Author's Note: This is something I thought of and wrote the very same night. First time writing a one-shot, and writing in first person. Inspired by the song Anthem of the Angels by Breaking Benjamin and the book World War Z written by Max Brooks.
Twenty years after the Human-Covenant War I started a new project that, if completed to its fullest extent, could achieve many things. I was to interview the Marines and Soldiers who nearly gave their lives in service. Us civilians never got the full story, just lies about how the UNSC was fighting back and winning and watered down stories of victories. It was time we got the truth of how bad the war got, and what hell these men and women were put through because of this alien race. I set out to Turin, Italy, Earth to speak with one of these veterans, a man named Kirk Dispenson. His black hair was still shaved regulation close to his head and his dark brown eyes are kind as he invites me into his home.
It's the orange and red sunsets that always trigger it. The memory, so clear in my mind it almost seems as if it's imprinted right behind my eyes. That battle will replay in my head over and over again, me trying to figure out what should have been done differently, what calls should have been made, if we'd packed the right things for the job, if we had done it right. No matter what, though, it always ended the same: With Jarred's death. It wasn't his actual death, he is very much alive today, but it was the death of who he once was. I visit him often, where he spends his days in a retirement home. He's only forty, and they treat him as if he's an old geezer passing his ninetieth birthday. It's frustrating when I see this, especially since I know in my mind it's the only way. After that day… Jarred just became a hollow shell. It was as if his very soul was sucked out of him and he no longer felt emotion, or the will to live. It's devastating looking at him, and talking to him. He's mute now, no longer able, or willing, to speak. I haven't told his story in a long time… But I guess now's a good time to face it.
It was towards the end of the war when it happened, in the Battle of New Mombasa. Things were looking dire, with the Covenant right on Earth's doorstep and already starting to glass. At least, that's what we'd thought back then, having no idea about this "Ark" or "Forerunners". That damn carrier was just hanging above the city, almost as if it just wanted to scare us into submission instead of actually attacking. My squad was tasked with the evacuation of the city, getting the stragglers out of there and fighting off any Covenant that tried to pick them off. Jarred, obviously, was in my squad along with a few other of our best buddies: Nicky, which was his nickname because of his last name, Nicolosi. He was our Sergeant and squad leader. Hadu, or Had, a great, big guy who could do very well without a weapon by just using his fists, and Leona, a very good friend of mine, though she and I never got closer than that. Maybe that was a good thing; if it had gone farther the pain may have been worse…
Well, our task wasn't too hard at first. Most of the Covenant were being held at the borders and we just had to make sure each family had all its members before they got aboard. Then, our defenses fell, and… Oh man, you should have seen these Covvie bastards. All they wanted was to kill and destroy, and when a whole line of them is coming right at you it's all you can do to not shit your pants. Panic ensued, things became disastrous. Other squads helped in fighting them off, but there were the ones who just broke right on through. The Elites were leading the charge, shouting and yelling things that we couldn't understand.
Shouting?
Well, roaring and snarling is a more fitting term, but whatever you want to use it was terrifying. Still, my squad and I held our ground, returning fire and helping a family of four onto a Pelican. If I'd had known that would be one of the last Pelicans to leave I would have tried to fit more people, but of course they failed to let us know that. The Pelican took off, leaving behind about thirty people who were waiting for more rides. They never came.
We waited and we kept fighting but no other Pelicans came. Nicky was shouting into the COM link at this point, trying to raise HQ and ask what the hell was going on. We still had more civilians, and the three squads of Marines, waiting for evac. Their response to this situation? "We need the Pelicans for something else, hold out for now." Hold out? Against this battalion of Covenant soldiers? We just sat there is disbelief, wondering why they would abandon us like that. Of course, afterwards, they claimed that they were just extending the mission, not leaving us to die. Bullshit they were. Now, though, we had to get out of there otherwise they'd be all over us. Nicky called out the order: Jarred and I were to look after the civilians while he, Had, and Leona would hang back and provide covering fire. A simple plan, and it would have worked had the unexpected not happened.
Soon after his orders were issued three fucking Wraiths were dropped in by Phantoms, these big ass tanks firing mortars at us from a distance. We weren't prepared for this; all we had were a couple of rocket launchers with limited ammo, as we had wanted to travel light. Nicky and the rest of us just assumed that we'd be able to call in a drop had things got a little hairy. Now, though, as those things kept firing upon us we all thought we were fucked. At this point Jarred and I just yelled at the civilians to run, run for all it was worth. Those Wraiths would just vaporize us if we stayed still too long. As we all ran I heard screams and yells over my COM, and I couldn't tell if it was my own squad or somebody else's. Fear for my buddies, fear for these civvies, and fear for myself almost overwhelmed me, but as always that adrenaline pushes you forward. Our rag tag group managed to make it into a small building a couple of blocks down that was about ten stories tall.
That was considered a small building?
If you think about it we were fighting in a city, with skyscrapers stretching as high as a hundred stories, not to mention the space elevator that towered over everything. Well, we got in there and caught our breath, parents calming their children and friends trying to help one another. No casualties, a few small injuries, we were all just thankful to be alive. It was at that point that I tried to raise Nicky on the COM. There wasn't a response right away, and I feared the worse, but then his voice came in. My relief was short lived as I realized he wasn't talking to me.
"Shit, they're behind us! They're completely surrounding us!" Those words sent chills all throughout my body. Surrounded by these Covenant bastards? No Pelicans coming to get us out of there? Our situation wasn't just dire now, it was absolutely hopeless. I turned to see if Jarred had heard, and his pale face and wide eyes said everything. Where should we go? We couldn't go back outside; even through the glass windows we could hear the Covenant army getting closer. So, we decided to take the next best option.
You went up.
