone, so we have to go in hard and fast before our fellow jarheads can put boots on the ground. If we fuck this up, we're looking at a disaster on a scale that hasn't been seen since the last years of the war.
"Company commanders to me. Everyone else, dismissed." With that, Lee stepped down, and the ODSTs dispersed.
[07:01 Zulu [00:01 Local] ], June 11, 2649 [Military Calendar]/
Xin Taiyuan/
Shanxi [Colony 138-A], Shanxi System]
Nieve grunted as his HEV pod smashed into the side of a building, coming to rest in what had once been a family's dining room.
Now, however, there were three aliens picking themselves up off the floor, their body language clearly conveying their annoyance at having their break interrupted. Nieve watched on his external cameras as each of the aliens pulled a device off of their backs, bringing it around to point in front of them. The devices lengthened, until it was clear that they were rifles.
After a timeless moment, the three aliens closed with the pod, keeping it covered with their rifles. Nieve undid the acceleration harness that kept him immobilized and placed his right hand on the grip of his Model 2620 battle rifle. He was unable to bring the weapon to bear inside the pod, owing to its length, but he flicked his thumb, switching off the safety. With the Model 2620 live and ready to fire, his left hand flashed out, activating the main detonator for the door, which ignited the four charges at each corner, turning the rectangular mass of metal into a high velocity projectile.
The door smashed into the center alien of the three, the combined force of its newfound velocity and mass turning the alien into a smear spread across the door and the rubble of the two walls it crashed through before stopping. The door was, in turn, followed by Cpl. Jon Nieve, who led with his rifle.
The Model 2620 Battle Rifle had been designed as a replacement for the aging BR55 Battle Rifle of the Human Covenant war. It fired 9.5x40mm M643 HP-SAP rounds, which had been designed to strip shields and kill quickly during the Human Covenant War. While the personal shields that the aliens were using operated on a different set of basic principles than Covenant energy shielding, the end result was the same. The shields themselves were also far weaker than that encountered during the war, allowing Nieve to kill the first alien with his second burst of fire before dropping to one knee, dodging the second round.
UNSC ODST armor had not changed much in since its introduction, but one major alteration had been made to the standard design. Like all other UNSC armor, it was outfitted with light energy shielding, much like that of the MK5 MJOLNIR armor the SPARTAN-II's had been equipped with. Despite this, conventional wisdom suggested that it was preferable to not be hit by enemy fire.
Consequently, Nieve had gone to one knee after killing the first alien, and took aim at the second while it adjusted to his sudden movement. Once again, he let loose two bursts of three rounds, with the second burst penetrating and striking the alien in the torso.
Nieve got up slowly, taking the time to put another round in each of the alien's heads and grab one of their rifles, quickly finding the switch to collapse it and attaching it to the magnetic anchors on his rucksack.
It had taken less than a minute for Nieve to make his first three kills of the battle, and as the immediate danger faded, details that had not been matters of life or death began to emerge. His squad's radio channel was filled with status reports, which were cut off by an order from Sergeant Turner: "Fourth squad, I'm marking my position on your HUDs. Get over hear as soon as you can."
Okay, that was a little short, and probably not really worth the amount of time it took me to write it. Don't worry; the next chapter will cover the Battle of Shanxi in full, which means it will almost certainly be the longest chapter yet. I just hope it doesn't take me another month to write it.
On that note, I'm sorry it took so long to get this out—The chapter did not want to be written. I'm not even going to say "see you next week" or anything like that though, since it's been pretty well established by this point that that sort of statement from me is a blatant lie.
One of the reasons this chapter was so hard was this is where the main character gets properly introduced, and characterization is one of the parts of writing I have the most trouble with, especially in third person. (A quick look at my other work will show that I do most of my work in 1st person). Anyways, I can write about what's happening to my heart's content, and I can even get downright prosaic about it, but writing how characters react is much harder. And I can't lean on dialogue to help me with that, since I suck at writing dialogue, mostly.
With any luck, working on this will help with the aspects of my writing that I think need work.
Finally, from here on out, every chapter will contain at least one shout out, mostly just because I can. This one is really pretty obvious, and it's also a decent clue as to what I've been reading lately. The trick is, it's a two part shout out. See if you can figure out both parts.
-PT246