Ch.2 The ODSTs

FEBRUARY 28th 2547 1600 HOURS (STANDARD UNSC CALENDAR)
HIGH ORBIT ABOVE EARTH
UNSC ORBITAL DEFENSE PLATFORM: CAIRO
Gunnery Sergeant Jackson Douglas

Jackson looked over at his squad mates as they walked around Cairo Station. The squad have been walking around for the past hour and a half looking for the terminal to the Twisted Fate. None of the squad have ever been on an orbital MAC platform facility before, and they were paying for it as their ODST battledress uniforms hung on their bodies. They carried personal M6C SOCOM pistols in their holsters for personal defense. However, they were prohibited from carrying any other weapons onto the Cairo. Jackson still could feel the groves of his BR55 Battle Rifle in his hands.

"We're lost aren't we." said Tasha, the squad's CQB specialist.

"Nah," said Monty, the hacker of the trio, "Just a bit turned around, that's all."

Jackson noticed a slight blush on Monty's face. His albino white skin clearly gave it away.

"Just admit it." Tasha snapped back, her long, jet black hair swaying as she walked, "You forgot where we were supposed to go, didn't you?"

"NO!" Monty objected while stopping in his tracks.

"How about we just ask that marine over there?" Jack said simply.

The two abruptly stopped their argument to look at him and the marine that Jackson mentioned. Not 200 feet away stood an UNSC Marine clad in olive green armor and clothing. He held a simple M7 Sub-Machine gun, since a MA5 Assault Rifle would be less effective in an area filled with crates and the like. Jackson immediately approached the marine without waiting for the squad to answer his rhetorical question.

"Hey," he began, "Can you tell us how to get to the Twisted Fate?".

The marine focused in on Jackson and his squad as he responded with a heavy Australian accent.

"Oi! You're that ODST group that Captain Recker requested aren't ya? I was just 'bout to go find you anyways. The ship's this way."

Jackson watched as the marine's finger pointed down the hallway toward a small frigate.

"Why such a small ship?" Jackson wondered aloud.

"Dunno," the marine responded, "Its been sittin' around here for the past month getting a refit. Maybe they added some metal coffins for your squad, eh?"

The marine began to burst into laughter. Jackson's squad didn't laugh at the marine's crack at a joke. The ODSTs knew the death rates of an atmospheric drop: 28% never made it out of the pod. It was more of a sore subject to talk about such a thing next to an ODST.

"What's your name marine?" Jackson asked, hoping to turn the conversation to a different topic.

"The name's Dubbo. Chips Dubbo." said the marine.

"Well, I guess we'll see you on the ship then." Jackson said as the squad began to walk down the corridor.

"Yea, whatever." Dubbo replied as he went back to his post.

"I'm beginning to like these people already." Jackson muttered.

"Come on 'Jackie', I bet you will get to know your little green friend more soon enough." Tasha joked.

Jackson blushed. He didn't prefer to be called 'Jackie' by his squad mates. 'Jackie' was a childhood name that many girls used to use to tease him in class. He wasn't sure how Tasha knew about it, but it was embarrassing that she did.

"I bet so." Jackson replied.

15 MINUTES LATER
ABOARD THE UNSC CHARON CLASS FRIGATE: TWISTED FATE
COMMAND BRIDGE
Gunnery Sergeant Jackson Douglas

Jackson and his squad walked steadily into the command bridge of the Twisted Fate. Many crew members flew past them with excitement in their face as they rushed toward freshly-cleaned chairs and keypads.

"Delta-3, over here!" a voice commanded.

Jackson gazed over to the center of the room. A man in, what he assumed to be, his mid-30s was waving his squad over. A look at his uniform told Jackson that he must have been the Captain that Chips mentioned.

"You must be Captain Recker." Tasha began without warning as he strode over to the man.

"Yes, I am. Welcome to the Twisted Fate; one of the fastest ships in the UNSC!" The Captain boasted proudly, "I haven't seen the crew this happy in a long time."

"Why is that sir?" Monty asked.

"Because this was the first time that the ship has been cleaned and refitted ever since the ship was first deployed. We were never on the UNSC's top priority. We were more of the first response to threats while the heavier ships came in behind us."

The squad remained silent as they imagined the bridge covered in dust. Monty shuddered at the thought of unclean equipment. Monty wasn't real keen on dirty equipment, as he came from a scientific background; the one that stays in a lab for 24/7. To an ordinary person, staying in a lab for that long felt more like 48/16.

However, coming from an desert-operations unit, Jackson didn't really mind the dust. It kinda 'suited him' as he put it. Tasha came from an urban-ops unit, so she was used to the filth of outer colony city streets.

