Time To Dance

Time to Dance

Dare and Buck landed in a forest a few clicks from their intended rally point. With the rest of their unit scattered, they gathered their bearings and got ready to move. Little did they know, they landed near a Brute Stalker who took an interest in Dare as her helmet resembled that of a Spartan. However, she was only an ODST with an experimental helmet. Thinking he found a high value target, the Brute went to lunge at her to hopefully kill her before she could react. However, just before he jumped, a hail of gunfire was directed at him and took off his helmet. Wounded, the Brute retreated, activated his camouflage, and went to warn his Chieftain of what he saw.

Surprised by the gunfire, Dare and Buck took aim at the shooter. Seeing one of their squad mates, the Rookie, and watching a Brute run away, they knew he had saved them. Together, the three of them continued towards their rally point to hopefully regroup with the rest of their squad. They needed Romeo, Mickey, and Dutch to regain their combat effectiveness and complete their primary mission.

They eventually reached a cliff and looked for another way around, but were ambushed by a squad of Brutes that were running and firing at Dare. The trio immediately took cover and began firing on the approaching Brutes, but the Rookie noticed the Brutes had their full attention on Dare. The Rookie then fell back into the tree line and maneuvered into an elevated flanking position. The Brutes, blinded by rage and the opportunity of killing what they believed to be a Spartan, were unaware of the Rookie's movements. The Rookie then managed to drop most of the approaching Brutes headed towards Dare, with Buck and Dare cleaning up the rest of them.

Once they gathered their bearings again, they looked over the cliff and saw a massive Covenant army headed their way. They quickly set up some ropes at the edge of the cliff and rappelled their way down. They then began to make their way to the rally point to warn the others.

Buck suddenly had an idea and turned around. He ran back to the cliff while ordering Rookie and Dare to continue on. He climbed each rope some ways up and set explosive charges on weak points of the cliff. Once he finished placing the charges, he rappelled back down and found a good vantage point to hide and watch. Hoping his idea would work, he waited for the army to come. Buck saw a Chieftain leading the charge and made him the primary target. Once the Chieftain was under the cliff, Buck blew the charges. The cliff collapsed and killed the Chieftain along with many of his frontline units and blocked the path. This caused the Covenant army to stop and retreat. Satisfied and thankful for his demolitions training, Buck carefully headed towards the rally point again. Successfully avoiding any more enemy contact, he made it to the rally point and was greeted by Dare, Rookie, and Mickey. Eventually, Romeo and Dutch arrived, and all of Alpha-Nine was reunited and pushed on with their mission.

Author's Note

My story is based off the PDE Ramayana. More specifically in part B, where Sita, Rama, and Lakshmana encounter Shurpanakha, a rakshasa. In the story, Shurpanakha tries to win over Rama and attempts to attack Sita when Rama declines. Lakshmana then cut off her ears and nose and went to complain to her brother. Her brother then sent 14 rakshasas to kill them. The 14 died and so her brother then sent an army of 14,000 rakshasas to kill them. Rama then sent Sita and his brother to hide while he dealt with the coming army. Once he took out the leader of the army and some other rakshasa, the rest scattered.

In my story, I implemented elements of the Halo universe, set about 500 years in the future. Dare, Buck, and Rookie represent Sita, Rama, and Lakshmana likewise. The Covenant Brutes represent the rakshasas, where the The Brute Stalker represents Shurpanakha specifically. Dare, Buck, and Rookie are part of a special unit called the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs). Basically Special Forces Space Marines. As their name implies, they literally drop in from orbit which leads to the beginning of the story where they land. They have special pods that allow them to do so safely-ish. Spartans, as referenced here and in some of my other stories, are special genetically engineered super humans that were typically orphaned by the Covenant and kidnapped by the human military at a young age. They were then indoctrinated and specially trained, as children, to become the most deadly and proficient super soldiers for the human military. Brutes in the Covenant are basically bigger and more intelligent apes or gorillas. They are about 8 feet tall, weigh about 1500 pounds, and are very strong as they are almost pure muscle. They are known for their brutality, hence their name, as they sometimes eat things (human, lower ranking Covenant, animals, doesn't really matter) alive or hunt them for fun. Brute Stalkers are a covert Brute unit that have a piece of equipment called Active Camouflage which allows them to basically go invisible. The Brute Chieftain is usually a tough and battle-hardened leader. Also, the title "Time to Dance" is a reference to a Buck quote from the Halo universe. I named the page name as "Alpha-Nine" as that is the callsign of the ODST squad in this story. I did that to keep the different pages as the names of characters/units from Halo.

Bibliography

"Public Domain Edition: Ramayana" Part 29 and 30 by M. Dutt, R. Dutt, and Mackenzie.

Image Information: Yellowstone Cliffs by Allgreyareas (July 2013). Source: Flickr