Rook checked the SOEIV's systems, a force of habit despite the fact that he knew full well the techs had been over every inch of the thing as par pre-flight regulations. He felt the familiar pull in his gut as the pods' drop-mechanisms released in sync, surrendering their cargo to gravity's iron grip. For the next several hundred meters Rook watched the view in silence. He barely noticed the strain on his body as he and the rest of his team blasted through the cloud layers, months of practice having dulled him to the experience. The ex-assassin didn't feel it necessary to join in with the others' shouts of excitement, but a grin marked the corner of his lips. Flames soon enveloped Rook's pod, G-forces hurling him towards the cityscape below, a fallen angel cast from heaven. Moments later the world vanished, leaving only the darkness of oblivion...<br/><br/><em><strong>...Two minutes and forty seven seconds later.</strong></em><br/><br/>Rook's lip curled into a snarl, the taste of blood invading his palate as he continued to struggle with the Brute. His helmet on the street next to him, the ODST was face-to-face with the beast. Answering the alien's roar with his own, Rook straightened his back and pulled backwards, ripping its' shoulder from the socket. Keeping his legs wound tight around its' now useless right arm, the ex-assassin finally freed his own right arm from the beast's wrist, plunging his biggest knife into the thing's neck. Despite its' mortal wound, the Brute continued to thrash, determined to smash in the human's skull. However, it found its' strength slowly ebbing away, it's blood pooling on the pavement below. No longer able to aim its' fist at the ODST's face, the beast contented itself with trying to crush him under its' weight. Having realized this inevitable outcome minutes before, Rook used his own weight to alter the Brute's momentum, rolling him atop its' hair-covered bulk rather than beneath it. He then wrenched his blade free from the Brute's meaty throat, picking up his gear once again and leaving it there to die a slow death.<br/><br/>"Lightweight," Rook muttered in contempt.<br/>