>>32765867
It's a good plan, you think, until Penny gives a huff.
"Sergeant, that sounds like a good plan, but we're not exactly outfitted for combat search and rescue here. You're a couple of groundpounders and then there's sleeping beauty in the back. In addition to that," she continues, adding emphasis to cut off the Sergeant's protests, "Me and the Rookie here have other obligations to abide. We're long overdue in New Alexandria to link up with the rest of ACRE team. Do you know where the rest of your team is?"
"Me?" asks the sergeant.
"Yeah you. You got anywhere to be?"
"No Ma'am. I was waiting at UNSC Quezon to get reassigned. My battalion got destroyed on Sigma Octanus."
Penny glances at you. "We can get you assigned to ACRE team, if ya want. Or we can find somewhere nice to drop you off and you can do your own thing. Rookie, any objections?"

>Any objections, Rookie?
>I think we should go to UNSC Quezon and help
>I think we should drop the sergeant off
>No objections, I think we should take the sergeant with us to New Alexandria

>>32765880
>>No objections, I think we should take the sergeant with us to New Alexandria

>>32765880
>>No objections, I think we should take the sergeant with us to New Alexandria
Helljumper, helljumper, where you been?
Feet first into hell and back again!

>>32766303
Beat me to it

You stare blankly at Penny for a moment, processing. "Uh, no objections? That's fine," You turn to Jacobson, "That good?" you ask him.
He looks a little slack-jawed himself. "Uh, yeah, I guess I could join Acre team. What about UNSC Quezon, though? We can't just leave them there."
"I've got that covered, boys. The jamming is down, remember?" She presses a few holographic markers on the pelican's HUD, changing the frequency of her communications net. "Charlie Two-Six to ACRE Dispatch. You reading me?"
There's a moment of silence, and then a male German-accented voice replies, "Charlie Two-Six, Dispatch reads you. What is the situation?"
"Hummel, good to hear from you. We need a CSAR op organised down here quick; UNSC Quezon got hit and hit hard. Can you get Commander MacKenzie to get it organised?"
"The message is being relayed as we speak," Hummel replies. "And what is /your/ status?"
"Green," replies Penny. "I have Corporal Churchill with me, and a couple marine stragglers. Hey, I'll send over their files, you think you could get them transferred to ACRE? And any chance we could get fighter escort to New Alexandria?"
"I will do what I can regarding the personnel, and two F99 Ospreys are being tasked to your position."
"Thanks for the assist, Hummel. We'll see you in orbit once we pick up our guys. Two-six, leaving comms."
"Good luck on the surface, Fräulein Penny."
"Thanks," Penny says as she signs off. "That was Hummel, ACRE's smart AI. Styles himself like some 20th century German general. Anyway boys, better strap yourselves in. We're going suborbital to make it to New Alexandria in time. Hopefully we don't run into any Covenant air forces on the way."
You don't have anything to say, so you pat Penny on the shoulder and turn back to the troop compartment.

1/2

The heavy acceleration of the Pelican is what rouses the young girl sitting across from you. She wakes with a loud gasp, and looks around frantically.
"Whoa, whoa," you say, holding up your hands. "Calm down Private, you're safe here."
"Wha- where am I?" She asks. "We were clearing the Traxus building, and then..." she clutches her head and winces.
"Jammer was booby trapped," says Jacobson. "Overpressure must have knocked you out, or something. We checked your vitals, and everything was fine, so we decided to leave you as you were."
"How are you feeling?" you ask. "Dizzy? Sore? Signs of a concussion?" You couldn't stand up to give her a proper check without falling over, as the pelican was still in the middle of its burn.
"I'm fine. Ears and chest hurt a bit, but mostly I'm confused from waking up in a place where I didn't fall asleep. Or even waking up when I don't even remember /being/ asleep."
"Hey, don't worry about it." You offer a hand across the compartment. "Corporal Daniel Churchill, ODST."
She takes your hand and shakes it. Her grip is surprisingly firm for someone with such a slight build. "Private Erika Lund, also ODST."
You look skeptical. "Really?"
"In training," she admits. "We were going to do our first drop before this whole thing kicked off. Then the Covenant came and I got swept up in the chaos."
"Yeah, we all did. Oh, the man sitting beside you is Sergeant Jacobson."
Jacobson offers his hand to shake. "Never thought a pretty young thing like you would be ODST."
She grips his hand. You can see him wince from where you're sitting. "Looks can be deceiving," she says with a grin. She lets go and laughs, and you join her. The sergeant laughs as well, though a little sheepishly.

