:Location: UNSC heavy cruiser RailRoad
:Date: 28 March 2552
:Mission: Deploy ODST troopers to retrieve Civilian
:Status: ODST squadron ready to fire

The group of five friends were walking to their drop pods. Checking their rifles and armor again before giving a thumbs up. "Alright helljumpers. Remember the mission, get the civies out alive and kill any Covenant you see." The leader of the group said. His name is Jan Haak and had his tag, HAAK. Receiving an affirmative from 4 other tags. Labeled FUNK, GRAY, MALI and BRAT. Each have been fighting for over 2 years and have been launched multiple times. "Good luck. And I'll kill you all if you die" he says and gets in his pod. The rest follows and waits for a countdown to start. The pods close and soon enough they see a blue screen appear. "10… 9… 8…"

BRAT was checking around his pod once again to see any malfunctions and finds none. Checking his weapons, helmet, and armor, everything before relaxing. "7… 6… 5…" He heard a click go over the comms from his teammates loading their rifles. BRAT quickly checks again. A habit of him to do when he is nervous. Although he had done this dozens of times, it still was very very scary to do. The biggest fear, is that the pod malfunctions and doesn't slow down nearing the ground. Killing the ODST on impact. "4… 3… 2… 1…" the escape of Oxygen made the tube rumble a little as all of them got fired down to the planet. And that feeling of the miles long drop at such high speeds. Never fades.

"Warning : Malfunction detected : Eject Drop Pod : Warning" a red light started flashing through the small space and BRAT could only look at it in horror. He is going to die here… in this pod he is going to die. He closes his eyes and prays as the warning message keeps repeating. He feels the pod tilt and make him shift into an almost back breaking position. And all of a sudden he is flying horizontally away from the planet and everything else. Into the coldness of the unforgiving space. He could feel something snap in him. More than just one thing actually. He could hear a cacophony of his own bones breaking slowly. Screaming it out in pain as he slowly passes out. Hearing the warning for one last time and the red light is the last thing he sees…

"What happened?" the captain of the ship was following the ODST group dropping down and say one of them fly horizontally away from them. "Malfunctions sir! One of the thrusters stopped for some mere seconds and got him tilted away from his destination." A young woman answers and tries to stay calm. "We can track where he is going to land. If he does not have any more malfunctions he will impact a covenant ship." she looks at the captain who just sighs. "Estimated 10 minutes before impact. But he won't feel the impact. The pod probably broke most of his bones. He is… gone?"

That statement made the whole bridge of the ship look up "Gone? What do you mean gone?" the captain walks up to the woman and looks

"His Pod was here just a second ago… and none of our radars and sensors can see him. He's gone" The woman taps on the screen and makes it check thrice again.

"Bullshit. Everyone, I want to track that Drop Pod. He can't be gone." The captain says, and receives a lot of "Negative" and confused looks from the bridge crew.

"Sir, we have all our radars, sensors and even our dumb AI looking for it. But we can't find it. It is missing." The woman says a little scared. The whole bridge was a little scared and keep trying to find it. After over an hour of rechecking everything they can. And the captain writes to the rest of the UNSC as quick as he can about this strange missing.

From : - UNSC RailRoad –
to : - UNSC Infinity –

Message : Greetings admiral. Captain Mark Power from UNSC heavy cruiser RailRoad. We have deployed our ODST for the mission, but one of the pods malfunctioned and made the trooper fly at a 90 degrees away from the planet and the ship. After careful observation of the pod, it disappeared. We have been looking for hours and none of our radars can find it. The pod was close to entering enemy territory and then it disappeared. We have no idea where it might have gone, or if we will ever see it back. But this had to be reported. Captain Mark Power from UNSC heavy cruiser RailRoad.

The captain lays back in his seat and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. "Do not tell the other ODST what happened. Tell them he died." The captain says over the bridge comm and receives a yes sir.

"Squadron leader Haak? Do you receive?"

"Yes RailRoad I receive. What happened?" a certain fear was in his voice. And some gunfire could be heard from around him.

"BRAT has died during the launching. His pod wasn't sealed well and he lacked oxygen. We were able to stop his pod manually and got him back onboard. We'll bury him once you are back." She lied but it was unnoticeable over the comm "It is tragic, but don't tell your squad until they are back onboard."

"Yes ma'am. Will do. Over and out" The comm clicks and it was silent on the bridge of the UNSC RailRoad.

"Warning : Malfunction detected : Eject Drop Pod : Warning" it sounded again. Was he dead? No, can't be. He felt pain going through his body. But he didn't feel anything else. The thrusters of the pod didn't react and he wasn't moving. But he was not landed because the pod still said he wasn't. He was confused. Why didn't he die yet and why can he move his arms… everything should be broken. He didn't even cough up blood when he had expected it to do. He is fully functional, but everything hurts. "What the hell?" he thought to himself as he checks everything. And it was all functional… only his radar was blank. He got it to the furthest reach… and nothing. He waits for impact. Or whatever was about to come. Praying once again and closing his eyes.

