Takes place somewhere in the period of Halo 3.
My HUD flickered to life as my on-board computers booted up. My body suit warmed up and I felt my suit adjusting to 20 Celsius. My BR55 Battle Rifle’s Ammo Counter started up and I ran a quick check of all my systems. The Intercom squeaked indicating someone would like to talk to us.
“Will a Staff Sergeant Jeroy Lenkins report to the Brig, over?” , said the voice over the ship’s intercom. The room about me was open. Marines and Techies walked around, talked, and worked on UNSC vehicles. A Techie sitting on a Scorpion Main Battle Tank cursed as a fuse lit up and burned his hand. The intercom squealed again and I listened once again.
“ODSTs report to the Briefing Room, ASAP.”
I slung my rifle over my back and started walking towards the Briefing Room. The ship’s halls were wide and I took my time. By the time I reached the Briefing Room, a few others had already made it.
“Welcome, Helljumpers!”, said the Commander. I looked around and saw a few familiar faces and a few not-so-familiar faces. I saw Corporal Jersey and walked over to him.
“Hey Jersey”, I said. Jersey looked up and said Hi. The Commander started talking. He talked about the mission, which was a hot jump into a Covenant-controlled sector of a planet.
As we headed out, I walked next to Jersey.
“Any idea about this op?”, I asked.
“Nah, I don’t know nothing.”, he answered.
I walked towards the HEV pod room, and found my pod. I hit the button on the outside to open it up and walked in. I sat down on the comfortable seat and strapped myself in. My rifle sat on the right along with one thousand rounds of various weapons. I had my BR55 and a M90 Shotgun. I looked at my computer in the HEV, and re-read the briefing and studied the maps. I could see that a huge ravine was our main landing zone.
“2 minutes to fire HEVs”, said the Commander over the radio. I re-checked all of my gear through an electronic checklist. All clear. I fired up the radio system and pinged my “Live” sign.
“Clear to fire….30 seconds!”, said the Commander over the radio. I tightened my straps and the butterflies and knots came into my stomach.
“Firing in 10 seconds”, said the Commander. I counted silently in my mind. Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, fire! My HEV pod buckled and fired. It screamed through the atmosphere as fire built up and raged against my pod. I hit the “auto-pilot” button on my screen. I felt the HEV pod start to heat up. The screen’s heat gauge read 25 Celsius. It increased slowly. I could feel the HEV start to slow down.
THUMP
The HEV buckled violently as the parachute was deployed. I looked at the altitude gauge. It read 700 meters. The HEV nearly performed a 180 as it passed by a Phantom Dropship. A scream was heard over the radio as a Helljumper was burned from the intense heat of his HEV.
The HEV read 50 meters and the parachute fell off. I braced for impact as the HEV lodged itself into the ground with a bone-crunching thump.
“Go, go, go!”, yelled the Commander. I hit EJECT on the door of my HEV, and it was flung into an observing Grunt. It kicked him over a precipice into the ravine. I picked up my BR55 and slung my M90 over my shoulder. I walked forward. The plateau we landed on was above the ravine we were supposed to land in. I saw another Helljumper, his tags read him as SSGT Martin Langely. I jogged over to him.
“Hey, let’s get down the ravine!”, I said. Martin’s helmeted head turned towards me.
“No, I have orders to wait until a special reinforcement arrives here,” he said.
“Who is this?”, I asked.
“Master Chief,” he said slowly.
I immediately thought of the stories I’ve heard of him. People portrayed him as a soulless cybernetic freak. I personally thought of him as a great soldier, helping our war. A HEV pod screamed through the atmosphere and I saw it’s parachute deploy. It looked like it was coming towards us.
A Jackal barked in his native tounge behind me. I ducked, and a Plasma bolt barely missed me. My training came in effect, as I grabbed my Combat Knife, spun around and dove on the thing. His Personal Energy Shield collapsed and I stabbed my Knife into his weak bird-like skull. It collapsed under the pressure and I heard a stomach-churning craaack. Martin was already over me and covering.
“Jackals always travel in pairs,” I said. I stood up, and pointed my M90 in the direction of what sounded like motion. I carefully rounded the corner of Martin’s HEV and saw him. His beady eyes turned into pure hatred. I squeezed the trigger and the M90 delivered a face-full of lead into the enemy. His head was taken off clean off.
“Hunter-Killer, team, eh?”, asked Martin.
“Yeah, this one has a Beam Rifle”, I answered. I peered to the right of the Jackal’s corpse and saw a scorched Plasma Pistol. It was overcharged and Plasma was leaking out of it. The HEV pod was coming close.
“Down!”, I yelled. I ducked and covered my head.
Thud
The HEV’s front cover popped off and the Master Chief stepped out. I stood up and saluted him. He nodded at me and I walked up to his side. I saw my BR-55 laying on the ground. I picked it up and slung it over my back. I could her another person, a female, talking?
