A/N: This Author's note only concerns you if you keep up with RWBY: The DAWN. But keep reading if you want. I know the series hasn't updated in a while, but we are still working on it. The work has just, and I am disappointed to say, slowed down. However, it has not stopped.
Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or any similar product titles concerning them. Halo is owned by 343 Industries.
UNSC Marathon-class Cruiser 'Saint Gabriel',
Orbit over New Acre,
Arcanus System,
September 14th, 2541AD
"In the beginning God created the heavens and earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters." James murmured softly in the corner of the dim room he was in, his MA37 assault rifle nuzzled up next to him. "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated light from the darkness."
He felt a strong hand pat his shoulder, and he looked up to see Corporal Max 'Breaker' Monreau. "You done reading that religious junk?" he asked. "We're getting ready to drop."
He got up to go get a sidearm. "Hey this is not junk. My parents were always forcing this kinda stuff on me when I was younger."
"So why've I never caught you reading it before?" James looked to see Breaker walking over to the ammunitions rack as well.
"Because we barely made it out the last time." James reached for a M6 Magnum and holstered it. "And I want to believe that I'm going somewhere better when I die."
"Afraid your life won't mean anything?" Breaker asked as he reached for a couple of frag grenades, while scratching the thick, grey beard that covered most of his lower face.
"What the hell kind of question is that, Breaker? Of course I'm afraid my life'll mean nothing. I didn't sign up to be an ODST for the thrill of the ride."
Breaker nodded, his bald head shining slightly in the low light. "Right. You came here to kill aliens."
"I wouldn't personally put it like that." James mumbled. "Anyway, don't you want to know that you're going somewhere if and when a Jackal puts one through you?" James put his finder to his forehead for emphasis.
"There are two problems with that." He put up one finger. "One: The Jackals can kiss my ass if they think they're adding me to their list of head-shot kills." He put up another finger. "Two: I don't care if I go to hell." Breaker walked off towards one of the Single-Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicles.
"And why, might I ask, is that?"
Breaker was testing the hydraulics on the doors as he turned to James. "Because I drop onto a burning planet and shoot aliens for a living, Fisher. Hell can't be worse than that."
The doors to the 'Drop Room', as James liked to put it, opened to reveal two other members of their team. One of them strode confidently across the room. "You boys ready to die today?" she asked to no one in particular, carrying her helmet in her arms.
"Good morning to you to, Ashley." James said, checking that his helmet was calibrated to the time of the planet as well as having a second standard clock.
Private Ashley Dunner had enlisted into the army at the same time James had, but unfortunately for her, the Staff Sergeant hadn't see it fit to promote her to Lance Corporal like James. Despite the fact that they had been serving for over eight months on at least six different theatres of war.
"Any word from The Boss?" Breaker asked Lance Corporal Sam 'Snow' McGill, who was attaching a silencer onto his magnum.
"Not yet. Though he told me to that we should be ready to drop the second he walks through that door." He pulled out his small, trademark cigar holder and immediately started puffing it.
"C'mon, Snow. This is a no smoking zone." James complained. "If you want to puff your Sweet William, or whatever it is, do it outside."
"Don't start with the Sweet Williams, those are a classic vintage, and should be respected." He warned jokingly, pointing a finger to James accusingly.
James just shook it off and walked over to Ashley, who was checking the time on a flip-open pocket watch. The first pocket watch that he had ever seen in his life. He sat down on the bench next to her. "Everything alright?" he asked.
She shook her head solemnly. "I had another dream about him, Jim." James knew from past conversations that she was talking about her father. In a nutshell, Ashley and her father never got along well. "I don't think he would've ever imagined that I'd be doing what I'm doing now." She closed the watch and began tying up her short hair into a bun.
"I don't think any of our parents could've imagined we'd fight aliens bent on turning our colonies into snow globes." He said, slipping on his helmet and securing it.
The sound of heavy footsteps drew their attention to a tall, muscular, imposing man with his ODST helmet already on.
"Staff Sergeant on deck!" Ashley shouted, which was followed by a crisp salute, which the rest of the squad did not hesitate to follow.
"At ease." He turned to Snow, who had grasped the cigar in his left hand, extinguishing it, during his salute. "Trust me, Snow. Black Princes are better."
