Disclaimer: All right so I um… am starting a new story. Before you all flame me for having a few unfinished ones let me first bring up a very interesting point brought up by a reader of my fanfics. He said my Halo stories seem to always rotate around ODST's. I never really branch out from Helljumpers. I thought of that as a very good point so I decided that I will branch out with this story. But instead of doing something about marines, Helljumpers or Spartans, I decided I will take a crack at the UNSC Army. They are often over looked and I with so little information on them I felt I could sort of fill in my own void of things and it would really help with my creativity. I'm also going to be writing in the first person; which is new to me, although it will start off as third person. So yeah I don't own Halo that's Bungies stuff and without further ado I give you We Were Soldiers: The Last Days.

Prologue

0950 Hours, March 1st, 2571 (Military Calendar/

Earth, Sol System (Present Day)

Sunset Valley, Maryland

Sunset Valley was a quaint little community within Maryland's Montgomery County. The houses were all almost identical save for color scheme. They all were two story houses with a garage thrown on the side As Paul Zimmerman drove his 55' Genet through the community he couldn't help but take in the beauty of it all.

"This is definitely where I want to live when I retire," Zimmerman said to himself. Sunset Valley wasn't necessarily a retirement community. Many veterans from the Human-Covenant war, or Great War as it was more commonly referred to as now, sought residence here after the war ended nineteen years ago.

The Great War had been a terrible thing. The Covenant, a technologically superior religious hegemony made up of many different species of aliens, had waged a genocidal campaign against humanity after contact had first been established on the Outer Colony world of Harvest.

For thirty years, thirty long years the Covenant had slowly been killing off millions upon billions of humans in what they referred to as a "cleansing of filth." Humanity was losing and losing bad. Humanities premier military, the United Nations Space Command or UNSC had valiantly defied the Covenant on multiple worlds. Usually they would actual have a pyrrhic victory against the alien, but the Covenant; with all their superior starships would simply fall back into orbit and use their energy projectors to "glass" the planet. Surfaces of entire worlds would literally melt into glass under the plasma.

So it had pretty much been like that for twenty eight years. With Humanity slowly falling back planet by planet and system by system. It wasn't until the twenty seventh year, in 2552 when the Covenant found humanities strongest military bastion of Reach did the Great War change hands. Who would have thought that it would take losing their strongest planet, next to Earth, for humanity to actually pull ahead? Well technically it wasn't the Battle of Reach itself, but the events that happened afterwards. The discovery of the Flood and the separation of the Covenant were huge helping hands. Anyways it was a long hard fought war and humanity only really one by luck.

Zimmerman drove his car down Moonview Drive turning onto Riverview Road after stopping at the stop sign. He looked out his car again, though this time he wasn't admiring the neighborhood. He had noticed that when he entered the community that every local resident outside would stop what they were doing and stare at his passing Genet. They all stared with blank stares. He guessed that the residents knew each other well and an outsider coming inside their neighborhood was odd. Frankly, Paul thought it was very unnerving to have all those eyes staring at him.

Paul slowed his car as he came to his destination. 14123 Riverview Road. The mailbox near the curb read The Ramirez's. "This looks like the place," he muttered to himself as he turned the car off. He gathered up his briefcase with all the things he would need and quickly checked himself in the rearview mirror. After that he opened his door and made his way up the walkway towards the home.

The home in question was similar to the others. Paul noticed that there was a nice four door SUV parked in the driveway. Near the garage door was a bicycle. "Guess they have a kid?" He made a mental note of that and proceeded to the big oaken door. He took a deep breath and rung the doorbell. The resulting ring sounded like two harps playing simultaneously.

He waited for about a good minute. No answer. He rang again. Same result. He swore under his breath and was about to turn back to his car, when the sound of the door unlocking was heard. He swiveled his head around as the door opened revealing a teenage boy. He looked around fourteen or fifthteen and had a slight tan tint to his skin. His hair was pitch black and slightly hung over his face in bangs.

"Can I help you?" the boy asked, looking Paul over. Paul flashed his pearly whites with a smile, "Why yes. Is this by any chances the Ramirez household?"

The boy raised an eyebrow, "That's what the mailbox says." Smartass, Paul thought to himself. "Haha true. Well is Connor Ramirez here? Sergeant Connor Ramirez?" The boy seemed to think it over for a little bit before answering, "Yeah he's home I'll go get him for you if you want. Wait here." The boy turned to leave, but Paul stopped him with a cough, "And who might I have the pleasure of speaking too?" Paul said gesturing to the boy.

The boy cracked a smile, "The names Christian Ramirez. Connor is my dad." Paul nodded, "The name is Paul Zimmerman, journalist and author." The boy looked as if he could give a rat's ass about who Paul was and turned and proceeded deeper into the house.

Paul heard, "Dad! Some guy named Paul Zipperman is here for you!" Well at least he remembered my first name, Paul thought. Shortly afterwards a deep voice responded, "Alright and did you brush your teeth?"

The boy answered with an exasperated, "Yes!" Paul stood there awkwardly waiting. He glanced down and noticed the welcome mat at his feet. The mat showed Earth in all its beauty surrounded by what appeared to be a fleet of UNSC Frigates and destroyers. He chuckled slightly to himself at the pun. He looked up and nearly jumped back in shock.

