Another story for the books. As typical for all of my Halo fanfics, this one is set during the Human-Covenant War, specifically during the Battle of Skopje in 2547, five years before the Battle of Reach.

I posted a variant of this chapter a few years ago, mostly to try and gauge reception, but I ended up deleting the chapter because I wasn't ready to actually write the rest of the story. I guess I am now.

At any case, full disclaimer: this story will be borrowing elements from other games, most notably the XCOM series, but it is not a crossover. I'll point out the other game elements when they appear.

A quick canon note: the Marine ODSTs in this story are intended to be more like "elite light infantry" as opposed to the "tier-one special forces types" they're depicted as being in Halo 3: ODST and other official media released around that same time. More on that in the notes at the end of the chapter, but the short version is, the ODSTs in this story have been "nerfed."

Chapter 1: "Jump Feet First into Hell"

Date: 15.01.2547

…INCOMING TRANSMISSION…
WARNING! TOP SECRET! EYES ONLY!

FROM: Major General Romeo Kwarteng, Commanding Officer, Unified Special Warfare Command – Skopje
TO: Captain Evan Lorne, Naval Special Warfare Command – Skopje

Subject: Operation: RAZOR BLADE

Evan,

Lieutenant General Ptolemy has given the green light: RAZOR BLADE is a go. With Winter Contingency declared on Skopje, I'm giving you command of Joint Task Force Barracuda. You'll having the following units at your disposal:

- 15th Shock Troop Battalion

- No. 11 Special Operations Wing

- Naval Special Warfare Team 3

- E Squadron, 29th SAS Group

- and various support elements including ONI Prowler UNSC Moonlight Sonata

Let me know if you need anyone else, and I'll do my best to provide, but keep in mind we'll be having three other JTFs besides yours running around doing their own operations; resources may start to get a little scarce.

As we discussed, your mission is simple: start hacking your way up the Covenant chain of command. Between you and the other JTFs, maybe it'll be enough to save this colony.

Good luck, and may God save us all.

- General Kwarteng

Sine Pari

FROM: Captain Evan Lorne, Naval Special Warfare Command – Skopje
TO: Major General Romeo Kwarteng, Commanding Officer, Unified Special Warfare Command – Skopje

Subject: RE: Operation: RAZOR BLADE

Understood, sir.

When do you want us to begin?

- Captain Lorne

FROM: Major General Romeo Kwarteng, Commanding Officer, Unified Special Warfare Command – Skopje
TO: Captain Evan Lorne, Naval Special Warfare Command – Skopje

Subject: RE: RE: Operation: RAZOR BLADE

Immediately.

END OF TRANSMISSION.

XXXXX

UNSC designated Covenant Bunker 616
Üsküb Province, Shipka, Skopje
16.1.2547 (SMC)
0321J

Operation Brass Ax: In Progress

"C-2, this is 6 November: enemy air defenses are down, I say again, all enemy air defense are down! All outbound signals are being suppressed, Chaos is in position and Havoc is beginning their assault on Bunker 616 now! How copy, over!?"

"Solid copy, 6. 6, be advised, SIGINT is picking up indications the Covenant forces inside the bunker are about to launch a counterattack on friendly forces. Recommend alerting the ground team, over."

"Cop- "

CRACK!

"Son of a bitch!"

Private First Class Ruppert Noble instantly dove towards the ground and rolled into the nearest crater for cover as the initial Spiker round was immediately followed up by an entire barrage of plasma fire. Multi-colored plasma bolts lit up the early morning sky as they plowed straight into the staggered battle line of advancing ODST troopers.

"Contact, incoming fire! TAKE COVER!"

"No fucking shit!" Noble spat back as he fumbled to bring his M739 SAW to bear.

Extending the bipod, he planted the weapon on the edge of the crater and quickly assessed the battlefield. Red dots were beginning to flood his HUD: individual Covenant warriors that were being marked by supporting UNSC aircraft overhead. However, most of them were still exiting the bunker further down range. The most immediate threat was a handful of Covenant foot mobiles less than thirty meters away; they had fired those initial shots and by the looks of it, were in the midst of attempting to dig in.

Pulling his weapon tight against his shoulder, Noble dropped his sights over a Brute Major that appeared to be the one in charge.

"Get sum, mutherfuckers," he growled under his breath, and pulled the trigger.

RATATATA! RATATATA!

Noble's light machine gun roared to life, spitting out rounds at over nine hundred rounds per second. He could see sparks flying as his first burst struck the Brute right in the helmet, causing the bulky alien to flinch and duck, before rolling to the side in an effort to get out of the line of fire. However, Noble relentlessly kept his sights locked onto the beast and as soon as the Brute recovered from its unnecessary combat roll, Noble immediately pulled the trigger once more.

This time, Noble's rounds found its way into the Brute's right shoulder. The heavy 7.62 rounds chewed its way through the Brute's armor and into the flesh beneath, punching a hole about the size of Noble's fist and damn near tearing the alien's limb clean off. Even above the sounds of fighting, Noble could hear the Brute's roar of pain and underneath his helmet, Noble felt a feral grin gracing his face.