2/3

"Lastly, our intrepid pilot is one Lieutenant Penny MacDaniel, though she can't shake your hand at the moment."
Erika nods. She looks out the window in the rear hatch, and sees the half-dark sky around you as you fly at the edge of the atmosphere. "So where are we going?"

> Give her the same offer you gave the sergeant; join ACRE.
> No point in asking. Tell her she's been conscripted.

>>32767322
> No point in asking. Tell her she's been conscripted.
we're mid burn to New Alexandria, there ain't no getting off this ride

>>32767322
>> No point in asking. Tell her she's been conscripted.

where'd the other anon go?

"We're on our way to New Alexandria, pick up some of our guys, then we're getting off-planet and out-system. You weren't assigned to any units, were you?"
"No, why do you ask?"
"Okay, great, that makes this a lot easier. Welcome to ACRE team, Private."
"Okaay, what's that exactly?" she asks, skepticism clear.
"I have no idea what it stands for," you say. "It's an ONI headed rescue and recon mission. We're going behind the lines to the old battlegrounds, looking for survivors."
"Sounds... interesting," she says. "Do I get a say in this?"
"Nope."
She shrugs. "A trooper doesn't question why, only 'whose ass do I get to kick?'"

It's still a while until you get to New Alexandria. You've got enough time to get to know your two new team mates.

>Get to know who?
> Sergeant Jacobson
> Private Lund

>>32767886
>> Sergeant Jacobson
>> Private Lund
lets get everyone knowing each other

>>32767886
> Sergeant Jacobson

>>32767973
THAT'S FUCKING TEAMWORK!

>>32767973
I'll second this

Update's on the way

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"So, where you guys from?" you ask.
"I was born and grew up in Armstrong, Luna," says Jacobson. "Mom was Navy, Dad was Navy. I joined the marines when I was able, back in 2544."
"I only joined up last year," you say. "I fought on Fumirole, that was my first combat drop. I was born on Earth; in Perth."
"An earthling, huh?" Jacobson asks. "I never went down to the planet much, but when we did, it was real nice. What about you, Lund?"
"I'm from nowhere, now," she says. "I was born on New Llanelli. I was fourteen when it got glassed."
The both of you sombre up. Jacobson looks especially pained. "That was my first deployment," he says.
"You were there?" she asks.
"I was," he replies. "It was horrible, but it taught me a lot about why I'm here now. How to survive, and why I'm fighting."
She nods, before continuing. "I came here to Reach with the other refugees. My parents were gone, so it was just me for a while, living on the streets. I thought I could keep living like that, but you keep hearing that more and more colonies go missing, that the Covenant keep coming, and I decided that it was time for some vengeance. So here I am."

"Hate to interrupt your chitchat," says Penny, from the front. "We're going to have to drop out of the burn. A big bastard is coming this way."
"When you say 'big bastard', what exactly do you mean?" you ask.
"Looks like a carrier, but it's way, way too big. I'm descending us back into atmosphere."
"Hey, we've got HUDs back here, show us what you're seeing."
Your VISR winks on, showing you a vid feed from the front of the craft. On the horizon, looming like some massive sea creature is a Covenant carrier.
"How far away is that?" asks Jacobson.
"Hundreds of kilometres," says Penny.
The feed magnifies, and you can see the carrier in greater detail. Below it is a speck you recognise as a covenant corvette.
"No way!" exclaims Erika. "That thing is huge!"
Someone does some calculations and puts up the length of the carrier on the feed.