A man about 6'2 stood in front of him. He was of Hispanic descent evidenced by his tan skin. He was lean but he made up for it with a nice amount of muscle on him. He looked to be about in his forties and he was beginning to gray in certain parts of his black hair. He had a nice sized beard with equally graying effects. He wore a nice white t-shirt. The sleeves of the shirt stopped mid way down his bicep and it showed a tattoo with the name Army scrawled across it. He looked very intimidating and a slight frown was upon his face.

"Connor Ramirez?"

"Who wants to know?" the man said eyeing Paul much like the way his son did. Paul extended a hand and said, "Paul Zimmerman, I'm a journalist for the Washington Post and an up and coming author."

"That's…. good," Connor said gripping his hand firmly and shaking. Paul slightly grimaced at the vice like grip. Connor saw this and smiled, "You don't look like you are any threat Mr. Zimmerman. What can I do for you?"

Paul wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not but ignored the jibe getting straight to the point, "If you wouldn't mind I would like to interview you sir." Connor's eyebrow shot up at the statement, "Me? Why would anyone want to interview me?" Paul smiled, "You were part of the UNSC Military right?"

Connor seemed to get a sense of pride at that and stood up a little straighter, "Yessir. Part of the UNSC Army. 3rd Battalion, 69th Regiment, 327th Infantry Brigade. "Hell's Angels we were called back then." Paul smiled, he had Ramirez hooked, "Ah so I got the right person."

"You sure do," Connor said, he turned and gestured for Paul to follow, "Come with me we will do the interview in the dining room." Paul nodded picking up his briefcase and following the veteran trooper.

Inside his home, it was marvelous. He had many authentic rugs everywhere. Everything looked so clean and new. The pair walked by the living room, where Christian sat on the couch playing a shooting video game. Paul noticed this and whispered to Connor, "Apple doesn't fall far from the tree eh?"

Connor looked over and saw what he was talking about. He gave a hearty laugh, "Oh yes I feel that it doesn't. Though I don't know about him joining up when he is of age."

Paul shrugged, "I don't see the harm in it. We are in peacetime right now." Connor nodded but still didn't look convinced. They passed through the kitchen and into an elegant dining room. A table with a velvet table cloth was the most prominent thing here. Four chairs surrounded it on all sides. A silver chandelier hung above the table giving light to the dim room. On the wall next to the cabinet was probably the most eye catching thing in the room. A slightly aged looking m392 Designated Marksman Rifle or DMR as it was commonly abbreviated, sat upon two hooks that kept it in place.

"Very interesting…set up," Paul remarked towards the gun. Connor chuckled, "Yeah it is. Though my wife hates having it in the house. She says that it unsafe. Damn thing isn't even loaded."

"Wife?" Paul inquired. He mentally berated himself for the obvious question.

"Yeah my wife. How do you think I got a kid who looks like me? Fucked myself?"

A smile crossed Paul's face, "You never know. With all the technology we have now I don't doubt anything." Connor smiled at the jab, "I like you Zimmerman. You are a smart ass little son of a bitch, but I like you."

"Thanks… I guess," Paul muttered. Connor nodded and motioned for Paul to take a seat. Connor sat on one side of the table while Paul sat opposite of him. Connor intertwined his fingers, "So what questions do you have to ask me Zimmerman and might I ask why?"

Paul took a deep breath, "Well I'll answer your second question first. As I said I'm a journalist and an upcoming author." Connor nodded. "Well you see I'm about to start a book, entitled "We Were Soldiers". I t details the action that took place on Earth in the final battle of the Great War. I have been going around the country finding specific UNSC Military personnel to question about their experience throughout that battle."

Paul took another breath before continuing, "I have already interviewed a few people. I'm not sure if you know any of them. I got the accounts of Private First Class Alex Lombardi and his company of ODST's during the Battle of Manhattan. I also questioned a Private Chips Dubbo about his whereabouts during the Battle of New Mombassa in Kenya, Africa."

Connor shook his head, "None of those names ring a bell. But we Army don't usually mingle with the other branches of the UNSC unless it benefits us. And I don't know who told you this information but the Battle of Earth wasn't the last battle of the Great War. There was one more."

Paul became intrigued at the mention of that, "Hmm that's odd. Because I heard a similar thing from Dubbo. He mentioned something about "Installations", but wouldn't really say anything more.

Connor shook his head even more, "We were never supposed to talk about the installations. ONI went to great lengths to make sure we shut our mouths. Hell how do you think I got this house? On my Military income. Ha! That shit could probably only afford a 2 bedroom apartment at the most."

Paul unhinged his breath case revealing the contents inside. A bunch of paper, a few pens and a tape recorder. He reached in and took out the tape recorder placing it on the table. He pulled out a few sheets of paper and a pen. He looked up at Connor, "I know ONI wants it kept a secret and that's why Dubbo didn't tell me anymore about what happened after Earth, but I think the public deserves to know. It has been almost twenty years since the Great War, whatever secrets were being held back then probably don't matter as much now. Come on Connor we deserve too know what happened to you."

Connor sighed, "Ugh alright, I guess ONI can shove their little rules up their asses. Best get comfortable and make sure that tape recorder is on, I'm only going over this once. But before I tell you what happened on the Ark, let me start from that faithful day the Covenant decided to pay our home world a visit. Let me tell you about those last days."

Author's Note: So that's the prologue of my new story. It will now follow Connor Ramirez and his squad as they fight through Earth and eventually onto the Ark. There is going to be some time continuity errors, but it's so I can make the story flow better in my eyes. Anyways read and review! And until next time