Chapter 2: Awakening.
Private Showpire awoke lying on his right hand side, his vision blurred and the taste of blood in his mouth. The screens on his ODST drop pod that weren't shattered were flickering between a life of static and the total darkness of death. His head was pounding as the image before him started to reach focus. His pod was a total wreck. A huge wedge of the drop pod door had been bent out from the bottom left corner. Showpire pulled the emergency door release but the door didn't fly away from the core of the pod. Instead only a slight clinking sound came from the door. He looked again at the bent hole in drop pod. It seemed that the door and the core of his pod had been twisted together by whatever it had hit. With no other options Showpire raised his left leg and began to push away at the jammed door. Inch by inch the door edged further open. Until only the top right hand corner was still firmly attached. With just enough space the ODST slipped his weapons out before squashing himself out into the cool night air. The private stood slowly and collected his firearms. An M7S ODST silenced SMG and an Auto Mag side arm with armour piecing rounds. The side arm also carried the advantageous smart-link to his helmet so he could see through the pistols built in scope by pressing a small button on the side of the gun. Both seemed in good condition after a quick once over so he stowed them in their holsters and slowly took in his surrounding area.
It was the pitch black of night and he could see a few air vents standing nearby, he had clearly crash landed on a massive rooftop. There was clear open sky above and the two nearby moons shone dimly off in the distance. He walked to the edge of the roof and peered down. Way down. Showpire had landed on a skyscraper roof somewhere in central Downmarket. He clicked his night vision on to help him peer into the darkened city but couldn't see much better from this height. He clicked his vision back to normal and called out to his squad mates. "Private Showpire reporting in… Anyone copy… This is Showpire anyone copy?" But no response came. Not even the usual static. Painfully he raised his right arm to his face to check his location on his wrist computer. But a blank screen awaited him. It must have shorted out when he crash landed. Showpire needed to find a terminal to plug into and boot his computer back up. Then he'd be able to check his location and maybe even contact his team. He ducked back into his drop pod and picked up his leg bag containing his first aid kit and extra ammo. Unfortunately only one grenade had survived the crash without damage but one is better than none so, feeling grateful, he strapped it to his belt and started his decent into the building.
Every floor he opened the door to check for any hard-line access. But the top floors where all still under construction and none seemed to have any power. About ten floors down the trooper found a basic office. Unfurnished like it had never been used but the hard-lines where already installed and that was all he needed. It took maybe ten seconds to reboot his wrist computer and download the city map with the power supplied directly from the hard-line. The computer sparked to life and the city of Downmarket came alive before his eyes.
The first thing that Showpire spotted was a crossed mic symbol toward the bottom right hand side of the screen meaning his comm's were down and then the he saw the date in the very top right. He'd been knocked out for just over twenty four hours. Now a new sense of urgency took hold of him. His squad had dropped into a combat ready enemy and had been without him for twenty four hours and counting. He decided to zoom out of his block wide view of Downmarket to see what else of use he could find. Looking down at the whole city one thing leapt straight out at him. The badge of his unit stood out like a neon sign in the darkness of night time, a waypoint made by one of his squad. This meant that one of his squad mates had logged onto the city central computer via a hard-line at some time since they landed and placed a note for any UNSC military personnel to see.
Nervously he tapped the ODST symbol. A small message popped up on screen. "Two members of 58th Marine core ODST's MIA. Two confirmed KIA. Surviving two under siege at tagged ONI headquarters with the large group of civilians. All together there are nearly two hundred of us. We have been chased down from the moment we landed and now we are pinned down by superior enemy numbers and are running low on ammo. Based on current situation we estimate we can hold for a few more hours but then we will have to try something stupid. If any UNSC forces receive this beacon we need immediate assistance!"
Showpire's eyes flickered to the time of the message and the time now on screen. Eight hours had passed since the message posted. He knew the chances of his friends and the civvies being alive were low but he had to make up for his absence so far. He set a waypoint to the location on his wrist computer so he might get to them by the most direct route and started off down the building.
The skyscraper was punched full of holes thanks to Covenant artillery rounds and almost every floor Showpire checked on his way down was a total wreck. Around the fortieth floor the trooper had to stop his decent as the staircase he was traveling on was missing for three floors below. It looked like a Covenant tank round had landed dead on the outside wall of the stairs and the metal steps had melted from the heat of the giant plasma round. Just enough of the concrete remained for him to drop down one level at a time until the staircase began again. But all the extra time delayed was starting to add up. It had been just been two hours since he awoke on top of this building and he felt the need to eat and drink. Showpire stopped quickly and drank from his hip flask. His legs burnt with the effort of carrying all his gear down so many flights of stairs despite his high level of fitness. In fact the thought crossed his mind that he may live a perfectly happy life from here on out without ever seeing another set of stairs again in his life.