July 11, 2534 (UNSC Calendar)/
Outer Neutron Secunda
I woke up to the least pleasant sound someone can wake up to. Alarms. Not regular alarms from an alarm clock, but full-on fucking loud alarms from every corner of the ship.
"What is going on?" I yelled as I jumped from my bunk, rifle already in hand. At that precise moment the door slid open to reveal Sergeant Banks standing there, fully armored, helmet under his hand.
"As soon as we left slipspace a few hours ago, the sensors detected a dozen Covenant ships already in the system. We are racing for orbit so that we can be dropped off, as well as the regulars," he explained in a calm voice.
We simply nodded and started suiting up. I hadn't finished putting on the armored boots before there was an explosion. I could only stare in shock as the sergeant was engulfed by a ball of flames right outside of our room.
I was standing there like an idiot before the alarms changed. They went from battle-stations alarms to abandon ship right fucking now alarms. Those I had memorized. I reached for the kevlar vest that went under the chest and abdomen armor before I was thrown to the floor by the ship rocking.
"Ship's don't rock!" complained Ramsey.
Something must've hit the gravity generators or whatever.
"Something must've hit the gravity generators or whatever," I repeated for the others' benefit.
That was bad. Ships rarely get hit in the gravity generators. They are usually placed deep within the ship.
"Ok, I'm getting the fuck out of here!" called out Dutch.
Those were my thoughts exactly at the time. I grabbed my rifle, slung it over my shoulder, my pistol was already holstered to my pants, and my shirt was halfway down, so I was technically good to go.
I pushed my shirt all the way down as I did the belt on my pants and made sure my knife was still strapped on to my boot. By the time I confirmed all of those situations were under controll, I was already halfway through the living quarters area.
I am not a fast runner, or a speed runner, whatever you like to call it. I have never been and I am pretty sure I never will be. But at that time, with the ship skewed sideways, marines and Navy personel yelling everywhere, and small explosions all over the ship, I ran faster than an Olympic record holder.
All of a sudden, the ship tilted further sideways. Everyone with me fell down. I jumped back up and was now running with one foot on the wall and one on the floor. It probably made for a very awkward sight, but everyone else was doing it, besides, they were to busy to care.
A few seconds later the ship was tilted back to normal, well, almost normal. Kudos to the pilot or captain. The small amount of happiness that that had brought to me was quickly gane with the arrival of several explosions along the walls in front of me.
"What the hell is this ship even made of?" complained Chow. "Everything is flamable or what?"
I would've laughed had I not already been sprinting towards the stairs that led down into the SOEIVs. I wasn't about to use the elevator right now. It's not like I had the time either. I jumped down an entire flight of stairs and slammed against the wall, I shrugged it off and did exactly the same thing on the next flight of stairs. This time it hurt more.
Before I could even turn around, there was an enormous explosion that shook the ship, shook, not rocked. The abandon-ship alarms were soon accompanied by a pleasant voice informing us that the hull had been breached.
"Fucking great," I shouted out to whoever was listening.
I finally arrived to the drop room after what seemed like hours, but the real time was probably closer to a minute and a half.
"Jonah, you with me?" I called out to my best friend.
"Right behind you man!" he shot back.
I didn't call out for anyone else in my squad, that would be pushing my luck. I wasn't ready for them not calling back.
I jumped into my pod, the second to last one. I closed the door and was able to glimpse Jonah runing towards his. The SOIVs were usually dropped off by a Navy tech after he had made sure everything was fine, he or she would press the launch button and then all pods would drop off at once. Luckily, some genius had decided to put an emergency button in there, so that pods could be used as emergency escape vehicles.
I must've pressed mine a couple of hundred times. I couldn't help but wait as the blast doors below the launch room slowly opened. As soon as there was enough space for my pod to go through without hitting anything, it was propelled towards the planet, well, it was a moon technically.
My pod moved at what seemed like the slowest pace possible. I knew I was doing at least some clicks per second, but it didn't help calm my nerves. The fact that I passed a covvie CCS-class Battlecruiser at what seemed like inches from its portside wasn't really good for my psyche either. I stared in hopeless shock as I passed the massive vehicle. Luckily, they either thought I was simply a piece of debris, or decided I wasn't worth it, anyways, I am thankful.
