//------------------------------//
// First Battle Of Harvest I: Feet First 
// Story: Halo: Only Death Stops Them 
// by WarKing76 
//------------------------------//

UNSC CORVETTE PONY EXPRESS, HARVEST, FEBRUARY 23, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)

A lone figure slept peacefully within the confines of her pod. She was dressed in full combat gear consisting of a set of charcoal-colored fatigues, and matte-black impact plating that protecting everything vital from her neck to her knees. The helmet which she donned obscured her features, the silver-mirrored visor on it made well sure of the fact; the only lively detail about her was the rainbow streak run down it.

She was known as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper –ODST for short– and also for their more famous moniker, Helljumpers. They conducted special operations and specialized in orbital-drop insertions with the aid of drop-pods. The pods were often used so they could land in terrestrial environments, but in some cases, they acted as shock infantry whenever the situation arises.

The Helljumper fidgeted a little, but kept on sleeping, as she began to dream of her early days in the Marine Corps and how her ODST career jump started on to a whole new level.





When she enlisted for the Corps, she intended to join the ODSTs. When she said intended, she actually meant she was hell-bent to enroll with the best of the best.

With one goal in mind, she easily became the most agile and fastest recruit in the entire camp. These feats caught the attention of her commanding officers, who were in fact assigned at the camp to look out for potential ODST candidates at the time.

Because of her performance, and her ‘unique’ family history, she became the runner-up on whether she might able to join the Helljumpers or not.  All she had to do was pass a simple test to get what she wanted.

She was assigned to lead a squad –who were also selected to become ODSTs– of three men through a simulated training exercise. The officer at the time only told them to "search and eliminate any enemy combatants inside The Training Complex" which, of course, wasn't very informative.

At the moment, she was sitting on a crate with an MA5B assault rifle already in hand. The other marines were busy going through the weapons rack to choose a weapon that was best suited for them.

She then impatiently roared at them to hurry up. In retrospect, the squad leader arrived in the armory much earlier than the other marines.

After a minute of frantically searching for their favorite armaments, her fellow marines finally found what they were each looking for and joined her enroute to The Complex.

Before they even reached the armory’s exit, they received a mysterious call from their instructor to wait up for another recruit to join up with them, forcing them to delay their departure by a few minutes while they waited for him. But a few minutes seemed like hours for the athletic, eager-to-be ODST. She told herself that she needed to teach the late-comer a lesson after finishing the course. Heck, she could even sabotage the man’s effort to become an ODST by making him take the bullet for them if she wanted to.

When the Johnny-come-lately finally arrived, he apologized for his tardiness and grabbed the nearest MA5B rifle, which was evidently filled with Tactical Training rounds (TTR). He formed up with the rest of the squad, and they promptly left the armory.

The Marines soon found themselves at the entrance of the complex, preparing for the breach. The squad leader knew that if she was hit, she would be eliminated and she would be unable to join the men and women of the ODSTs. Just so she wouldn’t be the first to lose the opportunity, she ordered one of the other marines to take point and began to count down with her fingers.

As she pulled down one of her fingers, her squad mates' sweat began to cover their skin, and apprehension was written across their features, all except for one.

Another one of her digits dug into her palm, to only show a lone finger left before they breach the door.

Johnny-come-lately was behind her in position, and was ready to jump the enemy like it was a routine walk in the park. He showed no fear, no regrets, not even determination; not a single hint of emotion.

She was about to close her last finger down into a fist, but then she hesitated. She realized that she was also sweating, was she nervous like the rest of the marines? How come Johnny-come-lately isn’t shaking in his boots? What’s behind those doors?

Another realization came to her mind. Even if she couldn’t see them, there were cameras hidden from view. She was, at this very moment, being watched by her superiors, officers and probably other Helljumpers watching them. All of them were going to judge her performance on whether she was going to be one of them, or just another washout in the Corps. If she botched this, she’ll never get to be with the ODSTs. What will her mother think if-

Her thoughts were interrupted as she suddenly felt pressure on her shoulder. It wasn’t too tight, but it was enough to make her snap out of her frozen trance. She looked over her shoulder to see Johnny-come-lately holding her joint with his left hand, a half-smile on his face. He then nodded while retaining his smirk. He didn't really say anything but it was the push that she needed.

