Prepare To Drop

THE PROLOGUE TO THE TRAILER OF HALO 3 RECON By Legendairy314 Legendairy314 has no affiliation with Bungie Studios This story is as Legendairy314 would tell it, no one else. These are not facts. These are simply opinions and thoughts from Legendairy314

Prepare To Drop

Aboard UNSC Cruiser Remnant of Time Orbiting [XXXXX]-Undisclosed Time

David Rorrik felt the ear ringing annoyance of the alarm clock on the desk that he was sitting at. He considered disobeying his own advice on setting the clock for his scanning but then realized that would get him nothing more than a lecture from the Captain and possibly a court marshal. He started up the scanning process and positioned himself as comfortable as possible to stare at the screens. He had a 1-hour shift of watching them and then he had 7 more hours to relax before his shift started up again. Those 7 hours were what got him through it all. “Why do we need to do this manually?” He thought to himself, “I’m sure the AI is fine, these checks are nothing but a nuisance.” The onboard AI was in the middle of a 3-day scanning process to make sure that there were no abnormalities in its coding. While there have only been 4 abnormalities in recorded history of AI’s it was still something that needed to be done. David positioned himself in a more laid back position and considered catching some extra sleep when a small symbol appeared on the right most screen. He looked at it and took a few seconds to remind himself of what the symbol meant then took the emergency microphone stationed next to him and yelled into it, “Captain! Slip space rupture in sector 43!” He looked at the screen and started swearing. There was no scheduled UNSC ship to enter this area so that meant only one thing. Covenant. He knew the day would eventually come where his luck would run out. He just didn’t expect it to be today. He was about to tear himself away from the screen and run to his battle station when he saw the ship. It took him a few seconds to figure out exactly what it was and he was relieved and shocked at the same time when he figured it out. He was looking at, roughly, half of a UNSC Cruiser.

Command Bridge of Remnant of Time Orbiting [XXXXX]-Undisclosed Time

From the command bridge Captain Thern stared out the viewport at the nearly destroyed Cruiser that had entered the system. He had prepped the weapons to fire at what he thought was going to be a Covenant ship but was surprised when he saw the wreckage. He didn’t let his guard down though for the only way the ship could have been damaged like that is by plasma batteries. “Status of the wreckage?” he asked to the man sitting only a few feet away from him. “Inconclusive sir, the only thing that I can give you right now is that the engines WERE active and definitely got it here but now all power seems to be drained.” Thern sighed as he continued looking at the wreckage. Without averting his gaze he began cracking the joints on his hands, a habit he’d had since he was a teenager. He’d done it so often that the only way to remove his wedding ring now would be to amputate. The man at the station to the right of him half shouted, “Sir the probes have arrived at the wreckage… …..not much left.” After a few more seconds he added, “We have a confirmed name Sir, Spirit of Winter.” Thern stopped in the middle of trying to crack one of the joints in his pinky finger and froze. That ship was stationed at the Den System. It had fallen under covenant attack five days ago. There were no survivors. The only reason a ship would’ve gotten here like that was a covenant ambush. But how had they found their location? The planet they were patrolling was secret to anyone other than the residents of the planet and individuals from the UNSC and ONI. Canch was one of the last planets they had left that produced enough weapons for their ever dwindling army. It was the last planet they had that was labeled top secret by the spooks over at ONI. “S...Sir…………? What’s our orders?” “Heat up the MAC corporal, I’ll be damned if the covenant are going to use a tactic like that against us.” A few feet behind him he heard another officer shout out, “Sir! Incoming message!” Figuring it would cause no harm to listen to some grunts beg for mercy he responded, “Play it.” To his surprise he didn’t hear the voice of an alien pleading for its life but the voice of a man, calm and cool. “This is the AI Zeath stationed on the ship Spirit of Winter. Any assistance in getting me out of this hellhole would be much appreciated.”

