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Eyes of an ODST: First Battle of Earth

ODST's or Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, These men were brutal warriors; they had little respect for anyone but their own elite group. They showed no pain, no fear, and no hesitation, not only strong willed and brave but also cunning and quick witted, their officers had always been forced to find a unique way to even the odds against the covenant. This was going to be no different.
Sergeant Robert Jackson was a hardcore marine, he was intimidating, even to the ODST's he commanded, and I was no exception. The man had served since the war began, joining the ODST's as a way to make the alien bastards pay for what they had done, he had been serving for 25 years. I was as average as you can be in this organization, I was fresh off of basic training, I had not proven myself yet in combat, the other men in my squad took note of it, they regarded me with little respect and I assumed that this would continue till I had proven myself. The squad's second in command was a ten year veteran of the war and the leader of my fire team he was a man of average build, but he was nonetheless respected. The fire team's heavy weapons specialist Matt, or more commonly known as "rocket jockey" was more laid back, and he was always quicker to insult passer by's. His attitude provided some sort of comic relief. The team's sniper "Rick" was arguably the best in the company. He had been known to head-shot elites out of ghosts and his shot rarely missed, he was so accurate that he commonly caught heat for not shooting all of his victims between the eyes. The last member of the team was just like me, fresh from training. He was an assault rifleman, but he always seemed nervous, not even attempting to strike up conversation, this made me nervous.
"Alright ladies, we are moving out, the covenant have just landed in New Mambosa. Command wants that city back, no surprise here but he wants to send us in first, you have ten minutes to grab your gear, briefing will begin then. The troopers sprang into action. My sergeant walked directly to me and looked me straight in the eye, I knew I could not look away, if I could not stare him in the face then how he could trust me in combat. "Private" "yes sir?" I replied. "When we drop in, it's gonna be hell, you may be on your own, hell, you could be stuck with me. I trust you'll hold up, don't make me regret it." I was barely able to keep my cool as I muttered to him, "you'll find that trusting me never results in regret." Satisfied he brushed past me. As he walked away he told me to get as much ammo as I could, because I'd be going through a lot. I made haste to the armory I already had my scoped battle rifle slung over my shoulder and my side arm clicked on to my hip, so I worried about ammo. I grabbed about a half a dozen mags and stuffed them into my belt four for my rifle and two for my pistol. But I whirled around as Matt whistled at me, "you'll need a lot more then that." He shoved a combat belt into my gutt and walked past. I unzipped it to find another half a dozen clips of battle rifle ammo, with a grunt of satisfaction I zipped it up and clipped it around my waist. On my way out I grabbed a bandolier of seven frag grenades. As the company assembled in the briefing room the captain began to speak. "Ok listen up, we will drop from this station and land in new mambosa, the covenant have secured a secure landing pad guarded by thousands of infantry supported by every kind of vehicle they've got. Our mission is to secure the northern side of the bridge and eliminate the half dozen artillery pieces and AA guns they've got in the area. Then the main force will land on the bridge and move toward the offloading carrier. The main force is scheduled to begin their assault in six hours. So you cannot fail or get held up anywhere or the mission goes to shit, does everyone understand?" "Sir yes sir." With that the ODST's descended down the elevator and secured themselves in there drop pods, I strapped myself in and muttered a silent prayer. "Give em hell men" the colonel yelled as he thumbed the release. In unison all one hundred and twenty pods slid out of the ship and hurled towards earth.

Narrok was just another elite in the covenant ranks, he and his squad of a half a dozen grunts had just finished their training when they were deployed to this strange world, he was assigned to guard one of the many road blocks in the city. They had to try to restrict as much human movement as possible. As he breathed in the cool air he looked into the sky. And he noticed that balls of fire were falling towards him, he quickly remembered that as a sign of the arrival of the human Special Forces group, very well trained men who struck fear into the hearts of many covenant warriors. He yelled at his grunts to man the turrets, the fireballs were closer now. The grunts began to fire, but they were moving to fast to be hit, one of the pods landing right in front of him, another landed in a building a few feet away, Narrok readied his plasma rifle and aimed it at the pod, as he began to fire the doors blew open and a human rolled out.

