Chapter 1

The city was in chaos, buildings were burning and falling apart everywhere. Anti-air guns could be heard for miles as they attempted to fight off the attackers. Plasma bombs detonated randomly through out the city as banshees continued to pepper the already crumbling defense grid. Below on the streets of the city things were not going well for the defenders. A covenant patrol had finished clearing out a group of marines their defense position. The elite motioned to the grunts to continue down the street. They were just about to walk past an ally when one of the grunts made an exciting squeak and ran down the ally. The elite snarled in annoyance and followed. It found the grunt trying to get into a pile of rubble. He was about to yell at the grunt when he heard a frightened scream come from the rubble. The other grunts quickly joined in to reach the human inside. The elite decided to let them try and catch the human, after all they haven't eaten fresh meat in a while. Unknown to the patrol was the figure in the exhaust vent watching them.

He looked at the ammo counter on his battle rife. "Crap only half a clip." he muttered. He heard another scream. The grunts were getting closer. He had to act fast. He needed a distraction, but what? He saw something on the ground next to the patrol. "Serendipity" he said smiling. A flash bang was wedged between slab of concrete by the elite. He carefully poked the battle rifle through the grate and fired.

The sudden blindness and defining sound threw the patrol into chaos. The grunts shirked and ran in circles blindly. The elite stumbled around roaring in anger. He kicked the grate off and jumped down. He quickly eliminated the patrol before they knew what was attacking them. He set his rifle down and slowly approached the pile of rubble. He could hear crying as he got closer. He moved the concrete till he made a hole big enough to see who was inside. He looked and was rewarded with another frightened scream. "Get away you monster! Leave us alone!" A small pebble shot out of the hole and bounced off his visor with a "plink". He realized that they were scared of him, but then again who wouldn't be scared of a Spartan in full armor. " Whoa, hey it's okay. Im not going to hurt you." He said in a clam voice. The two children still wouldn't budge. He looked around and seeing that there was no danger close by he reached up and removed his helmet. It made a quiet hiss and then a pop as the seal was removed. He set it on a nearby slab of concrete and carefully looked into the hole again. He raised an eyebrow at the young boy shielding a little girl behind him. " Being in that hole doesn't look very comfortable." He said with a small smile. the children visibly relaxed seeing that he wasn't an alien trying to kill them. He carefully moved more of the rubble to make the hole bigger for the two to climb out. He helped the little girl out after the boy had crawled out. They sat on a flat spot on the concrete next to where he set his helmet and watched him as he gathered grenades and ammo from the dead patrol. He went backed to them and knelt so he could be closer to their eye level. "What happened to your parents?" he asked. The boy simply looked at another pile of rubble. The Spartan looked and saw a hand sticking out of the rubble. " I'm sorry." he said looking at the boy again. "They told us to hide in the concrete, but then part of the building collapsed and…" He sniffled. " I take it that you two are siblings then?" The boy nodded "Im 11 and my little sister is 9." "What are your names?" He looked at the little girl who was now holding his helmet and quietly tracing her finger over the scratches. The boy pointed to himself, " I'm Mark and…" "My name is Cassy." He looked at the little girl who had finally spoken. "You have a nice name Cassy." He said, making her smile. Mark looked at the aliens and then back to the Spartan. " I've seen holovideos about you and the other spartans… you are much bigger then on the videos." He said with a small smile. "I get that a lot." The spartan said with a slight grin. Cassy looked at the blue visor on the helmet for a moment before turning to the Spartan. "What's your name?" she asked. He stiffened slightly. Spartan ll's don't normally let anyone know their name unless they trusted the person. "I'm Spartan 237 but you can call me Ryker." The girl made a small frown. "That's not your real name." Ryker chuckled "Nope because it's a secret." She sighed and handed him his helmet. "fine." He stood and looked at his hud. The extraction point was 3 kilometers to the south. He frowned at the thought of having to take two children through a hostile area to reach it. He looked back at the siblings. "We are heading for a pelican that will get us off the planet but it's a little far and there are still covenant here, so we need to be very quiet and careful okay?" The two nodded. Ryker took the lead as the two children followed closely behind.

The hud said that they were only a few blocks away and so far they have managed to avoid small patrols but now, there was no covenant to be seen. "Where are they?" Mark whispered. "I don't know…" Ryker stopped mid sentence when he saw a red blip appear on his radar and then fade. In the blink of an eye he spun around and covered the two children, shielding them with his own body. A sniper round hit his shields and knocked them down to 50%. The kids screamed when they saw him get hit. Ryker grabbed both of them in his massive arms and tucked them close to his chest as he started running. More sniper rounds peppered the ground around him as he dodged left and right. He sprinted faster, but it wasn't enough. A round blew a hole in the concrete just ahead of one of his boots causing it to catch and sending them into a high speed tumble. Ryker rotated his body so that he would take the impact. He waited till they had slowed enough that the children wouldn't get hurt. He tossed them from his arms in a way that they rolled behind a pile of metal and concrete. He was however moving still extremely fast. His body slammed into a half destroyed wall with enough force that he went clean through it. He tried to push himself up but his limbs wouldn't obey him. He heard Mark yelling his name. He had to keep them safe! "Mark, Cassy! Hide! hide…you…must…hide." Everything went dark.

