"Drop ship Bravo 592" Le Blanc grumbled over the radio. "Report to the bridge, I'd like to have a word." "You heard the man!" Walker insisted, "Let's get movin' on the double!" Walker, Luck, and I made our way to the bridge, happy to leave the Spartans behind us. We arrived at the bridge, and my eyes were instantly drawn to the view of Jericho VII from the thick window of the Resolute's bridge. When I snapped out of my reverie, I was surprised to see Luck and Walker saluting Le Blanc. I turned to see Le Blanc looking towards me, noticing that I was only a civilian. "At ease." He ordered, my two companions lowered their arms. "Now, this is just a formality. I've called you here let you know that you are now a functioning unit of my crew, and that you are to do as I say. Is that clear?" "Sir, yes sir!" Luck and Walker quickly replied. I was not quite sure what to do or say. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to speak, and I wasn't sure if he was even talking to me at all, or just to the other two. "What about you, son?" He asked me, lowering his voice from that of a commanding officer to that of a concerned chaperone. "Do you want to be a part of my ship or not?" "I-I don't know sir." I said, a little intimidated by the implications of the question. " I lost a lot in the last few days. In fact, I've lost everything, and I really don't know what to do, sir." He nodded, understanding my sentiments. "Let me know if you change your mind, I can use every hand I can get." He turned to Walker. "Corporal," Walker snapped to attention, "I'm assigning you to a squad under Sergeant Yang, you'll find them on level 3. Dismissed." Walker promptly turned and left, as Le Blanc focused on Luck. "Flight Officer Lukenowski," Luck turned her attention to Le Blanc, "I lost a few of my own pilots today, You're gonna need to fill in. Are you up to it?" "Sir, yes sir!" Luck answered. "You know where to go then, pilot. Dismissed." She made her exit just as Walker did, leaving me alone with Le Blanc. He turned back to me. "I want you to report to level 4." He began scribbling something on sheet of paper. "You're going to ask for a Private Williams, and you will give him this." He handed me the paper. "He will provide you with a bunk, a uniform, and a firearm. Even though you aren't a marine, if all goes to hell, you're gonna need to be. Dismissed." I stood for a minute, as Le Blanc turned back to his work. I backed up and leaned against the wall as he muttered something to a staff member, and I let my mind wander. I thought about my sister, about Sergeant Lewis, and even about my mother. The door next to me opened, jarring me from my memories, and my eyes stayed glued to the figure who had entered. It was a Spartan. From this close, I could see how huge he really was. I wondered, like many before me, if, behind that shiny visor and armor, there was even a person. I found it hard to imagine a man that big. He walked to the Captain, and they had a brief conversation, but I couldn't make out what they were saying from my spot. Before long, the Spartan turned and stood, watching the planet, and my eyes shifted from his immense form to see the Covenant ships sending streams of fire to the surface. The Covenant was glassing my planet, my home, and the image would forever be imprinted in my memory. [Edited on 08.31.2010 6:35 PM PDT]

"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]

As night approached, and the two, red suns of Jericho VII set, I continued to mourn my sister's death, and continued to mull over what Sergeant Lewis had said to me. As the second of Jericho's four moons approached its zenith in the sky, I stood, and the marine led me to the Sergeants office, where he was poring over maps of the area, a 3-D hologram of the planet rotating slowly on the corner. As I entered the room, he stood and nodded. The marine saluted, and left the room. We both sat down, and he began to speak. "Now I have a transport headed here in 3 hours to take us outta here to the destroyer [i]Three if by Space[/i], and until then, I want you to get some rest. I have a bed prepared for you by the -" He stopped mid-sentence, and we listened as plasma fire sounded from outside. "Ah, hell." he cursed "Looks like you'll have to rest later, they found us, son. We've got a long three hours ahead of us." Once outside, the Sergeant seemed confused. "They're usually much more aggressive than this." he said, "Something's up, son, and I don't like it." He pulled out a radio, and contacted his second-in command. "Corporal, what's goin on up there?" "Sir! It's just grunts sir," a static-filled voice replied over the intercom, "nothing but a few grunts and a jackal. It's too weird Sergeant, this doesn't feel right." "No elites? No brutes? Are you sure they aren't just cloaked?" "We're sure sir, we've got heat signatures and IR sensors. Nothing but grunts and a jackal." The Sergeant's brow furrowed with confusion. The Covenant sending a single unit against a fully armed base didn't make any sense. "Well, take 'em out just the same, and keep an eye out for any elites, they may have upgraded their cloaking tech." He finally replied to the Corporal. He pocketed the radio and sat back down, stroking his chin in concentration. "Why would they just send one unit against an entire base?" He though out loud. As I thought, an idea struck me. " Maybe they don't want to take the base?" I