"Sims, our pilot is just about here, I'm on my way out there now, just try to hold out as long as you can!" there was no reply. "Damn," the Sergeant cursed "Guess we'd better get out there, son. Here!" He tossed me an MA5k assault rifle. "You aim it at the enemy and pull the trigger, and try not to get shot yourself, we've got about 5 minutes until our transport arrives." "Sir!" I replied "Yes, sir!" We ran out to where the last few marines were left, hundreds of plasma bolts whizzing overhead. There were three marines left, Private Sims was nowhere to be seen. The men looked relieved to see the Sergeant, but another volley of plasma quickly wiped the expression from their faces. The elites kept their distance. They knew that we were pinned down, there was no need for them to charge in. I took a peek over the barrier, now nearly evaporated by plasma, and saw hundreds of elites, using their own drop pods as cover. The Sergeant, Private Le, and I were the only three left when we heard the whirring of a pelican approaching. Through the smoke of evaporated stone and dirt, we could make out the distinct outline of the UNSC drop ship and made a break for it. It was touching down on the far end of the base to avoid the onslaught of elites. The elites pursued us, and the Private was shot down about halfway there, but we continued, unable to help. Once we rounded the corner, the pelican was in view, and a marine was on a turret in the back. As the elites followed around the corner, the marine opened fire, and the elites followed suit. Bullets and plasma alike arced over our heads as we neared the drop ship. We were within reach of the ship when the Sergeant let out a cry of pain. I looked back to see his chest had become a gaping hole, plasma had burned through. He dropped down, unable to continue on. I stopped and tried to drag him onto the ship, unable to let the man who I had befriended die just yet. He stopped me, by grabbing my arm. "No. Leave me here, you need to get out of here. I'm gone, there's no saving me now." He spoke softly and with difficulty. "No, I'm not letting you die here, not like this." I yelled over the hiss of plasma and the sharp reports of turret gunfire. "This is what I was talking about, son. You have to be prepared for losses. If you really want to be a soldier, you need to be able to move on. Now get on that pelican. That's an order." I waited, unsure of what to do. As his words sunk in, the conflicting emotions fought over and over in my head. "What the hell are you doing, kid!?" The marine on the turret yelled. "We gotta get outta here!" He continued to fire on the elites, plasma scorching the reinforced hull of the pelican. I didn't have a choice, I boarded the pelican. The pilot leaned back and asked "Where is everybody?" I looked back to the Sergeant, who gave me a nod. "I am everybody." I whispered back. "Damn." The pilot remarked, shocked. " Alright, then. We're breakin' outta here, hang on!" As we rose, the marine stopped firing the turret, and I watched the Sergeant raise his gun and begin firing. Another plasma bolt hit him in the arm, melting the gun and rendering the limb useless. He fumbled with his left arm and pulled out a grenade. As an elite neared him and pulled out its glowing energy sword, Sergeant Lewis pulled the pin. The elite stood over him and raised the weapon high. The pelican turned and the wall blocked my view. I heard a muffled explosion, and the man who had just changed my life ceased to exist. [b]Chapter 2[/b] The pelican ride was quiet, the pilot, the marine (Corporal Walker, as I had seen on his uniform), and I didn't speak, all three of us in shock at how so many men had been killed so quickly. The night was almost over, and the first of the two suns were about to show over the horizon. We were almost out of the atmosphere when the pilot cursed under her breath. "What is it?" Corporal Walker asked. "You see this bright orange star right in front of us?" Walker and I leaned forward to see it. "That was our ship. That was the [i]Three if by Space[/i]." We sat in silence again. "So what do we do now?" Walker mumbled. "We gotta find another ship. Stand by while I try to contact one of the others." She relayed a message and we waited. 10 minutes passed until the comm. sounded. "Attention UNSC personnel from the destroyer [i]Three if by Space[/i]," a male voice sounded, "This is Captain Le Blanc of the UNSC Destroyer [i]Resolute[/i]. Your ship has been destroyed by Covenant cruisers, if you want a way out of this mess, I suggest you head this way. The Covenant has begun glassing the far side of the planet and will soon make their way to the rest of it. Good luck and Godspeed." The pilot changed her course for the [i]Resolute[/i], and we all breathed sighs of relief in knowing that we had a place to go. I thought we were home free, but as soon as we got through the atmosphere, the real battle was revealed. The charred and molten fragments of our destroyer, along with those of others and even a few Covenant ships, drifted slowly towards the planet's surface like an artificial asteroid field. The super-heated plasma bolts from the Covenant ships, and the massive slugs of the UNSC MAC cannons darted back and forth, adding to the debris, and lighting the battlefield as the twin suns rose. I knew that if our pilot wasn't careful, we'd all be dead. As we drew nearer to the [i]Resolute[/i], a bolt of plasma flew by just in front of the pelican. Lucky for us, heat can't travel through the vacuum of space, otherwise, the cockpit would have melted clean off. Despite the dangerous conditions on the way, we arrived in the hangar without a hitch. we touched down inside. The pilot turned towards me, I hadn't really paid her much attention before. She was most likely in her early twenties, pale skin, and she carried an attitude of confidence that I would later learn to be commonplace among pilots. "Guess we made it, huh kid?" she asked me, flashing a smile. I was sure she was just trying to take my mind of the tragedy of what had so recently happened, and I appreciated the gesture. "My name's Lukenowski, Tracy Lukenowski, but you can call me Lady Luck, or just plain Luck." "I'm Jonathan Roland" I replied, "'Glad to meet you" "You a civilian? You're one lucky son-of-a--blam!- to make it out of a firefight like that." " I won't be a civilian much longer, I'm going to enlist." "Well good luck to ya, kid. Hope you don't find yourself in a situation like today..." This brought the memories of my sister and Sergeant Lewis flooding back into my mind. "Looks like we're not the only ones who made it out, Luck remarked, motioning to the particularly heavily scarred pelican just touching down in the hangar. "Damn, that bird's taken some damage, I hope my baby won't ever get to be that worn down, I don't know if I'd be able to - " Luck froze mid-sentence as the pelican' passengers emerged into the hangar. They were huge, probably about two meters tall, and they wore heavy armor that looked alien than any human armor I'd ever seen. "No way..." Luck finally got out, " Spartans, and a bunch of em too!" she seemed to be in disbelief. "What's a Spartan?" I asked, unsure of what to make of these giant men. "Nobody really knows, kid." Luck replied, a distant tone in her voice, likely still involved in thoughts on these 'Spartans.' Her eyes never left them as she continued to speak. "Some say they're not even human, just robots or even aliens themselves. Some say they're the best of the best, who were recruited and given armor. Some say even crazier things than that, but technically, according to ONI, they don't even exist." I'd heard about ONI, 'the spooks' as most people called them. They didn't want to be messed with, and I wasn't about to make them angry. If the Spartans were under ONI, I was going to keep my distance. [Edited on 08.31.2010 6:53 PM PDT]