AN: Wow, didn't expect this story to get any attention at all. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! As for scheduled updates, I'll try to have a new chapter out by every friday.
Sorry about the short length, but this is the best I can do for chapters right now.
Chapter 2: Not in Kansas Anymore
0900 Hours, August 8th, 2555 (Military Calendar) / Unknown System, Remnant.
He could see nothing but fire, and he could feel the pod starting to become uncomfortably hot. As quick as it came, the fire vanished, leaving only the turbulent air in its place. The pod began its controlled descent to the planet, Cortana guiding it in a safe path as they put some distance between themselves and the fireball that used to be the Forward Unto Dawn. He spotted distant mountains and forests below, rapidly getting closer as the pod continued its descent.
"I'm detecting signs of civilization, Chief. Lots of radio chatter and settlements, definitely human. No UNSC or any other signals I can recognize." Cortana said as the pod started to adjust its steep descent into something more manageable.
Not UNSC? That didn't bode well, he thought. It's possible that this could be an outlying colony world, though unlikely due to the nature of the Human-Covenant war. Every colony at least had some form of space defense, in the form of satellites or warships. And there certainly weren't any around this planet. The next possible option would be Insurrectionists.
The planet could possibly be a hideout for an insurrectionist cell. It would explain why this inhabited planet would be so out of the way with no obvious features indicating its populated. Both options didn't bode well for his current situation.
The pod violently jerked as it roughly adjusted its heading, now falling towards the distant mountain ranges. He could see the lights of a large city near the base of the mountain, using it as a natural wall.
"I'm going to put us down in one of the forests near the mountain range, away from anyone who gets too curious about our approach." Cortana informed him as she made some more course corrections. "The Dawn came in hot, everyone on the continent could see her hit the atmosphere, not to mention all of the pods. I've set the other pods to land around the mountain ranges, put them out of sight for a while so we can recover them." Cortana said.
Their conversation was cut short as their landing was rapidly approaching. He double checked to make sure he was fully secured. He saw the green treetops of the forest below rushing to meet them, and prepared himself for the shock that comes with orbital drop insertions.
The Emerald forest was rather peaceful. As peaceful as a Grimm infested forest next to a Huntsmen training academy could get, anyway. The relative peace was interrupted as a distant roar made itself known in the sky. Looking up, the rather simple minded creatures of Grimm saw a streak rapidly approaching the forest from above. The roar only slightly lowered in volume as the mysterious object deployed a drag chute and jets to slow its neck-wrenching descent, slamming into the ground with an earth shaking thump. The Grimm did not understand what the object was, but they did understand what it meant: Prey.
With an ear splitting roar, the pod crashed through several trees, absolutely obliterating them. It slammed into the ground, digging a large trench due to the slightly off landing. It came to rest after impacting a small boulder, splitting it down the middle. Steam and bits of debris filled the new clearing, the Titanium-A armor of the pod warped and dented after the stress of re-entry.
The Chief shook his head to clear the dizziness from the near-death landing experience. ODST's were called Helljumpers for a reason..
"Another successful landing. Why can't we ever take the normal way down?" Cortana lamented as he checked to see if he sustained any serious injuries. Aside from bruising and dizziness, he got out rather lucky. At least his Luck still held out in the end. "That would be too boring for you, wouldn't it?" he quipped as he grabbed his weapons from the pods from the internal racks, which thankfully survived.
"True. Nothing like a few near-death experiences to liven up our day." Cortana quipped back as she checked the pod's status. The computer system survived, which confirmed that the pod door was unobstructed and ready to open, along with a motion tracker which displayed nothing around the pod.
"Ready to go when you are, Chief."
He nodded, and hit the release lever. With a loud bang, the abused Titanium-A door flew off and crashed into a distant tree. He leapt out of the pod, weapons at the ready, looking for anything that could of been attracted by their less than stealthy insertion. The clearing didn't survive his landing well, with several trees toppled and several more pulverized into small pieces. Their landing will definitely attract anything nearby.
Satisfied that the area was clear, he grabbed all of the supplies he could from the battered pod, gathering them in a rucksack which he slung over his armored shoulder.
"Whats our status?" He asked Cortana as he tried to get some distance away from the crash site before anyone could investigate. Sticking low and in the shade, he started to make his way to the nearest hill so he could get his bearings and establish some landmarks.
"I lost contact with the Dawn as she fell through the atmosphere. Looks like she broke up and her debris scattered south of the mountain range, unlikely there's anything recoverable. 17 other drop pods successfully landed and are awaiting recovery." Cortana said as she marked the Pod's general landing area on his HUD. About 10 kilometers south, not very far for a Spartan II.
