Troy made his way to the briefing room. He was surprised to see Flint there, along with Yuri who had obviously carried him.
"Flint! What are you doing here?" Troy asked. Flint chuckled.
"Same thing as you; I'm going on this mission."
"But what about your injury?"
"Well, I'm not going to be on the mission with you, so to speak. I was trained as a pilot before I was selected to be an ODST." Troy nodded.
"A Hornet?"
"You know me too well." They shared a moment of companionable laughter before Hoi and Calsu arrived.
"All right Fireteam Cobalt," Hoi began. "Seems our Covenant friends didn't take to kindly to the ass-kicking they received yesterday. By the way, excellent job Troy." Troy bowed his head at the acknowledgement, before motioning for Hoi to continue. "They've set up an outpost by a large Forerunner structure that had been previously disguised. Unfortunately, they are in possession of a large UNSC MAC cannon, as well as seven AA Wraiths. Our mission, teach them what it means to be human. And Sangheili," he added quickly. "Move out!" Troy and his team grabbed their usual weapons and headed to the pod bay. As soon as they were strapped in, Hoi started discussing strategies. "As soon as we get there, our top priority is those Anti-Aircraft Wraiths. Once those are down, we all storm the MAC cannon, allowing air support to break through and assist us with the mop-up. Be warned; if we don't take out all AA forces in the area, there will be no evacuation. Is that clear?"
"Sir yes sir!" Troy replied, seeing as he was the only human there. Flint would have too, but he wasn't on the same comm channel as them.
"Then get set to dive feet first into hell!" The pods dropped. Soon the hatch was flying off and Troy leapt out. They were at the base of a mountain. At the top of the mountain was the structure, with the very out-of-place-looking MAC cannon stuck on top, much in the same manner as a child would carelessly throw their toy on the floor. There were Covenant turrets everywhere, along with the seven AA Wraiths, two Ghosts, one regular Wraith, two stationary Phantoms and a Revenant.
"Shit sir, when you said hell, I thought you meant it in the routine way," Troy commented. He was referring to the ODST motto, 'Feet first into hell', which is what most ODSTs said before dropping. Of course, this was most likely literally going to be hell.
"Yes, it would seem as if the UNSC underestimated their armaments considerably," Yuri growled.
"Yeah well, if you hadn't spent the last seven years murdering us, we would've had more support staff to handle the scanning. So shut up and put that Beam Rifle to use," Hoi snapped irritably.
"Hey, what happened to Eugene anyway?" Troy asked, suddenly curious as to the whereabouts of their teammate.
"He's only going to accompany us on certain missions. He's kind of being shared around all the Fireteams at the moment, being reserved for serious situations."
"And this is not serious?" Calsu butted in. Hoi shook his head.
"Not as serious as delivering a Havok Warhead to a Covenant Super Carrier."
"Oh." Calsu glanced back at the enemy forces ahead. She fingered her comm. "I count twelve snipers; Four at the top, six on the balcony, and two on the main floor. Beware, they are all Kig-Yars apart from the two at the bottom, they are Jiralhanae."
"They will fall beneath my precise aim when the human gives the word," Yuri replied. Two of the Ghosts, a squad of Brutes and two squads of Grunts were heading their way, having seen the pods land. Hoi clicked open the ODWC that had been launched alongside them. Calsu observed the letters printed on the side with some interest and, unable to see what Hoi was doing in the modified ODST drop pod, decided to question Troy.
"What is an ODWC?"
"I-it's an 'Orbital D-drop Weapons Cache'," he grunted, hating himself for still tripping over his words nervously. Hoi pulled out with a Rocket Launcher and four ammunition containers for it.
