It was late at night, Kevin and his friends where leaving the movie theater. It was quiet out as it was a late movie they where leaving. Then without warning there was a violent crash. The force of the impact sent everyone off there feet. Kevin saw that flames where rising from some of the buildings not far away. Then he saw something he hadn't hoped to see, the remains of a covenant ship.
"Look its part of a covenant ship" Kevin said as he stood up. Then he heard whaling through the air.
"Banshee, get to cover!" someone said as everyone ran for a safe place. There was a boom and it seemed as if the sky was on fire. Their was a whole squadron of UNSC gunship's exchanging fire with a horde of covenant ships. Kevin had enough time to see this before another piece of debris came crashing down on the movie theater bringing it to the ground and sending waves of smoke and dust into the streets.
"We have to get out of here" jandro yelled above the gunfire. Kevin agreed and yelled back "let's make a run for the cars".
They all bolted to the parking lot. They where a few rows in when kevin saw a transport coming, so he dropped to the ground he didn't have enough time to warn anyone. Some people didn't stop and where caught in the blasts coming from the turret on the transport. The transport stopped in the middle of the parking lot and dropped off a few covenant before taking off again.
They could here the grunts and elites walking through the parking lot shooting people that where hiding. "There's no way where getting to the cars, well have to walk out of here" Kevin whispered.
"Like we'll get far on foot" Corey criticized. "We'll get farther then the parking lot" Kevin said back angrily. Corey didn't have time to reply a grunt was coming between the cars, Kevin grabbed a rock and as soon as the grunt passed the bumper he grabbed it with one hand over its face and bashed it in the head with the rock. It went limp in his arms..
"Where the hell did you learn to do that" Corey asked. "You watch jersey shore I watch Rambo" Kevin said with a smile as he took the grunts gun and grenades.
"Give me the gun" Tommy said with his hand out. "No, get your own" Kevin said as he pushed the grunts body under a car. Two more grunts where heading toward them.
"heres your chance" Kevin said. When the grunts got close enough Kevin jumped from behind the car and grabbed the first one and pounded its head against the ground till its stopped moving. Corey and jandro grabbed the second one and strangles it. Kevin looked down at the one he killed, he grabbed its plasma pistol and tossed to Tommy. Jandro grabbed the other gun. He gave Corey, kemo, and Hakeem grenades.
"Alright let's get out of here before any more come by" Kevin said in an authoritive voice. He didn't hear any objections as he moved through the parking lot toward the main road. Then without warning a blue plasma ball exploded into the car in front of Kevin. He turned to look and had to dive for cover as a stream of turret fire started raining down on them.
"It's another transport" Kevin thought to himself. It was coming closer and was nearly on top of them when Corey jumped out from behind the car and tossed a sticky grenade and tagged the grunt firing right on the face. It let go of the turret and ran farther into the transport before it exploded and blew up the grunt and all the others in the transport. The pilot lost control and crashed a few cars away from where we where taking cover.
"Ooo where's your face at" Corey yelled.
"Nice throw" Kevin said as he walked over to the crashed transport. "Maybe we won't have to walk after all" Kevin said while climbing into the ship.
"Do you even know how to fly a covenant ship" jandro said as he climbed into the cockpit with Kevin.
"No but im sure I can figure it out" Kevin said while grabbing what looked like a joystick on the control board. As soon as he tilted it the covenant ship tilted itself off of it side making a loud scraping noise as it pushed against cars and the pavement. "See at least now were level" Kevin said enthusiastically
"I think the covenant heard that" Hakeem said as he was pulling grunt remains off of a turret.
Plasma shots started flying by as everyone climbed into the ship and started to return fire. "We can leave any time now" Corey said as a shot just missed his head.
"Im working on it" Kevin said while trying to get the ship to go forward. He pushed the joystick forward and the transport leaned forward but didn't go anywhere.
"Maybe you shouldn't do that again" Tommy said as he picked himself up off the floor.
Kevin was looking for a pedal or another joystick anything that looked like it controlled speed. When he noticed a little ball down on the control board, it looked like a computer mouse. He pushed it and they lurched forward into a car.
"Alright everyone hold on I think I got this figured out" Kevin said as he pulled back on the joystick while pushing forward on the mouse. They soared into the air and away from the fight.
"Woo" everyone screamed. Everyone but Kevin and jandro who saw that they where heading right toward the real fight up in the air.
"Turn, turn, turn!" jandro was yelling
"I am, it doesn't turn on a dime" Kevin yelled back as an artillery shell blasted next to the ship.
