Chapter 16
Jack?
But in that second, his instincts took over, and he slid under the Hunter, grabbing onto one of its back-spokes began to thrash at the only other unprotected area within reach in a blind rage, using the butt of his Rifle, he managed to make its orange blood stain the ice which had been a similar colour not so long ago due to the Napalm. He flung himself from the dying Hunter into the snow and landed. He hit the ground just as the Hunter collapsed, staining the surrounding snow with more of its orangey blood.
Unsurprisingly, the only sentences that Jack could formulate after his stunt, as he was given a hand up by one of his fellow marines were the words "I think I just got whiplash".
Jack's unit had survived the incident on Nagasaki II, and were picked up four hours later after the subsequent battles by the orbiting Frigate Maracaibo for some well deserved day of R&R on a nearby UNSC Outpost/Docking station, several UNSC Marines units were sent as their replacements a bunch of greenhorns the lot of them, fresh from boot camp right to the slaughter, Jack caught himself wondering if he had any chance to see any one them again.
It was well known that they had struck the golden horse shoe of luck with the Scarab, and the Hunter just tipped it over the edge, but they were each congratulated anyway as no one wanted to point this out lest they were on the receiving end of an ODST fist.
Jack himself caught himself getting so desperate for something new to do that he was raiding the library for data disks.
He was picking up a particularly interesting one labelled Government Conspiracy theories of 2007, when he saw another member of his Squad, Catalina who was browsing through a Vid-Panel for a decent book to download.
He called out to her and she smiled back with a salute thrown in at the last minute, which was obviously more of a joke than an actual salute.
"Hey captain whiplash, what's up?" she called, her head tilting in an odd position, which gave her the sense of innocence most UNSC personnel lacked for obvious reasons, dark hair now flowing down ever so gracefully, Jack immediately formed a crush on her.
After a brief conversation about nothing in particular they both headed towards the Mess hall for lunch, although the Mess hall was crowded to the point of lunacy and noisy they still managed to hold a conversation between each other about Earth and what sight's they hoped to see there.
After the lunch together they went their separate ways and Jack found himself with even less stuff to do and even worse, he'd spent 52.25 on lunch for him and Catalina.
Lunch normally cost him only 5.00.
After an unusual period of time where he would go to his bed and get back up repeatedly he finally managed to get something close to a restless sleep.
Catalina on the other hand had returned to the library and now had three books and a data disk to keep her occupied throughout the following night. The Data disk seemed pretty interesting,
It was labelled Government Conspiracy theories of 2007.
Jack woke to the call of nature at 0530 EST (Earth standard time) and emptied his bladder in the toilet block.
He then went through his normal R&R morning routine, He got into his ODST grey Tank top, slid on a pair of track pants and jogged around the ship.
Everything was back to normal, for now anyway, and he wanted to keep it that way until the R&R time ran out at 0800 EST.
He jogged for an hour then cleaned his weapons, which took a further half hour.
Then took a short cold shower, where he contemplated what to do with his remaining forty minutes.
In the end he spent the remaining time suiting up before meeting with his superiors in the Debriefing room nearby.
As he entered the room he suddenly knew something was wrong. His superiors were smiling, as if to put on a happy face no matter the outcome.
The second he sat down he found out why.
"You're being re-assigned" said one of the superiors, with a grin that stretched from cheek to cheek.
"What about the debriefing?" Jack enquired an almost desperate tone in his voice.
"It has already been taken care of; your team has provided all the information we needed in that regard" The man replied,
It was unusual for any superior officer to cancel a debriefing indefinitely, especially for something like this.
Jack caught himself wondering where he'd been stationed, and then he noticed the call in sheet next to the door,
350 UNSC marines and 150 ODST personnel re-stationed, it also labelled their serial number, their name, and the area they were stationed to. As he watched, another ODST was counted in, bringing the tally up to 151 ODST.
"That would have been me" Jack said aloud.
He went to his room to collect his things and noticed a Vid-Panel stuck to the door, it read:
UNSC Marine
Serial #92884
ODST Jack Radisson Clarke
/ The following Document is classified, and is deniable by any or all major countries of the UNSC.
/
/
/
Project Return to Sender
This mission is designated Medium Risk
Dear Mr. Clarke,
Approximately two weeks and seventy two hours ago two elite teams were lost somewhere in the Sara system. As a final resort to retrieve the two units you have been chosen to lead a rescue. Your previous employment in the unit M.E.R.C Grey-Fox and your wish to be classified un-associated with the project will be held only upon success of this mission.
We apologise for any problems caused by this order.
The Mission if accepted is to either
a) Bring the two units back alive
b) Destroy any proof of their existence if they are dead
Signed Katharine Mallard
/
/
/
End Transmit
Jack stared at the transmit for a moment. He remembered his days in M.E.R.C, back when he was known as Drac, and when his lover Dog had been alive.
Dog fell silently, blood pouring from a wound in her chest as the energy sword was ripped from the hand of the Sangheili by Drac who died second, as he jumped over the Semi-melted sandbags which had been protecting him, running towards Dogs fleeing Murderer.