The Sins of our Choices

by Rskde

The first accounts from the First Contact Wars come in, but the story shifts to the view of Anson Hawkins, an Orbital Shock Drop Trooper for the UNSC, the story also follows Ryan Shrake, a Marine who is in a different dimension, in 2519 where the Insurgent wars continue and the First Contact never happened, the small chance that it did was squandered and now the Innies attack.

21. Defense of Avalon

Chapter XX: Defense of Avalon

Arcadia, Procyn system

February 9th, 2531 UNSC Calendar

Private Anson Hawkins

ODST Squad: Hotel

We land at the FOB outside of Avalon City, Greenbacks load civilians into Pelicans and other land to space aircraft in hopes of evacuating them before the inevitable happened. Most of the UNSC knows what happens on campaigns against the Covenant, almost always we lose the space battle, and then the land battle.

However, the UNSC Texas and the UNSC Spirit of Fire managed to take out the CCS Battlecruiser after it deployed its troops to Avalon in respond to our little assault on the ONI tower. The UNSC Fleet is still fighting it out with the one CCS Battlecruiser and the two HPV Heavy Destroyers.

"Hawkins, over here." McCal calls out. I walk over to him and he leans against the table behind him as I do. We sit inside of the temporary ODST barracks, a tent with some nice deployable beds, tables, and chairs inside.

"The UNSC Belfast and the Texas just went down, so we're expected to get more contact in Mu, and here in Avalon, so we'll be deploying soon." McCal says to me, I just nod.

"Listen, I passed out copies of this to the rest of the squad, if I don't survive this is my letter." He says to me, handing me a white letter. I just nod again. "Thanks for understanding." He says to me, clapping me on the shoulder and walking away.

I sit down at the table and I slide a letter and a pen from the center of the table. I start writing a letter.

Dear Private First Class Sara Mijovlik of the UNSC Engineer Corps.

It's me, Anson. I have been on deployment for around four months since we last spoke, and I want you to know that I am still alive, I just haven't been able to write because of multiple deployments. In fact, we are currently about to defend Avalon City from an attack as I write this. Don't lose heart, I will see you soon.

With regards.

Anson

I put the pen down and I fold the letter, it would very easily be able to find her. I stand and I walk out of the tent, my weapons already attached to me, I find the mail post and I slide the letter into it, it'd leave the planet with the civilians once we get them all out.

My helmet beeps with a message and I know that I'm being called to the rest of the squad. I jog out of the barracks and I step into the command tent, all of the other ODST's are there, including the other representatives from the entire platoon of ODST's that deployed with the Belfast.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Covenant forces deployed from the last CCS Battlecruiser are gathering a couple of miles north of Avalon city, we have FORECON engage them and scout them, which has caused the enemy to move on the city, we will be deploying to stop them and kick their asses out of this system." The man in the center of the room says to us.

"Now, Second Platoon will be deploying with the rest of its company, while Hotel squad makes some havoc. The moment that Hotel gives the word, your company will deploy and hopefully push the Covenant out of the city." He says to us. "Hotel, do and bring anything you want to wreak havoc." He tells us, Thwaite just nods.

"Move out boys." Thwaite says to us, we all walk out of the tent, headed towards the armory to grab extra ammunition and explosives. I personally pick up a block of C-12 and a couple of extra drum magazines for my M732 SAW. I make sure to pack my rucksack light, but still heavy to the point of being prepared for what lays ahead.

I look around at my new squad, I can already tell who I want watching my back. Chorei and Reid seem to be good friends, Chorei is generally a nice guy, so I've seen so far, and Reid carries a shotgun, much like Chorei. Riley doesn't seem to fit in with anybody other than McCal who is constantly helping the man exceed beyond his normal capabilities. Then there's Volker, who I personally get along with considering he is from German ancestry, he also has a nice sense of humor. Then there's Cairns, who I get along with a lot too, considering we joined the squad at the same time. Thwaite is always over exaggerating with his emotions, some people have taken to calling him Blue Swede after an apparent incident where he started screaming the lyrics of 'Hooked on a Feeling' at the enemy, I grin just thinking about it.