Approaching remains of Spirit of Winter Orbiting [XXXXX]-Undisclosed Time

Allan White sat close to the hatch of the Pelican drop ship as it made its way to the destroyed cruiser. He looked across the ship to look at the faces of the other ODSTs but was only met with the gaze of their helmets. They were used to dropping in guns blazing; they were anything but comfortable sitting down waiting for the Pelican to get them to their destination. The soldier next to him spoke into his helmet microphone, “What’s our mission?” Opposite Allan another responded annoyingly, “You mean you don’t know? What’d you do? Miss the briefing?” “Uh………….” “What’s the point of me training your ass if you’re going to get shot in the middle of a firefight because you decided it wasn’t worth

your time to fire your own gun?” Allan realized that the soldier was actually his sergeant that was speaking to the man next to him. He couldn’t even tell because they were all wearing the same armor. They hadn’t had time to program the helmets to monitor their names or make any markings on the armor. The Sergeant decided he would punish everyone for the lazy soldier’s ignorance by shouting his response into all their helmets. “The reason we’re out here is to collect the AI inside the ship so the captain can blow whatever’s left inside to bits. Now don’t wet yourselves, but apparently there’s quite a few Covenant onboard as well. We’re not there to exterminate them but that doesn’t mean you need to turn tail at the first sign of a grunt. We get the AI. We get out. Comprende?” Everyone responded, “Sir Yes sir!” Allan spent the rest of time loading and unloading his gun. He did this every time he got nervous and by now everyone in his squad knew it. He saw the icon in his helmet pop up that requested a private frequency. He saw it was his long time friend Brandon and accepted it. “Hey. You all right?” “Yeah. Fine. Why?” “Look down at your hands.” “I always do that.” “Look down.” He looked down toward his Assault rifle and saw that there was no clip. He looked at his feet and saw it resting on the edge of one of his boots. For at least 3 minutes he had been loading and unloading no ammo into his gun and had not realized it. He picked it back up and shoved it into the rifle. “Whoops.” “Yeah……good thing you’re on a private frequency or else the sergeant would be chewing you out right now.” “Probably.” He’d known Brandon since he was 7 years old. When he decided to join up he felt more than obligated to join up as well. By luck or fate they’d been in the same squad for 4 years. He always had his back. The frequency was cut as the sergeant shouted, “Alright, 1 minute till drop off. Seal up your suits and make sure there are no breaches unless you want to do the covenant’s dirty work for them.

Aboard UNSC Cruiser Spirit of Winter Orbiting [XXXXX]-Undisclosed Time

As they disembarked the pelican, Allan tried adjusting himself to the weightless environment they were floating in. If he wasn’t careful he could kick himself off into space and there was almost no chance of returning back. He longed to find himself a roof so that his worry of this happening would leave him. He floated to a nearby clutter where the rest of his squad was gathered. He heard the roar of engines as the pelican moved to a safe distance. As he settled himself into a position where he was wedged between what was once a wall, the sergeant began giving them orders. “Alright, everyone equip your silencers because for once we got the jump on these bastards.” After everyone had done as he said they were split into groups of 2 and as always Allan ended up with Brandon. They were assigned to search the lower engine room deck to see if the AI might be there. A few seconds later they headed off. After the captain had received the message they could get no more replies from the AI Zeath. All they knew was that the message could only be sent by an active AI and that it was still in the ship somewhere. Numerous times Allan considered starting up a conversation with Brandon but decided that they needed their eyes and ears alert at all times. As they were floating down a particularly long hallway they did their best to stop themselves as they heard what sounded like objects being tossed against walls. They aimed their weapons ahead of them and slowly looked around the corner. They saw the hunched over figure of a grunt looking inside of objects that were near him and then throwing them aside as if each time he failed to find what he was looking for angered him further. They called it in, “ODST team 3 to Remnant of Time. Do you read?” There was momentary static before the response, “Go ahead team.” “We have located covenant onboard the ship. Orders?” “What are they doing?” “We believe they are looking for the AI.” “We can’t let that happen. Avoid them if you have to but otherwise take them out.” As they were ordered the two soldiers leveled their rifles and opened fire. The grunt didn’t have time to react as bullets penetrated his methane tank and the gas started leaking and propelling him down the opposite hall. The scene could almost be seen as laughable until they heard what sounded like frantic cries coming down the hall. They positioned themselves and aimed down the corner as 2 more grunts came flailing down the hall. They didn’t have time to react either. After moving past the dead bodies they threw away their nearly empty clips and reloaded. From then on they were more alert then ever and always had their guns remaining level. As they continued on they began to hear the dull hum of the ships engines. There was more power left then they thought. The sounds tickled their teeth as they got closer. As they emerged into the main entryway they saw an enormous room filled with one of the 2 main engines that the ship housed. Unfortunately they were not alone. There were 5 more grunts and 2 elites in the room as well. They were all staring at a monitor and on it there was a small blue humanoid figure standing there. They had found the AI and they were about to destroy it.