With renewed vigor, she clutched her hand into a fist and raised it up slightly above her head, and then proceeded by pulling an imaginary pull cord of an old 17th century train whistle. The marines stormed the building and rushed to the nearest cover, which were the pillars holding the complex together.

The wannabe ODSTs scanned the room, only to find dust and echoes. The squad leader expected to fight against rival marines who also wanted the same goal of being Helljumpers. She sighed at this fact and ordered two of the marines to move ahead. What came next made her slump back into shock.

Two rounds came streaking through the air and covered the advancing Marines with red paint, which rapidly paralyzed them and forced them to collapse to the earth.

Even though the athletic marine was in cover, she still exposed herself enough to see an odd blur further back at the end of the pillars which she had not seen earlier. Unfortunately for her, the blurry figure quickly turned towards her and pointed its barrel at the shocked soldier.

Another bullet came streaming out of the shadowy dispatcher’s weapon. This was it, her lifelong dream, her chance to become an ODST, it was over. Suddenly, she felt immense pain all over her face.





UNSC CORVETTE PONY EXPRESS, HARVEST, FEBRUARY 23, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)

A pair of doors automatically opened to reveal a man who wore a standard ODST Battle Dress Uniform (BDU), with a steely-gray stripe on his helmet and identically colored chest plate.

He steadily walked to a slumbering trooper in her pod. He stopped in front of the marine, hesitating for a second as he considered what to do next.

A thought came to his mind. He might regret his next actions, but it was going to be worth it.

He promptly raised his knee up to her face, hitting her hard enough to make the napping marine’s helmet hit the metal behind her and clank loudly.

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty," he said.  "We’ve got a job to do."

The stirred ODST attempted to rub her face, but was denied due to her helmet. She then glared at the man to politely ask why he jolted his knee up her face.

"What the hell was that for?!" she yelled.

"One," he said with solemnity.

He then pointed at the flashing yellow lights with his thumb over his shoulder.

"The siren stopped a minute ago and you were still asleep."

"And two," He said this time with a calmer tone. "You’ve hit my blueberries one too many times at the academy." He spoke with a gloom.

"You don’t have to be a wuss about it." She rolled her eyes behind her visor.

"I’m not a wuss," he whispered, but sounded to believe her statement.

She saw that she pushed him a little, so she then attempted to cheer him up. "Oh come on, you’ve dealt worse."

"Yeah, whatever," said the man, not accepting what she said.

He strode away from the formerly sleeping Helljumper, and made his way towards the sliding doors. She saw this, and ascended from her napping spot.

When she finally stood up, she saw that the man was already halfway through the hall. She hurried after him.

"Dude, wait up!" She bayed at him.

He simply ignored her and kept on walking in silence. Frustrated, she quickened her pace to catch up with him.

"I’m sorry, okay?" By the time she said that, the other marine was already in an armory, reaching for an assault rifle in the weapons rack.

She stopped a few feet away from him and continued to apologize. "I didn’t mean to hurt you, alright? I know I can be a klutz sometimes, but I’ll never let a friend down."

The man clutched the MA5B, and threw it to the trooper. She caught it mid-flight, but she still felt guilty with herself.

"Apology accepted," he said as he depolarized his helmet, showing the face of a man of Arabian descent with golden eyes.

"Besides, I wasn’t upset in the first place." He nonchalantly said with a grin on his face.

This made her raise an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Just pulling your leg kiddo, and also," he turned back to the weapons rack and pulled out an MA5B. "Wuss, really? I know you can do better than that."

She had to admit, it was a pretty lame ass insult but it still didn’t explain why he became a drama queen.

"What’s with the act then?" the rainbow helmeted trooper said as they began their walk back to the drop pods.

"You could say it was a test."

"A test?"

"Yeah, just to see how you’d react."

"What do you mean?"

The ODST paused and attempted to scratch his jaw, only to have his helmet block the way, but continued to do so anyways. "Well… "

After a second of thinking, he carried on talking. "Okay, what did you do when you saw me get distraught by your statement?"

"I apologized."

"Exactly, you could've just sat down and zipped that mouth of yours, but instead you stood up and apologized," he explained. "That act of selflessness showed me that you’re loyal."

"But you already knew that, we've known each other since the academy!"

