Author's Note: I said that this would be a little bit longer... but chapter 2 will definately be longer, I swear to God.
Chapter 1: Insertion
"Okay boys and girls, time to get dirty!" Sarge yelled into the radio. Everyone was in their drop pods, and O'Bryan could contact us inside through our radios. "We are dropping in a hot zone, so once that door blows open, you will grab your weapon, drop for cover, and blow away any covenant fuckers in the area. CLEAR?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" Was everyone's answer.
"Music to my ears!" Andrews said, he got too excited over action. But he was reliable. It took roughly 10 minutes to get planet side, and when we dropped down, the plasma and bullets were flying.
"Shoot that fucking elite Hawke! I've got the sniper!" Wolfe said. It was kind off good being back on solid ground. I spent so much time on that fucking ship, I forgot what real air tasted like. I realized I shouldn't being thinking of such things when a plasma bolt sheared past my helmet. I concentrated on the second elite, the one that fired. The one I'd been shooting at earlier now had 3 holes in his head that was leaking purple blood all over the ground. When that one was down, I aimed for various grunts (who were all running away, cowardly sons of bitchs), the jackals were already gone by Andrews' machine gun. It took 2 minutes to silence the DZ (Drop Zone). There were no human casualties.
"Man this place is hot!" Sanders said ripping off his sleeves. He stuffed them in his pocket just in case they were needed for first aid bandages. Most people were just rolling up their sleeves, but the sergeant kept his down. Mainly because of his showing of discipline.
"Ok, nice work. Hawke, Wolfe and Sanders, patrol the perimeter. Neilson, set up the transmitter beacon, and Andrews and Derdrick can place the charges. We can set hold here now." The sarge was just barking out the orders. When the first pelicans came in with marines, weapons, and warthogs, we knew we could take a breather. We earned that. Then the CO of the marines gave us our cue to get on with the rest of our mission. Really it was our second mission, clearing the DZ was our first.
"There is a covenant outpost near these ancient ruins." The CO said. He was a chief petty officer, and he was giving us our orders straight from the captain of the ship. "You are too infiltrate this area, kill all hostiles, level the outpost, and await our research team to arrive. Those ruins may hold some kind of clue towards any native life on the planet, and why the covenant have heavy land forces here." No one liked this one. Chief Petty Officer Brown was a suck up to higher ranks, to hard on the fighting boys, and a complete coward in battle. It really sucked to have that prick in command. I hope he would just die.
"Well, we have till 0930 tomorrow until we have to go." O'Bryan explained to his squad. "I suggest you make sure your equipment is in order and get some sleep. Remember to bring night vision and stealth items."
When I was done my packing, I took one long look at my family photo. I would probably see my brother somewhere here, I heard he was supposed to be garrisoning.
I awoke to Sanders shaking me. I thought he was my best buddy that prick.
"Dude, we half to go in like 15 minutes, get some breakfast in ta yah!" That's Sanders, always looking out for me. Well I had it coming, we did save each others asses on Polaris IV. We were both out in a clearing on that frosty world waiting for our extraction. We were the last of our squad, and we had no choice but to abort. Yet again those fuck heads in Intelligence were wrong. We had to hold off a swarm of covenant for 1 whole hour. How we did it still amazes me, but we didn't get extracted till a half our later. We were saved by the 5th Mech Infantry who were passing by. If those mech boys didn't get lost, we would be among our fallen comrades on that god forsaken ice rock. I never went back there, neither did Sanders. In fact, he went through therapy to get the horrors from that mission out of his mind, I dare not speak of it around him again.
"Wow, two flavors of gruel today! Horrid haggis and disgusting doo doo. Yummy yummy!" Andrews yelled out. Some people laughed, others ate. Most of the ODST's were already out of the building, preparing for there mission. I hoped this would be a simple in and out mission. No casualties, no hassles. Just in and out. We rarely got those now, but I still had faith. Faith that this stupid fucking war would end, faith to see my family and friends back home, and faith I would win the lottery.