Lower engine room aboard Spirit of Winter Orbiting [XXXXX]-Undisclosed time

The situation wasn’t giving them many options. The most obvious thing would be to throw a few grenades but in doing that they’d destroy the AI. They’d have to lure them away from the AI if they were going to make any move at all. If only they had more time………. Allan yelled into the frequency, “Focus on one of the elites and the others should scatter away from the AI.” Brandon responded, “Which one?” Allan looked over the two elites and saw that one had white armor while the other had red. He tried remembering their ranks and knew the red was only one rank above a blue. He figured they didn’t have enough time to choose and targeted the red one. He hoped that the other didn’t have a trick up its sleeve. As their silenced weapons fired the red elite began to stagger backwards. It took the others a few seconds to realize what was happening and they immediately took cover. In the zero g environment they forced themselves to kick off the monitor that housed the AI but the red was already pushed too far away from the bullets to find a secure footing. A few seconds later his shields popped and purple blood began to float into the room. Figuring that he’d be dead within seconds they looked for the other elite but saw no hint of his white armor. What they did see were 2 grunts flailing towards a pillar that housed some control panels. They were easily put down. They reloaded their guns and began looking for more targets but by that time they had all found an appropriate hiding place. Allan radioed in, “Sarge, we are engaged with 4 covenant contacts in here and they have ample cover. Any assistance you could lend?” The reply took a few seconds, “Roger that we are right above you. Can you hold them off for a few more seconds?” “Yeah, but hurry up. I have a feeling tha………….” Allan stopped immediately with his response as he heard the familiar sound of an energy sword activating. He looked all around but couldn’t find the source. At that moment he remembered something that elites commonly used when they had that white armor. He screamed into his microphone so that both the sergeant and Brandon could hear, “ACTIVE CAMO, GET BACK DOWN THE HALL NOW!” Allan and Brandon ascended down the hall as they kicked off the nearest railing. They backed themselves onto a wall and aimed down the hall. Desperate they tried to find any hint of movement, any sign that they were about to be slashed from head to toe. Brandon desperately asked, “Motion tracker?” “Useless, they’ve adapted past that years ago.” “You think he’s stupid enough to run down a hall of grenades?” With that he took out the pin of the first grenade he could get a hold of and lightly threw it down the hall. After it detonated with no response they took turns repeating the action until all of their grenades were used up. “Great, now what?” As soon as the word’s left his mouth they noticed a blue sphere appear in thin air and it was tossed similarly down the hall in the opposite direction. They used the wall they were up against and propelled themselves into the room to avoid the blast of the plasma grenade. They looked around but saw no signs of motion. Allan noticed some debris bouncing off the walls from the recent explosions and hatched an idea. “Jump around the room. Don’t let him have the chance to get close to you.” With that they pushed of the nearest object and began to ricochet across the room. Halfway through one of his jumps Allan passed by one of the grunts they had killed. He grabbed one of the plasma grenades still hanging from its’ belt. 2 jumps later he saw the 3 remaining grunts huddled behind one of the pillars that maintained the ships integrity. He pushed his thumb on the trigger of the recently scavenged explosive and threw it at them. 3 seconds later it exploded and killed all 3 of them. After that they continued bouncing off walls until some unknown force grabbed the rifle out of Allan’s hands. He threw a punch and was met with the impact of human bone on elite flesh as well as a resounding grunt. He kicked off from where he had made contact just as he heard what sounded like a slash that would have left him for dead. He drew his pistol and continued maneuvering. 8 jumps later there was a loud explosion and debris flying and hitting every corner of the room. He looked up and saw his sergeant as well as another ODST coming through a hole that they had made with an explosive device. He also noticed one more thing as he looked up. Some objects were bouncing off nothingness and some were even being thrown in miscellaneous directions. Allan aimed his pistol and fired. He heard a howl get cut off and saw the body of an elite materializing. The hand that clenched the energy sword loosened and the remains of the body came hurtling at him. If he hadn’t made that lucky headshot he would be dead. As he began to pull himself out of his thoughts of how lucky he had been he heard the familiar voice of the sergeant chime in, “Nice shot, but instead of staring at the body for the next hour why don’t you grab the AI so we can get the hell out of here?”

