CHAPTER 1

The night gathers, the sun sets, and all light leaves this world. Some say that death is just a new beginning, that there lays a world beyond this one, where all the dead shall be judged and all those deemed good shall prosper. But is that just a lie we tell ourselves so we can sleep well at night? What if, after death, there truly is nothing. What if all that lays beyond the grave is a darkness that swallows us, what if our lives are just a clock counting down to our inevitble in-existence, what if all we do is for nothing- forgotten the moment our bodies lie cold?

It has been three years since I left my family to come here, to join this army. Three years since I have last seen my family, my friends. So much has happened since, and so much has been lost. Everyone had to join the war effort, the Covenant were closing in. World after world, colony after colony, obliterated. Forgotten.

The chamber heats. Vents are letting out puffs of cold gas from the trunk's sides- a noise I remember well. I open my eyes. My mouth is dry, my back a pain and my ears were still cold as ice. My cryo tube slams open and I fall to the ground on my hands, coughing. I clean my dripping nose with the sleeve of my shirt and stand up. The other men are still waking up around me, surely feeling just as comfortable as I did, but I was already zipping up my black under-suit and hooking on my armor pieces. I tighten the leather straps, close the latches at the chest piece's sides and place the sleek helmet on my head, revealing a holographic Heads Up Display- ready for action. The Commander- a black haired asain female with a lean shape and muscled arms- walks into the room, she too was all suited up and prepared, holding her helmet in her hand.

"Come on ODSTs, we are running late for the battle." Commander Kai said. All the other ODSTs were getting in line, placing their armor as they went. My friend Benny was fitting his armored boots. We met in training- I first hated him, I hated all of it, but by the end we became close. He had rugged brown hair, a dimpled chin and a hooked nose, and his eyes were blue as ice.

"Commander, is it lost?" Benny asked.

"Not yet." she answered. Soon. I thought.

We walked to the drop pod bay as a team of seven, where a holographic image of Helios- the world we are going to fight for- showed on the panel at the center of the room. To it's left were a row of cylindrical pods with two weirdly shaped spikes at their tops. The Commander leaned in, inspecting many charts and territorial diagrams and making her strategic plans, when I saw Benny going to her. They talked for a while, and I sneaked closer.

"Ma'am, he's a shell of a man. Ever since he's gotten word from Kholo about the glassing, about his family... He seems ready to die. Willing to die." I heard Benny's voice. He talked silently and at the side of the room. As if I could not hear.

"Stay with him. Make sure he doesn't sacrifice himself. We can't risk any more sacrifices." the Commander said.

"Yes, Ma'am."

Then he looked at me, he saw I was listening. I did not care. I could not care. All he said was true: there is nothing left for me in life. I have no home to return to, and no family to greet me. Everyone I ever knew is likely dead- my sweet wife Anna with her rushing blonde hair, gray eyes and her dark red lips, always smiling. My daughter Laura, only three years old. She was always a hopeful little girl. But now she's dead and all my hope died with her. My parents, my brother, my friends... all gone, their homes flattened by the plasma beam of just another Covenant super-carrier and their bodies turned to ash.

"You heard that?" Benny asked me.

"I heard." I answered.

Saddened, he lowered his voice. "You look so tired, but so determined. What happened is in the past, Rob, you have to let it go." he said.

"Let it go? Let everything I ever knew and ever was go?" I asked, angered.

"I see the fire in your eyes, Rob. It blinds you. It consumes you." Benny said, and my eyes filled with tears of rage- but I would not cry, never. "Your dreams of hate and vengeance will only lead you to an early grave. We need you here, alive. We are losing this war, Rob. You are a fine soldier, we need people like you. So I can't have you kill yourself in battle. Not for me and not even for the greater good." I looked away, at the drop pods at the side of the room. Their hatches were now opened. "Would your family want you to give up so fast?"

"Orbital drop in T-minus 120 seconds." said the ship-board AI, Persephone, in a very robotic yet clearly female voice.

"ODSTs prepare to drop!" the Commander screamed as she herself, prepared to drop.

Each of us took a weapon of choice- mine an Assault Rifle- and placed it inside our pod, in a special compartment at the pod's side. We each took a pistol to fit at the hips of our armor, and plenty of rounds and magazines for both of our weapons. I stepped into my SOEIV pod, sitting back and letting the big U-shaped latch flatten against my back. From one pod to the next. I thought. I found the picture of my family in my pod. My beautiful, smiling, wife and my baby daughter, curled in her arms. I took the picture and kissed it, then stuffed it in the side pocket at the left of my chest.

Everyone was ready and set- now the countdown would initiate. "Orbital drop in ten, nine, eight..." Persephone exclaimed, as a small clock ticked down with her at the side of my HUD. "Seven, six, five." This part will be the worst- dizzying, sickening and frightening more than anything I've ever experienced. "Four, three, two, one." she said. "Good luck." Just as she struck her final note, the ground fell beneath me. My stomach jumped and I felt my body press hard against the latch holding me still. A sense of weightlessness filled me and made my belly croak. The tunnel leading to the ship's exit was lit with multiple small red lights, and suddenly they disappeared. In their place was the blackness of space, specked all over with white-yellow stars and blue-black nebulae- one of the most strikingly beautiful views I had ever seen, until I looked down.

Feet first into hell. I thought.