Chapter One

July/ 20th/ 2533/ UNSC Calendar

Seti Borta System/ Seti Borta VI / K'tinga City

Lance Corporal Stephanie Kerkova lay quietly in the fallen ruble of what used to be the fourth floor of an apartment block. The sounds of thunder crackling over the sounds of gunfire echoed in through the gap in the wall ahead of her. She shifted slightly and the ruble moved underneath her light weight.

The loud thunderclap sounded over head of her and she fought her urge to jump at the massive burst of sound. Stephanie smiled at her control over her reactions, she had barely moved when the thunder sounded. The air quieted after the sound of the thunder echoed itself into submission; it was then replaced with the dull repetitive sound of the falling rain.

Stephanie looked out over the city ahead of her; it was dead looking with falling and crumbling buildings littering the night sky. The once familiar city horizon was crumbling and the enormous sky scrappers had been blown or dissolved from existence. She frowned as she gazed at what remained of the biggest building in the Seti Borta colonies, its giant triangular shaped designed was pocked with holes and had huge chunks missing. Windows and large support beams were shattered or completely destroyed on the massive building.

The sound of gunfire ripped out of the streets below her once again. This time she could make out the distinctive crackle of a UNSC MA5B Assault rifle followed by the loud whine of a Covenant Plasma Rifle. Stephanie looked over at her helmet lying to her right: it was lying along with her three extra magazines for her S2 AM Sniper Rifle. On the left side of her lay the four empty magazines from the day previously.

The day before, an entire covenant company tried to advance up the streets she was covering. It had been led by a small group of Elites, but mostly the company was made up of Grunts. She had gotten lucky; when they advanced they were on foot while escorting three Specters. On board the specters were a large stockpile of supplies; it carried what looked like everything from methane tanks to fuel rod cannons.

She had managed to cut down the Elite officer in charge of the company in the first shot. With the next three shots, she had killed the drivers of all the Specters before she reloaded. With her next magazine she had shot all the methane tanks strapped to the vehicles causing a massive blast that ripped out over the Grunt infantry and killed a large majority of them. Bodies, blood and plasma weapons had flown through the air in a wave of horrid death.

The remaining covenant troops retreated back down the street, she had proceeded to kill all that remained of the Elite officers, anything from the blue armored ones to the more seasoned red armored officers. None of the elites had escaped to bring back the knowledge of her location. Because of this, she didn't feel the need to move just yet.

Stephanie sighed and slowly rolled over; she took cover behind a fallen piece of ruble from the hole in the building she was sniping from. It had been made by a UNSC Longsword fighter a few days ago when she first arrived in the area. She grabbed her helmet and quickly put it on; she didn't bother strapping it around her head. She wasn't going to be wearing it for very long.

The second she turned the radio on, the sound of screaming echoed over the radio waves. The sound of the person's death made her cringe in pain at their death cry. The scream was so loud it was indistinguishable from a man or woman, it could have been either or that was being killed over the entire radio network. She felt a twinge of pity for the soldiers on the ground and the pilots in the air who were fighting down in the streets and in the banshee filled skies.

"Fifth squad pull back to that coffee shop," yelled a man over the radio.

"Negative, they've got us pinned-," the voice of a woman was cut off by the sound of whining plasma rifles.

The frantic voice of a man came on the radio next, "fifths gone, they just overran their position. We need backup, they're gonna hit us next!"

The officer's voice broke through again, "negative, negative. We need tanks on the second street over, why are they coming through here?!"

"Were getting pummeled by elites from that building over there, where the hells our support," yelled the other man. "Christ," he yelled followed by the sound of gunfire and screaming. "They just hit half our damn squad, were pulling back!"

"Negative, hold your ground. We need to hold these Elites off so our scorpions can engage the Wraiths in red light district," he yelled to his dying squads.

Stephanie took her helmet off with a grim look spread across her face; she looked over at the window and saw two specks flying in the distance. It was obviously a pair of banshees moving to engage some human position that was unlucky enough to be sighted by covenant forces.

She quietly moved back to her spot in the rumble filled floor and gazed with her rifle out the window. The street below her was empty except for the corpses from the previous day and the few days of straight fighting on the ground. She breathed out and gazed through the scope at the corpses of the dead men and aliens lying in their own piles of entrails and blood. Several had looks of pure shock and surprise on their faces, stuck in the horrid look of the moments before death.

That's when she saw it; it was just a flicker out of the corner of her eye. She lifted her head back from the scope and looked at the building across the street. The glowing made it instantly visible, the blue glowing face mask that the Jackal was wearing was all that was visible in the dark room across the street from her.

That's when she heard the sounds of soft feet padding on the floor behind her. It was almost so quiet that she couldn't hear it over the rain. She quickly rolled back behind the cover she had taken refuge behind last time. She placed her rifle beside her on the floor and reached for her M6C Magnum. She cocked it and pointed it at the door of the apartment she was in.

