Last chapter before the fighting starts!
Most characters in this story are owned by Bungie, 343, or the authors of the Halo books, particularly Karen Traviss. This is simply me borrowing their characters.
Enjoy!
Feet First Into Hell and Back Again
The Rookie stood in front of his Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle, staring at the single seat within as memories flooded through his mind.
Flames building on the outside of the pod, blinding him even through his closed visor. Plasma tearing into the ship above him even as it continued to drop Helljumpers from its bays. Jarring thuds as explosions rocked the air all around, the blasts consuming other ODSTs before they could even reach the ground. A lingering scream resounding over his comm channel, the noise of a drop pod being rent apart in the background. Bursting out of his SOEIV, rifle raised, staring at the Elite charging towards him with sword in hand…
A Covenant ship entering Slipspace above a burning city, the shockwave hammering the planet and knocking drop pods out of the sky like flies, one pod hurtling straight at his with no chance to escape-
"Rookie!" he heard Reaper call from the other side of the drop bay. "Quit spacing off, bro! We've got 3 minutes to ready up!" Reaper was loading his personal, custom painted shotgun into the SOEIV he would use, along with a pair of M7 sub machine guns and a battle rifle. His voice cut through the torrent of memories, making Rookie shake his head and continue loading his own pod. He placed a SPNKr rocket launcher and a standard magnum sidearm into the weapon racks within. His trusty MA5 would ride in his lap all the way down.
Weapons in SOEIVs had an unfortunate history of being damaged by the rough impact of landing. And Rookie would not risk his assault rifle being taken out of the fight. If he only used one weapon during this mission, it would be this one.
BB's voice sounded in Rookie's ear, the A.I.'s fragment now safely stored in a data chip within the CSSHV's helmet. "I have to admit, I'm a little excited. I never had the chance to actually do one of these Helljumper drops before. ONI life can be a little sheltered at times." The A.I. really did sound almost giddy with anticipation.
Marcus paused in the act of stepping into his SOEIV. "You actually get excited at the prospect of a drop? That's sort of abnormal, you know."
"Well, unlike you, it's not like I'm risking my entire existence on the hope that this pod reaches the ground. And I'll be honest with you- one of the best days of my life was when I got to take a ride inside a Spartan's head." BB sounded like he was still in awe of that fact. "There is truly nothing like speeding along in a half-ton war machine, watching through their own eyes as they kick alien ass and take names."
"Yeah, whatever," Rookie muttered. He wasn't interested in hearing about the fantastic exploits of humanity's favorite 'heroes'. He ignored the A.I. as it rambled on and sat down in the seat of his pod, hitting the big lever on his right to seal the hatch.
"Reaper, you ready to go, buddy?" Rookie asked over his comms, cutting off BB. In the pod across the drop bay, Reaper grunted and muttered, "Ready as I'll ever be. We probably should have done a couple practice drops during our down time on Earth…"
Captain Lasky's voice cut over both of theirs, the sounds of a bridge preparing to exit Slipspace creating a lot of background noise in his comms. "Helljumpers, we're slipping back to normal space in 20 seconds. Are you both all set to drop?"
"Affirmative, sir," the Rookie replied. "Everything's prepped. Just make sure not to drop us in the middle of the ocean or anything."
A laugh sounded over the channel. "Will do, Marine. Exiting Slipspace in four, three, two…"
Rookie felt a slight sensation of nausea- nothing more, which surprised him- and then the noise of the ship's bridge springing into action filled his ear.
"Position- 26 kilometers above Septra Qui!" he heard someone shouting. "Drop location nominal! ODSTs are go!"
"Godspeed, Marines," Lasky said over the comms. "Drop bay release activated!"
Rookie heard a series of thumps, the sounds of other pods being dropped from the ship, and then he heard the whoosh of the launchers in his bay.
Here we go, was the only thing he had time to think.
The SOEIV launched.
He hurtled downward, out of the ship and into open space. Around his SOEIV, half a dozen other drop pods were falling to the planet, while the same time, a cluster of grapefruit-sized satellites were being deployed into Septra Qui's orbit, and the Black Cat exfil craft they would need to get off-planet was spiraling down to the surface, guided by the auto-pilot and hidden by its cloaking system. It would stay that way until they were ready to leave.
Rookie looked out of the shaking viewport of the pod and saw the Infinity already generating a Slipspace hole around itself. Within moments after dropping off all the assets for the mission, the massive ship transitioned back into Slipspace and was gone before any potential hostiles in the area would have any chance to detect it.
They were on their own.
