The Gallery
This topic has moved here: Subject: A story about the Rookie
  • Subject: A story about the Rookie
Subject: A story about the Rookie

A story about the Rookie

You've all seen the picture of the girl inside the Rookie's pod. Some have said that she is Sadie, most disagree. But that has inspired me to write this story.



During his teen years in Crisium City, Naniwa, Luna, the Rookie met Sadie Endesha, who was on a weekend trip. The two immediately fell in love and visited each other as often as they could. This is how the Rookie learned the ins and outs of New Mombasa.

However, during their happy, blissful teenage relationship, the Human-Covenant war was steadily becoming ever worse for the humans. The Covenant was burning its way towards the inner
colonies, and the UNSC had had no notable victory. The Rookie wanted to protect his happy existence, and thus decided to join the UNSC. Thanks to his exceptional physical prowess and fast, lateral thinking, he was fit for the job. His brain was already conditioned to feel good during orbital drops thanks to the routine elevator descents to New Mombasa, so he decided to join the all-volunteer Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. That was where he could make the biggest difference.

Leaving Sadie behind was a tough decision for both of them. Sadie's father, Doctor Endesha was rather protective, as he had had to deal with the loss of Sadie's mother when her daughter was just a kid. However, knowing that he was protecting her made the Rookie able to leave. His most important personal belonging was the picture of Sadie that he always had inside his pods during drops. He could detach it in the blink of an eye after the HEV pod's restraints were released on touchdown.



The battle of the Cygnus System was a disaster. Like always, the UNSC fleet's Marine and ODST forces did everything they could to win the fight groundside on the planet of New Jerusalem. They knew they could do it. But in space, the Covenant always won. Controlling the ground meant nothing if the planet was burned by the Covenant plasma bombardment. The firepower literally turned a planet's surface into glass, destroying everything. The Rookie knew this. But this time, the humans were completely annihilated on the groundside too. The Rookie walked away from a doomed mission as the lone survivor and miraculously managed to gain a spot aboard one of the last evacuation vessels. He never told anyone what had happened, for he never said anything to anyone anymore. "Posttraumatic vocal disarticulation", the doctors declared.



Over five years after his enlisting, it seemed that everything the Rookie had been fighting for was lost. Earth had been a well-kept secret for long, but it wasn't anymore. Worst of all, the only place on Earth the Covenant decided to land was no other than New Mombasa. The Rookie's squad was to drop onto and capture the gargantuan Covenant Assault Carrier that was hovering over the city-center, watching over the armies it had deployed to seize the largest Megalopolis in the entire human space. The rookie now spent most of his time sleeping, and a whack with the butt of the rifle of his squadmate, Romeo, woke him up mere seconds before the drop began. Now he was back to doing what he had always looked forward to: dropping into the city of his girl. Only this time, a Covenant ship would be stopping him on the way down.

What the Rookie expected did not happen. Apparently his team was given new orders just before the drop. The squad adjusted their trajectories, aiming towards the seaside end of Mombasa island. Only moments later, it became clear that this had saved the Rookie's life. The Assault Carrier jumped into slipspace right from above the city, sucking in the pods that were aiming for it and sending the off-trajectory squad into a hard, uncontrolled landing multiple Covenant-occupied districts away from their target. But it was better than being lost in radiation aboard a tiny, unprotected tin can. Another pod crashed with the Rookie's, knocking him out cold. The shock broke loose the picture that had made it out of even New Jerusalem.

The Rookie woke up six hours later. The sun of Africa had set already, and the only things illuminating the city were the occasional intact signs and the night vision capabilities of the Rookie's helmet. All radio frequencies were empty. He had no idea what had happened to his squad. However, several beacons with his squadmates' identity tags were scattered along this part of the city, from Kikowani station and the Uplift reserve entrance to the bridge leading to the Office of Naval Intelligence building Doctor Endesha used to work in - the building is squad had been aiming for. The Rookie set off to figure out what had happened and what he could do. Covenant patrols, lead by the ferocious, gorilla-like Brutes, were around every corner. But the rookie knew how to deal with them. He was the best of the best, even if he was only human. He had made it out of New Jerusalem; he could make it out of here.

  • 10.19.2009 1:11 PM PDT

Hours later, after locating multiple beacons, the story became clearer for the Rookie. The fate seemed ill for most of his squadmates. The clearest piece of evidence was a remote detonator found near the beacon at the bridge to the ONI building. Both the bridge and the "black cube" had been carefully detonated. Could anyone have escaped from the burning island in the middle of a lake surrounded by 100-meter tall walls with the Covenant having total air superiority? The Rookie had seen enough Pelican dropships being shot down to know that during an occupation like this, you'd be lucky if one out of three would safely land. And with the target being this important...

