This is the new thread seeing as how the old one glitched up. I think it was too long or something. Bah. Anyway, here's the new thread, with the story split into two parts to avoid accidental glitches. In case your new to this story; basically it's about a person who's life gets turned upside down when the Covenant attack Harvest; he joins an ODST squad, and the story develops from there. It's mostly about character and plot, not combat.

 It should now be readable, I put indents in to space out the parts.

 And I know the first few parts are shaky, but it gets better later on. Thanks for your time.

Part 1 - Contact

I volunteered for it . Volunteered to drop in a titanium box, volunteered for the most risky job in the UNSC.I volunteered to become an ODST marine or a “hell jumper”, as they were commonly called. it wasn't patriotic pride, or anything like that. It was revenge.

20 years ago, I was a 15 years old, lounging about lazily in the plentiful fields of the paradise colony world harvest; I had a good home, and harvest was pretty much safe from rebels, pirates, and the other troubles that plague less fortunate colonies. Life was good, just me, and my mum and dad. Then they came.

The day started like any other, me and a few of the other lads going to watch those Marines in training. We were fascinated by them, how they followed orders to the bone, how they acted swiftly and surely. Later in the day however, an unknown object entered the atmosphere.

It wasn't like any of our cruisers; it was purple, and made of a shiny metallic element which was definitely not used in any of our standard ships, on closer inspection, it seemed like the ship was curvaceous, although why it was built this way was a mystery, surely it would just slow it down with its un-streamlined shape. Needless to say, the UNSC ships rose up armed to meet it.

There were whisperings amongst the local colonists, finally, other sentient life had been discovered. I didn't find out what happened up there until much later, hours went past without it moving an inch, and apprehension slowly crept into the onlooking crowd. Suddenly, the enemy cruiser fired on one of our ships, plasma streaming out of its dual cannons ,that was when the screaming started.

Time went as a blur after that, chaos predominated over every other sense as one by one, our ships were shot down by the shear power of the enemy cruiser, as easily as scissors cut through paper. My parent’s house was miles away,yet still, I should have ran back, should have warned them; maybe then I wouldn't even be recounting this tale.

However, I was in disarray, people were yelling everywhere, screaming how they were all going to die, next thing, the also petrified marines were shouting at civilians to board the ship, to evacuate. I tried to run back to the house, to tell my parents, but a marine in black armour which had the initials ODST printed on the right shoulder pad grabbed me and threw me on-board ,probably saved my life.

As we left the atmosphere, I saw before my very eyes blue explosions smash into the once great planet harvest, the UNSC’s pride and joy, and my home, and bury it under a glassy field.

My parents hadn't made it; they were still down there, dead or dying. As we fled out of the planets atmosphere, and jumped into slip space, I made a vow that day to wreak a terrible vengeance on the monsters that had committed this heinous act.

20 years later, standing 10km above the desolate New Mombassa, I’m starting to regret it.........

 

Part 2 - Enrolment

Even as we were just emerging out of slip space, officers were parading around the bridge asking for volunteers to the UNSC marine corps. They managed to convince many of the colonists, and soon, the room was full of people signing papers swearing allegiance to earth and all of her colonies.

I hesitated for a moment, and then also stepped forward to the makeshift enrolment booths. A marine noticed me, and walked towards me, the enslaving papers in hands. “Can I help you son?” the heavily armoured man said between a smoking cigar.

“Are you here to sign up?” he queried,

“yyyes sir”, I replied, stumbling over my words.

“Hmm...” the man mused “Well, you look like you’d make a good soldier, you’ve gotta good, strong build, tell me son, how old are you, in earth years I mean.”

He said this last part due to the fact that a harvest year passes 2/3 slower than an earth year.

“18 sir”, I lied.

“Well, usually we’d run checks on you, make sure you’re tellin’ the truth and all that, but under these circumstances, we don’t have time for that. Now, are you sure you want this son? The life of a soldier isn’t as glorious as the adverts claim it is.”

He spoke this last part slowly, as if to drum it into my very skull.

“Yes sir”, I replied, “please sir, who are those marines in the black armour?” I spoke out of curiosity, anxious to know who had stopped me from running away, and most likely, saved my life.

A shadow crossed over the marines face. “Oh, you don’t want nothin’ to do with them son, they’re what you call ODST marines, or ‘hell jumpers’ as the rest of us normal soldiers call them. They are the ones who, when battle calls, answer it with a hell of a lot of gunfire. Their actions decide a battle, they are the elite, they are the ones who kill the majority of our enemies in battle; yet they are the ones who die in battle too....”.

He spoke this last sentence solemnly, as if even the mention of them saddened him to the bone. I pondered what he had just said, they kill the most in battle, yet they die the most in battle....well, if I was gonna die, I might as well take a few of those alien creatures to hell with me...

“Please sir, where would one go if they wanted to join these ‘ODST’s’?” the marine looked shocked, and quickly protested

“Son, in the brief time I’ve known you, I’ve summarised that you seem like a nice lad, don’t waste your life with them, you’ll be--”

“Please sir”, I interrupted, “It’s what I want to do, and no amount of persuading on your part will convince me otherwise” the soldier looked like he was going to protest again, then resigned, and mutely pointed to a booth on the far side of the room.

“Thank you,” I softly said to him, and walked towards the ODST’s, to my destiny. As I was walking across the room, I faintly heard the soldier say

“Good luck!”, then mutter to himself, “You’re going to need it......”

 

PART 3 - Suit up

The ODST’s didn’t react as I walked towards them. Reacting in a way I could tell that is. Behind their mirrored visors, they could be smiling at me, or snarling intensely. I warily edged my way closer.

“Mmm...e-e-xcuse me?” I paused, chastising myself soundly for stuttering once again, if I wanted to be an ODST, then I had to show courage, not sound like a dunce. I started again, adopting a deeper, more assertive voice.

“Ahem, excuse me, but is this where you sign up for the ODST marines?” I paused, unsure whether they would blank me or welcome me with open arms. In actual fact, they did a double take, as if they couldn’t believe their ears.

“Wait, did I hear you right, you actually want to join our corps?” the voice was that of a male’s, sort of rough, as if he had been in so many fire fights, his voice had lost finesse due to shouting orders to his squad.

“I think you must be mistaken kid”, he growled through his visor,

I bristled then

“I’m not a kid, and no, I didn’t make a mistake, I want to join.”

I stood there for what seemed like hours, whilst the ODST mulled my request over. I tried to fathom what he was thinking, but it was impossible to do so when his expressions were concealed behind that impassive head gear.

“You know kid, this ain't no walk in the park, if you wanna join us, then you’ve gotta have guts, and this ain’t for the weak hearted. However, if you’re sure about this, then, you can join, we’re getting a little short of recruits anyway”

Like the ODST, I also tried to conceal my feelings then, if he knew how scared I was, I might be turned down. Instead of attempting speech, which I knew would be futile, I gave a stiff, short, nod.

“alright then”

He now spoke with a bit less hostility

“Just sign these papers and we’re away” he passed me a pen, nothing fancy, just an old style ink pen. I grabbed it, then, with a shaking hand, slowly brought it down on the paper, and signed away my life to these strangers, these ODST's.

As I finished; the ODST I assumed to be the leader scooped up to documents, and placed them inside a folder. He then growled some orders to another marine, who quickly motioned for me to follow him. As we were walking, I grabbed the opportunity to learn more about the unit I had just joined.

“So”, I began, “what was the name of that guy back there?” the ODST thought for a second, then answered.

“He’s the leader of our lovely little family here, we call him Blade.”

“Blade?” I asked, confused.

“Yes Blade,” the marine continued,

“We don’t use our real names here, we have a codename s, mines Switch, pleased to meet you.” He spoke in the manner of a well educated person, and to me, seemed as if he didn’t really fit into this group of rough nuts.

“Why do they call you Switch?” I queried.

“Why that’s because I’m the computer specialist of the team, you want to get into somewhere, but don’t know the code, then I’m your man.” So, there was more to this troop than just fire first, ask questions later, I wondered what my name would be.

“Where are we going?” I asked Switch.

We’re going to get you some weapons kid, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait until we dock at Reach before you can get some armour. We don’t carry spares see.” As he said this, it finally sunk in. I was an ODST marine, I was going to get a set of armour, and I was going to get revenge.

As we reached the armoury, switch rummaged through some racks of weapons, before handing me a gun with a long barrel on the end.

“This is an ODST battle rifle kid, it’s been modified to accommodate for our....talents, it’s got a silencer, laser scope, and other such attachments that should help you when trying to be stealthy, as is often our wont.”

He passed it to me, and over the next few hours, instructed me on the various ways to fire it, reload it, and other such techniques that would be valuable in a fire fight. Also, you'll be needing this”

He passed over a small silver object, with a liquid crystal screen on the front.

“This is an ODST standard PDA, if you ever get lost, and need to find any of us again, this PDA will tell you the location of the nearest other transmitting unit”.

As he was about to turn it on however, suddenly, the comm. Box broke over switch’s calm voice.

“Attention! All able combat personnel report to the bridge immediately! They’ve found us, god *** it they’ve found us...”

The comm. Box went dead. Switch drew out his own battle rifle.

“Well kid, looks like its test time! Now let’s go kick some alien ass......”

 

Part 4 - A Plan.....

As me and Switch were heading towards the bridge, tremors of ascending violence cascaded all around us, throwing crates full of unused weapons all over the place. Every so often, we’d see a flash of blue light, and an explosion would tear into the hallway, sometimes just metres before us.

“Holy crap” Switch shouted, as a particularly large explosion almost sent a piece of the wall straight into us.

“The bridge is just around this corner kid, but we’d better run if we don’t want be jettisoned into space with the rest of the corpses”

Jettisoned into space? I quickly doubled the speed at which I was running. As we reached the bridge, the captain was already speaking to the already assembled squad. A glowing blue apparition was residing in the air beside him.

“What’s that?” I asked switch in a quiet undertone.

“An A.I” Switch replied hurriedly, “stands for artificial intelligence, they help keep the ships system in check, some of them are even better at hacking than me”. He spoke this last part bitterly, as if he found the idea of a machine knowing more than him unnatural. The

Captain spotted us, and beckoned us over.

“Ah, finally, the last of the ODST's arrives”. He then spotted me, “Oh, and who’s this?”

“New recruit to the team sir!” Switch replied in turn

“Ah, good good, we’ll need all the help we can get.”

He turned to the rest of the soldiers.

“Now, right at this very moment we have an alien cruiser batting away at our modest ship with god knows what weapon. We don’t know how they tracked us, right up until now it’s been thought impossible to follow another ship through slip space, unless you know the exact co-ordinates, and even that can go wrong.”

He paused, drawing breath.

“What we do know however, is that if we don’t warn the rest of the UNSC about this threat, then their doomed. So, I want every soldier performing at their best today, no hanging back! The fate of humanity rests on our shoulders.....now man the borders, and let’s give these alien scum a fight they’ll never forget...Move out!”

In perfect harmony, the UNSC soldiers moved out as one, reloading their ammo clips as they went. Just as our little squad turned to follow, the Captain stopped us, beckoning us over.

“I won’t lie to you lads, even if our soldiers kill a hundred enemies each today, that’s still not going to stop them from ripping us to shreds with plasma. This is where you come in.”

I didn’t like the way he said that, it made my stomach curl.

“I need you to take a long sword stealth fighter, and land on the alien ship. Once inside, sneak around to a weak spot and activate this small yet powerful mini nuke.”

He passed Blade a lead lined sack, one with a nuclear symbol on the outside.

“Conceal it to stop it from being detected, then get the hell out of there; once away from the cruiser, Olivia here” He motioned to the A.I on his right “Will detonate the nuke, hopefully destroying the ship, or at least damaging it long enough for us to make a tactical retreat. Now are you up for this?”

I certainly wasn’t. I’d only just signed up a few hours ago, but I wasn’t going to complain. Besides, this would kill scores of those alien scum, a prospect I looked forward to.

Blade had no such reservations “Sir yes Sir!” he shouted in his rough voice.

“Good, I knew I could count on you” the captain replied, then his eyes rested on me.

“If you want son, you can stay here, if you feel it’s too much for you”

his voice contained a quizzical tone, and I realized he was testing my courage.

“No sir, if it’s OK with you sir, I’ll go with my unit” I replied in an unwavering voice.

The captain looked at me with a newly found admiration.

“That’s good to know son”.

He turned to address the rest of the group.

“This will be a tough mission, but I’m sure you can pull it off, now, I’m assigning Olivia here to your ships on-board computer, she’ll help you stay undetected by any alien forces, and attempt to gain some information about these creatures from the cruisers terminal. I’m sure she’ll prove to be a valuable asset. Now, hurry to the docking bay, and may god speed you on your way.”

“Sir yes sir!”, the group replied in unison, and we surged down to the docking bay, heading to what was in all reality a suicide mission, yet one I intended to pull through..........

 

Part 5 - Breaking in....

We sprinted through the burning corridors, ignoring the violent seismic blasts that frequently hit the ship. There was a small elevator leading down to the docking bay, but none of us dared take it, in case the ships power shut down as a result of the cascading plasma smashing into the vassal.

Instead, we climbed down the steep stairs, trying to be as fast as humanely possible without tripping. As we approached the ensemble of ships, an official stopped us.

“No admission into the docking bay without the written permission of the Captain, do you have the necessary papers?”

Switch tried the diplomatic approach.

“Look, how could you be talking about clearance papers at a time like this? We need to-”

Switch got cut off as Blade marched over to the official and rapped him over the head with the hilt of his gun. The man collapsed instantly.

“No time for standing around, let's get on board the longsword.”

Blade stepped over the unconscious official, not even glancing down.

I wondered how many times Blade had 'ignored' regulations before.

As we walked into the docking bay, other marines stared at us, wondering what ODST marines were doing in their little bay. It made me a little bit uneasy, and I averted my gaze towards the floor.

“Hurry up kid!” Blade shouted gruffly, and I realised that while I had been staring at the floor, the rest of my group had hurried ahead. As I neared the Black stealth ship, Blade seemed to be thinking about something. I have to admit I was mildly surprised.

“It's getting annoying calling you kid, so I'm going to have to give you a codename.”

My face showed barely concealed glee, as I thought on what my name could be. Hunter? Wolf?

Finally Blade spoke.

“From now on, you shall be known as Farm-Boy”

My heart sank, Farm-Boy? what kind of a name was that. I suppose Harvest was primarily a farming planet, but still....Farm Boy?

“Now Farm-Boy, I don't know exactly what the Captain was thinking, letting you come with us, I mean, you've only been with us for a few hours, but still...I'm not going to disobey orders. Just follow us, keep quiet, and stick to the shadows, you'll be al right.”

I nodded, still despairing in my mind over the name farm boy. Just as another explosion vibrated the ship, we boarded the longsword and shut the pressurised door.

“Who's going to fly this thing?” I asked Switch, terrified he would say Blade.

“None of us”, Switch replied “The A.I can pilot the ship much more efficiently than any of us” he said in an envious tone.

As if on cue, a smaller representation of the blue translucent figure he has seen on the bridge appeared inside a small circle before them.

“Greetings ODST Staff Sergeant, would you like me to pilot the ship to your destination?” She spoke in a computerized voice, strangely airy and emotionless at the same time.

“If you would Olivia, also, engage the stealth system.” He spoke in a polite tone that I previously wouldn't have associated with him.

I felt a slight tingle as the craft dislodged itself from the docking bay, and a faint noise as the stealth systems powered up. The stealth systems didn't make the ship invisible, no one had worked out how to accomplish that yet, instead, it deployed mirrors that refracted the light around the vassal, rendering it effectively invisible.

As for enemy radars, it radiated a faint EMP barrier wasn't powerful to shut down the ship, but enough to stop all electronic probes heading in their direction. We then powered up the engines, and flew off towards the strange purple cruiser in the distance.

All around us, UNSC Short-Swords were managing to fight of most of the much smaller alien vessels, only to be shot down by the huge cruisers side turrets.

I was glad we were practically invisible. We approached the enemy ship, and slowly, Olivia brought us in to the alien docking bay. As we entered, I wondered not for the first time what I had gotten myself into............

 

Part 6 - Sabotage

As quietly as possible, we silently brought the Longsword stealth ship down in a corner of the massive docking station. I was about to exit through the main hatch, hand on button, but a sharp shoulder yank from Blade stopped me.

“Are you trying to get us killed Farm boy? If we open that hatch, the stealth systems will disengage. From now on, follow our lead.”

I cursed silently, 1 minute in and I already got us nearly detected.

I followed Blade, Switch, and the others through a secret trapdoor in the floor, and we dropped onto the alien surface. There was what looked like a Comm. Box in the corner, occasionally breaking the eerie silence with incomprehensible words.

“Switch, we've got a locked door to our left, can you do anything about it?” Blade spoke through his helm, which had technology that could even pick up a whisper and transmit it loud as day across the laser created channel.

“I'll try boss” Switch didn't sound too sure as he crept over to the nearby terminal.

Minutes went by, and I started to think we'd be stuck here forever.

“Got it!” Even Switch sounded surprised by his own achievement “They use the same numbers as us, so it was possible to crack.”

Olivia's voice sounded over the channel.

“Uploading information to my database, will now attempt to crack Ships main computer using uploaded Intel.

There was a slight whooshing noise as the Blast doors slid weightlessly across the floor.

“Excellent, now move out” Blade drew out his Silenced Battle rifle, and slowly crept up the hallway, the rest of us followed suit.

As we rounded the corner, Blade quickly held up his hand in a fist, a sign which Switch said meant hold steady. He motioned for us to quickly follow him, and we took cover behind a glowing pillar.

Just as I ducked behind it, we heard footsteps echo in the hallway we had resided in just moments ago.

“Heat vision on” Blade said over the undetectable channel. I did so. Luckily, on the way to the docking bay, Switch managed to 'borrow' a marines helmet, kitted out with comm. Channels, heat vision, and other standard equipment. I was wearing it now.

As I turned it on, I had to stifle a gasp.

Walking across the hallway was a triangular shaped, 5 foot creature with thick legs and arms. We were pretty confident we could kill it, judging by it's size, and were about to shoot it in the head with our silenced guns. We slowly lowered our guns as another figure ambled into the heat visors range.

This creature was huge, almost 8 feet tall, and carried a strange powerful heat source in his hand, shaped like a sword. Through our visors, we saw him sniff, take a look around, then move on.

Everyone, even Blade sighed in relief.

“What the hell was that?” One of the ODST's whom I didn't know the name of asked.

“I'm not sure Det, but whatever it was I wouldn't like to meet it face to face.”Blade quickly assimilated the essence of command again.

“Now, unless you've forgotten, we have a job to do, now, follow me, and be careful”.

We followed Blade down the hallway into a smaller room than the docking bay, but still quite large. 3 of the 5 foot creatures we had seen before stood talking on the other side of the room.

