Chapter VI: Metal Coffins
Rullins II, Outer colonies
February 20th, 2531 UNSC Calender
Sergeant Anson Hawkins
ODST Jaguar platoon, squad two
I sigh inwardly, knowing this mission was not going to end well. Taylor and Gunny were sitting next to me, helmets off, despite being in a combat mission, talking about their stupid relationship, talking like nothing has happened. I always have my ODST helmet on, polarized at all times, only few have seen my face, which sounds fucking stupid but only special people should be able to see what war has done to me.
"Taylor, your awesome." Gunny says quietly, she laughs and leans up against him closing her eyes.
I stand up, hoisting my M247L on to my shoulder and walking out.
"Hawkins! Where ya goin'!?" Gunny asks. I hold my middle finger up in his direction, I honestly hope it sent the right message.
"Fucking.. Taylor I'll-" I shut the door to the large house behind me, I look around at the gray sky, I stand on the roof of the gigantic house we had taken cover in while the Covenant steamrolled the planet, word was that the Marines were having trouble in Ghale, but there was help, so I focused on my problems.
With that, the door behind me slides open, and Wolfe, or Gunny walks out and storms towards me, his helmet hooked under his arm. I set up my M247L on the side of the roof, aiming down at the empty street.
"Hawkins, whatsup?" Gunny asks me, crouching down next to me.
"You know I have a problem with your stupid relationship, right?" I ask him, he looks taken aback for a second before collecting himself.
"I do what I please, Brittany is an amazing girl." He answers firmly. "So was Haley." He adds.
I clench my fists, my finger a centimeter from the trigger. "I thought we agreed not to talk about Haley." I say as calmly as I can.
"Right, sorry Anson, I understand that this op has hit you pretty hard." He says.
_
Two hours earlier
On-board UNSC Make My Day
I smile at her, beautiful as always, black hair and seemingly fragile skin, but she was tough, tough enough to join the ODST's.
"You know we have an op soon, right?" She asks, her voice calming and quiet as she leans against me.
"Yeah." I say, wrapping my arm around her, one of the few times on the Make My Day, I had taken my full armor off, Haley was special.
My helmet starts a transmission in the corner of the room where I had placed it carefully next to the rest of my battle armor, as I had for three years of service against the Covenant. "Anson get your fucking helmet on." I hear Gunny say, I walk over and I pull my armor on before locking my helmet to the chest piece.
"Finally, time to get ready for drop." Gunny tells me.
"Got it, I'm Oscar Mike." I say, professionally.
"Haley..." I start, taking off my helmet. Without a word she stands walking over to me and kissing me, warmth spreading from my chest to all around my body.
"Let's go." She says, walking over to get her armor on, I walk out and I grab my M247L from where it was sitting next to the door, walking out towards the drop bay. The place was small for a platoon of ODST's to drop in, with barely enough odd to fit all of us it was a surprise that they could for us and ammunition boxes into the room.
When I walk in, the first thing I do is start to fill up my rucksack with essentials, ammo, food, and water for the metal water bottle inside. The only food was the MRE's the UNSC passed as good food and the shitty energy bars that did their job, but were shitty.
"Officer on deck!" Someone calls out, we all stop what were doing and snap to attention.
"ODST's!" Second Lieutenant Parker yells we all stare at him, most of us with depolarized helmets on, but I had mine polarized, it became habit the second I stepped on to the Make My Day.
"When we jumped into this system, we were told we would be security for the civilian evacuation crafts, but now that another Covenant fleet has jumped into this system, so we will be dropping for bit and run strikes and killing the sons of bitches who are giving our Marines hell." Parker says to us, several Oorah's went up around the room.
"Your squad leader's will brief you on your way to the surface." The lieutenant explains.
We all line up in front of the man, squad two has one more member than the rest of the platoon, we had two snipers, Haley and Taylor, two Auto riflemen, Knight and myself, along with three CQB's, Ghost, Anderson, and Vulture, and of course our squad leader, Wolfe, or Gunny as I called him, particularly because it pisses him off when I call him that.