Unfortunately, weighing in at nearly five hundred kilograms, Brutes weren't that easy to kill. Even as dark, purple-colored blood came spewing from the wound and began pooling at the Brute's feet, the Brute merely transferred his Spiker from one hand to the other.

"Oh, fuck that," Noble snapped as the Brute lifted the Spiker to return fire, and laid into the trigger.

The Brute jerked and twitched, causing his first few shots to go wide as Noble's bullets hammered the alien's chest, cracking the chest plate. However, even as blood began gushing out, the Brute remained standing and Noble found his burst getting longer and longer as the Brute continued to refuse to die.

Just as Noble was beginning to get worried that he would run out of bullets before he could kill the Brute –

BLOOP! BOOM!

"Son of a bitch!" Noble yelped in surprise as a 40mm high explosive grenade exploded against the Brute's upper torso, tearing it to shreds and finally ending the threat. "Mother- "

"Peanut! Contact, ONE O'CLOCK!"

Noble jerked at the call and spun his SAW around, and immediately caught sight of a Skirmisher pointing a needle rifle right at him, a split second after the alien fired.

FWOOZ! CRACK!

"FUCK!"

Noble found himself getting knocked onto his ass as the purple spike smashed against his visor. Fortunately, the round had hit the ballistic glass plate at a fairly sharp angle and failed to penetrate, but it did leave behind a spider web of cracks as it ricocheted off his face shield. Quickly patting his head and helmet to make sure he wasn't suffering from any injuries, Noble grabbed his SAW and took a deep breath. "God damn motherfuckers. Take this you son of a bitch! GAHHH!"

Noble surged to his feet and pulled the trigger as far back as it would go, emptying the rest of his magazine in the direction of the Skirmisher who had dared fire at him, only to find the Skirmisher was gone, having already displaced positions. Instead, Noble felt his eyes reflexively widen as he spotted the fiery-blue ball of fire headed straight towards him. "Oh shit, GRENADE!"

Dropping his weapon, Noble grabbed his helmet and ducked just as the plasma grenade exploded, sending globules of superheated plasma in all directions. As his hearing protection unsealed and noise slowly filtered back into his helmet, Noble could hear all sorts of sizzling noises as the plasma burned itself out in the dirt surrounding him.

Grabbing his weapon and giving it a quick once over to make sure it was still intact, Noble quickly peaked his head over the edge of the crater to see if he could spot where the grenade had originated from. His VISR instantly highlighted two Covenant Grunts standing roughly twenty meters away in a small ditch laying down heavy amounts of plasma fire. Even as Noble watched, one of the Grunts reached down and pulled out another plasma grenade, of which the diminutive alien immediately activated and hurtled randomly downrange.

"Fucking Covenant fucks," Noble snarled as he reached down to his belt to grab a grenade of his own. "Throw a grenade at me!? Why don't you see how you like it! FRAG OUT!"

With a loud grunt, he hurtled the grenade as hard as he could, and watched as the explosive device fly through the air and land directly into the ditch.

BOOM!

The two Grunts immediately disappeared in a cloud of dirt and dust as the grenade exploded. At the same time, the two red dots representing them winked out of existence from Noble's HUD. Noble couldn't help but let out a loud laugh of triumph. "Bitch."

"PEANUT!"

Noble violently swore and made a grab for his sidearm as someone or something landed in the crater right beside him, only to immediately abort the motion when he realized it was just his squad leader, Staff Sergeant Greene.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Staff Sergeant!" Noble angrily spat out in an effort to hide just how badly surprised he had been by Greene's arrival. "Dude, I almost blew your fucking head off!"

"What'd I tell you about tunnel vision!?" Greene retorted. "This is why we have IFF tags, but it doesn't do you any good if you don't keep an eye on your HUD! You know what, never mind: what's your status?"

"I'm green, as soon as I get the bitch loaded!" Noble reported as he grabbed his SAW and ejected the empty magazine. He paused, mid-reload, to glance in Greene's direction. "We got a plan?"

"Yeah," Greene dryly replied, "I'm calling in an airstrike, so get your head down."

"What?"

Noble threw an incredulously glance downrange. At most, there was about a platoon's worth of Covenant soldiers standing between them and the entrance to the bunker. Granted, there were a handful of Brutes mixed in among them, but –

"Fuck, Staff Sergeant, we're ODSTs: we can take these fuckers!"

Even through his polarized visor, Noble could see the disapproving glare Greene sent him. "Yeah, we can, but that's not the objective! If Target Zebra gets away, it doesn't matter how many of these fuckers we kill, mission's going to be a wash! Get your head down! 6 November, this is Havoc, do you copy?"

"Go for 6 November."

"6 November, I got boo-coo bad guys between me and the bunker; they're slowing us down. I need warheads on foreheads, ASAP. Think you could help a brother out, over?"

"Roger. Mark the target with a navpoint, I'll get Daggers 2 and 7 to hit them."

"Copy. Marker going out."

Burrowing deeper into the bottom of the crater, Noble took a moment to gather up all of his expended drum magazines and shove them into his dump pouch. As he did, he became aware of the growing drone of approaching rotor blades, and he glanced up into the night sky. His VISR highlighted two UNSC Air Force AV-22 "Sparrowhawks" on approach: Daggers 2 and 7.

