Disclaimer; I do not own any official Halo material. Characters, plots, etc., that are products of my imagination, I do own.

Chapter 2; The Fury of Reach

The saying goes that prison changes a man. While that could be true for some, the three months in the small military prison onboard the UNSC Fury of Reach didn't change Dirk a bit. Or at least, that's what Steiks told him.

Surprisingly, the prison had let Dirk go without a fuss. Though he suspected the fact that ONI was involved had a little something to do with it. Even so, within an hour of the reunion and meeting with Captain Steiks, Dirk was in the armory.

"I don't suppose the UNSC kept my custom armor in tact, did they?" Dirk asked hopefully, cracking his neck with anticipation at the prospect of an upcoming mission.

"You called that breach of who knows how many regulations 'custom'?" Steiks wondered aloud, motioning to a nearby technician and exchanging a few words with him before turning to Dirk once more. "I'm surprised they didn't commander it before."

Dirk sighed. "Ah, well. It was too much to hope for-"

"And I'm even more surprised it's STILL intact." Steiks finished, before pointing out an armor set being set up by a technician. "I had to pull a few strings but its still just like you left it."

Dirk walked over to his armor, resting his hand on the helmet. The suit had been Dirk's pride and joy since he joined the ODST and he had added several modifications to it over the course of missions and downtime. It had been experimental when he first got it and had stronger armor that was similar to a Spartan's but weaker and lighter so a normal person could wear it. The plan had been to put them into mass production but hadn't proven cost effective enough, leaving only Dirk and various other Heckjumpers with the special variant. But Dirk had tweaked and changed it so much that it was hardly regulation now.

The helmet still had the classic ODST shape with jet black paint scheme but also sported a deep red visor, instead of the normal silver or blue. Dirk had also added some attachments to the helmet, floodlights on one side and extra armor plating on the other with the ODST symbol right above the visor. The helmet final 'custom' attachments was a Breathalyzer and some orange paint that had been added in stripe and two stars shaped like asterisks above the visor.

The rest of the armor sported the same orange paint that popped out against the black base. The normal ODST chest plate had been removed and in its place laid a smaller version of it with extra ammo packets and clips attached throughout. There was also a large combat knife strapped to his right shoulder plate for easy and quick access to it in the field. You never know when a knife will save your life and it had certainly saved Dirk's on numerous occasions. Sometimes, it just gets up close and personal and a weapon is a good thing to have when that happens.

Neither of his shoulder plates were regulation either, the left one was the standard but had been painted neon orange and red while the other was larger and came down all the way to his elbow, similar to the sniper variant but longer. The gauntlets weren't tampered with, unless you counted the several bullets strapped to the right one.

"Stop gawking at it and suit up. You've seen it before and it hasn't been messed with. If you hurry up, I'll give you the details on the way to the pod." Steiks commented dryly.

Dirk did as he was told and quickly put his armor on. He soon was suited up and stashed some spare ammo into various pouches and grabbed his helmet briefly staring into the visor, the deep blue reflecting the ODST's features that stared back at him.

His blonde hair was as unkempt as usual, sticking out at odd angles closely resembling someone who just got out of bed and his green eyes held a certain adventurous spark to them. His nose was slightly skewed from when it had been broken and hadn't quite healed right. From force of habit, Dirk ran his hand over two parallel scars that ran from under his left eye to his right, memories of the shrapnel that caused them still fresh.

He began to put the helmet on but voted against it, instead holding it under the crook of his arm. "Captain Steiks?"

"Hmmm?"

"Should I get some weapons from the armory?" Dirk asked. "Or will there be some in the Pod?"

"No worries. There will be weapons already loaded." Steiks reassured him with a small grin. "You still favor a DMR with a magnum sidearm right?"

"Does the magnum have the attachable silencer?" Dirk was impressed that the captain remembered. "And it's the auto mag version?"

"Uh-huh." Steiks confirmed. "And why not just use B55 for a primary like the other ODST? It's still silenced, you know."

