I am sorry! I know I haven't updated my story and I apologize. I will try to update more often and I hope you will continue reading and to not give up on me. With that here is chapter 5, enjoy!

Chapter 5: Rude Awakenings

July 25th, 2552

Sitting in the earth with a black pillar of smoke rising from the newly exposed, earth sat Storm's pod, dented and morphed from the impact but still intact. The sky let down a beacon of light onto the surface of the under siege planet, the rising fire and smoke swallowing what were once mighty cities. They were now nothing more than empty hollow shells of the once impervious planet. With everything that was happening in such a short amount of time, Storm could only be certain about one thing; he was still breathing, in pain, but breathing. Knowing that he was completely isolated from all other UNSC reinforcements, Storm knew that he wouldn't have much time before he had covenant bastards crawling on his ass. He was planning to be long gone before they showed up.

His headache pounded at the back of his head like a bad habit, Storm hit the emergency release on the pod and a loud hiss came loudly from his pod moments before the door flew off. It skipped away as he rolled out of the pod since it had landed on its side. Standing from the deformed wreck, his eyes caught the fact that there were large craters that had the same texture of dirt as his pod was sunken into. That meant that his pod must have skipped across the ground hard, explaining his sore shoulders from being jerked in the harness. After calming his nerves a bit he then noticed something odd about his suit, immediately checking to find if something was broken or out of place. When he finally reached the groin plate he found it wet, smelling strongly of urine as dread filled his mind; bed wetter all over again. Even though he hated that nickname, he knew this wasn't a time to joke around and he even hesitated which when you are an ODST, hesitating will get you killed in a heartbeat. Shaking off the thought as much as he could, he began grabbing his gear from his dented and ruined pod. It wasn't easy and took him longer to calm himself down and force all of the negative crap out of his head. Finally equipped with his gear strapped and his battle rifle cradled in his arms, he began jogging away from his pod and up a large hill, jagged with rocks and his best bet if he didn't want to get grinded into a brute's breakfast. Once he made it about half way up the hill with the small rocks rolling down as he climbed, a loud whining sound went into his ears as he immediately placed himself into a small cluster of rocks.

Suddenly a phantom roared over the hill, followed by two others as they flew around the pod, dropping their teams of covenant consisting of elites, grunts and some shield jackals. Storm swore he might have seen a few sniper jackals in the mix but he didn't count, all he knew was there were 20-1 odds and that was enough to get him moving. After finally going from cover to cover up the hill, he finally sat crouched staring across the wide open terrain. Then as his radio gained a signal and a very familiar voice broke through the static. "Is there anyone on this channel? This is Corporal Butch of Angel squad. My pod is down and I am unable to…" Before the sentence was finished, there was a loud, vicious roar and the voice became extremely angry. "Fuck! They found me! If anyone is hearing this I'm at…!" A pound sounded through the radio and the talking ceased. Immediately he used his HUD to track the position of Butch's "distress" call and began moving towards his position. Apparently he had a bad drop to and he didn't know how long he would last against what he would assume to be brutes.

As Storm drew nearer and nearer to the source of Butch's distress signal, there was an immediate change of the regular silence replaced by the sound of rage induced screams and the hollow panging that reminded him of a child hitting a tin can with a stick. As he crouched down and kept himself low to the ground as he went up onto a hill, his eye caught four brutes all standing around the source of the signal and in front of the pod wielding a gravity hammer, a really angry brute chieftain. Judging by the dents in the door of the upright pod, Storm realized that Butch was still inside with a brute hammering on it constantly, this would turn out really interesting or really bad. Then with another ferocious roar the brute picked up his gravity hammer and smashed the pod door again, angry cursing coming from inside and then pounding back. "Hey! You dumb apeshit motherfucker! Let me get this pod open and I'll kick your sorry ass!" The brute responded by another scream and smashing the pod again, to which Butch responded, "That is it! Knock knock, here comes Butch!" Storm immediately raised his rifle and placed the sight on the nearest Brute.

Well…shit.

As the Chieftain raised his hammer to smash the door once again, there was a hiss from the emergency release and without warning as it held it above his head, the door flew off and hit it clean in the chest. When the other brutes raised their weapons to open fire, the one closest to Butch got a good nine bullets into the side of its neck and head, dark red blood spewing all over itself and gurgling as it crumpled to the ground. The other brute growled as it watched one of its pack members drop and in sheer rage fired a long burst of its brute spiker at Storm, pelting the earth enough so he took cover. By the time he reloaded his battle rifle, the sound of a shotgun blast boomed out and he poked his head out of cover. Butch was taking cover behind his pod next to the brute with a hole blown clean through the once armor covered chest, now just a bubbling mess as the last bit of life left it. Without hesitating Butch racked his shotgun and fired a blast at the brute to his left, blasting it with enough shot to blow its armor off and leaving it in a sheer rage. Storm then quickly replied with a burst clean into the dead center of its skull, jaw wide open as it flew back and landed hard. The last one took this chance to raise its brute shot to fire at Storm who was now moving to better cover, the grenade landing directly to his side which sent him sprawling to the ground. He felt some shrapnel hit his armor plates on his legs as he laid dazed, expecting the second shot to come and finish him off. But instead, Storm heard the crack of a sniper rifle and the wild shot of the grenade flying off from its mark. As the adrenalin wore off from the explosion and Storm regained his head. Butch was already picking up the gravity hammer and bringing it down on top of the chieftain's head, splattering bits of brain and blood all across the ground and on his boots. He spat down onto the corpse before glaring down to the body. "Doesn't feel very nice does it you shit sniffing son of a bitch!"

Storm examined the rage induced squad member as Butch tossed aside the hammer and went back to retrieve the rest of his gear. He chuckled as he walked over to the cursing man. "Still haven't lost it eh?"

Butch pulled hard on his Spartan laser until it came free, placing it on his back as he turned to Storm. "I never did lose my touch; you of all people should know that."

He couldn't help letting out a smile until footsteps approached and both he and Butch raised their weapons. Seeing that it was Red walking up to them, he gave a chuckle as the other two stood down. "Heard your signal Butch, was hoping for a few more injuries."

Letting out a sigh and holding his arms wide, Butch gave the appearance like he was sad. "I know, it must be a terrible disappointment to the crowd.

As the radio came through with Cross's voice, it was the three of them knew it was time to get back to work. "Storm, Butch, good to hear that you're both still breathing. Get back to us ASAP; we got a war to fight."

At that moment after a few glances, Butch racked his shotgun and chuckled. "After all these years of serving with you sir, I've never been more glad to hear your voice."

With that, Red took lead and ran ahead while Butch and Storm followed behind. Now, from all he had been through, Storm could only assume that whatever lay out before them, but one thing was absolutely clear.

If Reach was going to fall, those bastards were going to pay for every life lost with ten of their own.

Thank you for reading my story! I will try to work on the next chapter much faster than before. If you have anything you would like to see or even just a correction I should make, just remember to tell me and I will fix it as soon as I can! Thank you again and hopefully you will continue reading!