Chapter 2

A Warm Welcoming

"You realize we could've killed you right?"

I looked at the officer speaking to me in the Pelican. He looked young with dark hair, blue eyes, refined chin. Yup he was a movie star alright. The kind you'd see young boy's flock to for the false image of war. He began speaking again.

"I mean, we had every reason to kill you… deserting in the middle of a war. A war that could end all of humanity. Do you honestly think at a time like this High Command or ONI couldn't sweep your death under the rug?"

I could practically feel the self righteousness pulse off him…

"You'd have to be quite a piece of shit to leave when we need as many as we can get…"

I waited calmly before my response. After all I didn't want to set the kid off…

Of course I knew my death could easily be hidden. Someone like me doesn't live 6 years in Force Recon ignorant to ONI and High Command's… Controversial decisions.

I finally decided to speak up.

"Look kid… I'm not gonna lie to ya', you look like a movie star so I'm gonna guess you haven't seen combat other than what's on your video feed, so listen closely." I had stood up from my seat and looked him dead in the eye.

"I didn't leave this war because I didn't want to fight the Covenant… I left this war because I got tired of fighting each other!"

After my captor and I had escaped he took me back to another Insurrectionist base. From there he told the person in charge of my actions. Apparently, that was enough to land me a one way ticket as a foot soldier in the Insurrection. From there they trained me. I had already spent a good 4 years in captivity so I needed to get some proper nutrition and get nursed back to full health. After the hardship of training I was briefed on our enemy in full with the rest of the grunts.

The CMA had been disbanded.

The UNSC had taken a bigger role in the outer colonies. It appeared that the Insurrection had just woke the sleeping beast.

After that, I got sent out on a mission. I'd rather not explain what happened. The first mission is always the hardest, I guess.

One after another I kept going on assignments. Each one bringing more bloodshed. Each one cementing my image in the Insurrection as a harbinger of death for the UNSC.

Eventually I ran into an unstoppable force. I don't know what the fuck it was. But whatever it was? Look, if I was a harbinger of death then this thing was death itself.

All my time in captivity had taught me how to survive without much to work with. I always said that was why I hadn't died on any of my missions. But this… This time I got fucking lucky. Even now as I think over it I don't know how I survived. All I know is that almost every second one of my comrades fell. That thing had pin-point accuracy and could get behind you before you would even know it was there. Every movement they made was calculated to the dot and synchronized with each other perfectly.

Like I said...I got lucky.

I escaped the massacre at our base and got back to the nearest city. I had dumped my uniform, gear, anything that could be used to identify me as an Insurrectionist. I knew that if the UNSC had those… machines on their side's our war was over… We've lost.

So I laid low, got a job at a local bar and constantly looked over my shoulder. Then the rumors started coming in. First contact this and Aliens that. Didn't really bother me at the time but once the news spread the Harvest had been destroyed… Well… The UNSC seemed to loosen their grip on the outer colonies. Eventually more news came in that more colonies had fell. More people started disappearing from the bar and around the city. Recruitment for the UNSC was at an all time high. Some planet's even had mandatory enlistment.

Where others saw fear… I saw an opportunity

The UNSC had been cracking down on former Insurrectionists with those new machines of theirs. So when I heard that the UNSC was desperate for new recruits that they didn't bother with deep background checks, I realized I had found my way to stop looking over my shoulder.

Now while some former Insurrectionists may of had some problems joining the enemy, I sure as hell didn't. In all honesty I had only joined the Insurrection because, well realistically had nowhere else to go. I didn't care for their ideals, shit I didn't even care who I was fighting or even who I was killing. I just wanted a bed to sleep in and food to eat.

So I enlisted in the UNSC Marine Corps...