Unto the breach

Before the storm

I was rudely awakened by my squadmate Kylie Benedetti. By awakened, I mean she took off my helmet and slapped me. I jolted awake, slowly realizing where I was. The UNSC Edelweiss was one of the few ships left unharmed when the Covenant fleet penetrated the blockade. "What was that for?" I asked. "I could of tapped you, but where's the fun in that?" In reply, I grunted and stood up. "CO says we move out at 1520 hours." With that, she walked away to do....things, I don't really know.

I walked to the armory, where the rest of our seven-man squad was gathered.  Cpl.Lucien Magee, our heavy weapons specialist was eyeing a M41 rocket launcher. Pvt.Landon Phyllis had pulled an MA5D assault rifle off of the shelf, and was reaching for a magnum. Kylie had already gotten there, because a sniper and three clips were missing. PFC Akhil Dooblah was strapping a DMR to his back,a pistol in his holster that he always carried around. Everyone else was new, as our squad, Zulu squad, of the 106th ODST division had been hit hard on Reach, where we made a last stand in New Alexandria.

"Listen up, you wee little astronauts!" Our commanding officer, an Irishman named Sean Chapman was yelling at us to get our attention. He only does that when he's scared, I knew him too well, and almost nothing scared him. "We're dropping into New Mombasa,as you can tell." He said this while turning on a console and pointing to points of interest on the holographic map. "Our job is to help defend the ONI black site. Any questions?" "Are we receiving any support during this mission?" Lucien asked. Sean nodded his head. "There will be a detachment of marines and another ODST squad landing to help us defend the site." He pointed to the long bridge leading to the ONI site. "The Covies can only move land vehicles up by the bridge, so our other anonymous ODST squad will be setting charges on the bridge. As soon as they're done with that, pull back unless you want to be swimming with the enemy. Now, get ready, we still have 10 minutes until the drop." I heeded his advice,quickly grabbing a battle rifle, some ammo, and a flare.