#odsts

I want to preference this before anything else, I don’t hate the ODSTs, but I will bully them until the day I die. What kind of name is Orbital Drop Shock Troopers anyways?? Like Helljumper sounds cool as hell but the units are known as that? It sounds stupid as fuck in my opinion, and I don’t expect anyone to agree with me. I really think they just call them Orbital Drop Shock Troopers for the acronyms.

Despite my opinion on name choices, the ODSTs are bad bitches. Simply the training regime is brutal and aggressive, they go through so many scenarios and borderline almost kill them to get them battle-ready. I can’t find the notes about it, but off the top of my head, the training takes either 2-3 years to complete [please take this at face value, I seriously can’t remember].

Most ODSTs believe they uphold a commando state of mind meaning they can do anything with the right attitude, but there is a downside to this because some of them think they can get away with shit they shouldn’t be able to. It’s like a highschool clique and do not get me started on the way they are about what unit they serve in. They have the ‘I’m better than you attitude’. Among fellow soldiers, ODSTs typically display a cheerful and relaxed demeanor. Yet, in the presence of non-ODST individuals, they often adopt a serious and reserved attitude, appearing distinctly distant and lacking in outward warmth.

Flynn’s right when the ODSTs are modeled after real marines, they think they're the shit, they can do nothing wrong, and are straight jarheads. And are 100% Halo’s canon fodder, several units die right off the bat in Forward Unto Dawn when the Covenant attacks.  

They are so prideful of their accomplishments and skill, and they have a right to be. But to the point of failed recruits preferring death over the failure of the program???

Cult.

I get it, it’s not easy and the amount of mental damage you go through gets you bragging rights. But I will never forget that a grown-ass adult tried to beat up a 14-year-old boy over a gym pin. I don’t care if it was orchestrated by ONI to see what the Spartan program can do, it’s the fact that this “high” and “mighty” adult could bully this obviously non-ODST. But man, did they get the realism of that right.

Alright full disclaimer: I have successfully put off playing more than like the first level of Halo 3: ODST for 13 years, and my knowledge of what happens in that game is limited to what I remember of the summary of it in New Blood.

Shame disclosed, I can now begin taking a swing at this.

HOW ODSTS FIT INTO THE UNSC

ODSTs are specialists within the UNSC Marine Corps. Marines take orders from UNICOM (Unified Ground Command) along with the Army and Air Force when operating on the ground, and from NAVCOM (Naval Command) when operating in space.

ODSTs are usually looped in with the Navy because the Navy has to drop them, and some groups of ODSTs are specialized for operating in zero g and that kind of thing is also on Navy turf.

WHAT KIND OF PERSON GETS SELECTED TO BE AN ODST

First of all, ODSTs are all-volunteer. You don't get assigned from on high into being an ODST, you ask to be considered.

The most important criterion for an ODST is being able to get in the pod and drop, knowing that something could blow you out of the air and you could do nothing about it, into hostile territory. And to keep doing it. It takes a lot of courage to be able to psyche yourself up into doing that again and again and again. (Honestly, when you see mention of ODSTs doing things like playing loud music during a drop, I feel like that is a huge part of what they're doing.)

The second factor is toughness and ability to fight, obviously. Training for ODSTs is intense and they have to be very fit before they can proceed to the later parts.

The third: A certain fighting spirit. ODSTs need to be initiative-takers and they are trained to push to establish a foothold where they land. They need to be aggressive and bold, that's their job, and even beyond helping win a battle it's also a factor for morale. Having a squad of ODSTs roll up whooping and yelling and ready to rock bolsters the confidence of the people around them. That matters.

Ideally the Corps would also love if ODST candidates were also smart, but the UNSC was fighting a losing war for almost 30 years and humanity lost absolutely catastrophic numbers. They had to take what they could get. Not everybody can be AJ Johnson.

There's a reason that when ODSTs heckle the Navy it's for being dweebs with cushy jobs, and when the Navy heckles ODSTs it's about how many it takes to screw in a lightbulb.

WHAT IS ODST TRAINING LIKE?

How long does it take to become an ODST? Our sources are kinda vague, we know 3 weeks of the training is just hammering them on physical fitness and then they go on to the specialized part and it's possible to wash out and embarrass yourself by being sent back to your original unit. We know there are "months" of it. If you want me to guess based on my very vague and incomplete knowledge of US military things gleaned from wikipedia, I'd say prrrrrobably a year, maybe more.

It's kind of fucky because Halo lore doesn't usually think about this kind of stuff and you can tell. You have to do some conspiracy diagramming yourself, but like. We know Palmer was 19 years old when she was a Lance Corporal. (....but Palmer's rank in general when she was in the ODSTs doesn't make sense at all if you look at it with more than your peripheral vision and sshhhh, shhh, it's fine, shhhhhhh.)

Basically, it seems like if somebody really really excels in their first year they can be considered for ODST training but it's probably safe to say that's on the extreme end. I would also be willing to suppose that they probably will not take anyone as old as 29 or 30 as a candidate without it being a major exception.

The most detail we have on what the training itself is like is the short story Dirt in the Evolutions anthology, much of the information on halopedia's ODST page sources that story. (For the record, while I'm still thinking about tacking up red strings, the timeline indicates that Gage would've been 20 at most when he was training to be an ODST.) Here's a piece.

WHAT ARE ODSTS LIKE IN GENERAL

Everybody's an individual, but the most stereotypical ODST is loud, gregarious, swole, and full of machismo. They're probably fun at parties, but maybe sometimes too fun. They're very tight with their buddies. Being ODST is a huge, huge source of pride and identity. They're great to have on your side. They're a huge, bull-headed problem if they're not.

They are good under pressure, experienced at putting a brave face on, and have most likely developed some kind of coping strategy for handling fear and worry because there's no room for that shit when you're jammed in a pod.

ODSTs are brave as shit, and in the ODSTs the leadership is expected to drop with the rest and their pods accelerate ahead and are the first on the ground. Leading from the front is a huge virtue to them. The ODSTs are immensely proud of this and it's what they admire in leadership and in general. If you want to stand tall in the eyes of an ODST, make big fucking plays at great personal risk that pay off.

Here is a very charming anecdote about the time a young Captain Keyes impressed some ODSTs.

And this explanation:

...

Yeah.

Chapter 14, A Gathering Storm, is now up!

This was supposed to be the first part of Truth and Reconciliation but it grew outta control (Or rather, this chapter would have if I hadn’t split it here) and tone-wise it fits better as its own separate thing anyhow

featuring, in no particular order:

Sar attempts to write a military intelligence briefing with no background in the subject whatsoever!

oh no she’s hot

a new character POV i was not planning on exploring prior to this chapter!

Master Chief does his Calvin Coolidge routine!

a hamfisted LotR reference!

and more!

- Colonel William Raskin,