A/N: Here we go for round twenty one! I really hope you guys are enjoying this and not just humoring me.

WillTheWatcher: Yeah…again, I'm really sorry about the lack of updates. Hopefully, I can do so more often.

WarriorofVirtue: Eeyah…it literally exploded.

Lecter42: Really? Humm…I'll have to read their works some time. You'll see where I'm going with this. Remember; his abilities are further enhanced thanks to the Flood.

The Marines of Charlie Comapany

Book II

Aftermath

Chapter Six

The Helljumpers

Recommended Song: Uh...whatever you're listening to.

According to the holographic map he was seeing, David could pick out four or five Covenant encampments near them, each varying in size. The largest seemed to be more toward the rear with the smaller ones peppered about in some sort of defensive array. They hadn't attacked yet, or even at all since the last wave had been destroyed and David could only guess that the Covenant were building up there forces to attempt a Stalin-esque charge on the Fury. He and his troops would need to attack well before the enemy could build such a force to throw them off balance and follow up with a swift attack on the larger camp. The Marine drummed his fingers on the thigh plate of his new armor and rubbed his chin thoughtfully trying to come up with a solution to everything. He'd never commanded such a large force before, but was positive he could come up with something.

Then it hit him like a brick launched out of a MAC gun. The obvious solution to his problem would be to send out small raiding parties against the smallest of the camps and throw the Covenant into disarray for a short period. Then, a mock-attack would be launched on the Covenant's large camp while the main force hit them from the rear and the raiding parties attacked from the left and right flanks once the largest camp's garrison was drawn out in the open. David also planned to have Wraith tanks standing by in case the enemy had any heavy artillery of their own and Banshees ready to take off at a moment's notice. A plan such as this probably wouldn't work against most of David's human counterparts, but the Covenant, especially Brutes, relied solely upon brute force.

With his plan in mind, David called 'Eksa and 'Takamee into the planning room to go over his strategy with them. All in all, things seemed to go over well with his two Covenant commanders, who then set about to contacting their subordinates as David left to find his Marines, who were found sitting around inside their Pelican talking up a storm. He stepped inside and took a seat and just listened as the two women and four men conversed, then moved to the cockpit and began scrolling through the frequencies in a rather half-hearted attempt to pick up any human signals. While his hopes for another human being out there, it did give David something to do while the strike teams were being assembled. Amazingly enough, though, after about ten minutes of mindless knob turning, he did manage to pick up a transmission on an ODST bandwidth.

"…Frost commanding first squad. Does anybody out there read me, over?"

David nearly dove for the transmitter and quickly clicked it on. "This is Marine Sergeant David A. Carson to whoever's transmitting. You reading me?"

There was a short pause.

"Loud and clear, Sergeant! I thought we were the only ones left. What's your location?"

David quickly called Cassandra into the cockpit and had her take a quick run over the navigation system. She discerned the other Pelican's location with a few simple button presses and a couple flipped switches. Frost's transport was a long, long way away, but Cassandra figured that they might have enough fuel to make it to the Fury. First, though, David needed to learn a few things about this Halo and Earth's status, not to mention about the Chief, the Covenant and if the Flood had been released or not here. Another few minutes of communication not only revealed that the Flood had been released, but that Commander Keyes had personally made her way to the library to retrieve the index before the Covenant could. No one had heard back from her in some time, so the crew was naturally getting a tad bit worried. Apparently, the good ODST and his buddies left with two other Pelicans that were shot down by some strange green creatures wielding SPNKR "Jackhammer" rocket launchers.

David clenched his fist without thinking about it as Frost explained the current situation and he gritted his teeth; of all the times for the Flood to be released, this had to be the worst. Especially with Commander Keyes out in the field like she was…he felt partially responsible for her father's death and silently swore to keep Miranda alive no matter what happened. The Pelican's sensors could now pick up the Lieutenant's own drop ship as it approached and David ducked back through the door and made his way down the back ramp into the hangar. The shield was lowered after some communication with the upper decks and Charlie-229 touched down inside, the ramp lowering to the deck with a resounding 'clang'. Many of the crew, including David's Marines, lined up outside the ship and awaited the exiting personnel, Lieutenant Jackson at the front and David right behind him. David peered around the slightly taller man and caught an initial glimpse of who he assumed was the ODST leader, Lieutenant Owen Frost. He looked not to be a very tall man, but had a commanding aura about him like few officers David had served under or with before, nor was he very muscular…just toned and lithely athletic, like a cheetah. Everything about the man seemed to scream authority and confidence, from the way he carried himself to the way he walked…and David liked to see such rarities in an officer.

