Chapter 2- Not So Easy Mission
Jack felt a sharp tug as the pods parachutes deployed,then it slammed into the ground. The door flew off the pod, and Jack quickly jumped out with his sniper rifle. He put it on his back and grabbed his silenced smg from the pod. He looked at his HUD and immediately headed towards the nearest pod. He was impressed, the pods stayed pretty tight this time. That was probably thanks to the fact that there was no flak getting thrown at them. He arrived to see Sergeant Banks slipping his sniper rifle onto his back while grabbing his assault rifle.
Frederick turned and saw Jack, then said, "EagleEye and Boomer are already close to the objective. Let's get moving, Owl."
Jack nodded, and the two quickly walked towards their two squad mates. He liked how Sarge used their code names only during an op. Jack didn't know why he did it, he guessed he was just trained differently.
The two approached their squad mates, who were already posted up next to a cliff. Jack knelt next to Katherine, who was already scoping in on the base with her sniper rifle, her DMR sitting next to her.
She turned to them and said, "Sarge, I found an entry point, but it's pretty steep." She then pointed toward a steep but smooth hillside going down to the site. It was steep, but far better than any other option.
Frederick grunted and said, "Hope to god those years of skiing will help. Come on troopers, spread out so we can cover more area with our rifles."
Jack and Wally nodded, then they separated. Jack followed Sarge as he walked to the right, then passed him when he stopped moving. Jack soon reached a nice position seeing over the entire right flank. He was slightly worried. They landed quite close to the site, maybe the Covies heard them. He decided not to ask, seeing how nobody else questioned it.
Katherine then said over the coms, "I got a tango on the building's roof. It's a jackal with a beam rifle. Looks… Now there's an elite with him. They don't look like they know we're here, just a lookout."
Sergeant Banks then said, "We want them to start coming out. We want as few threats as possible when we clear the site. Boomer, it might be your lucky day."
Jack could hear Wally's snicker from over the coms, then watched from a distance as he dropped his sniper rifle and made his way to the canyons steep entry point. Wally was lucky, there were some crates not too far from the slope, perfect for cover. Jack watched as he slid down, a rocket launcher in hand, and a shotgun on his back. He avoided the lookout's view, then quickly sprinted behind cover.
Sarge focused his scope on the elite and said, "Boomer, take a shot at the two lookouts, then just let them come at you. We'll fire from above. When they come, keep your head behind cover. We don't want you without a head on your shoulders."
Wally laughed and said, "Don't worry, Sarge. I'll make quick work." He then pointed his rocket launcher at the roof, using the crates as support. He let it rip, firing two rockets at them. The roof blew up, sending the two on lookout flying, dead.
The explosions alerted the Covies indoors, and they quickly rushed out of the building in panic. Easy pickings. The three snipers immediately started shooting them down as Wally made sure they had something to focus on.
Jack quickly scoped in on an elite and squeezed the trigger, sending a round through its neck, making a gaping hole. He turned his aim towards a jackal trying to use his beam rifle on Wally and pulled the trigger. It went straight into the Jackal's chest, exploding a massive hole in the space chicken. He quickly scoped on an elite, but it's head got blown off its shoulders. He watched three elites behind it meet the same fate, and Jack smirked at the clean work. He knew Katherine was having a hell of a time. Soon, only a few Covies remained, and they quickly retreated back into the base.
Sarge rose from his prone stance and said, "Let's move! Boomer, wait for the squad. Watch your corners, don't know if that elite has one of those fancy blades or not."
Jack stood up and ran to the slope. He jumped and slid down the slope, using one of his hands as support. He hit the bottom and ran up to Wally. The two turned and watched as Katherine quickly slid down the hill on her ass, then Frederick tried to slide like Wally, only to slip and fall on his ass.
Wally began laughing at Sarge's slip, while Jack kept his sub-machine gun trained on the base, his head turned to watch his squadmates join them at the crates. Once they grouped, they quickly moved forward towards the base.
