1st Lieutenant Horatio Grainer

Four miles east of the northern pelican crash site, island two.

Horatio clambered out of his drop pod with his chest full of fire, and his left leg feeling akin to broken glass. His landing had been rough; for a moment, he thought he wouldn't make it.

And as he put weight on his left leg, he momentarily wished he hadn't. The pain was mind numbing, like a bright crash of lightning.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered, switching his weight to his right leg.

Each breath caused a spider web of pain to span his torso, telling him he'd certainly cracked a rib or two. He hoped that was all he'd done; an internal injury would leave him shit out of luck.

Horatio tried to take his mind off the pain steadily encroaching on his body, and peered around. The environment was similar to a lush rainforest, like those found on earth. The sky above was blue and clear; a pale outline of a moon stood at its zenith. A few indigenous animals cawed and cooed in the background, reminding the getting-too-old-for-this-shit lieutenant of some kind of fictional paradise.

And then he heard the hum of a Type 25 Covenant dropship's engines, and it was getting louder by the second.

"Fuck," he sighed, gritting his teeth over the pain.

He instinctively reached for the radio attached to his left breast, but his hand came away holding shattered plastic and wires. He'd of launched another obscenity, but his chest was having none of it. Any more talking was going to put him in an early grave at this rate, and he wasn't much into the idea of cashing out early.

Not like those poor bastards on Reach.

Grabbing his M7S, which thankfully hadn't shared the same fate as his leg or his radio, Horatio hobbled away, and threw himself into some thick undergrowth just as the Type-25 crested the canopies surrounding his drop pod. It hovered there briefly, and the injured 1st lieutenant prayed to whatever deity would hear his calls: let them pass.

The Type-25's engines slowed to dull thrum, and the stiff Y-shaped dropship started to descend.

Horatio wasn't going to run; he couldn't. Instead he chose to lay low in the thick greenery, hoping for a moment that none of it harboured anything dangerous, and pulled back the receiver on his M7S. They'd either move on, or they'd find him; he was probably fucked in both cases.

Corporal Haynes Devman - Half a Mile Down a Mountain East of the Northern Pelican Crash Site.

He ripped away the restraints of his seat as soon as he landed. Perhaps in such high adrenaline situation that was occurring back inside the warship he wasn't able to feel the effects of gravity and inertia of the drop. His arms launched forward, grabbing the stock of the MA5C beside him and attaching it to his hoist around his back. Next was his DMR.

In his hurry and anticipation of the Covenant forces he pushed the emergency hatch release to prepare for the possibility, but in his haste he failed to realise his immediate surroundings. As the hatch popped, snow immediately plundered in as high winds ripped the hatch into the air, carrying it as it freefalls into the earth. "Shit, fuck!" The extra ammunitions and frag grenades was caught by the same wind. Devman's futile attempts to recover his supplies had failed as they float away.

There was almost no ground in front of him... Only large mountain rocks covered in snow with a steep descent and a vertical dip that would tempt death to reach for Devman. He inspected his current magazine on the DMR's screen. "Goddamnit."

He look through the scope of the DMR to ensure a clear coast before making a very careful exit from his pod.

Staff Sergeant Hunter Monroe. Norther most Ruins, island One.

Hunter just woke up, his drop pod took a brutal hit when it made impact, but bones seemed fine, nothing else seemed wrong, well his pod was hanging 20 feet in the air. The door to his pod was gone, might have been lost in the crash. His safety harness actually held this time, having past experiences where it didn't hold, he was glad it held this time. Though it was jammed... That... was a new one.

Hunter drew his his knife and started to cut the harness. He was about out when he heard the sounds of Grunts, Didn't take long until he heard the Elite that was with them. One Elite, and Three grunts. With his rifle up top here he could kill 'em all. He reached over to where his rifle was supposed to be and it wasn't there, same with his shotgun. He looked around and saw the rifle on its side behind the group of covenant more then likely looking for his pod. His shotgun was just picked up my the Elite in confusion, now they knew for sure someone was here. he was short time now, he saw a old bridge, just a short jump away.