"ODST's! To your pods!" The lieutenant yells, we all give our best cheer as we run towards our designated pods, I place my M247L next to me in the weapon holder, my squad's faces pop up on my HUD, everyone now starting to polarize their visors.
"How do we go?!" Wolfe yells.
"Feet first Gunnery Sergeant!" We all scream.
"Fuck yes, pods ready for drop." He says.
I feel my stomach lurch as we leave the artificial gravity of the ship, already starting towards the planet's surface.
"Squad two, our objective is a wealthy neighborhood on the surface, HIGHCOM wants us to set up a nice little outpost there to allow recon and small scale raids on the enemy supply lines." Gunny says, I see several ODST's nod.
"Adjust your course and activate thrusters." Gunny says, I do what he says, the pod starting to overheat from the atmosphere.
"Oh god..." I hear in the radio.
That can't be good...
"Fuck! Pod malfunction... Oh god... Thrusters and drag chute broken." Anderson starts to panic, I see his head frantically looking around.
"Shit, Anderson, there's nothing we can-" Wolfe starts, but is cut off by Anderson.
"Go fuck yourself!" He screams, his pod hurdling towards the ground, the camera image of him is cut off when the pod hits the ground.
"Drag chutes." Wolfe says firmly, Anderson's death and last words obviously bothering him.
We plummet towards the ground, and our objective, the place stuck out, gigantic houses with built in security systems and AI's in each of them, these guys were wealthy before they had to abandon ship. That's why I smiled to myself when I crashed straight through one of the large houses, stopping on the bottom floor. I tap a button on my pod, the hatch flies off and I step out, grabbing my M247L and my rucksack.
"Regroup on beacon." Wolfe says calmly, I walk towards the entrance, opening the door and walking out, looking around with my large AR. I jog to the beacon where everyone else was meeting.
"Right, me, Taylor, and Hawkins are in this building, the rest of you are to spread out amongst these buildings while we wait for orders." Gunny tells us, I walk upstairs and I sit on the balcony, I place my M247L next to me, I pull out my magnum, I start to play with the slide while Gunny and Taylor come up here, Gunny had his arm around her. They sit down next to me, talking quietly, I pick up my AR and I walk away from them, leaning against a wall and closing my eyes until a private channel opens on my HUD.
"How're you holding up?" Haley asks through the channel, I smile despite myself, glad to have someone who cares.
"Pretty good, yourself?" I ask.
She sighs. "Ghost and Knight are talking about Anderson."
"Huh, Wolfe and Taylor are about to make out over here." I tell her, she laughs.
An explosion erupts in the distance, making us both go silent.
"Don't die." I tell her, she laughs.
"You'll die before I do, hun." She says, I grin as the channel shuts down.
"This is Wolfe, status report." Gunny says on comm.
"This is Vulture, I'm alone on building two, I see banshee fliers and-." A large explosion rips through the building in front of me, a banshee flies through the smoke.
"Vulture!" Wolfe screams through the radio, his vitals had flatlined, no body to recover, not even a pair of dog tags.
I hear a sniper shot, Haley was firing the SRS she was given, which meant there were high priorities in the area. I grab my AR and I set up, aiming down the street, two small patrols of elites and grunts approach, they were obviously doing something important to have banshees flying around for them.
One of the squids head explodes with a vapor trail, I smile and open up on the grunts, I hear Gunny open up with his SMG, the rounds spraying wildly which made a nice suppressive factor. I see Ghost run out of the house she was in, only to be cut down by a blue beam, Knight runs out and drags the body inside, prompting another beam shot only inches away. I see him grab her tags and run back inside.
Another vapor trail, Taylor was firing now at the sniper, she smiles in her depolarized visor, obviously a hit.
"Werner, Knight, get the fuck over here!" Wolfe shouts over comm, my eyes widen and I squeeze the trigger for a solid ten seconds while they run across the street, Knight is hit by a plasma bolt, he starts dragging himself towards the house when an eager minor jumps on top of him and stabs him with an energy sword. Haley point blanks the elite with a .50 caliber sniper rifle, making me grin.
My grin is cut short.
