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  • Subject: [Story] Halo ODST: Dropping Into Hell(Part 20 is out!)
Subject: [Story] Halo ODST: Dropping Into Hell(Part 20 is out!)

How'd you find me?

Part 20...yesss... finally...so close to the end...yesss...

Part 20. It's Just A Flesh Wound

Finn could feel the heat from the plasma blade on his face through the helmet of his S.P.I. armor. He needed to move, to dodge the energy blade coming towards his head. But he couldn't. Cowboy's death was the first time he actually saw a close friend die. It seemed that Finn had inherited Lieutenant Commander Ambrose's trait of bonding with non-Spartan personnel. And now, it had cost him dearly.

Even more heat washed over Finn's face and his body, making it sizzle and pop in places. But he still wasn't dead. Finn opened his eyes to be greeted by two energy swords locked together at the hilt. At the end of the sword farthest from him was the previously cloaked elite. And just in front of him was Ralph, holding the other energy sword. Finn didn't know where Ralph had gotten his blade. All he knew was that he was glad he had taken the energy weapon; if not, Finn would be dead.

Someone from behind Finn put their arms between his armpits and dragged him back. Finn turned his head and realized it was Dave. Finn turned his head back towards Ralph in a near dazed state and watched as he deactivated his energy sword, freeing it from the elite's blade, and reignited it, mere inches from the elite's face. It barely had time to dodge backwards and fire off a few rounds with its plasma pistol before Ralph grabbed his shotgun, took aim at the elite, and fired.

The first shot from Ralph's shotgun hit the floor just in front of the elite. It rolled away, dodging the next round his shotgun belted out. Just as he fired his third shot, the elite activated active camo and disappeared from view.

"You think that'll work, ugly?" Ralph said, grabbing his energy sword from its place on his waist, kept there by magnetic clips usually reserved for grenades. He charged forward, sword extended, and lashed at what appeared to be open air. His blade connected with something, and out of thin air, or so it appeared, the elite's sword clashed once more with his.

Ralph and the elite brought their swords up once more and slashed at each other again, their blades connecting a third time, causing both of their shields to fizzle out. This time, though, Ralph brought out his side arm and emptied the entire clip into the elite's unshielded head. It released a scream of torment and in a final act of spite slashed wildly at Ralph, burning through his torso in a diagonal line.

Ralph fell to the floor and coughed several times. He took off his helmet and this time, when he coughed, blood came up. His pale skin, made so by the extended periods of time in his armor, was covered in beads of sweat and the blood he had coughed up earlier was splattered across the lower part of his visor. His fellow Spartans knelt down beside him and ripped off his chest plate, simplified by the cut that had bisected it. Richard also came up to him and took a can of bio foam out of his rucksack. He emptied the entire canister into the ugly gash on Ralph's chest, but the blade had punctured a lung and cut into his heart. There was too much damage to his vital organs for him to continue on. Soon, Ralph would die.

"It's been an honor serving with you. All of you," Ralph rasped out, before coughing out more blood.

"You're going to make it," Richard lied, taking out some gauze, which he used to rap Ralph's wound. "Dave, apply pressure to his wound. Slow the bleeding."

"Instead of worrying about me, finish the mission. You can take care of me later." Ralph coughed more blood, as his subconscious was trying to undermine his point.

"Finn, hook up the data pad to the control console. Bones, Kim, and Skull, find a way to seal the doors. We don't want any Covenant uglies breaking in. Dave, keep applying pressure to Ralph's wound. The biofoam isn't stopping the bleeding. Red, come with me." Richard stood and walked over to the wall that Cowboy's body had impacted on as the rest of Stiletto scrambled to complete their orders.

"What are we going to do?" Red asked, forcing herself to not look at her friend's corpse.

Richard depolarized his visor and turned to Red. "Those doors lead to the escape pods. We're going to send Cowboy's body out in one."

*****

Richard pressed a button on the keypad, and the escape pod door hissed shut. He inputted another set of commands, and the thrusters on the tiny craft activated, pushing away from the larger Covenant vessel and out into the intense space battle raging above Reach. Richard, who had never interacted with Covenant technology save their weaponry, couldn't explain how he knew what to input. He just did.

He turned away, as did Red, who put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Cowboy had been Richard's best friend. And now he was dead. Red could relate.

Richard walked back into the control room. Finn was still typing in commands on the data pad. Apparently Kim and Bones had done their job, because they all three of them were crouching on one knee, their weapons trained on the doors they had just sealed. Dave still had his hands pressed to Ralph's chest, trying in vain to stop him from bleeding out.

"Richard!" Finn yelled, looking down at his superior officer. "I think we have a problem."

Richard walked up the ramp leading onto the elevated platform that the bridge controls were on.

"What is it, Finn?" Richard said, examining the confusing layout of the controls on each of the consoles. For some odd reason, he felt an unexplainable familiarity with the controls. He knew each console's purpose and how to operate all of them, the same odd feeling he had gotten when he had shot the life pod Cowboy's body was in into space.