"Yes, but what if you hadn’t known me in the first place," the man exemplified. "Would you still attempt to ease my discomfort then?"

It was her turn to pause and contemplate those words.

"I’ve never thought of it that way."

"Of course you haven’t, you may be loyal but you’ve never been bright."

"Says the egghead."

"Says the egghead who made sure you made it into the Helljumpers."





She braced herself for the impending doom, but unbeknownst to her, she was already pulled halfway to safety by Johnny-come-lately before the unknown assailant even pulled the trigger.

The round hissed by, missing her face by mere inches. Johnny-come-lately came down with her into a pile, and quickly pushed her off of himself. He then tried to snap the stunned squad leader out of her trance.





UNSC CORVETTE PONY EXPRESS, HARVEST, FEBRUARY 23, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)

"Yeah… " She said with a saddened tone.

Her pride was wounded on that day. All her life she believed that she would join the orbital troopers all on her own. But when the moment came, she froze up in the middle of a simulated combat zone, nearly getting herself shot which could’ve ended her dreaming of becoming an ODST then and there. She was saved though, saved by a marine who was late to attend the course in the first place.

"Oh great, I made the great Rainbow Dash blue," The now revealed Johnny-come-lately said to her. "I guess I’m the one that needs to say sorry now, huh?"

The ODST, now identified as Rainbow Dash, replied by throwing a clenched fist towards Johnny-come-lately’s shoulder for his remark of her pet name.

"I guess we’re good then?" he said while rubbing his sore joint.

"Yeah, we’re good."

"As I was saying, my test proves that you would sacrifice some of that ego of yours to treat your friend’s fretfulness. You can also experiment this yourself if you wanted to."

"How the hell do I do that?" she questioned.

"Just do what I did, be overemotional on something rather meek."

"Now you’re just messing with me."

"It worked didn’t it?"

Dash wanted to argue but remained speechless. She did respond to a down-to-earth reaction and she fell for it.

The troopers became silent after that, with the exception of their boots clanking on the metal floor as they continued walking back towards the pods. When the marines finally reach their drop pods, Dash examined her pod and Johnny-come-lately proceeded on a new topic.

"So, aliens huh?" The man said.

"Aliens or not, we’re still gonna kick their asses." She said this as she attached her assault rifle to her pod's weapon rack.

"If they even have any asses," he remarked jokingly. "And don’t you know that we’re evacuating the civvies?"

"We’re falling back already?"

"Dash, you either fell asleep during the briefing before we were put to ice or you don’t read the news often."

She turned her head towards Johnny-come-lately and depolarized her helmet to show a Caucasian woman with magenta eyes. The Helljumper had an obvious awkward smirk which told the man that it was the former. He sighed, and knew what he needed to do next.

"Listen up and listen well, because I’m going to say this once and only once," he exclaimed with a commanding voice.

His sudden change from best bud to an authority figure was not very new for Dash, but it astounded her the first time when she met him.





Tiny chunks of their cover were slowly blown off as Johnny-come-lately attempted to snap the marine squad leader out of her trance. On the other side of the pillars, one of the marines kept her head down to avoid the incoming projectiles.

But as fast as the shootout began, the firing stopped. The squaddie sighed in relief and focused attention at the latecomer and the squad lead. One thing for sure was their commanding leader was not very commanding. The poor girl looked like she was in total shock as she was being shaken by the guy.

The Marine wondered why the gunfire ceased, but her thoughts were interrupted by distinctive metallic clicks of a rifle. That all too familiar sound hit her harder than the training rounds that were flying over their heads; their assailant was reloading. This was her chance to end this match once and for all.

The man’s efforts to wake the woman from her spell was not successful, she just sat there motionless and was babbling something about her failing. He then looked over to see if the other greenhorn was unharmed. She was fine by all means, but her next actions would turn into her biggest slip-up in her entire military career.

The grunt raised her rifle and hastily fired from the hip, but only a dozen volleys came out of her assault rifle before she was splattered with red paint which promptly caused her to fall on her back. The shady figure had already reloaded its weapon before she had even fired those shots.

That was the final straw for the entrant; he needed her now more than ever.

"Goddamn it ma’am, if you don’t get your shit together, pull that brain of yours out of your ass and put it back into your skull. I swear I’ll throw you into the middle of the crossfire myself!"