“Line 'em up in your sites, and fire” growled Blade between his scope.

One second later, and 3 inaudible whispers exited the barrels of the modified rifles. On the other side of the room, the creatures collapsed, a small hole embedded in the side of their heads.

Blade motioned for us to follow once more, and we went across the other side of the room to the dead aliens bodies.

Bending down, I picked up one of their weapons. It was small and curvaceous, built for alien hands, and had a dormant green bulb on where a barrel should be.

“Better give that to me, ONI will want to take a look at it once we get to Reach” Blade held out his hand, and I passed him the pistol.

Olivia's voice sounded across the Comm. Channel.

“I've managed to crack some of the basic aspects of the ship, such as schematics and blueprints, but still have a long wait to go before I'm close to finding out more about these enemies. I'll upload the layout of the ship to your HUD, plus a ideal spot to put the bomb.”

A split second later, a map appeared in the left of my visor, with one room glowing red. This was supposedly where we put the bomb.

“Thanks Olivia, keep trying on those codes” replied Blade.

“Over and out”

“Well,” Blade said, “What are we waiting for? Lets get to that room.”

The detonation spot was approximately 150m away, which meant stealth was needed.

We traversed through the next room without any resistance, and in the next, but one of those small aliens resided, which were took out with ease. As we entered the glowing room however, we spotted one of the taller, more ferocious looking creatures, and quickly ducked for cover.

“Right, they can't be invincible, if we all fire at once at it's head, it's bound to go down” Blade surmised.

“OK, on the count of three then. 1......2......3, NOW!”

We dashed out of cover, simultaneously firing at the tall aliens head. It grunted in surprise, yet the bullets seemed to bounce of it. Dismayed, we carried on firing, suddenly, the mysterious resistance vanished, and the Alien toppled to the floor, dead.

“What happened then?” Blade asked Switch

“It looks like some sort of shielding mechanism was in place around it, sort of like the basic ones we have around bases; but to create such a field around a single body, scientifically speaking, it should be impossible” Switch replied.

Blade strode towards the centre of the room.

“Yeah, well, we'll report this to ONI when we get back, but first, lets detonate that nuke. Det, get over here.”

The ODST named Det strode forward

“How long do we need to get of the ship sir?” He asked

Blade mulled this over.

“About 10 minutes”

“Ten minutes it is then”

Det gingerly took the bag from Blade, and removed the nuke from the bag.

“Don't know why I treat this so delicately, without the activation codes, this thing as as harmless as a rubber duck; I'm just use to standard bombs, that's all.”

Blade gave Det a stare.

“Just shut up and arm it Det”

Det did so.

“OK, we have exactly 10 minutes to evacuate this ship, we should be able to make it.”

As if on cue, as he said this, seven Aliens rounded the corner.

“Oh crap” swore Blade...........

 

Part 7 - Tick tock

The small aliens charged round the corner, pistols raised, making incomprehensible squeaks and grunts as they saw us.

And that wasn't all, as we cowered in fear, two immense, 12 feet tall creatures charged through the group of smaller beings, trampling a few on their way. They looked like they had been cut in a mincer, then someone had reassembled the mince and stuck armour on them.

In their left hands, or whatever they had, they were carrying huge shields made of a strange metallic element, an element I doubted we could shoot through with even a rocket.

Attached to the other limb was a gun as big as us, glowing dangerously.

Even as we dived for cover, a huge streak of green flew past us, burning a hole in the ship as easily as a hot knife through butter.

“Olivia, ready the ship for evacuee now!” screamed Blade into his communicator.

“Affirmative”, came back the as always cool voice of Olivia's.

We were running as fast as we can, the huge, lumbering pair of monsters in pursuit, occasionally firing out the green bolt. One came metres within my face, and even through the helmet, I could feel the searing pain of burning flesh.

We took a right turn down a corridor, and spotted a service shaft, about a metre tall. We crawled in relieved, no way could the creatures fit in there! We were wrong. To our horror, the aliens contorted themselves, so much so, that it would kill a normal human, and edged their way into the maintenance shaft.

Luckily, they couldn't use their guns in such a tight space, but still, one whack from one of those shields, and we were done for.

Det's voice sounded unexpectedly over the communication link

“Only 5 minutes left, quick, we have to get back to the ship, if we're even 100m within this craft when it goes boom, we won't need to worry about being squashed.”

“Olivia, how far away are we from the docking bay?” queried Blade

“About 120m, take the next left and go forward, hurry, I can't keep the cloaking systems up for much longer.....”

We ran a lot faster then.

The creatures were gaining on us, and soon, I knew it was inevitable that they would be level with us.

Suddenly, Det stopped and faced the creatures, drawing a hand size object out from his explosives satchel.

“Det, what are you doing, keep moving!” Blade shouted in disbelief.

“No, they'll catch up with all of us in a minute, better one of us than all of us, I'll set up this small bomb, and take these alien bastards to hell with me....now go, run!”

I felt tears glisten my eyes, he was willing to give his life to save us, when he could have easily scurried away like the rest of us.

“Det...I-”Blade began

“Just go! Now!”

Slowly, we turned our backs on the bravest man I had ever known, as we exited the shaft into the docking bay, their was a muffled explosion behind us, and the man known as Det ceased to be no more.

Switch must have seen I was upset, because he put his hand on my shoulder.

“He's gone on to a better place lad, and it's what he would have wanted, to go out with a bang....”

I nodded, and we walked towards the invisible ship, the area was clear, it seemed all the aliens were elsewhere. It felt strange to be walking on stairs you couldn't see, as I climbed up the stairs, and I felt for a moment like I was going to fall, then regained my balance, and entered the ships hatch.

“Olivia, get us out of here” Blade said, at the same time glancing at the countdown timer, which now read at 45 seconds.

“Affirmative” she said, even as we felt the temporary docking clamps disengage from the hangar, and we sped out into space, back towards the UNSC ship.

And not a moment too soon, because as we just reached our docking bay, their was a huge green explosion behind us, and the whole alien ship exploded into a million fragments, as if it were never their.

Suddenly, the dog-fighting around us ceased, as the smaller alien ships, no longer receiving power from the main cruiser, dropped down into space without a whisper.

We'd saved everyone, but at the cost of a friend...

 

Part 8 - Refuge

“Captain! We are now approaching Reach sir!”

“Thank the Lord....., bring us in Lieutenant!”

After destroying the Alien ship, we'd been greeted as heroes, and had been given medals for our valour.

A few days later, after repairs had been made to the ship, we jumped back into Slip-space and we were now approaching the planet Reach.

I let out a sigh, we truly were safe here, how could anything get through that?

On the planet, MAC guns as big as 3 frigates resided, guarding Reach like watchmen, ever vigilant, ever ready. A whole fleet of ships patrolled the space above the city, ready to gun down anything without an authorisation code.

Luckily we had one.

Our crudely repaired ship slowly descended from orbit down to the surface, and we set down in the biggest docking bay I had ever seen.

Ships of varying sizes covered the immense building, from frigates to destroyers. Engineers scurried about in hundreds, pausing at different ships and working on them.

Switch came up unheard behind me.

“You see lad, I told you we'd make it!”

“No you never, you kept going on about how we were going to be lost in the 'deep, dark crevasse of space' forever!”

Switch grinned behind his helmet. You could tell by the way the kevlar folds around the neck tightened and slanted upwards as he did it.

“Ah well, the important thing is, we're here”

Well, he wasn't wrong about that, as we descended the iron steps of our ship, and placed our feet on the firm ground, I took in a deep breath.

It felt good to be back on a solid surface, even if I was still a bit unsteady, as I had yet to get my 'Land legs' back.

Another ODST in our squad descended from the ship, while travelling to Reach, I managed to find out his name, Rookie. He was an all-rounder, and only a little bit older than me, at 18, although, officially, according to the UNSC records, we were the same age. Everyone in my squad knew I wasn't 18, but they didn't give a ***.

Rookie wasn't a specialist in any skill, capable at everything. It made me feel slightly better to find out someone had as worse a name as mine.

Blade then walked down the steps.

“Alright men......and Farm-Boy, we managed to make it here, but don't get to comfortable, we could be called out again at any moment.”

I was hoping that moment wouldn't come any time soon, I still had burns from the Alien ship.

Just then, a group of what seemed like government officials walked towards the Captain; I tried to hear what was said, but they were too far away.

Slow minutes crawled by, when the Captain's voice suddenly broke out across the Docking station, his voice amplified tenfold by a small megaphone clipped to his collar.

“OK, all civilians, follow the men in the red jackets, they'll show you to your temporary quarters.”

He motioned to a group on his right.

“All officials and combat personnel, follow me for briefing.”

Suddenly, there was a huge noise as hundreds of people walked simultaneously across the Station, following their assigned leaders. I just stuck with my squad, anxious for Intel.

We followed the Captain into a immense building, easily 30 stories high, and as wide as the length of 5 football fields.

A hundred or so people from the ship, me included, poured into a room with a massive holographic screen at the far end of it. We all took our seats.

The Captain walked to the front with a Reach official.

The official spoke to the crowd.

“Hello, and may I welcome you to Reach, I hope you'll find your stay as pleasant as possible.”

his voice then turned sombre

“However, we are all aware of the horrors you have all endured, and this, I'm afraid, is what we are going to talk about.”

He then went on about the things we already knew, the attack on Harvest, evacuation, the blowing up of the alien ship, I struggled not to fall asleep.

“-Yet thanks to the ODST squad that managed to infiltrate the alien ship, we have managed to discover information about the aliens.”

I perked up, and leaned forward on the edge of my seat/

“Not only have we found out how to decipher some of their basic coding, and battle plans, but we have also found out the name of these attackers.”

I held my breath.

“The Covenant”

 

Part 9 - Let's get started

The room was filled with a hushed silence, as everyone contemplated what they had just been told.

The Covenant's very name implied that it wasn't a singular species, it was a faction formed by many. That would explain the variety of species we saw above the enemy cruiser, and how they varied in size and colour.

Needless to say, the cluster of marines were whispering amongst themselves in worried tones. A whole group of aliens bent on the destruction of the human race. How could they possibly survive?

Later on, night fell, or as close to night you can get to on Reach with it's 4 moons lighting up the otherwise dark plain. Me, Blade, Switch, and Rookie (Or Rook as I found out most people called him when in a hurry) retired to the ODST wing of the compound, where I found out I had my very own room.

“You should get some rest Farm-Boy, you like like you need it”.

Blade was right, and I realised I hadn't slept for some close to 3 days. I bid the rest of my small squad goodnight, and retired to the hard, thin single military issued bed that occupied the centre of the room I had been assigned.

I didn't sleep well that night. Tortured images of my parents screaming for help occupied my dreams, and I could envision those tall, impassive knight like Covenant soldiers with their glowing swords massacring the people I had known my entire life, disembowelling them as you would to a chicken ready for the oven.

I woke with a start, sweat drenched my pale face, causing my blue-black hair to stick to my forehead as if it had been glued there. For minutes I lay there, assuring myself everything was fine, and eventually drifted back off into a dreamless sleep.

The dawn chorus sung by the native birds awakened me from my sleep, and I prised the rough duvet covers of of me, and began to get ready. Not too long after, I heard a violent knock on the cheap wooden door which guarded my room.

“Get out here now Farm-Boy! Just because we've arrived on Reach, doesn't mean you can start acting like a civilian! I want you to do a 5 mile jog with Switch and Rook before breakfast, now go!”

Two hours later, Switch, Rook and I arrived in the large cafeteria, gasping for breath. Luckily for us, breakfast was still being served. Unfortunately, breakfast consisted of watered down porridge, commonly known as gruel.

After eating, Blade ordered us to follow him, and we emerged into a room which was obviously designed for combat training.

“First things first Farm boy, you're going to need a standard ODST body suit, I'm not having you disgrace the name of our corps with some shaggy sub quality marine armour. Rook, get on it”.

Not wasting time on words, the young ODST left, leaving Switch, Blade and I to wait impatiently for his return.

Shockingly, I suddenly realised I hadn't got to know him very well at all, and made a promise to get to know him soon. He didn't seem unfriendly, or, at the very least, he got on well enough with Switch, judging by the friendly manner in which they spoke together.

After a long 5 minutes, Rook returned carrying a bundle of jet black armour in his arms, with the uninhabited helmet resting on top of the said bundle. It stared at me, as if it were boring into my very soul with it's blank gaze.

For the first time, I noticed that every suit of body armour had a coloured strip upon the arm of it;Switch's, Rook's, and mine was red, whilst Blade had a contrasting strip of pure white putting voice to the fact that he was the squad leader.

“Are you gonna stare at that thing all day, or are you going to put it on?” Blade snapped, his patience wearing thin.

I took the armour, noting how, despite the fact that it was a bright and glorious day outside, the dark, hallowed suit reflected none of the beams directed upon it.

“Here, let me help you get it on” Switch said, giving me some much needed assistance in making the helmet secure, tightening the loose sections, and in general saving me hours of fumbling around.

Finally, it was on, and I knew that, with this armour, I had erased all ties to my old life.

No longer was I the simple civilian who used to help his parents collect in the crop during autumn, or go off with his friends in the summer, and attend school like any normal kid, I was an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, charged with the task of defending humanity in the name of the UNSC, one of the elite.

“Finally.....” Blades voice brought me out of my day dream back into reality.

“Sorry” I muttered in a low voice, abashed. The words came out of my helmet muffled, making my voice sound as if it were echoing.

“Thank God we weren't outside, we'd have been smothered by the growing grass by now; anyway, let's get back to business.”

He pushed a button, and on the other side of the room, a group of holographic enemies appeared.

Blade passed me one of the modified BR55s.

“Now, how good are you at shooting? You seemed decent enough on-board the cruiser, albeit a little hesitant.”

Nervously, I raised my gun, and turned on the laser pointer. A faint red dot appeared on one of the holographic targets. Shutting my eyes, I pulled the trigger, and felt my hand get jerked up by the force of the spray of bullets leaving the now smoking barrel.

Opening my eyes, I saw that the bullets had completely managed to miss their target.

“Great, now we have to pay for a new comm. Box”, Switch sighed in exasperation.

Blade also sighed, and I grimaced behind my mirrored blue visor.

It was going to be a long day.........

 

Part 10 - Time to drop...

“I'm not jumping!” I screamed at Blade, practically hysterical now.

“It's easy Farm-Boy, just put one foot off the edge!” Blade shouted back, the wind distorting his rough voice.

We were standing in a plane 5000 feet off the surface of Reach, with me standing at the edge with a parachute on my back, being told to jump off. I wasn't having it.

“Blade, you're bloody mad, I'm not jumping and that's final!”

Usually, I wouldn't be this brave around Blade, but adrenalin was surging through my veins, making me more confident speaking to him.

“Listen lad, if you want to be a proper Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, then you can't be scared of heights! If you are, you may as well go pretend nothing is wrong with the other civilians.”

I still shook my head firmly, unable to risk my life. Horrible thoughts were surging through my head; what if the parachute stuck? What if I hit the ground before it worked?

Blade sighed, and for a hopeful minute, I thought I had won.

“Switch, would you kindly push Farm-boy for me?”

I froze, and stopped screeching incoherently for a second.

“Switch wouldn't do that, would you Switch?” I said to the older marine, slightly worried.

“Sorry lad, but, orders are orders” I had a feeling he was smiling, despite his apparently regretful tone.

Before I could protest, he strode forward, and pushed me out in a split second.

For a moment, irrationally, I thought I was going to die. I was screaming, and all I could think of was the hard ground that was rushing up to greet me.

Then I remembered the parachute. My armoured hand fumbled behind my back, desperately searching for the ringed cord. I panicked for a second when I felt nothing, then reassured myself as my hand closed upon a nylon string with a big loop on the end.

Steeling myself, I closed my eyes and yanked it, praying it wouldn't get stuck.

Bliss came as I saw that blessed parachute unfurl from the black military rucksack on the back of my body suit. I faintly saw the eagle of the UNSC printed upon it's surface, and heard Blade over the comm. Channel.

“You did good Farm-Boy, although you took a while to jump”

“What do you mean jump? You practically commanded Switch to shove me off!”

I heard some laughs, and realised Switch and Rook were also listening in on the conversation.

Annoyed, I terminated the channel, and looked out at the view. Admittedly, it was magnificent, almost worth the jump. Almost.

I landed softly upon the big red bullseye painted to assist with such training missions, my boot's shock absorber technology cushioning my otherwise rough landing.

The short-sword jet that had taken me up descended down to meet me, and Blade got out.

“Right, you did okay that time, now, ready for round two?”

I thought at first he was joking, but when he beckoned for me to follow him, and climbed back onto the jet, I realised he wasn't.

Knowing it was pointless to argue otherwise, I picked myself off the ground, and trudged back to the Short-sword.

“I'll do it, but this time, I don't want Switch pushing me out, okay?”

All 3 of them laughed, and we set back off into the clouds..........

 

Part 11 - Hope you revised.....

A loud bang on my thin door awoke me from my peaceful slumber. At first I was tempted to hide under my covers and go back to sleep, but then, as I heard another bang, one even louder than the first, I realised Blade's patience was wearing away.

Worrying for the well-being of my door, I quickly got up, and released the iron locks that looked as if they had seen better days. Blade's mirrored visor was greeting me on the other side.

“What took you so long? Ah, forget it, just get dressed, full body suit, the works. Then meet us in training zone alpha. You can worry about breakfast later.”

My stomach rumbled in protest, but my mouth stayed closed as Blade left down the dimly lit hallway. Rousing myself with a splash of cold water, I then began to put my suit on.

It had been almost a week since we had arrived at Reach, and by now, I was quite competent at fastening the many airtight joints my armour possessed.

Remembering Blade's words, I gathered up the rest of my equipment. My silenced battle rifle, which I was still no good with, the small semi machine gun, also silenced, of course, with the addition of a laser pointer, and my PDA, which contained within it a map of the entirety of Reach, constantly updated via an orbiting satellite link.

With everything gathered up, I left the small apartment.

Walking past the cafeteria was agony, but I knew that if I didn't listen to Blade, I'd be a lot worse off. Finally, using the electronic map occasionally, I arrived in training zone alpha, where Switch, Rook, and Blade were waiting for me, also in full gear.

I had talked with Rook a few days before hand, and gotten to know him a bit better. We didn't talk for very long, only for about 10 minutes over our brief respite from training through the break.

He didn't like to talk about his past much, and I respected that, and pushed no further. Apparently, he had joined the standard marine unit not long ago, and was quickly singled out by Blade after showing great promise in a standard mission his unit was working with the ODST's on. And so, that was how he had wounded up in our squad.

Blade caught sight of me, and beckoned me over with an impatient hand.

“Well Farm-boy, you've been here for a while now, and I'd like to know just how quickly you have progressed. That's why I've organised a little test, not just for you, but for the whole squad, myself included.” He paused for a brief second, perhaps looking for any uncertainty in our stance. He found none.

