Deaths worse then fate
Interval 01: Inception
The Date was October 4th, 2552; two days after the Covenant had invaded Earth. Fighting was spread across the globe, and New Mombassa was not the only target attacked. Although Regret was gone, Covenant forces still existed. One such group was lead by a Minor Prophet named the Prophet of the Departed. His legions had landed within the American Protectorate: the name for the government that had combined South and North America, Mexico, and Canada into one super-nation.
The city they had landed in, Neo Chicago, was a surreal war-zone. Entire city districts were reduced to burned and charred rubble. Still others were un-touched by the fighting, either having no importance to either side or being an utter loss to defend. The old section of Neo Chicago, parts of the original city, now had new names; Historic Chicago, the Arts & Crafts District, and the Auburn District. Historic Chicago held the pride of Old Chicago, it was the up-town section and held many historic significances to it's people. The A&C District was a whole district of theaters, art shops, bazaars, and beautiful apartments. Auburn was the slums of Old Chicago, always too costly or not profitable to tear down. Not many lived in Auburn to begin with; the population had dropped drastically two years before. When the Covenant came, they found little more then rats, long abandoned buildings, and an unshakeable sense of dread.
While the fight raged on in Neo Chicago, another battle was taking place. The Covenant first found the indications of these new problems when they discovered Human recon and assault teams slaughtered, but not by plasma or needler fire as they expected. No, these humans were killed with the primitive projectile weapons they were so fond of…
"Hey, Joe! Over here!" Two marines from the UNSC made a sweep of a previously unchecked warehouse area. One recon team had reported possible Covenant contacts in the area, so now it was time to make a thorough search.
"What's up?"
"Come and see for yourself man." The two looked inside one of the large warehouses to find rows of people. Four different uniforms could be seen, and they all appeared to be sleeping standing up.
"What the… Are they asleep?"
"They can't be dead. Dead people don't stand up like that."
There were three rows of 10 people, the first wearing a gray/black cameo uniform with something akin to a black motorcycle helmet, the second wearing solid gray with a red visor strip over their eyes and gray ski mask covering the rest of their features, the third also in a gray/black uniform but with a gas mask instead of helmet. In the back stood two others, black uniforms with red trim, shoulders, and body armor with a red hood over their heads and white masks set onto their faces, the eyes of which glowed orange.
All of them were armed with either shotguns, assault rifles, or SMGs, and would have looked quite threatening save for the fact that they all held the guns loosely in their right hands, were slouched over, and their heads appeared to be looking somewhere around their booted toes.
"What the heck? These are old Rakow G2A2s'!" The marine identified as Joe pulled one of the assault rifles out of the 'sleeping' soldiers limp grip. The other marine wandered into the back of the soldiers and approached one of the two strange men.
"Hello? You boys awake?" The second, Steve, came right up to one of the pair and pulled up his head.
"Hey, can you hear me?" The soldier in question stood limply, not answering.
"Come on, you awake under there?" Steve reached up and pulled the mask off with a little pop. Under it was a typical human face, jaw limp and eyes unfocussed.
"Are they drugged?" The marine known as Steve looked away for an instant, and in that instant the Unknown Soldier blinked. His eyes snapped into focus and locked onto the marine in front of him like lasers. The first indication Steve had of the soldiers awakening was said soldiers fist driving his fingers like a spear into the surprised marines' trachea. Steve was propelled backwards, gagging and trying to get air moving again. Joe heard the noise and looked up as the rows of soldiers awoke, snapping to arms.
"Holy sh-" Joe never finished his sentence, as the soldiers in front of him opened fire and ended his life.
Steve lay on the ground, making gagging noises as he tried to re-open his windpipe. The soldier who had done him that injustice picked his mask off the ground from where Steve had dropped it and set it back on his face. The impassive figure glanced over to where Steve lay choking, took brief aim with his rifle and splattered brain matter on the concrete. The first two interlopers down, the soldiers rushed out of the warehouse and into some nearby trucks. Their commander had finally called them, and there was work to be done.
"Commander?" The squeaky voice of a Grunt reached the ears of one Eta Nogal'mee. The buff Sangheili looked down to the diminutive Unggoy that had interrupted his thoughts.
"We find something on street. Group of humans, but they not look like ones we see before. They not very nice looking, and there be the humans we remember dead around them."
Eta cocked an invisible eyebrow at the little Grunt. "Show me."
The Unggoy lead the field commander to the window where the strange humans could be seen from a safe distance. Sure enough, there was a group of humans wearing armor that Eta had never seen before. And the humans that Eta had fought on several occasions lay dead around them. No plasma burns on the corpses, but holes from the projectile weapons. Nogal'me mused at this odd turn of events.
"See something interesting?" Eta started as the Sangheili Black Op spoke from behind him.
"Yes, excellence. It appears that some humans have attacked and killed another group. What it means, I don't know." The Black Op Elite walked to the window and looked out at the carnage below.