I walk out of the barracks with Volker, talking to him about combinations of food and drink.

"I personally like yogurt and whiskey." Volker says to me.

"I like the yogurt part, but you gotta grab some kind of German brew like Heineken or something like that." I explain to him.

"Man, but Heineken tastes like shit.." He complains as we walk out into the courtyard.

"Yeah, but have you tried it with yogurt?" I ask him.

He thinks for a moment. "I don't believe I have." He says to me.

I throw my hands up in the air, my SAW still on my back. "Well there you have it!" I say to him.

We both laugh before walking over to the Pelican landing area. The rest of the squad makes their way to that location, mounting up into a Pelican with the words 'Just Missed Me!' on the side.

I sit down near the exit and I make sure to secure my SAW to the weapon holder next to me, I then have an odd thought about weapon holders being like cup holders inside of cars, but I quickly dispose of the thought as I strap into the seat.

The Pelican takes off, the back door closes and the landing gear lifts off of the ground, the intercom clicks on.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Warrant Officer Redwood and I will be your pilot today on the JMM, or Just Missed Me." He says.

"Can we get some refreshments?" McCal yells at the intercom, we all start to chuckle and snicker.

"Unfortunately I drank all of the alcohol before taking off, so you'll have to wait until later." The pilot says, the laughing stops for a moment as we think about what the pilot had just told us.

I sit back in my seat and I tighten my seatbelt, preparing myself for a relatively short, but bumpy ride. The troop bay lights up green as plasma flak flies around us, causing the Pelican to shake.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing minor turbulence that may or may not include us getting shot at, please remain in your seats, one Mike out." The pilot says over the intercom.

I'm not a very religious man, but I close my eyes and I started praying to whatever god who would listen, hoping to get out. Deep down I know we are going to survive this.

The Pelican touches the ground and I grab my SAW, running out and jumping down on top of the skyscraper we had landed on. I roll as I hit the ground, pointing my SAW towards the east side of the tower as I recover.

"Clear east!" I shout.

"West is clean!"

"No Covvies to the north."

"South looks A-OK."

"Everyone to the north side of the building." Thwaite orders, I jog over to him.

"Alright boys, time to rappel down." He says to us, I reach down to my right side holster, opposite of my magnum holster and I grab my grappling hook.

Almost in synchronization we all aim and shoot our hooks at the ground between our legs, we attach the rope to our gauntlets before jumping off of the roof, slowly jumping and walking on a vertical slope, straight down to the street.

When my boots touch the polycrete sidewalk, I detach my cable and I grab my SAW off of my magnetic holster. I watch as the rest of my squad touches the ground with me, starting to walk towards a glowing beacon on our HUDs. We don't take any contact on our way to the enemy camp and all is relatively quiet despite the gunfire in the distance.

We make our way to the camp, it's in the city square, allowing McCal and Riley to get on the roof of one of the skyscrapers around the square. We surround the camp, slowly making a large kill box, we keep our weapons at the ready.

Inside of the camp there are three wraiths, two phantoms and at least fifty soldiers, but according to our intel this is just the scouting force, the larger force is what we need to draw out of the shadows.

I watch on my HUD map as Volker slowly moves over to the vehicles, placing charges on the back of them and then scampering back to cover, all is well so far.

I personally kneel behind a large set of bleachers over looking the rest of the square, ready to pin down any Covenant bastard in my way.

"McCal, Riley, engage high priority targets." Thwaite says over the radio. High priority targets are the Covenant that are harder to take down, monsters like the hunters or high ranking Elites.

In the camp is one Hunter pair, which is immediately targeted by our scout snipers. One of the two completely loses its head as two vapor trails cut straight into it, the other roars and spins around, looking for our snipers. It fails to find the men, resulting in its quick death.

The rest of the camp goes into chaos as sniper rounds start flying, some of the Elites get together Grunts to man the vehicles and open fire on the roof where our snipers sit.

"McCal, Riley, relocate, Hawkins engage with your SAW while Volker sends these vehicles to hell." Thwaite orders.

I grin as I lay down, setting up my bipod and depressing the trigger of my SAW, sending rounds spitting out towards the enemy.

