FEET FIRST INTO TROUBLE

(Disclaimer: I don't own Halo)

James concentrated on his breathing as he dropped. Smooth steady breaths to keep his heart rate normal. He could see Donald sitting serenely in his pod, his eyes would be closed James thought. Tyler and Menendez would be a little nervous; they had never done an actual drop. School simulations were all they had ever done and the six volunteers had never done it at all. James could see their faces since they didn't have full head helmets on and the looks on their faces ranged from nervousness to one who looked like he was hyper ventilating.

He looked at the left screen and saw Captain Ambrose fade out to be replaced by Amy who would be their main point of contact on the ship for the mission. He next studied the distance to ground which was closing rapidly. He fell further and forced himself to stay loose and not tense up. He was jerked hard as his chute deployed and felt himself slowing slightly afterwards.

He slammed into the ground hard, jerking forward in the harness that kept him securely in place. Shaking his head he unbuckled quickly and reached for his sniper rifle which he secured on his back. His left hand reached down and grabbed the shotgun bringing it up to meet his right hand and racked it as he studied the camera outside for a quick second. Several plasma bolts bounced off the pod and he watched as the remaining pods hits the ground. He took a deep breath and slammed his hand onto the door eject button causing it to shoot off and plow right into an Elite rushing to investigate. Blood flew into the air and he ran out to the fight.

They had all dropped in the middle of the fight. The UNSC forces were on a hill with some rocks behind James and his men and several dozen Covenant troops were in front of them in some trees and rocks. 'Crap,' was his only thought as he slung his sniper rifle and racked his shotgun and running around his pod to the Marines up the hill. He heard other pods bust open and ducked in response to one flying over his head. The pod had landed on a rock and tilted sideways. James let out a chuckle as Donald tried to get out of it. He took a knee behind a rock to use it as cover and stabilized his sniper rifle across it. He began picking off anything that showed.

The Covenant fire slackened and then stopped suddenly and James watched as all but one made it up the hill. "Who?" was all he asked and Donald shrugged.

"I didn't really have time to learn their names," he said. He turned to the other five volunteers and asked for a name. Turning back to James he said, "McKinley."

James sighed and pulled up a screen on his H.U.D. where he marked the man as K.I.A. His team spread out to defend the hill and James re-slung his rifle to find the man in charge. It turned out to be a Marine Corporal James knew.

"I'll be damned," Corporal Birchler said as his H.U.D. identified James to him. "I haven't seen you in a minute."

"It's been a couple," James admitted reaching out to shake his hand. "I didn't even know you'd left third division."

"I didn't," Birchler told him, "We were on stand down on Reach when the call went out for the battle group and the battalion got tapped to go along with on from the fifth division then my company got picked for ship defense. The rest of the division should be behind us by only a few days. Now what're you doing here?"

"Same as you except they just sent my company," James explained, "We've taken heavy casualties and my team is pretty much gone. Came with thirteen and it's just me and four others left. Haven't heard anything about the other teams, but they're probably about the same as us." He paused before telling Birchler, "I was at the War Games and saw some of the ships company and I didn't recognize anybody."

"That's because we got our asses kicked," Birchler said, "Got a shit load of new guys, you know how it goes. I'm pretty much it from when you were there; I mean it has been over a year."

"Yeah," James said nodding. He wanted to ask what happened to the people he had known, but was sure he wouldn't like the answer. Birchler nodded his agreement and they stood silently looking down the hill.

"You know I thought about going ODST," Birchler said after a while, "But I figured I'd be dead in a few months anyways and kept putting it off. Now with the company pretty much gone I don't know what's gonna happen."

"It'll be rebuilt with all new guys," James said, "Now would actually be a good time for you to go ODST if you still want to. You won't have to feel like you're ditching the company when you should be training the new guy." James knew that a sense of responsibility to the newer guys was what had kept Birchler there; it was the same problem James had wrestled with before and after he made his decision.

They watched for enemy movement in front of them in silence once again and James eventually pulled out his sniper rifle while Birchler spotted for him.

"One beside that smaller rock to your two o'clock," Birchler called out and watched as James shifted and fired in one smooth motion not even pausing to shift back to his original position. It went like this for almost an hour before James could no longer find any targets.

"Three Elites, four Jackals, no Brutes," Birchler added them up.

"Yeah," James said, "Call for retrieval and let's get you guys out of here."

"Corporal!" James turned to look at Mendoza who was standing off to the left side down the hill from him. "Three drop ships on my eleven flying low into the trees."

"Two to our rear," Donald announced immediately after.

"Fuckin' shit!" James was not a poetic man but it fit the mood perfectly.

"Great," Birchler said sarcastically, "Just fucking great, awesome even." He sighed and began radioing the situation to his men while James contacted the Kiowa.

"UNSC Kiowa this is team three, come in over," he said and waited.

"This is the Kiowa, team three what's your situation?" answered a male voice, and James assumed Amy had been released from duty to sleep.

"Situation is goin to shit fast," James almost shouted, "Got five enemy ships dropping in around us, boo-ku enemy. I've got nine for me and seven survivors from the War Games."

"Watch you language team three," came the drawled response, "You are on official channels."

James went crazy, "Fuck you, bitch and your official channels," He was yelling over open frequency now, "Get me some goddamn air support now or when I get back I'm put my size twelve combats up your ass." He took a deep breath and added, "Where the fuck is the captain?"

"Right here Corporal," Captain Ambrose came over the link with a slight chuckle, "What's the problem?"

"I've got five ships dropping in around me," James' head snapped around as the Marines on the backside of the hill started shooting at a cyclic rate. It was going nuts down there. He looked up at the sun to see it going down and then to the front in time to see Donald and Tyler open fire on the tree line. "We're surrounded, only eighteen UNSC personnel here and possibly sixty plus enemy troops." He took a breath, "We could use some air support or arty if we can get it."

"It's on the way son," Captain Ambrose said.

The line went dead but James knew that the Captain would get him whatever he could. It was a damn mess he was in and said so to his men over their private link.