Ruins of the Capital City of New Jerusalem, Cygnus System
Platoon Staff Sergeant Hemin, Leroy J.
September 13, 2552
1st platoon, Kangaroo Company, 3rd battalion, 216th Star Regiment, 105th Helljumper Division
Orbital Drop Shock Trooper of the UNSC Marine Corps
"The name's Naomi," said the Spartan. She then walked over to the Elite corpses and searched through their armor for probably one of those artifacts.
"What're you doing exactly?"I asked Naomi.
"Finding anything nice for Halsey," she replied. The rookie was staring in awe at the sight of this huge Spartan. He shook his head and came back to reality after I said hey.
"Who's Halsey?" asked the rookie still in a little bit of awe.
"She was someone of significant importance towards us," said Naomi. It was like she had been practicing that line for some time with the way she said that sentence.
Naomi walked to one of the Grunt corpses. The fuck-faced creature had silver armor which denoted it as an ultra Grunt. She pulled a tiny stick-like object from one of the creases of the armor. She then called in a Hornet for evac.
After about 15 minutes, the Hornet came into the city towards our location. Naomi waved it in while the rookie was about to take a nap.
"Hey, sleepy-head! Wake up!" I shouted towards him. He jumped upward into action just as the Hornet landed. The pilot abruptly got out and said that a Covenant destroyer was headed their way. Naomi ran towards me in her Mark V armor and pulled me away for a quick chat.
"I never got your name Staff Sergeant," she said.
"It's Hemin ma'am," I said.
"Ok, Hemin, well we have a problem," she continued, "Since your rank is superior to mine, I have no choice but to tell you that the Covenant have found Earth." I looked at the barren helmet and asked if this was true and she said that she was the one responsible for the Covenant findings. She told me in less than two minutes, before the pilot told us to get a move on, that she failed to get onto a prowler whose crew died onboard from a radiation leak from a nearby glassing on the planet Coral. The frigate that she was on was destroyed by a super carrier and was lost with all hands. She was left drifting in space before she made an atmospheric jump into New Jerusalem.
"It wasn't your fault," I said, "You didn't have a choice in the matter."
Right when I completed my words of trying to comfort her, another phantom came out of the sky and fired its sonic gun towards our position. I could see with a sight glimpse of it that six Elites and two Hunters were jumping out of the holding area. The rookie got off the Hornet while I said to the pilot to get in the air and fire at them from the sky. He nodded and took off. Not one minute into the fight one of the Hunters fired its primary weapons at the Hornet. Screams were heard and the Hornet melted under the intense plasma being fired at it.
"Fuck-berries," I muttered, "Everyone get to cover now! Move!"
I looked at the other Hunter who I thought was staring at me and it appeared true since it was firing its assault cannon at me. Before I knew it, the rookie went in front of me, while Naomi jumped in the air and landed behind the Hunter. The other Hunter saw this and fired. The Spartan jumped back up into the air as the fiery plasma soaked into the Hunter's orange back. Naomi landed onto the shoulders of the Hunter, who fired, and ripped off its wormy head easily as if she was ripping paper. All this was happening while J.D. and I were firing at the Elites. Three fell while the other three used jet-packs to get back onto the Phantom when it, all of a sudden, exploded in a midst of purple and blue fire. Two other Phantoms were behind it and fired at the remaining Elites. The rookie was taking cover behind some rubble as I witnessed this spectacle in confusion.
"What the hell just happened?" I shouted to Naomi. The Phantoms landed and Brutes came out. I knew there was some type of feud going on between the two species of Elites and Brutes but this was now something very new.
The rookie and I fired at the Brutes just as the Phantoms left. We left one alive and questioned it.
"What's your name?" Naomi asked.
The Brute answered with a growl. Naomi took out her M6C magnum and fired a round into the Brute's face. Red mammalian blood splattered out onto my armor and I noticed a gaping hole in its face.
"What the fuck?" I asked.
"It wasn't answering," Naomi replied with an expressionless voice.
"Hey guys, look," said the rookie. A Pelican dropship was moving in and the pilot lifted up the glass cockpit once it landed.
"You guys look like you've been through hell," the pilot said with a female voice. I said yes and we all went into the Pelican's cargo hold.
Naomi said, "Earth is our last bastion now. Humanity will fall if Earth is glassed."
I replied, "Well then, I think now one of us probably has their last mission at hand. J.D., you're being transferred to another regiment. Your new commander to whack you when you're asleep is a guy named Buck. Good luck." I walked towards one of the boxes near the wall of the cargo hold and sat down. I took Gage's journal out of my armor and let out a few tears.
I whispered, "I'll be joining you along with Susan soon after this fight I bet. I've done my time. Us ODST's fought well but in the end I think the Spartans will have the last fight." I chuckled and fell asleep on the cold surface.