"Havoc, Dagger: we tally your navpoint. Missiles away; splash, fifteen seconds."

WSHHHHOOSHWSHHHHOOSHWSHHHHOOSH!

White contrails that were barely visible even though VISR filled the black sky as the two Sparrowhawks emptied their pods of Anvil II missiles onto the Covenant soldiers caught out in the open below them.

BABOOMBABOOMBABOOOM!

The Anvils streaked towards the ground, detonating a few meters above the ground and sending a deadly hailstorm of fragmentation and shrapnel down onto the heads of the Covenant, sending them scrambling for cover. However, they weren't able to get far as the Sparrowhawks were quick to follow up their initial barrage with cannon fire from their wing-mounted rotary cannons. The heavy 20mm shells chewed through armor and flesh alike, turning the ground into a morbid blend of dirt and gore.

"Havoc? Dagger. Looks like the Covenant are beating a retreat back to the bunker. We're going to come around for a second pass, see if we can't cut them off, but we're not going to get them all before we're Winchester, over."

"Understood. Catch who you can, we'll mop up the rest. Peanut! Flyboys are coming around for a second pass! As soon as they lift their fire, we gotta to hit that bunker head on!"

Noble felt a thrill of excitement pass through his body at those words, and he hefted his SAW in response. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but ask, "What about the rest of the platoon?"

"They'll meet us there! Get ready Marine!"

"Havoc, Dagger: guns guns guns."

BRRTTTTT!

The retort of the Sparrowhawks' rotary cannons filled the air once more and Noble peaked over the edge of the crater to see tracer rounds skipping all over the place as their air support fired the last of their ammo. Then –

"Havoc, Dagger: rounds complete, over."

"Come on Peanut!" Greene yelled from beside him. "We gotta move! ON ME MARINE!"

Without another word, Greene took off running.

"Shit!" Noble yelped as he scrambled to his feet and took off after him.

The sound of his breathing quickly drowned out all other sounds as he charged across the churned-up battlefield. At first, no one shot at them and for a brief moment, Noble allowed himself to believe the Covenant had all been killed. Noble was in the middle of trying to decide whether or not that was a good thing when –

HISS! HISS!

Noble couldn't prevent himself from flinching as two superheated Spiker rounds passed so closely by his head, he could hear their passage through the air even without the need for the sound amplification microphones of his headset. And then, just like that, all hell broke loose once more. "Staff Sergeant! We're taking fire!"

"I know!" Greene yelled back. "Stay on my ass! We gotta find some cover!"

Feeling decidedly defenseless out in the open field, Noble lifted his SAW and blindly began shooting back in the direction the majority of the fire seemed to be coming from.

RATATATAT – CLICK!

His HUD let out a loud shrill of alarm as his SAW ran out of ammo, so Noble lowered his weapon and focused on sprinting instead. He followed Greene as he unexpectedly dove headfirst into a nearby crater, and promptly came face to face with the shredded bodies of the two Grunts he had killed with his grenade only moments ago.

Giving one of the corpses a good kick to the head - ostensibly to make sure the Grunt was really dead and not playing possum; in reality, because fuck those fuckers – Noble hastily reloaded.

"Back up!" he declared as he took up position by Greene at the edge of the crater. A single plasma bolt splashed against the ground near his head. At the same time, a red bar of light flashed at the top of his HUD, indicating the direction the shot had come from, and Noble immediately fired an extended burst in retaliation.

"Fuck! Looks like the Covies are getting that bunker's guns up and running!"

Noble paused his firing long enough to glance at the bunker. Sure enough, a single plasma cannon was now sticking out from one of the embrasures, firing on full auto at the approaching ODSTs. He automatically ducked as the cannon turned in his direction, and high velocity plasma chewed up the ground in front of him. "For the record, Staff Sergeant, I don't think your plan quite worked out the way you imagined it would!"

"Noted," Greene dryly replied, before standing up to fire a few rounds.

"So, what do we do now, Staff Sergeant!?"

"I think it's time for some fancy moves," Greene yelled back as he inserted a fresh mag into his assault rifle. "Fire and maneuver! Switch off until we can get out from beneath their guns! You with me!?"

"Shit, Staff Sergeant, you really need to ask?" Noble cockily replied.

"PROPHET'S FLARE!"

Without exchanging a word, the two of them immediately rose up and unloaded on the Grunt that was priming to throw another plasma grenade. The Grunt was instantly torn to shreds, dropping the active grenade as it collapsed.

"Alright, Peanut, get ready to start suppressing!" Greene commanded as the grenade exploded. "Covering fire… now!"

Noble began hosing down the bunker as Greene hauled himself out of the crater without another word and took off. Concentrating his fire on the gun port, Noble watched as his bullets punched holes into the purple whatever the Covenant used to build their bunker. Realizing he was shooting a bit too much to the left, he adjusted his aim and watched with satisfaction as his next burst of tracers bounced straight through the firing slit.

"Set!"

"Motherfucker," Noble grunted as he grabbed his SAW, hauled himself out of the crater, and took off running. "BOUNDING!"

