The Gallery
This topic has moved here: Subject: Halo: Ghosts of Reach( Prt1)
  • Subject: Halo: Ghosts of Reach( Prt1)
Subject: Halo: Ghosts of Reach( Prt1)

Custom game nights? Contests? Great staff? Active members? What are you waiting for, join The Human Military.

I really hated this war.
When I had first joined the UNSC marines, I has come in with the same cocky demeaner every young man had. I has simply wanted to bag me an lien and inflict the same pain on them as they had been inflicting on hummanity. Of course the covenant weren't your ordinary scrawny, big headed, bug eyed grey that were depicted in every sci-fi story known to man.

In fact , instead of cute, they were terrifying. Even now my heart raced as I loaded myself into the S.O.E.I.V pod( Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle). I had technically only been an ODST, Helljumper, for only a week and had only ever made one drop. Maybe I never hadn't gotten used to strapping myself down in a titananium shell to be shot through space with no control. Your life was only in the hands of fate.
As the launch bay filled with fellow ODSTs scrambling about to various tasks, my platoon leader made his way over to my pod. Sergeant Dwayne Hicks. He was the very reason I was in this outfit. I owed him my life. And not just on one occasion. Every shock trooper in here had been saved by him at some point in ther career.He even let guys who had survived one combat drop call him by his first name; off duty.
He was stout man, not very tall but lean and imposing in his physique, even in full Helljumper gear. Hw would have looked like one of those funny renditions of amidget muscle head. he placed a gloved hand opn myshoulder.
"Jackson. We all squared away?"
"Yes sir, Sergeant." One thing he never tolorated in Delta Company was slopiness. After every op, your gear were to be inspected, cleaned , and properly stowed away. The same goes prior to the mission. Altough I had acknowledged that my staus was green, I stepped to the side to allow him to personally inspect my pod.
As he did so. I made my own inspection. The interiors were extermely cramp, adding to the feeling of claustrophobia when inside. Mulitple weapons lined on side the pod, a MA5B assault rifle, A BR-55 Battle rifle, two caseless M7 submachine guns complete with silencers a sachel of grenades, 2 lotus tank mines, a vast array of communications gear, and plenty of ammunition. We went in feet first...and heavliy armed.
Hicks nodded and grunted in satisfaction. Everything was organized, properly stowed away, and easily accessible once I landed. " Excellent work Jackskon. Keep this up and maybe you'll make squad leader."
" SIR, YES,SIR", I saluted promptley. He returned the salute, not beacuse he had too. I had no reason to salute during the inspection but I wanted to mask my fear with entusiasm. He returned my salute as a courtesy.
" Carry on trooper." He made his way dowm the cat walk. The entire Launch bay for ODSTs on the Undying Legacy[/i,] our frigate..and home, was a series of criss crossing catwalks three levels high.On all levels, multiple ODSTs from different squads all made their final checks on their gear.Their black armor glowed scarlet as nthe bays alert lights siwrled in rapid circles.Sergent Hicks personally checked all 25 of his platoon's pods then called.
"DELTA's! FALL IN!"
We all did. We formed a tightnit circle around him.The ones furthest in took a knee allowing us in the back to see our sergent. He removed our helmetand looked us over. He sighed.
"What a bunch of grunts. Listen up! I don't want any heroes in this outfit. You go in, do your jobs and we get out. Got that."

