Lord Hood looked over the people arrayed around the memorial, after a second he bowed his head and removed his hat. And began to speak "For us, the storm has passed. The war is over. But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark and did not return. For their decision required courage beyond measure…"

He paused for half a second, and looked up at the sky behind everyone and continued, saying "sacrifice, and unshakable conviction that their fight: our fight, was elsewhere. As we start to rebuild, this hillside will remain barren, a memorial to heroes fallen. They ennobled all of us, and they shall not be forgotten." With those words Hood placed his hat back on his head, and saluted outward to the small crowd.

"Present arms!" Were the orders yelled by one of the sergeants, and with that the entire line of marines, in unison turned lifted their weapons to their shoulders and fired into the air.

A few minutes later the marines were done, and they slowly began to disassemble, as did the rest of the crowd of people. After a few minutes the Arbiter began walking towards Hood, and up the ramp. Before he reached him Hood turned away from the Arbiter, and towards the monument that had been at his back during his speech. He said "I remember how this war started, what your kind did to mine. I can't forgive you" and with these words turning to the Arbiter who had drawn even with him continued, saying "but you have my thanks, for standing by him to the end."

Hood offered his hand to the Elite as he said these words, which was taken. He said almost as an afterthought "It's hard to believe he's dead."

For the first time the massive Elite spoke, and as he turned his head back towards the memorial regarding the human's testament to their fallen he said "Were it so easy."

Were it so easy, these words echoed through Lord Hood's mind as the Arbiter walked away to board his shuttle, on his way home. He contemplated the meaning of those words for a time before hearing the engines of the shuttle as it lifted off and headed for the carrier floating in the distance. Right now Hood envied him, at least he had a home to go to.

Hood began running through the numbers in his head, from an empire of roughly 700 colonies, to less than a dozen worlds that were still even viable for a population. And humanity itself had been pushed right onto the brink of extinction. So many lives lost, including that of his daughter and his grandchildren. The human race had gone from a galactic population of over 23 billion people, to little more than 200 million.

He shook himself, trying his best to clear his mind of these thoughts. They had lost a lot, but not all was lost. He walked away from the memorial, with the rising of the sun, so came the rise of a new age for Humanity. But they still had a lot of work to do.

Authors Note: Let me know what you think, I always enjoy feedback. Also let me know what ideas you have about how this story should be told. I have a couple ideas but I'm not sure what to do. I could make this into like a documentary shown in school, and at the end of each 'episode' the teacher answers the classes questions and sort of narrates the story. I could have Lord Hood narrate the story and sum up the stories told about others as they try to rebuild their own separate lives and help Humanity as a whole. Or something else entirely…