"Their shooting at us" kemo yelled shocked.
"Wouldn't you were in a covenant ship". Kevin said as he kept turning the joystick.
They turned away from the battle and where heading parallel to it. When Kevin saw two banshees shooting at a hornet. "Let's see if we can show them our true colors" Kevin said as he aimed for the skirmish. He looked at the joystick and noticed a little trigger on it and figured it was weapons. He pointed the transport at the first banshee he came to and fired. Two streams of purple plasma shot out of guns on the roof of the transport. After a few shots the banshee blew up into brilliant sparks of glowing debris and fell to the ground. The other banshee had seen this and turned its attention to the transport.
"O shit" Kevin yelled as it opened fire on them. It was more maneuverable then them and he couldn't turn to get a shot at it. "Try and shoot it as he goes by" Kevin said as the banshee made another pass around the transport. But no one got a chance a barrage of missiles hit the banshee and it blew up right in front of the cockpit. The hornet flew over and Kevin didn't know what to do so he waved a thanks to them. The pilot waved back and flew off back to the fight.
'Well that enough fun for me, lets get out of here" kevin said a bit shaken at nearly getting blown up again.
"Where are we going" Tommy asked as we flew through a patch of smoke rising from burning cars on the bridge below.
"My place, its closer and away from the fight" Kevin said like a man with a plan. After a few minutes they where over Kevin's house and he had figured out the little mouse on the other side of the joystick were vertical controls. So he brought them down right in the backyard.
"Your getting good at flying this thing" Hakeem said as the ship came to a landing softly on the grass.
"Always said those video games where practice" Kevin joked. But his laughter faded as he saw the house. It had a scorch mark on it. "That's a plasma burn" Kevin said as he brought up his plasma pistol and looked around for any covenant.
"Hakeem, Corey and kemo stay with the ship and keep an eye out for trouble, Tommy, jandro come with me" kevin ordered. As they went in through the back porch Kevin saw more scorch marks and some empty bullet casings on the floor.
"Their was a fight here" Tommy said.
"Really what gave it away the bullets or the dead grunt on the couch" Kevin said as he saw the grunt slumped over. He walked over took its gun and continued to search the house. Their wasn't anyone there dead or otherwise.
"Lets have a look around outside and see if their out there" Kevin said hoping not to find any bad news. They went outside and instantly saw something that didn't belong, a ghost was parked in the driveway with a dead elite lying behind it.
"Shotgun" jandro yelled as he ran for the ghost.
"Alright I call the elites plasma riffle" Kevin said as he handed Tommy his extra plasma pistol. As Kevin got up there he saw something else out of place there was a puddle of blood, red blood so he knew it was human. He looked at the tracks around it and saw that there where tire tracks through it so this meant whoever was hit was picked up and drove out of there. That reminded him of the cars, he looked up at where they should be parked and they where gone.
"Let's go theyre not here" Kevin said as jandro pulled the ghost up to the gate to the backyard.
"How do you know" Tommy asked as Kevin pulled the armor off of the elite. He showed Tommy the blood and that the cars where all gone.
"That makes sense, you sure you don't want to keep looking" Tommy said sympathetically.
"No the rest of your families might need help" Kevin said as if he was making up his mind. "Here try this armor on" Kevin said as he handed the elites armor to Tommy. "It looks like it fits, now we need to find some for everyone else" Jandro drove the ghost into the back of the transport.
"You got a ghost, man im going with next time" Hakeem said with envy in his eyes. "Did you find anyone?" he asked.
"Just a dead grunt and elite" jandro said. Then he ran into the house and came back out with towels to wipe the blood off of all the stuff in the transport.
"And this armor off of the elite" Tommy said showing off as everyone climbed back into the transport. Kevin remembered something as they where about to take off and ran into the house, he came back out with his computer and handed it to Tommy.
"See if you can figure out how to get music to play through these speakers in the transport" kevin said before adding "then we can sound badass when we fly into a fight". With no sign of anyone else at Kevin's house they took off again this time heading towards the north side of the city.
As they flew over houses they could see the fires where spreading. They could here people screaming and the sounds of gunfire. They could feel the explosions coming from the main battle. Everything they knew was burning to the ground in front of their eyes.
"Why did they come here?" Tommy asked sadly. "Why here, of all the places in the world, they attack here!" Tommy yelled at the covenant fleet in the distance.
"I don't know man, last I heard they where fighting the covenant in Brazil, down in south America." jandro said trying to comfort him.
"Well find out all the details later, important thing is to stick to the plan" Kevin said bringing everyone back to focus.