Haley is lit up by plasma, she runs inside but not before a beam cuts straight through her leg, causing her to trip into the house. I run downstairs, grabbing her breastplate and dragging her backwards, aiming my gun at the door as I did, a trail of blood leaking from her leg.
"Haley, stay with me, remember, I die first, that's what you said." I beg, leaning her against a wall and pulling out bio foam. A glowing grenade flies into the room, I protect Haley with my body, the heat wearing the back of my armor.
"Go." She whispers, looking at me.
"I can't do that." I tell her, tears starting to stream down my face as I depolarize my visor. A pool of blood was forming around her, she flatlined.
"No..." I mutter, taking her dog tags and rifle, dashing upstairs and slamming the door shut, aiming my AR at it, my visor polarizes but that didn't seem to hide the fact I was crying.
"Anson, get it together." Wolfe tells me, slapping my visor, I nod, choking out. I open the door, aiming down the stairs at an elite major having trouble with the stairs, I plaster him against the wall, things quiet down as the Covenant forces fall back temporarily. I close the door again, looking over at Wolfe and Taylor.
"That was close." He mutters to her.
"You guys are going to make me sick." I quietly complain.
Wolfe just shrugs, I sigh and I close my eyes again.
_
"Go fuck yourself Wolfe." I spit at him. "Go break protocol with Taylor, don't talk to me about her." I tell him, aiming down my sight.
Wolfe smacks me upside the head. "I need you at full psych, bro." Wolfe says, standing up and walking downstairs to get Taylor.
A single elite walks down the street, an energy sword in one hand and a plasma rifle in the other, it was huge. I got down into cover so that it didn't see me, I continue eating my shitty UNSC energy bar, once I finish I put my helmet back on, I go prone and crawl to the door, it slides open and I roll in, it closes behind me. I stand up and jog downstairs, the elite kicks down the door downstairs.
Wolfe and Taylor looked surprised to see a giant elite about to kill them, I hit it like a train, which I could've been considering my height weight and the fact I was wearing titanium armor. I press the barrel of my AR to its chin, compressing the trigger, making my ears ring even with my helmet blocking out some of the sound. I stop holding it down when the elite's face is mush, it falls over.
We run upstairs, the sun starts to set.
"Hawkins, first watch." Wolfe says, walking into a bed room with Taylor. I hold up my middle finger as they close the door.
I sit on the roof with a yawn, I turn on some music in my helmet, an appropriate song from about four hundred years ago. The song was called No Rest for the Wicked, I sit there and I listen to it as the landscape goes darker. Around an hour later I stand up and I walk into Wolfe's room, he had his arms wrapped around Taylor and was snoring, he had no helmet on so I walk over and I picked up his helmet, I tapped his head with it and then I step back, Wolfe jumps out of the bed and almost tackles me but instead he runs straight into a titanium wall.
"Your watch." I tell him, putting his helmet down and walking out, finding a cozy bed, which meant any bed considering I kept everything on and couldn't actually feel the material. I fall asleep within seconds.
I wake up to the sound of footsteps in front of me, I feel something pressed against my helmet, a plasma rifle. I growl at the minor as it prods me with the rifle.
"Fucker, I was sleeping." I mutter, the elite laughs, but is cut short by a .50 cal bullet splattering its brains through the wall.
"Taylor you fucking bitch you couldn't of done that sooner?!" I yell through my helmet. "Fuck off." Is her response, also some very colorful language from Wolfe. I grab my AR and my rucksack, I walk to the balcony and I wave at Taylor who was now across the road, firing round after round from her SKS. I set up my AR again, looking for targets. A squad of grunts meets its end before it could react to my M247L spitting out rounds.
I hear a screeching sound and I hit the deck, the house I am in erupts in a green fireball, which luckily doesn't affect the balcony in which I was currently holding myself as an armadillo would when a giant fucking animal tries to kill it.
"Banshee!" Taylor cries out.
"No fuckin' shit!" I yell out, depressing my AR's trigger as I aim at the Banshee.
Rounds ping off its purple hull for thirty seconds straight before the pilot is hit by the 7.62mm bullets, killing the alien inside and sending it tumbling down to enemy lines.
