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Chapter 1

Ryan-008, a SPARTAN-II, sighed as he loaded his battle rifle. The weapon had been neglected, and seemed in desperate need of touch up. If it jammed in combat, he’d either die… or be mad as a hornet when he got back to his ship. The pelican he was in turned sharply, making him miss as he attempted to slot the magazine into the empty weapon. Growling, he slapped it in extra loud and cocked the weapon, getting everyone else’s attention.

The ODST helmets looked up at him in slight surprise as he broke the silence. Ryan didn’t care though, he couldn’t have been anymore frustrated. It seemed to be the most pointless mission he’d ever heard of.

He and a group of five ODSTs were to be dropped off on the planet Forton IV. Forton IV had been abandoned after the war started from fear of the Covenant. The aliens did land on the planet, and fought the small militia force that was protecting the planet. Presumably, no one survived. No one really cared about Forton. But, the Covenant left a small occupying force behind to make sure everyone knew it was theirs, but according to most standards, the planet was dead. Ryan and his group were to be dropped down to search for any survivors or anyone left behind in the mad dash from the world. He didn’t really blame the people for leaving so quickly and he couldn’t understand why they’d inhabit the planet in the first place. It was completely frozen over and tiny, barely twice the size of earth’s moon. It seemed like a horrible place to live, but he couldn’t guess their intentions when they brought people there. Maybe it was to be a wild frontier for them… No matter. It was a frozen rock now, completely dead.

What bothered him was why they needed a SPARTAN. He could think of a million other things for him to be doing that would be helping the fight of Humanity. Why the hell did he have to go on a human scavenger hunt?

Again, he growled out loud as he loaded his shotgun. The ODSTs paid him no mind this time, they could tell he was ticked.

The pilot’s voice crackled over the speaker system. “Touchdown in five minutes.”

Ryan watched the ODSTs load up in silence. He couldn’t decide whether he like them or despised them honestly. Most ODSTs were experimented on and killed to aid the progress of the project, and for that reason most of the Hell jumpers hated SPARTANs. In his opinion, they should grow up. Many SPARTANs died in experimentation and he held no grudges. But, the ODSTs were known to be crazy…

“One minute!” shouted the pilot.

Ryan got to his feet and attached his assault rifle to his back and hefted his battle rifle. He swiped a hand over the body of the gun, praying it wouldn’t jam on him in a combat situation.

“Thirty seconds!”

The back of the pelican then opened up to reveal a snowy, barren wasteland, just as he imagined it. Wind carried a large amount of snow across the flat plains, making it look even more lifeless. Ryan groaned and looked at the other ODSTs. They stayed still like statues until the pelican stopped about nine feet from the ground.

“Go, go, go!” shouted the pilot.

The men needed no further prodding, and immediately jumped out of the ship to the frozen ground. Ryan jumped out last and landed in the powder, creating a crater around him from his weight coupled with gravity. Most of the men then hunkered down and waited for the pelican to lift away and head back to their orbiting ship overhead.

After the noise had died down, Ryan looked up at the men around him. Each was doing likewise and getting to their feet. As he stood, Ryan realized he towered over each of them by at least a few inches. He smirked slightly and said over their squad frequency, “Okay, boys. Let’s head to the nearest town and search for any survivors. If you see any Covenant, kill them.”