My pod then started shaking, I was entering the atmosphere. It shooked harder and harder until it was stabilized. I kept an eye on the altimeter at all times, ocassionally watching some debris fall a couple of kilometers away from me. I deployed my chute and rockets at their respective altitudes and closed my eyes before I landed hard. All in all, a pretty regular orbital drop. I depolarized the window on my pod before opening the door. I used the "drop door" button, not the "blast door into oblivion" button. My door complied, and it simply fell forward. I raised my rifle scanning the area in front of me. There was a lot of debris, probably courtesy of my pod, I was encase by four walls, and a ceiling with a hole in it. I looked through the hole to realize that my pod had gone through five full floors. I couldn't help but smile a little. Then the floor fell from underneath me. I fell a full eight feet and landed on concrete. I stood up, relatively unaharmed and jumped sideways just as the floor under my pod gave out as well. I looked around, the light was hitting this building in a strange way, with multiple shadows and streaks of light here and there.
I walked slowly towards the windows and looked out.
"Great, this is just great," I said to myself.
Of all the places in Eden I could've landed on, I hit the top of the tallest building in the largest city with the heaviest Covenant prescence. Granted, the Count Me In was in orbit above the city of Jotunheim, but managing to hit a mile tall skyscraper straight on the top was a full on miracle. I looked outside the holes my pod had made and confirmed that it was only five floors deep, six now.
I sighed, this was going to be tiresome. The fact that no other human from the ship was within sight was also quite unnerving.
I sighed again and rolled my pod upright. I jumped in and grabbed all the equipment I could carry. I had no armor, but the armored rucksack was there, I filled it with the food rations inside my pod and slung a bandolier over my shoulder. I had six mags of thirty-six rounds each for my battle rifle and three twelve-round magazines for my pistol. It could've been worse, but not by much. I grabbed my rucksack and started the long descent.
Forty floors later I realized that the building was not that tall, in fact it was simply placed upon a hill overlooking the city. A tall hill. I left the lobby and walked outside. I looked over the city and was surprised to see that it was mostly intact. Then I heard an explosion to my back. I rolled my eyes and ran to the other side of the building.
I overlooked the city from a different vantage point.
It looked like hell. The sky was red with the flames of the burning city, there was a Covenant carrier in the distance, I could make out a couple of gravity lifts reaching out to the floor. In addition to the large Covenant battleship, there were several other enemy aircraft. There were banshees here and there, a couple of phantoms over there, and of course, seraphs stafing some point or other of the city. I looked at the enemy aircraft through my scope, while I was doing this I also noticed pelicans departing from the northern edge of the city, located to my front and left. I kept doing this for a couple of minutes before deciding to head down to the area where the pelicans were landing and departing. I used my range finder on my rifle to measure out the distance, but since I had no helmet on, I couldn't figure it out. Now that was genius, placing a range finder that only works whenever you're wearing a helmet.
I cursed at the guy who had thought of that before I decided it was around four kilometers to my destination, so I set off. No armor, no backup, no radio, no friends, I was alone.
I jumped over a wrecked car, there was a covenant patrol right around the corner. An elite minor and three grunts. I might've been able to ambush them and take them out quickly, but since I was out of grenades and only had one flashbang, I thought it better to wait until they went by. Oh surprise, they came straight towards me. I looked under the car, they were about twenty yards away, prime distance, I wasn't exactly on a wonderful location to ambush them, but it was now or never.
"Wort?" was all the elite could say before I emptied half my clip into its chest. Since it was a minor, its shields weren't all that strong, so it collapsed, half its chest a bloody mess. I quickly changed the setting to single fire before dispatching the grunts with three well placed shots.
Kind of anti-climactic, I thought to myself.
All of a sudden it started raining. The sky seemed to be emptying all its reserves, there was water everywhere, and on top of it all, I wasn't wearing my comfy armor.