replied. "Maybe they just want to keep you busy?" "Busy? Busy for what?" The Sergeant asked. Then a voice sounded over the comm. "Attention all personnel on the surface of Jericho VII. This is Commander Gregory Harris of the UNSC Destroyer [i]Three if by Space[/i], the covenant are dipping towards the planets surface, presumably to begin glassing. I am ordering total evacuation of the surface. I repeat, full evacuation is now in effect. All UNSC personnel to retreat to orbit. All UNSC personnel to retreat to orbit. This message will now repeat." Sergeant Lewis turned the comm. off. "Damn!, that pilot better high-tail it over here if we're gonna get out of this!" He picked up the comm. and began broadcasting to the ship. "Come in, Commander Harris. This is Sergeant Renato Lewis requesting immediate evac, over." "Sergeant Lewis, this is Commander Harris, your pilot just left to pick your boys up, don't you worry, she'll be there soon. Good luck, Sergeant." the Sergeant breathed a sigh of relief. But it didn't last long. Screams and explosions came from outside, and the Corporal came in over the radio. "Sir, they're everywhere sir!" "Damn it, Corporal! What's everywhere?! What's happening out there?!" "The elite's sir, they just dropped down from the sky, like the ODST's do sir, hundreds of pods! We can't keep 'em back for long!" The Sergeant sat down, dumbfounded, then his head shot up and he grabbed the comm. "Commander Harris!, this is Sergeant Lewis, come in!" "What is it, Sergeant?! I've got way too many things going on right now, your pilot's on her way!" The Commander responded, clearly much more stressed than during their last talk with him. "Sir! The Covenant cruisers, aren't glassing, sir! They came in close to drop thousands of elites down on our heads! They're going to target the evac centers, all the citizens are fleeing to their deaths! Call of the evac, sir! Warn the survivors before it's too late!" The silence alone showed how shocked the Commander was. The time seemed to stretch on as he decided what to do. "Sergeant, get your men outta there. We don't have the forces to protect against that many elites. We have to pull back, save what we can." "Sir!? We can't just leave the people to die -" "We don't have a choice, now I want you to evac your men. That's an order, soldier." "...Yes, sir." Sergeant Lewis relied angrily. The comm. went dead and he threw it against the wall, smashing it to pieces. He yelled in anger and tipped his desk, kicking through the cheap wood pressboard that made up its surface. I stared in horror, unable to move while I sat in my chair, the full impact of the news sinking in. The Sergeant sat down and rested his head in his hands. I was about to speak, but the radio spoke first. "Sergeant! This is Private Sims! We're being massacred out here, sir! We're down to only a few men, Corporal Reid is dead, we need back-up sir!" [Edited on 08.31.2010 6:51 PM PDT]

[b]Chapter 1[/b] I didn't have what you would call an easy childhood. My father left when I was young, and my mother was never really there. When she died my sister and I were left alone. There weren't enough people on Jericho VII at the time to have an established census, nobody even knew she was dead. Raising my sister alone wasn't easy. I was only 13. That's why I turned to the insurrectionists. They took the two of us in and helped us survive. They were the closest thing to a family I ever got. I lived for five years with them, and when I turned 18, I enlisted with them. It wasn't long after that when everything went wrong. In the year 2535, only 2 months after I joined the Insurrection, the Covenant found us. Sirens sounded and screams of panic chilled me to the core. I watched in horror as a purple, forked drop ship descended on our camp. I felt fear stiffen my body as Covenant troops poured out of it and began their assault. Then I felt panic as I remembered that my sister was still inside. As I ran towards the quarters we had shared, I tried to hold back images of what could have happened to her if the aliens got there first. I reached the door, out of breath, and my skin froze as I saw the broken down door and the burning walls within. As I searched the rooms for my sister, tears streaming down my face, I glanced out of the window. There, taking cover behind a wall, were three of my fellow Innie soldiers, and my sister. I ran to the window, and she saw me, a smile crossing her worried face. Before I could leave the window to meet her, the wall exploded behind the soldiers sending them flying as they burned from the plasma explosion. My sister was knocked onto the ground, but that was not my main concern, as a figure emerged from the smoldering hole in the wall, opening its four mandibles wide in a battle cry. As I turned from the window to protect her, another blast hit the building I was in, collapsing the ceiling and trapping me in the room. My sister screamed in terror, and the creature turned to see her crawling backwards, too terrified to get to her feet and run. I could only watch in horror as the beast slowly drew its firearm and fired. I screamed in anger and pounded the window, but I could not even come close to breaking the nearly indestructible panes that the Insurrection installed in every building. Luckily for me, my screams did not penetrate the glass either, and the Elite did not hear me. It simply turned and pointed towards