“Now today, we won't be shooting holograms, or evading sensor beams. This is the real thing, through this door are some loyal marines who have volunteered to assist us in this exercise. Thus, live ammunition shall not be used. So, if you please....”

He held out an outstretched hand whilst the rest of us were fumbling about with our guns, trying to take out the bullets that resided within them.

“Faster!” Blade suddenly barked, “If this were a real fire fight, you'd be dead by now!”

In less than 5 seconds, he had a small pile of bullets in his hands, which he threw inside a black, worn out ruck sack.

He then proceeded to explain to us the rules of this test. All the marines inside were armed with wooden bullets, as were we. Not enough to permanently harm us, but ones that could still give us a nice shade of purple on our skin if we weren't careful.

If one of us was hit by said bullet, then we were out, and as a punishment would have minimum rations for 3 days.

However, If we managed to get past the marines, and plant the “Bomb” at the end, also known as a square bar of solid steel, then the training exercise would be over, and we would be rewarded with a two day respite from the constant training, an opportunity which we relished.

All the rules now stated, we were told to prepare ourselves. Wasting no time, Blade murmured something through a communicator to someone in control, and the mechanised door effortlessly slid out of the way, revealing a small, dark hallway ahead with no windows.

Without a word, we lifted our near harmless weapons, and proceeded into the darkness.....

Part 12 - Detonation

With an almost inaudible whisper, the heavy steel door slid shut, the green lights that indicated it was open changing to a deep, dark red.

Now the hallway was pitch black, and we couldn't see one another. Remembering the technology I had at my disposal, I turned on my night vision filter, as did the rest of my squad.

Everything was green, and it wasn't ideal, but it was better than tripping over our own feet. I wondered how the Marines were going to spot us, seeing as their helmets didn't include a vision filter.

We crept ahead, staying as low as possible. I noticed in the corner of my eye a small dark box swivel, just a tiny bit, and spotted the tell-tale lens on it. We were being watched. Nudging Switch, I moved my hand up as if to yawn, and pointed a single finger at the camera.

Luckily, Switch got my drift, and brought out a small device with a thin antennae on the end. Pointing it at the surveillance camera, his finger pressed down on a small button, and the box's light went dead, the actual camera facing the floor, inactive. I breathed in relief.

“Hey, Blade, these marines have got security cameras to help them, did you organise that?” Switch whispered to him.

“No....they were supposed to rely on their senses to guide them.....*** competitive bastards, there's gonna be some serious reprimanding after this”

Blade told us all to keep an eye out for any more cameras. Wary, we moved on.

Walking further on, we arrived at a cross junction of hallways, 2 in total.

“*** it, how big is this place?” Rook wondered

“I'm not sure exactly, but I'd say just a bit less than a square mile.” Came Blade's answer.

Switch whistled in awe, and we returned to the matter at hand, which hallway to take?

“I think we'll have a better chance if we split up, that way, if one team gets caught, the other has a chance at succeeding.” Switch pondered wisely

Blade nodded in confirmation, he would go with Switch, and proceed down one hallway, whilst I would pair up with Rook, and go down the other. For some reason, Blade had two 'Bombs' prepared, and I suspected he had planned for us to split up all along.

Me and Rook crept down the tunnel as quietly as possible. Soon we began to hear noises ahead, and we knew that we had found the marines.

“Rook, what should we do?” I asked, since he was the older one.

“We'll just try and sneak past them. If we're lucky they mightn't notice us.”

I nodded my head in agreement, and we attempted to crawl past them. I had to admit, the suits did work well in the shadows. Rook was barely a metre in front of me, yet I still had trouble making him out through the dark. I expected us to get past the marines with ease. I shouldn't have.

“Wait, did you hear something” One of the marines said to his friend.

I wondered how they had heard me, and then realised I had stepped on a squeaky tile.

The other marine looked around the room, checking the see if the first was right.

“It's probably nothing Higson, just your imagination.” The unnamed marine said

“Yeah, but, what if it's those ODST bastards Serge?” Higson asked nervously

“Hmm...you could be right private, best go take a look around.”

We held our breath as they came metres within where we were crouching, frozen to the spot.

Somehow, they didn't notice us, even when we could have reached out and touched them.

“Ah, It was nothing Higson, you just got yourself worked up for no reason” The Sergeant said.

They both turned away, with their backs facing us, and I could hear Higson faintly arguing that he did hear something. I looked at Rook, and he nodded at me. We were both on the same train of thought.

Rook crept behind the Sergeant and grabbed him in a neck-hold, while I grabbed Higson, due to the fact he sounded younger. The marines tried to struggle, and when they realised it was pointless, they gave up.

“OK you little ***,, you gonna tell me where to plant this here bomb, or are we gonna have some fun?” Rook growled in the sergeant's ear, bringing a knife into the marines field of vision.

I was shocked, I had never seen this side of Rook before. Making sure to keep a tight hold on Higson, who was crying, I edged closer to Rook.

“You can't do that....You'd be court marshalled!”

Rook pressed the side of the cold, carbonated steel knife against the Marines face, and I could see the sweat on his forehead.

“Do I look as if I give a ***? We're ODST, we have immunity”

I very much doubted that, but the look on the sergeant's face made it clear that he believed it.

“Okay Okay, just please, don't hurt me! There's a map in my front pocket!”

Then, just as Rook was looting the Sergeant for the map, another marine walked down the hallway, I cursed silently.

The marine drew out his gun, which was filled with wooden bullets I reminded myself, and pointed it at us.

“Well, Lookie what we've got here, a couple of ODST's, taken by surprise. I'm gonna enjoy this....”

Everyone was taking it very seriously, considering it was only a training exercise; I suspected there was a vendetta between us and the standard marines that I had yet to know about.

Cursing, Rook slowly drew out his Battle rifle, then threw the Sergeant into the newly arrived marine, and I did like wise with Higson.

Momentarily stunned, the marines dropped their Assault Rifles in shock, and that was when we started firing.

Soon, all three of them were lying on the ground, either unconscious or in agonising pain.

When stepping over them, Rook reached inside the Sergeant's pocket, and took out the map. And there it was, marked with a bright red X, the spot where the “detonation” would be.

“Would you seriously have cut into that marine Rook?” I asked

“'Course not! Just wanted to shake him up a bit, that's all.”

Shaking my head in exasperation, we moved on forward.

After about 10 minutes, we came close to the entrance to the room where the 'Bomb' would be placed.

“Hold up there newbie!” Rook warned me

Reaching inside his rucksack, he drew out a can of aerosol. Spraying the ground in front of us, it revealed a criss cross of 2 red laser beams, pointed at such an angle that it was impossible to jump over.

“Holy crap.....” I breathed.

“Farm-Boy, take of your helmet.”

I did without a seconds hesitation, and passed it over to Rook. Gently, the more experienced ODST sided my helmet into the path of lasers, and the mirrored visor reflected the beam in another direction, giving us a way to get past without setting off the alarm.

“Wow Rook, I'm impressed.” I remarked

“Little thing Switch taught me was that, Blade never was one for subtleties.”

So I had gathered in the time I had known him.

Warily, we gently lifted our feet over the now alone laser beam, and placed them on the other side. As of now, the map was only about 50 yards away, but we knew that the time slip ups occurred were usually right near the end.

I was slightly worried that we hadn't met up with Blade and Switch yet. I commented on this to Rook, who seemed to be in agreement.

“What if they've been captured?” I asked worriedly.

“Well, I guess they both get minimum rations for a few days.” Rook said, shrugging his shoulders.

I didn't think Blade would do that to himself, but then again, In all the time I had known him, he had never seemed a hypocrite.

We arrived at the room where we had to plant the steel bar, and we could see a electronic door inside, presumably, this would open when the sensor pad in the middle of the room read the volume, weight and material type of the 'bomb'. The sensor was advanced to stop us from simply standing on it and fooling it.

Rook took the honours, and removed the solid, worn out bar that had obviously been used many times before. Walking to the middle of the room, he bent down to place it in the grove. He should have been looking where he was walking.

I noticed the two red lights, pointing at each other, but before I could cry out a warning, Rook marched through them, setting off the trap.

A cloud of gas filled the room, and Rook collapsed immediately. I suspected I would do the same, and was pleasantly surprised when I didn't.

I remembered I had fastened the locks on my suit before the exercise, making it air tight.

I wondered why Rook hadn't done the same, then with a start, realised marines were probably rushing towards the room as we spoke.

Quickly, I gathered up the bomb, and gingerly lowered it down onto the sensor. After a few brief seconds, the red lights on the door turned green, and I went for it, not forgetting to drag Rook with me.

Finally, the exercise had been completed, and we actually passed it! Blade and Switch marched around the corner, rubbing arms, legs, and pretty much everywhere.

“Well done Farm-Boy, and uh, what happened to Rook?”

I sought for an excuse, but there was no way around it.

“He got careless at the last minute sir, knock-out gas got him.”

Blade smiled.

“Looks like he failed with me and Switch then, thank God for that, he would have never stopped gloating otherwise.”

Apparently, Switch and Blade got ambushed by some marines, and were hit in numerous places by wooden bullets of pain.

I felt a little bad about Rook being punished, as I also did with Switch, and even Blade too.

“Sir, I don't want to be treated differently from the rest of the squad, we failed as a team, punish me too.” I couldn't believe what I was saying, but it sounded pretty noble.

“Well, okay then, that's another one of us on minimum rations!” Blade retorted.

I felt my heart drop down to my feet. I had hoped Blade would be impressed with my chivalry and let all of us off. Evidently not.

“We've got a lot more training to do tomorrow, so I want everyone up at the crack of dawn!” Blade shouted enthusiastic. He then looked down at Rook's sleeping form.

“Switch, go ask one of those marines how long the gas will last for! Rook ain't getting out of it that easily”.

Somehow I had a suspicion we'd still be training tomorrow even if we had all accomplished the objective before.

 

Part 13 - It ain't over, 'til it's over

“What is that?” I asked

Blade chuckled, delighted by my ignorance.

“That, my dear boy, is a M12-LRV, also know as a Warthog, finest combat vehicle to ever grace the UNSC.” He lectured me, with pride.

“Doesn't look like it's a combat vehicle”, I remarked, noticing the lack of weapons on it.

“That's because this here Warthog has had it's turret removed, as it is just a training model.”

Nodding along, I wondered what the point of this was. Blade had brought me to the vehicle compound with no more words than his usual 'Get up Farm-boy!', and now we were here.

“Why is it called a Warthog?” I queried.

Blade faltered a bit, and searched for the right words.

“Well, you see those tusks on the front. That, coupled with the vehicle's size, make it look like a Warthog.”

I'd seen Warthogs on Harvest, and their tusks weren't that big. In my opinion, it looked more like a Walrus, another stocky animal with big tusks that were also native to Harvest, living at the south pole of the planet. I commented on this to Blade.

“A walrus?” He exploded, “Who in God's name would ever call this a Walrus?”

Switch rounded the corner, and was immediately confronted by a fuming Blade.

“Switch! Just the man, what would you call this vehicle?” He asked. I thought he was going a bit over the top.

Craning his neck for a better look, Switch finally decided.

“Well, I know many people call it a Warthog, but personally, I've always thought it looked sort of like, well, a Walrus.”

I started laughing. Blade's helmet was practically turning red, as his anger levels rose.

“The name's not important!” He bellowed, and several nearby birds took leave from their roosting in a close by tree.

“What is important Farm-boy,” He continued, raving, “Is my foot connecting with your behind if don't get in the drivers seat of that vehicle by the count of five!”.

I was in by four, and Blade got in the side.

“Good” He said, becoming calm again. “It's nice to see you don't challenge every word I say,” he put emphasis on the word 'every'.

Today, according to Blade, I was going to learn to drive. I was slightly worried. The only thing I'd ever driven was a little quad bike back on Harvest, to help me get around the expansive farm. I was excited, but nervous as well.

After Blade had grilled me for an hour on different safety techniques, we finally turned the key, and the massive engine of the Warthog revved up. Starting slowly at first, just getting used to acceleration, and the sheer power of the massive vehicle.

Later on, Blade shouted out to Switch over the roar of the beast to set up some cones, to help me learn the basics of manoeuvring.

It was enjoyable, but the usually reckless Blade was being very cautious when it came to driving, and the time went very slow.

After knocking down about thirty cones, 6 cut outs of civilians, and no cut outs of enemies, Blade finally decided to call it a day.

Worn out, I retired to my quarters, first grabbing a thin, gritty sandwich from the cafeteria.

Contemplating on the last couple of weeks, I once again asked myself what I was doing here. I was a farmer, not a soldier. But I knew that wasn't true. My previous life was dust in a plain of sand, forgotten, unnoticed by all. I had known it would be so the moment I signed my name on-board of the ship that had brought us here.

I tried to get to sleep that night, but just couldn't. So much had happened in the past month, it was too immense. I drifted of to sleep eventually, but it was a dream begotten with my parents, my friends, and the other lost ghosts of my past. They were banging, and the banging was getting louder and louder, eventually waking me up.

I heard another bang, and realised it wasn't just in my dream, it was the real world reaching through to my sleeping state.

Walking to the door, I grabbed on the way my SMG, and opened it, pointing the gun at the hallway.

Blade was standing there, in full gear. It was 2am, I knew something was wrong. Even Blade didn't wake us up that early.

“What is it Blade?” I asked worriedly, lowering my gun.

Blade sighed, and took a seat inside my quarters. He looked like he needed it.

“We've just received a distress message from Harvest lad, it seems some people are still alive there.” He stood up, and paced around the room.

I also stood, wondering why he had come at 2am to tell me this.

“The ship's leaving in 3 hours time.” He said, leaving it up to me to work out what this meant.

“We're going back. Back to Harvest.”

 

Part 14 - Feet first into hell.

We all jolted as we emerged from Slip Space, and I was nearly thrown off my feet. Looking out of the viewing window, we saw Harvest, tarnished by war and destruction. It's once beautiful and bountiful surface was frozen, in an eternal winter slumber.

Just above the planet were several Covenant cruisers. They were already engaged in battle, but I doubted we could slip past them without getting severely burned.

Olivia appeared on a holographic projector next to us. We were in the control room, Blade had been friends with the Captain of this ship for years, they had enrolled in the military together. Thus, the prime seats.

“Captain” Olivia's prim voice began “The chances of our survival are less than 10% if we head into that skirmish.”.

The captain sighed, grabbing his white hair in frustration. If he and Blade were the same age, I wondered how Blade was still so agile.

“God *** it, I'm, not wasting everyone's life over an ice ball.....there has to be another way..”

We pondered for a while, and I felt awkward just standing there, watching the carnage ahead.

Suddenly, we heard a voice over the comm. Channel.

“Welcome to the party!” A man with a Russian lilt exclaimed. “This is UNSC Destroyer Armageddon. You like like your in a spot of trouble up there, care for some assistance?”

Our Captain leaned in to the microphone.

“Assistance would be appreciated Armageddon, what's your ETA?”

Silence for a second.

“Judging by how many of these Covenant bastards are in the way, and by how slow this piece of metal is, I'd say around 2 hours.”

The captain expressed his thanks, then turned back to us. Blade was already walking away, motioning for the rest of the squad to follow him.

“Where are we going?” I asked, struggling to keep pace with his briskness.

“If you think I'm waiting 2 hours to get down there Farm-Boy, then you don't know me at all....”

We turned into a room with several pods in, and I was engulfed by horror.

“No way Blade, I'm not getting in that.” I protested

Blade turned around, slowly.

“You will get in that HEV Farm-Boy, because if not, I'll issue you with a court Marshall!” He began softly at first, then his voice had escalated.

Reluctantly, I climbed into the small pod. It was surprisingly comfy for a titanium shell, and I soon relaxed. That was before Switch hit the release button on my clamps.

I could feel myself sliding down, and the pod's airtight door slid closed. Thanks to canisters in the roof, I had about 20 minutes of oxygen. It wasn't too bad, until the airlock opened, and I felt myself thrown outside, into the dark reach of open space.

I could see what was happening outside the pod, thanks to a camera and monitor. The HEV was gaining speed, and with horror, I realised the descend had caused it to catch on fire. I was terrified I would break up in the atmosphere or something.

Luckily, that didn't happen, although Switch later told me he had heard a few cases of it happening before.

Just before I crashed into the ground, I pressed a glowing red button, and on top of my little pod, some rotary blades emerged. These slowed the HEV down for a few seconds, then disengaged, leaving me to fall the last mile or so without their assistance.

I landed with a thud, and by using the cameras, I could see the pod had sunk a little bit into the snow, softening my landing.

I pressed another glowing button, green this time, and the door slid open, cutting through the snow like a hot knife through butter.

I staggered out onto land, and surveyed the destruction around me. Above, I could see the rest of my squad descending in HEV's, and moved out of the way so I didn't get crushed.

I was home.

 

Part 15 - The road to Utgard....

Switch came up behind me, resting one arm on my shoulder.

“Wow” He breathed. “Now that is one heck of a snow storm.”

And indeed it was, it was near impossible to see anything further than 30 yards away.

“There shouldn't be this much ice” Blade remarked, coming up behind us.

“Maybe the Covenant have changed the weather patterns?” Rook suggested

I was worried. If they could change the properties of an entire planet, what could they do to us?

“So, what now?” Switch asked Blade.

“Right now, we get to Utgard, the capital city, and get a briefing there.” Blade muttered.

Rook asked how an earth we would travel all the way to Utgard in the midst of this blizzard.

“Well, If good old Captain Larce up in orbit has got his calculations right, then a Warthog should arrive via a HEV pod any second now....”

“A HEV pod?” I asked “Aren't they a little small for a warthog?”

Blade laughed.

“Not this pod kid, it's big enough to hold two warthogs if we wanted.”

After a few minutes, a great blazing comet descended from the sky, and a gargantuan HEV landed near us.

Pressing a button on the outside, Switch opened the huge door, and sitting in there was a Warthog, of a sort.

“This is another variant of the Warthog men, named an M831 troop transport vehicle, commonly known as a Troop Hog.”

In all essence, it was a warthog, but on the back of it, rather than a turret, sat a cage made of carbon steel, with seats enough for three people.

“Switch, you drive, I'll get in the side. Farm-boy, Rookie, you two grab a sniper rifle from the pod and hop in the back.”

I was a bit nervous about the sniper part, I had only fired one once, and it hit the target fine, but also managed to bounce of the wall and hit the corner of the training room. That was another comm. Box we had to pay for.

We surged along, snow hitting against our visor, only to melt thanks to the body suits thermal heaters.

After driving for an hour or so without incident, we ran into some trouble.

“*** it, Covenant patrol.” Blade growled. We counted six of them, five small ones and one big one.

“What's the problem, just ram 'em” Rook suggested.

