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Author's Note: Here's another one of my muses rants. Better to just get it out of the way than to fight my muse (since my muse will win). I should be working on any of my other five stories, but no. I need to add just one more...

Disclaimer: This is the only time I'm going to put this in the story. I don't own Halo or anything related to it. I do own the OCs, the RODST (aka Recon, or Recon ODST), the Recon bike, and the UNSC Battleship Liberation (at least the idea of her).

Halo: RODST

RODST are only sent on the most important and suicidal missions UNSC HighCom can come up with. The missions that are too dangerous for regular ODST and too high of a chance of losing all assets sent to send in a Spartan.

Chapter 1: Mission Complete

I aimed down the scope of my sniper rifle. I checked the wind speed, the elevation to the target, the humidity, the temperature, and even factored in the Coriolis Effect. The shot needed to be perfect. I would only get one chance at this. The target needed to be taking a dirt nap before more civilians die. 'This is what I was trained for; this is what I signed up for; this one moment, this one shot. This is the culmination of everything I have strived for. I can end this fight with one shot,' I thought as the target came into my sights. The last three days spent waiting here and observing the target's movements paid off. Rule number one about being a general: never have a predictable routine while in the field. This split-lip was going to be shown the error of his ways. I breathed in and held it. The reticule rested right on his head. I gently squeezed the trigger, and the S2 went off with a silenced pop.

The rifle kicked back into my shoulder and disrupted my concealment. I reset and watched as my round went down range. The Field Marshal's head ducked underneath the bullet's flight path. My heart skipped a beat, 'I'm never going get a second shot off in time! I can't believe I missed such an easy target!' I thought, mentally berating myself as my heart started to beat faster. Suddenly, the Field Marshall's head went right back into the path of the bullet and it passed right through his skull.

The 14.5 mm x 114 mm, APFSDS round passed through the Elite's shielding and head without any trouble. The head exploded into a purple gory mess. 'Scratch one squid-face' I thought as I quickly packed up what stuff I had before I slung the sniper rifle and unsung my BR55. My armor was dirty from lying in the mud for the past few days, but I left it like that since it helped conceal me as I moved back to my insertion point. 'Too easy, why didn't they just send a sniper team to do this? Why send a Recon?' I thought. The Covies were about a good two kilometers away so I didn't worry too much about them. They never send patrols this far out, at least not in the ten years I've been Recon. I'm the old man in Recon.

Ten years is unheard of in this day and age. We only get the missions that are too dangerous to send in any other kind of soldier, even the Spartans. The missions always have no less than a ninety-eight percent chance of total loss of whatever assets are sent. I've been in five missions that I have been told that I'll not becoming back and if by some miracle I do, to contact them and then they'll set up extraction. RODST, or Reconnaissance Orbital Drop Shock Troopers but better known as Recon, are the best of the best and are suicidal to boot, but want to take some Covie out with them when they go. Most RODSTs don't even make it past the first mission.

On average, we lose ninety-five percent during the first mission, and the chance gets higher and higher per mission. I'm on mission thirty-two. The rookie RODSTs look at me as if I'm a freaking Spartan. Even some of the Spartans treat me like one for their own. That might be because those that do are attached to my ship for some odd reason. There are only three that I have ever met, Spartan-090, -182, and -084. All three of them are good men, good soldiers. I've fought by them a few times and actually pity the Covies that they have to face. I never thought there would be a time where I pitied the enemy, but there it is.

As I pushed my through the brush I noticed that the air around me was shimmering slightly. I didn't even hesitate. I put a burst of fire right into the Elite's face about point blank range. The Elite let out a roar in pain as the rounds impacted, but activated a plasma sword and charged at me. I dove to the right, rolled back to my feet, and continued to beat my feet as the forest around me started to light up with plasma swords. 'Yeah, now this is a Recon op. Why did I have to go and open my big mental mouth?!' I thought as I shoved my way through the brush and undergrowth of the forest. I was running as fast as I could as the Elites were getting closer and closer behind me. I then grabbed a frag and pulled the pin, all with my left hand. I then lightly tossed the grenade in front of me and started to push myself faster. I speed past it and after a few very long seconds, the grenade went off. I heard several cries of pain from the Elites behind me, but I knew that they wouldn't be down for long. They were pissed and wanted my head on a silver platter, or whatever they used to serve heads on. I blind-fired behind me as a finally ran into some open ground. I was about 250 meter from my insertion point, and I knew I had to get some distance between me and the squid-faces otherwise I wouldn't be able to extract and I'd be deep fried and very dead. I ran as fast as I could across the open ground and started to drop more grenades as I went to try and slow the split-lips down. Eventually I made it to my insertion point and saw the Recon bike I had left there was still intact.

