Hell's waiting room

The Chief had made sure all his weapons were ready for the mission, grabbing a double handful of clips for his MA5B Assault Rifle. The Spartan took the rifle apart, inspected it, and reassembled it, pleased. He would soon be getting into a pod with an entire regiment of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, "Helljumpers", and a few strike teams of Elites. He heard the alarm blare, calling the invasion forces to ready themselves.

The Chief grit his teeth, knowing he didn't have long. The regiment and strike teams would load into pods that would be dropped from orbit directly into Venom's atmosphere. The UNSC had developed pods to insert the elite Helljumpers behind enemy lines. The pods had been designed to replace Lifeboats as a spearhead. The Lifeboats were slow and bulky, and easy targets for AA fire. The pods, however, were small and maneuverable. A few were sure to be nailed by any flak, but the single resulting death was better than a dozen.

He heard a soft knock on the door to his quarters, and when he turned, he saw the metal slowly sliding open, revealing Cortana. She had grown used to her new body fairly quickly. He removed his helmet as she stepped closer, looking into the man's eyes. "John...I won't be able to join you anymore on the battlefield..." She frowned softly, her discomfort showing. The Spartan and former AI had spent years together in John's armor, Cortana providing targets and John hosing them with weapons fire.

The Spartan reached down and took one of her small hands in his own large, pale hands, lifting her chin with his other index finger to look her in the eye. "I'll be alright Cortana, trust me." The woman smiled at her friend. "I know John, your luck is still there." The woman's smile and quote caused a twitch at the corner of John's mouth, a smile was growing.

The woman dropped his hand and hugged him, putting her arms around his neck. John reacted to the affection by wrapping his own steel arms, arms that had killed thousands, around her waist and cradling her as if she was as frail as a child, and she was in John's arms. Cortana pulled her head away from his shoulder, staring into his eyes for a few moments, then closed her eyes and leaned forward, slowly sealing her lips against the soldier's own.

John was shocked t her action, but slowly relaxed, closing his own eyes and enjoying the moment. It was only a split second, but it seemed like forever to the two of them when the alarm sounded again calling the invasion forces to muster. John started to pull away, but Cortana kept the kiss for a few more seconds, reaching around him and grabbing his helmet, putting it on him as she finally slipped away, a soft pink tint in her cheeks.

The Spartan smiled under the polarized visor and grabbed his weapons, consisting of an MA5B, two SMG's, and a quartet of both frag grenades and the Elite plasma grenades that would stick to a target like glue upon hitting. Cortana continued to smile at John as he turned to her. "I'll be back soon, Cortana, so keep those lips warm for me." The gold visor depolarized, revealing John's smiling face as Cortana's pink cheeks turned a dark red shade.

She nodded, smiling as he ran out of the room, sprinting down the hallway and into a hangar bay. The sounds of fighters launching out of the bay was a scream of activity. The Chief could see the ships of Colonel Mccloud's assault wing launch, the ships screeching out of the bay and inverting, rocketing towards the arid green clouds of Venom.

John turned to his right and spotted a tube leading into another ship, a UNSC Carrier. The Hell's Lifeboat, had been converted to have thousands of drop pods on the bottom of the ship, the regiment of ODST's, Elite strike teams, and lone Spartan were to drop into the planet from there. The Chief quickly ran to the tube and passed between the ships through it, quickly getting to an area and waiting for the commander to initiate the launch sequence.

Colonel Ortega stood in front of his regiment, giving the time honored speech that ODST's loved to hear. It was mainly for morale. "Alright, see that planet down there? Lord Hood wants it, and we are going to get it. When we get into these pods, we'll get the one thing marines love like beer: dirt beneath our feet. The fly boys and your fellow jar heads will be riding down in assault boats, in air conditioning while sipping wine and nibbling on appetizers.

We, however, will be dropping in...and do any of you know how!" The Colonel paused, waiting for the answer he loved to hear as the regiment yelled in unison. "WE GO FEET FIRST, SIR!" The Colonel nodded in approval. "Damn right you will. Now, you have five minutes to strap in, buckle up, and shove a cork in your' asses."

The ODST's all laughed. It was a joke that they loved to hear in every drop. They didn't have time to think over it though, and quickly began to rush into their pods. The Master Chief sprinted after Colonel Ortega, getting into the pod next to him. As the pods closed, the Master Chief saw the launch timer hit 0:00 the moment his boots braced against the ground.

The pods dropped out of the ship's belly, screaming into the void of space. Ortega's face showed up on one of the screens in John's pod. "Listen up, Marines, We have a Spartan with us today, and I'll be damned if we let him show us up! So get out there, pick your targets, and take them from the ol' swabby here!" The Colonel smiled at John through the depolarized helmet, meaning he was joking, and the Chief couldn't help but smile at it either.

Somebody popped in a data disk and began blaring the hyped up strains of the Helljumpers' anthem over the radio. Regs made it clear that unauthorized use of radio frequency's was wrong, very wrong, but this was an appropriate time, and Ortega seemed to agree as he stayed off the channel.

The pods started to heat up as fire cones started to form over the outside coating of the Human Entry Vehicles, HEV's. The chutes deployed to slow their descent as the Helljumpers dropped through miles of sickly green clouds, fighters occasionally passing by the drop force in pursuit of an enemy. The outer coating tore away, revealing the crash cages and the occupants within.

Private Hasely heard a snap as her main chute tore away, and then a bone jarring deceleration as the backup deployed. She began screaming over frequency two before everyone switched channels. Somewhere, on the surface of Venom, Hasely was about to dig her own grave.

Ortega closed his eyes. It was the death that every Helljumper feared, but never talked about. The inner coating tore away as topographical scans appeared on his map screen, slipstream tearing at his mask. He scanned over the map, then forwarded it to the assault force. Ortega's pod sped up, the other HEV's aligning on his to get a proper entry vector and follow the command "egg" down.

There were multiple reasons to this. One was that officers were expected to lead, rather than follow, and two, because the Helljumpers needed a point to rally on. Ortega's pod closed in on the ground, and he braced himself for the landing.

The Chief slowly opened his eyes. Blood spattered the inside of his visor, and his shield bar was flickering, slowly beginning to recharge. He shook his head to clear it, and the ground was darkened by a shadow. Ortega stood in front of him, offering a hand. John took it and stood, looking t the aerial battle raging nearby. Ortega pointed off behind the Chief. "There. That's our objective." The Spartan followed the Helljumper's finger, spotting a city in the distance.

The Colonel turned and surveyed his troops. He still had 582 effectives, 12 ODST's had been lost on the way down. "You see that in the distance? That's where we need to be! So get your asses in gear people!"

John stared after the city, able to just barely see the peak of the tallest building there. He didn't know who would even try to inhabit this place, but he was going to find out eventually.