1/2

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"That thing," you say, "is twenty eight kilometres long. Twenty eight! I never knew that the Covies had anything that big!"
"Whatever it is, we're steering clear of it," says Penny. "Brace for deceleration, we-"
There's a flash. A ball of light engulfs the supercarrier's midsection, and then winks out, taking half of the carrier with it. The two remaining parts drift away from each other, glowing red at the seams.
"Was that a... slipspace rupture?" someone asks.
There's relief in Penny's voice. "Well, whatever that thing is, it's dead now. I'll keep us on course for New Alexandria. Maybe that's the end of the Covenant on Reach."
She just had to open her big mouth.

The Pelican shudders as slipspace entries open all around it. From them, ships emerge. More than you've ever seen.
"They're all around us!" Penny screams over the collision warnings.
"Take us down, right fucking now!" you yell at her.
"The Gs, you'll all be knocked out!"

>Doesn't matter, dive dive dive!
>Then take us slow! Turn us around! Just get us the hell away from those things!

>>32769320
>>Then take us slow! Turn us around! Just get us the hell away from those things!

>>32769320
>Doesn't matter, dive dive dive!
as long as we only blackout and no more

>>32769320
>doesn't matter, dive , dive , dive

I'm having lunch, writing will resume shortly

>>32769320
>Doesn't matter, dive dive dive!

Food is consumed, back to writing

"It doesn't matter, just dive!"
"Roger that!"
Penny puts the pelican into a roll and inverts it. You drop like a rock out of the sky. The g-force is like running headfirst into a wall, but you push through it. Jacobson and Erika are knocked out, but it's nothing compared to a drop. You can feel the darkness clutching at the edges of your consciousness, but you push through it. And then Penny does an evasive roll. That does it, and you black out.

You come to, though you don't know how long it's been. You're buffeted by air currents, and you look to your right and see that the rear hatch just isn't there anymore.
"Fuck!" you say. "Penny, we don't have a rear hatch!"
"That's the least of my problems!" That's when you notice the banshees tailing your pelican.
"Penny, we got banshees!"
"Known variables, trooper!" Penny yells as she rolls the pelican over a stream of plasma. One of the F99 Wombats swoops past and kills a banshee with its cannons, forcing the other one to break off.
"Penny, I forgot! We have Wombats too!"
"God dammit trooper! Check on the other two, we're unpressurised and they don't have suits. I'll try not to roll her too much!"
"'Too much', right!" you say as you unstrap yourself and clamber across the pelican. You collapse onto the seats between the two unconscious soldiers. Using your suit's HUD, you bring up their medical readouts.

"They look alive!" you say to Penny. "They need oxygen!"
"Look up." Comes the reply. The bright yellow oxygen masks dangle above you, and you're not sure how you could miss those. You grab one for each soldier and make sure they're securely attached.
"Oxygen attained!" you tell Penny. You're facing towards the rear hatch and you can see that the ground is getting closer. "Penny, we're going fast and we're going low."
"I know. You strapped in?"
"Should I be?"
"You got three seconds."
You scramble to get yourself into a harness as Penny counts down.
"Decelerating!" she says.
It's nearly enough to knock you out again.

1/2

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Penny pulls up just above a tree line, still going at the speed of Holy Fuck We're Gonna Die. The banshees have stopped following you, preoccupied with attacking the F99 Wombats. Penny flares out the pelican, pushing you further into your harness. It's minutes before you finally slow down to a somewhat safe speed.
And then an engine blows out.
"Fuck!" you say, more out of reflex than anything else.
"I'm bringing her down, brace for impact!"
Penny manages to bring the pelican down near a clearing, and only killing a dozen trees in the process. The pelican holds up to the beating, protecting its occupants from harm.
And then it finally. Comes. To a stop.

You sigh with relief. You suddenly feel like it's a good day to be alive. Sure, the Covenant are on Reach, UNSC forces are getting their asses handed to them, and your everything hurts right now, but after surviving something like /that/ you feel like everything is going to sort itself out in the end.
Penny enters from the cockpit. "What's wrong, Rookie? Wet your pants?" she asks as she grabs a pistol and some ammo.
"I've only been on one drop, Penny," you begin as you unstrap your harness, "and it was much hairier than that."
"No time to waste," Penny says as she hands you your DMR. "Wake the others, we've gotta get out of here before the Covies show up."
"What'll we do?" you ask her.
"We can find some place and hole up for evac, or we can walk to New Alexandria. It's about a day's walk if we march it."
"Ah, christ," you mutter.