"WE GET YOU SIR", we all chanted.
"Good", Hicks said, rubbing his salt and pepper mustache." When we hit, we move by the ripple." That was an effective tactic. We would all hit the covenant from afar with our long range weapons, then almost instantly another group of us would push in before they recovered but to do this we had to land perfectly in our predetermined postions." Teams 1 and 3, you immediatley strip your gear upon landing and form a line approxamatley 2 miles apart. The rest of you grunts are with me, we hit right behind the bastards. We mop up the mess, secure a path for the evacuation convoy, nd hold that spot until our people are far away from this world."
A trooper beside me, Hudson, or as everyone else called him, "Buttercup" because of his love for the butter cup muffins down in the mess, stood up. "Why does teams 1 n'3 get to play with the new toys Sarge." He was referring to the new weapons cooked by the spooks in ONI, the Weapon/Anti-Vehicle Model 6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle or Spartan laser. It was the only weapon known the UNSC that destroyed covenant armored instantaniously. It was indeed invaluable on the battle field and expensive. Which is why the[i]Undying Legacy
had only been given 3, 2 of which was given to my platoon.
Another trooper from my squad , Bruno Hackasaw nicknamed Flipper( for reasons I don't know why) chimed in. " Because you couldn't hit the side of Patrick's ass from from 5 paces."
He was referring to another member of my platoon, Patrick Zimmer, a heavyset trooper who looked more like a walking gloabe in his armor, no offense to him. He had survived the training though, which was no small feat for anybody. " Bite it Flipper", he snapped.
"Stow it ladies, or I'll shoot both of you to the nearest moon", Sergeant Hicks barked.The over head lights turned green. " Alright you grunts, LETS MOVE IT!"
We all raced for our pods.
I hopped into mine and strapped myself down. Every ODST had what we called drop mate. Someone who was experienced who double checked us novices when it came to getting settled. Mine was a guy named Hendrix. While he was no novice, his previous team had been slaughtered when Reach was glassed. He had been transferred here the same time I was. We became good friends and later I found we had come from the same colony, Troy IV, which was now a world of glass now.
He had been a very religous man., something that was rare in the age of universal ideals. The UNSC represented the entire world coming together, and with that the fighting of different parties, be it political or religious, had effectivley ended. In fact, religion in the sense of the what we had learned it had been from history class in the 21st century and back was no more. Somehow hummanity had either forgotten those ideals or purposely wiped it away to enforce global unity. The term God was, outside of loose mentioning in typical phrases, was a rare belief now.
There were a few people left who held on to their religious circles. My parents for one still followed and taught me about Christianity. As Lance Corporal Hendrix was a Catholic. Nobody else seemed to care about our religous beliefs. I didn't understand it. How could anyone look at the vast wonders of space and not believe in a higher power?
Often everyone else would turn to Hendrix for morale support. We all would gather in circles and he would read us a prayer. It made drops like this alot easier. He looked at me with the expression of an older brother tending to his sibling as he tested my straps and read the status screen in my HEV pod.
He smiled at me." Nolan( My name, I'm of Irish decent), don't do anything stupid out there. We don't need anymore of our young dying, not while hummanity is on the edge"
" I don't think I'm brave enough to to something stupid", I admiited. I never ever thought about derserting during combat( though I haven't seen much), I never felt I would be a decorated war hero, let alone win the Medal of Honor.
" Good do your job, and we'll be checkin the ladies out on shore leave next week," Shore leave was almost nonexistent in at this point in the war. We would only earn some R&R should this op go smoothly and the UNSC forces here survived this battle to lick its wounds at the next colony.
Hendrix recited an old prayer.
"O Prince of peace, we humbly ask your protection
for all our men and women in military service.
Give them unflinching courage to defend
with honor, dignity and devotion,
the rights of all who are imperiled
by injustice and evil.
Be their rock, their shield, and their stronghold
and let them draw their strength from you.
For you are God, for ever and ever."
I nodded. I took some comfort in his words but they also seemed to make a mission feel final. " Your're good to go." He slapped me on the shoulder and jogged off. I swallowed hard. The feeling of claustrophobia was returning. I couldn't move; save only my hands that gripped the 2 navigation joysticks that could allowing minute adjustments to your droppod's course. I watched as every other pod sealed completely hiding my comrads from view.
Theysay you need to be a special kind of crazy to be an ODST. I don't think I was ever that
insane. Some of these guys lived for these drops. It was their fix in life. And if you weren't that kind of crazy, you shouldn't be in this outfit. I guess I had it a little. I never backed out from a drop so far. A few ODST recruits have in past, and were labeled washouts forever among our ranks. It followed throughout your remaing military career in your files, if you had a career in the future.
In the time of appacalypse for hummanity, cowards were not welcome. I guess that is what kept me going. But as the seal on my pod shut, engulfing me in total darkness, I became afraid. There was a sudden and bone jarring bump as my pod descended downto the firing tube. We were being loaded like cartridges in a M90 shotgun.
The Bumps continued and I became more afraid.
Bump
Bump
Bump, Bump
The jolts became more rapid as my pod neared the abyss of space. I would forever hate these moments, the period where your're helpess. If the ship got fragged, you were a dsead man and there was nothing you coould do.
Nothing.
I was aware there was a massive space battle was ocurring in space. A single stray plasma shot could boil my pod around me and flash fry me. There were some many ways to go at this point. None of these realizations were met as my pod shot into space.