the heart of the base, opening its mandibles wide in what must have been a battle cry, as scores more Covenant poured from the hole, weapons drawn. The vibrations of plasma mortar fire shook the earth around me as I huddled on the floor, crying as I relived my sister's death over and over again in my mind. The next morning, I rose from my corner and began moving the rubble aside so I could get out of there. The Covenant had quickly moved on, and when I freed myself from what had been my prison, my sister's body still lay where she had been shot down. I walked to it, too tired to cry, and, without looking at her now mutilated chest, I closed her eyelids. I could do nothing more, and I stood, renewed anger and vigor coursing through me. I vowed that I would make the Covenant pay for what they'd done, and that I would avenge my sister's death if it killed me. However, as I turned to make my way to the nearby city of Franton, I heard a whirring sound. Moments later, a group of UNSC pelican drop ships sailed overhead, slowed to a stop, and came low for a landing. Being an Insurrectionist, instinct told me to take cover. I climbed onto the roof of the building through which the elite had come, and stared down at my sister's serene body. The wind from the pelicans blowing her long, brown hair across her face. Marines marched into the compound, taking a moment to mourn the fallen all around them. A few of them stopped and began to talk directly below me as the others began to move the bodies aside. "Can you believe this?" One of the marines said, "This was an Innie stronghold, and the Covenant just tore through it like it was nothing!" "I know" a second marine spoke solemnly, motioning towards my sister, "No mercy, she couldn't have been more than 13 years old. This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night." The marines removed their helmets as a show of respect to the fallen, as the third marine spoke up. "This is why we need to destroy these bastards! This is why we fight marines, and don't you forget it!" Judging by his words, I assumed he was the leader of this particular group of soldiers, a quick peek at his shoulder confirmed that he was the sergeant. I became lost in thought as to why the UNSC would come here now, after everyone was dead, when I was snapped back into reality. One of the marines was bending down to pick up my sister's body. Enraged, I screamed and jumped down onto the marine's shoulders. "Don't touch her! Don't touch my sister!" was all I could get out before two more marines pulled me off of their comrade, tears streaming down my face. The sergeant looked over in surprise, then walked in my direction, a puzzled look on his face. "You survived this, son?" He asked, shocked that anyone could have survived. I couldn't speak, just lowered my head and nodded. "What's your name, boy?" "J-Jonathan," I replied quietly, then again with more confidence. This could very well be how I can get revenge. "Jonathan Roland, sir" "And that's your little sister there?" I nodded solemnly. "I am very sorry, son, but she's gone. There's nothing left to do for her now." I looked up in protest, but he resumed before I could speak. "There are millions more people left on this planet, and we're gonna need this and many other places as military strongholds if we're gonna keep those people safe. Do you hear me?" He spoke softly and caringly, aware of the sadness I was feeling. I nodded silently as more tears welled in my eyes. " We need to move your sister if we're gonna get vehicles in here." I nodded once more, and the marine whom I had attacked, knelt down to pick up her body, this time, with no protest from me. "We will have time for burials later, but for now, I have a feeling you need some food and some rest, now come with me." He nodded to the marines holding my arms and they released me. The sergeant led me to his pelican, and we sat in the back seats as the former Innie base became a UNSC stronghold. The sergeant's name was Lewis, and he sat quietly with me into the afternoon before I spoke. "I want to join" I mumbled. "What was that?" He asked, unsure of what I had said. "I want to join, to enlist." I spoke up this time. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, son. Not yet." I looked up in confusion and anger, and he noticed. "Right now, you are delusional with guilt and revenge from your sister's death. The life of a soldier isn't all glory and greatness, like the movies make it out to be. The life of a soldier faces more grief and more death than any man can take for too long. If you truly want to be a marine, you have to be prepared to lose everything close to you, to see all your friends die in front of your eyes, to see complete and utter hopelessness and devastation." "Sir, I already have." He nodded slowly and closed his eyes. "Indeed you have, son, but I still can't let you make that call, not until you've had some time to clear your head and think it through. I don't want you throwing your life away over a guilt-ridden whim like so many men do nowadays. You're gonna stick with me until we get off this rock, then we'll see about signing you up." Before I could protest, Sergeant Lewis stood up, and walked towards his new command center in the middle of the base, giving orders to another marine to let me sit and think, and when the time comes, to take me to his office. [Edited on 08.31.2010 6:29 PM PDT]