Rookie scanned the space around his pod, seeing the other SOEIVs hurtling towards the planet below, flames building on their outsides. Besides the pods that the two Helljumpers were riding in, several other pods filled with weapons and supplies were being dropped as caches for the two to use once they hit dirt. There was even a pair of Mongeese being dropped- if whatever installation Halsey was at happened to be far away from the drop zone, the ODSTs would definitely need the small vehicles as transport.
"How you doing over there, Rookie?" he heard Reaper ask over the comms. The voice was shaking, the roar of their descent filling the channel, but the words were still legible. "Your pod holding together?"
"Yeah. How's yours?"
"It hasn't exploded or shattered yet, and we're almost through the stratosphere. Once we're done with the lower atmosphere, we should be good to go." Reaper sounded perfectly calm, despite his earlier misgivings about the drop. The Helljumper was entering that cool, utterly collected zone that Rookie had seen him in time and time again during their missions together.
It was that mental focus that had tipped Rookie off long ago that he had found a partner he could finally count on to not go dying on him.
A sudden massive increase in the shaking of the SOEIV drew Rookie's attention to his own situation. They had hit the lower atmosphere, and now the pod was being violently thrown around by the turbulence of re-entry. BB whooped in his ear, clearly enjoying the crazy ride to no end. Rookie almost chuckled at that; he had never seen an A.I. truly enjoy the things humans did before.
Fire was cooking the outside of the pod as if it was being bathed with a flamethrower, but the heat did not reach Rookie. He suspected the new armor was partly responsible for that, and once again he whispered thanks to Admiral Osman for the gift.
He couldn't wait to see the entire 105th outfitted with the awesome suits.
"30 seconds to impact," BB suddenly warned him. The A.I. had abruptly stopped yelling with excitement and was now processing the data of the SOEIV's descent, making sure that there were no emergencies to deal with. "Deploying parachute in three, two…"
Rookie hadn't even had a chance to reach for the parachute's manual release lever. Having an A.I. along for the mission really did have its advantages.
The parachute opened above him, and Rookie's stomach flipped as he was jerked upward by the sudden deceleration. Parachutes were opening all around him, and he fervently hoped that there was no Covenant nearby witnessing their descent. He was starting to get a good picture of the terrain they were falling towards from what he could see though his viewport, and most of the land he could see looked relatively barren.
Stealth was not going to be much of an option out here. If they were found, they would have to fight, regardless of what Osman or Lasky wanted.
"Firing rockets," BB declared. The deceleration increased even more as the SOEIV's thrusters now activated, making the Rookie feel as if he were about to be pancaked against the roof of his pod. There was a great deal more of violent shuddering, and then a massive bang sounded and he was jolted in his seat.
"Safe landing confirmed," BB said. "Welcome to Septra Qui, Helljumper. I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did."
Too disoriented to respond, Rookie shook his head in an attempt to clear it and banged his fist against the hatch release. The SOEIV's door popped open, and sunlight poured into the cockpit of the pod.
Rookie increased the polarization of his visor and pulled himself out of the pod with one hand, his grip tight on his rifle as he took a shaky first step onto the world of Septra Qui.
Two suns hung in the sky above him, one starting to set and the other still high in the middle of the sky. There were no clouds or signs of plant life to be seen; it was obvious that this area of the planet had no water cycle, if there was one anywhere on the world to begin with. Coarse, grayish dirt crunched under the boots of the heavy CSSHV that Rookie wore, and he left deep footprints behind him as he walked around a few paces, trying to shake off the effects of the drop.
Footprints, Rookie thought. One more way to track us. We'll have to move fast here to avoid being caught.
"BB, how bad was the dispersion of the pods?" he asked, trying to get his bearings regarding the rest of the dropped SOEIVs. He could only see one from where he stood; the rest were hidden behind the crests and ledges of the multiple small hills that lay throughout the area.
The A.I. was silent for a second, no doubt locating each and every pod, and then he replied, "The furthest pod fell approximately 4.7 kilometers from here. The rest are spread out along that distance."
The Rookie whistled in appreciation. "Not bad." For a drop of half a dozen pods, landing them all within five clicks of each other was an impressive feat. "That Infinity really is something. I wouldn't mind being posted on board just for the hell of it."
"Indeed." BB sounded smug, like he was enjoying the Helljumper's critique. "The ship is very good at these kinds of things, especially with someone like me to help out. I'm honestly very good at everything, especially military operations. I think Lasky wishes I was Infinity's A.I., instead of the Roland guy."
