AN: I don't own Halo and its franchise, only this story and its characters. Please read and review.
Halo: My own life
Chapter 1 – First Mission
Aboard UNSC frigate, Moving Towards Hell, 0811 hours, approximately 46 minutes before reaching an Outer Colonies agricultural planet called Lucid.
"Good morning, Thirty-First Marine," greeted Colonel Greshovic, via live telecast from UNSC frigate Live For Tomorrow.
"Good morning, sir," answered everyone as we stood up.
"ONI has gathered an interesting piece of intelligence and assigned Combat Group Fox to it. After our victory at Harvest…"
Barely, I thought.
"…the Covenant will be hitting us at full force. One of their targets is the agricultural planet called Lucid in the Outer Colonies. ONI believed that they are coming in less than five days from now and we are supposed to get more than three hundred thousand farmers out of the Covenant's way."
There was silence in the briefing room.
"Fortunately, the concentration of those farmers is on this continent," he continued as the screen changed to a map of the planet. There were four continents and the one the colonel was referring to was the third largest.
"The Thirty-First Marine Regiment will be deployed in the north sector. Battalion commanders will brief you on your specific duties. Greshovic out."
In less than 30 minutes, all of us had known our specific duties. After that, we quickly dispersed to our own companies. As the squadrons got out of Slipspace, two marine companies hopped onto their designated Albatross Heavy Dropships while the other two huddled into the Pelicans.
"Hey, Mark," called out one marine to me in an Albatross.
"Yes, Damian?"
"How do you feel, man? About your first mission as a marine, that is."
"I don't know what to feel. Okay, I guess."
"Okay? Don't you feel excited at all? To me, I feel excited, but I want to get into the action, man. I want to be on the front lines and kill those bastards after what they did to Harvest. I wish they would attack Lucid right now."
Everybody looked at him. "Be careful what you wish for, private," said a sergeant.
The 31st Marine Regiment landed on the northern sector of the continent. Before we could move in for our predetermined duties, the company's CO reminded us with a few words.
"All right, boys and girls, there are no Covenant here, so do not empty your mags for no reason, or do anything outside regulation. If I find anything wrong, I'll shoot your fucking asses."
That was what Captain Schuller said and it was effective if you believed the story that was sticking to him. I heard that he had shot one of his own sergeants after catching him in the act of raping a female civilian. There was an inquiry of course, but with the solid evidence to back him up, he was off the hook after 30 minutes of deliberation.
His actions told me that all he wanted in his company were real soldiers; soldiers who do their job protecting the government and the people it served, and not taking advantage of the population for their own personal satisfaction. Having that kind of story following him made everyone fear and respect him. I certainly did.
Since my company and another used Albatrosses, our job focused on the industrial part of the northern sector. Coming from an industrial planet myself, the buildings here were obviously nothing compared to my home. Instead of the large chimneys of plants or refineries and the smell of smoke, oil or other chemicals, there was nothing here except two or three food processing factories, a large power generating plant, a small oil refinery and a few supply depots. Seeing all these buildings made me think that this place was certainly quieter.
The plan was to gather all the farmers at the power plant in an orderly manner and ship them off to the space port in the middle of the continent. It seemed that local law enforcement was already doing a good job at it when we saw police officers herding a few hundred people to the power plant. However, it was obvious that they were understaffed. That was why the regiment separated into two and used Pelicans to go to the outlying farmlands to help speed up the process.
We arrived at the planet at around 0953 and immediately started work. It was 36 hours later that I finished my shift.
"Come on Stewart, time for us to rest. Thirty six hours is definitely a long time," said a marine to me.
"Alright Marcus." The two of us sat on the ground at one corner of a factory outside of the plant. More people were still coming in and ships were still busy flying around. I wondered if those pilots managed to get their rest.
As we took out our rations and consumed it, three other marines came and joined us. It was three of my friends that I made in this regiment, even though I knew one of them since boot camp.
The first one was of course Damian Hall Jackson. He came from an Outer Colonies agricultural planet of Famine. Despite the name, Famine was one of the main producers of food in the Outer Colonies.
The second was Sarah Wright from Golden Ambience. Her planet was located in the Inner Colonies that specializes in corn plantation and ore mining. Apparently, that was how the planet got its name.
The third was Philippe Marneau, coming from Harsden. The planet was also an Outer Colonies agricultural producer.
As for Marcus Yang, he came from New London. His home was an industrial planet located in Outer Colonies.
For me, my name is Mark Stewart and I came from the planet called Rylus located in the Inner Colonies.
"So how long do we need to rest?" Sarah asked.
"Two hours," replied Marcus. "After that, back to business."
"That short, huh?" said Philippe. "Just how many people are there left out here anyway?"
