The Helljumper *Objective Updated*

(On board the UNSC Pony Express)

"Manny... MANNY, you there man, come on you gonna keep watch for me or what?" a voice woke me out of my zoned out gaze.

"What? Oh yeah I got your back Sarge, don't worry I will let you know if anyone tries to come in," I said still not thinking straight. "I will use 3 knocks to signal someone is coming, just go get your little "session" over with."

Sarge walked around the corner into the door which read: Infirmary Storage. This was were Sarge had his little ODST/Navy love affair he had been having with a doctor. I stood there waiting for him to finish with his little "session", I zoned out and leaned on the wall just staring at the opposite wall my mind wondered. I thought of my home, my old home, how it burned and how I could not stop it from being destroyed. Then I realized, I should have died there, died on Reach with the brave men and women who were ordered to stay behind as the civilians. One hour later I heard the door slide open and Sarge walked out with his fatigues looking like they were just issued to him.

"Sarge it took you long enough, did you have trouble getting it it up since this is the third time you saw her this week?" I asked as I realized it was who I thought it was.

"Hey Manny you know it is a long time to get every bit of enjoyment out of sex. You know if you ever need to get some "time off" I can ask her if she wants to help out, sound good?" he asked me bumping my shoulder as he walked past me.

I declined the offer as we walked away, he noticed my gaze and demeanor were not as they once were a few weeks ago before the fall of Reach. He pulled me into the nearest open door and threw me into the wall and said that I should have seen a therapist about watching my home burn. As he looked at me I wasn't even looking at him, I saw the Navy crewmen in the room starring at us. Sarge yelled at me to look at him , but I literally just grabbed him and turned turned him around with him struggling until he saw the seventeen Navy crewmen (literally no females just a bunch of guys).

"What the hell are you Jar-heads doing in our rec room? You two must have a ton of guts to walk in here." One closest to us said with a growl.

"Alright sorry guys we didn't mean to intrude on the room we were just dealing with my friend here, he hasn't been right in the head since Reach." Sarge said trying to ease the tension without knocking the Navy man closest to him out.

"Henry, shut the damn door, we are going to show these Jar-heads not to come into our rec room without our permission." the lead crewman said as I motioned to Sarge that we weren't avoiding a fight now.

The man closest to us looked at me and smiled, a crooked, evil smile crossed his face. He advanced at me but Sarge got in the way, I walked around him and stared at the man who thought he could easily take me, especially since us ODSTs are MA5s with the safety clicked off. As I came close enough his fist flew from his side and up shot in the general direction of my head....

(EPIC FIGHT MUSIC COMMENCE)

Time slowed as his hand flew at me and I could see it as if it was in 2x slow motion. It got closer and closer, once it was close enough I grabbed it and twisted my body around and brought his arm down over my shoulder snapping it at the elbow. The man reared back and screamed as he fell back from the kick that Sarge delivered to the man's chest. Three of the other men came rushing towards us, it was in the same slow motion as the body rolling on the floor. In the time it took them to close the distance to us I shot a look of questioning towards my friend behind me. He nodded and we jumped forward and took the three men rushing us head on as we did many times against the Covenant. My luck was getting the two larger men out of the group of three but the size didn't matter to me as they went down almost as fast as the first. These three didn't get taken down as the first, whom I stole a peak at after the second wave of assailants came forward. He was laying there still, but out cold from the pain of his broken arm as blood covered the front of his uniform and beginning to puddle on the floor.

"MARINES! What the hell are you doing!" a female voice knowing but demanding came from behind us, a voice we knew all too well.

"Ma'am!" we both fired out towards one of our best friends, we snapped off crisp salutes too the female officer who stood before us.

"You Navy men get your friends to the infirmary now, I need to talk with these two." she said staring daggers towards the other soldiers save me and Sarge.

The non Marines in the room gathered up the bodies on the floor, carefully picking up the ringleader of the group covered in blood.  The officer stepped aside as the others scurried around the room to gather the hurt. She walked up to us and frowned towards the Navy boys fleeing the room in shock from the beating their buddies just got. The woman in the room put her hand on my shoulder and asked me if my head was getting better from the things we all witnessed the last few weeks. I knew what she was talking about, Reach.Before I could get a word out of my mouth Sarge interrupted me.

"Jenn he still is acting all strange and distant  h-" Sarge said as Jenn took his hand in hers and shoved it into his mouth as best she could.

"Jenn, I have had the unfortunate event to watch my home planet burn. On top of that I had the memory of my parents trying to kill themselves along with me because of the damn Insurrection. But all in all I am feeling better after that little fight there." I said staring at her with a slight tinge of pain in my voice I almost missed.

"Manny don't worry everything will be fine, we will be fine soon it wont be too bad hopefully we can-" Sarge was saying once he unstuck his hand from his word hole.

An alarm blared as the ship's A.I. said over the comm "All hands man your stations , this is not a drill."

We looked at each other and smiled, bolting out of the room towards the briefing room we knew all too well. Upon arriving we were briefed on what the alarm was for. The Covenant found Earth, we were going to be trying to take a carrier that was over Africa along with three other ships. We would all be dropping onto the hull of the ship and make our way towards the docking bays or any external hatch. Once the briefing was done we all ran to get our armor on and get our rifles. I grabbed my M6 and one of the many MA5Bs on the rack in the armory, Sarge picked up his BR55 rifle and SMG with suppressor and adjusted sight, then there was Jenn, The Lt. picked up her, signature SRS 99- S2 AM snipers rifle and a DMR. Once armed we grabbed four grenades each and turned to one another and smiled, there was going to be a fight and this time the alien menace would not burn Earth. We ran towards our pods two decks down from the armory waving at our fellow Jar- heads and making some cracks at them as we ran. Once we got down to the pods and found our places Jenn came up to me and Sarge and gave us all a reassuring slap on the ass for good luck. Once the pod doors closed and we spun to face towards the outside of the ship I saw every one of the explosions in the distance of space as rockets fired and exploded in the distance. Just as I saw the explosions then looked back at my screen in the pod I felt a *thud* and the pods on the ship cut loose and sent the Marine and all of his friends into the soundless abyss of space.

"Alright Marines, we have a carrier to take", our CO said as we fell "once we get in there we have t-" He was cut off as my eyes shot towards the nose of the carrier (which sadly was were I was headed) where a Slipstream field began to open around the nose.

"Jesus Christ, they are jumping in the atmosphere!" I shouted over the comm so everyone could hear.

There were many shouts coming in over the comm as we fell towards the soon to be jumping space craft. As we got closer I radioed to Jenn and Sarge and told them my pod was  going to go into the open portal. They shot back the standard no you wont it will be fine responses, but I knew that is where I was headed and nothing to fix it. Once our pods were close enough to the ship the carrier finally jumped into the portal and brought a wave of pressure pulling my pod into the portal. As the portal closed I heard static in my helmet ear piece, once that was realized my eyes slowly closed from the forces of the drop into the Slipstream, a second before my eyes closed I saw an "OBJECTIVE UPDATED" pop up on my HUD as the blackness of his eyelids took over my entire vision as I passed out.