Bloody mud and churned up dirt quickly began coating his legs, turning his signature jet black armor brown, but he paid it no heed. Instead, he tucked his head down and ran faster. In the distance, he could just make out the bark of Greene's rifle going off, but it didn't seem to be helping all that much as plasma and Spiker rounds saturated the ground around him.

Gasping for breath, Noble slid into cover next to Greene behind the still burning carcass of the AA Wraith, making it just in time to avoid taking a direct hit from an overcharged plasma shot, which struck the Wraith instead and caused a shower of sparks to rain down onto his head.

"Peanut: you good?" Greene asked as Noble hurriedly dropped to one knee to reload.

In lieu of a verbal response, Noble gave him a thumbs up.

"Good. You're doing good, kid, just hang in there; we're almost there. You ready for this?"

"Shit, Staff Sergeant, I was born ready for this!" Noble replied as soon as he had air in his lungs.

Noble didn't even have to see Greene's face to pick up on how unimpressed he was.

"Well, we're about to find out! This time I'll cover, you run! Ready?"

Noble surged to his feet as Greene pulled out a grenade.

"Wait for my signal! FRAG OUT!"

Greene hurtled the grenade over the Wraith and as soon as they heard the explosion, Greene whirled around the corner and began firing as fast as he could pull the trigger.

"Go, go, GO!"

Digging the balls of his feet into the mud, Noble launched himself out from behind the Wraith and across the battlefield once more. As he ran, he was vaguely aware of the Covenant plasma cannon stilling firing non-stop, the tip of its barrel turning bright orange.

As he ran, he could see the Grunt gunner pivoting the heavy plasma cannon emplacement in his direction, but sprinting diagonally across the field like he was, the alien wasn't able to a draw a bead on him before he made it to safety, rolling into cover in some sort of slit trench located some fifteen meters away from the entrance to the bunker. As Noble picked himself off the ground, he was surprised to find the trench was already occupied by another ODST.

"What up, White Boy?" Noble's team leader, Corporal Giáp "Charlie" Thành, declared as he loaded another 40mm grenade into his M301 under-barrel grenade launcher.

"What the… where the fuck did you come from!?" Noble demanded, wondering how on Earth he missed seeing Charlie's IFF tags on his HUD.

"I sneaky: I be like ninja, not like yo fat-ass, White Boy!" Charlie gleefully declared.

"Oh, fuck off!"

"COMING THROUGH!"

The splashing of mud coupled with the registration of a friendly IFF tag on his motion tracker approaching them caused Noble to poke his head out of the trench to see Greene dashing towards them. But before Greene had gone more than halfway -

FWOOZ!

- he was struck in the side by a plasma bolt! Noble could hear Greene crying out in pain as he collapsed.

"Staff Sergeant!" Noble yelled in alarm and without thinking, started to climb out of the trench but luckily Charlie seized the back of his armor and dragged him back down as plasma shredded the area around them.

"Keep you head down White Boy! Gonna lose it!" Charlie warned.

"Get the fuck off me!" Noble roared. Scrambling upright, he glanced over the trench in Greene's direction. "Staff Sergeant! Are you right?"

"Covering fire!" Greene bellowed in response.

Immediately, Noble and Charlie whipped around and emptied their magazines at the bunker.

Dust and chunks of the bunker wall went flying in all directions as their bullets hammered the side. As Noble was finishing off the last of his magazine, he happened to see the Grunt gunner take a single round to the face and disappear out of sight. Moments later, Noble's HUD was shrieking at him, and he hurriedly ducked back down to reload.

In the meantime, Greene had managed to make his way to the trench and threw himself inside, landing heavily on the ground.

"Staff Sergeant, are you okay!?" Noble yelled.

"I just got fucking shot, what the fuck do you think!?" Greene growled as he gripped his side.

"Let me take a look!" Noble insisted as he reached into his IFAK for his can of biofoam, but Greene slapped his hands away.

"Don't worry about it! Armor absorbed the worst of it! I can wait for the corpsman!"

"FRIENDLY! FRIENDLY!"

Noble hopefully looked up as a figure dropped into the trench beside them, on the off chance it was the platoon's assigned corpsman, but no, it was only one of the unit's marksmen, Lance Corporal Ajax Svarog. Although…

"Lance Corporal! Staff Sergeant has been hit!" Noble barked.

Unlike Greene, Svarog's visor had not been polarized, allowing Noble to see the disgruntled look that passed over his face.

"Yeah?" he asked. "And what the fuck do you want me to do about it?"

"Aren't you TCCC certified!?"

"It's a forty-hour class, dumbass," Svarog snapped. "It makes me about as much of a corpsman as E-EOCA makes Greene here an EOD tech."

"Well…" Noble stammered, "that makes you more qualified than me!"

Charlie abruptly let out a bark of laughter, and when Noble threw a questioning look in his direction, he sneered, "Ain't hard to do, Boot."

"Guys: Bunker 616, Target Zebra," Greene interjected before Noble could snap back at the insult. "Focus. I'll be fine until Doc Compton gets here. In the meantime, you three need to get inside that damn bunker, and kill every single inhuman motherfucker there. Corporal Thành!"

"Aye, Staff Sarge!" Charlie immediately yelled. "Fat Boy! Get the SRAAW!"