Bridge Aboard UNSC Cruiser Remnant of Time Orbiting [XXXXX]-Undisclosed Time

Captain Thern stared at the translucent blue figure standing in front of him on its pedestal. The AI had put an entire team of ODST troops in danger and so far it hasn’t said a word. For the past hour it has analyzed the ship and made sure that nothing

was left alive on what remained of Spirit of Winter as it bombarded it with MAC fire. The blue figure had the appearance of a clean cut Englishman with clothing that could only be seen as archaic in the current period of time. He half expected him to wear a powdered wig but was thankful he wasn’t for then no one would take him seriously. He continued staring into the distance analyzing and firing the MAC as if he was unaware of the attention he was getting. Just as Thern was about to think of him as too focused the AI said, “Thank you for rescuing me Captain, you have no idea how close I was to being destroyed.” “How close?” “They were determining whether or not a plasma grenade would neutralize me.” “Ah.” After a long silence Thern asked, “You mind telling me what happened.” “Gladly,” The AI took an unneeded breath and began his explanation. “Approximately 2 standard days after Den was attacked the Covenant began searching the ships for AI’s to capture. After unsuccessfully finding any on the other remains they searched the Spirit of Winter, which had been torn in half by plasma batteries. When they entered the ship they unknowingly reactivated the engines power and, coincidentally, me. Realizing that I was about to be captured I used what was left of the engines and traveled to Canch where I knew there was a ship stationed. Unfortunately I could not help that there were Covenant onboard when I arrived. They decided that I was too dangerous and figured that their survival could only occur when I was destroyed. Luckily your ODST troopers managed to rescue me.” “Lucky you,” Thern added. “Are you at all concerned that I knew about Canch in the first place?” “You’re an AI. You guys know everything. Hell, you probably have a counter that shows how old I am.” “Would you like me to pull one up?” “No thanks.” “While you are correct about me knowing your age that is not the reason why I knew about Canch. Many AI don’t and I am one of the few that do.” Puzzled, Thern asked. “Then why do you know about it and why did you come here?” “I have new orders for you Captain Thern. You are to obtain the next shipment of weapons and deliver them to earth.”

Storage bay aboard Remnant of Time Surface of [XXXXX]-Weapons depot Alpha

David Rorrik watched as crates of weapons were being loaded onto the ship. He was assigned the task of making sure that nothing went wrong as they were being loaded. He looked over at a dockworker that appeared to be a little too busy and walked over to him. He yelled at him over the machinery, “So, What’s in these things?!” Startled, it took the dockworker a few seconds to collect himself and respond, “3 kinds of new weaponry!” “What kinds?” With that the dockworker pulled out a small monitor and handed it to David. David turned it on and was greeted with an assault rifle. It looked like the regular version that the marines had been using for years but noticed small variations. It was slightly smaller and the clip was smaller still with many design changes in the interior that lightened the recoil. He went to the next image and saw something that made him pull his head back an inch and widen his eyes. The best he could describe this weapon as, if it was a weapon, was a laser rifle. It had a very large battery in place and was as big as a rocket launcher. The screen was titled “SPARTAN LASER.” After a few seconds of awe he went to the next slide. While this weapon was less impressive than the laser he just saw, it was still a welcome change. The new SMG that he was looking at came with some modifications and a silencer. He had no idea if that would make it more or less effective than the standard one they used now. After having a thorough look he passed the screen back to the dockworker and thanked him. He walked towards a crate, sat on it, and leaned against another. As he drifted off into a light sleep through all the noise his mind kept coming back to the new weaponry he saw and how many covenant would die because of them.