> Hole up for Evac
> Walk it

>>32770934
Check if the others can walk it, and do so if they're able.

>>32770934
>> Walk it

>>32770934
seconding >>32770962

>>32770962
Third.

Though can we swap for not a DMR?

>>32770962
this

>>32771015
DMRs are great.

>>32771015
Why?

We picked a fucking marksman and we've never since actually picked up a DMR once...

Shut up and use the fucking rifle for fucks sake.

>>32771026
gameplay wise.
Lore wise, they're worse the the BR55, and the only branch that didn't totally replace them by 2547 was the UNSC Army.

>>32771015
We are also a marksman and the DMR was our weapon of choice on thread 1.
>>32770962
fourth

>>32771026
ya it is pretty much the best all around gun other then the H1 pistol
>>32771050
what

>>32771015
>hating the DMR
It's like you don't enjoy the best gun.

>>32771050
so who gives a shit if there are better ones, this one is ours and we rock with it

>>32771050
Stop being a meta-gaming faggot.

>>32771050
Are you expecting a battle rifle to magically appear?

Besides, covvie weapons are best.

>>32771054
>Lurker

Go back to lurking.

>>32771059
it was quite blatantly stated throughout the lore that the DMR was only used by the Army, having been replaced in all other branches by the BR55 as of 2547. I still don't know why they returned in Halo 4, and quite honestly lost interest in finding out, as the story in 4 was easily the worst in the series.

>>32771124
And who gives a shit? This rifle is ours and we are damn well using it, you think just because you want something 'better' that we're magically gonna get it? Stop metagaming and play the quest.

>>32771124
Most of the forces on the Infinity were Army or Spartan.

>>32770962
nth'ing.

>>32771088
I'm not metagaming. No SHIP BASED ODST would have been issued a DMR.
>>32771099
I wasn't expecting a BR to appear, I just don't want other guys reliant on an inferior weapon when we have a choice of weapons. It's like wanting an L85 when we can have an M16. Sure, there are better weapons than both, but push comes to shove, the L85 (and the DMR) are shit compared to the other choices.
And yeah, I would prefer a needle rifle or carbine.

>>32771124
Doesn't change the fact that the DMR is a beast in the games.

>>32771158
shit, really? that answers that question. I'm surprised they didn't phase it out in the interim 4 years, but that's 343 writing for you.
>>32771156
1) I gives a shit
2)I'm not expecting something to magically appear. I'm saying if that does happen, it would be a good idea to take it, be it BR, Carbine, or Needle Rifle.

>>32771209
Covvie carbine would be sweet
>dat projectile
>dat accuracy
>dat reload animation

>>32771209
>It's like wanting an L85 when we can have an M16
aaaand I stopped reading there

protip: it don't fucking matter whether one is slightly better in a particular aspect, what matters is how we use it, and trust me, I've used both an L85A2 and a M16A3 and you know what the difference is? fucking nothing, they both do the same exact job more than adequately enough

>>32771263
hell yeah, burritos for days

>>32771293
there is a difference between 'slightly better' and 'discontinued mid-war'. If they were willing to replace it in the middle of their attempts to survive a genocide, then the difference was probably big.

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>>32771243
>>32771263
I like my Cov-weapons as much as the next guy. But I think we would have a hard time with ammunition, since we're not a Spartan who stomps his way through squad after squad on his way to the toilet.

>>32771321
and none of that matters to Corporal Dan Churchill

>>32771209
>I'm not metagaming
yes you are, you are not playing the character, your using our of character information to colour and influence your votes and arguments, you're not playing the character, your trying to play yourself, thats metagaming buddy

>>32771369
>that picture
>holy fuck yes
the only downside to the covie weapons

>>32771398
you know what? fuckit.
I just did the math.
Turns out, unless the good corporal is 23 or older, he wouldn't have enlisted until AFTER they phased out the BR.
And with this conclusion, I realize I Have been metagaming. I feel slightly sick now.