[Edited on 06.27.2009 11:13 AM PDT]

  • 06.26.2009 11:42 PM PDT

Custom game nights? Contests? Great staff? Active members? What are you waiting for, join The Human Military.

Prt 2

My stomache lurched as my pod dropped rapidly against the artificial gravity generated by the Undying Legacy. Once I hit space, the violent rumbling stopped.( I guess thats how you can tell if you've survived the drop so far) Everything was so smooth, seamless as my pod dropped into the unknown.

White light illuminated my surroundings as my HUD screens came online. Once the image resolved I got the scare of my life.

A covenant seraph fighter screamed pst my pod, only on hairbreadth from my screen. A pair of Longsword attack bombers followed in close pursuit. Once the craft cleared from view, I got a look at the carnage ensuing all around. I could see my fellow trooper's pods all dropping.

Or freefalling.that would have been the correct term. A cruiser decended low enough into the planet's gravitational pull( the distance you'd have to go down varied with each planetary body, thier relative distance from the sun,tec, alot of sciency stuff I would nevr understand.)

All I knew I was falling, rapidly, uncontrolled, saved the pod's navigation computer. The planet we were going to save was a large colony city named Utopia. The city, from the vid postcards my longtime girlfriend would send me, it was beautiful, truly desrerving of it's name. The colony pioneered the most exotic designs in architechure and engineering. Alot of soldiers who had shore leave would make this place their first stop.

But not today. The planet was on fire. Its entire surface, was covered an sapphire ribbons of rivers, rolloing emerald plains, and snowy white mountains was all burning. the entire planet's surface glowed a crimson red. Spots of fiery yellow marked burning patches of land. Mile wide craters dotted the planetoid's crust. Trails of oily black smoke stretched into space.

And up here... it was hell. Scarlet streaks of plasma criscrossed with yellow tracer rounds from UNSC warcraft, anyone of them capapable of hiting our unprotected pods. Covenant frigates and carriers broadsided with our own cruisers, effectively boiling away their Titanium armor and reducing them to vaperous gases.

A wayward banshee crashed into a pod and they both disappeared in a cloud of rocket fuel and plasma.

"Delta 059, Adjust your trajectory to heading 9J by 3B", a female voice burst out with static on my comm. Her face winked unto my screen. Anita Jenkins was our mission coordinator Delta company. She was quite the looker. Petite, sharp hazel eyes, and well kept wavy brown hair. She had, like me and Hendrix, been assigned to Delta only recently. " Repeat! Adjust your course to 9J by 3B."

I glanced at trajectory estimator. I wasway off the mark. That near miss wqith the covenant Banshee must have sent wayward. I fought with the stubborn Joysticks nd pulled harf to starboard. But at the speed we were falling, the pod had no traction. Butter's face winked
unto another screen under Anita's. " I losing----ontrol---------rocket fue-le-aking."

