Orbital Drop Shock Troopers

The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers are a UNSC Marine Corps Special Operations unit. They are more commonly known by the acronym ODSTs or the nickname Helljumpers.

Origins
The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers origins most likely have their roots in the Martian Campaign of 2163 where extra-terrestrial Marine shock troops were first used against the Neo-Communist Koslovics. The UN Marines were dropped from space and attacked ground locations on Mars, much like the 26th century ODST's.

Human-Covenant War
ODSTs were operating as early as 2525. The first division of ODST's was the 105th Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Division, which quickly gained a reputation as a brutal but effective fighting force.

Barring the personnel of the SPARTAN programs, ODSTs are one of the most effective forms of troops available to the UNSC, and the expectations on ODST units made them all-volunteer outfits, with some outsiders regarding such volunteers as 'crazy'. By 2552 their strength had swelled to a larger number of divisions in an attempt to fill the demands of the Human-Covenant War. Some actively participated in training the SPARTAN-IIs, but the efficiency of that program was demonstrated when a single SPARTAN-II killed three ODSTs during an exercise, that Spartan being the eventual Master Chief John-117. These fatalities resulted something of a rivalry between the two groups of super soldiers. Friction was heightened by the stunning success of the SPARTAN-II program, whose members proceeded to accumulate more confirmed kills than "any three divisions of ODSTs."

Operations
When assaulting a planetary target from orbit, ODSTs were trained to employ 'unorthodox' means of insertion. Those requiring stealth could be accomplished by 'jumping' from an orbiting ship and using a parachute once within the atmosphere. However, their hallmark method was in the form of Human Entry Vehicles,or HEV's, a particularly hazardous means of reentry. The HEVs are used rather than pelicans because one fully loaded pelican that is shot down would result the deaths of a dozen ODSTs. However, if an HEV is destroyed on entry, only one soldier dies. Oddly enough, this doctrine is not followed during the Battle for the Ark when the Master Chief is joined with several ODSTs in his Pelican. ODST methods of entry into battle also consist with a command pod being the first to touch down because "...officers should lead rather than follow." This goes along with most Airborne units today whose officers are always one of the first to enter the battle to set an example and understand the situation.

Similar to regular marines, the ODSTs maintain units of varying strength aboard many UNSC vessels and installations. ODST units were present aboard the, the , the , the , and Cairo Station.

While they are human, they are, overall, different from marines in the sense that they take the most dangerous, crazy, and suicidal missions. They have no physical differences between the Marines, but they are always ready to "Jump feet first into hell" as their motto goes (this motto comes from the intense heat inside the HEV drop pods. The heat inside these pods is what coined the nickname 'Hell Jumpers' .), and dive into fights they may not return from, which shows an outstanding level of courage, honor, valor and sometimes insanity.



They also drop into areas that are under heavy assault, or are heavily guarded by enemy troops. This is because these areas are too dangerous for Pelican drop ships to land or drop reinforcements. They are also assigned to tasks such as landing and clearing a landing zone for reinforcements. An example of this is on Delta Halo, during the events of Halo 2. The ODSTs, accompanied by the Master Chief, must clear a landing zone so that Pelicans could drop off a Warthog.

Equipment
In addition to using standard marine equipment, ODSTs were issued with a special issue combat dress. This combat dress is completely black, with a helmet and visor and having more supplies/ammunitions than typical marine forces. They also were each assigned an HEV and carry around a Combat Knife on their back.

During the Battle of the Ark, the ODST's appear to have colors on their shoulder armor which may denote ranking. There were 3-4 "whites" along with one "red," possibly meaning a red patch stands for Squad Leader, while white would be more akin to a Squad Member, this is very likely due to the fact that he is far more aggressive than the other ODST's and that he also often leads his teammates into combat. A red patch may also symbolize a squad medic. (It also bears noticing that in cut scenes showing ODSTs, their shoulder armor does not show any color and just appear black. This is, however, due to how the cinematics were designed for the game.)