Blade looked at Switch, who shrugged, foot slamming down into the accelerator.

As we came into their field of sight, the smaller aliens grunted in surprise, and were promptly rallied by the larger, more imposing alien.

Before their stubby legs could carry them away, however, the front of our warthog smashed into the small creatures frail bodies, and all five of them were killed. Unfortunately, the larger one had dived out of the way in time, and was now hiding under the snow.

“Well, do we carry on, or go hunting?” I said, reloading my rifle.

“Lets go see if we can find him, perhaps learn more about the Covenant.” Blade surmised wisely.

We nodded, and got out of the vehicle. We turned our heat vision filter on, searching the cold, blue snow for a hint of orange, or red.

After a minute of searching the snow in vain, we turned off our filter.

“He must be scrambling the electronics, clever ***....” Switch said in annoyance.

Blade told us to stay sharp, and advance onward.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, there came a growl, and out of the snow emerged the alien, carrying two of the burning swords in hand.

I shouted out a word of warning to Rook, who still had his back turned. Priming a grenade, the young ODST dived out of the way, tossing it in the aliens direction. There was no dodging this time, and soon, alien bits were flying through the air.

We shot him for good measure, and then walked back to the warthog.

“That was too close Rook” I said to my friend, who nodded with me

“Yeah, thanks for the warning back there, you saved my bacon”

Blade was getting annoyed.

“Will you two stop exchanging pleasantries and get back in the Warthog!?” He exclaimed, angry his chance to interrogate the alien had been robbed.

Sighing, we climbed in the back, and once again sped of to Utgard...

 

Part 16 - Interrogated

“How far are we from Utgard now Rook?” Blade shouted over the roar of the powerful blizzard.

“How the hell should I know? We don't have any navigational equipment!” Came his retort.

We couldn't be that far away now. We had been driving for what seemed like days, although in reality it was only a few hours.

After the previous incident, we'd encountered no other hostile activity, but we were still wary of possible threats.

“Uh, Blade?” Switch broke the silence. “I know this probably isn't a good time, but the gas tank's almost empty.

“Oh, well that's just great isn't it” Blade said sarcastically.

“Now what do we do?” I inquired, careful not to annoy Blade in the process.

Rook, cheery as ever, had a wonderful scenario in which we would all freeze to death, and then get eaten by rabid aliens.

“Shut up Rook!” All of us shouted in unison.

“I saw a frozen road sign just then, pointing to a nearby town. Maybe we could find gasoline there” Switch suggested rather more helpfully.

“Good call Switch, take us there.” Blade commanded.

About ten minutes later, we wound up in a frozen town, with no inhabitants in. The multifarious buildings around the place could have easily concealed a hundred Covenant soldiers.

“Stay sharp, this is the perfect place for an ambush.”

“Wow, you never cease to amaze me Blade.” Rook commented wryly.

“Can it Rook”

We got out of the Warthog, lifting our guns up in preparation. All around us, destruction and loss was evident.

The snow made crunching sounds as we laid our feet on it, adding to the eeriness of the scene. We walked into the centre of the town, and saw the devastation.

Dead corpses littered the ground, their faces frozen in a look of terror.

“Looks like theirs already been an ambush...” I commented.

Switch went over to one of the bodies, and, cutting open a vein, took off his armoured glove and laid his hand on it.

“The blood's still warm!” He called back to us over the comm. Link.

“Then that means our culprits are still here...” Blade muttered, letting off a string of curses.

“We can't leave without fuel.” Rook reminded us.

“I know, we're just gonna have to watch out.”

He told us to search the houses, all of them were nearly completely destroyed. None contained the gas we needed.

“God dammit! There must be some fuel in this wretched town.” Blade shouted.

Splitting myself from the rest of the group, I proceeded to another street, and then I heard it.

“...You heard what the Zealot said well as I did A'thras, we were to wipe out every last one of the humans.”

I drew closer, and saw two of the tall Covenant soldiers conversing with each other.

“But the females too Z'ranas? The children? You have fought in wars before this one, as have I. Never before though have we been told to attack with such ferocity, and with such little mercy.”

Z'ranas paused, searching for the right response.

“What you speak of is heresy my friend, if the Prophets heard you now, you would be strung up for your speech. However....I cannot help but see the wisdom in your words. Something else is causing this war, and the Sanghelli aren't being told about it.”

My heart raced. I had just discovered the name of this species. This would be valuable Intel, and I knew we had to get back and report it. I started to edge away slowly, but tripped and banged into the wall.

“Did you hear something?” Z'ranas asked his companion.

“Yes, it seemed to come from outside.”

“Could just be an excited Unngoy” The Sanghelli surmised.

“Or maybe not” A'thras said, and I could hear him walk outside.

I pressed my back against the wall of the house, praying to God he wouldn't see me. I heard him sniff the air, and with dread, I realised he was rounding the corner towards where I was hiding. Our eyes met.

“Aha!” He cried out, grabbing me with a giant hand and lifting me back into the house.

“So, a human.” He said, summing me up.

“What armour be that human? I have never seen your kind wearing it before” Z'ranas asked me, a sneer on his face.

“Go to hell,” I replied in anger.

The Sanghelli laughed.

“Wrong answer human.” He said, bringing out a sword, and advancing towards me.

The sword was brought closer and closer, and I accepted I was going to die. It was a relief, in a way, and a least I would be reunited with my parents.

Suddenly, I heard the crack of a sniper rifle being fired, and the Sanghelli named Z'ranas crumpled to the ground.

“No!” Cried A'thras in despair, and forgetting about me, he charged outside in a rage, only to be brought down by another single bullet to the head

A few seconds later, Rook emerged in the doorway.

“I guess we're even, for now” He said, helping me to my feet.

“Thanks for that, I thought for sure I was dead.”

“Not while I'm watching your back mate.” He joked.

“Any luck with finding some gas?”

“We don't need gas any more, a Pelican arrived answering a distress call it received from the town. It's heading back to Utgard, so we're gonna board it.”

We left the building, and strode to the Pelican.

“What happened?” Blade asked as we came near.

“I'll tell you on the way” I told him, climbing onto the aircraft.

The Pilot flicked a switch, and the aircraft lifted up into the air, and soared of into the sky....

 

Part 17 - The Capital City

“Well, we're here!” The Pilot called to us from up front.

Without a word of thanks, Blade jumped out. Switch, Rook and I thanked the Pilot first, and then did likewise.

We were inside a huge compound, which stretched as far as the eye could see. Barbed wire fences were everywhere, as were security cameras and alarms.

As we walked through the main door, we were greeted by an A.I.

“Welcome to Dansago Industries, Research and Development company for Harvest!” The computerized voice greeted us joyfully. She didn't sound as intelligent as Olivia had been.

“Wait, Dansago Industries? I thought this was a military base.” Blade asked, confused.

“I'm sorry sir, but you are mistaken. We are Dansago Industries, Research and-”

The A.I got cut off as someone else walked into the room.

“Sorry about that,” he said, holding a remote in his hands.”

“We must be in the wrong building, we'll leave..” Blade said, embarrassed.

“No, don't leave. You're in the right building, Utgard Military base” The official responded.

“But the A.I said-”

“Forget what the A.I said, it ran the place before we converted it into a military base, we just haven't got round to removing it yet.”

I asked him why they had converted the place.

“Well the simple matter was, before now, the military had virtually no presence on Harvest, and now that we do, we needed to...em....appropriate some buildings in the name of the UNSC.”

“So you just kicked the researchers out?” I asked in disbelief

“Only those who didn't wish to work with us, anyway,” He said, anxious to change the subject “If you'll follow me I'll take you to see the Staff Captain.

I could see the sweat on the guys brow, he was obviously intimidated by us ODST's, and I decided to push him no further. We followed him down the corridor, and I could see other people rushing about, occasionally giving us a glance. Finally, we emerged into a massive room.

The place stunk of smoke, and a musty haze hung about the air. Inside a thick cloud of the stuff, I could vaguely see the figure of a man holding a cigar, sitting in a chair at a desk.

“Ah, sit, sit.” He said, lazily pointing to four plastic stools erected on the other side of the desk. His chair wasn't plastic. We sat.

“Now, before we get started, I want to make one thing clear to you people. My name is Captain Smithe, and I'm not just a Captain, I'm a Staff Captain, and therefore, I'm in charge. I expect you all to follow my orders, to the bone. No questions, just obedience.”

My hands were concealed under the desk, so I undid the Velcro strap of my left arm, revealing a mini keyboard I could use to relay messages with my team, which then displayed on their HUD.

“What an ass” I typed

A few moments, then.

“Agreed” Came Switch's reply.

“How did he ever become a Staff Captain?” I asked Switch

“He was probably born into power, as you'll find most high up people were,” Switch replied

“Hey, how are you guys doing that?” Rook asked out loud.

“Doing what?” Smithe asked suspiciously

“Nothing sir, Rook here is just a little soft in the head,” Blade replied hurriedly.

“You idiot Rook, just unwrap the Velcro pad on your left arm, make sure Smithe doesn't see it though” Switch typed angrily.

“Cool this is awesome, lol :)” Rook had uncovered his pad.

“When you people get back to the real world, you might notice Smithe is looking at us, wondering why the hell we aren't speaking to him!” Blade quickly typed in, forcing us all to reluctantly close our pads.

“Anyway people, as I was saying, if you all listen to me and do as I say, you'll have a very pleasurable visit. I can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. Now, go find your quarters, and get rested.”

“Thank you Mister Smithe” I said, in a hurry to leave this smoke filled room.

“That's Captain Smithe to you boy, now get out.”

“Sorry sir” I apologised, just before the door closed.

Rook immediately turned on me.

“Why you apologise? If it were me he'd talked to like that, I would have taken my helmet off and spat at him!”

“Yeah, well, we can't all be as wonderful as you Rook.” I said.

“By the way, since when did we get those key boards?” Rook asked.

“Since forever Rook, did you not read your suits instruction booklet?” I asked.

“No, I thought I could figure it out without a manual.”

“Well, next time you get something, read the manual, who knows, you might even learn how to turn it on turn it on.” Blade said, coming up from behind us.”

“He was a right *** wasn't he Blade?” Switch asked him

“Aye, as corrupt as they get. Don't worry, Captain Larce will be down from orbit in a short while, he'll deal with him.”

I hoped so, the idea of spending my time at this base obeying Smithe was detestable....

 

 Part 18 - Investigation

“Morning Farm-Boy”

“Morning Switch”

We were sitting at a table, eating our delicious low budget military breakfast, which consisted of some stale, toasted bread spread thinly with a layer of watery jam. To drink we had a polystyrene cup of strong, bitter coffee with milk that tasted like it had been left out in the sun for too long.

Regardless, we wolfed it down anyway, anxious to rid ourselves of the hunger that ate away at us.

“So, what do you think happens now?” I asked Switch. Rook and Blade walked into the hall. We had been allowed a wide berth, and our own table, by the other marines.

“Nothing until we get a mission I guess, there doesn't look to be very good training facilities here.”

“Stop your whining, I've just heard tell that Larce is at the base, Rook, grab me and you something, we'll eat it on the way.” Blade said coming over.

Rook looked annoyed at the prospect of having to rush his breakfast, but he obeyed Blade's orders anyway.

We followed Blade down the twisting labyrinth of corridors, pushing past busy marines, and startled officials. Eventually, we reached a room with a newly erected brass sign on reading A.M Larce.

Without knocking, Blade walked in.

“Glad to see you alive Larce!” Blade said warmly, rushing to greet his friend.

“Ah, Blade, good to see you. I hear you've been having trouble from a man named Smithe?”

Blade then launched into a lengthy description detailing very finely how much of a pompous, arrogant, stuck up ass Smithe was. Captain Larce laughed.

“Sounds like a slippery character, don't worry my friend, I'll make sure you and your squad are placed under my command.”

“Thank you, that's a huge worry off my chest.”

“That's okay friend, If I can't do you a favour after all the times you saved my ass when we were younger, then a selfish man I'd be.”

I was getting some interesting information about Blade's past here, and made sure to store the information.

“For now, I'd you and your squad to go out on a light reconnaissance mission, scout some Covenant activity.”

He walked over to his desk, and picked up a long, mahogany pipe.

“Just north of here is a waterfall. Pelicans have reported Covenant activity over there. I want you to find out how many there are, and if they look poised to attack. Here are some chips you can update the maps in your PDA with.”

He passed over a small, blue chip with golden trim to each of us, which we slotted into the side of our PDAs. A few moments later, and some maps of the facility and it's surroundings appeared.

“Right, you can go now”

“Thanks Larce, we appreciate it” Blade said, shaking the Captains hand.

“Think nothing of it. Oh, and Blade, if Smithe gives you any trouble, just come to me.”

“Aye Sir, okay men you heard the man, lets get on to that reconnaissance!”

We followed Blade out of the door, ready to go observe some Covies....

 

Part 19 - Recon

“Yep, definitely got some Covenant down there boss.” Rook commented to Blade as we were lying in the snow.

“You can use binoculars? Wow, just wow.” Switch commented wryly, only to receive a sharp jab from Rook.

We were on the edge of a cliff, watching a frozen waterfall down below. Nearby the lift was a structure of some sort, definitely not of human origin.

“I don't like the looks of that building Blade, humans didn't build it, that's for sure.” Rook sounded worried.

“Well, maybe the Covenant did, how the hell should I know?”

I was concerned too, the structure looked alien to me, but at the same time ancient.

“Wait, two of the Sanghelli are speaking now, we need to find out what there saying, Farm-Boy, hop to it.” Blade breathed through his sniper scope.

“What, why me?” I asked worriedly.

“Because I said so, you managed to eavesdrop on those aliens before, you have a knack for it.”

“Yeah, and I got captured nearly straight away, if it wasn't for Rook, I'd be dead!”

Blade muttered something about technicalities, then, raising his voice, ordered me down near the waterfall.

“Besides.” He said over the intercom as I clambered down the rock face. “If anything does happen, we all have sniper rifles, and we'll help you out.”

“Okay, I'm going I'm going, sheesh.” I retorted.

Nearing closer, I could begin to hear some of the conversation between the two Sanghelli.

“...I don't know friend, I just don't trust the Jiralhanae , not after what happened to Garthus.” One of them said.

“But the Prophets believe they are useful, and besides, they hold no real power in the Covenant”.

“Not at the moment, but think for a second. A few months back, and the Jiralhanae would have been tasked with cleaning our boots, now, the Prophets have inaugurated them into our military. And you heard about what the Brute did to Garthus, mauled him right inside the holy temple, yet no punishment was given to him by the Prophets.”

They were both silent for a moment, I was also trying to be as quiet as I could behind the rock.

“Indeed, things have taken a change for a worse since the Minister of Fortitude replaced the high Prophet of Restraint. I'm not sure how it happened, although I suspect the name Truth is a misnomer, as I believe he has lied to us all.”

“Wait, an Unngoy approaches, you know how talkative they are, best be quiet for now.”

One of the small members of the Covenant stumbled into view. My heart soared, I had discovered the name of another species in their faction.

“What is it Grunt? Is my combat armour clean yet?”

“Moyes most revered Zealot, I have cleaned it to the best of my abilities!” The small alien had a squeaky, piping voice, and sounded out of place amongst the more sombre aliens.

The Sanghelli smirked.

“It's probably still tainted by war then, never mind, come Tyrannous, we shall resume this conversation elsewhere.”

The two Sanghelli stalked off, leaving the Unngoy, or Grunt, or whatever it was alone in the mouth of the structure.

“....Grab him,” Blade's voice sounded unexpectedly over the communications channel.

“What?” I replied, confused.

“Grab the small alien, and bring him up to me for interrogation.” Came his impatient reply.

“But...” I began.

“Just do it Farm-Boy, it's only about 5 foot tall, even smaller than you.”

Steeling myself, I drew my knife from it's sheath, and crept over to the Grunt, grabbing it from behind. The stench was overwhelming.

“OK, I don't want you to make a single sound, just head up that hill there in front of me, I'll be close behind you, you even blink, and I'll cut you up.” I growled aggressively, emulating Rook when he was in a bad mood, or Blade when he was in a good one.

It worked, and giving an involuntary squeal of fright, the Grunt began to walk up the hill to the rest of my squad.

When we reached the top, Blade took over, and walked towards the alien, bending down to it's level..

“So friend, I take it you speak a civilised tongue?” he said in a surprisingly kind demeanour.

“I speak your crude language human, as does everyone in The Glorious Covenant.”

Then Rook came over.

“Okay you little ***, you'd better start squealing, or we're gonna send you back down there in pieces.” He shouted angrily, getting right into the terrified Unngoy's face.

“Whoa there Rook, this fellah can be reasonable, can't you?” he asked the Grunt, still kindly.

I groaned loudly, they were trying the good cop bad cop routine on an alien.

“Okay Blade” Rook said reluctantly, but like he was reading from a script. “But if he tries anything funny, he gets it.”

“This guy understands, don't you?” Blade asked the Grunt, who was by now incredibly confused.

“Now, we just want to ask you some questions, that's all. Then, if you behave, we might let you go.”

I knew there was little chance of that. The ONI dissection lab was where this guy was heading.

“Right,” Began Blade. “First things first, why did the Covenant attack humanity?”

“Because the Prophets told us to.” The Grunt stuttered out.

“Who are the Prophets?” Blade asked the small alien.

“They are the ones who will begin the Great Journey, and when it begins, all you humans will be left to burn in hell!.” The Unngoy said, his confidence rising. A few threats from Rook brought it down a notch or two.

I was impressed by how the interrogation was going so far, we seemed to be gathering a lot of information.

“What is the name of your species?”

“The Prophets designate us as Unngoy, but the Elites just call us Grunts.”

“Who are the Elites?”

“They are also known as the Sanghelli, they lead the military of the Covenant.”

“So your faction is comprised of different castes then, with the Grunts at the bottom, Elites in the middle, and the Prophets at the top?”

“Yes, but there are other species that fill the gaps between them too.”

This was making my head spin, I was getting an information overload.

“What are you doing down at the waterfall?”

“There is a Prophet inside researching the Forerunner ruins”.

“Who are the Forerunners?”

“Our Gods, of course.”

“What do you mean?”

“When we embark on the great journey, the sacred rings shall send us to meet with the forerunners, and we shall live there in harmony for all eternity.”

“What is this 'great journey' you keep talking about?”

I could tell from the look on the Grunts face that the alien had realised it had revealed too much. Before I could stop it, it reached inside it's armour, brought out a small plasma weapon, and shot itself in the head.

“*** it, I forgot to disarm him, what an idiot I am!” Blade cursed in a colourful wave of vocabulary.

“No arguments there” Rook agreed.

“Shut up Rook, well, whatever this great journey is, it seems important. Maybe we'll find out more later on.”

“We'd best get out of here before the Elite wonders where his Armour polisher has got to.”