Suddenly my helmet erupts with noise. "The jammer is down!" Someone cries out. I breathe a sigh of relief as rapid calls for reinforcements went up from Wolfe, our situation desperate enough to warrant reinforcements was true, but most ODST's are too proud to request reinforcements which is why command sent us a slap across the face from heaven.
Four pods landed around our building, four giants stepped out of them, wielding enough weapons to supply a small militia, Spartan II's
They all carried the standard MA5B rifle with a magnum, one of them, wearing blue armor had two SMG's attached to it's belt, an orange one was carrying a fucking SPANKR on it's back like it was nothing and a machete at it's side. The one I assumed to be a sniper who was wearing black armor had a BR55 and an SKS strapped across it's back, and the last one who was the squad leader was wearing yellow armor and had two short shotguns strapped across its chest and a large one across it's back.
"Fuck." I hear Wolfe mutter, the Covvies were moving in fast, but Spartans were a fairy tale, a myth spread by the UNSC to strike fear into the Innies, apparently they were real because in a span on thirty seconds the enemy chain of command was dead and the enlisted were running from the bullets chasing them.
My helmet comm explodes with voices again, but one stood out to me. "Fucking hell! The beacon is down but so is Shrake, we need fucking- Oh shit." The comm cuts off again as a large purple ship appears over the city, from the looks, a CCS Battlecruiser, the bottom of it opens as it lands, unloading troops quickly and cleanly before closing it's bottom half and lifting again. The ship flies another mile across the city before it's bottom half opens again, a huge beam erupts as it cuts through the landscape. That's when two streaks of light knock it out of the sky, sending it plummeting on a crash course for the city.
When the ship explodes, the shockwave from the city in the distance breaks the windows of the houses here. Now that's badass. Other than the fact it probably killed a lot of people, of course.
"Shit, we need an aircraft, get us to a location with more strategic value and more fighting." Wolfe says over comm, I sigh, back into the suck again.
A Pelican lands, the back opens and a squad of Marines hop out, immediately running for cover as we step into the bird. The Spartan in charge greets their squad leader, who was still trying to register the fact a giant ass man in full MJOLNIR armor was standing over him.
The bird lifts off and immediately launches forward, zipping off to another place to attack of defend, same drill as always.
"Hawkins, status?" Wolfe asks quietly, staring at my dark helmet through his depolarized visor.
"Doing just fine, Gunny." I tell him, I grin when he scowls at the nickname he hated so much.
"Alright, both of you, no fuck ups this time." Wolfe says, the bird starting to slow and start its descent.
The back opens and all three of us jog out, guns raised and fingers on the triggers, looking for the slightest movement. In front of us stood a small complex with polycrete walls around it, MA37 rifles rest on the wall, the soldiers behind the rifles unseen to the naked eye.
We jog into the facility, where we are immediately greeted by the commander there, wearing old armor and carrying a MA37, an Army dog.
"Glad to see you made it." He says, eyeing us. "Troops needed a morale boost." He admits, my HUD marks him as Second Lieutenant Godfrey, he wears the standard Army uniform along with a whole lot of ammunition covering every pouch available, probably weighing over sixty kilos considering advances in modern technology.
Wolfe salutes, the Lieutenant's eyes to wide in fear as a blue beam cuts straight through him.
"The fuck, Wolfe?!" I yell at him, his helmet polarizes as he drops the salute, another beam flies by him as he turns to fire at the sniper
He fires several shots towards the point of where the beam originated from, cursing all the while.
"Fucking A." He mutters, probably still thinking about the Lieutenant he just killed.
I turn and jog to the wall, setting up my M247L on the side and depressing the trigger, spitting rounds into the tropical forest around us until my bullets are stopped by air.
"Spec ops!" Someone yells, all of the guns on the wall open up, looking for unseen targets, the soldier next to me is lifted up, a large spike sticking through his gut, causing his inner organs to spill out on to the spike impaling him.
The brute throws the soldier off of his bayonet and turns to me, the lust for blood clear in his eyes. I swing my gun towards him and manage to get off a couple of shots before he fucking kicks me off of the wall, making me land hard on the dirt.