"There are about three hundred twenty three thousand farmers on this planet. Since the northern sector is not as fertile as other sectors, there are about seventy two thousand people living here. For the thirty six hours that we have been here, less than two thirds I guess."
"Are you making that up, Mark, or did you really calculate?" asked Philippe.
"I read the general summary about this planet when Moving Towards Hell was moving into orbit. As for the numbers, I was just figuring it out."
"Figuring, huh? You are full of BS, you know that," said Damian.
"Anyway, we still got a lot of things to do. That is why we have two hours to rest," said Marcus.
"And lots of chocolate energy bars to consume," I said.
"Yeah," everybody responded, smiling.
"So, for a planet of no importance at all, is Cole Protocol really useful?" Philippe asked.
"I think it is meant for the ships in this case. But the main question remains, will it work in the long run?"
"That depends on how long the war will take, Marcus. It has been six years since the war started at Harvest. I got the feeling it won't end so fast," I responded.
"The Thirtieth, Thirty-First, Thirty-Second and Thirty-Third. Four regiments just to get Lucidian farmers out of here. Isn't that overkill?"
"Maybe so, Damian. But in a way, the faster the better," said Marcus.
"Well, we better get some sleep," said Sarah. Everyone nodded in agreement and tried to sleep.
Third day on the planet, short rests seemed to be the best thing. There was a third left in the northern sector. To tell the truth, the evacuation was moving quite fast. As the people were getting less, we were sent out in Warthogs to help any farmers that were left out. Marcus and I were at the countryside, following our orders.
"I would have lived on this planet for a change. Quite peaceful."
"And I would agree with you too, Mark, if it wasn't for the Insurrectionist."
"What do you mean, Marcus?"
"This planet used to be a base for the rebels 30 years ago, until the UNSC came and captured the leaders. They were tried and executed within a week. I won't be surprised if some of these farmers are still part of the rebel group."
"A week? That sounds draconian, even though the rebels are guilty."
"They deserve it, Mark. No less."
"Someone you know got hurt, Marcus?"
He didn't answer and kept on driving.
"You certainly know the history of this planet. You're a historian or something, Marcus?"
"No, but you're not the only one who reads."
I chuckled, "So what did the Pelican users miss that require us to search for anybody?"
"They concentrated on residential areas and towns only, Mark. Too many people to cover. A family or two might escape."
"If there is anybody trying to escape from us while knowing that the Covenant is coming, they certainly want to die."
Marcus nodded in agreement. We finally came to a hill and I noticed a figure at the top of it.
"There's someone on the hill, Marcus. Stop the Warthog."
Marcus stopped the vehicle and I got out quickly and ran up the hill. At the top I saw an old woman facing two tombstones.
"I know what you want from me, soldier, and I wouldn't leave my family."
"This planet is being evacuated, ma'am. You should get out of here now, it is not safe anymore."
"I'm old, soldier, and this is my home. I don't want to die in a foreign land."
"No one is asking you to, ma'am. When this war is over, you can come back here and do whatever you want."
"Do you know when will this war gonna end?"
That question got me stumped. This Human-Covenant War was into the sixth year and looking at the rate it was going, it could be one long war.
"No one does, soldier. That is why I want to stay here with them."
"Don't you have any other children or relatives to care for, ma'am?
"My family died a long time ago. I'm the only one left alive."
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but you should…"
"I'm seventy eight years old already. There is no point for a lonely old woman to escape from here and die in someplace else. I don't want my body to be kept in storage for only God knows how long this war will take before I can go home," she said and began to cry.
I had just decided to leave her alone when she suddenly took out a small pistol and shot her head. I was terribly shocked by her action. Marcus was running up the hill, obviously heard the gunshot.
"What the hell happened here, Mark?"
"She committed suicide. She can't bare the thought of leaving this planet."
"And you didn't stop her?"
"I didn't even know that she had a gun. If I had known, I would have brought her with us."
"Should we report this to the sarge?"
"Yeah we should. But right now, we should bury her with her family."
"I agree with you, Mark. The thing is, we don't have any entrenching tool and there aren't any rocks up here."
"A lot of flowers up here though. Line her up and put some flowers in her hands."
After fifteen minutes, everything was done. I picked up the pistol and put it on top of one of the tombstones. We left the hill after that.
"How are we going to tell him?"
Knowing who Marcus was referring to, I simply reply, "The truth."
The evacuation was a success. Everyone was off the planet less than 11 hours left on the clock. Marcus and I knew that it was not everyone.
Considering the situation that Lucid don't have any important data and the Covenant was 11 hours away, Cole Protocol was not enacted. This was partly because the Slipspace trail left by all UNSC ships would dissipate within 6 hours. Knowing that, I'm glad actually since it was safe to say that all the intelligence gathered by ONI were accurate.
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