Finn gestured at three strange symbols on the main control panel. Every once in a while one of them changed in cycles. They looked as if they were numbers counting down. "Well, uh..." Finn's voice was hoarse as he talked. Richard guessed he was still shocked by Cowboy's death. "I think it's a self destruct sequence. The Covenant rigged the ship to blow."

Richard swore under his breath. But if the Covenant had activated the self-destruct sequence, why not just end it immediately? Richard figured it was to give them time to escape. They really had underestimated Stiletto. "Can you stop it?"

Finn shook his head no. "We can't. At least, I can't. For some reason, I know how every damn thing on this bridge works, but I can't figure out how to stop or delay the countdown. I think we should make a break for the pelican. Use shock and awe to keep the bad guys stunned long enough to give us safe passage."

"Why don't we just take a life pod?"

"Someone took the other ones. I think some of the bridge crew might have fled. But whatever happened to the life pods, it means the only way off this ship is in our pelican."

"You're right," Richard exhaled after a few seconds of quiet contemplation, taking his assault rifle off his back. "And now there are only two symbols on that display."

Richard walked to the edge of the platform and looked down at the rest of Stiletto. "Okay people, we need to scrub the mission. The Covenant have activated the self-destruct sequence. We're going to make a rush for the hangar and escape in our pelican. Any thoughts or ideas?"

"Just one," Bones said, raising his hand up. "Dave has to drag Ralph around."

"I always have to carry the incapacitated ones, don't I?" he grumbled, putting Ralph over his shoulder much like he had done for Richard while he was unconscious, and handed the wounded Spartan his sidearm.

Richard walked towards the door they had entered the bridge from. He turned on the private comm. and whispered something almost unintelligible over the static caused by UNSC radio traffic. "We move on my mark. Three...two...one. Mark."



[Edited on 08.29.2010 5:34 PM PDT]

  • 08.26.2010 10:07 PM PDT

-eddy!
huh! What? It was the other guy, honest! ;)
'it was a sniper!' looks down at my sniper
uhh yeah? hes got one too. XD

this is really good
there is a grammar error on the second line at the end it should be 'death' not 'die'

[Edited on 08.29.2010 1:08 AM PDT]

  • 08.29.2010 1:08 AM PDT

How'd you find me?


Posted by: Matt Eddy
this is really good
there is a grammar error on the second line at the end it should be 'death' not 'die'


Thanks :) And I fixed the grammatical error I made.

  • 08.29.2010 5:35 PM PDT

An assassin will always carry on, even after death.

Finished reading new part

'twas good

  • 09.03.2010 11:15 AM PDT

Just found this thread and WOW this is great there are a few errors but you fixed them. All i got to say is love this thread and can't wait for the next chapter.

  • 09.04.2010 12:19 PM PDT
Subject: [Story] Halo ODST: Dropping Into Hell(Part 21 is out!)

How'd you find me?

I know I haven't updated in forever and that I have no excuse and no one is probably going to read this. I know this thread is probably going to be locked for bumping which is why this is the final part which isn't exactly a proper end but if the thread is locked it will suffice as an end for the Finn fan fiction to wrap up and then continue, if that make sense. Sorry I haven't written in forever, but I'm going to start writing fan fiction again. Promise.

Part 21. A Good Captain


War Dog was in a state of panic. He'd felt Private Snart's heart rate flat line and had detected that the Covenant had decided to destroy the ship rather than let it fall into enemy hands. He knew that in less than Twenty-seven point three milliseconds, Stiletto squad would die in a massive explosion. And he couldn't do anything about it.

I can't leave, he thought bitterly, his mind trying to find a way around the safety parameters that had been built into his mind. My damned programming won't allow it. So unless Stiletto makes it back here in- War Dog quickly ran some simulations inside his head, calculating exactly how large the explosion would be and how long it would take him to reach the maximum safe distance- fifteen point fifty eight milliseconds, we're all as good as dead. And if there is an afterlife, AIs don't have souls. No heaven or hell for me.

Stiletto's situation was far worse. After they had released Cowboy's body, the rest of the escape pods had locked in place, and when they left the tiny chamber containing them, it, too, had locked. War Dog was not sure if this was mechanical failure or by design, but it seemed that Richard- Barely a man, hardly a soldier, War Dog thought, resentful of the young ODST- had realized this, too, which was the reason for his suicidal run for the hangar.

War Dog was getting depressed. Despite it's artificial nature, his mind had gone into fight-or-flight mode, and everything inside his mechanical brain was screaming for him to run. He felt like a horse being pushed towards the edge of a cliff. No matter how much he brayed or tugged, he couldn't even delay his inevitable death. How would Captain Riley put it? He mused, trying to distract himself from impending doom and failing miserably. It seems I'm up defecation creek without a paddle. War Dog chuckled internally at this. If AIs could become hysterical, he probably was.

"War Dog! Damn it, you useless AI, where the hell are you? Stupid piece of-" A voice from the pelican's radio. War Dog matched it to Ralph, the wounded Spartan. War Dog realized that Stiletto had made it to the anterior hangar doors. For a brief second, hope washed over him. They still had seven minutes before they wouldn't be able to get out of the explosion's blast radius. I might live yet, War Dog muttered internally. Then he saw what the problem was.