Bridge aboard UNSC Cruiser Remnant of Time Slipspace from [XXXXX] to Earth-10/20/2552

Captain Thern smiled as he witnessed 2 AI’s commanding his ship and doubling the efficiency of it. The scanning process had ended a few days ago and their original AI, Mel, was back online. Mel resembled a knight in armor from the era of crusades. All of the traditional pieces of metal adorned his body, minus the helmet. Him and Zeath barely took notice of each other but Thern could tell they were working together efficiently and annoying the crew by forcing them to give up even more of their leisure time. Mel’s holographic image came onto display on the pedestal. “Captain the ship is about to come out of slip space. Would you like me to finalize the preparations?” “Go ahead.” With that Mel disappeared and seconds later they came into view of Earth and all the destruction that was taking place around it. The Covenant was attacking. Almost instantly, Thern started shouting orders. “Mel, Zeath, ready the MAC! Loading team A and B grab a few escorts and get those weapons down there ASAP! All ODST teams get to your drop pods and await further orders!” In the middle of targeting one of the smaller Covenant cruisers, a face appeared on the forward most view screen. Thern stood at attention and greeted Lord Hood. “Sir! What are our orders?” “Captain, you came in at a perfect time. We have the Covenant on the run and have Truth, one of the Covenant leaders, within our grasp. I’ll give you the coordinates for those weapons. One thing we could use though is your team of ODST troops down on New

Mombasa to wipe out any Covenant that might be hiding there.” “You can count on us sir.” Thern faced the holographic pedestal. “Mel, get me an open channel with the drop pod bay. I feel like giving my soldiers their orders personally.”

Drop Pod Bay Aboard Remnant Of Time Orbiting Earth-10/20/2552

Allan and the rest of the ODST team shuffled down the crowded hall toward their assigned pods. After opening his hatch he wedged himself into his seat but didn’t strap himself in yet. He opened the weapons compartment and looked at the new SMG he and his team was assigned. He familiarized himself with it and put it back. He sat there enjoying the relative calmness he had before a drop where he and his team would have to go through a life threatening maneuver to get down to the surface in an environment where he sat in an oven set to 130 degrees. They weren’t called hell-jumpers for nothing. He heard initial static as the Captain spoke through their helmets to deliver their orders. “Troops. These bastards have found out where we live and have decided they might as well attack it. We have already taught them they can’t get away with that. Now they’re running and hiding in trash cans because they can’t take the heat. Get down there and finish them off. Good luck.” As the microphone cut out every ODST strapped themselves in and closed their respective hatches. Afterwards, they waited as patiently as they could as the countdown timer crawled towards zero. As the timer reached 00:05 Allan closed his eyes waiting for the initial lurch. 5 seconds later nothing happened. He opened his eyes, puzzled, and heard the other ODSTs screaming into their helmets as they descended. Everyone had launched except Allan. After a few more seconds the timer was replaced with a message that said “Technical failure, please wait” Sweat began to drip down his forehead and he thought something had gone terribly wrong. After about a minute, which seemed like an hour to him, the voice of the AI Mel filled his helmet, “Private White? There seems to be a malfunction with your pod. No worries though. I’ll get you out of here.” 2 seconds later he began again, “It seems the launching mechanism has failed. I am going to issue a short circuit that will put you a little off course from your intended destination. Good luck.” Allan felt the lurch he had prepared for a few minutes ago. He located his camera that showed him where he was dropping towards and stared at it. He had fallen far behind the other pods. While anxious, he was grateful to not have to worry about blowing up before he even left the ship. As he entered the atmosphere a blinding white light filled his camera. His pod began to shake violently and he hit his head on the hatch. His vision began to fade as he entered darkness.