Date: March 31, 2533 Location: UNSC Destroyer Dark Before Dawn Orbiting Biko Information: Covenant battle fleet currently engaged with UNSC forces around the colony of Biko. Civilian evacuation underway. Covenant ground troops deploying to the surface with Scarabs and mining equipment. [CLASSIFIED] ordered to gather in the Destroyer Darkness Before Dawn to receive orders. - - Auto Merge - - The hanger bustles with activity as Pelicans ferry civilians to the Dawn. Marines try to herd the families to a sectioned off section of the bay. Some are wounded, bleeding from wounds caused by shrapnel. Others lay dying on the metal floor. A husband tries to comfort his dying wife, bleeding from internal wounds caused by the Covenants plasma weapons. Some are DOA, and are carried on stretchers to a field morgue. Medics rush around, tending to wounds. On the far side of the bay near the exit hatch, a pony stands, towering in black armor. It's wearer, a Spartan, views the scene, before exiting. "Civilian casualties are up. Marines are falling back. Covenant soldiers are gaining control of the area surrounding the dig site. Civilian villages are being overrun" A thousand thoughts race through his mind. The surroundings are blocked out, propelling him through the hallway as if on a track. Orders had come in from a higher authority. He was to report to the ODST bay aboard the Dawn. The Hatch to the bay looms, and he snaps himself back to reality as he prepares for whatever mission he's assigned.
(I'm going to say something that I think would be common if this was real.) Red looked down at his ODST helmet that he had laid down next to him, upon it where several types of stickers common among ODST's, there was his Drop counters on one side of his helmet, and on the other, thanks to his position as a sniper, the number of headshots he has acquired. Though while at the moment his helmet was pitifully lacking of these things thanks to his youth, he knew that if he lived for any reasonable amount of time that it would be covered in the counters, like any ODST commanding 'jumper' officer would have a helmet covered in the things. Though while some did complain that it wasn't part of the uniform and such, it was still an important way of quickly establishing seniority in a battle situation for the ODST's. He sighed and slid his helmet on, knowing that he was probably going to be dropped soon, seeing the situation on the ground.
Crimson walked into the room wearing his black UNSC jumper over his armor. He went to retreve his weapons, a DMR rifle, handgun and his Sniper Rifle. He also grabbed his custom helmet and went to join the Spartain and Red Glory.
Fire walked in the room red and crimson were in. Holding a small bag of dehydrated vanilla cupcake flavoured space cubes. "you ready, cause I sure am. Anyway how many missions have you been on so far and how many covenant have you killed". Fire heart ate a couple of the cubes before offering them to the others. "I would say this is my 5th mission but my 2nd major one and I've killed about 105 grunts, 65 jackals, 6 brutes and 4 elites". She smiled placing the bag of cupcake cubes in-between the 3 of them grabbing her shotgun and M7 Smg.
"Irrelevant." He stated. "Odst's and their unnecessary chatter." He thought. He gave the food a once over, decided they weren't nutritious, then sat one one of the crates around the table. Removing his Battle Rifle, he began to meticulously clean it.
Red looked up to Fire Heart, "Save the bragging for somewhere else, now is not the time, especially when we have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of innocent lives dependent on our actions." Red then looked over to the spartan that was to lead their squad, "Well, at least we'll have a great replacement for Sargent Gunny right?"
"So where about's are we goin for this mission. If there are any high priority shots, leave it to me...." Crimson said to the group. He packed his weapons, ammo and his most valuable possession, a doll from his girlfriend who was killed when the covernant took his homeworld. He thought about those moments, she might be alive somewhere but will go and find her after this war is over. "I've killed many of these covenant ya'll know, i havent really got to know all of ya'll." He looked at Daniel. "i know your one of those fancy spartans and that we are just Odst's, so i guess thats a start."
"Sorry I'm late everyone." Cal said, entering the room. "Sir," he added, nodding to the Spartan. He walked over to the gun rack and picked up a couple extra mags for his MA37, then locked his weapons into his pod. "How much longer before we drop?"
Red slung his BR and Sniper Rifle onto his back and slid on his helmet, "I guess that's up to the Spartan."
Fire heart entered her pod attaching the shotgun to the side. "shouldn't we be getting word from the bridge for the drop time". She said placing on her helmet "comm test 1,2. Finally they fixed it". Fire heart left her pod checking the touchscreen computer for any updates on the mission.
"Great. Ya'll all look like good helljumpers, so im not goin to say nothing." Crimson adressed to the ODST's. He checked his records, he had scored 1236 kills alone, with 432 being headshots. To any recruit, killing that many sounds impressive. But to him, Crimson just treats it as any other chore hat he has to do.
Red shrugged, "This will only be my fifth jump." He then walked up next to Crimson as he checked his own pod, "I've heard about you, listen, I'm a combat sniper, so you can take the high-priority shots, but when we're fighting, just watch my back, that sound good?" he asked him.
"Sure, sounds good." Crimson turned around to Red. "And be careful when out there... ive already lost somepony once and i dont want that to happen again." Crimson then put took his jacket off and adjusted his DMR and Sniper Rifle. "Just's what abouts ar'e we doin?"
"nice doll is that from someone you lost". Fire took off her dog tags "These are the only things left from my brothers" pointing to the 2 extra tags "anyway, this just gets me more energised to kill those damn dirty covenant buckers". Fire heart got Into her pod sitting down and doing final checks on her shotgun and m7 Smg attaching a silencer on both of them.
"I love the enthusiasm, but don't get carried away." Cal said, "We've all lost loved ones to this damn war, but we are here to protect everyone we can. Keep cool, and complete the mission so we can end this." He paused a moment, then chuckled under his breath. "But hey, don't let me steal your thunder," Cal said, sitting down in his pod, "We jump feet first into hell, let's make sure it's crowded with Covenant when we get there."
"Hey, where should we go in the likely event of where we separate during the jump?" Red asked, even his feeble 5 jumps, he's been separated on 4 of them, and most of them weren't Spartans, they wouldn't last very long on their own against hoards of Covenant after them.
"I'm no interplanetary geography teacher so I don't know where everything is on every colony but I think maybe town centre or the park of the city were being dropped into". Fire heart said while doing some pre-drop targeting and checks.
Daniel sat there, blocking out the ODST's chatter. A slight buzz filled his helmet as a transmission came through. "Your objective is to take out the Covenant mining team, and retrieve the artifact they are retrieving. You will be evacuated once you have retrieved the object." "Cut the chatter. We're dropping in in 2. Drop point is marked." he stood and slowly trotted to the waiting pod at the far end.
Red nodded at what the Spartan said and trotted up to his pod, locking in tightly and closing the pod door, trapping himself the cramped space of the drop pod. "Ready to drop." He said into his comm-unit with the others.
