UNSC Supercarrier Indomitable
October 2nd 3235 1045 h
Low Earth Orbit
Soldier's Log
Entry 45.3
Sergeant Major Avery Johnson Log
/Begin Entry/
Earth, seems like yesterday I stepped on her sweet green surface, of course, that's when the covies sunk thier claws into it. Now, it seems that there's a whole new group of bad guys on the loose. The Terrans have dragged us across universes, I'm not going to let them go any further. That's right, baby. GO-time. On a different note, we're currently in geosynchronized orbit over the East African Protectorate city of New Mombassa. I remember this, given the fact that my brain could've lost some valuable memory after spending over half a mllenium in a tube on an icy hasn't told us how we're going down, but Pelicans seem to be out of the question.
/End Entry/
Chris walked out of the locker room, his hair cut in a nice buzz style. It wold help if his hair wouldn't slow him down on the ground. Meeting at the intersection that led to the elevator shaft, he met his teammates. Carl, Chaz, and Lance ran up the east corridor carrying thier preffered weaponry. "Sir, we're ready for our mission. When do we go for briefing?" "As soon as everyone arrives." Chris said checking his watch. "Personally the sooner the better. It ain't getting any cooler down there." Suddenly, three more men bounded up the west corridor. Chris recognized the cigar smoke. Sergeant Avery Johnson led mis men up to Chris. Logan, the former UED Marine-who looked strangely uncomfortable in UNSC armor- and Ryan Percy, the unit's gun-toting madman.
"Caught him in the heavy weapons firing range down on Deck 8." He said pushing Percy forward, the Corporal smiled sheepishly. Chris looked at Ryan and said, "Too bad you didn't pick up one of those guns, and they would've been great for our mission." Ryan slumped, knowing that he threw away an opportunity. "I'm so stupid." He said. "I know you are, boy. We all aren't perfect." Johnson said patting Percy's shoulder. The humans jammed into the elevator, barely all of them fit. Someone punched Deck 7- Briefing, Living Quarters 1025-2056, and Transit System 12. The Elevator hummed silently. Logan started to cough. "Sarge, can you put that thing out, I can barely breathe!" Johnson took a long drag on his cigar. "What do you think, Marine?" Suddenly, a red light lit up, a klaxon sounded. The men pulled out their sidearm, then everyone except Johnson stowed them with smirks after they realized what it meant: SERGEANT AVERY JOHNSON…"Oh hell," The Sergeant said. THIS IS A CODE 42: ILLIGAL COMBUSTABLE OBJECT HAS BEEN LOCATED IN YOUR VICINITY. OUR SYSTEM WILL REMOVE OBJECT FOR YOU. THANK YOU. Suddenly, before anyone could react, a tube fell from the ceiling and sucked the cigar from Johnson's mouth, not even a flake of burnt tobacco was left. "That's pissing me off!" he said pointing to the retreating tube. "I'm wasting my cigars practically everywhere I light up! In the Pool Hall, in the Arcade, in the Food Court, and even in the bathrooms for God's sake!" "Why don't you quit?" Lance asked the sergeant who was turning a shade of crimson." "Because I'm gonna be killed by what might save me!" "How so?" Chris asked wearing a slight smile. Johnson rocked his world with crazy stories. "My brother Tommy once tried quitting, went on the Nicotine stuff, two days later, got hit by an ambulance. Bad karma." Most of the men were holding in small laughs. "Any more scenarios?" Chris asked. "As a matter of fact, my cousin Carl, became a vegan, and a week later, he got run over." "What? By an ambulance?" Carl asked. "No, by a carrot truck." Most of the men were now expressing groans.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, up ahead, an olive drab hallway was lit up by a blue-purple tinge. The briefing room was straight ahead. "Here we go." Chris said. "Yet another mission to be completed." Carl said lumbering his sniper rifle and clicking the safety on. The men put their weapons on a rack to be collected by the quartermaster. No weapons were allowed in the briefing room. Too big a risk. Once inside, the men of the 182nd Marine Division saw that almost all of the Marines on the Indomitable were sitting in the room. Chris took a seat next to Captain Shane Kanow, Commander of the 107th Helljumper Division. The captains shook hands and the lights dimmed. Admiral Andsworth strode out. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen. As you know, this is the beginning of a mission for some of you. We are holding position roughly 220,000 feet over the Earth. The city below us," he said activating the holomoniters. "Is New Mombassa, formerly known as Mombassa Island. At oh-seven-hundred hours two men from the 79th Marine Battalion made contact with an unknown alien organism. Since most of you are reserve troops, I will try to refresh anyone short of available Intel." Andsworth went on for twenty minutes explaining the situation on Alpha Centauri II and the Terrans. How the troops were massacred. Many of the troops in the seats looked uneasy, clearly noticing that this wasn't what they signed up for. "However, we do have a couple survivors from the Terran Encounter. They're sitting among you. I won't give names since they probably don't want any more exposure." Thanks, sir. Chris said in his head. Kanow also looked relieved, he stroked his shot black hair, thankful. "Getting back to the present, we also have survivors from the first encounter of the alien creatures. Two of them are of the Pelican Foxtrot 101, and the other, also a survivor of Alpha Centauri II, Corporal Miles Prower." Chris stiffened, Johnson also started to think. "I thought he was dead. Went down in a plane." Carl nodded. "Yeah, he went down alright, but they never confirmed if he was dead. The squad wondered how he was doing inside their heads, was he OK, was he confined to a wheel chair? Did he need amputation? Their fears became unrealized as Tails walked out onto the stage wearing a tailored dress uniform, and bandages on his head; one of his pointed ears was concealed by the dressings. He took a deep breath, "at