The only thing worse than not being able to control your fate was watching helplessly as a comrad was dying. I'd seen alot of this during my time in the UNSC. Hudson kept shouting
" The pod----on-fire--help me!" I saw his pod, it was due est of mine. The chute, which was out to early, trailed red fire. The HEV spun violently. the worst part was that these vehicles had no form of an ejection modulue. Our suits had limited life support capabilities in space, but only limited. But we were to far down Troy IV's atmosphere. He was going to die burning.

His image disappeared violently in a flash of light. His pod morphed into a ball of fire. I clenched my jaw. Any of us could be next. In fact statistically speaking, more ODSTs die in the drop than in actual ground combat. There were numerous ways to die out here; getting shot, faulty armor layering that resulted burning to death on reentry. Sometimes your chute failed to open. That was indeed a very painful way to go. You landed feet first, so the sudden stop in movement at 100mph resulted in the worst case of broken leg you think of. In fact the pulverized bodies inside couldn't even be classified as human anymore.

Sergeant Hicks barked over the comm. " Everyone keep it together, we're almost there. Ensign Jenkins get ready to give the order."

"Roger that", she replied." Prepare to deploy chutes on my mark."

We had cleared the space battle and could finally see the charred surface of Troy IV. There was still an intense air engagement taking place. But this time, in addition to the crisscrossing weapon's fire, there was anti-air explosions to deal with- friendly and covenant alike.

" Deploy Chutes now", Anita called. I flipped the trigger under my steering systems. There was a sudden jolt as the my pod's chute folded out in addition to the rocket jets firing beneath the pod. My teeth rattled as my speed rapidly lowered then stabilized. Now comes the worst part falling through a raging dogfight at reduced speed. We were still moving pretty fast but nothing is faster than pure free fall.

Another pod, a guy from another platoon( I think) continued free falling, his chute fell in tow with him down to the surface. Another death. But at least nobody was shooting at us from the ground this time. I was still readjusting my landing course when Anita's voice came in over the squadron tac net channel.

" ETA to landing t-minus 30 seconds. Prepare for ground combat. Good luck down there boys."

" Roger that," Hicks replied." Alright Deltas, make ready to kick some covenant ass."

The ground was coming up mighty fast. It was almost startling, but if my squadmates had any doubts in themselves, they sure as hell did a good job of not showing it. In unison, we all acknowledged Sergeant Hick's statement with a motivated team chant-

" SIR YES SIR!"

"Ten seconds", somebody called.
I took a deep breath.

5 seconds

I had only a moment to register the fact that I touched down before stars exploded across my vision and I lost conciousness.



[Edited on 06.28.2009 4:02 PM PDT]

  • 06.27.2009 12:13 AM PDT

The land of fun freedom has been taken by the recon greedy fingers of the boosted 50's and lag switch wielding trolls of the bungie forums. The ones blinded by the goal of a 50 don't see how fun halo is any more it became a goal instead of a recreation....... Sorry to say man but its over.

baddass

  • 06.27.2009 1:53 AM PDT

Nice job mate, ah, I remember back in the day when very few were posting stories in the Gallery, mainly me and Max. So much has changed, and it's great.

  • 06.27.2009 2:03 AM PDT

''''''''''''& #39;'''''''''''&# 39;''''''''''' 9;'''''''''''' ;
'''''''
''''''''''''& #39;'''''''''''&# 39;''''''''''' 9;'''''''''''' ;'''''''''''' ''''''''''''& #39;
''''''''''''& #39;'''''''''''&# 39;''''''''''' 9;'''''''
''''''''''''& #39;'''''''''''&# 39;''''''''''' 9;'''''''''''' ;'''''''''''' ''''''''''''& #39;'''''''''''&# 39;''''''''''' 9;'''''''''''' ;'''''''''

kinda long but i enjoyed it great work dude

  • 06.28.2009 12:39 AM PDT

Custom game nights? Contests? Great staff? Active members? What are you waiting for, join The Human Military.

If there is one thing I learned from being an ODST, hitting the ground at over a 100mph feet first can give you a hell of a headache. At that moment I wasn't sure whether I was dead, alive, or somewhere in between. I guess somewhere in the middle, because I had some dim awareness that I was breathing but als that godforsaken shouting that blared into my ears sobered me up to my situation.