“Chief, you can see down there that…the other Helljumpers down there have landed already…let’s take these guys and head down and help the others,” she said.
“Uhh, Chief, who is that?” asked Martin.
“I’m Cortana, Master Chief’s AI.”, said Cortana. I couldn’t see it, but Martin was scared.
“Ok…” he said, and turned towards the valley. I could see the valley was hot. Very hot. A group of Grunts scurried over to a piece of warped metal as a Helljumper fired a burst into it. A Grunt squealed and a S2-AM fired. It’s streak lead straight to a Grunt, who hit the ground.
A Brute leaped over the cowardly Grunts and fired two odd-looking weapons that shot spikes, one of which hit an ODST, which pinned his free arm onto an HEV pod. He screamed for a Medic, and as the Medic ran over, a Jackal’s Beam Rifle shot him.
“Chief, let’s go.” said Cortana. The Master Chief began to scale down the cliff by sliding down it. We followed and also slid down. When we reached the bottom, a few stray Plasma bursts caught me off-guard, and I hit the dirt. The heavy breathing and stink of a Brute approaching sent a chill down my spine as the fight-or-flight adrenaline pumped in. I rolled so hard that the Brute was tripped, and I quickly stood up. The Brute slapped me, and my helmet flew off, I could feel my skin being burned by the friction of my helmet coming off so fast.
Martin Langely, I will always remember him. He screamed like a Banshee and stabbed his Combat Knife straight into the Brute’s huge skull. The Master Chief turned to his right, and fired a clean burst from his MA5C straight into his helmet.
“Thanks Chief!”, I said. However, the Brute was not down yet. I didn’t see his armored helmet at first, and he roared. I was stricken with fear as I crawled away from the situation. Three bursts from a BR-55 Rifle took down the Brute.
A huge, clumsy Transport Pelican came into the atmosphere. An anti-air Plasma Gun opened up, and was taken out by the Pelican’s Back-mounted Machine Gun. It ripped up the Plasma shield and the operator.
“Echo 914, this is Echo 914, over, any UNSC forces read me?” said a male pilot.
“Echo 914, this is Cortana. We recommend you drop off your troop payload and stick around to possibly drop your Scorpion. Over” said Cortana.
“Roger that, over.” said the pilot.
The Transport Pelican came over in a hover and lowered down a few meters from myself, Martin and the Chief.
6 Marines hopped off, armed with various weaponry-they looked scared out of their lives, except for a man wearing a cap-I assumed he was the commander of the unit.
My HUD flickered to life as my on-board computers booted up. My body suit warmed up and I felt my suit adjusting to 20 Celsius. My BR55 Battle Rifle’s Ammo Counter started up and I ran a quick check of all my systems. The Intercom squeaked indicating someone would like to talk to us.
“Will a Staff Sergeant Jeroy Lenkins report to the Brig, over?” , said the voice over the ship’s intercom. The room about me was open. Marines and Techies walked around, talked, and worked on UNSC vehicles. A Techie sitting on a Scorpion Main Battle Tank cursed as a fuse lit up and burned his hand. The intercom squealed again and I listened once again.
“ODSTs report to the Briefing Room, ASAP.”
I slung my rifle over my back and started walking towards the Briefing Room. The ship’s halls were wide and I took my time. By the time I reached the Briefing Room, a few others had already made it.
“Welcome, Helljumpers!”, said the Commander. I looked around and saw a few familiar faces and a few not-so-familiar faces. I saw Corporal Jersey and walked over to him.
“Hey Jersey”, I said. Jersey looked up and said Hi. The Commander started talking. He talked about the mission, which was a hot jump into a Covenant-controlled sector of a planet.
As we headed out, I walked next to Jersey.
“Any idea about this op?”, I asked.
“Nah, I don’t know nothing.”, he answered.
I walked towards the HEV pod room, and found my pod. I hit the button on the outside to open it up and walked in. I sat down on the comfortable seat and strapped myself in. My rifle sat on the right along with one thousand rounds of various weapons. I had my BR55 and a M90 Shotgun. I looked at my computer in the HEV, and re-read the briefing and studied the maps. I could see that a huge ravine was our main landing zone.
“2 minutes to fire HEVs”, said the Commander over the radio. I re-checked all of my gear through an electronic checklist. All clear. I fired up the radio system and pinged my “Live” sign.
“Clear to fire….30 seconds!”, said the Commander over the radio. I tightened my straps and the butterflies and knots came into my stomach.
“Firing in 10 seconds”, said the Commander. I counted silently in my mind. Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, fire! My HEV pod buckled and fired. It screamed through the atmosphere as fire built up and raged against my pod. I hit the “auto-pilot” button on my screen. I felt the HEV pod start to heat up. The screen’s heat gauge read 25 Celsius. It increased slowly. I could feel the HEV start to slow down.
