I land with a Crack! on the hard stone ground. I grunt with pain. My hand goes to my side immediately to search for wounds. I wince with pain and look at my hand. It's covered in blood. My blood. I grunt as I use my right arm to prop myself up.

My vision blurs as pain rushes to my head. All I see is a gigantic brown blur as I'm kicked into the canyons walls. The brown blur stalks towards and gives a deep roar. My vision clears before it reaches me. The Brute Chieftain is gigantic, standing at least nine feet tall. His dark brown fur is caked with blood, his and mine.

He takes his Gravity Hammer from his back. He was just toying with me. He could've killed me at any moment. Instead he threw me, beat me, and broke me, until I couldn't fight anymore. He raises the Hammer above his head. How could it have come to this? I ask myself. After all that's happened, all I've been through, how can it end like this? I've survived so much and now this. Well, I'm not going by myself.

"All right ugly, one last dance," I grunt as I take a fragmentation grenade from my belt.

He roars and swings his Hammer down. In the second before it hit me, I thought back on my life. From life on the farm to boot camp..

**H4L0**

I grew up as a farmer on the colony planet Reach. Now when people think of Reach, they think of the second most human populated planet in our galaxy, or the fact that besides Earth, it has the largest military system. And when the Covenant declared war on Humanity, people looked to Reach's defenses to protect them from the unstoppable alien force.

But what no one seems to remember are the farmers. Sure Reach had its military prowess and its huge cities, but that wasn't all that was there. There were farms, small towns, friendly neighbors, people who knew your name by heart. I loved my town, I truly did. I didn't want to leave it, but I felt honor bound to join the UNSC Marine Corps. Looking back, if I had stayed I probably would've died along with my neighbors, friends… family.

My father was angry at me for leaving. Furious really.

"After all the care I've put into raising you, all the money I've spent, the days I've labored, this is how you repay me?" he had screamed at me.

"Dad, they need every man they can get!" I had shouted back, my long brown hair getting in my eyes. "If I don't go, that's one less man out there to fight the Covies!"

"Oh you really think you can make a difference, huh? What the hell can one idiot farm boy do that could possibly help the UNSC?! What do you think you are, a Spartan? You're nothing special! Just a farmer whose only skill is lifting grain." He yelled at me, his face reddening. The rest of my family watched on as we argued.

My mother had taken my 8 year-old sister, Allison, upstairs and was no doubt trying to stop her from hearing us. My 17 year-old brother, Daniel, stood there glaring at me while my 14 year-old sister, Rachel, stared between me and my father looking scared.

"You know what dad; I don't care what you say. You're just saying this so that I'll end up a poor farmer like you, with barely enough money to support his family!" I had yelled back. My father stared at me, shock and anger on his face. I realized I had gone too far.

"Dad I'm sor-" I had started to get out, before his fist met my face. His punch threw me to the floor where I landed with a grunt. He had reached down and pulled me up to him so that I could hear him whisper in my ear, "Do whatever the fuck you want soldier boy. Just never come back to my farm. Ever."

With that he pushed me back down. He got up and motioned for my siblings to follow him upstairs. They followed him without question, without looking back at me. I had gotten up and stormed out the door, slamming it behind me. Before I knew it I was at the recruiting depot, with a pen in my hand.

**H4L0**

Before I left, I wished my family goodbye. My father and brother had stayed back, glaring at me, while my mother and sisters hugged me as I waited for the bus. Allison clung to my leg after Rachel had led my weeping mother back inside. Her face was pressed against my side as she sobbed, so that all I could see was her blonde hair.

As I pried her from me she sobbed out, "I don't want you to leave, David! Don't go, please don't go."

"Don't worry kiddo, you'll see me again." I told her soothingly. "Boot camp only last a few weeks. Then I'll take leave and come and see you."

"Oh really?" my father said, still glaring at me. "I had heard that that rule is no longer around, you know with the UNSC needing farm boys to fight the Covenant. Looks like you won't be able to come back."

As I realized what he was doing, I glared at him. Before I could retort the recruit bus pulled up. I looked at it before kneeling down to Allison's level.

"Don't worry Allison. I'll be back. I promise. I will always be there to protect you." And with that, I left my home and boarded a bus full of strangers. As the bus started moving, I looked out the window to get what was likely to be my last glimpse of the farm I grew up in.