"Troy, take this. As soon as Calsu and I engage the scout party, take out the Wraiths from that ridge," Hoi pointed at a small ridge sticking out of a cliff face. Troy nodded and moved behind a rock, waiting for his teammates to distract the enemy so he wouldn't get gunned down. Soon he heard gunfire, and sprinted to his destination. The Rocket Launcher and its ammo strapped to his back, he pulled out his SMG and disposed of a couple of Grunts who had spotted him. He quickly made it to the vantage point via a small outcropping that angled up to it. He crouched down and hefted the large weapon, looking through its scope at his targets. He fired the first missile at the Anti-Infantry Wraith to give his friends a hand. It took the hit, killing the gunner, but otherwise it was unharmed. Troy growled and fired the second rocket, this time managing to hit the cabin where the driver resided perfectly. He vowed to himself that he would work on his long-range marksman skills after this. He hastily reloaded and pulled the weapon up to fire again. Troy spared a moment to gaze sideways at the three remaining ammunition containers he had set aside. Each container only held two rockets, so he had eight left. If he could manage to use one rocket per Wraith, he might just do this. That, however, was a big if. Troy held his breath to keep the weapon from moving for extra accuracy. He took aim and fired. He hit the guns right off the back of the Wraith, leaving the turret the only operating weapon. Well, that's one way of doing it. Troy turned his attention to another Wraith. Soon, he had taken out all seven. He ditched the empty Rocket Launcher, yes empty, he had had to use two rockets on one of the Wraiths, and sprinted back down to where the battle between the infantries was just winding down.
As promised, Yuri dealt with the Snipers quickly and efficiently. His primary task accomplished, he amused himself by picking off enemies that were hanging back at the structure, too cowardly to join in the battle at the base of the mountain. He soon had them all scurrying for the cover of the structure's interior.
"Great, now what am I going to kill?" he pondered aloud, getting to his feet.
"Only one person will be doing the killing around here, and that's ME!" roared someone behind him. He half-turned, but was too late. He caught a glimpse of a grey-clad Brute Chieftain seconds before the Gravity Hammer crushed his skull and stained the grass purple with his blood.
Hoi and Calsu stood back to back, firing into the mass of Covenant that surrounded them. Calsu's shields were flaring as she took several hits from various weapons, even going so far as to protect Hoi with various parts of her body. In essence, she was using her shields to cover two people, and they were draining. Fast.
"I've got an idea!" Hoi shouted to her. She nodded, ready to accept any plan that would lead to victory and not their deaths. He rolled away from her, causing her to cry out and try to cover him. Time seemed to slow down as she watched in awe as he flipped nimbly around his enemies, sliding and dodging with the grace and speed of a ninja, which was surprisingly exactly what he had trained as. You had to have skill to be an ODST, even more to be a sergeant of them. Soon he had disappeared in the crowd, and she continued fighting. Her shields started flashing red. There was series of explosions all throughout the Covenant ranks, thinning them considerably. Hoi emerged tossing grenades every which way, and he wasn't going to run out of the small yet powerful objects anytime soon. Soon, Calsu was scraping the bottom of the barrel, shooting Grunts and unshielded Jackals. Her tiny speck of purple that represented her shield's integrity slowly grew bigger until they were at full strength again.
"That was exhilarating," she admitted. Hoi laughed in relief.
"Turns out I can learn a thing or two from that kid. I was thinking about how we could use some cover like our last encounter, when I suddenly remembered about the winning strategy Troy used last time." Calsu smiled at the ODWC.
"Well thanks Sarge, I admire you too," Troy grinned, emerging from behind a rock. "Just finished with them Wraiths, let's call Yuri and get this over with."
"Harr harr harr harr harr harr." Troy shuddered violently. That laugh brought back horrible memories. "I think you'll find your friend was is feeling a bit 'crushed' at the moment." Calsu raised a figurative eyebrow. When it came to puns and clever taunts, Brutes weren't exactly top of the class. She turned to face the massive chieftain, as did her allies. The monstrosity was way larger than any Brute she had ever seen, and was wielding a modified Gravity Hammer; it looked bigger and more powerful.
"Dorrak," she gasped. The menacing Jiralhanae was none other than Tartarus's brother, Dorrak. He laughed again, deep and menacing. Calsu stepped back next to Hoi, drew her energy sword in the place of her near-spent Plasma Rifles and spread her legs in a 'ready' stance.