It was just two weeks after the campaign to retake the colony Harvest was won, when they found them.
"How long until they breach the hull?" Asked Scarlet Januan. 'They' were the Covenant, a group of alien races joined together currently engaged in a bloody-war with the human race.
"Less than three minutes!" Her partner, Doug Coutes, replied as he started to lock-down the room.
They were in a standard, civilian ship, half-way to Madrigal, the nearest colony to Harvest. They commandeered the civilian ship to help evacuate marines that couldn't make it to the capital city of Harvest. They had about forty-two on-board at the moment. Scarlet had rounded them up was handing out standard M16B Magnums.
"OK, I want you, you, you, and you," She pointed at four of the marines, "to guard the left door. You will be known as Alpha." She pointed at the other five armed civilians and said "The rest of you provide covering-fire for Alpha, and help the other marines get to the escape pods. You will be known as Beta."
"Now, make your way over to the emergency escape pods. At least six people on one pod. There are enough pods to evacuate everyone of you. Don't panic and everything will work out fine." The evacuees started lining up in rows of six-eight. Good, thought Scarlet, they should be completely evacuated in about two minutes.
Two minutes later, most of the marines had made it into the escape pods. "How long until the Covenant board?" She asked while she helped herd the five other evacuees get onto the second-last escape module.
"About...," Doug looked at the computer, "one minute ago." The last of the marines loaded the pod. "Alpha, Beta! Let's get the hell out of here." He said. Alpha and Beta retreated from the left door and started loading in the last Module. Scarlet got in the pilots seat and activated the blasters. Not a moment too soon. Just as they blasted-off, the Covenant destroyed the entire ship. Several marines gasped and Doug just swore.
"Where are we going?" One of them asked.
"We're going to try to make it to Madrigal." Scarlet replied as she steered the pod around debris. "I'm going to try and call in backup, but we'll have to ride it out for now." She got onto the open-comm and relied the message to the other pods. "OK, in order to work together, we need to know each others names. So, tell me what you names are when I point at you." She pointed to a scrawny, blond, marine wearing faded blue jeans.
"James Liave, ma'am" He identified himself as.
She pointed to the next person in-line. "Jacob Uravre." Jacob was of medium build, had lava-red hair, and was wearing a green tee-shirt with bright neon-pink pants.
The other seven temporary recruits were: Jeremy Teres, Jones Buin, Jamie Quen, Jadon Tai, Jamar Loeen, Javen Nabe, and Jason Foet. Jeremy was a little on the chubby side, and had brown hair. Jones was tall and skinny. He looked like he would be a fast runner. He had jet-black hair, and was about twenty years old. Jamie was an African-American, looked as strong as an ox, had green eyes and black hair. Not quite as black as Jones, but close. Jadon had the body-builder style going on, with his gigantic chest muscles and the shirt that was too tight look. He was always striking poses. He looked about thirty-two. He had light brown hair. Jamar look almost exactly like Jamie, except he had gray hair instead of black hair. Javen and Jason looked almost like brothers. They both had blue eyes, blonde hair, and looked pretty strong. (A/N: I won't describe Scarlet or Doug, because they're supposed to be you. Doug if your a guy, and Scarlet if your a girl.)Only seven minutes had gone by by this time, and the shuttle was already running out of gas and oxygen.
"OK, since we only have about twenty minutes of air left, I suggest that we take short breaths, or go to sleep." Doug told the recruits and the marines in the other pods. Everyone on-board laid down, either on the floor or on the dash.
Scarlet had a hard time falling asleep that night. Even though she could usually lay down and be out within two minutes, this night she was enchanted by the stars. She had been in space before, but she didn't really look at her surroundings. But that night, she took the time to watch as they slowly drifted through the stars. Of course, they were really low on air, and she started to black out. The last she saw in the vacuum that was space, was a rupture in space near the wreckage of their ship.