I went inside a building with its walls blown up before taking a seat. Now, the fact that the patrol I had just taken out was so surprised to see me told me one thing. They were with their guard down, even the elite. That assumption told me another more worrisome thing. If they were so relaxed, even the warrior elite, it probably meant that they had reason to be.
I was behind enemy lines all by myself.
I placed my head between my hands, thinking. The rainstorm outside would somehow help me sneak around, the light from the fires wouldn't do the same, but at least they would burn out eventually if the rain kept going. I climbed a couple of floors to get a better view of my surroundings. On the second floor I found a nice-looking jacket, it was sort of like those skiing jackets, only thiner, I'm not entirely sure what you can call them. Look, all you need to know is that it was black and looked good.
Anyways, I looked out the street and was surprised to see muzzle flashes far away. I looked through my scope and could just barely make out a group of marines through the rain, they were holding out against covvies from a downed pelican. I watched in morbid fascination. The skirmish seemed to be an even battle until there was a white flash of light that consumed two marines. I watched in horror as a wraith tank slowly advanced towards the pelican, its coaxial machineguns making short work of any marines that had left their cover. I noticed a flash and then an explosion hit the wraith tank. Its anti-grav thrusters failed and it fell to the floor, another rocket quickly blew it up. Their victory was short lived, as seconds later a banshee patrol carpeted the area with their fuel rods, reducing the surviving marines to charred meat.
I stared, there was nothing I could've done and yet a I felt guilty about not doing anything. My thoughts were distracted by the sound of groaning metal. I rushed back to the window and stared in shock at the burned hull of the UNSC Count Me In streaking through the sky. It had only been around an hour since I left in my pod, but I was surprised the Navy guys had managed to keep it flying for that long. When I was escaping it seemed like the ship was about to collapse in that same moment.
The ship flew across the city and landed a short distance from the Covenant carrier across the city. It was certain to have splattered some aliens, I just hoped they didn't hit any humans.
I watched as the enemy soldiers that had just defeated the marines near the pelican made their way towards the crash site. I was knocked back by banshees streaking past my window. I dropped to the floor and waited a minute to confirm everything was safe.
The covvies seemed to be moving away from the human stronghold, or whatever it was. This was my chance. I left the building, now further armed with a jacket. Not having taken two steps from the front door, I sprinted back to the second floor. I entered a bathroom and promptly emptied my bowels, who knew when I would have another chance.
Now feeling a lot lighter, I left the building, this time for good. I started jogging in the general direction of the pelicans I had seen. I had gone four blocks, dodging one covenant patrol and waiting out another one before I made it to my destination, safe and sound.
A round ricocheted of my feet. I automatically raised my rifle in the direction I had been shot from.
"Identify yourself!" a voice called out.
I moved my rifle closer to the drection of the voice.
"I'm human, isn't that enough?" I answered.
Nothing happened for a couple of seconds, then I saw a man's head peeking outside from the corner the building at the edge of the block. He motioned for me to join him. I proceeded to do so before the ground next to me was shot at, this time with plasma fire. I turned around and saw a group of three elites and at least a dozen grunts and jackals not a hundred yards behind me. I started sprinting, sigzagging every couple of meters. I made it to the edge of the building and a marine pulled me into cover as plasma burned the air that was filling the position I was in a moment ago. The marine grabbed a sniper rifle and sprinted across to the other side of the street before I could even thank him.
I decided to return the favor and provided some covering fire. I softened up an elite before a sniper round tore through its shoulder. I switched my target and seconds later another round hit it square in the chest. I looked at the marine and he nodded at me. I fired the rest of my ammo into the last elite, a major, before a sniper round hit its neck. I reloaded and the other marine switched to an MA5. No sense in wasting sniper ammunition on grunts. I fired at the disorganized grunts, every few seconds I would have to take cover again before a plasma round burned my face off. Within a couple of minutes the covenant force was reduced to nothing, they really aren't that fearsome without the elites leading them.
I wasn't about to believe myself immortal, but a couple more of this non-fights, and I would very much be on my way to think I was.
"Ok, cover me," yelled the marine from the other side of the street.
I popped out and he ran over to my position. No one shot at him.
"Thanks," I said.
"Hey, don't mention it."