The UNSC Recon bike was designed with RODST in mind. It is small, light, fast, and durable. It's only weapons are the missile pods attached to it. The pods are very versatile in what they can carry, whether it is two Archer missiles or several sets of smaller missiles. (A/N: Think NOD recon bike from C&C, and replace the large windshield with a normal bike one.) The bike's computer systems link up with the rider's helmet and when the rider focused on an enemy unit, airborne targets down to "wet targets" (A/N: infantry), the missiles would then lock on to the target and destroy it. That feature always came in handy, no matter the situation. The pods themselves could be removed to allow for extra equipment or room for a second rider. That always came in handy when more than one RODST was deployed to an operation, or when an objective needed to be extracted or protected. Each Recon bike was assigned to a RODST, after their forth mission. Each is allowed to be customized to fit the style of each RODST. Mine was customized with places to hold more ammunition for every type of weapon, both human and Covie, and its panels that covered the entire bike could be switched out quickly and easily so that it could be easily camouflaged to match the environment. I have even asked a few tech-head friends of mine, to try and get the Active Camouflage technology to be attached to panels that could be placed on my bike. Last time I checked, they were still working on it; however, they did something to have ONI eyeing them dangerously. Oh well, they still owe me quite a bit for pulling them out of more than one hot zone. If it comes down to it, they could always owe me one more when I deal with ONI for them. Currently my bike had woodland camouflage on, twin missile pods, loaded with six missiles each, and had more ammo for both of my rifles.

I jumped on and started up the engine. The bike and my armor quickly synced up and showed me that the bike was ready to roll. I quickly turned it around and gunned it. There was a trail that I used to insert into the operation and now it is the one I'm using to extract. As I followed the trail, going a slow fifty-five mph, I got on the radio.

"Lair, this is Wolf. Target eliminated. Request instructions for extraction," I said calmly.

"Wolf, this is Lair. Extract's position is being uploaded to your HUD. ETA to their arrival at that point is ten mikes," the synthetic voice of the UNSC Liberation's smart AI said.

"Understood, Wolf out," I replied as my HUD received the data and a new NAV marker appeared on my HUD. It was a few hundred klicks distant but I could get there in fifteen minutes tops, if the Covies let me have my breathing space... I looked behind me and saw the blue streaks that accompany a Covie hovercraft. 'Like they would ever be that kind... Time to really open her up,' I thought as I gunned the engine. The speedometer in my HUD jumped to 100 mph as I weaved skillfully around corners and trees that were in my way. Eventually I made it out of the woods and onto a dirt road. Once I got onto the road, I opened the throttle and my speed jumped to one fifty mph. The distance on the NAV marker was falling rapidly. I looked behind me and ducked just as a plasma round from a Ghost went through the air that my head occupied just moments before. I activated the targeting systems of the bike, locked on to the Ghost in front, and let two missiles loose. The missiles shot from the pods, arched around, and aimed for the Ghost. The driver must not have seen the missiles as he focused solely on me. I looked behind me and saw the Ghost get nailed by both missiles and explode.

The resulting explosion took out two more Ghosts and threw one driver out of his seat. I didn't know how many Ghosts were pursuing me, but at least I bought myself some breathing room. I raced ahead and speed up even more. I reached 200 mph and the distance of the NAV dropped to almost ten klicks. I slowed the bike down to about 100 mph and I saw a pelican land about half a klick. I again dropped the speed down to about twenty mph and continued to lower the speed until I reached the Pelican. I positioned the bike underneath the Pelican's tail. The Recon bike then rose up and became attached to the tail of the bird. I felt a plasma round hit me in the back. I fell forward from the force of the hit. I crawled towards the pelican as the Marines on board opened up on the Ghosts that had been following me. The one round that hit me was a lucky shot from a long way off. A Marine helped me to my feet we all got on the Pelican. The Pelican than took off and flew up towards the UNSC Liberation. A Corpsman checked my back.

"Your good. The armor took the hit. The only damage I see is some scuffed paint and about a half an hour's worth of work on buffing," she said.

"Good, I'd hate to be taken off the line now," I said as I took off the sniper rifle and set it down on the floor along with my BR55, "But I now need to pay the Covies another visit to get payment for the half an hour's worth of work buffing and the hour's worth of work cleaning this armor. I think another Field Marshal would do well as payment." A few Marines chuckled at that. I then sat down in one of the seats and took off my helmet. The air in the Pelican felt good on my face. As comfortable as the armor is, there is nothing like taking it off and feeling the world around you with your own five senses. I started to scrap off the mud and grass on my armor, revealing the digital-pattern color of the armor itself.