The ranger grinned inside his helmet. He had expected only to be finishing off weak civilians and soldiers, but, a the demon was a welcomed surprise. The elite shouldered his beam rifle and used his jetpack to descend from the roof of the building he was hiding in. He approached the fallen demon and grabbed it by its chest plate. He lifted Ryker and slammed him into the concrete again. He snarled in pleasure as he activated his energy daggers on his wrist.

Mark watched in terror as the elite lifted his dagger to plunge it into the spartans heart. He looked around and grabbed a rock. "This is nuts." he said. He stood up and hurled the rock with all the strength he had while yelling Ryker's name. The rock flew straight and true and hit the elite square in the side of the head, making it lose its balance. The elite roared in anger and looked around for the source of that infernal rock. He saw the young human and smiled. "Now this is a surprise." he said with venom in his voice. "Weak effort from a WEAK piece of human filth!" The ranger roared as he ran at Mark. Mark stood his ground as the elite raised his gauntlet for a killing blow. A blur of green and gray tackled the elite to the ground. They rolled till Ryker was on top of the elite with his combat knife. The ranger used his long neck and head butted the spartan, cracking the visor and made Ryker jerk backwards. The elite shoved Ryker and pinned him to the ground. He stabbed downwards with the energy dagger but Ryker twisted and the dagger grazed his left side still cutting him but thankfully not to deeply. He freed his right arm and decked the elite in the side of the head. The elite grabbed him by his helmet and slammed it into the concrete dazing the spartan. He saw the blade again and jerked his body to the left reaching away, he suddenly felt a surge of what felt like fire come from his chest. He looked and saw that the dagger had punctured his right lung. He let out a cry of pain as the elite pushed it deeper. The elite bared its teeth in a smile. But then looked confused as its brain caught up and realized the combat knife sticking out of its neck. It tried to speak but only a gurgling sound came from it before it fell dead onto the spartan.

Mark and Cassy watched the elite die and then ran over to Ryker. They started to push on the dead elite, trying to get it off of him. Ryker pushed weakly and soon the elite slid off. The dagger was still in his chest so he grabbed the wrist of the elite and started to pull but quickly let go at the flare of pain that spread over his chest. "AAUUGGHH!" He looked at the siblings. "Mark, Cassy, I need you to look away okay?" They nodded and turned around. He gabbed the wrist again and pulled. He clenched his teeth trying not to yell again as the dagger came out. He laid there panting but it was just a wheezing sound. He sat up and crawled over to a wall so he could prop himself up. Mark and Cassy were by his side quickly. He reached for his can of biofoam to stop the now bleeding wound. His hands shock and he dropped the can but Mark quickly scooped it up. "I need you to apply it Mark." He said. Ryker quickly explained how to apply it and then sat there as the biofoam did its job. Mark held up the can, "there was only enough to cover up the wound on your chest." Ryker glanced at the cut on his side. It was still seeping and didn't show any sign of slowing. He sighed and keyed his comm. "UNSC WARHAMMER this is Sierra 237 requesting extraction. I have two civilians." He waited. "This is UNSC WARHAMMER mark you location and we'll send in a pelican as soon as we can." He frowned "Copy marking position." He had his HUD send a nav point to the ship. He looked at the two children. "We are going to have to wait for the pelican. I don't know how long that will be but just to be safe I want you two to stay out of sight till the ship comes." He reached for his Magnum on his thigh and pulled it off. "Mark I want you to take this, use it when there is no other option." Mark carefully picked up the gun. "What about you?" Ryker shifted but hissed as the motion caused pain. "I will fight off any covenant that comes close for as long as I can. If the pelican arrives and I can't get to it, I want you to run to it and don't look back." He picked up the dead elites carbine and set it in his lap then waited. Nearly 5 hours have passed and Ryker was getting weaker. His vision became blurry and finally he slipped into unconsciousness. Mark and Cassy sat behind an overturned car as the day slowly turned into night. Mark was nearly asleep when he heard a low rumbling sound coming closer. He woke Cassy and ran to Ryker. "Ryker! Ryker something's coming!" He shook Ryker's arm but it fell limply to the ground. "Ryker?" Mark said quietly. The rumbling go louder and soon a bright light flashed into existence directly above them. Mark shook Ryker again yelling at the top of his lungs for him to wake up. The light got closer to them and Mark could see figures coming towards them. Mark grabbed the gun and pointed it at the figures. He was about to pull the trigger when one of the figures called out. "Put the gun down! We're here to help." Mark hesitated. A Marine finally stepped out of the light. He came closer slowly, holding his hands out to show that he had no weapon. "It's okay kid." Mark lowered the gun and the man came up to him and knelt. "Are you alright?" He asked. Mark nodded. The man looked at the gun again. "Are you alone?" Mark shook his head " No my little sister is with me and so is the Spartan." The marine looked shocked. "Where is he?" Mark pointed to the broken wall behind him. The marine quickly ran to the wall. He saw Ryker and quickly rushed to him. "He won't wake up… why? Cassy said timidly. The marine saw the huge wound and the blood that covered the area around the spartan. "oh crap." He whispered. "I need a medic!" He yelled to the other men. They ran over and worked together to get the spartan onto the dropship. A medic applied more biofoam, checked his pulse and his face became grim at how faint it was. "Will he be okay?" Cassy asked. The medic shrugged "We'll see kid. We'll see."