Holy Lights Rising
Humanity Struck by the Covenant
Chapter 1: Closure
"How much time do people waste waiting on things to happen, rather than going out and making them happen? Too much I say. Then again, I'd be a hypocrite to say I'm not one of them. All that I know is that I regret not tackling life sooner. I regret not wanting a family, or a stable job. I regret choosing to live easy. Not to say things would be different right now if I did things differently. All this still would have happened, but at least I'd be alright with death, rather than feeling unfulfilled. They struck New Mombasa first. October 20th, 2552. I still remember the broadcasts on the news. I thought it was some sort of Sci-Fi movie trailer. They left New Mombasa by jumping into Slip Space in our atmosphere, causing a super sonic boom that wiped out the entire city. The UNSC and ONI issued a statement that the Covenant hadn't realized that this was our home planet."
"Then, a month later they came back, in much bigger numbers. They wiped out most of Africa right away, we thought we were all dead meat, but the Covenant never glassed us. Everywhere on Earth was hit with Covenant forces, but we were never finished off. Most people are saying the Covenant are looking for something, but can't even guess what it would be. Now here I am, sitting in a half destroyed apartment complex in the opening of Winter, warming my hands at a fire barrel with a dozen other survivors...praying...praying to anything...that the UNSC rescue squads find us..."
Lee closed his journal slowly, thinking and hoping that if he died, someone would find it and have some source of information on fighting the aliens. He rubbed his hands together again, generating as much warmth as he could. Winters had gotten really cold over the past 20 years. Hitting lows of 20 below. Boston is almost completely destroyed. Not many full buildings left to hide in. Not much food either. Looking out into the streets, one can see hundreds of open and abandoned cars, snow covering everything, and fires still burning in buildings after 16 days since the second attack. There's a television hooked up to the generator in the basement of this apartment, it barley works, but it keeps the folks up on the news about the resistance. Always showing pictures of Spartan-IIs. Most have found it strange that these Herculean figures are almost all listed as MIA. Except John SPARTAN-117. He apparently is back on Earth. Fighting to save us.
The folks here are starting to complain about the apparent lack of food. It's Lee's turn to go outside and rummage around in search of sustenance for his... "extended" family. The good thing about going outside to find food is you get first picks when you get back. That's a small luxury however, as most of the food is only so in title, and is barley edible. He bundles up in some extra layers, and heads outside with a torch in hand to keep warm, and to start a fire in case he's out past dark, when it gets really cold. He also holsters one of the only weapons his group has, an M6D Pistol. It's small, but packs a great punch. A soldier could drop a Hunter with it in one well placed shot. They've been decommissioned because of how expensive and prone to jamming they were, but they are trusty weapons nonetheless.
Lee starts his walk outside. First He'd head to the Supermarket, to find some non-perishables, then he'd make his way further, to look for some real, cookable meat. That's what people really appreciate. He always manages to find some, when nobody else can. After he'd found all that, Lee would head back to the apartment. He walks for a while when he hears another sound, the sound of snow crunching underfoot. It's not his feet. He draws his Pistol and regrettably douses his torch. Lee waits behind a low wall. The sound comes closer, and he hears orders barked in an alien tongue. He peeks over the wall to see a low class Elite, blue, barking orders at a couple grunts. Lee counts himself lucky and waits. The footsteps of the Grunt get louder, making Lee realize that he'd forgotten to cover his footprints. He'd be caught for sure. When things seemed to have gotten as bleak as they could get, gunfire was heard, and the sizzling return fire of plasma weapons. Then three heavy thuds, and silence. Lee looks over the wall to see that a small patrol of Marines had taken out the group.
That was a small group. Definitely only scouting. There would be more. Lots more.