[Last updated: 06/10/18]

"We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still.

We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean;

We are ready at long last to set sail for the stars."

CARL SAGAN

"Damn it all to hell." I had to duck under cover of the wrecked warthog before me to dodge an oncoming plasma round. I broke cover to return a few shots before I had to duck back again when a rapid volley of bright pink plasma fire came my way again. I sighed and took stock of the situation behind me.

Located behind me in the dilapidated ruins of what appeared to once have been a bike shop were the other four members of my team. Indigos Three and Five were down; Three was confirmed deceased from a headshot, and Five was critically wounded. Five's wounds had been treated with biofoam, but were still bleeding heavily; he wouldn't make it, there was just too much blood loss. Two was nearby with a medical kit doing what she could for Five, and Four was on the other side of the shop keeping watch and trying to hail someone for help over the shortwave radio on the E-band. So far, nothing.

Five started coughing violently and hacked up a red blob into his hand; the side of his mouth had a small stream of crimson, and his teeth were stained with blood. He beckoned me over with a hand. I returned fire and crawled the few feet to him. He swallowed the best he could and asked in a raspy, hollow sounding voice, "Jai. Are they going to pick us up sometime this century or what?" I looked down at the doomed man before me and held his other hand; I broke decorum and responded, "Yeah, Jack. They're coming for us; just hang in there, alright?" He nodded and groaned in pain as he laid back down.

I crawled back to my previous positon and grimaced. They weren't coming for us, no one was. Our long range communications equipment had taken a direct hit from a plasma round; as far as anyone else on the Infinity knew, our mission was going swimmingly as per our last scheduled update. I broke cover once more to return fire as I reflected on what had brought us to this damned half-glassed mud ball in the middle of nowhere.

Fireteam Indigo was sent to this planet – itself a remote half-glassed mud ball on the outskirts of one of the old colonial systems – because some covert ONI agents embedded in the area reported unusual comms activity on one of the glassed colonies; presumably Insurrectionist in origin. We were sent in to investigate. Before we left, I had joked with captain Lasky that we'd make a milk run since we were in the area. Pick up a few eggs, blow up a building or two, shoot some baddies, the whole bit. He laughed. If only it were that easy.

The good news was that once we got there, we wouldn't have to hoof it the whole way; the pelican that had dropped us off had a warthog. Indigo as a whole silently cheered when we found that out. Now, since any communication equipment – along with pretty much anything else – that had been here before the Covenant came were long since destroyed (Obviously), they had seen fit to give us long range communications gear, which we kept hooked up to the warthog. In hindsight, that probably wasn't the best idea, but it seemed sensible at the time – the idea being to keep it close and such. We got ready and headed out.

Well, long boring story short, we eventually found a partially glassed warehouse and confirmed that it was chock-full of alien weapons and vehicles, with what looked like very recent signs of human habitation. We covertly infiltrated the building, planted the charges, and blew the building sky-high; so far so good. Too good. What was that old phrase again? "Out of the frying pan and into the shit"? Hmm … perhaps that's not it, but fuck it; it fits. It was around then that the plan took a nose-dive because we soon had Insurrectionist controlled Covenant air and ground forces moving against us. It was an ambush; it seems they weren't too keen on losing much of their inventory, and were looking for payback.

Obviously, we bugged out of there as fast as we could. We didn't make it far.

They found us in the ruins of a melted, blasted cityscape by way of dropship. Indigo Three's visor exploded out as she took a headshot. That would be bad enough as is … but the thing was, she was driving. Our warthog careened out of control at top speed into the front of an old two story building; it was a mess as its upper story had long since collapsed. This newest event its history didn't help anything. The smoke cleared and we found Indigo Five impaled in his upper torso on a broken pipe; it went cleanly through both his shields and his armor. We set up a defensive line by repositioning the now wrecked warthog in front of the hole as five's wounds were being seen to.

A dropship came down with a Wraith, and dropped it as well a number of Insurrectionists and flew off. I ran to and boarded the oncoming Wraith, dodging plasma fire from the gunner, left a little present in the cockpit and jumped off. The enemy tank's cockpit exploded and it veered around wildly before it went careening into a nearby storefront before exploding in a bright flash of purple-white light.