The armor looks a lot like standard ODST armor, but it was more armored, had the digital/Multi-Cam instead of the urban pattern, and acted like the MJOLNIR armor. However, unlike the MJOLNIR armor, the RODST armor doesn't have shields, the strength and speed enhancements are only about twenty percent at best, the motion sensors aren't as good, we have the mag rails attached to our thigh armor as well as the back, and overall, is weaker than the MJOLNIR armor. We do have a slot in our armor that can have an AI placed in it, but we don't have that AI interface with our neural implants as the Spartans do, although I got some scuttlebutt that says some eggheads are working on that. The RODST armor though is a lot better than the standard ODST armor, though. Like regular ODSTs, we have the VISR mode for our helmets, a health monitor, wireless computer access features, and the like. What we had that they didn't was that our equipment had a better internal computer, and besides just an NVG VISR mode, we also had a Thermal mode. The armor was really advanced, and only issued after the tenth mission was completed by a "rookie" RODST. The armor is also customizable, although not very much. Each RODST is allowed to have a personal icon on their armor and recon bike, but other than that, everything is standard issue.

After I scraped all of the mud and crap off my armor, I set the helmet down on my lap and leaned my head back against the headrest behind me. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift off into a combat sleeping state; in other words, I was sleeping but any noise that registered as a possible threat in my mind would wake me up.

I woke up only after I heard a loud thump. I looked out the back of the Pelican as the back hatch opened up and a landing bay from the Liberation appeared. I quickly attached my helmet and jumped down to the deck. My bike was gently dropped down to the deck. I grabbed it, stood it up, and walked it over to the vehicle depot. I dropped it off, along with all of my weapons and ammo there for the techs to take care of and I double-timed it to the bridge. Once the elevator I was on reached the bridge, I walked over towards the Captain and noticed that there was a battle going on between the UNSC Navy and the Covenant. The MACs on the Liberation fired, and two seventy-ton projectiles were sent towards the Covie forces.

The UNSC Liberation was one of the very few UNSC Battleships around. Each could hold an entire Marine division along with weapons, ammo, support equipment, and personnel. She also had four MAC guns, two on the bow, and two on the stern; one on top, and one on the bottom. Each was also turreted and could traverse almost all 360 degrees. Along with the MACs, she had a massive complement of Archer missiles. I had learned the number at one point in time, but never committed the number to memory. Suffice to say, she could go toe-to-toe with three or four Covie ships and come out victorious. The Liberation had sixty meters thick of Titanium-A armor that also has a special type of coolant running through it. Supposedly, that helps when hit by Covie fire. I've never been on the Liberation during space-combat so I wouldn't know, but she has always been there to come back to, so something has to be going right. She also has a massive reactor room. Normally a ship has one, but the Liberation has three main reactors, that power everything, and two secondary reactors, one that powers the emergency systems and the last that powers the manufacturing plant. The manufacturing plant was amazing. It could produce all of the equipment used by anyone in the UNSCDF. As long as it had the materials needed, it could even build equipment for the ship itself. The UNSC Liberation was designed from the ground up to be a one-ship invasion force. Too bad, she'll never play that role, as we are always on the back-heel. If we ever do take the fight to the Covies, I'm sure the Liberation would be one of the first ships knocking on the Covies' front door.

The Captain turned around and saw me. I saluted immediately and he returned the gesture."Good to have you back Wolf. Things are starting to get really dicey up here. If you were any later, we might not have been able to pick you up-" Captain Jack Horrison said before he was interrupted by Liberty.

"Captain, several new slipspace ruptures detected. Confirmed that they are Covenant reinforcements," Liberty said from the ship's speakers. The AI's holographic pedestal wasn't operating for a reason I never cared to learn, so the usual holographic image of the Statue of Liberty didn't appear.

"I think it's time to get out of here. Initiate a random slipspace jump. Looks like we lost another one..." Captain Horrison said with a sigh.

"Understood, orders from HIGHCOM received. Just as you predicted, it's time to leave," Liberty said. I looked out the window at the planet that we were leaving to the Covenant. 'How many are we leaving behind this time? How many more are we going to lose to these bloody split-lips?' I thought as our ship turned away to jump to slipspace. I then noticed a blue flash streak across the front of the bridge. It was a near miss. Lucky we turned when we did otherwise that plasma torpedo would have taken out the bridge.

"A lot of Covenant fire has been directed at us. I suggest that we get out of here," Liberty said.

"Punch it, Liberty. We need to move," the Captain said as the ship started moving away from the lost system.

"Slipspace drive initiated," Liberty said. Just as we started moving into Slipspace, there was a sudden explosion and we were all slammed to the deck by a massive force. Despite the fact that I was wearing my armor, the force from slamming into the deck knocked me out.