Jackson stepped forward. "Second Lieutenant Peter Jackson, leader of second squad. This man is Sergeant David Carson, third squad, Charlie Company."

David saluted, and Owen returned the gesture with an added nod and shook the first man's hand. "Owen Frost, ODST Squad 661. It's good to see some human faces around here."

As the two officers conversed, David made his way to the rest of the Helljumpers and introduced himself, learning their names in the process; the medic's name was Riley, to his left were a trio of riflemen named Black, Carpenter and Groome and they stood in front of the squad's heavy weapons man was called Hendrix. For the next little while, the men sat around exchanging war stories, women stories and anything else they could think of while Owen and Jackson conversed quietly. Despite the fact that he was enthralled in talking to the new guys, David couldn't help taking a glance every now and then at Cassandra, who was chatting away contently with another of the female Marines, whose first name was Ranae…and that was all David knew about her. After a moment or two, Cassandra seemed to notice David staring and smiled at him, excusing herself from the current conversation. She made her way over to the Pelican, grabbed David by the forearm and unceremoniously pulled him out of the hangar protesting the whole way. He could hear the other Marines laugh faintly in the hangar as the door shut behind he and Cassandra, who turned about to face him.

"We haven't had a lot of time together….and I want to get to know you. The real you." She stated bluntly.

David quirked a brow as he tried to comprehend what she had just said. The real him? That was a good point…even David had lost track of who he was over the years of constant fighting, killing, shooting and being shot at. Did he even have a personality, a soul anymore or was he just a machine, a creation meant for nothing more than walking, ordering, carrying a weapon, killing and being killed? The more he thought about it, the more David realized that he hadn't really taken the time to think or feel in a very long time…longer than he was comfortable than he was willing to admit.

"Well, Cassandra…to tell you the truth, I don't even know the real me anymore. For the last few years, all I've focused on was killing them and keeping me and my alive…never really thinking about what I wanted." Not much of an answer, but it was the only thing he had.

Cassandra nodded understandably and then did something that caught David so off guard, he nearly fell; she hugged him.

"I feel so sorry for you, David…" she murmured into his chest quietly as they stood in the corridor, he unsure of what to do next. "You've lost everything…I still have my family on Earth."

Cassandra looked up from his chest and David couldn't restrain himself. He kissed her right then and there, a woman he'd only known for just over two weeks, barely knew anything about and barely spent any time with. She didn't pull back like he expected, however, and pushed forward into him, standing on her tiptoes. For some reason, despite all his doubts and conscious, it felt right…nearly perfectly blissful in all its forms. They stood there for what seemed like forever, each perfectly content in the other's embrace, until they managed to pry their lips apart with a pair of sheepish grins. Then, the doors behind them opened and were immediately followed by a chorus of cheers and shouts from the jackasses that had been standing there for who knew how long. David blew out a sigh and turned around with an expression on his face that could have killed a SPARTAN if looks could do such a thing.

The others laughed uproariously and clapped David on the back and cheered at Cassandra as they passed, earning a scoff from him and a blush from her. The last one in was Owen, who smiled at David. Now that he saw the other man's face, David had to say, he was quite impressed. Owen had steely blue eyes that held an intelligent quantity, a gaunt, pale face with sharp features, giving him a nearly hawk-like look. David caught Cassandra's meager smile out of the corner of his eye and snickered quietly to himself, earning him a punch in the arm from the smaller woman. She pulled herself away and began to walk toward her quarters and called back "By the way, you need to shave, Sergeant."

A/N: Yeah...and that's the end of 21! I felt that the David/Cassandra thing needed to be explored more, so I went with that for this one. Also, I'd like to thank my special guest star, Owen Frost! Obsidian Thirteen and I have been planning this for a while, so...yeah. Expect to see more of his characters as Charlie Company advances along! Wahoo!

As always, read and review!