approximately oh-seven-hundred-forty-nine hours, The Pelican Foxtrot 101 responded to or mayday signal after we went down in a Hev Hawk All Purpose Fighter registered to Corporal Ryan Percy." "I KNEW IT!" a voice roared. Almost all of the room wheeled around to see Ryan standing up, outraged. As if he uncovered some elaborate drug crime. "YOU PINCHED MY PLANE YOU RAT!" "Ryan!" Chris said leaping up. Some of the troopers uttered laughter. "I had a premonition, Chris! I felt it, I knew someone stole my plane!" He turned to Tails. "You're gonna die, man!" he said pointing at him. The hall now looked like they would explode in laughter. "Sit with me." Chris said gesturing to the seats. "I'm gonna kick his orange ass! Let me at him, I'm gonna kill the flying rat!" "Sit down! Now, Corporal!" Chris said warningly. Ryan knew he crossed a line. "I'm gonna strangle you with your own two tails, man! You wait and see! Never go to bed!" "Now, or you'll be taking a long walk down the engine shaft!" Chris said. Ryan obediently sat, tried to flip Tails off, but due to his need not to get canned, he behaved himself. Andsworth took out his handkerchief, wiped his brow, and continued. "OK…" he began, many of the soldiers started laughing now. "Thank you for that display, Corporal Percy, rest assured you will be compensated for your loss, and I will have to say I will make an appointment to the ship therapist for you once you get back." "Way to go, jerk." Carl snickered, "You get to see the shrink!" Tails was smiling widely, "Let's get back on topic, sir." Andsworth nodded. "Yes, lets. Now, as you were saying, Prower?" Tails nodded then continued with his story. "After Foxtrot 101 touched down, I was woken up by the late Staff Sergeant Brown and the late Corporal Lovitski, both KIA. The pelican pilots happened to pick up the footage that I'm about to show to you. He activated a second holomoniter. The words at the bottom of the screen said PLAY 00:00:00. It showed Tails being lifted out of the shattered Hev Hawk's cockpit. Ryan wept silently. Johnson patted his arm, "You look like you just came outta a tear-jerker, boy. The two humans broke off. "If we come back wait for us to get on. If we're not back in five, take off." Each man and woman could see the two soldiers advance and then were ambushed. They were forced to watch the horror and bloodshed. The Pelican quickly rose into the air and the moniter snapped to black. "That's all we got." Andsworth said, noticing the frightened look on each and every Marine's face, Human or Mobian. "Mr. Prower made it back, received medical attention, came here, and was warmly greeted by his teammate. Now, as it seems, many of you have less combat experience than some others so we're selecting only a few teams to go planetside. An MP passed a clipboard to Andsworth. ODSTs will be the 25th Division, 105th, and he 107th. Kanow smiled. "That's us, man. Hope we see you on the ground." "They haven't announced main forces." Chris said. "And the normal marines, 45th Battalion, 182nd Division," Chris shuddered: that was his division. His men were going downstairs. "And the 67th Battalion. Everyone else: exhale and relax. You're safe in space, for now. Chosen teams, your mission is to infiltrate the city and collect information on the creatures. This may be a suicide run. You won't be able to extract back to the ship until we've established ground to orbit transportation. You report to your tubes in fifteen. Dismissed." There was a rattle of movement as everyone exited. The selected teams began to suit up and proceed to the launch tubes.
A single HEV or Human Entry Vehicle occupied the ODST launch tubes: the main source of infiltration for ODST shock troopers. In this case, however, there were more than usual. The 182nd troopers entered the HEVs on the left side of the bay. Chris's squad in particular entered an HEV right beside another. Chris took a helmet usually reserved for a Helljumper and placed it on his head. Not as advanced as a Spartan Supersoldier's HUD, but advanced enough to increase his survival chances. Johnson tossed out his latest cigar and closed the hatch. "Launch sequence to begin." The dropmaster said. "Pre-countdown check to begin immediately. Each individual trooper checked their harness, seals, pressure locks, and reserve chutes. All green. "Lauching in T-minus ten, nine, eight, seven…" Each of Chris's squad braced their feet. "I knew I shouldn't have eaten before I got on!" Carl whined, "I think that chef's special is about to make a comeback!"
"Three, two, one, Alpha Mike Foxtrot." The chutes opened and the pods dropped. Over the Comm, he heard Johnson yell, "Yee-Haw!"
Kanow's men dropped first. Right to left, as was the tradition. The rest followed. Chris felt his stomach travel up his esophagus. "Oh man, this is insane! I've never dropped from this height before!" Carl opened a channel. "You think you got trouble, mine's floating at head level!" Chris shut off the channel in disgust.
Johnson had a channel opened to everyone except Carl, who was dealing with his own problems. "I once did this with the Chief!" he said over the friction cause by reentry. "We catapulted onto many hostile worlds to get the drop on them. But this is a first!" of course he thought that there was a chance that he would get blown out of the sky, he then said. "I'll see you groundside, boys."
The pods entered the atmosphere at 13,000 MPH and glowed white-hot. Then, after a minute it disappeared. The temperature that was over a hundred dropped to nearly sub-zero. That's when the laser bursts came. Red beams sliced through the air. One beam caught a 107th pod and blew it up, debris scattered across the view screen. "Hang on, we're a minute off till our chute point." Chris told his men. "Make it snappy, Cappy." Lance said, then ceased comm. the orbital elevator of New Mombassa appeared and many pods sailed right past it, three impacted on the nanometal frame and bounced off in different directions. "We're gonna land at the far end of the bridge on the Old Mombassa side. Hang on, try to land for the toll booths