Every single vehicle in the compound explodes, causing blue fire to rain down around the now boxed in enemy.

Chorei and Reid run in with their M45's, destroying any contact who gets within ten meters of them. The rest of the squad opens up on the enemy as their numbers dwindle, until none are left.

"Quickly, get eyes to the South, McCal and Riley." Thwaite orders. "Everyone else set up defenses, FLEETCOM is picking up heat signatures coming towards us." Thwaite says, I find some nice cover before reloading my SAW with fresh ammunition and re-setting my bipod.

The first enemy to run around the corner in front of me is an Elite minor with an energy sword clutched in its left hand, I hold down the trigger and mow him down as more of his Conrad's come around the corner, each falling to the lead flying out of my SAW.

"It's like a shooting gallery!" I say with a laugh, which is cut short by my gun clicking, I pull back the bolt before I hear a snapping sound. I look at my gun, and I realize I had literally pulled the bolt off of my gun.

"Fuck!" I yell, the enemy starts to fire at me as I drop my SAW, grabbing my M7 from my side and bringing it to my shoulder. I start spraying the force in front of me, Cairns slides down next to me and starts to put bursts into the enemy with her MA5D.

My gun clicks again and I feel myself being lifted to my feet, a large hand grabbing the back of my helmet. I see a glowing blue light out of the corner of my eye and I swing around, bashing the Elite minor across the face with my SMG. It roars and let's go of my helmet, swinging blindly at me.

Meanwhile Cairns keeps the enemies in front of our cover at bay, putting round after round into every Grunt or Elite that comes our way, but it was starting to become too much. Two rounds fly by, smashing through three Grunts at once. The enemy has been using charge tactics with only Grunts and occasionally Elites until this time, to exhaust our ammo and make us vulnerable to attack.

I hit the ground as the Elite literally bitch slaps my helmet, a spider web of cracks forming in front of my left eye. I see the blue light curving downwards and I roll out of the way, the sword smashes down into the ground next to me. I pull my Ka-Bar knife from my side and I jump up, holding it with one hand, at the ready. The Elite stabs at me and I step to the side, slashing down on the Elites arm, causing his energy shield to glow brightly.

The Elite is getting pissed at this time and swings at me again, I duck under the blade and sink mine into the alien's belly, making it roar again. The massive alien looks at me and drops its sword, clutching its wound. I spin around and lop the things head right from its shoulders before returning to the line with Cairns, after putting away my large knife and picking up my M7.

I slap a fresh magazine into the SMG and I continue to spray down Grunts as they run towards us, forcing them to join the like of dead bodies their Conrad's had made. The Grunts start to get closer and closer with each wave, until the point where I was standing and literally batting them away from our position before spraying them down.

"Can we get some help over here?!" Cairns yells into the radio.

"We're surrounded on all sides! No way!" Reid screams back, the sounds of shotgun fire evident through her transmission.

"Where the fuck is that company?!" McCal yells.

"On their way! Just hang on!" Thwaite yells, I look at McCal's feed and I realize that he was aiming his magnum down the staircase of his building, a pile of Grunts down the flight he was aiming at.

My gun clicks again and I throw it down to my side, grabbing my magnum and firing into the crowd again. Cairns starts to back away from our position and I do the same, then we're both running towards the middle of the square.

"The North side is lost, we're retreating." I say over comm before turning and firing more shots towards the Grunts struggling to get through the walls that they themselves put up for this camp.

"Copy that." Thwaite says, he sounds pissed.

I crouch in the middle of the square, suddenly the rest of my squad is there with me, Grunts and now Elites starting to close in on us. I throw my only two grenades into the crowd, splattering a couple of tight formations of Grunts and two Elite minors. The rest of our grenades fly out and we get some breathing room, we start to push out again. I pull my large knife from its sheathe and I keep my magnum in my right hand and my knife in my left, wielding them to use.

A grunt gets too close and gets stabbed through the gas mask, giving my knife a nice blue paint job. I aim my magnum and I pull the trigger. Click. I throw the magnum into a Grunt's face, cracking his mask.

"Wilco on ammo!" I yell.