"They are still but human filth, are they not? They must all die." No sooner had the newcomer finished speaking then a sound not unlike the beam rifles used by the Jackal Snipers sent its rapport echoing down the road and a stream of energy crashed through the window and smote into the Black Ops back. Stunned, and not realizing his shields were down, the Sangheili crouched and looked about for the sniper. From a darkened window across the street, the same shot fired again and consumed the foolish Sangheili and sent the remains scattering across the room; blackened bits of armor and a carbonized skeleton.
Eta had thrown himself flat after the first shot, the veteran being no stranger to combat with humans. While not encountered often, the human snipers were quite skilled at their art. The Unggoy broke and ran from the room screaming. The sniper fired off another shot and fried one of the fleeing Unggoy. Silence reigned for a moment. Eta looked for and found a shattered bit of mirror that he used to try and peek over the edge of the window. The sniper had moved on, and the humans in the street were pulling out, running off to some unknown destination.
Cursing in his own tongue, Nogal'me crawled from the room to round up the grunts again. These new humans had some strange tricks up their sleeves, and he was determined not to suffer the same fate as the Black Op. That didn't make his last words any less true though. They were still human and must die.
This firefight has gone on too long… Thought Corporal Banks. The Covenant had found the building his squad was and what had been a skirmish quickly turned into a running gun battle between himself and the Covvies. With only him and two squad-members left, it was time to find a way to really disengage.
Banks' opposite, a Sangheili named Fosa Nal'renee, was thinking along the same lines. Only he, a rookie by the name of Ras Po'teilee, and three Unggoy were left of his original team of the two Elites, 8 Unggoy, and two Kig-yar. Trying to uproot the humans had drained more resources then he had thought, and it was either time to end this or to retreat.
Fosa clicked his mandibles. Retreat was out of the question. The humans could not push back the Holy Covenant. His thoughts were interrupted by one of the Unggoy ordered to watch the corridor to the south that opened up into this lobby the humans had hidden in.
"Boss! There be a small human here! It-" The rest of the transmission was lost in a skull-splitting wail through the radio, with a dull thump heard from the hallway. Ras, who had heard the same, crept over to a bank with more of the green plants in it and peered between the leaves. His voice came over the waves a moment later.
"The lights are out. I cannot see our scout… I think he is dead. There is a large pool of Unggoy blood spreading out from the doorway." Fosa growled. Another member of his team was dead. Even if he returned victorious, the other Veterans would no doubt mock his apparent lack of leadership skills.
Banks and his men had not sat idle, however. Spotting a handy corridor to the south, they crept along the edges of the room towards it. Finally, the destination was in sight. With a final "Frag out!" as a parting shot, the three humans dashed down the corridor. The floor was sticky, but they paid that no mind, only trying to escape. At the end of the corridor, a light flickered. And every other flicker, the shape of a small girl could be seen…
Both Sangheili ducked as the grenade blew and sent dirt and shards of tile about. Ras peeked over the edge to see the last human duck into the gloom.
"They're gone, sir. Do we follow them?" Fosa stood and looked about the lobby. With a sigh, he answered his fellow Elite.
"Rally on me. We must withdraw and gain reinforcements."
Ras' reply was lost in another skull-splitting wail over the comm., followed shortly by a human scream. The staccato rapport of the human weapons echoed out of the darkened corridor, the flashes casting yellow-orange light on the bend. The wail toned down, but the firing did not. Another scream, and then the gunfire silenced as well. Silence for a moment, before a gloved and blood splattered hand grasped its' way out of the darkness and into the light of the lobby. The human marine pulled himself along the ground, coated in human blood and obviously injured.
Banks looked up, and saw two tall blurry shapes. One was blue, the other more red. Part of his mind realized they were the Elites his team had fought. Then he realized that they were in danger as well…
"Run…" The human croaked out to Ras. "Run!"
Ras might have obeyed, but he was staring above the marine, at the ceiling of the hallway. On it, walked a little girl in a red dress. Somehow gravity didn't seem effect her, for she acted as if it were the floor she walked upon. Quite suddenly she disappeared, and the human on the floor gasped one last breath and simply melted, the human and Unggoy blood mixing into some grotesque pastel. Ras jerked into motion, turning to run away. Fosa could only stare as the human girl stood beside Ras and looked directly at him. Ras moved forward, and pitched over as he too melted away into blood and bone. Fosa finally raised his plasma rifle, firing in a blind panic at the little girl. The blasts only impacted on tile, the girl was gone again. Fosas' eyes and weapon jittered around, looking for some indication of this new assailant. When none appeared, he calmed down a bit and turned around…
Where he came nose to nose with the same little girl. His last act on this plane of existence was to scream out over the command channel as he liquefied.
"It is the nature of man to create monsters… And it is the nature of monsters to destroy their creators."
-Harlan Wade