"Anyways," the Captain continued, "How about we head to the meeting room to discuss the mission."

"Sure." Monty said a little too quickly.

The squad followed the Captain out of the bridge and into a main corridor. Marines and other crewmen walked up and down the corridor, scurrying past the Captain and Delta-3 as they moved along. The Captain led them past many doors, rooms, and even an armory.

'Gotta check that out later.' Jackson noted.

After a few minutes of walking around with the Captain, the squad finally ended up in the meeting room. A large mahogany table stood as the centerpiece of the room. A few black rolling chairs were spaced around the table. There was even an AI holotank carved in the center of the table.

'This is a nice room for a marine frigate' Jackson thought as he examined the room.

"Please take a seat." the Captain said as he gestured with his hand toward the chairs.

Without another word, the squad took seats around the table while the Captain decided to stand.

"Clyde, begin the briefing." Captain Recker commanded.

The AI blinked into existence above the holotank in the center of the mahogany table. His glasses sat heavily on the edge of his nose.

"Everyone here?" Clyde questioned as he gazed at the squad members seated around the table.

"If I knew this was going to be math class, I should've stopped and grabbed my book out of my locker." Tasha said sarcastically.

Nobody acknowledged her sarcastic remark as the room's lights dimmed and a holographic image projected itself above the table. Clyde stood next to the image with a ruler stick in his hand.

"This," he began, pointing his ruler at one part of the picture, "is a Covenant CAR-class frigate. A transmission that was intercepted by one of ONI's prowlers revealed the ship to be named the Penance of Betrayal. This ship has been hanging out near the planet of Aleria." Clyde pointed his ruler at another part of the screen. The planet looked dull in the image, but that wasn't important.

"What happened to the planet? Why haven't the Covenant glassed it with a super-carrier by now?" Monty asked out of curiosity.

"Well," Clyde began, "The planet was abandoned by the UNSC around the start of the Human-Covenant War. The planet is pretty much a "Third-World planet, as residents can't afford modern spacecraft. The planet has since became a lawless wasteland; ran pretty much by low-level governments called "Courier Gangs". Anyways, ONI has reason to believe that the citizens of this backwater planet might hand over vital intel to the Covenant. We can't allow the squid-heads to have this kind of information on our forces."

"So, where do we come in?" Jackson asked.

The room brightened up again, most of the holographic image went away, leaving Clyde floating above the center of the table.

"Well, you and your squad will hard-drop near the frigate's gravity lift. From there, you will enter the ship and purge any data that the Covenant has on the UNSC. If the transaction never happened yet, however, quickly exit the ship and get to a minimum safe distance to allow the Twisted Fate to swoop in and destroy the frigate before it gets a chance to relay the information back to their leadership. Does anyone have any questions?"

"I do!" Monty announced quickly, "Why don't ONI just send in a Spartan team to accomplish the mission?"

'Oh here we go again.' Jackson thought while adding an audible "sigh".

"Because the Spartans suck!" Tasha immediately snapped, her head turning to face Monty.

"No they don't!" Monty objected, "They are, like the saviors of humanity. They could do this mission better than we can and in half the time!"

This wasn't the first time that Monty and Tasha had this argument. Over the past several months, the two of them would argue from sunrise to sundown about whether the Spartans were better than the ODSTs. Some of these arguments have almost ended with gunfire at times. While Monty believed that the Spartans were the greatest things in the universe, Tasha wished that they never existed. Jackson always had to break up these arguments before they became deadly. Noting back to the armory they passed before, one of them could easily grab a weapon and accidentally pull the trigger.

Jackson wasn't sure about the Spartans. While he did agree with the majority of Marines on the point that the Spartans were the top dogs when it comes to combat capability, they did make a bad reputation for the ODSTs.

"Alright, break it up guys." Jackson said soothingly. The two stopped mid-argument and stared daggers at Jackson.

"While, yes, Spartans would be able to do this mission more efficiently than us ODSTs, we need them for the front lines. This is just a backwater planet that isn't even important to the UNSC anymore. We can handle this without Spartan assistance."

Monty and Tasha still stared at him, although their mouths were slightly ajar from the statement. Under normal circumstances, Jackson would throw one off of another before it got to violent and told them to get back to doing whatever it was that they were doing before. He never gave a speech about it immediately afterwards.

"Now, how about we end this briefing and go get something to eat?" Jackson continued before anyone could object.

"If anyone else doesn't have anymore questions," Captain Recker began after Jackson defused the argument between his squad mates, "head to your bunks and prepare for a slipspace jump. They should be located on E-deck, sector-17, starboard side. Dismissed."

Everyone left the room in silence except the Captain.

Thank you guys for waiting for the second chapter.

RNG OUT!