I quickly thumbed the button on my display, the door blew open, I stepped out and realized I was in a building, outside I could hear the whine of plasma weapons. I feared my own death but tried to put that in the back of my mind. I unclipped my battle rifle from my back and clicked off the safety. Pulling the pin on a grenade I set it for .5 second delay on contact with the ground. I ran out the door to see that a squad of grunts led by an elite had pinned down my fire team leader I saw the grunts huddle behind a car; I let the grenade go so that it hit once then snuck under the car. The explosion caused the fuel to ignite, and the resulting explosion blew away several grunts. I then turned to the elite just in time to avoid the plasma bolt; I ducked back into the door and switched to full automatic. I waited till I heard the fire stop then I took aim and held the trigger. The rounds impacted his shield, overloaded it, then pierced his armor around the torso, I fired again, the next burst caught him in the face, and he slumped dead to the ground. I ran over to my team leader to find him hunkered against a bulkhead a bleeding plasma burn in his shoulder. I injected him with biofoam and bandaged the wound as I was taught. We then left the scene to find more of our men.
Over the next thirty minutes we rounded several more men bringing our total number to about twenty eight. Sergeant Jackson was among us. "Alright this seems like enough for the time being, according to these maps our nearest objective is about half a mile east, everyone stay out of the open and keep up." For the next half hour we walked in silence I looked around for any of my other squad mates, I saw Rick and Matt side by side on the opposite side of the road, but I could not find anyone else. We eventually came to a beach, at the foot of a small hill about fifty meters away the covenant artillery piece sat near the shore. My heart pounded almost loud enough to hear, standing ringed around the gun were a trio of deployable covers behind which sat a dozen grunts and three elites, they were supported by a pair of heavy plasma turrets.
"Alright," muttered the sergeant. "There it is, I need three groups of five runners to make a bee line to any cover within grenade range of that gun, who wants to go." About half of the men rose their hands, I wanted to, but I knew I wasn't ready to brave plasma fire in a dead sprint. "Ok you four will head up the middle with me you for will flank left with Sergeant Brown, and the rest of you will flank to the right. I'll need the rest to stay back and provide suppressing fire, Snipes, those elites are your job, and Rocket Man take those turrets." "Gladly" replied Matt. "Ok get ready, go." With that, fourteen hell jumpers rushed out from their cover and descended down the hill. I sighted through my scope and set the crosshairs on a grunt, I pulled the trigger, and a short burst was all that was needed to send the thing on its great journey. As the fight began Matt loosed a rocket into each of the turrets taking them out of the fight. About half of the grunts fell immediately from rifle fire, Rick went to town on his sniper trigger, a shot rang out of his rifle, the round slipped into the eye slit of the elite, and the round tore through its skull and killed him instantly. Another trio of shots hit the red elite in the upper torso before it had a chance to get under cover. With their leader dead several grunts ran, others hit behind the cover, I flipped my rifle to full auto and rained bullet after bullet on the last elite until it ducked under cover. As Jackson's group reached the first boulder they began to rain grenades down on the pinned down Covies. The shrapnel tore into the grunts armor ending their lives rather quickly, the mass of grenades also weakened the elite's shield and destroyed his cover, within seconds I hosed him down with the remainder of my clip.
"Area clear sir,"
"Marines down here on the double," said the sergeant as he emerged from the cover of the nearby boulder, the engineers set a charge on the base of the gun, with a bang the gun was blown from its mount into many pieces. "Good job men, I just received word that the rest of the men are moving along, all that is left for us is another gun right over this hill."
I reloaded my rifle and caught up with the group, it seemed as if we were going to be just fine.