"Peanut, drop your SAW: I'll stay here and provide suppressing fire," Greene ordered and Noble hastily moved to obey. "Here! Take the breaching shotgun!"

Noble grabbed the offered M90 and quickly checked the chamber; it was already loaded with buckshot shells.

"Get ready to move, gents!" Greene yelled. "Covering fire!"

Greene promptly began spraying the bunker with automatic weapons fire.

"Hit that fucking bunker!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Noble watched as Svarog lurch upright with an M76 SRAAW rocket launcher planted on his shoulder.

"ROCKET!"

KABOOM!

A chunk of bunker was launched straight up into the air as the anti-structure warhead smashed into the side, and as the dust settled, Noble could see a man-sized entrance had been blown into the side of the bunker.

"We in business!" Charlie declared. "On me, White Boys!"

Noble scrambled out of the trench, following closely behind Charlie and Svarog. With Greene suppressing, they dashed across the field and threw themselves at the wall next to the hole, quickly stacking up in preparation for the breach.

"Peanut first, Svarog follows!" Charlie commanded. "Peanut, grenade! Come on, White Boy, give it to me!"

Hastily extracting a couple of frag grenades, Noble tossed one over to Charlie. At his nod, Noble slammed it against the wall to trigger the fuse, and mentally counted to 'two' before tossing the grenade around the corner and into the bunker.

"Frag out!" he yelled before turning away from the hole and waited for the explosion.

Boom!

A cloud of dust hurtled out of the hole and before it had a chance to fully settle, Noble whirled around the corner.

"Breaching, breaching!" he yelled, shoving his way through the breach.

The first thing he saw were two heavily wounded Grunts, struggled to their feet. Without hesitation, Noble gunned them both down.

"Clear!" he declared, looking around. There were two doors, one leading into the firing embrasure, the other leading further into the bowels of the bunker.

"Svarog, clear machine gun pit," Charlie commanded. "Peanut, with me."

Taking up position by the door leading further into the bunker, Noble and Charlie waited until Svarog was finished. Noble watched as Svarog disappear into the embrasure and almost immediately, he heard a battle rifle going off. Moments later, Svarog reemerged, the end of his BR55HB still smoking.

"Clear," he announced.

Charlie quickly glanced at Noble, who nodded, causing Charlie to immediately wrench open the door leading further into the bunker.

FWOOZFWOOZCRACK!

Noble reflexively jerked his head back as a hail of plasma bolts and bright pink needles smashed against the side of the doorframe, throwing sparks and crystals shards in all directions. He waited a couple of seconds, and as soon as the barrage ended, he whirled around the corner, shotgun raised.

At the end of a twenty-meter-long corridor, there were two Grunts taking cover behind a single panel of a Covenant defensive barrier. One of the Grunts was frantically reloading a Needler while the other was banging a plasma pistol against the floor, as if that would magically cool the weapon down. At the sound of Noble's approach, both Grunts looked up and let out a squeak of alarm but before they could do anything, Noble opened fire.

Noble's first shell caught the plasma pistol-welding Grunt right in the head, the quadruple-ought buckshot practically tearing the Grunt's face right off. His next shell, on the other hand, hit the second Grunt in the left leg, blowing the limb clean off and depositing the alien onto the ground.

"Eeeeeggghhhh!"

Profusely bleeding from the stub and screaming in pain, the Grunt tried to crawl its way across the ground towards safety, but before it could reach, Charlie opened up with his rifle from behind Noble, hitting the Grunt with a quick burst and putting the alien down for good.

Keeping his weapon raised, Noble rapidly but carefully continued making his way down the corridor. As he approached the end, he slowed his advance to a crawl. Pressing his back against the wall, Noble took a deep breath, and then stepped around the corner with his shotgun raised to check for hostiles.

"ROARRRR!"

Something strong grabbed the muzzle of Noble's shotgun and yanked on it, causing Noble to stumble forward as the weapon was ripped right out from his hands. Before he could fall to the ground though, a furry paw wrapped around his neck and Noble found himself getting lifted straight off his feet and slammed hard against the back wall. His sidearm instantly appeared in his hand and Noble began pulling the trigger as fast as he could, but the powered armor of the Brute Captain Ultra was still intact, and all of Noble's rounds failed to do more than piss the alien off.

Letting out another tremendous roar, the Brute hurtled Noble to the ground, knocking all the air out of his lungs, but fortunately Noble still had the presence of mind to roll out of the way. Charlie and Svarog promptly opened fire on the Brute.

Casings littered the corridor floor as bullets pinged off the Brute's armor, quickly disabling the alien's shields, but all the Brute did was lift up his arm to protect his face. With his free hand, the Brute grabbed a hold of the defensive barrier and hurtled it down the corridor.

"LOOK OUT!"

Reacting faster than Noble would have thought, Charlie immediately dove forward and was able to roll under the incoming projectile but Svarog had been in the middle of reloading and wasn't able to react as quickly. Svarog took the defensive barrier straight to the chest which completely bowled him over.

"MAN DOWN!"

From his position on the ground, Charlie lifted his rifle and fired a grenade right at the Brute, but the Ultra was able to easily sidestep the slow-moving missile, removing his helmet from his head while he did so and hurtling it right at Charlie. This time, Charlie wasn't able to dodge in time and the helmet hit him straight in the face with enough force, Noble could see cracks immediately forming in his visor. Charlie collapsed.