THUMP
The HEV buckled violently as the parachute was deployed. I looked at the altitude gauge. It read 700 meters. The HEV nearly performed a 180 as it passed by a Phantom Dropship. A scream was heard over the radio as a Helljumper was burned from the intense heat of his HEV.
The HEV read 50 meters and the parachute fell off. I braced for impact as the HEV lodged itself into the ground with a bone-crunching thump.
“Go, go, go!”, yelled the Commander. I hit EJECT on the door of my HEV, and it was flung into an observing Grunt. It kicked him over a precipice into the ravine. I picked up my BR55 and slung my M90 over my shoulder. I walked forward. The plateau we landed on was above the ravine we were supposed to land in. I saw another Helljumper, his tags read him as SSGT Martin Langely. I jogged over to him.
“Hey, let’s get down the ravine!”, I said. Martin’s helmeted head turned towards me.
“No, I have orders to wait until a special reinforcement arrives here,” he said.
“Who is this?”, I asked.
“Master Chief,” he said slowly.
I immediately thought of the stories I’ve heard of him. People portrayed him as a soulless cybernetic freak. I personally thought of him as a great soldier, helping our war. A HEV pod screamed through the atmosphere and I saw it’s parachute deploy. It looked like it was coming towards us.
A Jackal barked in his native tounge behind me. I ducked, and a Plasma bolt barely missed me. My training came in effect, as I grabbed my Combat Knife, spun around and dove on the thing. His Personal Energy Shield collapsed and I stabbed my Knife into his weak bird-like skull. It collapsed under the pressure and I heard a stomach-churning craaack. Martin was already over me and covering.
“Jackals always travel in pairs,” I said. I stood up, and pointed my M90 in the direction of what sounded like motion. I carefully rounded the corner of Martin’s HEV and saw him. His beady eyes turned into pure hatred. I squeezed the trigger and the M90 delivered a face-full of lead into the enemy. His head was taken off clean off.
“Hunter-Killer, team, eh?”, asked Martin.
“Yeah, this one has a Beam Rifle”, I answered. I peered to the right of the Jackal’s corpse and saw a scorched Plasma Pistol. It was overcharged and Plasma was leaking out of it. The HEV pod was coming close.
“Down!”, I yelled. I ducked and covered my head.
Thud
The HEV’s front cover popped off and the Master Chief stepped out. I stood up and saluted him. He nodded at me and I walked up to his side. I saw my BR-55 laying on the ground. I picked it up and slung it over my back. I could her another person, a female, talking?
“Chief, you can see down there that…the other Helljumpers down there have landed already…let’s take these guys and head down and help the others,” she said.
“Uhh, Chief, who is that?” asked Martin.
“I’m Cortana, Master Chief’s AI.”, said Cortana. I couldn’t see it, but Martin was scared.
“Ok…” he said, and turned towards the valley. I could see the valley was hot. Very hot. A group of Grunts scurried over to a piece of warped metal as a Helljumper fired a burst into it. A Grunt squealed and a S2-AM fired. It’s streak lead straight to a Grunt, who hit the ground.
A Brute leaped over the cowardly Grunts and fired two odd-looking weapons that shot spikes, one of which hit an ODST, which pinned his free arm onto an HEV pod. He screamed for a Medic, and as the Medic ran over, a Jackal’s Beam Rifle shot him.
“Chief, let’s go.” said Cortana. The Master Chief began to scale down the cliff by sliding down it. We followed and also slid down. When we reached the bottom, a few stray Plasma bursts caught me off-guard, and I hit the dirt. The heavy breathing and stink of a Brute approaching sent a chill down my spine as the fight-or-flight adrenaline pumped in. I rolled so hard that the Brute was tripped, and I quickly stood up. The Brute slapped me, and my helmet flew off, I could feel my skin being burned by the friction of my helmet coming off so fast.
Martin Langely, I will always remember him. He screamed like a Banshee and stabbed his Combat Knife straight into the Brute’s huge skull. The Master Chief turned to his right, and fired a clean burst from his MA5C straight into his helmet.
“Thanks Chief!”, I said. However, the Brute was not down yet. I didn’t see his armored helmet at first, and he roared. I was stricken with fear as I crawled away from the situation. Three bursts from a BR-55 Rifle took down the Brute.
A huge, clumsy Transport Pelican came into the atmosphere. An anti-air Plasma Gun opened up, and was taken out by the Pelican’s Back-mounted Machine Gun. It ripped up the Plasma shield and the operator.
“Echo 914, this is Echo 914, over, any UNSC forces read me?” said a male pilot.
“Echo 914, this is Cortana. We recommend you drop off your troop payload and stick around to possibly drop your Scorpion. Over” said Cortana.
“Roger that, over.” said the pilot.
The Transport Pelican came over in a hover and lowered down a few meters from myself, Martin and the Chief.
6 Marines hopped off, armed with various weaponry-they looked scared out of their lives, except for a man wearing a cap-I assumed he was the commander of the unit.
jeroy lenkins 