UNSC CORVETTE PONY EXPRESS, HARVEST, FEBRUARY 23, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)

He didn't usually do this, heck, he would rather avoid it if he could, but when responsibility came down on his shoulders, he would do it with extreme prejudice. He was generally quiet around people he didn't hang around with. Yet, he was usually a little clumsy and sometimes acted silly when he was in front of his best buddy. Don’t get him mad though, unless you wanted a full blast of either his ‘Sergeant Mode’ or his ‘listen to an intellectual’s speech’. Either of the two could make you want to jump out of an airlock. But in the end, he had the best of intentions at heart.

She merely rolled her eyes, and focused back on her drop pod, saying "Yes mom."

"It’s yes, corporal mom to you," inserting his authority by enlightening her of his rank. "So here’s the deal, we've got civvies falling back to the Space Elevators, and the Colonial Militia aren't going to endure long enough with those space invaders probing up their asses all day.

"That’s where we come in. First, we jump feet first into hell, pull their pants down long enough so that the Militia can get the civilians into the Elevator, and then fall back to the Pelican."

"What Pelican?" Dash turned back to question him.

"The Pelican that Sarge told us about during the meeting. Dang, that’s how long you slept, Dash? How do you do it?"

"Oh I have my ways," she said proudly as she polarized her helmet’s visor.

"You had your helmet on, didn’t you?"

"Well-" Her speech was interrupted by a masculine voice coming from alongside her ear.

"Stop with the gibbering you two and get into the pods, we’re late as it is."

Johnny-come-lately pushed his COMM beside his helmet to link his communications with the Sergeant. "Yes Sergeant."

"You heard the man, let’s move!" exclaimed the corporal.

"You don’t have to tell me twice," said the athletic marine.

Dash positioned herself on the seat and double-checked her pod and weapons. She was all prepped and ready to drop. The hatch, however, didn't seal as she expected it to. Dash looked up to see her friend standing there, staring at the opposite side of the pods. He was unmoving, like he was in deep thought.

The man turned his head to face her, his back still toward her, and helmet polarized.

"Isabel," he spoke with a tone she never heard from him before in her life. "Today is a historic moment for humanity, and for better or worse, Dash, we will never forget."

His whole body spun to confront her. "And no matter what, we’ll always be friends. Can you promise me that?"

This was something totally new for her. She'd never seen him like this, sure, he did turn into a drama queen a few minutes ago, but this was truly authentic. She was sure of it.

"No matter what," she promised.

"Good." He slapped her shoulder.

He was about to leave, to board his own pod, but he a felt pressure on his forearm. He turned to see Rainbow Dash gripping him tightly.

"Deen, don’t get yourself killed, I don’t want to lose you out there."

"Don’t worry-" but before he could carry on those words, a near identical interruption emanated towards their earlobes.

"God, what’s wrong with the two of you? I know this may be your first drop for both of you, but please, don’t make a mess in the pods just yet."

If anybody could see through Dash’s helmet, they would have seen a vast amount of inflamed blood that had pumped up into her cheeks.

Deen heaved a sigh and replied "Sergeant, you know that we’re just friends. Besides, I’m-"

"Yeah, yeah we know. Real men worry about their 'length' below their belt, while you only worry about whether if your fly is zipped up or not, now get into those pods. That’s an order."

The corporal complied and seated himself in his pod. Dash recoiled back onto her chair, feeling a little disappointed. The hatch closed in front of her and the platform, from which all the pods were dangling, reclined into the launch bay.

Dash’s view screen on each side of her came to life, and displayed Deen’s gray striped helmet on the right. On the left, though, was a near identical ODST helmet with the exception of a crimson stripe across his helmet instead.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, I hope you’re all briefed on what’s what." The man in the crimson helmet crackled through the speaker in Dash’s pod.

"Yes, sergeant, all except one. But don’t worry," Deen mouthed calmly, "I’ve already dealt with it."

Deen tried his best not to specify a certain speedy Helljumper. But alas, the sergeant picked up the boy’s words faster than a heartbeat.

"Good, I don’t want to explain to Isabel the technical stuff into that vacuumed skull of hers."

"Hey!" Dash groused through her receiver.

The pod monitors flickered with static as the platform ground to a halt.