The Rookie made his way towards the Kikowani station from the New Mombasa Police department plaza, where he had clearly recognized the now-bent sniper rifle that had woken him up before the drop. When near one of the entrances to the city's underground complex, he noticed that a group of four Brutes were firing upon a closed door. Even without a translator, he would have recognised the words Brutes used when they were about to catch a meal. But there was surprisingly much rage in their growls. On the ground was pink-organic-looking material. It looked like one of the strange new aliens the Rookie had been encountering had been smashed to bits, but he knew that the bombs that would detonate after he had short-circuited the energy-shield projectors the alien was using on the Brutes destroyed the creatures completely.

The presence of another human intrigued the Rookie. One of the Brutes felt a sharp blade digging through his armor, and soon the spike grenade made by its own race detonated, leaving it full of gaping holes. The Rookie emptied a Brute grenade launcher on the squad, destroying the power armor they used to protect themselves. Before they had been able to locate him, he was firing his submachine gun at them. Now they knew where he was, so he began a strafe-and-cover maneuver, narrowly evading plasma and red-hot spikes fired by the alien weapons. Two Brutes were soon killed by the accurate but fast hail of bullets. But now the Rookie was out of ammo, so he disappeared into the shadows.

The last Brute tried to sniff the attacker out, but couldn't locate the smell. It deducted that being aggressive was the best way to disposed of this threat. The tall, ferocious alien charged forwards and leaped atop the walkway the human had shot them from. Nothing in sight. The Brute heard the ever-familiar thwack of a spike grenade behind him, and turned around. The human had slipped past like a shadow and used a grenade dropped by the dead packmates. The Brute roared and jumped towards the sneaky ODST, but was cut in midair by the spike fragments.

The Rookie grabbed a Spike Rifle and a radioactive but accurate Carbine from the dead Brutes. He then made his way to the door the Brutes tried to open and knocked it in the most humanlike way he could. After a few seconds, it opened. The rookie looked inside the small, illuminated entrance hall with all doors leading further into the building closed. After assessing the situation, he noticed the opener of the door collapsed in is feet, and what he saw shook his mind more than New Jerusalem had.

It was Sadie. And she was... alive. Exhausted, dirty and lightly wounded... but alive. He could easily recognise her even after 5 years. The girl slowly looked upwards and saw the ODST who had rescued her. The Rookie grabbed her by the shoulders, bringing her back on her feet. He hit the switch to close the door and removed his helmet.

Sadie, too, was utterly surprised by what she saw. Past 5 years of battle scarring and becoming a rugged soldier, she could still see the boy, now a man that she loved. She whispered his name, and after seeing the Rookie nod hugged him with all her heart.

After the Rookie had managed to sign that he couldn't speak, which hadn't managed to sadden the now brightened Sadie, she started to explain what the one of the most watched-over young women of the megalopolis was doing alone in the middle of a Covenant occupation days after evacuation. Her target was the Superintendent, the AI that ran the city. Its "Vergil" subroutine had been watching over the two back before the Rookie enlisted, commenting their actions with annoying but humorous public advice phrases. The AI infrastructure's data pathways had apparently sustained major damage due to the Covenant's actions, rendering it unable to communicate. It was barely able to manipulate the city to help Sadie stay alive, but now it had ultimately failed and left her trapped. Sadie was about to tell something about the new aliens, but the Rookie interruped her, signaling that it would be better to treasure this short moment they had together amidst this war.

So the Rookie's with his honey and they're making out when a phone suddenly rings. The Rookie answered it and a voice said "What- -are you- -doing- -with- -my- -Sadie?" The Rookie managed to convey this to Sadie using their old secret signals, but she said "My dad is dead.". THEN WHO WAS PHONE?














...actually, I got this idea while reading the new One One Seven. I intended to write a small story and post it as a medium-size topic into the GameFAQs ODST forum with the main point being to annoy people with the punchline, but being the Halo Super Nerd I am this huge amount of text flowed out of my head. So you got it instead. That's why the first and last paragraphs are so different from the rest - the writing was a long process that changed the overall attitude of the story completely. Reminds me of the Harry Potter series with its infamous epilogue. Which is worse, this or this?

  • 10.19.2009 1:13 PM PDT