“You're right, Switch, signal for evac from a Pelican, we've gotta helluva lot to report to Larce.”

I couldn't help but marvel at how the Grunt had died for what it believed in, despite the harsh treatment it received at the hands of the Elites. It made me wonder, If I was faced with such a choice, could I ever sacrifice myself?

 

Part 20- Gone fishin'

I threw another dark, worn branch onto the small fire, trying to gain what little warmth I could from it's fiery depths. The blizzard was so strong by now that we'd been forced to set up camp for the night, much to Blade's resentment. Luckily for us, Switch had had the foresight to pack an insulating tent canvas, nothing hi-tech, just simple foil lining. I hoped it was big enough for all four of us.

The signal for evacuation didn't manage to broadcast through the snow, so we had been forced to move on foot. We'd covered a lot of ground, and aside from a small run in with a few Grunts, which were quickly dispensed of with a few cracks of my sniper rifle. Apparently, I was getting a lot better with a sniper, Blade had even suggested I become a specialist in my use of weapons. I was unsure about that, but I had to admit, even to myself, that the sniper was quickly becoming my best tool of destruction.

At the present time, we were only about half a days walk from the base, but once this snow storm had started, we'd been forced to accept that we would have to stop, lest we get lost in the near solid snowfall.

“We got anything to eat?” Rook asked Switch, priorities right as usual.

“No, but I saw a frozen lake back there, if you manage to break through the ice, you might be able to catch a few fish.” Came the calm reply.

“I'd rather have an empty stomach than freeze to death, I can wait.”

I lay back, watching the stars above, shining like burning beacons. I was startled when multiple stars began moving, back on forth like a frightened hare.

“What the hell?” I cried out loud.

Instantly, the other members of my squad grabbed their weapons, rolling over and adopting a combat stance. Blade held a grenade in his hand.

“No no no, it's fine, no hostile,” I assured them, and they slowly lowered their weapons.

“What's the problem then?” Blade growled, annoyed I had interrupted him whilst he was resting.

“Look up in the sky” I pointed.

“Yeah yeah yeah, I'm looking, what's the big--what on earth?” Rook had noticed the moving stars as well.

“Shooting stars?” Blade said doubtfully. We all turned to look at Switch, hoping for an explanation.

“Well, my best bet is that The Covenant have bigger ships than we thought.”

We all kept watch, awed by the immensity of the lights above us.

“That can't be true, can it?” I already knew the answer, but asked the question anyway.

“Can't think of any other explanation, can you?”

I couldn't. If The Covenant had such a large force, I didn't understand why they didn't just destroy our planet, why they fought to control a desolate ball of ice. I relayed this as a question to the others.

“Remember what that Grunt said? About the Forerunners? How they were their gods and all that. Maybe the structure we saw is holy to them. They wouldn't want to destroy it then, would they?” Rook said, showing an unusual amount of perception.

“You think so?” I asked.

“I'm positive.”

“That's enough theories for one day men, next thing you know, you'll be signing on the ONI”

“I ain't gonna become a Spook any time soon Blade, you don't have to worry about that.”

I also shuddered. I had heard about the Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI for short. They were ruthless, and didn't care how many died for the greater good.

“We'd better try and get some sleep. We're gonna need all the strength we can get tomorrow.”

Blade then unzipped the tent flap, and crawled inside. We had decided to sleep in our armour, with the thermal coils at minimum efficiency. We would need to conserve all the power we could get for the next day.

Getting to sleep was a chore, we were all bunched tight together, and several times I was accidental kicked in the head by Rook. Eventually though, we drifted off to sleep, and we lay in that state until morning.

Undoing the tent zipper the next day, with wild exhilaration I realised the blizzard had abided, in it's place a soft, gentle snow fall. Careful not to wake the rest of my squad, who were still tired out, I wrote a note explaining where I was going and pinned it to the tent flap with a sharp twig.

After a brief five minute walk, I arrived at the lake we had seen yesterday. A few rounds of my gun, and the thin sheet of ice covering it's surface broke away, creating a small hole.

I had brought a long stick with me, and attached to the end of it a long piece of garotting wire Blade usually favoured in combat situations. With the lack of any food, I tied a bullet to the end of the wire, hoping an idiotic fish would mistake it for food.

Through the hole, I could see the fish swimming around, trapped by the layer of ice that still covered the rest of the lake. Since the rest of the lake was dark, they all swum underneath the hole I had created, attracted to the light.

Realising that my makeshift fishing rod was no longer necessary, I drew out my sniper rifle, and fired into the multitude of fish. The impact with the water slowed the bullet down a little bit, but it was still travelling fast enough to penetrate several of the weak bodies. Grinning as the fish rose to the top of the lake, their life snuffed out, I gathered them up, and, tying the wire now through the small hole in each fish the bullet had created, I slung them over my back and headed back to camp.

When I reached the little crater we had chosen to set our camp up in, Blade, Rook and Switch were already squatting, stoking the fire. I could distantly hear Rook moaning about how hungry he was.

When Blade saw me, I imagine his face lit up in glee, although I couldn't tell behind his helmet.

“That's one helluva catch Farm-Boy! I didn't know you were skilled in fishing!” He said, already reaching over and excitingly grabbing the fish from me.

“I'm not, but I'm a fair hand with this sniper rifle” I replied, sort of embarrassed.

“I noticed lad, I noticed. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get these fish on the go.”

To my surprise, he began expertly cutting up to the fish, chopping of the head, and removing the inedible bits, he then hung them on a branch. Creating a stand of sorts out of a pronged stick, the hung the branch over the fire, and allowed the heat to cook them.

“You can cook?” I asked, surprised.

“Of course I can! Every soldier knows how to cook, in case of an emergency. You don't know how?”

I shook my had, and he sighed in exasperation.

“Well, once we get back to the base, I'm going to have to educate you. What if you get stranded, without your squad? How will you eat?”

I lowered my head in shame, abashed, then rose again as the tantalising smell of the fish reached me.

After a delicious breakfast of smoked fish, which wasn't the norm for that time of day, we packed up, and proceeded back to base.

It was still a good ten hour walk, and by the time our PDAs told us we were only a mile away, we were exhausted. We scrambled over a snow drift, expecting to see the base, with faint little marines in the distance. What we saw was something quite different.

Smoke was rising from the base, and we could clearly see the fires dotted around the place. A Covenant cruiser hung over, dropping in troops by the dozen, occasionally firing out a blue, intense beam.

They were here.

 

Part 21 - Sacrifice

“Guns at the ready men, we're going down there.” Blade said, already walking down the other side of the snow drift.

“Blade, are you insane? There must be at least a hundred Covenant down there, maybe more. What we should do is get the hell outta here.” Switch was thinking things through, as usual.

Blade sighed, his gaze captured by the scene of destruction.

“But Switch, Larce is down there. He could still be alive.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself, rather than the rest of us.

“Blade, Larce is dead, there's nothing we can do.” He placed a consoling hand on Blade's shoulder, and was shrugged off in an instant.

“No! He's still alive....he-he has to be. We've known each other since the Academy. I can't leave him. You three can go, but I'm going down there.”

And without looking back, he continued down the hill. The rest of us looked at each other, and nodded simultaneously.

“Hey Blade!” Rook called, and the ODST turned around. “You wouldn't last a minute down their by yourself, who else would watch your back? We're coming with you.”

“Y-you are? Thanks guys, I-” He coughed, probably muffling a sob, and reasserted command.

“Right then, lets get down their, and kick some ass!” He shouted, voice unwavering once again.

“Loud and clear boss” Rook replied, and the four of us set off to the burning base, together as one.

The destruction was horrendous. Trees had become charcoal-like in appearance, the stench of smoke hung in the air, and I even noticed the nearby lake had dried up.

The base was located outside of the cities perimeters, as back when it was a research lab, they preferred not to be disturbed. None the less, the rest of the city of Utgard was a blazing wreck, and faintly in the distance, the agonising screams of the soon to be dead called out in despair.

We crawled in the snow, and I wished our armour wasn't so black.

“That's a good point.” Switch remarked when I told him my worry. “Luckily, the UNSC have a solution. A prototype body suit has been developed, one that reacts to the environment you are in. If it is dark, and no contrasting colours are around, the armour turns black. If it's snowy, it turns white. If it's sandy, it turns brown. You get the idea. It's an impressive piece of kit, codenamed the Chameleon suit. I'm sure we can pull a few strings to get ourselves a few.”

Never the less, we would have to make do for now, so we tried as quickly as we could to get to the black tarmac, where we would be able to conceal ourselves better. It didn't seem like too many of The Covenant were around. Looking behind me, I noticed that they were all heading by the dozen to the main city, no doubt to kill the Civilians still awaiting evacuation.

There was a Grunt patrol about 100 yards in front of us. Reaching inside my bag, I grabbed a silencer and screwed it onto my sniper, and fired into the cluster. Three dropped dead with one bullet, and the others screamed and ran away, arms flailing up in the air. They were quickly dispatched by Rook's Battle Rifle.

“Larce's office is close, stick to the shadows, and keep your silencers on. We'll be okay.”

We proceeded through the grounds of the burning base, and as we went, we continued taking out the grunts that were dotted around the facility. Once, I hit one of them in the strange tanks on the side of it's face, and it exploded, splattering grunt bits on my armour, even though I was about 20 metres away.

Then we noticed them.

Two of the huge juggernauts we had seen on the enemy cruiser back after we had left Harvest for the first time were patrolling, batting Grunts out of their way like flies as they walked.

We quickly hid behind a destroyed tank, remembering their destructive capabilities aboard the ship.

“*** it, we were so close too!” I cursed.

“What the hell you talking about Farm-boy? We ain't leaving now.” Blade said whilst reaching inside the armoured bag that he carried.

My face paled, as I realised what he was assembling out of the meta pieces he had brought out.

“Blade! A rocket launcher isn't exactly stealthy!” I implored to him.

“Then we'll just have to kill everything else as well.” he had finished assembling it by now, and was loading it with ammo.

Before I could get another word in, he fired the rocket at the two 12 foot aliens, hitting one straight in the chest. It was thrown flying, the mince-like flesh which formed it sent flying. The other one was also caught in the blast, and more mince went flying. Not wasting any time, we quickly dove out of cover, shooting all The Covenant soldiers we could see.

It was going well, until I got hit by a plasma bolt in the arm. Crying out in pain, my sniper rifle tumbled to the floor, and I was forced to draw out my pistol and use that instead.

After a few minutes of fighting, all the Grunts and Elites lay dead or dying.

“Farm-Boy, you okay?” Blade asked.

“Yeah, I just got hit in the arm by one of those plasma bolts," even through my armour it burned.

“Switch! Unfasten his arm guard and apply some snow to the wound”

Nodding, he unfastened the screws which attached it to my body. As the arm piece came off, he gasped and turned away.

I turned my gaze to look at the damage too, and wished I hadn't. The flesh was white, and split open, with blood spilling out freely. My shoulder was a mess. It looked like I'd be using a pistol for a while.

I tried not to cry out too much as the cold snow was pressed against the wound, but there was still a few involuntary moans. After a minute or so, the bleeding had been halted, and Switch tossed the red snow onto the floor. Tearing off a strip of his shirt, he tied the fabric around my arm like a makeshift bandage. The armoured arm piece went in the bag, it would have been too painful to put it back on.

“Right” Began Blade “Now that's sorted out, lets go look for Larce.”

We nodded, and hurried along the now silent compound.

“Uh...Guys?” we all turned to look at Switch.

“Now may not be the time, but, uh, look at the cruiser.”

We averted our gaze to the Covenant cruiser that now hung about 400 metres in front of us. Being dropped down through the strange lift like beam were hundreds of Covenant reinforcements.

“Quick, lets get to Larce!” Blade called. In less than 30 seconds, we reached the door to his office. We tried the handle, but the lock was melted, rendering it shut. Bracing his leg, Blade lifted it in the air and smashed it into the metal door. Whilst the meta door was intact, the wooden doorway encasing it splintered into dozens of pieces, flying everywhere.

We spread out an searched the rather large office, keeping our guns poised for action.

“Larce! Are you in here?”

No reply. We waited a few minutes while Blade repeatedly called out to his friend. Then.

“Blade?...Is that you?” A thin, weak voice came from inside a pile of rubble.

“Larce!” Blade called out in relief, then rushed over to the rubble and began clearing it, with mine and Rook's assistance. Switch stood guard at the door.

When all the rock had been cleared, a worn, battered Larce crawled out.

It wasn't a pretty sight, his body had been pretty much mutilated by the falling of the rubble, his arm was twisted at an impossible angle, his chest was bloody and mangled, a deep gash ran down the side of his face, one as thin as a thread.

“What the hell are you doing here Blade? Get outta here!”

“Don't talk crazy Larce, come on, can you walk?”

“I doubt it,” He looked down at his leg, or rather, lack of leg.

“Well, I'll just have to carry you then.”

“Don't be a fool! The nearest town from Utgard is 120 miles away, how are you gonna carry me that far?”

“I don't know, we'll survive, somehow.”

“Go Blade. More Covenant will be here in a minute. That's an order soldier!”

“Court martial me then” Blade was on the verge of tears.

“Blade, please, respect the wishes of a dead man”

“You're not dead, not yet.”

Larce sighed, and reached into his coat, drawing out a small M6C pistol.

“Larce, what are you doing?” Blade's voice was tainted with fear.

“It seems you will not leave me while I still live, therefore...” He brought the Magnum up to his head, finger resting on the trigger.

“Andrew, wait! We can get you out of this, we'll be fine, just-”

“Goodbye, old friend.”

A single shot was fired, and Andrew Larce toppled to the floor, blood trickling out of the small hole in the side of his head.

“No....Andrew...” Switch went over to Blade and placed a consoling hand on his shoulder. Blade broke down and began crying.

After a few minutes of awkwardness, we began to hear growls outside.

“I don't mean to be tactless here, but, we gotta go Blade.” Rook called.

“But-”

“It's what the Captain wanted Blade, would you render his sacrifice meaningless?”

“We gotta bury him Rook, I can't just leave him like this.”

Rook lit a match, and tossed it onto Larce's body, which slowly began to burn.

“There's your burial, now come on!”

Giving one last sob, Blade stood up and walked to the door, opening it.

It was time to go.

---

"This one has forgotten whether it's heatsink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate" ~ Blasto, the only Hanar Spectre.

jesus christ thats alot to read lol

---

Did that Spartan just jack my tank?! What the hell?!
oh well I got twenty more hahah

check the join date of Socom531, before 2009! I am also Socom427

Part 22- Rescue

I stepped outside, and the cold wind bit into my uncovered arm, slicing into the still-open wound.

"*** it, that stings!" I exclaimed in shock.

"Not so loud Farm-Boy, Covenant are everywhere."

I looked around and saw he was right. We were safe in the shadows, but not too far away, a big Covenant force of ten Elites were stalking, half of them with swords.

"Ten Elites?" Rook asked in disbelief, "I don't think we should fight this one. Let's run"

I nodded my head in agreement, as did everyone else.

"So Blade, what's the plan?" Switch asked.

"Well, first things first, we get out of this base. Then, I guess we get moving towards the nearest city."

"Which is?"

"Midgard, some hundred miles west."

"One hundred miles? How are we gonna walk that far?"

"We can worry about the small details once we get out of here. Now, let's go, I'll take point."

We ran along the tarmac, stealing through the dark night. We weren't trying to be stealthy, just trying to get the hell out of there.

"Come on!" Blade shouted, pointing at the main gate.

By then, One of the Elites had seen us. He shouted at the others, pointing at us with his sword. All of them, except one, jumped of the ledge they had been standing on, and set off in pursuit of us.

"Crap, we can't outrun them Blade!" I shouted at him. We were running as fast as we could, trying to reach the gate in time.

Without looking back, Rook threw a Fragmentation grenade behind him, which landed in the path of a few of the Elites. With an almighty bang, they were sent flying in the air.

"How many are left?" I called.

Switch turned around.

"Sev-" I heard the crack of his Battle Rifle "Six".

Suddenly, an Elite jumped off a building, landing directly in our path, bringing us to an abrupt standstill. In his hand was a burning sword. The rest of the Elites had now caught up with us, and they were all advancing upon us.

"Uh, Blade? What do we do now" Rook asked.

One of the Elites spoke.

"Silence human, now, drop your weapons." His voice sounded like he was chewing gravel.

We dropped them. The Elite with red armour bent down and gathered them up. Passing them to who I assumed to be the leader, he merged back into the rest of the group. The leader was eyeing the guns.

"Savages" He sneered. He then turned around, and spoke to the rest of the Sangehili.

"Take them to the cruiser, I'm sure the ship master will want to...talk with them." They began laughing, whatever being "Talked" to was, it didn't sound good for us.

Four Elites advanced, one for each of us, and grabbed our arms. I gasped when he grabbed my injured one, his grip was like iron. I heard similar gasps of pain around me. The rest had walked out of the base, and seconds later we saw a ship set off into the sky..

As the Elite about to grab Blade reached out for him, with incredible agility, Blade grabbed his combat knife, and swung for the Elites head. The carbon steel penetrated the shield and embedded itself in the skull of the captor. The Elite collapsed to the ground.

The rest of the Elites cried out at the loss of their companion, and one, drawing out a weapon of some kind, shot Blade in the leg. Instantly, Blade collapsed into the snow, writhing in agony. The Elite holding me bent down and kicked Blade in the head, rendering him unconscious. Then, with no effort whatsoever, he bent down and slung him over his shoulder. Doubling his pressure on my arm, the pain began to make my eyes go fuzzy.

We were screwed, I decided, as we were led out of the compound. Suddenly, the Elites holding me stopped for a second, and lifted their heads up, as if listening to something. A second later I heard it too. An engine, and it was getting closer.

A second later, a Warthog sailed over the snow drift in front of us, and with impossible timing, one of the passengers jumped out mid air and landed next to me. Before the Elite could react, the figure, who was moving like a blur, stood up, and reached for the Elite's throat. With one hand, he snapped it, and I felt the pressure on my hands go.

By now, the rest of the newly arrived soldiers had got out, and all three of them began firing. One did an impossible jump over the Elite's head, and landing behind him, slammed the butt of his rifle into the Elite's chest, absolutely destroying it.

Only one Elite was left now. Realising the hopelessness of the situation, he ran off, strafing from side to side. He didn't get far though, one of the armoured god like soldiers set of in pursuit of him, outstripping him in seconds. The Elite raised a hand in a futile effort to defend himself, but fell as a leg swung towards his head, knocking it clean off. All of them were now dead.

I went over to Switch and Rook. Blade was still unconcious.

"Switch, are my eyes decieving me, or are they-" Rook began.

"Yeah" Switch cut in.

"Spartans"

 

Part 23 - Meet the Spartans

One of the Spartans walked over to us. He must have been at least 7 foot tall, possibly higher. I felt like a dwarf next to him.

