Halo: The New Recruit

Chapter 5: Follow-Up

Troy made his way to the briefing room. He was surprised to see Flint there, along with Yuri who had obviously carried him.

“Flint! What are you doing here?” Troy asked. Flint chuckled.

“Same thing as you; I’m going on this mission.”

“But what about your injury?”

“Well, I’m not going to be on the mission with you, so to speak. I was trained as a pilot before I was selected to be an ODST.” Troy nodded.

“A Hornet?”

“You know me too well.” They shared a moment of companionable laughter before Hoi and Calsu arrived.

“All right Fireteam Cobalt,” Hoi began. “Seems our Covenant friends didn’t take to kindly to the ass-kicking they received yesterday. By the way, excellent job Troy.” Troy bowed his head at the acknowledgement, before motioning for Hoi to continue. “They’ve set up an outpost by a large Forerunner structure that had been previously disguised. Unfortunately, they are in possession of a large UNSC MAC cannon, as well as seven AA Wraiths. Our mission, teach them what it means to be human. And Sangheili,” he added quickly. “Move out!” Troy and his team grabbed their usual weapons and headed to the pod bay. As soon as they were strapped in, Hoi started discussing strategies. “As soon as we get there, our top priority is those Anti-Aircraft Wraiths. Once those are down, we all storm the MAC cannon, allowing air support to break through and assist us with the mop-up. Be warned; if we don’t take out all AA forces in the area, there will be no evacuation. Is that clear?”

“Sir yes sir!” Troy replied, seeing as he was the only human there. Flint would have too, but he wasn’t on the same comm channel as them.

“Then get set to dive feet first into hell!” The pods dropped. Soon the hatch was flying off and Troy leapt out. They were at the base of a mountain. At the top of the mountain was the structure, with the very out-of-place-looking MAC cannon stuck on top, much in the same manner as a child would carelessly throw their toy on the floor. There were Covenant turrets everywhere, along with the seven AA Wraiths, two Ghosts, one regular Wraith, two stationary Phantoms and a Revenant.

“Shit sir, when you said hell, I thought you meant it in the routine way,” Troy commented. He was referring to the ODST motto, ‘Feet first into hell’, which is what most ODSTs said before dropping. Of course, this was most likely literally going to be hell.

“Yes, it would seem as if the UNSC underestimated their armaments considerably,” Yuri growled.

“Yeah well, if you hadn’t spent the last seven years murdering us, we would’ve had more support staff to handle the scanning. So shut up and put that Beam Rifle to use,” Hoi snapped irritably.

“Hey, what happened to Eugene anyway?” Troy asked, suddenly curious as to the whereabouts of their teammate.

“He’s only going to accompany us on certain missions. He’s kind of being shared around all the Fireteams at the moment, being reserved for serious situations.”

“And this is not serious?” Calsu butted in. Hoi shook his head.

“Not as serious as delivering a Havok Warhead to a Covenant Super Carrier.”

“Oh.” Calsu glanced back at the enemy forces ahead. She fingered her comm. “I count twelve snipers; Four at the top, six on the balcony, and two on the main floor. Beware, they are all Kig-Yars apart from the two at the bottom, they are Jiralhanae.”

“They will fall beneath my precise aim when the human gives the word,” Yuri replied. Two of the Ghosts, a squad of Brutes and two squads of Grunts were heading their way, having seen the pods land. Hoi clicked open the ODWC that had been launched alongside them. Calsu observed the letters printed on the side with some interest and, unable to see what Hoi was doing in the modified ODST drop pod, decided to question Troy.