>>32771443
>phased out the BR

You mean the DMR?

>>32771464
yeah.

"Yeah, fuck it, we're walking, it's not like I've had enough of walking."
"Less grump, trooper," Penny says.
You knock on your fellow marines' helmets to wake them up.
"I'm getting real tired of being unconscious," Erika says after you wake her.
You hand her an AR. "Come on Boot, we got places to be, and that is not here."
You step out of the pelican and into the sunlight. The pelican was fucked up; in addition to missing the rear hatch, several engines had taken plasma damage, and there was massive plasma scoring down the right side of the bird. You're surprised that you actually managed to make it down in one piece.

"Look," says Jacobson. You follow the direction of his hand. In the distance, a covenant ship falls out of orbit. The sharklike craft looks like it had something big take it and snap it in half, and as you watch it tumbles, showing that part of the rear quarter had been outright vaporised. It disappears behind the trees around you and impacts the ground far out of sight, making the ground tremble.
"Welcome to Reach, motherfuckers."

Hours of cadences later, and the sun begins to set. Instead of stars, there are flashes and lances of light crisscrossing the sky, and the largest Covenant fleet in history fights the largest human fleet in history. You know that up there, people were fighting and dying to protect the planet, but from down here you couldn't imagine it.
You all stop for a short rest.
"We could make it to New Alexandria by dawn," Sergeant Jacobson says. "It'll be tough work, but we can make it. On the other hand, I'm not really sure how much of a rush we're in, exactly. We could afford ourselves some rest."
"I could go for rest," Penny says.
"Typical navy," Erika says. "Though I wouldn't mind either."
"I'll leave the vote to you, Rookie," the Sergeant says.

> Rest
> Push on

>>32771369
Isn't there a Spartan on this op? Follow the death machine and pick up the loot.

>>32771488
Could work, but we have yet to meet him.

>>32771483
>Rest

No sleep though, just a breather and some food. Gotta be speedy.

>>32771483
rest for an hour, maybe two, then push on

>>32771483
>> Push on

>>32771443
s'okay anon, happens to the best of us, just gotta always remember, the PC knows barely half you do, play them like a blank slate picking up knowledge for the first time

>>32771483
> Push on
the longer we wait, the worse things get and the less chance we have of getting off Reach with our squad

>>32771488
indeed there is a Spartan slated on our team, no idea whether its an SII or SIII or who they are yet, we haven't met them yet

As far as the BR/DMR thing goes, as a marksman you are trained in both. Hell, you could pick up an MA5 and make a good accounting for yourself at range with it, though that's a lot harder since the thing doesn't have sights.

As to why you don't have a BR now, up to this point you've been drifting through army bases for the most part, where the DMR is the most plentiful. I'm not sure how it goes post-reach retcon, and all my books are from before then, and in those it said or implied that the BR wasn't so common before Reach. If things have changed post-reach retcon, I'll take that upon myself. Rest assured, you'll get your hands on a BR at some point.

>>32771546
>post-reach retcon
I've only played up to Reach in the games and the books, whats the deal with this retcon thingy?

>>32771483
>> Rest

>>32771546
I read ARs have flip up emergency sights when for when your HUD went down. No clue where they would put them though.

>>32771530
Ah, the failings of playing grizzled old warriors/wizards that know a surprising lot about the world.
OoC, probably an S-II. They don't declassify the S-IIIs until after the war. Something about being raised exclusively to die on a mission with 0% survivability, even for a spartan, with iffy exfil at all.

>>32771558
When they released Reach the game they extended the battle of Reach from a single day in the books to about a month in the game. After that they had to retcon a bunch of bits in the books to make the timeline fit.

It still confuses me, to be honest, but mostly because I haven't gotten the post-retcon versions of the books

>>32771598
ah right then

when I read the books it always seemed weird that the whole battle just happened and that was it, makes sense to drag it out, even with the glassing, it would have taken weeks to take Reach by force

>>32771598
Nuclear hand grenades when?

