- Spartan C09
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- Noble Member
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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]