" Godammit, Jackson! On your feet. You wanna die layindown?!"

There was no doubt that it was Sergeant Hicks screaming. I hadn't even realized that my pod had already spilled me out until I removed my head from a clump of mud and rock. Trying to size up my situation, I took in my surroundings. What I got was something I never wanted to see again. Instead of being the majestic paradise this world once was it now looked like real life version of Dante's Inferno. There was no evident trace that Utopia had once support vegetation and plantlife...there was just glass and smoke in every direction.

I tried to set my mind on my job but failed as I nearly tripped of over a smoldering skeletal corpse of what couldn't have been anything but a small child. I felt my blood drain as I soon realized I had landed in an entire littered with dead colonist.

Its sights like that which can reduce the hardest man to the state of 2year old girl. I know. I've seen it. I moved quick to salvage as much gear from my pod as possible. I had miniature armory inside but the ironic part of the heavy loadout was that is was often more than the trooper could carry. And you usually didn't get the chance to make return trips to your HEV pod. So I settled for a battle rifle( Old Reliable- as Butters had once dubbed it), The MA5B assault rifle( I left the SMG as I never cared for those airsoft guns anyhow), and loaded all of my explosives into a field backpack.

I took a quick glane at my suits T.A.C map. The terrain on the battle field was jagged nightmare. It made reading a topographical map a pain in the ass. From top to bottom, a yellow line cut through the center of the map- the path of the cicilian convoy. On the right side, multiple blue dots moved about getting into position. At least teams 1 and 3 were alright. On the other side, more blue friendly contacts all moved about,getting into position. I took that as my cue to link up with my squad.

I stumbled and tripped through the uneven terrain and arrived to only find 2 other members of my team survived. Hendrix, Flipper, and Pat were all dug in under a low rock barrier. I slid in next to them. Beyond the wall was the road tht the convoy was due for- and waing for them was a covenant armada. Two writh mortar tanks, about 4 ghost, and a hell of alot of those grunnt creatures.

" Alright teama 1 and 3, get set to hit'em on my mark", Hicks calmly said into the comm.

Pat hefted a Jackhammer missile launcher." Gotta love thjis badboy."

Now during my time with this team, Flipper seemd to always be the one with the cynical remark and this time was no exception." Just make sure you hit something with it."

"Think its possible to miss", I commented.
" Just sayin they should leave fine weapon's like that in the hands of an artist, like me", Flipper quipped.

" Pay attention for the signal", Hendrix put in. Just as he finished his piece, the signal came in-"'FIRE AT WILL"

Instantaniously, 2 crimson beams of pure enrgy cut in the coventant formation. The beams traveled through the two wraith tanks and burned away a dozen or so grunts. It hadhappened so fast. The 2 mortar tanks vanished in storm of plasma taking more grunts down with them. Without wasting a heartbeat, the ODSTs on our side of the road, including Pat, all fired their shoulder mounted RPGs.

Now one thing we had learned about while fighting the covenant was that one good explosion among them could set of major chain reaction. The grunts all wore methane packs which were highly combustable. Add that to the dozens of plasma grenades, fuel systems of nearby vehicles, etc nd you've got on memorable display of fireworks to watch.

There wasn't much left ofthe covenant ground force save a few panicking and disoriented grunts. Me and the rest of the ODSTs on our side of road quickly mopped them up once we vaulted over the rock barrier and moved to secure the area.

The next few minutes were pretty peaceful,aside from the air battle overhead. We set up firing positions, dug ourselves in and waited. It became so that we were becoming rather restless. Sergeant Hicks had ordered teams 1 and 2 to move farther up the road to keep watch for additional covenant reinforcements. But nothing happened. Minutes turned to hours it seemed. But the convoy never came.