He was a bit older than me by the looks of him, probably been in this battle since it started, however long ago that was.
"Follow me," he ordered.
I complied and fell in step with him.
"When did they arrive?" I asked.
"Two days ago, they jumped inside the system and immediatelly started deploying troops, right now we just finished evacuating the remaining civilians, not many of them, but better than nothing."
I nodded. We walked for a block before he spoke again.
"So you're supposed to be our reinforcements?" he asked me.
"Well… yes," no point in lying to him.
He shook his head.
"I take it your ship didn't make it quite so well," he half-asked half-stated.
"Nah, in fact it crash-landed a few minutes ago."
He simply nodded and we continued our march. A minute later we made it into a large building. It happened to be a correctional facility. It made sense actually. There were large walls preventing easy entrance, the guard towers could be used as platforms for SAM's and snipers, there was a relatively large courtyard that could house a couple of pelicans, and there were enough living quarters to acomodate a couple of thousand marines.
There were only a couple hundred marines inside though, and most were wounded. I could tell that this was a loosing battle. The soldiers in here were only buying enough time to be able to retreat and leave the planet. Pelicans came and went, taking of batches of twenty men each.
"Any word on survivors from the Count Me In?" I asked the soldier.
"The what?"
"My ship," I explained.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, no."
I shrugged, it still hadn't hit me, loosing all my friends, but I knew it would soon. The marine led me to the armory, which consisted of five rifles and a couple of crates containing ammo in a room.
He told me to grab whatever I needed and handed me a helmet and chest plate. I parted with my jacket and put on the helmet. I linked it to my rifle and pistol. The chest plate was the upper part of regular body armor, it was scratched and there were burn marks on it.
"I take it the former owner of this isn't with us anymore," I asked.
The marine simply shrugged and left after telling me to report to cell block C and report to Captain Hendricks. I put on the armor and stocked up on ammo before leaving towards cell block C. With people around me, and with my head protected, I no longer felt like I was strolling around naked.
I walked into the B block and reported to the captain. He happened to be a tired looking man in his forties. He was sitting on an ammo box and using a bigger crate as a desk.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked.
"I'm Lance Corporal Castillo, ODST 19th Batallion, attached to the UNSC Count Me In," I stated.
He gave me a once over and seemed confused, then he saw my ODST boots and simply nodded.
"You abandoned ship huh?"
I nodded.
"Well, there's no sense for you to be here, we are bailing, there is only one more undamaged cruiser in orbit, and that won't last for long. We are going to board it and leave the system."
I nodded again.
"Just go to the wall and help in the defenses," he said.
I saluted and left the room. I walked across the prison. It looked like something straight out of a war film. Only gorier. There were men laying down on the floor every now and then. Most had bandages covering parts of their bodies. The groaning of pain wasn't something nice to the ear. I almost sighed with relief when I left the building and emerged into the courtyard.
I looked around and cought sight of a junior lieutenant. I caught up with him and told me that the captain had ordered me to add to the defenses.
"Where can I help the most?" I asked.
He pointed at a particaular place in the walls that was partially collapsed, there were several soldiers sitting in the rubble, talking or playing cards.
I walked up to a sergeant.
"Who are you?" he asked, he looked bored.
"Reinforcements," I stated.
He rolled his eyes and told me tos tay put in case of a covvie attack. I sat down on a rock a couple of meters away from him.
"Quien es este maricón?" I heard someone ask.
I turned around, I hadn't spoken spanish in a while, but this guy had no idea what was in for him.
"A quién le dices maricón, nenita?" I shot back.
I stood up and faced the offender, a short man about my age.
"Calmate, aquí todos somos amigos?" he said, backing up now. His accent sounded Colombian or perhaps Venezuelan, but he could've been from Paris IV or Miridem for all I knew.
"Eso creí," I said before sitting back down. The sergeant just laughed and went back to counting rocks.
I pulled out my knife and twirled it in my hands. It was somewhat calming, but the main purpose was to discourage any idiot from saying a bunch of crap.
So I waited, and waited. I waited some more.
I waited until there was an explosion just outside of the walls.
The wait was over.