1
Private Nova Heckly woke with a start. His bed had moved. Heckly rolled over on to his side. He was probably dreaming still. Suddenly the whole room shook. Heckly sat up. A loud blaring alarm sounded.
"All personal at their stations," a female voice said over the intercom. The message was repeated several times.
Heckly got up from his bunk. Several other Marines in the room were already putting on their combat gear.
"What do you think happened," someone was saying.
"No doubt the Covenant found us," another Marine answered.
Heckly moved over to his footlocker and opened it, thinking about what had happened in the past hours. He had been fighting on Reach, a planet under attack by the Covenant. He and many others boarded the Pillar of Autumn, a Halcyon-Class UNSC ship and escaped Reach. Then, they made a blind jump into Slipspace and ended up where ever they were. Heckly had gone immediately to the bunks, and fell asleep, exhausted. Now he had no clue where they were and what was happening.
Inside his footlocker were his battle uniform and his helmet.
"All personal at their stations on the double!" the female announcer said again.
Heckly looked around. Most of the Marines had not bothered to put on their uniforms and were already heading to the armory. Heckly put on his helmet and followed the rest of the Marines to the armory.
"Hurry up, get your weapons and get to your stations!" a sergeant was shouting.
The armory was already bustling with Marines when Heckly got there. There was a long line of Marines waiting for weapons. Heckly was last in line. By the time it was his turn. There was only a few pistols left
Annoyed, he took one and headed off with the rest of the Marines.
"This way!" the sergeant shouted. Up ahead was the sound of Assault Rifle fire and the flashes of plasma fire. Several Marines were already there.
"Split up and flank them!" the sergeant commanded before screaming and falling down with a plasma burn on his chest.
Heckly quickly ran into one of the service tunnels. Inside it was dim. He moved through the tunnel, navigating with the flashlight on his helmet. Suddenly, a shape ran past him. It was a Grunt, one of the low-ranked Covenant species. Heckly ran after it.
"Come back here, you asshole!" he shouted and ran after it. The Grunt yelped and started to panic. Heckly took the opportunity to shoot it in the face.
He pushed the body away and continued down the tunnel. He took the next door he saw and arrived in an empty corridor. On the ground was the body of an Elite with a plasma rifle beside it. Heckly quickly grabbed it and went down the corridor. Up ahead was the sound of a battle. He arrived by the cryo-bay's control center. Suddenly, his HUD picked up movement, but it was friendly. Being cautious, he raised his plasma rifle toward the door where the friendly was moving in. What he saw was something he was not prepared for.
A 7-foot tall, armored giant walked in. Heckly quickly snapped to a salute.
"Master Chief, sir," he said. The Spartan nodded at him. Heckly followed the Master Chief to another area of the ship. Here, there were more Marines fighting the Covenant. Heckly helped them out, but lost sight of the Chief.
Down the next hallway, several lifeboats were launching. Heckly made a run for it. He reached the last one. There was only one other Marine there, Corporal Jackson, who Heckly had fought with before.
"Hurry!" Jackson called to Heckly, "Anyone left out there?"
"Nope," said Heckly and strapped himself in one of the seats.
Jackson climbed into the pilot's seat and pressed a few buttons.
"Hang on," he called and the lifeboat rocked and launched.
"Where're we headed?" Heckly shouted over the sound of the lifeboat's thrusters.
"We left Slipspace near a ring world thing. That's where the rest of the lifeboats are headed. Have a look."
Heckly unbuckled himself and stepped toward the front of the lifeboat. Up ahead, was a large ring. It seemed to have land on its interior.
"Grab a seat," said Jackson.
The landing on the ring was rough, really rough.
The lifeboat had entered a lush jungle area. It crashed through several trees and landed in a pond.
"Nice," whispered Heckly.
"All right back there?" Jackson asked.
"Yup."
"All right," Jackson said, "How are we going to get out of here?"
"Open the door, swim out before we drown easy."
"All right…" said Jackson again.
The door opened and water started to seep in.
"Go now!" Heckly shouted and the two Marines leaped from their seats and swam out of the lifeboat. They surfaced in the jungle.
"Where the hell are we?" asked Heckly.
Suddenly, there was a roar of engines and another lifeboat fell from the sky and passed right over their heads. It crashed near the Marines' position.
"Look," said Jackson, "Let's see if there are more survivors."