"Now remember Marines, there are literally only half-a-dozen of us here," the sergeant said, ignoring her exclamation. "So don’t get cocky and get yourselves killed. We already don’t have the manpower to fend off those ETs."

"You heard what the sergeant said," Deen brought himself back into the conversation. "Don’t fire your weapons unless he says so."

"Helljumpers! We are green and very, very mean!" The sergeant cried through the comms as his pod detached from the ship.

Almost instantaneously as that happened, Deen’s pod disengaged and began its own fall to the planet’s surface. After a similar descent of another three metal human packages, it was Dash’s turn to plummet down from the heavens.

After being peppered by a countdown sound, her pod departed from the launch bay to an extensive sight of Harvest. Her pod’s frame displayed the stunning night sky, and the surface below that was covered with luscious crops, along with the landscape’s rising and falling of the hills and its abundant amount of lakes. If she could see through the dense forests, she would have seen swooping bats consuming the unfortunate hovering bugs that got in the flying mammals' way.

However, Rainbow Dash wasn’t fixed on the scene. She was absorbing the sensation of cracking through the atmosphere. That feeling of hurling yourself straight into the battlefield was the most amazing thing she had ever felt. The adrenaline pumping through her veins, flowing behind her eyes and into the brain, the sudden upsurge of her heartbeat, and secreting sweat like it was nobody’s business. She felt like she could take on the universe and all who lived in it.

There’s a lot to know about the Single Occupant Exo-atmospheric Insertion Vehicle (SOEIV), commonly referred to as the Human Entry Vehicle (HEV), or drop pod, and it was also known as the Egg to the cautious. But unfortunately for Dash, reading manuals was for eggheads. She didn’t care what it was called or any of the details, as the pod had single-handedly given Rainbow one of the greatest thrills of her entire life.

But, unbeknownst to her, an ODST in one of the pods kept on complaining to his NCO about his navigation computer.

"Sir, I can’t get this piece of junk working," he nagged.

"You better get that thing going before we reach the atmosphere."

"S-sir?" his voice quaked.

"Relax, just do what you need to do trooper." The corporal intervened into the conversation.

"I’m gonna die, aren’t I, sir?"

The man was referring to the pod’s braking rockets, if there were any malfunctions with either the computer or the rockets themselves, then the pod’s occupier would die on impact. It was the demise that every single ODST feared.

"Oh god, oh god please, I don’t wanna die." The man wept.

"Calm down, just do what I tell you to do. First-" Deen was interrupted yet again by the sergeant.

"He dug his own grave."

"No, no, no, no, this can’t be happening! I can’t die like this, I just can’t. I’ve got to do something, I-I-I… " He kept on shuddering until he did the unexpected.

He grabbed the controls and wildly strained the joysticks in an attempt to slow down his egg.

His pod all of a sudden maneuvered into Dash’s pod's proximity. Dash was too engaged in her elation to notice the metal coffin coming right at her. Even though it moved sluggishly, she could have avoided the doomed HEV if she had been concentrating.

"Private, what the hell are you doing? Stay in formation or I’ll shoot you myself." The sergeant bellowed at the condemned trooper.

And with that, he spoke his final words before the private slammed into Dash’s airborne insertion pod. "I’m already a dead man, sir."

The impact caught Rainbow Dash by total surprise, her pod suddenly spinning like a 21st century American football. Her excitement turned into distress as she was forced to hold an insane amount of g-forces, far more than the normal amount for any ODST.

Deen frantically gave her instructions on what she had to do. "Dash, just hold on and do what I say! Look for a hidden compartment at the bottom left corner, there’ll be a lever which you can pull, which will manually activate your chute."

She absorbed those guidelines like a sponge. Dash looked for the slot that Deen had told her, and without difficulty, she found it. She pulled off the cover to find the lever, but as she vainly attempted to pull it, her world began to blacken.

Her hands were mere inches from her savior, if only she could just reach it. The Blackness then started slowly consume her vision.

Today is a historic moment for humanity, and for better or worse, Dash, we will never forget.

In near obscurity, her fingers were millimeters away from the only thing that could prevent her from being turned into a soft, juicy pancake. Just one more push, that’s all she needed.

And no matter what, we’ll always be friends. Can you promise me that?

At this point, darkness had finally consumed her, but not before pulling the one thing that prevented her from an eternal slumber.

No matter what.