Gods Hand

UNSC UNSCATHED

ODST DROP POD DECK E-3

0830

The drop pod deck was silent as the new recruit stood over his disassembled sniper rifle. His finger tapping against the ledge of the table as he ran his free hand along the length of the barrel. He grabbed the scope and did a quick click check. He set the scope down and took a deep breath before he quickly re assembled the rifle. In a matter of mere seconds he had the rifle back in original order. As he did his final check over the rifle the blast door to the deck opened and another ODST walked in. His uniform fresh and his armor damaged to decent level, the new recruit immediately knew that he was the leader of this team, the infamous Lieutenant Henry "Hammer" Mill-house, the only ODST on this ship who has single handily taken down an elite zealot in hand to hand combat.

The new recruit quickly turned and stood at attention and saluted his superior officer. Hammer smiled and raised his hand. "At ease kid." Hammer said as he walked up to the recruit and pulled off his current rank patch and quickly replaced it with a new captains patch. "Command wanted me to give you this for your mission on Delta five, you saved a lot of lives kid, glad to have you here Spain." The lieutenant spoke as he patted Spain's shoulder. Spain looked down with a confused look before he turned and faced his CO.

Spain lightly shrugged before he spoke "Sir, why the promotion." The new captain asked as he picked up am empty sniper mag and began loading it. The Lt. looked up and spoke. "Turns out one of the commanders kids was part of the team that was ambushed on Delta five. The commander is kinda soft about his kids. So he wanted to thank whoever did it." The Lt. said as the blast doors opened again and four more ODST's walked in. The lead ODST was a short blond female with a half shaven head and wore non regulation bright blue lipstick and eyeshadow, she looked gorgeous and terrifying at the same time she wore a semi disgusted look when she saw the new guy standing there.

The next ODST was a slightly taller individual who looked like he could eat a horse and crush a mans head with his biceps. His hair was orange and cut to perfect military grooming standards. His green eyes darted directly towards the new crust and he spoke. Spain scanned the mans armor and found a name in bold silver letters "Hood". "Who the fuck is the new meat." The taller man said as he leaned against the railing. "I don't know but he don't look so tough." Another ODST said as he bumped into the new recruit. Spinach caught a glimpse of the shivers name "Woods". The fourth individual perked up and spoke. "Come on guys give the kid a break, it's his first day." Hood turned and socked his friend in the arm. "Shut it Rios, let us have our fun."

The new captain was slightly insulted as he looked back at his CO only to find him smiling before he began to chuckle to himself. The new captain caught the subtle gesture the LT. Was giving and nodded before turning around to face the rest of the squad crossing his arms to cover his chest plate. "I'm your new captain." Spain responded as the room went completely silent. He dropped his arms down to his side and a symbol stood out that made the groups eyes widen. A closed fist surrounded by four diamonds in all black paint stood out very well against his green chest plate. The other male ODST's quickly snapped to attention while the female looked shocked to see the decal. "No fucking way, your "God's Hand", your the youngest ODST sniper in history." She said before she quickly snapped to attention.

Spain smiled lightly and then spoke. "You know your stuff, that's good." His smile dropped and his tone got serious. "If you know me so well you'd know I don't fuck around." He said bluntly as he picked up the girls rifle from her rack and tossed it at her. She fumbled the rifle between her hands for a few seconds before getting a hold of it. "Now get to your pod and await orders Santiago." Spain said sternly before Santiago hustled to her pod. "Thank you captain, I'll take it from here." The Lt. Spoke as he straightened his body and cleared his throat. "Alright ladies, command has tasked us with making this beautiful bastards trip to hell a not so easy ride." Hammer spoke as a holographic projection of a covenant general.

"You can call this hinge head General Zul." The Lt said as very thorough list of the generals militaristic actions began to appear next to holographic figure. "High command would send Spartans to deal with this but sadly we are the only battle group in this sector of space." The room seemed to grow quieter, every one new that this mission was going to end with either all of us dying or we bring down a key asset.

"Suicide? Seems legit." Hood said as he leaned forward in his drop pod seat. The room grew silent for several minutes before Spain spoke up. "It's not suicide if we live." Spain said as he leaned against the table before pulled a round from his extra round band on his shoulder pad and began to fidget with it. "That's real optimistic there boss man." Santiago said as she walked over and removed one of Spain's rounds from his shoulder and leaned her upper body on the table next to her CO. Hood and woods walked over and removed the rounds before spreading to different parts of the table.

Spain knew why they took his spare rounds, he could feel the stress of the room and could tell that his reassignment to this team made things a little uneasy for the group since their last sniper and several other members before them died in situations like this. The rounds they took were symbolic to them. The ritual was a little cryptic but understandable, the rounds were mementos and he took it as a sign of respect.

Spain was deep in thought when he felt another hand remove a round, he turned his head to find the Lt. had taken the last round. Hammer Set the round in front of him as the holographic image changed to a set of maps.

"Once we touch ground we have three days to locate the general and take him out, once that happens the calvary will roll in and take care of the rest." Hammer said as he moved the bullet to a spot that looked like a canyon.

Woods looked at where hammer placed the round. "Take it the canyon is going to be an issue?" The ODST said as he closely began to memorize the path way. "The canyon walls will be too tall for long range radios, if you can, Avoid it all costs." Hammer said as Spain turned and placed his round on a ledge that would be perfect for his shot. "The generals quarters are under heavy watch and from this ledge I can take the shot if two of you can cause some sort of distraction to lure him out I'll pop him right in his head." Spain said as he looked at the distance of the shot. "That's about three and half miles." He whispered to himself as he pulled out a small note pad and began jotting down key things about his weapon and the position he chose.