I start slashing and spinning around, taking down and wounding as many Grunts as it would take, slowly their advance is pushed back until they are out of the camp, buying us more time. I walk up to Cairns and she passes me her SMG and the five clips she has for it.

"Use the ammo wisely, not everyone is as generous as I am." She says with a laugh, I nod and grin, my helmet depolarizing as I do so.

"Oi! They're gonna be back soon!" McCal calls out over the radio, he had since gotten off of his building to help with the effort ground side.

My helmet polarizes and I jog over to a dumpster, it sits in an alley with only one entrance, so I sit on the side of the dumpster without an entrance as to not be flanked.

The rest of the squad takes up similar positions, nothing that could ever protect us considering how spread we are, but a nice kill box to finish off as many aliens as we can.

This time Elite's, all of the officers and leaders, charge with the rest of their men, the first thing however, to turn the corner is a Wraith.

"Volker, get your SPANKr ready." Thwaite orders.

"It's ready Gunny." The German man replies, I can imagine him aiming the rocket towards the Wraith.

"If any of you run out of ammo during this, I'm giving you full permission to grab a plasma rifle." Thwaite tells us. "Volker, engage."

A rocket flies out of one of the alleyway's, smashing into the left side of the Wraith. The rocket must've hit something important because a second later the Wraith erupts into a column of blue flames.

Gunfire erupts as we engage the dazed aliens around the destroyed tanks, mowing them down in a second flat. That gives them all they need to charge at us full force. At least fifty more of them come streaming from around buildings, taking cover and firing on us.

Blue plasma smashes into the dumpster that I now hide behind, slowly starting to melt it. I flip around the corner and I spray around half of my clip into the Elite keeping me pinned down, leaving him to choke on his own blood.

I fire short bursts to make sure I conserve my ammunition, but the Elite's shields were really the biggest advantage against us, and they know it, too.

"FLEETCOM, we need something here right now!" Thwaite yells into the radio.

"Copy that, we have a surprise for you that you're going to hate and love." The operator replies, them the radio starts spewing static, my HUD turns off.

Then the ground is shaking, an apartment complex on the other side of the street collapses before the shaking stops and I realize what has just happened.

The enemy stands still and seems to be shocked, but their time to think is quickly interrupted by hot lead flying their way. The EMP blast that had just happened literally took out their shields and any plasma weapon other than the rifle and pistol, considering most of the other weapons run on some kind of battery that was fried by the blast.

I continue spraying across the front line of enemies, clenching my teeth the entire time while I do so, watching each individual enemy falling.

My HUD turns back on by the time the enemy had broken and was running out of Avalon, away from the squad of ODST's veiled in darkness, of course on their way out of the city they are intercepted and eradicated by First Company.

"Hotel squad, nice work, check yourselves out and see if you're wounded." FLEETCOM says over the radio.

And that's when we realized the importance of the operation that has just taken place, not just in Avalon but I all of the continents and cities of Arcadia, later we find that the UNSC has pushed the Covenant out of every population center, allowing for a complete evacuation of 7.3 million civilians out of the 8 million that live on Arcadia, deeming this one of the most successful UNSC tactical victories yet, but the fight still isn't over.

I sit down and I take my helmet off, I once explained to Taylor why I would never do something like this, but as of right now I'm happy to be alive, which is why I start writing again.

Dear Private First Class Sara Mijovlik

Sara, it's Anson again, by now you've probably received my first letter and are glad that I am still alive and kicking, right now Arcadia is looking like a UNSC victory, all Covenant vessels in the area have been destroyed before backup could be called in and it's looking like a good day to be alive. I can't wait to get back to you on Reach, so just keep in touch.

Anson

Authors note

Wow this chapter was delayed.

And let me tell you exactly why. I wanted to make this chapter special, so I put in all of my willpower and energy into it, so that it would be good. Another problem is spring break and my mom having surgery on her meniscus and then finally Hairspray, my school is running this musical and I have an awesome part in it... Yes I'm in high school. Anyway I really hope you enjoyed the new chapters of my ODST themed story ( for now, I've got ideas in the book )

Hairspray is now over!

Read on

-Rsk