In the meantime, Noble was doing his best to recover his breath, but upon seeing how quickly his team was taken down, decided to forgo that process entirely and immediately go on the offensive. His sidearm was missing, him having accidently dropped it when the Brute had thrown him, but he still had his tomahawk.

"OOORAH!" Noble screamed as he surged to his feet and charged straight at the Brute.

He brought his 'hawk down hard, aiming for the Brute's neck, but the Brute had obviously heard him coming and had been able to sidestep the blow.

Undeterred, Noble jabbed his 'hawk forward in an attempt to stab the Brute in the abdomen with the tip prongs of his blade, before slashing upwards in a move that would have disemboweled the mutated gorilla. But before his 'hawk could even connect, the Brute proceeded to punch him right in the chest.

Despite his nickname, Noble was far from the smallest guy in his platoon. In fact, standing at about a hundred and eighty centimeters tall and weighing in at about ninety-three kilograms even before considering the weight of his armor and equipment, Noble was actually one of the bigger guys around. However, in spite of all that, the six-hundred-kilogram alien he was fighting against was more than capable of laying him out flat with a single punch.

Noble found himself laying on his back, gripping his chest and gasping for breath once more. A shadow fell over him and looked up to see the Brute looming over him. A wicked grin bloomed on the Brute's face, and he started to lift his leg.

BANGBANG!

"RAH!"

The Brute was sent staggering as he was struck several times in the back by bullets!

"COME ON MONKEY BOY! GET SUM! AHHH!"

The Brute whirled around, allowing Noble to glance down the corridor and see Charlie had managed to recover his rifle and was now proceeding to unload the magazine on the Brute from afar. The Brute stumbled as he quickly lifted his arms to try and protect his face, leaving his upper torso exposed, but before Charlie could take advantage of that -

- click -

- the sound of his magazine running dry filled the corridor.

Charlie took one look at his rifle before tossing it aside and climbing to his feet.

"Come on, betch," he declared as he reached down and pulled out his Ka-Bar with a flourish. "Let go!"

Noble could practically hear the Brute grinning as Charlie began charging down the hall straight towards him, and Noble could see the Brute squaring off to meet the charge head on.

Just before Charlie could reach the Brute, the Brute abruptly lashed out with his fist, but in a move that took everyone by surprise, Charlie ducked right under the blow, diving to his knees and using his momentum to slide right past the alien. As the astonished creature started to turn around, Charlie lashed out with his knife, stabbing the Brute in the back of his right ankle, severing the Brute equivalent of the Achilles tendon.

Blood immediately began gushing from the wound and the Brute let out a cry of pain as he reflexively grabbed his wound and dropped to his knees. And that's when Noble saw his opportunity.

Ignoring the pain in his chest, Noble hauled himself to his feet. Gripping his tomahawk with both hands, he let out a roar and charged straight at the Brute once more.

As before, the Brute heard him coming but this time, there was nothing the alien could do as Noble swung his axe -

- and brought the poll spike of his 'hawk down as hard as he could onto the top of the Brute's exposed head.

There was a loud crack as the spike embedded itself into the Brute's skull. Blood immediately began leaking from the wound, streaming down the Brute's face and into his eyes as he stared at Noble with a slight look of astonishment on his face. A soft choking noise began to fill the air, and Noble took a cautious step back as the Brute began swaying. He watched as the Brute mindlessly lift his arm and began pawing at his own face, before the Brute's eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head and he went limp.

Stepping forward once more, Noble planted his foot on the Brute's shoulder, bracing himself, before digging his 'hawk out from the Brute's skull, the blade making a sickening splurch noise as it slid free. Blood immediately began gushing from the wound, quickly covering the Brute's entire face.

Wiping his blade on the Brute's fur, Noble was just about to stick his 'hawk back onto his belt... when the Brute abruptly stood up.

"Holy shit...!" Noble yelped, scrambling backwards in alarm as the Brute started reaching for him. "How the fuck are you still alive!?"

Dodging the Brute's arms, Noble swung his axe once more, driving the blade into the Brute's abdomen, but when the Brute failed to react and instead, continued to try and blindly reach for him, Noble took a closer look at the Brute's face and realized it wasn't so much that the Brute was still alive as it was the Brute hadn't yet died. Essentially, the Brute was dead, but his body just hadn't realized it yet.

Ducking under the Brute's arms once more, Noble yanked his axe out as he tried to figure out what to do about this situation. How did one kill what was already dead?

BAM. BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM.

Noble instinctively blinked as blood splattered against his visor, and he looked up to see the Brute's face and chest had just been blown outwards. The Brute sagged to the floor, revealing Greene holding his sidearm, slide locked back in place and the barrel smoking.

"Well, that was different," Greene mumbled as he thumbed the mag release, letting the empty magazine drop to the ground with a clatter before reloading. "Peanut. You okay?"

Noble quickly patted himself down, checking for serious injuries. "I'm good, Staff Sergeant."

"Good." Greene handed Noble back his SAW. "Secure the area. Charlie, Svarog, sound off!"