Wally and Frederick entered first, quickly flicking around the entrance corners. Wally pulled his trigger and shot a round off as an elite rushed the two from the corner. The buck shot only depleted its shield, as it swung it's massive arm, hitting the two into the other corner. Jack quickly swung around the corner and shoved his smg into the elite's mouth, then fired off a single round, penetrating it's brain. The elite fell over, Jack barely dodging it's falling down. He turned to his squadmates to see Katherine helping the two up.
Wally smacked his helmet and said, "Fucker hit me hard enough to blind my HUD for a sec." He then walked over to the corpse and gave it a hard kick in the head. Sarge quickly pointed towards the stairs leading to the roof, then at the second room to their left. Frederick and Katherine slowly checked the stairway, while Jack and Wally tried to open the door to the second room.
Wally grabbed it's edges and tried ripping it open, receiving only an amused huff from Jack. Wally grunted and said, "Let me see you do better." Jack nodded and said, "Would be my honor." He quickly grabbed the elites dead body by the arm and dragged it close to the door panel. He then slapped the elite's hand onto the panel, causing it to open wide, revealing four grunts shaking in a corner.
Wally huffed at Jack, then shot a single round of buckshot, killing all four at once. Jack walked in and cleared the room, quickly identifying it as a storage room. He laughed. These Covies were just scrounging around with the bare minimum. He had to give them credit though, they gave him some challenging target practice.
The squad met back at the main room, then Frederick said, "Place is clear. I'm calling for a Pelican to evacuate us." He turned and called for the pelican, when all of a sudden the sound of a pressurized door hissed. The squad spun around, weapons raised. They saw what they thought before was a circular floor decal opened up, and a massive elite walk up. It quickly branded an energy sword and rushed him. They opened fire, depleting it's shield almost immediately with their combined fire, but it hit them all at once, causing the squad to fly across the room. Jack was able to get his feet under him and quickly unsheathed his knife. He lunged forward, barely dodging a strike from the energy sword, then plunged his blade right between the armor in its leg, penetrating its upper thigh. He then jumped on top of its back, causing it to buck like a horse. Jack quickly brought his blade in front of the elite and plunged it into its neck, causing the monster to start gurgling in pain. Jack twisted the blade, savoring the moment as blood squirt from the wound. The elite soon fell over, leaving Jack standing behind it's body.
Frederick stood up and saw the elite collapse, then let out a sigh of relief and said, "Damn good work, Owl. Alright, now lets…" He stopped mid sentence as he watched Jack staring at the now opened up hole. "Got a problem Owl?"
Jack turned to Frederick and asked, "Permission to use an explosive device indoor, Sarge?"
Frederick nodded, and Jack pulled the pin on a grenade and dropped it down the hole, landing at the bottom. They heard the sound of elite screams, and loud shuffling, then an explosion. Jack quickly jumped over the hole and turned on his helmet's night vision. WHat he saw horrified him. It was a stairwell, covered with elites getting ready to attack.
Jack quickly backed up and said, "We got an army of elites about to jump out at us! Back up!"
Frederick quickly pointed out of the base and yelled, "Quickly! Owl and EagleEye, you two relocated to your sniper positions. Me and Boomer will take cover at the crates, like before. Same plan, just a bit grittier."
Jack and Katherine huffed as they made their way to the slope, slowly making their way up. Once they did, Jack turned back to see a swarm of elites come out of the building. Jack quickly sprinted to where he left his sniper rifle and slid to it. He quickly scoped in and shot the head off an elite about to jump over the crates.
He watched as more domes were getting blown off as he reloaded. He then scoped in and helped Katherine keep their teammates safe. The elites were swiftly trying to get to the two ODST's, but they kept getting blown apart by gunfire when they got too close.
Jack was staring down his scope, and he shot two rounds out of his fresh mag, when he heard the sound of gravel moving. He turned his head to see an elite in bright purple armor had made its way up the steep cliff and was rushing Katherine.
