The streets were burning, well Remnant was burning really. Twelve hours ago covenant ships we detected in-system, eleven hours ago the battle started. They hit the long range coms systems first; no one had even been able to alert the rest of the UNSC about the attack. They were alone, in more than one way.

Private Weiss Schnee was barely out of basic, the rest of her squad was in the same boat. They weren't supposed to see combat for another several months, but the covenant didn't really adhere to anyone's schedule. So she and five others had been lumped together and told to fight, that hadn't gone so well; Arc died in the first two hours, plasma grenade on his chest. Nikos went down a couple hours after, took a plasma shot for Belladonna, things only got worse from there really.

They'd been split up, Xiao Long and Belladonna were cut off from herself and Rose by debris. They'd been able to keep in contact via radio, but Weiss had requested radio silence two and a half hours ago. She and Rose had relocated to the fourteenth floor of one of the still standing buildings; Rose needed a vantage point to be effective.

Three split-jaws down and god knows how many more to go later they were still stuck, and Rose was beginning to panic. Made sense really, there was no way they'd make it out of this alive, local space ports had been obliterated, the space elevator was knocked down, not that they'd be able to use it if it were still up, and they hadn't seen friendlies since six hours after the start of it all.

"In and out Ruby we'll be fine," Weiss muttered to her partner, still mildly hyperventilating.

She and Ruby were laying prone looking out they space where a wall used to be. Ruby's grip on her Rifle loosening just a bit when the younger woman got her breathing under control. That was really important in this situation, breathing and not thinking about the situation, just taking the shot and staying undiscovered as long as possible. They'd make it out alive somehow if they just kept on.

"You really think it'll be fine?" Ruby Asked.

No she thought "yeah, it'll be fine, back up will be here eventually, maybe a fleet or two."

Ruby smiled, but it was clear she saw through Weiss's lie. She was still trying to convince herself it was true though, if she could believe it so could Weiss.

Damn she thought If-no when we do get out of this I am really going to need some counseling

Weiss was pulled from her thoughts by a clinking sound behind her, putting her binoculars down; she turned to see what made the noise. Nothing but the sight of an empty room and open door greeted her- wait, she made sure to close the door when they set up.

A whooshing sound was all the warning she had before Ruby was pinned to the floor by two glowing blades of plasma. A look of surprise etched onto her features as she looked up at Weiss who had managed to sit up and pull out her Pistol. It Didn't last long as the blades were pulled out from her back and she was left in burning agony, she couldn't breathe, her vision was going dark, why was it so cold.

Weiss was terrified; one of the bastards had gotten them. No way out she thought as she unloaded her M6 into the split-jaw that managed to sneak up on them. This is how we die, it was advancing on her and its shields were still up.

Click. Empy.

Well shit.

BANG

The bastard's chest exploded, covering Weiss in purple blood and gore. That was unexpected. As its remains fell Weiss saw what had killed it, Ruby had somehow managed to get her Sniper up and fired a round point blank into the split-jaws back. The picture lasted a second before Ruby lost her grip and the SRS99 fell to the floor and she slumped down.

"Shit Ruby how the hell are you alive" Weiss said as she rushed to look over her partners wounds. It was bad, defiantly got a lung from the position of the wound, probably something else important too.

"Sorry to disappoint you" the younger soldier managed to get out before going into a coughing fit that sounded far too wet to be safe.

"Fuck" Weiss muttered "Shouldn't have wasted the biofoam on Nikos." Her hands shaking as she tried to pull out her medkit.

"It's okay" Ruby said, her voice terrifyingly weak, "s'not like we didn't know it was gonna end"

"Wasn't really trying to dwell on that" why weren't the bandages coming out, "shit" she dropped the medkit.

"Don't bother."

"Fuck that," Weiss tried again, managing to get the bandages out this time, "You're not getting away from me that easy."

"Aw, you do care," Ruby had managed a smile, "It was hard to tell" her voice was getting softer, not good, not good, not good.

"Coping mechanism" Ruby was not gonna die on her, Weiss was not losing another, "or something like that, this whole things been a little stressfull,"

Ruby managed a weak laugh, that was good right?

"A bit yeah" her voice was trailing off, that wasn't good.

"Ruby? Ruby? Ruby stay awake, don't sleep now dolt I need you up for this" she'd pulled Ruby's armor off, well shit the wounds looked worse without all the ceramic.

No response, tears blurred her vision, but Ruby's chest was moving. Weiss could work with that, bandage Ruby up, they would relocate; everything would be fine.

She wiped away her tears and her stopped breathing when she looked at Ruby again, eyes closed, stupid smile on her face, chest unmoving.

No no no no nonononono "Ruby don't you dare leave me," Weiss commanded, "don't do this," her voice moving to a hoarse whisper, "Please."

Crunch, Behind her.

She managed to turn just in time to see the flash of plasma.