*****

Stiletto was surrounded. Bones had been clipped in the shoulder by a needler rifle. The next shot had hit him in the head. Without proper medical attention, he'd die, or at least suffer permanent brain damage. Skull hadn't been so lucky. A plasma grenade had attached itself to her breastplate. She had ripped off the front part of her BDU armor and tossed it a few feet when it detonated. The explosion was far enough from Finn's head that it didn't kill him, but it had popped both his eardrums, and he'd been vomiting in his helmet since. Skull had then been hit by an overcharged plasma pistol shot in the stomach, the same place as the wound she had suffered earlier in the morning. Richard was taking care of all three of them behind a few crates with Red, Dave, and Kim laying down covering fire. They were, as Cowboy would have put it, screwed.

Richard had tried opening the doors and had failed. Some encryption had locked them around the same time that the pods had been locked in. Richard guessed that it was some sort of spite-code, programmed by the Covenant to spite any soldiers who tried taking a ship. Richard knew he couldn't crack it and had ordered Ralph to try to contact War Dog. From all the cursing he heard from behind another crate, he knew it wasn't going well.

The ODST decided to focus on the task at hand and brought his attention to Bones. Richard couldn't remove his helmet with moving the spike, so he had instead de-polarized his helmet. It wasn't pretty. For some reason, the needle hadn't shattered, which had spared Bones life. However, the other end of it not protruding from his face was embedded in his frontal lobe. To help him, Richard would need an electric saw and some serious surgical equipment, none of which was on hand. The best he could do was give him some painkillers and hope for the best. Skull was the same. All he could do was stop the bleeding (again). Other than that, there was nothing he could do for them. Richard didn't even bother with Finn- his armor had locked up and Richard was certain he had passed out, his helmet full of bile.

Richard decided to contact the Marauder. They were about to lose Stiletto, after all. Might as well give them fair warning.

Captain Riley saved him the trouble. As soon as Richard switched on his radio, the Captain's voice began to ring through his helmet.

"Listen, Lieutenant," the Captain began, his voice grim, "our scanners picked up your situation. As soon as the engineer you brought aboard heard us say 'self destruct,' it started humming. Have my radio signal come out of your helmet's exterior speakers and put it on as high as you can. You hear me, son?"

Richard acknowledged and obeyed. Suddenly, the room was filled with an odd warbling noise, which Richard guessed was the engineer's humming. With a loud clang, the doors opened, and Stiletto had a straight shot to the bunker. Richard's heart started to beat faster. He tried to pick up Finn, but couldn't. He was too heavy in his S.P.I. armor, no matter how light-weight it was. Instead, he grabbed Bones. He told Kim and Red to do the same. Kim was strong enough in her MJOLNIR armor lift Finn and Bones, leaving Red to give the others covering fire. War Dog lifted off a bit and propelled the pelican in front of them. They unloaded the wounded into the cargo tray and one by one entered it. Red was the last one on, giving the Covenant forces behind them a mock salute before thrusting out her middle finger. Richard helped her aboard and sealed the heavy bay door behind her.

"War Dog, how many minutes until we're clear of the blast zone?" Richard entered the cockpit and sunk into the Captain's chair. He was tired and needed rest badly. Still, he kept himself awake. He couldn't fall asleep right then.

"Approximately three minutes."

"And how long until the ship explodes?"

"Approximately three minutes, thirty seconds."

"Great." Richard took off his helmet and passed out.

*****



[Edited on 11.05.2010 12:23 PM PDT]

  • 11.02.2010 12:49 PM PDT
Subject: [Story] Halo ODST: Dropping Into Hell

Would you be kind enough to link me to your fan-fic based around Finn?

I just read this story today, you're a great writer, I'd love to read more of your stories.

  • 11.02.2010 8:44 PM PDT

How'd you find me?


Posted by: Schulzy3
Would you be kind enough to link me to your fan-fic based around Finn?

I just read this story today, you're a great writer, I'd love to read more of your stories.


Thanks, but I haven't started on the Finn fan-fic yet. And as long as this thread is not locked, I'm going to give this story the chapter 22/epilogue it deserves.

  • 11.03.2010 4:32 AM PDT

Oh, cool beans.

I'll look forward to it.

  • 11.03.2010 5:13 AM PDT
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Posted by: chotato
smart, interesting, seems out of place.


Official fan of Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, (Problem with that?) Halo, and Bungie, also a total gaming junkie.

Just read this, wow... Make the next chapter please.

  • 11.03.2010 7:24 PM PDT

How'd you find me?

I will. Thanks :)

  • 11.04.2010 7:29 AM PDT
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Nice part! Sad to see this thing end. Im confident the Finn one will be even better.

  • 11.13.2010 8:00 AM PDT

An assassin will always carry on, even after death.

I think I might read this again once you've finished. You did gud wrench, you did gud

  • 11.13.2010 4:18 PM PDT

wow just finished reading this. Nice job, I defiantly saw improvement going from the beginning to the end and it was worth my time, needs an ending though.

  • 11.27.2010 12:51 PM PDT