Exactly. The higher the ground, the better. We could narrow the playing field, funnel in the soldiers so we could make use of our numbers. I decided to let Nicky know of our plan and get the rest of the Marines in here. It took a few times to get to him, and when I finally did I almost wished I hadn't. That's when I found out that both Leona and Had were dead, and Nicky was the only one left in our squad besides Jarred and I. It was devastating, receiving the news like that… we had this plan going, a way to survive, and we find out that two of our friends are dead. I nearly gave up right then and there, and it wasn't until Nicky forced me to snap out of it that I relayed our plan to him. He immediately agreed, and started getting what was left of the other squads to follow him. Meanwhile, Jarred and I waited in the lobby of what seemed like a business building. Oh, how I wished we had kept moving.
They came out of nowhere and if we hadn't moved back away from the doors we could have been killed. The explosions just shattered all the glass and the shards flew among the crowd. One guy had a piece that lodged right into his eye; it makes me shudder inwardly every time I think about it. With his screams and all the other civvies, the plasma fire, and the distant explosions it was a wonder that I could hear anything. Nonetheless, Jarred and I shouted at them to get upstairs, just keep going up. They obeyed immediately, anything to get away from the alien menace.
The two of us followed more slowly, trying to fight off any of the Covenant that came in. Sure enough, after the dust settled, the Grunts were sent in first followed by several Jackals. They interlaced those damn shields, providing nearly impenetrable protection for themselves and the Elites that followed. Knowing we couldn't do shit against them, we just lobbed a few grenades and ran. It wasn't until I reached the stairwell that I realized Jarred wasn't with me. Nearly panicking, I turned around to see him behind a charred desk holding onto a woman.
She'd been paralyzed with fear after the explosions went off, and hadn't moved with the rest of the crowd. Jarred must have seen her as we retreated and went off to help her. I was shouting at him now, desperately trying to get him into the stairwell. The Covenant line was moving closer, and I had to hide behind the door to avoid getting shot. Jarred pleaded with the woman, almost begged her to move, but she wouldn't hear a word of it. I yelled at Jarred, Jarred yelled at her, and the Elites roared for our blood as a couple of them broke rank and ran for the desk. There was nothing I could do, I was completely pinned down by plasma fire as I watched one Elite grab the edge of the desk and flip it over to reveal the two of them.
Oh the scream that woman gave out, that bloodcurdling scream that nearly blinded me with fear. Jarred tried to save her, tried to fire his assault rifle, but the Elite was too fast and quickly disarmed him. Weaponless, I swear that alien bastard laughed as he hit Jarred to the side. The woman now sat in front of these two blue-armored Elites, these two were new and mostly likely wanted to prove themselves. One took out its energy sword, those plasma blades they have, and in one swift move decapitated the woman. It was terrible, absolutely awful, watching her die like that. Jarred just sat there, frozen in shock, staring at where her headless body fell.
[Kirk pauses briefly, staring off into space before regaining his composure.]
There was nothing we could do, but Jarred wouldn't move. I knew that he wouldn't, and when the Elites turned their eyes on him my fear for him outweighed my fear for myself. I ran out, grabbing the shotgun I had with me and blew the head of one of the Elites right off. The other, most likely surprised to see a human this crazy, didn't bring up his sword fast enough as I unleashed another round into his chest. After all this, Jarred still wasn't moving, and I knew it'd be me who had to get him out. I quickly grabbed him in a fireman's carry and turned back towards the stairwell. That's when I was shot.
[He then lifts up his shirt to reveal a nasty scar that stretched up his right side.]
An overcharged plasma shot got me. I nearly fell and dropped Jarred, but my God the adrenaline that was coursing through me I barely felt it. I got us into the stairwell and up the stairs, all the way up to the tenth floor before I collapsed in exhaustion and pain. A couple of the civvies rushed forward to help Jarred and I, saying words like, "hero" and "savior". I didn't listen to them; I just had to get myself together for the last fight. They would most likely be chasing us after our departure, and Jarred was in no way able to fight. Getting my shotgun I reloaded it and told the rest of the group to get to the roof, and to help Jarred up there as well. A few of the guys stayed behind, taking Jarred's weapons and fighting alongside me. God bless them, I wasn't expecting to live through this.
Yet, we didn't have to fight. Right then a voice burst in over my COM, a pilot looking to pick up any civilians or Marines that were stranded. I immediately responded, telling him of our location and telling the guys with me to get to the roof. We all ran up the last set of stairs and into the sunshine. Well, it wasn't really the kind of sunshine that you'd see on a clear day, just that sunset of orange and red, the ones often associated with blood and the like. The civilians were surprised to see me, that is until two Pelicans appeared around one of the skyscrapers and approached our building. There was cheering, crying, and some people just sat there and laughed. They were relieved of course, they had all of their family and they were all alive.
We got onto the Pelicans, and that's when I saw the ground just riddled with Covenant. Nobody could have survived down there… none of the Marines, and not Nicky. I tried to get him on the COM, unable to deal with the pain, but there was no answer, just that damn white noise. In one fell swoop I'd lost my entire squad; Jarred was pronounced unable to fight and sent to a ward for the rest of the war.
[He pauses briefly, reminiscing, before continuing.]
Soon after the war ended and he was transferred to the same retirement home he's in now. Of course, Jarred never had any choice in what happened to him, especially since he had no family left. Yet, I was there, and oh how I fought to get him out of there. I could have taken it to court but… man, I didn't want to do that to him. I still hold onto that small hope that he'll return to normal one day, that we'll have times like we did before that damn battle. If I don't hold onto that hope… I may just end up losing it myself.
Author's Note: Well, that's it. Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think. Again, this is a first for me, so I'm curious as to how I did. Hope you enjoyed it!