"Katherine! Look out!" yelled Jack as he whipped his rifle around. He scoped right on the beast's head and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. It jammed. His heart skipped a beat the second the gun didn't fire. He quickly pulled out his smg and screamed, firing at the beast. Katherine rolled around with her sniper rifle and shot a round at the beast, but it was too close. The round went right under his forearm, missing the beast as it got peppered by Jack's fire. It kicked Katherine in the helmet, knocking her forward. She quickly shot up onto her feet, but was met by the elite's hoof hitting her chest, knocking her to her knees.
Jack yelled as he ran out of smg ammo. It was strong enough to even break it's shield. He lifted his sniper rifle and gave it a hearty whack, then fired. The bullet ripped through the elite's shield, penetrating it's armor, but it wasn't enough to kill the beast. It was already tunnel visioned by Katherine and ignored Jack's bullets as it pulled out an energy sword and stabbed Katherine through the stomach. Jack watched her visor drop to the blade, then to him. He pulled out his pistol and fired, hitting the elite in the head. It's motion was already mid-way, and it finished an upwards cut as it died, splitting Katherine in half from the gut up.
The elite fell backwards and dropped its energy swords, but Jack was staring at Katherine. Her split helmet slipped off both sides of her head, revealing a wide eyes expression. Jack ripped his helmet off and vomited, then quickly realized they were still in a fire fight. He had to fight himself to look away, then swapped his sniper mag and looked back down in the canyon. Only a few elites were left., and Jack quickly dispatched them.
He stared at the clear canyon, then turned on his coms and said, "Sergeant, Katherine… she's down. She's…"
He heard a grunt from Frederick who said, "The pelican's got medics with them. She'll be…"
Jack cut him off and said, "No, she's… she's gone for good. An elite… a bastard got behind her, I… I couldn't stop it. I couldn't…" He couldn't finish his sentence. All he heard was silence from Frederick.
Jack stared down at his weapon. The rifle jammed. His anger at himself grew. He chucked the weapon off the canyon, then took his helmet off and struck himself with it, tears flying off his face.
"I'm a retard! A fucking idiot! I got too caught up in Frederick and Wally's fight that I forgot to check over the rifle again. My dumbass got Katherine killed. I killed her."He thought. Jack stared at his helmet's reflective visor, seeing his own face. His own disgusting face. His brown, military cut hair, light blue eyes, his dumb ass scar. All he saw was the face of a murderer. He slammed the helmet into his face, then quickly slipped it on. He listened as Frederick and Wally struggled up the slope behind him, and he slipped the helmet over his head.
Frederick jogged next to him, only to fall to his knees at the sight of his sister. He took his helmet off and placed it on the ground. He put his hands on his cheeks and stretched them out, a small tear running down his cheek. He gritted his teeth, then turned to look at Jack. He was staring at the ground, his hands laid out on the ground. Frederick groaned, then said, "No, no man. Nooo, fucking come on! These pieces of…" He stood up, then angrily kicked a rock across the ground and yelled, "This war was supposed to be over! Why the fuck are you assholes even trying! Dumb fucking elites!"
Suddenly, a pelican approached their position. Frederick turned to his sister, then grimaced as he walked over to her split body. He bent over and grabbed her split in half dog tags, then just stared into her lifeless eyes. He stumbled backwards, then put his helmet over his head and walked towards the landing pelicans. He gestured for Wally and Jack to follow. Wally let out a huff, then gently grabbed Jack's shoulder.
"Come on, buddy. There's nothing to do here." Jack slowly nodded his head, then stood up and followed behind Wally. He jumped into the pelican and watched as a team of medics quickly took care of her body. He grimaced, then turned to Frederick. He was staring at Katherine's dog tag, holding it in his hands like it was a baby. Jack's grimace turned to a face of pure rage. Elites don't know when to quit. He promised to get revenge on those fuckers. Before, they had killed billions of his kind. Now, it was personal. The door shut, and the pelican lifted up and flew off to take them back to their ship.