"What is this?" a voice sounded from outside the pod. Certainly a man but it boomed. Making BRAT put his sound mufflers up a little. "I did not create this…" his pod moves slowly he could feel it being moved and bangs on the shut door. "It bangs?..." It sounds again in the booming voice. And BRAT knocks on the door again. "Is it a trapped player? No… can't be. There already are 10.000 in there… Need to look inside." A face of a man goes right through the walls of the pod making BRAT jump a little and punch it in a reflex. And his punch was enough to make it shout and pull back out "Do not attack me… let me look at you" That did not calm BRAT at all. He grabs his M6C/SOCOM pistol and aims at where the man's face once was. "I am coming in again. Do not hurt me" And the face is shown at the exact same place again. He had grey hair and brown eyes. A pretty straight face, that quickly turned to a hint of fear when he sees the pistol.

"Where am I and how do you do that!" BRAT shouts at the man who quickly retreats.

"You are in the program of my creation. How did you get here? You are not supposed to be here." The voice boomed again and sounded from quite a distance.

"I am from UNSC heavy cruiser RailRoad and my pod has a malfunction. I do not know what happened but do know I should be dead."

"Did you say UNSC…? I heard that before… Let me… wait… Does the term Halo say something to you?"

"That is protocol." BRAT shouts and waits for another question.

"I know what happened… but how… I do know what I am going to do with you. ODSST trooper." The man laughs which only makes BRAT a little scared, but he fights it. ODST need to stay focused… but… he can't… sleep is… taking ove-…

":Activating Thrusters : Impact in 15 seconds:" BRAT woke up in his pod again and heard the voice of the pod warn him. 15 seconds to impact, did he pass out on the way down? Was it just a dream? He hoped so. He checks everything very quickly before standing ready to jump out "5… 4… 3… 2… 1…" The same loud thud he had heard dozens of times and the impact that had made his knees and legs strong. He ejects the door and jumps out. Quickly scanning his surroundings for any hostiles. Seeing there are none he takes a look around. A big forest with huge trees all around him. He had landed on something that looked like a temple. "BRAT landed. HAAK, come in. over" the radio was silent. He relaxed a little "HAAK, do you receive?" again radio silence. A message appearing in his HUD made him look up. And not only that… he had a health bar, level, messages, friends, and more. "What the hell?" he reaches out for the blinking letter and it opens. Reading

"Dear BRAT, Welcome to Sword Art Online. We hope you enjoy your stay and remember to make friends."

"Sword Art Online?" he reaches out for the two gears next to the letter and a menu opens. And another message pops up

"This is your settings. Here you can decide what features you want in your game. Do you want to turn of these tips?" "Yes : No"

He hesitantly clicks No and another message pops up "Do you want a guide through your inventory?" "Yes : No"

It took him almost half an hour to understand everything and let the computer finish his story. "Congratulations. You have finished the walkthrough. Want to look again?" "Yes : No" He quickly clicks No. "If you ever need help, just click the '?' icon" and from there on, the messages stopped. He goes through his inventory once more. M6C/SOCOM pistol. M7S Submachine Gun. Combat Knife. And all of them have unlimited ammo for some reason… He also knew his location. Floor 20 of Aincrad. And he saw his nickname. "Helljumper" to be the name visible to others. His ODST armor apparently was level 50 worth, so were his weapons. And it required a special skill only he had, called "Orbital Drop Shock Sword Trooper." Or ODSST for short. He had to sit down and level all his skills. He had 100 points he could spent on anything he wanted. He had complete separate skill tree for just his guns. More accurate, more firepower, bullet speed, silence, etc. he spent 70 points of it into his guns. And the rest in health, speed and sword strength. 30 points in firepower. 10 in reload speed. 5 in accuracy. 5 in headshot damage bonus. 10 in bullet speed. And 10 in silence. And per 5 points spend, he gets an extra buff of 3% more of said stat. He gets up, he knew what he had to do now. Get stronger and finish this 'game'. He had to get back to the UNSC and finish his mission. Checking his rifles and loading them once again. He heads away from the temple, and into the forest. He had to find the boss room and with his radar he can see hostiles coming in from quite a distance.

It had been almost an hour of him just shooting through giant grasshoppers and other animals that were attacking him. And he is far from tired. Having leveled up once and spending his points on headshot bonus. And he going all over the map. Having explored maybe 20% of it. With no boss room in sight. He makes a note for his own

"This is UNSC ODST Brandon Thermal. I have landed in a foreign location that is called Sword Art Online. I believe it is a game and am stuck until I win. I am currently level 51 and am at the 20thfloor of 100. I do not know either I am alone, but it does look like it. Monsters seem to be never ending and there are a few safe spots. I hope I can come back as quick as possible. BRAT out"

So. I just had this idea floating around in my mind and wanted to write it out. I don't know either there is a similar story to this, if there is, please point it out and then I'll delete this idea.

Sincerely, The voice you hear in your head while you are reading this