Stephanie quietly got to her feet as the sound of quiet clicking and hissing could be heard. She smiled, this Jackal was talking to the one across the street, and they must be a sniper team of some sort. It was a terrible thing to do when you where a sniper, any sort of noise could give you away to anyone hunting you. In this case, the Jackal gave himself away by speaking to the other one across the street.

She slowly walked towards the door with her handgun at the ready, its bulky iron sights rested at the midsection of any creature that might be on the other side of the door. She quietly took a step forward, listening for any sound to come through the door. She looked back at where her gear laid, her body armor lay next to her rucksack in a neat pile. She debated whether or not to go back and get the armor but if she did, the Jackal might come in and kill her while she was getting it on. No, it was better to just go and try to kill it now while she could catch it by surprise.

Stephanie looked down at herself; she was wearing a black T-shirt with the words UNSC scrolled across her chest. There was nothing that could protect her from anything the Jackal could dish out. If it had even a weak plasma pistol it could still burn its way inside of her chest.

Another cluck came through the door, it was much closer then it was before. It was much closer now; it was coming down the hallways outside of the apartment. Stephanie took another step and leaned up against the wall next to the door, she held her weapon up as she began to open the door slowly. She slowly opened it a crack, she looked down the hallway dark garbage and debris littered hallway.

Stephanie felt her heart thumping in her chest as she continued to look through the barely open doorway. The darkness was blinding and she felt her adrenaline continuing to flood through her blood. She knew she should run and try to escape, but she knew she should also kill these two snipers before they kill any humans who come down the street.

She knew, like most human marines, that the covenants snipers were extremely accurate and that in combination with their sniper rifles ability to rapidly fire a second shot immediately after the first. The two snipers could probably cut down an entire platoon, possibly even two platoons before they could retreat away from the snipers firing arc.

Stephanie opened the door fully and stepped through the door, she held her handgun in both her hands and at the ready. She scanned one end of the hallway, then turned and scanned the other end of the hallway. There was no sign of the Jackal, where could it have gone?

The wall to her left erupted into a bright green light and the molten slag that used to be a chunk of the metal wall melted downward. She turned just as another shot whizzed past her head and washed against the far end of the corridor. Stephanie finished her turn and saw the Jackal fire a last shot before it disappeared back into the apartment next to the one she was in. She dived to her right side as the last shot barely missed her mid section. She landed in a pile of debris on the floor and some of the random metal chunks clanged around the hallway.

Stephanie's right arm ached as she pointed her M6C Magnum with her left hand towards the doorway where the Jackal had disappeared. She heard it clucking and chirping as it took cover in the small apartments hallway entrance. Stephanie quickly got to her feet and took a single large stride across the hall and put her back up against the left wall of the hallway. She looked to her right then back to her left towards the Jackal's apartment. She could try to go back to her apartment and get her some grenades, but whats to stop the Jackal from coming and shooting her in the back? Decisions...

The clucking and chirping stopped and she brought her gun up and aimed it towards the Jackals doorway. She lined the iron sights up with about the Jackals midsection and took a deep breath. The doorway remained empty for a moment, then another. It seemed to be an eternity as each second ticked by, she couldn't decide whether to try and rush the Jackal or wait for it to try and rush her.

That's when she saw the movement, except it wasn't the brownish colored skin of the bird like creature. It was a glowing blue orb that whizzed out through the doorway and bounced off the right wall and landed a few feet from Stephanie. "Shit," she yelled as she sprinted away from the glowing orb of death. The floor shook and Stephanie was picked up by the concussive wave from the plasma grenade. She was tossed several feet forward and landed on a large jagged peice of debris. Its pointed edges sliced easily into her unarmored body, her warm flesh sliced easily apart as the metal rammed into her abdomen. Debris from the blast landed all around her as she layed on the sharp metal object. The pain shot throughout her body like a shot of adrenaline, she cried out in agony as she rolled onto her back.

She looked down at her stomach and the charred grey peice of metal was plunged deep into her skin. Red blood leaked out of the deep wound and soaked into her black t-shirt. She slowly moved her hand towards the metal fragment, a flicker of movement past where her attention was focused caused her to snap back to the reality of how imment her death was.

Nearly eight meters ahead of her the Jackal stepped out from his apartment with his plasma pistol glowing a bright green color. Stephanie raised her magnum and aimed it for the Jackal; the Jackal aimed its charged pistol down towards Stephanie's chest. Both weapons fired within a fraction of a second of one another, the orb of plasma whizzed down towards Stephanie. The 12.7mm round passed the orb in mid flight and they were nearly one centimeter from one another as they passed.

The bullet slammed into the soft chest of the Jackal and it gave out a cry of pain as its body was tossed back from the sheer power of the large bullet. Purple blood spurted up into the air from the wound as it was tossed backward, the blood splatterd to the floor and the Jackal landed with a slight tumble.

The green orb whizzed towards Stephanie, she raised her hands out of instict. The blob of energy washed over her hands and the world went dark. She felt her body tingle, she could smell the charred flesh and blood in the air. Stephanie let the darkness take her over as the smell of ozone finally wafted up her nostrils but didn't come back down.