"You soldiers okay?"

We stood their, dumbstruck, unable to answer this Demigod like being. After about thirty seconds of silence, Rook nudged Switch, who nudged Rook back. Seeing that they were getting nowhere, I decided to speak.

"Yes sir!" I said nervously.

The Spartan laughed.

"No need to call us sir lad, we have names. I'm Michael, guy in the blue armour's James, and the one in red's Fin. So, who's your commanding officer?"

"Old Sleeping Beauty over there." Rook muttered, pointing at Blade.

Michael laughed once again, a hearty, echoing sound that resonated loudly in my ears.

"Good one lad, I'll be back in a few minutes with a medical kit, just gotta check the Warthog for damage first." He walked off, and began talking with the other two Spartans. He didn't once go near the Warthog.

"So." I began. "What the hell is a Spartan?"

"I'm not exactly sure, I've heard lots of rumours, some say under that armour, they're just killing machines, others say they're Alien. I'm not sure what, but ONI try to keep it hush hush. Officially, there's no such thing as a Spartan." Switch explained.

"Well, they give me the creeps. It's unnatural what they did to those Elites." Rook said.

"Unnatural or not, they sure saved our asses." I argued. They didn't seem so bad, or Michael at least seemed okay.

We stood around for a while, looking at Blade sleeping in the snow.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"I guess we wait for Blade to wake up, he'll take command."

"Is he a higher rank than those Spartans?"

"How the hell should I know? Higher rank or not, he'll still take command."

We shared a laugh, and Michael walked back over carrying a medical box. He opened it, and it was filled to the brim with syringes, bandages, and other such supplies.

"Ouch!" He said, looking down at Blade's burnt leg. "That must have hurt. Fin!" He called to his squad member. "Apply some pressure on the wound while I clean it up."

With incredible accuracy considering the size of their hands, the Spartans cleaned up Blade's wound well, cleaning it and then sowing the flesh up with a tiny needle, managing to hold it even through the thick armour. Man they were good.

"Right, he's all patched up. Just gotta wait for him to come round now." He pointed at me. "You and the rest of your squad look for somewhere to tuck him in, me and my squad will be back later, we'll just be.....cleaning up."

With that, him and the other two Spartans marched back into the destroyed base. I saw one of them reload their assault rifle. I felt sorry for any Covenant still inside.

We walked over to a rubble free area, and began setting up the tent that Switch still carried. Once it was done and anchored to the ground with a few rocks, we gently eased Blade inside the tent.

"Uh, shouldn't we take his armour off first?" I asked.

"Hey, you're welcome to strip down Blade any time you want Farm-Boy" Rook jested.

On second thoughts, I thought he'd be better off with his armour on.

After Blade had been attended to, we began stoking a fire. The red hot embers flickered, cutting through the fogginess of the night. Then again, the fog could have been dust from the destroyed base.

A little while later, the three Spartans joined us. They had salvaged some provisions from the wrecked base, and passed them to Switch to cook. There was precious little, and I wasn't sure how the six of us were going to share such tiny portions out. However, when I asked the Spartans if they wanted some food, they declined.

"We're fine, we ate a big meal about three days back."

Three days? Maybe the rumours were right, maybe they were alien. My suspicions were groundless however, as Michael removed his helmet, revealing a pale, but quite human face. He had short, brown hair, pale skin, and dark green eyes.

"So" Switch began, finally beginning to relax now he had seen they were actually human. "How did you find us?"

"We were stationed at Midgard, when we received a distress call from here. For five minutes the signal was strong, then it suddenly stopped. Command sent us three here to sort out whatever the problem was."

"Three people?" I asked in disbelief. Surely the UNSC wouldn't send only three soldiers to answer a distress call.

Before Michael could answer with what would probably be a modest answer, Switch cut in.

"They're Spartans lad, they would have been more than enough."

"Yeah, well, we would have been here sooner, but about 40 miles east of the city, the Warthog began stalling. So we had to get out and fix that, which stalled us a bit."

"Don't forget that Covenant amour force we ran into too." James added. It was the first time I'd heard him spoke.

"That was nothing. Anyway, looks like we arrived just a little late."

"Yeah, well you sure arrived on time to save us."

"Speaking of which, where were those Covenant taking you anyway?"

"Up to some cruiser to be interrogated.....Wait!" I suddenly remembered something.

"What?" Switch asked in annoyance.

"Those other Elites, the ones that left early, don't you think they'll be suspicious when we don't arrive on their ship as planned?"

Switch suddenly realised the implications of this.

"Oh crap."

We slowly turned our heads towards the cruiser. Surely enough, a force of about ten drop ships were leaving the docking bay, heading straight for us. They were probably full to the brim with Covenant soldiers.

The Spartans had noticed too.

"Should we run?" I asked them.

Michael drew out an assault rifle.

"Hell no."

 

Part 24 - Ragnarok

The ships were closing in fast. Soon we'd be in range of their plasma cannons.

"James, Fin, grab a couple of Spartan lasers, try to take out as many as you can." Michael ordered, and the other two Spartans went over to the Warthog and grabbed two large weapons.

Pointing the two weapons and two different ships, they held down the trigger button. The front of the lasers grew red, and became brighter and brighter. Suddenly, a huge concentrated beam of light shot from each of them, penetrating the hull of the enemy craft. The ships began a rapid decent to the ground, one which was unplanned. The casing of the two were ablaze with a blue, vivid fire.

"Holy crap, what was that?" Switch asked, moments later, the sound of the lasers could be heard again, and two more ships were down.

"That, is a Galilean Non-linear Rifle, or what we call a Spartan laser."

"A Spartan laser?" I asked.

"We call 'em that since the UNSC asked us to test them for them, due to their tendency to overheat to extreme levels at the moment. They're constantly bringing out new prototypes, each one safer than the last." Another two blasts were heard, and that brought the drop ship count down to four, a lot more of a reasonable number.

The four remaining ships were now close to the ground, and were already dropping down troops. They didn't start firing the cannons, I guessed they just wanted to get out of there. Once all soldiers had been sent down by the gravity lift, they soared back off into the sky, back towards the cruiser. The Spartan laser went off again, and only two survived to reach the cruiser.

"Sir, they're out of charge." James and Fin said to Michael, hoisting the lasers onto the powerful magnetic clips on their back and drawing out two assault rifles.

"Right, well, there isn't that many Covenant now."

I looked at him in amazement. Not many? There was still about fifty of them down there.

"Actually Sir-, em, Michael, maybe we should think about running." Rook said to him, worried.

The Spartan looked at the huge force running towards them.

"Don't worry lad, we're fine, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for you three to go find some cover though."

We didn't argue, well, in any situation it was pretty hard to argue with someone who neared two metres, but I still felt kind of guilty as we went to hide behind a rock, a rough, large boulder on the snowy plain.

"You think they'll be okay?" I asked Switch, who was nervously poking his head around the boulder, watching the scene.

"I don't know, I mean, they're Spartans, but fifty?"

"What species?" I asked.

"Looks to be around twenty Grunts, ten Elites, and twenty odd numbers of some weird looking guys holding what look like round, blue shields."

I poked my own head slightly above the boulder, and watched what was going on.

The Spartans were waiting, standing unnervingly still, facing the innumerable wave that was in front of them. At the front of The Covenant forces was an Elite in golden armour, holding a sword. He was pacing along the edge of his forces, presumably inspiring them. It reminded me of some video our class had once watched in school, a film set some one thousand years ago on Earth, back when humanity still used swords and bows and arrows.

Suddenly, the Elite in charge barked an order, and the weird looking aliens raised their arms, long, tapered fingers squeezing down the trigger of their guns. Twenty bolts of propelled plasma sailed towards the Spartans, and it looked like they were going to be hit. Suddenly, with impossible speed, they simultaneously swerved to the side and dodged them, the bolts sailing harmlessly past us and dissipating on the cliff behind.

The Spartans retaliated quickly with force of their own, each throwing a grenade across a huge distance, landing in the middle of their troops. Most of the Elites and unknown species were quick enough to jump out of the way, but the Grunts couldn't move in time with their stumpy little legs, and they were killed by the ensuing explosion.

The Elites roared in defiance, half of them whipping out energy swords and rushing towards Michael and his team. Concentrating their fire, the Spartans managed to kill two, but that still left three, who were now right near them. James whipped out a shotgun and felled the one running towards him in a single blast, the alien's sword tumbling harmlessly onto the ground, before exploding in a flash of plasma.

Fin looked to be in trouble. The Elite was right near him, and Fin wasn't using his assault rifle, I presumed it had run out of clips. Deciding to help him out, I popped myself fully above the rock, and, zooming in, shot the Elite in the head, bypassing his shields. The alien collapsed to the floor, dead. I heard Fin shout a faint thank you in my direction.

Michael was facing an Elite, both were circling each other. Suddenly, the Elite lunged for him with his sword, and it seemed for certain it was the end of him. Switch turned away. Suddenly, out of nowhere came Michael's hand, which grabbed the Elite's wrist, holding it in place. With a few deft movements, he broke the Elites arm in three places, causing him to drop the sword him was holding and yowl in pain. He then grabbed the Elite's chest, and threw him down onto the floor, smashing his head on a sharp rock. It quivered once, twice, then no more.

The Covenant soldiers with the shields blanched, and, as one, turned around and fled. Knowing that victory was now inevitable, we came out from behind the rock and shot them in the back, with a combination of Battle Rifle shots and Sniper bullets. The five remaining Elites hadn't fled. We rushed forward surrounded them, creating a sort of circle.

"Drop your weapons, and we'll let you live." Michael said to them, aiming his rifle at the leader.

"We would rather die than become hostages to you human." The golden armoured Elite snarled, his four mandibles opening in contempt.

There was silence, then.

"So be it" Michael said, and we shot them all where they stood. Against all odds, we had defeated fifty soldiers, plus six drop ships probably containing another seventy or so.

"Wow", Rook said. "That was quite....something."

"Just another day in the corps lad, you'll be in countless fights like that for years. The trick is to keep your cool, no matter what the pressure." Michael said, holstering his gun onto his back.

"Doesn't hurt to be an armoured super soldier either" Switch whispered in my ear.

"So." Rook said. "What next?"

"Well, we should get out of here, but that Warthog won't hold us all I'm afraid." Michael told us.

"Wait...back down at the Waterfall, near the Cov- Forerunner structure. I'm pretty sure I spotted a Covenant ship down there. We could hijack that and fly it to Midgard." I said, thinking back.

"Yeah, because the UNSC there will really react well to a Covenant ship approaching their position." Came Rook's reply.

"Well, we can set it down a mile or so away from the city, and walk from there." I retorted.

"Sounds like a plan to me, you guys lead us to that waterfall." Michael agreed.

We trekked through the snow towards the path there, not forgetting to pick up Blade on the way of course. It was time to get out of here.

 

Part 25 : An unpleasant history

The setting sun of Epsilon Indi cast a melancholy, vibrant glow over the apocalyptic landscape, putting everything into perspective. For the first time, I realised what the Covenant were doing; hunting us down like mere vermin, an inferior race to be snuffed out by greater beings. The Covenant Cruiser was still hanging in the air, beating down at the Planet's surface with that beam, that terrible, terrible beam.

Shaking off my momentary depression, I cast my gaze back to the rest of my squad. Blade was still out cold, but he was showing signs of waking up, his limp hand occasionally twitched upwards as he was carried by a very tired Switch and Rook. And walking up in front were the Spartans, carrying all of the equipment from the Warthog, which had had it's engine destroyed by the incredible manoeuvring they had used to kill my squad's captors . The Spartans...

I was unsure what to make of them to be honest, on one hand, they had saved our lives, stopping the Elites moments before we were sent to what would most likely be certain death. But at the same time, whenever one looked at me, I couldn't help but feel a long shiver run down my spine, and it was not a pleasant one. It was unnatural what they were, eight foot tall invincible giants capable of ripping through anything that stood in their way. The name Spartan was becoming, they acted just like their historical namesakes, un-defeatable, willing to stand up against any and all enemies. I remembered a film I had watched long ago, a very old one from around the 20th century, in which 300 ancient Greek Spartans held off an entire army. The Spartans of now could do it with three. Suddenly, Switch broke my train of thought.

"My God, who would have thought the Sarge weighed this much? I'm honestly about to drop." He moaned out loud, prompting the Spartans to turn around.

"What's the problem?" Fin asked in a quizzical tone.

"Em..nothing, just a little tired is all." Switch spoke, lowering his head in the Spartan's gaze.

"I'll carry him for you then." Fin spoke, walking over to the ODST to relieve him of the heavy load.

We gazed at the amount of baggage the three Spartans were already hauling each, easily twice as heavy as all of us. Yet they weren't even fazed, indeed, Fin even held his equipment in one hand, swinging the other in a care free motion.

"Are you sure?" Switch asked, purely for politeness sake. In reality he was prepared to thrust Blade into the Spartan's free hand.

"Sure.. I doubt he weighs more than this turret here," He said, indicating the heavy weaponry strapped to his back. Fin grabbed Blade, and with no more effort than he would if carrying a sack of potatoes, he slung the ODST over his back. Now free of their burden, Switch and Rook came over to talk with me.

"Those guys creep me out..." Rook whispered, and Switch nodded along.

"Blade won't be happy to see we've let them tag along." Switch muttered darkly.

"Did we have any choice." Rook half laughed, but he felt foreboding too.

I was intrigued as to why Blade didn't like Spartans. I leaned in, and made sure the three Spartans up ahead couldn't hear me.

"Why won't Blade be happy?" I asked quietly, glancing at the unconscious squad leader, who was currently draped over Fin's shoulder.

"It's..ah..complicated." Switch began nervously, casting a quick glance at the Spartans. After he saw them talking amongst themselves, he relaxed and spoke again.

"Right, a couple of years back, some ODSTs got called in to help with a training excercise. They were slightly annoyed, I mean, fully trained Elite soldiers called in to help out with training. Anyway, they got to the room where the rookie was, and were surprised to see just one person, unarmed, with no armour on, just clothes. The Drill Sergeant had told them to go in and rough the guy up a little, apparently they wanted to see what happened.
Switch paused, taking a deep breath. He coughed, once, and regained his composure.

"Anyway, they got in and started doing what they'd been ordered to do, provoke the guy into a fight. Suddenly, the guy goes nuts, and with his bare hands, beats the ODSTs to a pulp. They didn't stand a chance. Dead, the three of them. Dead as this planet. The families of the dead tried to get an idea of what happened, but the UNSC wouldn't talk, just gave out some official statement that a routine training excercise had gone wrong. But everyone knows what happened in there, another officer saw it all, told everyone the truth. Can you guess what killed them?"

"A Spartan?" I answered, already knowing it was true.

"Bang on son. One of them Spartans. I don't trust them, and neither should you, or you for that matter either Rook. However, these guys don't seem too bad, but I've heard some crazy stories. All hush hush you understand, according to the UNSC, there is no such thing as a Spartan."

"So if these guys aren't that bad, what makes you so sure that Blade won't like them."

Switch sighed, and cast a look up into the sky.

"You know the ODSTs that Spartan killed?" The tension in the air was at an all time high, it was as if the whole world had gone dark, enveloping my squad in a blanket of silence.

"Blade was the father of one".

 

Part 26: Ambushed

 Night had come once again, and one of Harvest's moon's was glowing pale in the sky. Before me, a roaring camp fire was blazing, and we were all sat around it, trying to gather what little warmth we could. Well, all except the Spartans, who had gone out hunting for food.

"Hey, I think Blade's waking up!" Switch called in excitement, and we gathered round the Sergeant's stirring form.

"Whha...where am I?" Blade muttered, trying to lift his head up.

"Oh great, now not only is he a rat bag, he's also delirious..." Rook muttered.

Suddenly, with a sudden burst of energy, Blade sat up.

"I heard that! If I wasn't so tired I'd kick your sorry ass!" We all knew he was joking.

"It's good to have you back Blade." I said, reaching out a hand to pull him up. The squad leader lifted himself up, and dusted himself off. Running a hand through his short, grey hair, he rubbed his unkempt beard in thought.

"What's the status here Farm-Boy?" The old ODST scanned the empty clearing. "This doesn't look like a Covenant ship.."

"We're not on one sir, we escaped." Rook chirped happily. Blade broke out into a smile.

"Aha, so all those hours of training weren't wasted then. Tell me, how did you break free of those Elites?"
Rook gave an awkward cough, and averted his gaze slightly.

"We...um....didn't sir, some others came to help."

Blade's smile began to fade, replaced by a confused frown.

"There were other survivors? Or was it reinforcements? I thought we were the only ODSTs on Harvest right now."

"No other survivors Blade, no ODSTs either."

"Then who?" Blade broke off as Michael, Fin and James walked into the camp carrying a large deer.

"Ah, excellent sir, you've woken up." Michael spoke happily.

Blade's eyes turned frosty, and he gave me, Rook and Switch a look of hatred. I felt guilty.

"Listen Blade, we can explain-" I began, only to be cut off by Blade.

"Silence Corporal, respect a superior officer when you see one." He had named me by rank, a formality usually never used by him.

"Spartans, what is your business here?" Blade asked, walking up to Michael and looking up and him straight in his visor. Perhaps, I thought, he still was delirious.

"We ran into your squad sir, you looked to be in trouble. We decided to help out." Michael had snapped a salute, as had the rest of the Spartans. Blade wasn't impressed.

"You think we needed your help?" He whispered in a deadly voice.

"Um...actually sir, we did." Switch cut in.

"Did I ask you to speak?" Blade bellowed, turning his head around. Switch fell silent.

"Now, if I had a choice," Blade addressed the Spartans, "I'd kick your good-for-nothing worthless asses out of here. As it is, unfortunately, according to the UNSC, you're a marine, so we have to help you. You can walk with us, you can kill with us, you can eat with us, but you hear me now, I will not talk to you unless it is an order, and if my squad knows what's good for them, neither will they." And then, without another word, he turned his back on the stunned Spartans. For the next ten minutes, there was silence, as we watched the venison slowly turn on a spit.

After it had been roasted sufficiently, we cut off chunks of it and slowly began to eat. Even the Spartans did this time, evidently they were hungry. I looked at Blade , he was wearing his poker face, it was impossible to tell hat he was thinking. Suddenly, he stood up, and walked off.

"Um, shouldn't we follow him?" I asked worriedly.

"It would take a braver man than me to do that lad." Switch said, along with an empathetic nod from Rook.

"I'll be back soon." I said, running in the direction of where Blade had gone. After a few minutes off walking through the dense forest, I found Blade staring out sadly at a raging sea, one which had escaped being frozen. Plucking up my courage, I walked up to him.

"Sorry about earlier Farm Boy." Blade spoke in a melancholy tone without even turning around.

"How did you know it was me?" I asked, pausing for a second.