"I'm good, Staff Sarge!" Charlie declared as he de-polarized his visor, allowing Noble to see he had blood coming out of his nostrils but aside from that, he looked no worse for wear.

"Svarog?"

"Two broken ribs and probably a bruised sternum," Svarog declared as he came limping out, popping a fresh mag into his BR. He sounded pissed, but then again, Noble was quickly discovering that was par for the course for Svarog. "Armor absorbed most of the impact, but damn if that didn't fucking hurt."

"Can you do your job?" Greene asked him, concerned. Svarog snorted.

"Gonna take a lot more than that to keep me down, Staff Sergeant."

In lieu of a response, Greene pointed at the Brute's rapidly cooling corpse laying on the ground. "Check him: DNA and visual confirmation. You know: the works."

"That's not Target Zebra," Svarog immediately reported. "Mission brief said Target Zebra was a chieftain. This motherfucker here is a captain ultra."

"Check him anyway," Greene insisted. "He was clearly in charge of this complex; might have been pretty high up the chain."

"Ain't this the Doc's job?" Noble heard Svarog grumbling even as he awkwardly dropped to his knees and began working.

Glancing over in his direction, Noble watched as Svarog pull out a small forensics kit from his bag. Propping open the Brute's mouth with a discarded bullet casing, Svarog grabbed a small cotton swab and began dabbing the inside of the Brute's mouth. Once he was done with that, he activated his TACPAD and carefully placed the swab in an analyzer connected to the screen so the navy eggheads upstairs could immediately begin their tests.

In the meantime, while his computer was running, Svarog had fitted what looked like an electronic mouth guard over the Brute's upper teeth before jamming the Brute's mouth closed. Noble could see a small light whirling around as the mouth guard began scanning the Brute's jaw structure. At the same time, Svarog had broken out a rag and was in the process of trying to wipe away some of the excess blood from what was left of the Brute's face so that he could take pictures of not just the Brute's face, but also of any other identifying marks.

While Svarog had been working, Greene in the meantime had been talking on his radio, but now he turned away, drawing Noble's attention to him.

"Alright: Charlie, Peanut, listen up! All Covies are down and Chaos is in the process of securing the area. Surveillance says the Covenant have yet to react to our presence here, but that could change at any minute so right now, our priority is SSE! You guys know the drill: start tossing this place for intel! I want pictures, hard drives, maps, radios; the whole nine yards! Anything the Navy spooks can use to expand our kill list. We got three minutes before extraction: move it!"

Noble immediately turned to the nearest computer. The bunker they were in had been some sort of control room and as a result, there were all sorts of Covenant electronic devices lining the walls. Most of them had clearly been destroyed by the Brute and his Grunt technicians as the computers and holographic screens were covered in plasma scoring and metal spikes, but Noble started searching anyways: there was no telling what the Covenant might have missed.

As he started digging through one control panel, behind him he could hear Greene announcing over the radio, "Number One, this is Ashley. Control room is secured. Be advised, Target Zebra was not here, I say again, Zebra zero one six was not present at target location, over."

As Greene continued his report, Noble carefully ripped open a control panel with his tomahawk where, to his surprise, he found a data pad. The data pad had a Spiker hole right in the middle of the screen, but when Noble experimentally touched some of the controls, the data pad immediately sprang to life.

"Found something!" Noble announced.

Greene immediately appeared by his side and Noble handed him the data pad.

"Yeah, this is definitely something ONI is going to want to see," Greene declared after a few moments of study. "Good work, Peanut."

He gave Noble a friendly slap on the shoulder as the sound of footsteps filled the air and Noble looked up to see his platoon commander, Captain William "Number One" Riker, come jogging into the room.

"Staff Sergeant!" he called out, quickly walking over to where Greene and Noble were standing. "What'd we got?"

"Unsecured data pad, sir," Greene reported, handing the data pad over for Riker to see. "Looks like it's still plugged into the Covie battle net."

"Excellent," Riker hissed. "This is exactly what we were hoping for." He quickly keyed his mic. "TOC, this is Number One: jackpot. We are RTB, ETA, fifteen mikes."

Switching his mic off, Riker looked around the room. "Good work, troopers! Alright, pack it up gents, we're Oscar Mike! Charlie, plant the beacon. Peanut, cover him. Heat's coming, gentlemen! Let's get the fuck out of here!"

Riker and Greene quickly left the area while Noble hastily ran around the room recovering his lost weapons. He waited as Charlie planted a transponder beacon in the center of the room, before the both of them dashed out of the bunker.

Outside, there were already a single Air Force MH-144 "Falcon" on the ground with a picture of a pomegranate painted on its nose, engines running, just waiting for them. By the looks of it, Noble and Charlie were the last two ODSTs still on the ground, so they hastily sprinted for the Falcon.

"Get in, White Boy!" Charlie urged and with Svarog's help, Noble hastily clambered aboard and took a seat in the doorframe. Grabbing a hand hold, he glanced over his shoulder as Greene reached out and helped secure him to one of the Falcon's safety harnesses so he wouldn't accidently fall out during the flight.

As he was being secured, he could hear Riker reaching up and banging on the wall separating the pilot from the crew compartment.