"So what is the plan?" kemo asked.
"We get everyone's family, if their still there, and head north away from the fight" Kevin said with a not so sure look on his face.
"Why do you have that look?" Hakeem asked
"Well if they where fighting them in Brazil and now their here, it seems to me their heading north" Kevin explained "maybe to attack the capital, or just to scare people, either way it makes heading north a bad plan" Kevin said with a shrug. They where coming up to Corey's house now.
"Damn" Kevin and jandro said at the same time. Corey's whole neighborhood and the neighborhoods around where all on fire. Kevin brought the ship to a hover by Corey's street.
"Im sorry man, if they where in there" Kevin was saying when Corey cut him off.
"They aren't here, my parent's car is gone" Corey said.
"Maybe they where evacuated" Tommy said. "There's a lot of dead covenant and UNSC around here" he added. Kevin hadn't noticed them, they where everywhere. It must have been a huge battle. He brought the ship to a landing away from the blaze coming from the surrounding houses.
"What are you doing" kemo said surprised that we where landing.
"Well theirs a lot of dead people down there that don't need that armor or weapons anymore" Kevin said with a stern look on his face. He wasn't going to like this anymore then kemo was. Kevin jumped out as kemo was beginning to protest and didn't hear what he was saying. He walked over to a dead brute and pulled off its chest plate and tried it on. It was a little big but he figured the extra room made him more maneuverable. He tried the bottoms but they where too big and wouldn't stay on.
"O well I don't like jeans anyway" Kevin thought to himself. He saw jandro trying leggings on from another brute and his seemed to fit ok. Kemo was putting on a jackal's armor and an elite's helmet. Hakeem was putting on a chieftans helmet; he was already wearing an armor mix from brute and the chieftan. Then Kevin saw him pick up a gravity hammer and saw the look of pure joy show on his face.
"I got a poon stick" Hakeem yelled. Kevin had been looking at armor and hadn't noticed all the weapons yet. He kept walking around and found a needler and a carbine. He put on an elites wrist cuffs. Then he came across the UNSC side of the battlefield and found a M7S submachine gun and a MS6 magnum.
"These are ODST weapons" Kevin thought. As he looked through the pile of bodies in front of him, he found the trooper. He was bigger then Kevin expected. Infact he looked about his size. He took his helmet off and jumped. The troopers eyes where still open. He took a minute to get ahold of himself and then grabbed the rest of the trooper's armor. He pulled on the vest and it fit nicely, so he put the brutes chest plate over that and that extra room gave it enough space to fit.
"Alright im half armored" Kevin thought as he went to try and put on the bottom parts of the set up. They where too small, Kevin threw them down as frustration was creeping in. he tried the helmet on and it was too small.
"Fuck it, safeties for pussies" Kevin said angrily as he picked up his guns and ammo and brought them to the transport.
"Alright everyone lets fan out and search for all the weapons we can find" Kevin said as he tossed his guns in the side panel of the transport. As everyone walked around looking for weapons, Kevin heard a moan.
"Over here, help me" someone yelled from the battlefield. Kevin moved over and saw a man wiggling out from a drainage ditch. The man had a turnicate around his leg and looked like he couldn't walk. He was an ODST, Kevin could tell from his uniform.
"Are you alright?" Kevin asked as he moved over to him.
"Im fine, just a leg wound" he said as everyone else was moving toward them.
"Hakeem can you help me move him to the transport" Kevin asked as everyone got within ear shot. Hakeem and Kevin picked the trooper up and carried him through the battlefield.
"O god, did anyone else make it?" he asked as he was being lifted into the transport.
"We got here after the fight, we don't know what happened here" Kevin said. "Do you know what happened to the civilians here?" Kevin asked.
"They where evacuated to the north, along with everyone else in the city" he said with a grunt of pain. "That's what we where doing here when we where attacked, my unit was sent here to back up the marines evacuating civvies" he said after he caught his breath.
"We where right under the fight and no one tried to evacuate us" Tommy said to the trooper.
"That's because you where right under the battle, any civilians that close are labeled acceptable losses" he said to Tommy.
"Great we where meant to be statistics" Kevin said sarcastically. "Alright lets get out of here, the smells getting to me" Kevin said as he jumped into the pilot seat. As everyone moved back to the transport picking up more ammo, Kevin noticed a big green plasma ball heading toward them.
"Get down" Kevin yelled. But he wasn't fast enough. The shot was off and missed them. Kevin looked down to where the shot came from. He saw three massive shapes moving toward them. Kevin recognized them immediately.
