Jacob woke up to the sound if huge explosions. He shook himself, dazed and walked, or rather floated, to the cave entrance.
"Woah..."
The entire pass had been destroyed. He saw another mountain go down. In the smoke, a forerunner tower rushed. There were hundreds of them. And strangest of all, a frigate flew beneath him. He noticed the sounds if ships all around. The battle in orbit had spread ground side.
"This is ODST Griffin 1-1 reporting on all channels, can anyone hear me?" Damn. Out of range. He tested in the cave. It did seem to be full Zero-Gravity. And his suit was still recycling the remaining gases. He had no choice. He lined himself up to the shield and pushed off a rock as hard as he could. He had 15 minutes to do this. He hurtled through the pass, dodging rocks and ships. He saw the Frigate entering the shield. If he could just get inside... Two LongSwords flew right past him. He managed to grab the hull of the cruiser, and began to pull himself into an airlock. He opened his COM again.
"Hello? Anyone, please respond! This is Griffin 1-1 outside airlock urh... AB-2A, I have 5 minutes of air left. Open the airlock!"
"Jacob, is that you? Opening now, you're home." Replied the voice on the other end.
He climbed inside the door, and activated depressurising. After a hiss of air, the inside opened. There were several marines, and an officer. ((Just a random one))
"Jacob, what happened? Your squad thought you were dead! No, we can see after your report. Come now, your not done yet."
"What is it Lieutenant?" He was passed a data pad.
"This central structure was a forerunner control tower buried in a mountain. Covvie forces are holed up in there. We are assaulting the place. You will be joining your squad here, to take out the artillery command centre. Do that, and we can bring in the big guns."
"Yes sir, when is the next Falcon?"
"Right there, ready when you are. And you might want this." He passed him his Battle Rifle.
"Thank you sir."
He began to walk towards the helicopter. He tapped on the pilots window.
"Pilot, ready to go?"
"Yeah, just waiting for another squad."
Dammit. Every second these jokers wasted was a second his friends could be killed. Ah well, he sat on the single seat at the back until he saw the squad. They ran into the troop bay, equipped with jet packs and DMRs. Bullfrogs. They sat in an awkward silence as the rotors turned, spinning the troopers to the LZ.
The Falcon swooped over the landscape. The plains were completely flat, and he could see the charges of platoons and exchange of plasma fire and bullets. The helicopter began to descend, getting closer to a spotlighted area set up. It was under siege by a few covenant squads. As they got closer, AA fire began to rock the transport. Some metal covers unfolded on the sides, a new addition to the troop bay.
"Red light, stand by."
"Gaz, your radios dead"
"Roger that"
Jacob peered out of a narrow slit. He stood up.
"Blast doors opening in 3... 2... 1..." The doors opened. "Green light, Go, go, go!"
The troops jumped out as an artillery shell hit in front of them. They charged forward, killing elites assaulting the defending squads. Grenades rained down on them from the Falcon.
"Thanks guys, that was getting a little rough."
"No problem, do you know the whereabouts of Griffin squad?" Replied Jacob, watching as one of the others shot a dead jackal.
"Yeah! They're at the front. It's a few minutes away. Follow me."
They ran into the haze of plasma and bullets, clasping their helmets as shells hit around them, vapourising the ground around them.
"Quick, into the trench!"
They ran and jumped into a trench, it offered limited cover but it would do.
"Griffin? Griffin! Report in!"
"Griffin squad repor- Ah!" The sound of a plasma shell rumbled through the mic. "This is a bad time!"
"You don't want Jacob back, I presume?"
"What?"
"Holly, fall back, wait for reinforcements. We can help you!"
"Okay, the defense on these cannons is solid. We can't get in range to deploy Cobras!"
"I'll see what support command can send." The radio cut off as the distinct sound of Banshees filled the air. The battle had gone from bad to worse.