"Fucking ape!" I yell, standing up and unhooking my knife from its place on my side. The brute accepts the challenge and lunges forward, I sidestep and slash his arm, it roars in pain and turns to me again.
"Motherfucker just doesn't want to die." I mutter, throwing the knife straight at him, the blade sinks into it's forehead and causes it to collapse, blood leaking from its wounds.
I pick my gun back up and I look over at the body in disgust. I look away and I gun down a curious Jackal who had wanted to try and sneak up on me.
"Hawkins, left flank." Wolfe tells me over the radio, I jog over to the designated location, a Hunter pair was going head to head with ten Army guys, one of the Hunter's bat's one of the heavy figures aside with its shield, sending the poor man into a back breaking hit into the polycrete wall behind him. Pure adrenaline forced me forward, spraying my AR straight at one of the Hunter's. My feet seemed to have a mind of their own as I sprinted towards one of them, unhook a frag grenade and sticking it straight into the orange chink in the Hunter's armor. I sprint past it as it charges it's gun to fire at me, the Hunter aims and explodes, sending armor and orange worms everywhere.
That's when an ear piercing cry came out of the other beast as it charges me, ramming straight into me with it's shield and sending me flying a good five feet back, making me roll in the dirt and scramble to get up.
The men around me then decide not to be so useless and open fire on the Hunter, the nine weapons firing at the Hunter dispatched of it quickly enough after a couple of reloads.
The Army men disperse and run back to defensive positions, opening up on the Covenant force's once again. The tell tale screams of the Banshee fliers fills the air as four of them, assembled into a wedge formation, start firing their fuel rod cannons at the base, sending soldier's and blood flying all around.
I climb on to the walls again, I fire about two shots before my AR clicks empty, I pull the box of ammunition out of the bottom and I feed my weapon more bullets, and a box to hold them together. I pull back the receiver before firing again, spitting hot fire towards the wall of grunt's and low ranking elite's. I see a small capsule fly towards the enemy line, it catches fire and hits their line, lighting up the enemy on the front line, the perfectly planned trap.
"Did anyone fucking see that?" A soldier yells, his hand up in the air.
"Get your fucking hand down!" I hear someone yell, but it was too late for that soldier, a pink barrage of needle's flies his way, four of them hitting down his arm.
I turn away as his arm explodes with micro shrapnel. I depress the trigger even more as the Covenant forces grow thicker, the sun starts to set as dark takes over the land of Rullins II.
"Hawkins, I need you to do me a huge favor." Wolfe says over the com, helmet flashlights bleed the dark as we look for the Covenant forces, they had stopped charging once the night set in.
"What do you need?" I ask him, keeping close watch.
"I need you to throw an IR strobe at the biggest cluster of enemies you can see." Wolfe tells me.
"Alright, one problem I can't see them." I tell him.
"Oh, I know, just get ready." He says, the sound of a projectile being launched from a launcher evident through the silent night.
The grounds in front of me lights up red, the Army personnel around me open fire at any Covenant alien they could see, I look around before throwing a small grenade shaped charge towards the enemy, the second it hits the ground, it absorbs itself into the ground. The sound of rocket's and machine gun's fill the air as two Falcon gunships open up on the area around the strobe, I watch in amazement as artillery and the gunship hellfire blows apart the enemy forces, all around the military base.
The red light starts to die as the Army boys cheer their asses off and the remainder of the Covenant retreats into the jungle.
_
Authors note ( P. S I have no idea how to divide the page properly for the authors note )
Holy mother of Guadeloupe, it's been awhile since I uploaded but I hope this chapter was worth it, I didn't want to focus an entire fanfiction on one character so I have decided to make an ODST, and Marine which are already written about and an Army Ranger, Longsword/ Shortsword pilot, and a member of the Army Airborne, all in the Prefect battle group.
Anyway, follow this story and review if you want anymore characters, if you suggest a Spartan, do NOT expect many chapter's revolving around that character considering how early this story is in the Halo universe.
I will be now uploading every Wednesday, sorry this was late, I have been writing more chapters after this one in case I get behind again so that way I can still upload.
Read on
-Rsk
