Prologue
May 23, 2537 13:00 (estimated military time)
"Exobis", Polaris system
Data Log of Corporal James Yumic
I never liked the rain. I could stand the cold; I could stand the wind and chill, but not the rain. Unfortunately that's all it's been doing lately. Our power has been out for the last few days, and the only way I could stay warm is sitting near the boiling water above the broken dam. The Covenant destroyed the dam and the metal still hasn't cooled since.
We have been fighting on this planet for the last few weeks, just my squad of ODSTs, no marines, no air force, and no support. We were left here a few weeks ago after we were dropped. The frigate that dropped us, the "Exobis" was shot down four hours after we dropped. The majority of the remains of the ship fell to the other side of the planet, but we almost got hit by a good chunk of it. We were able to salvage a few guns, and set up 2 bases. A tower and a smaller base were set up at the peak of a mountain along with a helicopter pad. That was with the help of a forty servicemen and vehicles.
All was going fine until the Covenant decided to send a couple strike teams. Eight Hunters, 25 Elites, 86 Grunts, 10 Brutes, and 76 Jackals later, my squad was the only humans left. By the way, those numbers? Those were what we counted on the ground when the fight was over, not how many the Covenant sent. That battle was a week ago. Now we are held up in the ruins of our former base waiting for them to pick us off.
We have a plan though, at least now we do. On the other side of the river we live on, over a small mountain range, there is a Covenant tower and a gravity elevator linking up to a Covenant cruiser. A kilometer away is a spire and dozens of Covenant huts holding hundreds of troops. That's not even the worst part, above that Covenant cruiser as a Capital ship. Across the destroyed dam is a cave system that countless Covenant have disappeared in. We are guessing that there is something in there that the Covenant cannot handle. The Covenant have stopped using it, instead relying on aerial transport. We are going to scout it out tomorrow morning.
Chapter 1
May, 27, 2537 17:00 (estimated military time)
"Exobis", Polaris system
Byron-226 of the Spartan-II Green Team stood back up, examining the damaged data log. He shifted in his Mark VI MJOLNIR Armor, his golden visor reflecting the sun's rays while his dark green armor absorbed them. He looked around at the carnage. So many bodies lay on the ground, but only Covenant. In the data log it said the base was in bad shape but this is almost completely gone. Byron thought. And these blast marks seem new. The base seemed to be almost completely leveled. Almost any remains left were now gone, and the little firefight that Green Team just had only added to the carnage.
Byron's comlink suddenly hissed with static. "Contact! Coming from the east!" Byron whirled around, pocketing the data pad in his chest strap and sprinting over to a figure standing in the rubble of the barracks.
"Lots of contact!" Another voice breaks through the static. Byron sees another figure firing a MA5B Assault Rifle, using short controlled burst to take large bugs out of the sky. Drones, he was shooting down Covenant Drones. Byron reached for his M392 DMR, but found it had no clip. He reached down for his ammo belt but felt nothing. Damn! I knew I should have checked my ammo before picking up the data pad!
The Spartan next to him threw him a clip. "Last one!" She said before resuming fire. Byron nodded and made sure every bullet counted. There seemed to be no end to them. They almost blocked out the morning sun. The clip soon was out, and Byron found himself frantically searching for a weapon. He found what he needed four meters in front of him. A dead Elite lay on its back, blood pouring from its face; next to him lay a Type-51 Carbine. Byron felt a few bolts of plasma hit him, his shields absorbing the blow. He dove for the carbine and then rolled into a concrete slab, for you couldn't really call it a wall anymore. The Spartan checked his shields: 45%. Byron checks around the corners, to find none of his allies are in sight.
But the drones are still firing, so they can't be dead yet. Byron checks around the corners, finding only Drones; nothing but drones. They must have a colony or someth- wait a second. Only Drones… Byron opened up his team interface on his HUD. Six steady, if not quick pulses, breathing normal-wait; the breathing pattern of Ben-089 stopped. Suddenly a thin, white line of smoke appeared in the sky as six Drones in a row dropped dead. Ben's breathing returned to normal.
"Sorry I'm late, exploring." Ben's rugged voice comes through the speakers in Byron's helmet. "I found a cave opening, don't know how deep it goes but" His sentence is cut off by another shot of the S99AM Sniper Rifle and a few more Drones exploded. "-It should get us out of the fire."
"Sending you the information now, sir." A feminine, slightly monotone voice said. The voice belonged to the AI unit, Jill. She (if you could call her that) was with Ben, helping with the recon and scouting part of his job.
Byron's HUD flashed a few moments and he ducked to cover. The layout of the situation turned into a 3D pixilated world. The plateau they were on was in an orange color. The stream in the ravine below a pale blue; Byron saw six green dots. Three were situated in the broken barracks near the tower, with the numbers "041", "042", and "043" above them. Peter, Will, and Joe. Those three are spectacular when they are together. They have only been split a few times, leading to terrible results.
The Spartan noticed "226" was actually the closest to the bend in the river 25 meters below. A green dot with "069" above it lay directly behind him; Hannah, the second in command. Of course a green dot with 089 lay on the top of the broken tower. Then there was the ever present giant cloud of red.
The map disappeared over the ridge across the river, but the Spartan knew more were there; not only drones, an entire flagship of Covenant aliens. Looks like there was only one option, follow the ODSTs.