The Battle of Odonta

(Ten years before the fall of Reach, on the planet Odonta.)

"Quiet" Christian ordered as he saw the Wraith in the distance. The enemy forces hadn't seen them yet and Christian knew that they had to take out the Wraith first, or the whole operation would go to hell. His squad, only ODST's took cover behind the large jungle trees. The war against The Covenant hadn't gone to well lately and they were short on Spartans. That's why some Spartans had been promoted to squad leaders and had their own squads consisting of ODST's.

He contacted Spartan 753, also known as "Danny", who was some clicks west of them. Danny had some ODST's with demolition training and he remembered that they had a standard M41 rocket launcher. They agreed that Danny's squad would flank the Wraith while Christian's team covered them with sniper fire if it all went to hell. Christian had a bad feeling about this, but they had to secure the coast before night.

Christian's squad moved quietly through the jungle. In his squad he had two of the best snipers in this region of the outer cluster, and he sent them out, one to the right and one to the left of his squad. With them, they got one spotter each. It was only him now, and the three ODST's that was left in his squad. Christian wanted the two sniper teams to report any unusual activity, and as soon as he couldn't see them anymore he lead the rest of the squad straight north and forward against the wraith.

The ODST's could now smell the saltwater in the distance; he off course couldn't because of the air filtering in the Mark V MJOLNIR helmet. The Wraith was not alone; The Covenant had built a little base that was very hard to spot. Ironically, if the Wraith hadn't been there, his squad would have walked straight into a trap.

The base was on top of a cliff, and it was a couple of hundred meters straight down to the ocean below. It was the perfect strategic place for The Covenant to establish a hidden base. From there they could build a plasma cannon that could take out the three large oil platforms in the distance. The oil platforms where the largest the UNSC had built and the oil shipments that arrived at Reach two times a year was important very important to the war progress.

It had been a space battle five days ago, but even if The Covenant lost, they refused to fail their mission. Now they were doing guerilla tactics, and when The Covenant didn't want to be found, it was damn hard to find them. This had to be one of the largest remaining Covenant bases on the planet, and therefore Christian called in backup. Two additional squads of regular Marines and four hornets would arrive in approximately ten minutes.

He ordered his snipers to set up position and told the rest of his squad to prepare. They had one BR55HB SR, also known as battle rifle, each and one silenced M7 SMG. As they prepared, Christian saw that the Wraith turned and aimed in their direction. It fired. The large blue ball of plasma flew towards them and Christian yelled, "Take cover!" and crouched behind a large rock.

Stay tuned for part 2.