Writing

>>32771558
Simple, as the smart ass I feel qualified I love sarcasm to tell you.
The BR was first introduced to the then Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson's squad in 2525 on a planet called Harvest. With me so far?
Lore wise, the BR saw more and more widespread use, through the years, and was made the go-to long distance rifle in 2547 for the Marines (and ODSTs), Air Forces, and Navy. The reason the DMR was so plentiful in Reach lore wise was because Noble Team was attached to the Army, and reported to Army Command. Further, the Army had a much larger presence on Reach, the Fortress World of Humanity, than in the other games, the vast majority of which took place in space attached to the Navy, under Navy command.
The Reach Retcon was, in essence, the release of Halo REACH. The game rewrote a lot of pre-existing lore behind the Fall of Reach, introduced a whole new array of weapons that had never been seen before, in game or in lore, and basically forced the book "The Fall of Reach", a rather well written book, to be REWRITTEN because of all the inconsistencies.

>>32771726
Too bad all the early Halo books use the word clip instead of magazine. Always cringe a little when reading that.

Haven't really read the newest books so I can't comment on that. Are they any good?

>>32771802
The Forerunner books are a decent reads.
The other trilogy... well, they're Travissties. If that doesn't tell you, they shit all over the other books, especially Ghosts of Onyx.

>>32771802
>Haven't really read the newest books so I can't comment on that. Are they any good?
I'm curious to know to, probably download them if they are worth a read

>>32771802
>>32771827
Don't read the Reclaimer Trilogy

Just don't

>>32771868
is that what they called the travissties?
>>32771827
and yeah, don't read them. They're the Halo 4 of the books.

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"We rest for a few hours," you say. "Have a munch, recuperate, and then we push on later."
You get three nods of assent, followed by three asses hitting the ground.
"Does anyone even have some chow?" Jacobson asks.
You reach into a pouch on your belt and pull out some energy bars. "UNSC standard," you say. "Never got a chance to grab a pack, so this is the best I've got." You pass the bars around, and then take off your helmet in order to consume yours. The label says chocolate, and when you take a bite you find that it tastes almost, but not quite, entirely unlike what it was advertised as.

You finish your 'chocolate bar' and lie back, gazing at the space battle occurring high above you.
"Anything on the net?" you ask Penny.
"Does it look like I'm wearing a radio pack?" she shoots back, gesturing behind her.
"You don't need a radio pack to listen in. Suit comms are enough for that, and I know you've been listening."
She gives you a long look, and then sighs. "Fleet's up there getting its butt kicked. I tried raising Commander MacKenzie a few times, but either I couldn't get a signal out or he wasn't there to receive it. Covenant landing forces have put down staging areas at the poles and are enveloping the planet from all sides. It's a shitstorm."
"Any reports of glassing?" Jacobson asks.
"Not yet. Army and Marines are putting on a good showing of themselves, as well as the air force. They're making every bit of ground the Covies take cost twice as much in blood. That being said, if the fleet can't hold them off..." She leaves the rest of that sentence unsaid, but you all know the implication there.
"Well, we've got our guys in New Alexandria to rescue, and then we've got to get off-planet. How hard could that be?"

How hard could it be indeed.

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So, how high are the chances about Jun being our Spartan in this quest?

>>32772016
not likely, IIRC he gets assigned to keep Halsey out of covvie hands at any cost, not join a deep penetration CSAR mission

>>32772007
what do?/cont/thread end?

>>32772016
HIGHLY UNLIKELY. Jun would still be assigned to Noble.

That's it for the night. I've been sitting here for six hours now, I think it's about time for a stretch and a shower.

Hope you guys enjoy. I don't need to borrow my sister's laptop anymore, which means I can run more often. I might even run tomorrow. Keep an eye on my twitter for the next session.

https://twitter.com/SaSentinels

And archived:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Helljumpers

I'll stick around to talk as well.

>>32772091
Thanks for the thread.