"Eyes up, Phantom in bound," my stomach instantly sank, I felt I was doomed, now the covenant had us in their sights, I knew that this was just a sign of things to come. But for now that would have to wait, as the Phantom came in to clear view it began to fire its turrets. I heard screams of dieing men all around me as the large bolts of plasma glassed several marines. I took cover behind a rock next to Matt, he looked at me for a moment, I saw the fear in his eyes, and this made me feel better, in a very odd way. I realized that we all felt fear but those who could act in the face of fear were the brave, I knew I had a chance to prove myself. As the drop ship unloaded its troops it also dropped off a wraith tank, I nodded towards Matt and he nodded at me. As the drop ship rose into the air we both emerged from our cover, I fired a short burst into the covenant crowd my rounds caught a grunt in the open, I switched to full auto again and pulled the pin on a grenade I sent it at a quartet of Jackals who were trying to organize into a phalanx, my grenade sent hot shards of metal into their frail bodies killing two. Matt fired his first rocket into the Wraith but not after it fired its main gun at the sergeant's rock, the rock melted in the face of the blast but took most of the heat, several marines were tossed into the air. The rocket hit the Covie tank in the rear causing it to explode in a shower of ash. I squeezed the trigger, the rounds hit several of the grunts killing them, and the Covenant counter fire began to thin out our ranks, but they were dieing faster. About four jackals locked their shields into a Phalanx also protecting an elite, I changed clips, fired at the shielded Jackals, my rounds did not cause any damage and their fire forced me behind a rock. I picked out several exposed targets hosing down the grunts first to slacken the fire; I changed clips again and pulled the pin on another grenade rolling it towards where an elite was hiding behind a rock. The blast dropped his shields but he ducked behind the rock, I sent in another grenade to finish the job. I turned to Matt and yelled out "hose those Phalanx Jackals," he did just that, aiming the rocket at the ground under them, the shrapnel killed several of them exposing the elite and grunts taking cover. Matt fired again at the elite, the rocket ripped the elite into pieces and the shockwave finished the grunts. I finished my clip on the last remaining elite. "Recover!" a dozen hell jumpers emerged from their cover; I observed the score of grunts and trio of elites that littered the battlefield, as well as the marines that had been killed. The ambush had cost us sixteen marines, "alright let's get to our next objective before more Covenant show up." The last gun is just over this hill, I've called for evac they'll scoop us up once we are done." I trotted to the front where Jackson was leading the pack; I tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around without saying a word. "Sir, if you need a runner in the next attack, I'd like to go sir." After several moments he muttered back to me, "fine, don't make me regret it." I felt relived and nervous at the same time, but it was done, there was no going back.
Several minutes later we arrived at our last objective, "alright, evac will arrive shortly; we have five minutes to finish the job" said Jackson. Rocket Man and snipes, stay back with Taylor, Wilson, Jones and Patterson. Suppress the Covie defensive fire; there are no turrets so send your last two rockets at their cover. Everyone else will head to the left with me, stay in cover where you can, once you get close lob what grenades you have left." There was a pause as the orders sank in. "Go!" with that I jumped and ran to the cover at the base of the hill, the sound of plasma and gunfire filled my ears several bolts whizzed past me. Just as we got to cover I felt a stab of pain in my shoulder the plasma burnt my skin badly and I started to bleed, I fell to the ground for a moment but then returned to my feet I saw others fall around me, I made a mad dash and covered to last five meters. Diving behind a rock I was nearly paralyzed by fear and pain, Jackson began screaming "Shake it off private, we'll get it later." Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I pulled the pin on my last two grenades, I tossed them one after another into the covenant ranks, and the explosions destroyed the covenant cover shields which left me and opening. I fired my rifle into the fray mowing down a trio of grunts with the help of sarge and the other marines next to me. I thumbed the release and the empty clip slid from my rifle, I slid in a fresh one, I held down the trigger again, suddenly the artillery piece Exploded, the pieces were sent into the air landing several meters away, my eyes rested on the grey steel wings of a Pelican drop ship, guns blazing, coming on fast. With a sigh of relief I let myself slip into unconsciousness.

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