Stealthily advancing throughout the forest, the Chief noted how calm and peaceful it felt. Ever since the Fall of Reach, it had been nonstop fighting, with short periods of rest in Cyrosleep. With the final battle on the Ark, the end of the war seemed to finally be in sight. He was not naive though, he knew there were still problems. He still didn't trust the Elites, even if they were forced to work together to take down the Covenant Loyalists. Thirty years of attempted genocide don't go away overnight.
His thoughts drifted to the Arbiter, and he wondered if the bow of the Dawn made it to earth safely. Hopefully the Arbiter could fill in what happened at the end to the UNSC.
Coming over a small hill, he spotted what appeared to be some sort of ruins in the distance. It was a ways away, on the north end of the forest. Being the only landmark he could see from this position, he started to make his way towards it. He frowned, thinking about the last time he went exploring ancient ruins, which lead to the release of parasitic lifeforms and the revelation of galaxy-wide super weapons. Hopefully this time around there were no crazy forerunner AI's, either.
Suddenly, his motion tracker lit up with a contact. A white blip, meaning its unidentified. Appeared to be roughly the size of a human.
He held his rifle at the ready, scanning the treeline where the contact was. He could hear it moving, approaching his position. Suddenly, it burst from the underbrush, snarling.
As it lunged towards him, time appeared to slow. Spartan Time had kicked in. He quickly examined the creature. It looked disturbingly like an anthropomorphic wolf, standing at the height of a human. It had jet black fur, with white bone like protrusions on its body, the most prominent being its skull-like mask. The wolf definitely wasn't friendly, and he wasn't about to test out his shields against its strength. He backpedaled, firing his assault rifle on full auto. The 7.62x51mm FMJ rounds tore into the beast's flesh, making it stagger and roar in pain. One final burst put the beast down, the bullets hitting it directly in the head. Whatever it is, it certainly didn't hold up to the UNSC's powerful weaponry very well.
He scanned for further contacts, and once he was sure it was clear he approached the dead animal. It certainly wasn't like any creature he'd seen before, though it had nothing on Reach's Gúta's. "Chief, this creature is unlike anything I've ever seen before! According to your armor's sensors, it does not output any body heat whatsoever, and I'd bet it doesn't have a pulse either. Be careful, there's bound to be more of these wolves in the forest." Cortana informed him. He nodded in response, idly watching the corpse as it dissolved in front of him. That certainly isn't normal.
He continued on his way, keeping a careful eye on his motion tracker the entire time. He'd rather not get ambushed by these wolf creatures. He'd have to keep a rather close eye on his motion tracker, as they seemed to be rather proficient at dodging his armor's other sensors.
About ten minutes out from the ruins, Cortana suddenly informed him that several contacts were approaching from the south at rather high speeds. She zoomed out his motion tracker, showing four human sized contacts that were flying at rather high speeds. His mind went to either more indigenous wildlife or unmanned flying drones. He turned towards the direction of the contacts, gun ready, as they rapidly approached. Looking up, he saw several explosions go off as something distinctly yellow flew overhead, cheering the entire time. What the hell? He saw the other contacts fly off in different directions. Looking around, he judged the source of the contacts to be roughly east of where he came from, most likely stemming from the cliffs. He couldn't see anything up on the cliff, but its possible there could be some sort of base up there.
"Chief, those contacts were people. Flying. There appears to be more of them than your tracker picked up, and most of them landed between us and those ruins. Odds are we're going to run into them." Great. More snags in what should of been a simple walk in the forest. Though nothing is ever simple when it came to his missions.
With a sigh he started to once again make his way towards the ruins.
Codex:
UNSC Forward Unto Dawn: A Charon class UNSC light frigate. The UNSC's light frigates mostly are used for fleet escort and troop deployment, but they can hold their own in a fight with their maneuverability and MAC Cannon. The Forward Unto Dawn was temporarily the flagship of the UNSC Home Fleet, commanded by Fleet Admiral Terrance Hood. It was one of the ships that led the offensive against the Covenant's Keyship in Voi, Africa. The frigate was also present at the Battle of Installation 00, also known as the Ark, with Miranda Keyes as its commander.
Installation 00/The Ark: A forerunner space installation which functioned as the hub for the Halo superweapons. Able to construct new halos to replace destroyed ones, the Ark was the site of the final battle in the Human-Covenant war, which saw the destruction of the Flood threat and the collapse of the Covenant Empire. Its true location is unknown, situated outside of the galaxy, and the only known portal was destroyed when Installation 04B (Replacement for Alpha Halo, see file CLASSIFIED) was fired prematurely, heavily damaging the Ark.
Gúta: A gigantic bipedal species native to Reach. Considered extremely dangerous, the Gúta is rarely seen outside of their homes in the mountains of Reach.
AN 2: Thanks again to everyone who is reading the story. Sorry about the writing skills, as this is my first time writing anything ever.