"Because Switch and Rook don't have the guts to speak to me when I'm angry. But you, lad, you are different."

"Thanks sir." I said bluntly, not knowing what else to say.

There was silence for a few minutes, and I walked over to stand beside Blade. We both stared out into the empty space for a few minutes.

"Did Switch tell you why I don't like Spartans lad?" He finally asked, his perception was unnerving.

"He did." I spoke softly.

"Pretty pathetic eh? Holding a grudge after all these years. I don't deserve to lead our squad..."

"Of course you do sir, if a member of my family was killed, I'd hate them too. That's why I fight against the Covenant."

Blade laughed, and cheered up a little bit.

"And a grand job you do too Farm Boy. You know something? You remind me of my son, he was a bit older than you, but you both have the same fighting spirit; he was also as skilled as you with a sniper rifle. I miss him so much, some days I had to fight to keep from being depressed. But not since you joined us lad, because I look at you, and see so much of him. And I know that his spirit lived on."

I felt a little uncomfortable, yet at the same time pleased.

"And I guess, sir, that since my parents died, you're the closest thing I've got to a father."

"That means a lot to me lad. Now, what's say we go back to camp?"

"That would be great Blade, but, listen. Michael, Fin, and James are nice guys. They may not be like you and me, but you should give them a chance."

Silence for a few moments, then.

"I'm sorry Farm Boy, but I don't think I can do that. Not yet." He stated sadly.

I gave out a long sigh.

"Very well. Lets head back to camp then." I turned around, walked forward, and bumped into something. I fell to the ground and gave out a cry of shock. Blade turned, and drew out his knife. Nothing was there. Suddenly, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A faint shimmering in the air, a heat distortion, perhaps. Then another, and another. With horror, I realised what was happening.

"Blade, we got Invisible Elites all around us!" I shouted. I made to draw out my Sniper Rifle, and realised I had left it at camp.

The Elites, realising they had been uncovered, disengaged their camouflage.

"Do you mind?" Blade asked them in a sarcastic tone. "We're having a precious moment here." Without waiting for an answer, he threw his combat knife at the foremost Elite, only to be dismayed as it bounced off it's shields.

"These guys just don't give up do they?" I said to Blade, backing slowly away from the converging aliens. I stopped as I reached the edge.

"Kill them." The Elite at the front spoke. The two other Elites drew out Energy Swords and moved slowly towards us.

I took a look back at the raging sea, and decided the plan I was formulating was crazy. Then again, crazy was better than death. I looked at Blade, and nodded at him. Luckily, he got the message.

"Oh thank god." He said in mock relief. "He comes the rest of our battalion." He was looking over the Elite's shoulders. Nothing was there. However, the Elites turned around in anticipation, and that was when we acted. Bracing ourselves, we jumped into the water, waves crashing all around us. I could see us being swept away by the current.

"*** it, now what do we do?" I began to say, only to have my mouth filled with bitter salt water. Blade was likewise thrashing about next to me.

I fought to stay above the surface, but was dragged under time and time again by the raging. Soon, I could feel the world growing black. The last thing I saw before I fell unconscious was Blade grabbing me around the waist, trying to keep me afloat.

Then everything went dark.

 

Part 27 : Behind enemy lines

 My eyes flickered open, the onslaught of darkness falling to the vibrant light. I could hear harsh breathing, and with a start noticed the oxygen mask strapped to my mouth. I was horizontal on a firm, yet comfy bed, and a whole array of tubes were attached to my arm. My garments consisted of a simple hospital robe.

"What's going on?" I tried to say, but my speech wasn't working properly, so what came out was a sting of nonsensical words. Suddenly, I heard footsteps to the right of me, and a women who looked like a nurse entered my field of vision. With a note of relief I saw she was human.

"Ah, excellent, you've woken up, I'll go alert the Doctor and Commander Mains. Don't go anywhere!" She tittered at her own joke, I was strapped down with tight, rough bands.

I heard her walk down a hallway, and began to think. She had said Commander, so I must have been in a UNSC outpost. I tried to remember what had happened, the Elites surrounding me, jumping into the water, Blade grabbing me as I faded into unconsciousness, shouting at me to stay with him.

Blade! Remembering the veteran ODST, I turned my head around with extreme effort, and with no small amount of relief so him laid on another bed, still blacked out. Those waves must have been rough.

After a few minutes, voices could be heard from down the hall, and two men came striding in, one in a grand, white coat, concern present on his face, and another who was dressed in smart military. attire, the unmistakeable mark of a commander pinned to his coat. I presumed him to be Mains. Yet it looked different than ones I had seen before. The Commander had short, dark brown hair, a thin stubble, and a large smile upon his face. He looked to be in his late twenties, which seemed much too young to be a Commander.

"Ah, so good to see you awake son. You and your friend gave us quite a scare when our patrols found you washed up on the shore, in nothing but a few thin clothes. If we hadn't seen you when we did, you'd be dead by now." He had a strange accent, it sounded like he had descendants from Ireland.

"But I can see you cant talk right now, so I'll do all that for us eh lad? Now, I'm Commander Mains, you'd do well to remember that for the future. I oversee the operations of this army on Harvest."

Now I was really confused. I'd heard that all military activity on Harvest was overseen by a Colonel Banks; but I couldn't as much say hello, never mind voice my query.

"Now, I'm not sure how you got here, but I would like to ask you to join us. I know it may be hard for a mere civilian to embrace the way of a soldier, but we have expert training facilities, better than the ones they have" He spoke the word they with distaste, "And each and every one of us will be behind you every step of the way. When your friend's arm heals too, we'll ask the same of him."

With effort, I removed the mask covering my face, and managed to utter a few words.

"Join you sir? But I'm already-" I broke off into a fit off coughing, and Mains broke out into a sympathetic smile.

"Hush now lad, all will become clear soon, for now I just suggest you get some rest. We've got big plans for the future, and you shall be part of it."

"Part of what? Fighting the Covenant?" I was extremely confused.

Commander Mains scoffed.

"The Covenant are nothing lad, those idiots at the UNSC just made a mistake in negotiations is all. It'll be over before you know it, no worry. Now I'll be back later, as will Doctor Bairns over there. Just rest, and take it easy. You'll be safe with the URF lad, you both will." And with that, he turned his back and walked off, his long trench coat adorned with medals scraping along the floor.

"Wait, the URF? What's that?" But he had already gone, closing the door behind him. I noticed with annoyance he had locked the sliding door behind him.

I laid back and looked at the ceiling. I couldn't go anywhere, I was trapped. Who exactly were these people anyway? Were they the good guys? At least they weren't Covenant, if they were; I doubted I'd be still in one piece.

Suddenly, I heard coughing to the side of my, and craned my neck. Blade was regaining conciousness.

"Oh my head..." He groaned, bringing up an arm to cradle it. "What the? Why am I strapped down?"

"Don't worry Blade, it's fine. We're with Humans." I assured him. Blade looked to the side, and just noticed me.

"That you Farm Boy? Ah, good. *** it, my arm hurts, I think I broke it. You okay?"

I brought my own arms up for inspection, they seemed to be fine.

"I'm good. So, what happened back in the water?" I queried of the disgruntled Sergeant, who was still rubbing his head.

"Well, those Elites surrounded us and we jumped in the sea...Then everything was just chaos. The wind was battering at us, and you kept going under. Meanwhile, I was losing strength, fast. Our armour was weighing us down, so I had to strip us both down..Yeah, not the most pleasant of things, but I had to. Then I hit my head on a rock, and woke up here. Where is here anyway?"

"I'm not exactly sure.." I replied, thinking hard. "A guy named Commander Main came in here earlier, talked about recruiting us into something, I tried to tell him we were already ODST, but he cut me off. This must be some branch of the UNSC of something, he called it the URF."

Blade froze, his face a picture of surprise.

"Did you just say the URF?" He asked in horror. I nodded. "The URF? Oh God, we're in trouble. Just count yourself lucky you didn't tell him who we were. God *** it we're screwed."

A familiar sinking feeling rose in my gut, the kind that came before trouble.

"Why, what's so bad about the URF?" I asked in concern, not seeing what the big deal was.

"Do you not know what those initials stand for Farm Boy?"

I shook my head dumbly.

"United Rebel Front son. And if they find out we're UNSC, we're screwed. Don't tell them anything you hear?"

I paused for a few moments in disbelief, then replied.

"Ah, I see. Holy crap."

 

Part 28: Welcome to the URF

We stood outside the URF complex, in a small, confined area. Snow cascaded around us, and I shivered. I and the rest of the new recruits, including Blade, had nothing to wear albeit a simple, thin top and thin trousers. Commander Mains was parading in front of our stiff line, inspecting each and every one of us.

"So, recruits!" He shouted in his Irish brogue. "Today, you have a chance; a chance to make the world we live in a better place!"

He was wearing combat gear, old school attire, green fabric with brown splodges on, and wore a beret with two stars on, testimony to his leadership. He had a rough beard, and eyes that looked much older than he actually was. He had seen things, I could tell.

"Most of you have been devastated by the Covenant! And whose fault is this? The UNSC's of course! Their non diplomatic actions have put every human life in the Galaxy at danger! They never listen, and this is why they must be overthrown! The Covenant can be reasoned with, we can make peace, it's just that our dictating so called leadership knows not how to do this!"

He was a powerful speaker, despite the fact he was young, and had everyone, including me, captivated, hanging onto his every word.

"Now I know, that most, if not all of you, have never touched a fire arm in your lives. But I will make soldiers of you yet; mark my words. And we will rise up, and with the help of our brothers, we will establish a new order, one which isn't corrupt, and we will form a treaty with the Covenant! And God help them if they don't accept it..."

Mains marched up and down, peering in close at each of us. He stopped for a second at me, and nodded in approval. Finally, at the end of the line, he reached Blade, who's arm was still cast within a sling. Mains took a close look at his aged face, and peered curiously at the battle scars upon it.

"Where did you get those scars from?" He asked suspiciously, and Blade slowly and wearily brought his head up.

"And since when," He replied in a menacing tone, "Did that have anything to do with you kid?"

Mains' brow darkened, and his voice rose in volume slightly during his next question.

"Have you ever fought with the UNSC?" Came an inquisitive voice. "Come now, don't be shy." He said when he received silence.

I knew Blade faced a conundrum, on one hand, he could say he was an ODST soldier, but then Mains would most likely lock him up. But he couldn't deny it, there was no other explanation really as to where he received his scars from. I nervously awaited his reply.

"I...used to be an ODST." He admitted in an undertone. "I quit because I disagreed with what they were doing, killing innocents who they claimed to be traitors. But I've seen my fair share of fights."

It was a good lie, and Blade's facial expression betrayed nothing. Mains was quiet for a few moments, then broke out into a large smile.

"Really, ODST you say? Why, that's fantastic! If you really are what you say you are, then you'll rise through our ranks in no time. What's your name recruit?"

Again, I nervously awaited his reply.

"I'm Thompson. Andrew Thompson, at your service sir."

I wasn't sure if he was lying or if this was his real name. I realised I didn't know Blade's real name, or that of anyone in my squad for that matter.

"I'm incredibly pleased to meet you Andrew, an ODST no less! And what of the lad who washed up with you, what's his story?" Mains asked, a big grin still on his hard face.

"It's a sad story sir, my dear friend Joe Walker was killed by those Covenant bastards mere weeks ago, and in his dying breath he asked me to look after his boy. His Mom died years ago from Cancer, so now I'm all he's got in the world. James is the lad's name."

"I see. Well, that's yet another reason to hate those UNSC bastards eh? If it hadn't been for their aggressive behaviour, the lad's father might still be alive. Okay, you two can go, I'll be keeping an eye on how you're doing. I'd advise that for now, you head down to the training centre to the top left of this complex and ask Lieutenant Harper, he's the old guy who's constantly smoking a cigar, to set you up on some courses, although I'm sure you don't need it eh Thompson?"

"Thank you for your hospitality sir."

We saluted and headed off in the general direction of the training centre. We now had sufficient cover stories, and were safe for now.

"So, is Andrew Thompson your real name then?" I asked Blade quietly, as we huddled our shoulders and moved further and further away from Mains and the other new recruits.

"Nope, and don't think you'll get my name off me any time soon boy. Code names are there for a reason, they help you stay focused and on the mission. And don't forget that, we're on a mission. Our priority task is to link up with our squad ASAP, as soon as we find a way of doing that, we're out of here."

"And how are we gonna do that?" I asked in desperation.

There was silence, and for a few moments the only sound that could be heard was that of the cold, dead wind buffeting the URF flags high above us.

"I don't know Farm Boy, but for now, we'll play "Commander" Mains' little game. We have no choice. Now come on, let's go show this so called Lieutenant Harper how a gun is really fired." Blade spoke in the inspiring voice I had grown to love, and he doubled his pace. The fire within me rekindled, I quickly ran after Blade, ready to take whatever test Mains had set us.

 

Part 29: Promotion, URF style

A shot cracked through the air as I squeezed the trigger of the Sniper Rifle, sending a harsh jolt of recoil up my tired arm. The bullet flew across the clearing and hit the target dead in the middle. Bullseye, yet again.

"Wow, how the hell did you do that?" Lieutenant Harper asked between his smoking cigar for the third time.

"Em....Lucky shot I guess..." I muttered in an undertone, systematically reloading my sniper rifle as I did so.

Me and Blade were together on a Sniper training course, and I hadn't missed a single target yet, much to the disbelief of Lieutenant Harper, an old man who seemed upset that I was more proficient than him with the rifle. Blade was doing okay, but the Sniper had never been his strong point. He preferred a good or BR-55 or an MA5, also known as an Assault Rifle. He was also rather partial to his shotgun too, which apparently had been given to him by his Grandfather. At the moment though, it was with Switch and everyone else. Not for the first time, I wondered how they were coping.

As I raised the scope of the rifle to my eye once again, and prepared to shoot the tin can a few hundred yards away, I felt a sharp pain in the leg, and realised that Blade had kicked me. I looked up at him, and he gave me a glare.

"Stop showing off, you'll blow our cover idiot..." Blade murmured quietly.

"Sorry..." I spoke as I raised the scope to my eye again. This time, just before I shot I jolted the weapon the the side on purpose, and the bullet struck against a snow covered rock.

"Aha, see!" Harper shouted in delight. "You need practice son, but don't worry, old Lieutenant Harper's here to help."

He then spent the next half hour carefully instructing me on the correct way to hold the Sniper, and how to keep my arms still in the face of recoil. He meant well really, but it still annoyed me that I had to pretend I was useless.

After Harper was happy with my aim, he moved onto Blade and checked him out. Of course, having established a cover story as a retired ODST, Blade was at liberty to demonstrate the full prowess of his combat abilities. Harper didn't do much, he just sat back and made noises of approval, occasionally praising a particularly shot.

"I think you'll be leading a squad in no time Andrew, you're combat skills are amazing!I'll be sure to report this to Commander Mains." The Lieutenant said to Blade in an admiring tone.

"Well, my only wish is to stay with the boy. I'm the only person he's got, and I have a vow to his father to uphold."

"Of course, of course. I'll tell you what Mains has to say later. Anyway, what say we move onto the Battle Rifle course? Our design is slightly different from the ones you'll be used to, as we made them ourselves."

I got a sinking feeling in my stomach, I was terrible with the BR. Then again, I supposed now would be a good time to learn how to use it, I wouldn't always be able to rely on a Sniper Rifle.

"Where does the URF import it's weapons from then?" I asked innocently. If I could find out where their main factory supply line was and tell ONI, it would be incredibly beneficial to the UNSC.

Unfortunately though, Harper shook his head and said.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that young James, not because I don't want to, but because no body here knows. Not even Mains. The only people who know where all our weapons and vehicles come from are the Generals high above, and I don't even know their names."

"Sounds pretty shadowy." I remarked.

"It seems like it at first, but we're really a bunch of friendly guys. Well, some sections of the URF are downright horrible, missiles, suicide bombings, killing hundreds of innocents in the process. But here on Harvest we're different. We only use lethal force when necessary, and we never harm civilians. Just soldiers who refuse to drop their weapons." Harper reflected.

It didn't sound to bad. These definitely weren't the evil child killing rebels I'd been told about as a kid. Blade then grabbed my arm and drew me to one side.

"Now don't you be getting any ideas Farm boy, this is the enemy you're having a friendly chat with, not your god *** squad mate." He whispered at me harshly.

"I know that! But he doesn't seem that bad..."

Blade was about to reply, when Harper looked back and asked if everything was alright.

"Yeah we're fine thanks." I moved away from Blade in anger. How could he be dubious about where my loyalties lay? I was one hundred percent committed to the UNSC.

"So." I began, resuming conversation. What's your view on the Covenant?"

*************************

Switch crouched on the soft, loamy rocks, and confirmed it.

"They were definitely here all right."

Rook and the Spartans were stood around him, arms folded in expectation.

"Well what happened to them?" Rook asked.

After Blade and Farm boy had failed to return last night, the squad decided to go looking for them. Eventually, they tracked them down to the shore of the sea, and Switch was trying to work out what had happened.

"Well, from what I can deduce, they were talking with each other, when suddenly, and this is judging from the depth of the print nearest to the water, they jumped into the sea." Said Switch.

"Why the heck would they do that?"

"I don't know. Perhaps they were attacked?"

That would make sense, Switch thought. Farm boy and Blade were talking, they get ambushed, and jump into the water to escape. Then the Aliens, or whoever attacked them cover up their tracks.

"Perhaps." Reflected Michael. "Now what should we do?"

Switch looked up into the sky, the blazing light of Epsilon Indi illuminating his black armour.

"We find them. Luckily, transmitters aren't just in our suits, I took the liberty of ordering some tracking chips about six months ago that went...well...inside us. I haven't had time to place one on Farm boy yet, but Blade's should be live and kicking."

"What? When the hell did you do that?" Rook exclaimed.

"I knew you wouldn't agree to it Rook, so I just slipped it into your cereal on day."

"And you didn't even tell-" Rook was then cut off by Switch.

"Unfortunately, the only way to receive the chips signal is through a direct satellite link. And unfortunately, we don't have the equipment on us to do that. However, I'm sure the Covenant do, and if I could have a look at some of their equipment, I'm sure I could rework it to our favour."

"So where do we go then?" Michael asked, speaking for him and the other Spartans.

"We go where we were going to go all along. To the Waterfall, and that mysterious ruin the Covenant were skulking about.

***********************

We'd been invited to Commander Mains' private quarters, an envious looking URF soldier came and told us. In his hands, he held two suits that would be appropriate for a formal dinner. We bid farewell to Lieutenant Harper, and went to get changed.

"I'm telling you lad, I don't look good in a suit." Blade once again protested, adjusting his tie yet again as we walked down the corridor to Mains' room.