"Sir, with all due respect," Snow continued while slipping on his helmet. "I work on an ODST's salary. I don't have the money to afford the vintage twenty-third century crap."
"Yeah, well if you want your next month's salary, you'll get in that pod and get ready to drop." He said as he slammed his palm into a button in the wall that sounded an alarm and caused a red light to begin flashing, then reached for a few frag grenades and a standard M392 designated marksman rifle, as he already wore his pistol like an accessory.
With that, the shock troopers began filing into their pods. James was the first into his, fastening the harnesses like his life depended on it-because his life depended on it. "Any hints or road-signs on where to be?" Ashley asked the staff sergeant as she got into her own pod.
Heler transmitted on a squad wide frequency. "The Covenant have the city of Able on full siege. It's gonna be hell trying to get our men out of there. But there will be a small window of opportunity as the fleet launches an all-out assault on the Covenant's." the pod doors closed and James listened quietly as the pod began being moved into place. "Other than that, we've got an artillery and sniper unit pinned down at a Majesty Hotel. Regrouping will be the primary objective, after that we'll split the team up to send reinforcements to Majesty."
He looked down through the opening that he and the other members of his squad would fall through towards the planet. He could faintly make out the scarred surface of the planet through the small, three inch thick tempered glass of the SOEIV pod, as well as the wreckage of several UNSC and Covenant battleships. James saw the overhead lights as they lit up. Red. Red. Green! He felt a sudden jolt as the mechanism holding up the pod released its primary grip system. The secondary grip was released, and James began plummeting towards the planet.
James tried his hardest to still his beating heart, but there was something about falling from the outer atmosphere in a titanium shell at more than two hundred kilometres per hour that always got his adrenaline pumping. He switched his comm. to open frequency, to try to get an idea how bad the situation was and take his mind off the drop.
By this point, there was more chatter planet-side than there was in orbit. The fleet had just slipped in as The Covenant had all but obliterate the Colonial Military Administration's small fleet of frigates that protected the planet. James only had to glance out the window to see the two fleets engaging each other, spitting bolts of yellow and purple from one side to the other. Some shots leaving trails of similar colours. The twisted and melted remains of some ships littered the orbit around New Acre.
A shuddered and a sharp bump-like force knocked James out of this trance. He had just entered the planet's troposphere, and from here on out, it would only get rougher. Passing through the clouds, he saw the city of Able below him. Skyscrapers were crumbling apart, and buildings were set ablaze. Blue and purple flames spout out of the streets as tiny streaks from James' height. At the edge of the city, towards a mountain range, he could see a Covenant Carrier hovering, waiting to glass the city.
A crackle in his ear caused him to refocus from the scenery to the operation. "Ok, everyone. Deploy your chutes on my markā¦Mark!" Heler shouted, which was followed by several SOEIV pods firing off their brakes and deploying their steel parachutes.
James did so, which made him feel like he was slowing down tremendously according to the scale in the pod, though it didn't seem like that when he looked out.
Now just fourteen kilometres from the surface of the planet, he could make out small green shapes that were the D77-TC Pelican Dropships. They zipped across the sky undertaking all manner of dangerous operations. Some were even being pursued by a Phantom or some Banshees, which were in turn, tailed by AV-14 Hornet crafts and UH-144 Falcons.
"Looks pretty bad, huh?" he said into his helmet, opening a private comlink with Breaker.
"Eh, could be worse." Breaker simply replied. "Dang, I think I'm gonna land in a casino!"
James chuckled, "Is that what it looks like? I can't see it."
"Yeah, looks like a casino. There's a lot of air traffic though, huh?" James looked down to see if he had to swivel the pod away from anything he might not crawl out from.
"Seems that way, must be a whole lotta-" he was interrupted by another the crackle of a comlink opening up.
"Jim, keep your eyes open. There's a few Phantom and Banshee squads below where you are." Ashley warned, causing James to wonder for a moment which pod was hers, as he had lost track in the troposphere.
"I don't think-" the pod suddenly jarred into a painful spin that gave James a headache and made him want to throw up.
As he was spinning out of control, he could've sworn he heard Ashley shout his name, before a hard collision caused his vision to go white, then dark.
