Demon. They are a demon. Those words swirl in your head, reminding you of the wars you've fought, the militia groups you've made disappear, the endless hordes of Covenant you have slayed, all without as much as flinching. Demon was a fitting title for you. You never stopped fighting, never stopped killing until the very end. No, you had stayed behind to keep the Covenant forces that had invaded Reach busy while The Pillar of Autumn made it's escape. You could only pray that your efforts were not in vain. After hours of fighting, that was all the aliens kept calling you. Demon, demon, they are a demon... In your own tongue, no less.
In the end, it had taken seven Sangheili Elites to take you down, and that was something that made you proud. Of coarse, all but the last two came down with you, the last two delivered a blow that left on the ground, bleeding, crying with pain, your systems blaring with failure. You could see your helmet, lying a few feet away with a huge hole, right in the middle of the visor. Not even Emile could have survived that. He didn't in fact.
The thought brings your team to the front of your mind. Carter, Kat, Jun, Emile, Jorge... They all fought so hard. Their deaths replay in your mind, over and over.
Carter bravely and selflessly sacrificing himself so you could deliver Cortana, driving his Falcon into the heart of a Scarab.
Kat, whose death was so unfair... Shot through the head while retreating. You and her were a little tense after she rolled the Warthog, but she still didn't deserve her fate.
Emile died fighting an Elite. Defiant until the very end, his last words ringing in your head. "I'm ready! How 'bout you?". You ran past his body as you took control of the Mass Driver.
Jorge... The thought of him sends a jolt of pain through your chest. He died activating the slip-space bomb that was meant to save his home world. Your fingers, now numb and shaking reached for his dog tags. If only it had saved Reach. If only things had gone according to plan. Maybe then, you wouldn't be here, dying alone on a dying planet.
You take a deep breath and cough up blood, the red blending in with the dry brown of the earth. You let your mind drift back, to when you first arrived on Reach. You had taken the green plants and beautiful wildlife for granted, your mind focused only on the mission ahead of you. Now all that was left was dust and dried, dead weeds. Even those were scarce.
You had taken a lot for granted in your life. The planets you visited, your abilities as a Spartan, your team mates... You felt you hadn't had gotten the most of your life. Like tunnel vision, all you focused on was the next fight, the next mission. There was a lot you would do differently. Maybe there would be another time...
You could feel your fingers loosen their grip on Jorge's dogtags as the blood loss finally made your vision turn black, you consciousness fading. And as your body laid there, it was turned to glass alongside the planet of Reach, the only memory of you left was your courage and a file that read "Missing In Action".
After all, a Spartan never dies...