Halo: Hailstorm

Chapter 1

Location: Orbit above New Mombasa

Time: 2552 (Mid Halo 2, runs parallel to Halo 3 ODST)

The bird's eye view of the city was beautiful. Skyscrapers stood tall, monuments, in a cloudless blue sky. The sun beamed down on the shining palace of New Mombasa. It was truly a sight to behold, even with the Covenant Carrier hovering menacingly overhead.

Michael Bryant longed to stroll through the streets of the grand city on such a gorgeous day. His father had taken him to Earth only once as a child to visit this very city. "Long ago, man took his first steps on the very dirt you are standing on." His father had said. "Right here?" The six year old had replied stomping his feet." "Yes my boy," he chuckled lightly. "We must never forget where we came from." The tall man took a knee bringing him eye level with the young boy. "This, our kingdom, connects us all and though man has conquered even the stars, his home, his heart, will always be right here."

A blaringly loud alert woke Bryant from his nostalgia. Lord Hood had called several Orbital Drop Shock Trooper squadrons to the briefing room. Bryant closed the city surveillance camera feed and reached for his helmet.

"Ready to rock B?" A familiar voice called out followed by a swift jab to the arm. The blow belonged to Gunnery Seargent Edward Buck, the leader of another ODST squadron: Alpha 9. Buck and Bryant had developed quite the rivalry in their day as ODST trainees. Every victory spurring the other to do better until they were competing for the top of the class...which Buck took. Bryant had congratulated Buck on his victory slightly dismayed at the outset, but nevertheless proud of his fellow ODST. "Don't tell me you've given up yet Bryant! The real battle has just begun!" They both laughed at the gesture but knew deep down that it wasn't a game anymore.

"Always ready Buck. It's you I'm worried about."

"Oh yea?" He replied raising an eyebrow.

"Yea, I'm afraid all of that glory might have gone to your head."

"Are you two at it again?" A third voice chimed in. Adrian Thomas, the third squadron leader to be briefed on their upcoming mission. Adrian had also known Buck for quite some time throughout their training. With towering height and a build like an Olympic god, the ODST could have easily been mistaken for a Spartan. As a matter of fact, it happened quite often. A running inside joke between his friends ensured that the truth remained an uncertainty, meaning neither Adrian nor his friends ever had to fight over table space or the choice meals in the dining hall.

"I was just telling B. Here that you can't blame the suits for recognizing a man who..." Buck paused and launched an empty soda bottle throwing knife style into a nearby trash can. "...always hits his mark." Buck winked at him and then looked to Adrian before both of the men simultaneously burst into laughter. Bryant offered a smirk and rolled his eyes defeated. It was a story they knew all too well.

**FLASHBACK**

Several years ago, Buck led a team featuring Adrian and Bryant. Bryant had temporarily filled an open position on the team while Adrian had served as a stand in for an injured member named Dutch. Dutch was a tough guy but any man who took on three Jackals in hand to hand combat simultaneously was asking for trouble. The ordeal had cost the man two cracked ribs and a fractured wrist. Despite his protest, the doctors ordered that he take some recovery time.

Romeo and Mickey, Buck's other two teammates weren't exactly thrilled about the temporary replacement, as both Bryant and Adrian outranked them both, but then again they didn't really have a say in the matter either.

The mission was simple: quietly infiltrate an abandoned UNSC lab and download some data files essential to decrypting Covenant network chatter. The data would make it that much easier for Cortana, the UNSC's favored AI, to decipher Covenant communications. The lab itself was located in the ruins of a small city and held no strategic or tactical value. As the Covenant could not effectively hold the base and the UNSC could not effectively reclaim the base, the battle had resulted in a stalemate. Buck's team, Alpha 9, including the two replacements, were waiting as the files slowly transferred when things took an unusual turn.

"What's it at now Mickey?"

"A whopping 4%" Mickey grumbled.

"Jeez what is it running? 21st century technology? So much for modern advances."

Mickey sat on his rear and leaned his helmet against one of the broken desks in the battle scarred lab.

"It'll be another 15-20 before the system can establish a decent connection with our network and verify our ID. Once the connection is made things should speed up."

"We might as well be sitting on a blanket and covered in barbecue sauce. You know it's only a matter of time right? They can smell us."

"Only the big ones can smell us." Bryant offered.

"What a comforting thought." Romeo retorted.

"Got it!" Mickey exclaimed. The computer produced a solid hum followed by several encouraging beeps.

"...and look at that it jumped straight to 17%!"

"Whoop-Dee-freakin-doo" Romeo replied sarcastically.

"There's just no pleasing yo.." Mickey began.

Buck raised a hand and the room fell silent. Bryant and Adrian took a step forward, while Romeo armed his sniper rifle and moved to cover Mickey. The structure gave no reply. And then Bryant heard it. Off in the distance, footsteps, and they were getting closer. He strained, was it an enemy squadron? No. It didn't sound like marching. It was more like a dog digging through trash. A very big dog.

It moved through the halls closer and closer Bryant heard doors ripped from their hinges as the ..whatever it was searched the rest of the compound.

"20 credits says it's a split-jaw." Romeo whispered.

"Nahh, it's a temper tantrum." Adrian challenged.

"Zip it!" Buck took a stance closest to the door and pumped his shotgun.

Split jaw referred to the elites of the Covenant battle alliance a race of tall and slender bipedal aliens with a mouth that split into 4 seperate but equally hideous jaws as the nickname suggested. They all seemed bound by an unwaveringly annoying sense of honor. Graceful, tactical and precise, the elites were fierce and calculating foes. "Tempered tantrum" referred to the another species in the Covenant, the Brutes. Brutes were large half gorilla, half bear, all alien masses of fur and muscle. What they usually lacked in mental capability was more than made up for in physical strength The nickname came from their tendency to get frustrated and lose their composure when things didn't go their way during a battle. This could be good or bad. Good if it broke the enemy's strategy and exposed weaknesses, bad if you were anywhere nearby. It was not uncommon for the beasts to rip their opponents apart using their bare hands or quite literally beat them into a mess of gore.

The footsteps were now miniature tremors outside of the room. Bryant secretly sided with Adrian. He knew his stuff. The door flew off the hinges as the pursuer charged into the room with the force of a charging rhinoceros. Buck fired his shotgun, but the door, which had came with the intruder took most of the damage and the rest was absorbed by alien armor. He dove to the side to avoid being trampled. The monster crashed into a nearby counter detaching the bolts that held it to the floor like staples from paper.

The hulking creature shook off the debris and turned to face its prey, a murderous glint in its devilish red eyes.

Usually you had to piss them off first.

Hello all! I am new to the fan fiction world and am using this story to test out my abilities as a writer. Please feel free to let me know what you think!