" Where the hell are those transports", Hicks asked, part to himself,part to his squad.
I looked as far down the road as my magnification optics would allow but I saw nothing, not a goddamn thing. I couln't even see our foward teams. " Wheres the city", I asked.

"It should be due back that way" Pat pointed down the road, and towards a massive wall of smoke and ambers that teams 1and 3 had disappeared into. "At least I think it is."

" Anita, anyword on the status of the civilian trnsport convoy", Hicks spoke into his comm. Whether he had his stuff wired so that we could all hear his conversation or not didn't matter, we all heard him.

" Negative" Anita said grimmly." No word as of yet. We're trying to establish communications with the City authorities, but we'ev had no sucess yet. Your standing orders are to stay put until further notice."

" Roger that." We could all tell Hicks had been bitting his tongue when he complied. Some of the squad, however, let their opinions be known.

Somebody from another team grumbled, rather loudly." By the time the fleet makes up it's mind the covenant would've been glassed this world by now."

Hicks stepped up to the man, who was a full head taller than he." You've got a problem with our orders. Go ahead, say it." Hicks never had to do anything more than that to get results. The rebelious trooper didn't reply, just hung his head low. The sarge straightened his slouched posture with a firm shove and the ODST stood up straight with renewed purpose.

" Sorry Sir" With that, things went quite again, until we got a transmission from teams 1 and 3.

" SIR....SIR."

Hicks replied immediately." What is it son? Status"

" Sir----Somekind opf new co------weapo--------can----stop it------com---your----ay"

" Mendez! Whats going on." When the Sarge used someones first name, that meant something big was going down.

" Retre----get back-----arghhhhhh----------------."there was just white noise after that. On top of that both team's biosigns appeared on my HUD flatlined.

" Mendez! Mendez.", Segeant Hicks barked. He got no response. Suddenly I became afraid again. 'Alright boys, eyes sharp, we're going to have company." With that, he cylced the bolt on his bttle rifle. We all did the same. But the wait for this new foe became unbearable. I was very much tempted to dig a foxhole and just hide in it. Whispers spread throughout the squad.

Even the once egoistic Flipper gently nudged me and asked" so..um...what do you think got'em?"

" I don't know.'" Thats all I could say really. My apprehension became worse once the trmors started. Nothing huge but soft little quakes in the soil that made the occasional pebble bounce around in the dirt.

" What in bloody nora is that", somebody asked out loud. My eyes scanned the horizon for anysign of danger but I saw nothing biut The surface of a dying world , the blood red sky, and that damn wall of smoke. It looked impenetrable. But I did see something. Either I had been to frightned to notice it righ away or didn't know what the thing was, but there was something there.

It was still enshrouded in the curtain of smoke, but one could tell it easily stood 40ft high. Multiple appendages extended from the mainbody like an insects legs. It looked arachnid. Not a normal one, but a madman's nightmarish. conception of one Nobody said a word. Everyone had seen it. "Everyone..." , hicks ordered quietly." find cover." We all did. I took cover in a crater with Hendrix. I don't know where everyone else had gone to. I peeked out to see the Sarge still out in plain sight. He was busy fihting with a traumtized trooper who wouldn't budge from his spot.

I knew the Sarge wouldn't rest until he knew evryman in his squad was safe. I was about to get out to help when I saw orbs of green light form into a ball of light in front of the spider things torso. That could only mean one thing...

" SARGE GET DOWN", I shouted to the top of mylungs, only too late. A stream of white fire raced our way. The Sarge and the Private disappeared in the light. As the beam of light cut into our position, the spider machine moved. Out of the smoke came more of the things. I'm not sure what they were firing at, but they seemed intent of further galssing the colony. I don't even think they knew we were there. I remember learning learning in historical literature about a story called war of the worls by H.G Wells. Well this was the perfection depiction of that story. Giant alien constructions parading over human territory, systematically slaughtering mercilessly.

So I hid. So did Hendrix. Even as one of the things passed over us, we didn't dare budge.

  • 06.28.2009 8:17 PM PDT