The Elite looked up too see the empty pod. It was heave damaged but what caught his attention was the safety harness was cut, He stared at the pod and the loos straps inside of it. Who ever was in that thing could not have been far. He spoke in his native tongue. "Move out! Find the human before they do any damage." He turned around to see Hunter aiming the rifle down the ally. POW! The rifle shot off running a round clean through the Elites head. The Grunts scattered, Hunter didn't want to risk his location by firing a second shot. One shot, the enemy knew you are near, Two shots they can guess the direction.

Hunter slung his rifle and drew his knife again. The first grunt was easy to spot, It practically ran into his knife as it ran the corner, the second one was in imminent eye sight distance. Hunter yanked out his knife and threw it into grunt Number two. He had to find the last one before it got away, if it got away his location would be compromised.

A plasma bolt hit the back of his helmet sending it flying, he was fine but if that shot were a little lower he would have been dead. He didn't have time to retrieve the knife, when the grunt took cover he charged it. When the grunt came out of cover again he was met by Hunters foot. Hunter took the plasma pistol and started beating the grunt to death with it.

After the last of his foes were dead he dragged the bodies to the side of the ruins and threw them over the cliff one by one, eventually they all landed in the water below. Hunter went around the ruins to gather his lost gear, took a while but he was able to recover it all, and take some of what the covenant scouting party brought. He climbed to the roof of one of the structures and set his rifle up, right across the massive lake was a Covenant landing platform. He could watch it from here, though he wasn't really a good enough shot to do any damage from how far he was. Unless he wanted to just fuck with there minds and scare the shit out of them. Which was an option, just not now.

First Lieutenant Khan Alexandov

Partially underwater, island two between north pelican crash and south ruins.

He could've made it to dry land if he hadn't crossed over a fleeing pelican, hitting it's pursuer and altering his course."Damn!" he said in frustration as the pod was slowly sinking in the water. He'd have to chance it. He'd take everything he could: ammo, guns, food, medical supplies, all that stuff. Then, taking a deep breath, activated the emergency release button, water rushing in at such a fast pace.

He was struggling to get out. If he'd make it off this island, or even this pod, alive, he'd ask for a better ejection system. Finally getting out of the pod, he began his ascent to the surface where he'd then crawl up onto the beach. Only sticking his head out, he scanned for Covenant activity. No one in sight. The pod landed in the water, so they expected him dead deep beneath the surface. Good.

He crawled on the beach, crouching with pistol raised, then continued into the thick foliage. He proceeded to one of the pelican crashes, finding it turned into a small base. He'd have to think up a plan.

Horatio did his best to muffle his feeble moans, as he attempted to stand on his knees in the shrubbery. His left leg was certainly out for the count, and leaning on it was starting to create spots in his vision. Quietly, he switched to his right knee, though this unaccustomed stance left him feeling a little off balance.

The Type-25's engines dulled their noise, just as the drop ship's sides opened to reveal a set course menu of Covenant. Six grunts, and one big ugly bastard of an Elite. They hit the ground running, spreading out over the area and checking for hostiles. Horatio remained perfectly still, his M7S poised directly towards the greatest threat: the Elite. He had no hope of downing his target, let alone the six grunts that muttered to each other in their various clown dialects. Still, if he was discovered, then he'd go down fighting.

Just like so many others.

A few minutes passed as the patrol continued to check the drop pod's parameter. The Type-25 had slowly started to ascend, obviously having received orders to head elsewhere, but its payload stayed behind. Horatio had managed to steady his breathing to a point that his chest no longer burned with each inhale and exhale, but his heart had picked its pace up by a thousand or so knots, and each reverberating beat was proving a small agony.

The Elite said something untelligble, in a loud and casual fashion; it obviously wasn't expecting danger. The grunts rounded on their leader, and the group set upon the drop pod. They poked, prodded, chuckled and snorted. Whatever they were up to was beyond Horatio's meagre understanding of the Covenant's cultural habits, but their actions weren't beyond his military prowess.

He could end this situation here and now, with a good serving of maximum force and a dollop of surprise. The Type-25 finally lifted, and hummed off towards the south, convincing the 1st Lieutenant that his plan bore some merit.