Notable Actions
ODSTs were on board the Pillar of Autumn upon the discovery of Alpha Halo. An ODST group led by Major Antonio Silva was later instrumental in frustrating Covenant attempts to purge the ring-world of the Pillar of Autumn's survivors

Members of the 7th Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Battalion would later drop from In Amber Clad onto Delta Halo. They then cleared a landing zone so that a Warthog could be deployed for John-117. Later, they were dropped from the to assist John-117 again, during the Battle of Installation 00 near the Ark and the Citadel.

List of known ODSTs
Sorted by rank, then alphabetically if rank is unknown.
 * Major Antonio Silva : KIA
 * First Lieutenant Melissa McKay : KIA
 * Second Lieutenant Dalu : KIA
 * Second Lieutenant Oros : KIA
 * Master Sergeant Lister : KIA
 * Company Sergeant Tink Carter : KIA
 * Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker : ACTIVE DUTY
 * Gunnery Sergeant Waller : KIA
 * Sergeant Corly : KIA
 * Sergeant Parker : KIA
 * Corporal Locklear : KIA
 * Lance Corporal "Snaky" Jones : MIA
 * Private First Class Hosky : KIA
 * Private Butkis : ACTIVE DUTY
 * Private Jones : ACTIVE DUTY
 * Private O'Brian : KIA
 * Private Marie Postly : KIA
 * Private Satha : KIA
 * Private Walpole : ACTIVE DUTY
 * Al-Thani : KIA
 * Dawkins : KIA
 * "Doc" Valdez : KIA
 * Joe : ACTIVE DUTY
 * Murphy : KIA
 * Suzuki : KIA
 * Yutrzenika : KIA
 * T. Rymann : KIA
 * S. Hartley : WIA

Known ODST Units

 * 105th Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Division
 * 2nd Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Battalion
 * 3rd Unit
 * 7th Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Battalion
 * First Platoon
 * 340th Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Combat Training Unit
 * Echo Team
 * Kilo Team
 * 105th Drop Jet Platoon
 * Alpha Team

Trivia

 * ODST's are often forgotten because most people just use them as suicide grunts.
 * ODST's are better known as "Helljumpers" because of their mantra: "Jump feet first into hell."
 * In Halo 3, when an ODST is given a heavy weapon, such as a M41 SSR MAV/AW Rocket Launcher, they can fire it at a greater distance than a standard Marine. This might be because many players claim that the ODSTs were horrible using the rocket launcher in Halo 2, frequently missing targets, committing suicide, and killing the player. Because they now have a greater sight radius, they can fire their Rocket Launchers before the enemy gets close enough for them to accidentally blow themselves up. Also, in Halo 3, they can be given Spartan Lasers and Fuel Rod Guns. They are a poor shot when it comes to hitting fast-moving targets like Banshees and sometimes kill the player and other marines on accident but are very helpful when it comes to fighting on the ground and killing enemies with the Spartan Lasers in vehicle side seats.
 * On the right side of an ODST's body armor is a Chinese character which when translated, means roughly complete Bad Ass, a reference to the ODST's hardcore attitude. Next to the character is a picture of the moon.
 * The colored shoulder pauldrons are somewhat similar to the pauldron's on Imperial Stormtroopers in the Star Wars universe such as red/orange indicating leader while white indicates a private.
 * You always fight with members from the 7th battalion in the games.
 * ODSTs can also be deployed in Long Range HEVs from long distances away from the planet.
 * Onboard the UNSC Carrier Atlas, Spartan-117 had a confrontational moment with four ODSTs in the ship's gym. John had removed a pin from the weights at the bench press, and forgot to put it back. The ODSTs walked into the gym and went straight to the bench press. The weights fell and almost crushed one of the soldier's foot. A fight ensued and John killed two of the ODSTs and severely injured the others. Ever since then, relations between the Spartans and the ODSTs have been uneasy. This does not seem to stop them from working to their utmost efficiency during the Battle of the Ark.

Related Articles

 * Human Entry Vehicle
 * United Nations Space Command
 * UNSC Marine Corps
 * UNSC Military Units