All of a sudden, Four yelled triumphantly, "I've got a live one!" I ran back into cover and looked over to him with surprise, and more than a glint of hope in my eyes; I didn't think there were any other friendly teams on the planet. "Patch me through." He nodded and after a moment gave me a hand gesture signaling me to proceed. I heard a female voice on the other side say, "Unidentified Spartan team, this is Recon One. You have multiple hostiles in your vicinity, and more on their way. I suggest you bug out as fast as you can." I grimaced and responded, "This is Indigo One actual, negative on the bug out, Recon One. We have deceased and injured. As much as we would like to bug out, our only means of transportation have been disabled along with our long range comms." I heard a frustrated sigh that I could identify with all too well. "I see. I will call in the cavalry as soon as I can. Dig in and last as long as you can, Spartan. We'll be there asap. Recon One out." She didn't even give me time to ask what "backup" meant.

I asked Four what he thought that meant, he shrugged. "Can't say. She was pretty vague on the whole thing, wasn't she? Do you think it could be …" Four wouldn't get to finish his sentence. Suddenly, I heard the distinctive sound of a second wraith firing from somewhere nearby. A half second later, a ball of plasma landed on the shop before it exploded, throwing me bodily into the side of the warthog. The agonized screams of my team were all I heard before I blacked out.

I don't know how long I was out for; the next thing I knew, I was sitting up through the wreckage and ash that had piled on top of me. I slowly stood up on unsteady legs, leaning on what was left of the warthog for support. I wiped the ash off of my visor and went to call out to my team; what I saw made me take a short breath as my stomach bottomed out. Before me was the burning wreckage of what was left of the building with what remained of my now former comrades inside. I couldn't believe it; how could fate keep being so cruel to me? "No … Not again; please … not again." I felt bile rise in my throat, threatening to come out at the sight. I looked up and saw a massive Slipspace portal open far above me and a large, very distinctive ship made the transition. I couldn't believe my eyes.

A comm channel opened up to the side of my HUD, "Fireteam Indigo, do you read? This is the UNSC destroyer Javelin's Thrust responding to your emergency, please respond, over." A destroyer; they sent in an entire destroyer? A few seconds later I saw two additional smaller (Relative to the destroyer) Slipspace ruptures form and a few light frigates made the transition; the destroyers' escorts. I cleared my throat and pressed the correct button on the inside of my helmet with my chin to respond. I identified myself and was connected to the ship's captain, "Is this fireteam leader?" I responded and briefly explained what had happened. "I'm sorry to hear what you just went through, son. We'll take care of this now. I'm sending a pelican down to pick you and the remains of your team up. Get some rest, if you can, you've earned it. You've had one hell of a bad day."

I was brought back to the ship and seen to medically and psychologically. Thankfully, the process was short – although "short" in this context is highly subjective. However after I was transferred over to the recovery area of the ship's medbay, I was visited by the ship's captain who introduced himself as Spacely. I greeted him with the best salute I could. He smiled and waved a hand dismissively, "You can dispense with the formalities, Jai. I'm making my rounds and just came by to see how you're doing, is all." We talked for a small while before I asked him about the recon team I talked with down on the planet, as I hadn't expected on running into friendlies out so far. He took a long sigh and replied, "We were unavoidably called away not too long ago, but a few weeks ago while passing through this system, we intercepted some strange communications and closed in to investigate. Since then, we've been enacting guerrilla warfare against the local Insurrectionists here. We weren't – and still aren't – able to just wipe them off the map because we're running low on supplies." He cleared his throat before continuing, "However, we've since run this up the chain of command and reinforcements arrived about a day ago. As for the aforementioned hostiles, they have been dealt with, and the last of the mopping up operations were carried out a few hours ago." He looked at the digital clock inlaid into the wall, "Well … I suppose I've eaten up enough of your recovery time, Spartan. I have some other matters I need to see to." I nodded, "Very well, sir." He got up and started walking to the door before he stopped and turned his head to look at me, "Oh, and one more thing. Once you're feeling up to it, you're all set to go back to the Infinity, just let me know. I've already talked to captain Lasky, so there's no rush. Take as much time as you need to heal." He paused slightly, and continued in a gentler voice, "Once there, I assume you will start by building yourself a new team." He walked over to the doorway, placed a hand on it and said, "Good luck. The room is yours, Spartan." He then left me to my thoughts.

[So … how was it? I've been tinkering with this chapter for awhile, trying to figure out the best way to start the story, and this is what I came up with.]