ODST: Line of Fire:

Chapter 1: Gettysburg

"And because of you, we found Halo, unlocked its secrets, shattered our enemy's resolve. Our victory - your victory - was so close... I wish you could have lived to see it. But you belong to Reach. Your body, your armor - all burned and turned to glass. Everything, except your courage. That, you gave to us. And with it, we can rebuild. -- excerpt from Noble 6's eulogy from Dr. Cathrine Halsey

His heart was pounding and his chest rose and fell rapidly as he came back into consciousness. Over a short period of time his breathing returned to normal. He was laying on the ground looking up at the sky. He didn't know where he was but he knew that he had to move, and fast. He looked up at the sky and judging by where the sun was, he guessed that he would have about an hour and a half before it was dark. He checked himself for wounds and miraculously found none and then checked his almost devastated drop-pod for remaining gear. He had a silenced M6C Magnum with five 12 round magazines, one silenced M7S sub-machine gun with five 60 round magazines, one 99D-S2 sniper rifle with four 4 round magazines, and two fragmentation grenades. If he had to, he could scavenge weapons from his fallen enemies. He also had a basic first-aid kit with a small tube of bio-foam and three ration bars.

There wasn't anything else he could scavenge because it would slow him down, not like there was anything else TO scavenge. He decided that he would go south, away from the crash site because there was bound to be a Covenant search party to see what all the racket was. He grabbed all of his gear and set out. His biggest challenge was going to be carrying the sniper rifle. Don't get me wrong, he loved it but it weighed about 45 pounds. He complained alot, He complained about alot of other things too. He complained about everything. He was an ODST, a Hell-jumper. The instructors at basic training worried when he wasn't complaining.

He wasn't quite sure why he was picked for this mission. Two other squad members were sent but one, Serina, was killed during the drop, he watched it happened. He tried to take his mind off it because he didn't want it interfering with his mission. He didn't know where his other squad mate was because he landed no where near him, not surprisingly. He DID know that his final objective was to eliminate a group of hinge-heads that were posing a treat to the UNSC. Not that any of he elites didn't pose a threat but these hinge-heads in particular did. These elites targeted and destroyed any UNSC bases and personnel that they could find. Once they were taken care of, life would be that much easier.

During his walk, he recalled how he got here. Aboard the UNSC Gettysburg, 36 hours ago, Veronica Dare was briefing Johnathon and his squad members Serina and Kemp on the upcoming mission. They were told that they were to drop behind enemy lines, travel 20 miles by any means necessary to the destination, and eliminate the threat. They then had 35 hours to lounge around and prepare for the drop. During the drop, Serina perished and Kemp split off from their group landing somewhere else on the planet of Harvest. Johnathon however somehow managed to land on a rock ledge with a 200 foot drop below him. He would have obviously died if he jumped from that height so he had to improvise. After blowing the door off of his SOEIV drop-pod, he carefully climbed out and planted two grenades beneath his pod. As soon as he climbed in, the grenades went off loosening his pod from the rocks. It eventually tipped over falling the 200 feet and he was thrown out after it hit the ground knocking him unconscious. He then woke up and got his gear and that's how he got here.

He hadn't realized it but he was walking for about an hour now. In half and hour it would be dark. He decided that he wouldn't stop but rather keep going. In about three hours, he would stop to have some water and one of the ration bars that he had. Now that he thought abut it, he realized that he would have to catch some food. It would be rather easy to just wait for a small vermin to come along and he would just shoot it, but he wasn't quite sure how close he was to the nearest Covenant patrol. He thought about this for awhile and remembered that he had a basic survival kit in his medi-pouch. It contained a small plastic bag, a bottle of iodine, a fishing kit which contained around fifty feet of line, two weights, and a small plastic worm, and he had 20 feet of snare wire and that was about it. He thought about this for awhile and decided that he would try setting a snare if he couldn't find anywhere to fish and he would build a shelter to sleep in overnight. If he didn't catch anything, he would use his magnum because it had a silencer on it to try and shoot a vermin, after scouting the area for any Covenant.

That night he set out to build his shelter. In any normal condition it would have been almost impossible in the dark but he had his VISIR (Visual Intelligence System, Reconnaissance) equipped in his helmet. That meant that any available light was amplified by his VISIR system. After he built his shelter he set out a little ways from it to set his snares. He set two snares about 50 feet from each other. He built his shelter so well that it took him 15 minutes to find his shelter. He also remembered that he had an emergency space blanket but it wouldn't do him any good because his armor would more than likely tear right through it and he didn't DARE take his armor off.He climbed into his shelter and spent the next twenty minutes trying a comfortable position. He finally ended up lying on his back with his feet slightly tucked to the side. He fell asleep thinking about the walk he had to make tomorrow to reach his final destination. He didn't realize it yet, but this was one of the worst mistakes he will have ever made.