"Hunters, everyone get in now!" Kevin yelled to everyone behind him.
"There are two men in front of them" Tommy said from his vantage point that was higher then Kevin.
"well lets go save them" Kevin said knowing this was going to be tough. "Everyone grab some grenades" Kevin said as the last of them climbed in and he started taking off.
"We'll stick the hunters and swoop down to pick up the survivors" Kevin said as he moved down the road toward them. Hovering just above the ground, Kevin pulled a hard left exposing the side of the transport to the survivors, which Kevin could see were also ODST.
"Get in" the trooper yelled to the others as everyone else rained grenades down on the hunters. The grenades exploded and some shrapnel bounced off the transports windshield.
"Their in" kemo yelled to Kevin. Kevin pushed the vertical control and the ship shot into the air.
"Thanks we thought we where goners" the trooper said as he helped his buddy to the ground. He had a bandage around his abdomen.
"No problem" Kevin said as he brought them level. "alright guys I think we need to decide what to do from here" kevin said motioning to the sky of smoke around them. "we need to regroup with the rest of our forces to the north" the trooper with the bandaged abdomen said.
"can we check my house first? Its right near here" kemo asked. "theres no point anyone left around here would be dead by now" the trooper said.
"like you!" kevin said as he turned the ship toward kemos house.
"Kemo well be at your place in a minute" Kevin said grimly. He could see the fires where heading in the direction of kemo's house and that they didn't have much time.
"Why are you going there? I told you everyone's been evacuated" the bandaged trooper said angrily.
"because there's a chance they may be there. And if they arnt then there might be some more covenant for us to kill" kevin said in a matter of fact way.
"You've been lucky" the trooper grunted.
As they came up to kemo's house they could see the fire was only a few houses away from them. Kemo jumped out and ran inside desperate to find his family.
"Kemo wait" kevin insisted but he didn't listen and ran into the house. "Tommy and Corey, go back him up" Kevin ordered.
They left and walked into the house disappearing from sight. Kevin left the transporter hovering above the ground and moved to check on the condition of the wounded trooper.
"You alright" Kevin asked.
"Yeah ill be fine, they got me with a needler" he said between painful breaths.
Suddenly there was gunfire and Kevin looked over at the house. Tommy and Corey burst through the front door running at full speed. Kemo was close behind but was turned firing backwards into the doorway. A couple jackals walked through the door while blocking his gunfire. Then three elites followed them out. Kemo threw a grenade and sent all three jackals flying. One elite pulled out a sword, ran up and stabbed kemo in the chest. The sword protruded through his back, the light of the blade shining through kemo's blood.
"NO" Tommy roared as he turned around and ran back toward the fight. Corey followed and pulled out a sticky grenade and threw it over kemo landing between the elites. The explosion sent two of the elites off their feet. Tommy pulled up his rifle and shot the elite that was still standing. After emptying his clip into the elite, tommy kept running up. The elite gurgled an insult as it drowned in its own blood. Upon dying the elite dropped his sword and Tommy picked it up and slashed it into the face of the other elite as it stood up. Corey shot the other in the chest leaving a gaping wound where its lungs use to be. As it gasped for breath Corey walked closer and finished it off with a shot to the head. Tommy walked over to kemo and bent down beside him.
"Kemo" Tommy said as tears started to well in his eyes. A blast from a plasma pistol whizzed by as more covenant moved toward the commotion.
"We need to go" Kevin yelled over Hakeem returning fire from the turret. Tommy wasn't moving so Corey grabbed his shoulder and pulled him toward the transport. After a couple seconds Tommy snapped out of it and started running on his own. They both dived into the transport and Kevin took off into the smoke clouds filling the sky.
After a few minutes of silence kevin said "kemo would want us to keep going". No one said anything but gave subtle nods.
"So where is this rally point at" Kevin asked the trooper.
"Just outside Tallahassee" he said yelling over the noise of wind blowing through the transport. Kevin hadn't slowed down since he took off. He wanted to get as far away from Lakeland as he could.
"ok its going to be a few hours then, do you have any way to contact them so we don't get shot down once we get there" kevin said as he altered his course north.
"I got my radio but well have to be pretty close before they'll pick up the signal" he said pessimistically.
"Ok" that's all Kevin could say he just lost his friend and didn't know if any others had made it out. His world had been shattered in a few hours and there was nothing he could do to stop it. There wasn't any hope to fix it either, it was all gone. But he would make the covenant pay. He could do that much. He would make them pay dearly….