Keeping his M7S poised at his foe with his right hand, his left fell to his waistline, and relieved it of two frag grenades. Needing both hands, he set the M7S down gently on the grass beneath him, and quietly primed the two grenades. Horatio let them cook for a few seconds, and then chucked both of them in quick succession towards the drop pod. He wasn't the greatest thrower, but the explosives landed near enough to where he needed them.

A grunt looked down at its feet and screamed; the Elite turned with a snarl, but uttered a curse just before the burst of fire and shrapnel tore through the Covenant patrol.

Horatio scrambled for his M7S, and peered down the sights at a cloud of blue sparkling electricity that stood out from the chaos like a sore thumb; he depressed the trigger. The Elite's shield, already weakened by the blasts, sparked and spluttered in short order. Thanks to Horatio's silenced weapon, the Elite had little idea of where its attacker was shooting from, and resolved to fire its plasma rifle in a circle; trees exploded into bark fragments and the ground was glassed, but the ODST was safe. No plasma came his way.

Horatio kept firing, and finally the Elite's shield gave way, allowing a salvo of rounds to hit it straight in the chest. The alien fell backwards, blood trailing shortly behind. A couple of grunts, survivors of Horatio's grenade salvo, started running off into the trees. Horatio ejected the magazine in his weapon, and quickly reloaded; he sent a trio of bursts towards one of the grunts, and saw it collapse forwards into the grass. However, the second survivor had made the safety of the trees.

Horatio made to pursue his fleeing enemy, but he fell forwards immediately with an echoing curse. He'd forgotten his left leg.

Private First Class Takeshi, Katsuo, Island 1/ 1 Mile North West of Crash site Two

Takeshi's SOEIV shuttered violently as it smashed through two trees in a shower of tree limbs and splinters before finally impacting ground in a cloud of dust wedged against a Tree's Trunk. Takeshi's door exploded off a split second after the SOEIV settled flinging the door into a near by clearing, He pulled his restraints off and stumbled out of his pod and checked his pack's straps then grabbed his MA5B from the pod and pulled the charging handle feeding a round into the chamber and flipped the safety off. Voices could be heard closing in sending Takeshi into a full sprints for forty feet til he got behind a fallen tree and it's underbrush and rested his rifle on the aimed at his pod.

Four grunts with a jackal came into view the jackal chirping orders at the grunts as they approached the pod well the grunts made odd sounding noises. The Grunts reached the pod first pouring over the pod and sniffing the air, Takeshi's suppressed MA5B coughed as he depressed his trigger in a short burst sending expended shell casings spiraling into the underbrush, purple blood sprayed into the air as four 7.62x51mm full metal jacketed rounds punctured the chest of the jackal killing it before it hit the ground. He brought his assault rifle to bear on the grunts and fired another burst cutting a grunt down as it was turning, a panicked shot of green plasma went wide of Takeshi impacting a tree leaving a smoldering hole in the trunk. Takeshi fired another burst impacting the grunts chest and head in a shower of luminescent blue blood as the grunts head exploded from the impact. Takeshi slowly rose as the remaining grunt cowered behind the pod firing blind shots from it's plasma pistol. Takeshi aimed his MA5B at the exposed methane pack of the grunt and took a deep breath and released half the breath and depressed his trigger releasing a round that impacted the methane pack and turning into a explosive on the grunts back,throwing the charred grunts body from behind the pod sprawling on the ground.

Takeshi remembered seeing a set of ruins north at the apex of a snow capped mountain on his decent to terra firma north west of his postion and a acrid black pillar of smoke southeast and decided to go with the ruins rather then a trap with no support and began moving northwest on the hilly terrain. He activated his helmet's built in microphone ," This is Dragon Xray 1-3, condition green, unknown grid dose anyone copy over." he said slowly and clearly with a slight Japanese accent over the encrypted radio net as he continued walking his weapon scanning in front of him well listening for a reply as he continued to ascend the wooded area.

Corporal Haynes Devman

He vigilantly stepped out of his pod onto a narrow ledge. Underneath him was the view of an alien planet-- an unknown he did not want to face. Arms reaching for a grip along the walls helped him ease his footing. He sees the descending Type 25. Shit, they knew they're there. It's turret circled around the horizon and passed... Had it caught an eye on something? Another ODST member perhaps? He continued to slither along the rocky walls towards a more stabler platform whilst watching his footing across fragile ledges.