"You're full of yourself," Rookie muttered. He turned back to his SOEIV and reached inside, grabbing the rocket launcher and magnum within. He attached both the weapons to the ports on the armor that he had been shown in Sydney, and he hefted his assault rifle in his hands and started walking. "Highlight Reaper's pod on my HUD. Also, where is the closer of those two pods that had Mongeese in them?"
"Actually, that pod right across the way had a Mongoose in it. Reaper is about two and a half clicks from here. We really should avoid breaking radio silence, so I suggest you start…"
Rookie didn't even bother listening to the rest of the A.I.'s sentence. He started jogging towards the second SOEIV in the distance, keeping his rifle at the ready and looking around for any signs of Covenant.
They were in hostile territory now. And he would not let his guard down for even a second.
Reaper stretched his back, looking up at the twin suns in the greenish-blue sky as his spine arched. The impact had been a bit rough, and he was still sore all over from the landing that had knocked him all over the inside of his SOEIV. Nevertheless, he was alive and not seriously injured, and so the Helljumper grabbed his shotgun, secured his other weapons, and walked over to the pod that had landed not fifty yards from his, shaking his leg a little to get some feeling back into it.
A few quick jabs on the pod's door panel opened up the hatch, allowing him to peer inside. It was one of the weapon caches that had dropped with them; a sniper rifle and two DMRs lay on the racks inside. The DMRs looked banged up from the drop, and he already had his battle rifle anyway, but the weapons all used the same ammunition, and so Reaper reached in and grabbed the spare magazines, storing them in the pockets on his armor. He also took the sniper rifle, slinging it across his back next to his BR. Making sure all the weapons were safed and secured, he left the pod behind him, heading in the general direction of another SOEIV he had seen drop nearby, wondering if it had been Rookie's.
Damn, this armor is cool, Reaper thought. I feel like a walking arsenal now.
Before he could reach the next drop pod, the Helljumper heard a low growling noise that was growing louder by the second. He shifted his shotgun in his arms, watching intently for any Covenant aircraft, but a second later he recognized the sound- a Mongoose engine.
The Rookie appeared over one of the low-lying hills off to his left, gunning the engine of the quad bike and heading straight for his location. Reaper stopped where he was and waited as his friend finally reached his location and cut the engine, jumping off the vehicle before it stopped rolling.
"Hey, man," Reaper greeted him nonchalantly, making sure to keep his comms offline. "You enjoy your first drop in too damn long as well?"
Rookie shrugged. "It wasn't too bad. At least they dropped us close enough together that we didn't have to spend a whole day trying to link up." Reaper could see Rookie's weapons had survived the drop, and his fellow ODST seemed to have picked up a battle rifle of his own from one of the SOEIVs. Together, the two men had enough weaponry for about five people, although Reaper knew they were trying to get through the mission without having to use much of it.
Leaning forward, Reaper muttered, "Did your arm get roughed up at all?" Rookie didn't have to ask which one he meant; he rotated the prosthetic appendage of steel and wires that was all that kept him in active duty and nodded in approval. "It's good to go. Let's not waste any more time out here." Rookie tapped his helmet with a gauntlet-clad fist, ordering, "BB, point us in the direction of the nearest Covie structures you can find. We'll start our search there." He walked back over to the Mongoose, getting back on and starting the engine as Reaper stepped onto the small platform on the bike's rear.
Their HUDs both started streaming information as BB began using the mini-satellites launched by Infinity to relay images from across the planet to the insides of their helmets. In seconds, several Covenant structures were outlined on the ODSTs' display screens, with the distances to each one and the estimated numbers of hostiles present highlighted next to the images.
"Here," Rookie said. "This square looking thing, about 8 clicks north of here." The base looked small, and very few Covenant could be seen patrolling on or around it. A simple, straightforward target. "We'll take out the enemies here without raising the alarm, and we'll glean what information we can from their systems." He paused for a second, wondering about the last statement. "You can hack Covenant computers, I'm assuming?" he asked BB.
The A.I. scoffed. "Please. Easy pickings, all of it. We'll find out what we need to without any hassle at all."
Reaper nodded in agreement. "It's a good plan. We can swing around and check out the other places afterwards." He smiled within his helmet, eager to finally start shooting up alien bastards for the first time in forever. "For now, let's go have some fun. Gun it."
Rookie floored the engine, and the Mongoose took off across the barren hills, carrying the ODSTs back into the teeth of the enemy.
Back into war.
(That one took a little longer than I expected. I was trying to get the drop sequence to seem more awesome; not sure if I succeeded. However, now we get to the real fun part- killing alien mofos. Next chapter will be out soon! Until then, read, review, and favorite!)