Dirk shook his head. "I like the magnum. Small but powerful, if you can use it, which I can. Besides, if I was like all the other ODSTs, I wouldn't be going on this mission."

"Touché." Steiks conceded. "Now that you're suited up, here's your debriefing. Pay attention because I'm not repeating it. As you know, the Fury of Reach is currently in orbit above the planet of Sargasso, with the UNSC currently fighting off Covenant invasion forces on the planet. Fighting a losing battle, as you also know. We deployed what forces we could, both from the Fury of Reach, Two for Flinching and the Ready or Not, the other two orbiting UNSC frigates above the planet. The Deathless was also in orbit but had to retreat after taking heavy damages. Anyway, the forces deployed included marines, all but two Spartan IIIs aboard and several ODST squads but some were kept onboard in case the Covenant decide on a space assault." The Captain motioned out the window to several enemy vessels, that were just orbiting menacingly. It was odd to see the Covenant vessels without guns blazing, like they were waiting for something. "We held out as best we could so far but we're losing ground and fast. Effectively, we're just buying EVAC time now."

"Unfortunately, when the Covies took the city of New Atlantis, an ODST squad and a Spartan stayed behind to buy extra time for the evacuation. They saved a lot of lives when they did so. But when we had assume the squad had been killed in action and that was that. Up until recently when we got a clipped transmission that proved otherwise from a member of the squad asking for help. They had also recently spotted a Spartan III but hadn't made contact. Which brings us to you, Dirk."

"Your mission is to drop into New Atlantis, find any survivors and E-VAC them. Once you've found everybody, military, civilians, whoever, meet up at these co-ordinates." Sticks tossed Dirk a small data pad and the door to the HEV pod hanger, leading the ODST towards one of the pods that was already prepped. "And get the heck outta there. Do it quickly, you only have one window to make it and we don't know when the Covies will start glassing. So if you miss that window, you're on your own. No reinforcements, no E-VAC, nothing. Any question, Lieutenant?"

"So who exactly do I know that am I rescuing?" Dirk already made it to his drop pod and slid on his helmet.

"The ODST fire-team 324, self dubbed Phoenix, and Spartan K-249. I don't have time to brief you any more in depth though now. Anything else?"

Dirk started to answer but whatever his question was got lost as the ship was rocked from a series of explosions. Several nearby technicians and even an ODST checking his weapons were thrown to the ground.

"What was that?" Steiks yelled, quickly talking into his com-link, trying to keep his footing as the ship shifted violently.

"Wonderful." Dirk muttered, stepping into his drop pod, shaking from the rapid movement. It felt good to get back into the death trap again. Even if he knew that the thing was just as likely to kill him, as it was to land on target. One in Six odds of landing on target weren't the most reassuring statistics. Which caused him to run a few more diagnostic checks, making sure all of the warning lights cleared green. He gave a thumb up to operator and the pod began to move closer to the exit point. A lone technician running the operation yelled, "ODST in the pod!"

"Just one last thing, Lieutenant. ONI is pulling strings again and I'm not sure what else they're planning. Keep an eye out for their hidden agenda. It's not necessarily bad but just stay on alert." Steiks warned ominously before saluting frantically to his old student as the hatch closed with a pneumatic his. "How do we drop?!"

Dirk returned the salute through the pod's clear glass window and grinned. "Feet first, sir!"

Then the pod was streaking towards the planet below, leaving the ODST one last view of the Fury of Reach as she was bombarded by the Covenant.

*Author's Note; Okay, I'll try to keep this one brief. Thanks for reading and I want to give extra thanks to those who have reviewed, favorite, followed, beta-d or given me encouragement. And to those who voted in the poll, which I'll leave open until next update. Next, I'd just like to say that while a lot of things in here are of my own creation (The Fury of Reach, Fire-team Phoenix, Spartan K-249, Dirk Fisk and Captain Steiks, etc.) a lot of this is canon material that was never elaborated on that I decided to include and give it a little more depth (Sargasso, Two for Flinching, Ready or Not, etc). So much for a short note, sorry. Until next update!