"You? Look at me! I feel ridiculous." And I did, in my white shirt, black suit, and formal tie. The last time I'd worn something like it had been to my Great-Grandfather's funeral.

Blade had refused to shave his spidery, white beard, and it ill suited his crisp new tutored. His greying hair had been combed into some semblance of neatness, as had mine.

"Bah! You're young, young people always look good in suits. Anyway, quiet now."

Blade leaned his hand against the large mahogany door, preparing a grand entrance. His brow furrowed when the door wouldn't move. A voice called from the other side of the door.

"Ah, you pull it!" Mains shouted, and with a sheepish expression Blade grasped the golden handle and pulled, revealing the room within.

It was very grand, a long, teak table was stretched from one side of the room to the other, and beautiful red carpets graced the floor. On the walls were multiple trophies, ranging from stuffed animal heads, to newspaper clippings, to what looked like...

"Are those UNSC medals?" I asked in disbelief.

A pained expression crossed across Mains' face.

"Ah yes, those, I um...well, I used to be in the ODST 4th Battalion. I got quite a few medals. But then I realised how ridiculous the USNC were acting in trying to rule the whole galaxy with an iron tight dictatorship, and I quit. Now please, sit, sit."

I drew out a chair, and sat down at the table. In front of me was a long line of lidded dishes, my hungry stomach was fantasising about what was under them. I hadn't eaten a nice meal since the Covenant first attacked Harvest.

"It was nice of you to invite us here sir." Blade spoke formally.

"Sir? I won't stand for it, not at my own dinner table. Call me Scott, please." Mains argued.

"So em...Scott. Why did you ask us to attend your dinner?" I asked curiously.

"They'll be plenty of time for talk later, for now, let's eat!"

I couldn't disagree with him, I was starving. Mains removed the steel lid of one of the plates, revealing a chicken dripping with warm, tasty fat. Roast potatoes were arranged around it in a garnish.

Right now, mouldy bread and cheese would have been a feast to me, so I was practically salivating. For the next half hour, I ate in perfect silence, breaking it occasionally when asking if it was okay if I could get more. Finally, I realised I could eat no more and collapsed into my chair, satisfied.

"So, down to business." Began Mains. "Lieutenant Harper has told me of your prowess at the shooting range today, he said you could do with some work with the Battle Rifle James, but apparently your sniping was impeccable. As for you Andrew, well, I expected no less from a fellow retired ODST."

"Thanks you." Me and Blade spoke in unison.

"Anyway, I'm glad we have you two. Most of the people who join us are complete freshmen, they couldn't tell the butt of a rifle from it's head. It's nice to have people who know how to fight. Which is why I would like to present you each with these."

He reached into the pocket of his beige trench coat, and drew out two small pieces of material. Sergeant Lapels.

"I'm promoting each of you to Sergeant, together you'll be in charge of a squad of ten. I'm expecting great results."

I was speechless. I knew the ranks weren't official UNSC, but I still felt privileged.

"Thank you sir-Scott." I hastened out. Blade gave a short, curt thanks. He wasn't impressed.

"Yes, well, we'll talk specifics later men, but now I think desert is arriving. I hope you aren't full."

 

Part 30: Insubordination

"Right recruits, under the net now! Move it, move it, move it!" Blade shouted at the cursing Insurrectionist recruits, not a bead of sweat running down his old, worn face. He was confident and in control.

We were both dressed in Drill Officer attire, our Sergeant Lapels gleaming on our chests. Today, Mains had kindly asked us over breakfast to oversee the newly enlisted recruits training. I'd enthusiastically agreed, Blade has muttered something about not really wanting to train a new generation of "Innies." Luckily, Mains, or Scott I suppose he had asked me to call him, didn't hear.

"Right lad, I'm gonna go get a drink. Think you can handle it?" Blade asked me, already walking towards the mess hall.

"Sure thing."

I walked over to the other end of the net, and attempted to encourage the men to carry on.

"Right, come on, only a little more!" I shouted in my most commanding voice, however, all I received from the man emerging from under the net was a cold stare. The rest of them did likewise, leaving me to stand there as they simply walked away from the obstacle course, towards the changing rooms.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing recruits? Get back here!" I ordered, sensing trouble.

Slowly, the tallest one, who looked to be around 6"3", turned towards me, a sneer on his face. The rest of the recruits, bar one who seemed to not to be involved, followed suit, clustering around the tall one. I groaned inwardly, they'd formed a gang.

I was only 5"10", which, although the same size as some of men there, didn't come close to the "ringleader."

"What was that kid?" The tall one asked menacingly, drawing in on me. He towered over my figure, his grotesque face pushed firmly against mine. I was a little intimidated, but didn't flinch. Instead, I drew away from him and pulled out the small firearm at my side, an M6C SOCOM, complete with an optical scope and silencer; fully automatic, of course.

"You heard me tough guy, get back on the course!" I growled in a Blade - esque impression.

That got some laughs, but at me, not with me. I groaned inwardly, when was Blade getting back? No, I told myself firmly, if I couldn't sort this one tiny crisis, how would I cope in the future?

"Look at you, you're barely out of diapers kid! And to think you're a Sergeant." The same tall recruit jeered. I'd had it up to there with him by now.

"Right, that's it recruits! Get to the course now, or I start shooting!" I threatened, raising the pistol. The men guffawed.

"You're bluffing kid, you wouldn't shoot us..."

How wrong he was, I thought. If I was with my squad and Blade gave the order, I'd have filled him with bullets, no hesitation. In fact, I was pretty sure it was in my UNSC contract to kill any Insurrection I saw. However, to a certain extent he was right. I was under cover, and something told me that shooting a recruit on my first day as Sergeant would be a bit of a give away. Instead, all I said was.

"Don't try me big shot. I'm the Sergeant here, and I order you to get back to training! You signed a contract with us, you'll keep to it's terms."

"Ha-ha, right kid, if you want to be treated like a big boy, then fine. You're in for a world of hurt..." He said, pounding his fist as he drew in on me.

Without warning, he swung a heavy fist at me, aimed for my head. Instinctively, I ducked, and heard a surge as the fist pass harmlessly over the head. I had a feeling that would have knocked me out.

Wasting no time, I rested my finger on the SOCOM, prepared to shoot him in the leg. Before I could pull though, another fist flew threw the air and knocked it out of my hand. As the recruit reached down to pick it up, I kicked it away and kicked him in the head for good measure, sending him sprawling into the dust.

The others had formed a circle around us by now, cheering him, and booing me. One of them tossed the recruit I was fighting an empty bottle of beer, which was quickly smashed, the sharp remnants of it aimed at my chest. I stepped back warily, this guy was obviously prepared to go all the way.

He lunged at me with the bottle, and quickly I dived out the way. This was getting serious now, I could lose my life.

I scrambled up, and attempted to barge past the circle of cheering recruits. I was quickly pushed back towards my aggressor.

I heard air distort as the broken bottle once again flew through the air, aimed at my beating heart. Reacting quickly, I grabbed his grubby, hairy arms and attempted to push him back. He grunted with surprise as he met resistance, the bottle mere inches from my chest. He pushed hard, and slowly I began to feel my arms buckle. Suddenly, I felt my feet fall from beneath me as he dealt a swift kick below, and I tumbled to the ground, winded.

He towered over me, bottle raised madness in his eyes. By God, he was actually going to kill me! I braced myself, thinking this was the end. How ironic, to survive countless attacks by Covenant only to be killed by a Insurrectionist recruit with an attitude problem.

Before the final blow could be made however, an angry, confused voice shouted from outside the circle.

"What's going on here? Why aren't you on the training course? And what's with the circle of people, move out of my way!"

Hope filled my heart as I realised who it was Blade!

A few startled people jumped out of the way as Blade pushed past, revealing to him the bizarre scene before him. With a look of alarm, he saw the broken bottle, poised to stab me.

"Put the bottle down son...now." He spoke calmly, trying to placate the tall recruit. Blade was a little smaller than him.

Rather than listen to the command though, the recruit swung crazily through the air towards Blade with his left arm out stretched, the one which held the bottle. He was going all the way, planning to stab Blade too.

With lightning reactions, Blade grabbed the attacker by the arm, stopping his whole body in his tracks. With a flick of Blade's wrist, the attacker was thrown to the ground, and the shattered bottle flew in the air, completely smashing as it landed on the recruits' arm. A horrible scream rang through the air as broken glass penetrated, red, crimson blood oozing from the multiple wounds.

There was no sympathy in Blade's gaze as he placed a strong foot on the recruits' chest, pinning him down.

There was no sympathy in Blade's gaze as he drew a M6D Magnum from it's holster, pointing it at the recruit's head.

There was no sympathy in his gaze as he fired either.

"There's no place in the world for people like him. Other than a cemetery." Blade reflected solemnly, holstering the smoking pistol. "Now get back on that course men, or else!"

They ran, practically leaving apparations of themselves in the air where they stood, they went so fast. Blade sighed, and rolled the corpse at his feet over, so it was face down in the dirt.

"Wow Blade...You killed him." I uttered, shocked. Blade scowled.

"Of course I did, he was committing insubordination and assaulted a superior officer. You should have shot him long before I came."

I hadn't looked at it like that. Mains would be annoyed, no doubt, but he'd understand.

"Yeah, yeah I guess." I sighed, looking at the floor, my face flushed red. "Maybe I'm not cut out for this whole Sergeant thing after all..."

Blade frowned instantly.

"Don't you go feeling sorry for yourself. You'll do fine, you just need some confidence. Tell you what, meet me in the hall at 1am, no one will be around. We can do some unarmed combat there, and I'll also lecture you on how to command troops. You need to learn it." He rebuked.

I brightened considerably.

"That'd be great Blade. Thanks."

 

Part 31 - Breaking an entry

"Right, I can see two Elites guarding the entrance. One's got blue armour, the other's in red."

"What does it matter what colour the armour is?" Rook scoffed in reply to Switch's recon observation.

"It matters a lot idiot. The colours could symbolise rank, or skill, or how many kills they've made. I'm pretty sure it's not for fashion."

"Yeah, well, they look a lot nice than you."

"Shut your trap Rook."

Micheal observed the argument with slight amusement. It was strange seeing how normal marines bickered amongst themselves like that; Micheal wouldn't dream of arguing with any of his fellow Spartans. Mendez had taught them well.

Speaking of his fellow Spartans, he set up a COM channel with Fin and James.

"You two in position?" He asked of them. Two green acknowledgement lights flashed in reply. All was well then. He terminated the channel, not wanting to give the Covenant below a chance to triangulate their position. He turned to the two ODSTs, and the one they called Smithe.

"My men are in position. You soldiers green?" Micheal said, un-holstering his MA2B modified Assault Rifle. The gun had a scope built in, as well as a silencer and recoil damper.

"Yes sir." Switch replied, nudging Rook in the side to stand up. The two drew out their weapons. Smithe had an uncertain look upon his face.

"What's the plan then?" Smithe asked nervously.

"Who said anything about a plan? We go in their guns blazing, and then Mr. Computer whiz over there reconfigures the Covenant network to locate Blade and Farm-Boy." Rook replied.

"And that's assuming it can be configured, and that they even run a network." Switch added. "But it should be fine; if the worst comes to the worst we can carry out the original plan of taking the drop ship to Midgard."

"And that's assuming there still is a Midgard." Rook muttered quietly. "The Covenant wiped out Utgard easily. If they found Midgard too, then it's probably been razed."

Switch grunted in reply. Smithe sighed, and likewise drew out his weapon.

"Right, everyone's ready then?" Micheal asked again, and this time he received definite nods. The Spartan decided to risk using the COM channel again.

"Brown-two, Brown-three, begin diversionary attack." He ordered Fin and James, and surely enough, a moment later, an explosion hit the area by the two Elite sentries, sending them sprawling. A wave of Covenant soldiers poured out, in pursuit of the fleeing Spartans.

"Entrance is clear." Micheal said to the troops standing next to him. "Let's move out."
They scurried down the hill, and reached the entrance of the ruin. Sure enough, all the Covenant at the mouth of the place had gone off chasing Fin and James. Micheal could see them running off in the distance. Switch whistled in awe at the smooth architecture around them.

"This is amazing!" Switch cried, running a gloved hand down the wall. A blue light surged down the structure as he did so, and Switch yanked his hand back worriedly.

"Calm down Switch, you'll make a mess." Rook joked, but he was looking around astounded too. Smithe's jaw was agape as he beheld the wonders before him.

"I didn't think the Covenant would have had time to build something like this." Micheal remarked, tightening his grip around the rifle he held. Mendez had taught him that the times where everything seemed calmest were often the most dangerous.

"No...no I don't think this is Covenant." Switch breathed.

"Well if they didn't build it, who did?" Rook asked confusedly.

"I don't know. Perhaps humans weren't the first ones to colonise Harvest."

"Or maybe it was the Covenant who built it, then they left for a while and came back only to find us here. Maybe that's why they attacked us, you know, en roaching on their turf."

"Perhaps." Switch said sceptically. "But I don't think so. Anyway, we better get moving, it won't be long before those Covenant soldiers give up their chase." Everyone nodded in affirmation.

They continued down the passage; which eventually narrowed down so that they had to move in single file. Micheal had particular trouble squeezing in with his MJOLNIR suit, so much so that he had to turn to the side to fit.

Rook, who had taken point, suddenly held up a hand; a signal for them to stop.

"I've got five Grunts, up high a 10 o Clock." He whispered, drawing out his silenced M7 Sub-Machine gun. He activated the laser pointer, and a red beam appeared upon the foremost Grunt. One of the other Grunt's noticed, and squealed a high pitched bark. A second later, Rook pulled the trigger of the weapon five times, and the Grunts fell one by one with a whisper.

The rag tag squad moved, taking cover behind a Covenant supply crate. Micheal poked his above, and saw an Elite, garbed in black armour, come across the dead Grunts up on the ledge. It bent down and saw the bullet wounds, confirming or it that humans were amongst him. He drew a burning Energy sword and roared a challenge, which Micheal was ready to answer.

The Spartan leaped up onto the ledge and grabbed the Elite from behind. The Elite screamed in surprise, and attempted to bring it's sword arm around to engage it's foe. Before it could though, Micheal kicked it in the stomach, breaking through it's energy shields and sending it sprawling to the floor in pain.

Micheal raised a boot, and prepared to bring it down upon the downed Elite's neck. Before he could though, the Elite rolled to the side, and lunged for Micheal. The blade pierced through the Spartan's tough armour, and sunk deep into his side.

Micheal gasped in pain, and could smell flesh burning. The world swam before his eyes, and he could vaguely hear the Elite laughing. The Covenant warrior drew his blade out of Micheal's side, prompting another gasp of agony, and prepared to stab down again. Just before it did though, a blue object sailed towards the Elite, and latched onto it. The Elite's eyes widened when he saw the Plasma grenade stuck to it's chest, and tried in vain to rip it off.

The grenade exploded in a violent cloud of plasma, sending Micheal sprawling off the ledge. He clasped his side, and looked with dismay when his hand came away drenched in warm, sticky blood.

"You okay Spartan? Lucky I had that grenade eh?" Rook asked, coming to his side. "Holy crap, that's a lot of blood. Switch! We got any bio-foam?"

"No, we lost it all when the Covenant attacked. Why? Is he badly hur?-oh God."

Micheal dismissed their shock ; he'd been in worse pain before. With a grunt, he stood up.

"I'm fine. Just a scratch. Come on, let's keep moving." He said, picking up his Assault Rifle from the floor.

Micheal noticed Rook and Switch look at each other in disbelief, and Smithe wore a similar expression too. Then the two ODSTs nodded, and followed after him.

---

"This one has forgotten whether it's heatsink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate" ~ Blasto, the only Hanar Spectre.

my eyes!!!

AGAIN!

---

Chuckles

Anyone else here getting sick of tiny two-word posts that become huge because of the O.G. picture?

well if you wanna talk ill be around..lol

---

Did that Spartan just jack my tank?! What the hell?!
oh well I got twenty more hahah

check the join date of Socom531, before 2009! I am also Socom427

I'm sorry Chuckles....I know I write a lot. Fear not: Book one is nearly at an end.

---

"This one has forgotten whether it's heatsink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate" ~ Blasto, the only Hanar Spectre.

Wolverfrog49:I'm sorry Chuckles....I know I write a lot. Fear not: Book one is nearly at an end.

 

chuckels?! ITS SOCOM MAN!! oh wait you werent talking to me...(feels ambarased)

---

Did that Spartan just jack my tank?! What the hell?!
oh well I got twenty more hahah

check the join date of Socom531, before 2009! I am also Socom427

Hi Socom! I thought you were gone forever!

 My internet's been down for the past week, so I've had nothing to do but work on this...and play Fallout 3.

Glad to see you back. Is it for good this time?

---

"This one has forgotten whether it's heatsink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate" ~ Blasto, the only Hanar Spectre.

Wolverfrog49:I'm sorry Chuckles....I know I write a lot. Fear not: Book one is nearly at an end.

=D Are you entering the HBOFF contest?

---

Chuckles

Anyone else here getting sick of tiny two-word posts that become huge because of the O.G. picture?

I am. I haven't worked on it much though - but I'll finish it. If there was no word limit and we could use past stories, then I'd send Memoirs. Oh well.

---

"This one has forgotten whether it's heatsink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate" ~ Blasto, the only Hanar Spectre.

=D lol, me too.

I have about 600 words....I've been lazy on it so far ;)

---

Chuckles

Anyone else here getting sick of tiny two-word posts that become huge because of the O.G. picture?

Wolverfrog49:

Hi Socom! I thought you were gone forever!

 My internet's been down for the past week, so I've had nothing to do but work on this...and play Fallout 3.

Glad to see you back. Is it for good this time?

yes for good...lol

---

Did that Spartan just jack my tank?! What the hell?!
oh well I got twenty more hahah

check the join date of Socom531, before 2009! I am also Socom427

Socom428:

Wolverfrog49:

Hi Socom! I thought you were gone forever!

 My internet's been down for the past week, so I've had nothing to do but work on this...and play Fallout 3.

Glad to see you back. Is it for good this time?

yes for good...lol

 

You, the Stupid One. Check your PM

Lord Pheonix:

Socom428:

Wolverfrog49:

Hi Socom! I thought you were gone forever!

 My internet's been down for the past week, so I've had nothing to do but work on this...and play Fallout 3.

Glad to see you back. Is it for good this time?

yes for good...lol

 

You, the Stupid One. Check your PM

Shut the hell up I Check it, your pathtic attempt at an insult hasn't resulted in anger but only pitty

---

Did that Spartan just jack my tank?! What the hell?!
oh well I got twenty more hahah

check the join date of Socom531, before 2009! I am also Socom427

and stop spamming my friends thread you n 0 0 b....

---

Did that Spartan just jack my tank?! What the hell?!
oh well I got twenty more hahah

check the join date of Socom531, before 2009! I am also Socom427