"Captain, we're all secure back here!" he yelled over the radio. "Let's move it out!"

"Copy that, Number One. C2, this is Soteira, we are on the move!"

The noise of the engines suddenly grew in pitch as the pilot increased the torque, and Noble watched as the ground rapidly pull away from him as the Falcon took off. Around them, he could see the other Falcons and Ospreys carrying the rest of the ground team, as well as the Sparrowhawks that had been providing the ODSTs with air cover, quickly departing the area.

Looking back, Noble could see the bunker, a squat, dark purple looking building surrounded on all sides by a muddy field. From up here, he couldn't see all the Covenant bodies the assault force had left behind, but he knew they were there.

As soon as they were far enough, Riker pushed a button on his TACPAD and suddenly, a navigation point appeared right over the bunker on Noble's HUD.

"Number One to UNSC Grafton," Noble heard him say over the radio. "Beacon is live and all friendlies are clear of the target area. You are cleared to engage, over."

"Copy that, Grafton is engaging. Shot, over."

"Shot, out."

Noble hastily polarized his visor to its darkest setting. He also made sure to turn off his ears and double check his helmet was properly sealed.

He finished just in time to hear the Grafton saying, "Splash, over."

"Splash, out - "

Before the words could fully leave Riker's mouth, there was a sudden flash of light, one so bright that even with his visor at maximum opaque setting, Noble could still see light seeping through. He looked back in time to see a bubble of compressed air emanating from the impact area, rapidly gaining on the UNSC aircraft. Almost a full second later, the bubble hit.

BOOM.

The entire Falcon began rattling as the shockwave from the blast enveloped them, but fortunately at this point, the air armada was far enough away that they weren't too adversely affected.

De-polarizing his visor, Noble glanced back at the bunker, only to see it was gone and sitting in its place was a massive crater and a large mushroom cloud: the bunker, as well as much of surrounding field had been completely obliterated by the low-powered MAC round the Grafton had fired. With all evidence gone, hopefully it would take the Covenant several hours - days even - to realize what the UNSC had stolen, at which point the eggheads upstairs would have hopefully finished data mining the data pad for whatever intel they could get their hands on. Hopefully whatever they found would make up for the fact the ODSTs had missed their primary target.

All in all, Noble was willing to chalk this mission in the "win" column.

Leaning against the doorframe, Noble allowed himself to relax for the first time in hours as he watched the aircraft quickly depart the mission area, taking with them all traces they were ever there, with the heavy fighting that was taking place elsewhere on the colony echoing in the distance behind them.

Footnotes:

- Boo-coo: this is actually American military, Vietnam War era slang. It's a bastardization of the French phrase "beau coup," which means "many" or "a lot." As Vietnam had been a French colony between 1877 to 1954, quite a few Vietnamese people had learned how to speak French, which they were still using when the Americans began to arrive in the 1960's.

- Warheads on foreheads: military phrase that essentially means putting very accurately aimed high explosives on the enemy

- Winchester: military aviation term meaning "out of ammo for some or all of their weapons."

- Boot: US Marine Corps pejorative term for any new or inexperienced Marine. It's kind of like the military version of "FNG" (fucking new guy) or in video gaming terms "n00b."

- M76 SRAAW: the M76 is a weapon of my own creation. It first showed up in my story, Missing in Action, chapter 5. As per my notes:

"M76 Short Range Anti-Armor Weapon (or SRAAW) is a single shot, disposable recoilless rifle that fires a 110mm hollow charged warhead (though variants with other warheads are available.) Based on the appearance and role of the modern-day Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank weapon, the weapon with warhead weighs a total of 12.9kg (or 28.43lbs) with a maximum effective range of about three hundred meters. The weapon has a saltwater countermass in the rear of the launcher, meaning there is no backblast making it safe to use in enclosed areas."

Author's Note

ODST: As mentioned in the introductory notes, I have, probably in the eyes of many, "nerfed" the ODSTs in this chapter. I did this because I remember that in the original Bungie Halo trilogy and extended media from that era, ODSTs were always supposed to be more like elite light infantry/commando units, akin to that of real-life British Royal Marine Commandos or the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment (pre-GWOT.) And that, their depiction as "Spartan-lite" operators didn't come about until Halo 3: ODST was released.

However, I'll admit that for a Halo fanfiction writer, my knowledge of Halo canon is probably weaker than it should be, so it's entirely possible I'm wrong and ODSTs have always intended to be those "tier-one whatevers."

Interestingly enough, from what I can tell, in the 343 Industries Era and the introduction of Spartan IVs, ODSTs in the post-Covenant War period seem to have, for the most part, assumed more of the "elite light infantry" role that I mentioned earlier. I'm not as familiar with 343i's canon as I probably should be, but a quick look at Halopedia seems to indicate that most of the missions and roles that ODSTs would have played during the war have now been assumed by the Spartan Branch, specifically the Spartan IVs.

At any case, for the purpose of this fic, I've decided to place a bit more emphasis on the "shock troop" part of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers name.

Readers are, of course, welcome to disagree with my depiction here, and if you wish to leave a comment or review saying as much, please feel free as all commentary and criticism is welcome here; I only ask that you keep it civil.

Thank you for stopping by.