The Airstrip

Maria grabbed Gabby and they left to get Marcus. They found him hiding with several other children inside a room in the base. It was small and could easily be looked over, if you weren't genocidal monsters.

"Follow me kids, I'll make sure you get out of here," Maria said to them. None of them moved and Gabby stepped up.

"We're gonna get you away from the monsters, take you to where they can't hurt you. Ok?" she asked them. This got the children to follow them. In total there were five of them, ranging from Marcus's age to ten.

Maria stuck close to the building in order to get them to the motor pool. Through good skill, or sheer dumb luck, they managed to make it there without being seen. Maria went over to an APC while Gabby watched the doors. After determining that the APC was usable, she walked back to Gabby and tapped her shoulder. Gabby instantly went to the APC and got in the driver seat.

"Better shot gets the turret," she said to Maria as she closed the door. Maria went to the back as it opened and helped the kids get on and buckle up before heading to the turret.

Gabby pressed a button to open the garage doors. Unfortunately for them, there were Covenant Elites on the other side. Fortunately for them, Maria had already gotten the turret up and running. Before the Elites could even shoot at the APC, Maria had reduced them to only one, the survivor having been smart enough to dive out of the way. When the turret stopped firing the Elite jumped out of cover, only to be run over by Gabby.

Gabby was still driving when suddenly three Marines and two ODSTs jumped onto the APC and held on while it left the base. Their escape didn't go unnoticed as three Ghosts began chasing them. Maria spun the turret around to shoot them and saw a rocket blow up one of the Ghosts. Maria shot at the second Ghost as another rocket was shot at the third. The second Ghost exploded after several shoots, but the third Ghost managed to dodge the rocket and started firing at them. One of the Marines was hit, but he managed to pull out a grenade before he fell. As he fell he was able to get right in front of Ghost as the grenade went off. The resulting explosion destroyed both the Marine and the Ghost. They continued on for several more miles before Gabby stopped so that everyone could get inside.

"Dammit, they got Jack!" one of the Marines shouted. They strapped in while one of the ODSTs sat up front.

"I heard that everyone under Lieutenant Jones was heading towards New Mombasa, that where we're heading?" the ODST asked.

"Not sure," Gabby said as she turned to look at Maria. "Which way mom?"

"Wait, your mom's a Spartan!?" one Marine shouted, completely shocked.

"Focus," the ODST in the back said to the Marine.

"Understood Sergeant."

"So which way Spartan?"

"It's Maria, and we're heading here," she said as she put the coordinates of the airstrip into the GPS.

"Well if we're getting to know everyone here, let's start with our names. I'm Corporal Adriana Wallace," the ODST in the passenger seat said. Maria decided to actually tack the time to see what they would be best at. Wallace had the standard sniper armor [Romeo's armor in Halo 3: ODST] painted blue and silver [ODST color scheme]. She had a Sniper and the standard ODST SMG.

"Sergeant Jason Trent," the ODST in the back said. He had non-specialist armor painted the standard silver. He had the ODST SMG, and a shotgun.

"Private 1st Class Ben Carmine Ma'am," one of the remaining Marines said. He had standard heavy armor [Halo 3 Marine armor with the large rucksack]. With him he had a Rocket Launcher [Halo 2 launcher (it still locks on)] and an MA5B.

"Carmine, quit being a suck up," the other Marine said, "Specialist Frank Garrens." Garrens had the standard light armor [Normal Halo 3 Marine armor]. With him he had an MA5B assault rifle, and a BR55 battle rifle.

"Well, I'm Gabriela, or Gabby. The Spartan's daughter," she said to everyone.

"I'm Angie," one of the kids said. She was around 6 years old, had short blond hair, sky blue eyes and was missing one of her front teeth. Adriana took off her helmet and ran back to Angie and hugged her.

"Thank God," she said. Like Angie, Adriana had blond hair and sky blue eyes. Really she just looked like a grown up Angie.

"Mommy!" Angie shouted as she hugged her mother.

"Ok, back in your seats we're about to roll," Gabby said as she turned back around and grabbed the wheel. Adriana walked back to her seat and activated the navigation equipment and forward defense turrets.

Gabby hit the accelerator and the APC started rolling. Adriana kept her hand on the turret controls and kept looking for targets. Maria was still controlling the central turret on top and the Marines and Jason were waiting in the back. The GPS showed that the airstrip was still several miles away, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that they would have to go through the city to get there.

"This might be a problem," Jason said. He had gone to the front to find out why they stopped. Before them was the entire city under Covenant assault.

Gabby looked around for an alternate route. She saw an old road going underground. Gabby turned around and looked at her mom, knowing that she would have seen it to. Maria nodded and Gabby turned back around before starting to drive down the road. No one said anything for a couple of miles, and then Carmine spoke up.

"So, we aren't helping out the people out there?" he said. Jason turned around to address him.

"There are already Marines deployed. Right now, our mission is to get these kids and the Spartan out of this city. The fact that what remains of my team will be able to leave is a bonus," he said to Carmine.

"Oh, ok then."

"How much longer Private?" Jason asked Gabby. When he didn't get a response he asked again. "I said, how much longer?"

"Wait, are you talking to me?" Gabby asked him, still paying attention to the road.

"How did you get through basic?"

"I'm not actually a Marine," Gabby said. "Not yet anyway," she finished in a whisper.

"Then why the hell are you driving a UNSC vehicle and in UNSC armor kid?"

"Because I'm a great driver and my mom is the best shot here."

"So, because your mother is a Spartan, you think you can do what you want?" Jason said. Adriana, who still had her helmet off looked at him and raised an eyebrow. She glanced behind him and saw Maria standing there, her arms crossed over her chest. Adriana tried to warn him to shut up, but he didn't notice or didn't care.

"A soon as we get to a UNSC base I'm having you arrested. Might arrest your mom to for allowing you to take this stuff," he finished with a smug look on his face.

"Is there a problem here Sergeant?" Maria asked him making him jump a little. He turned around and found Maria standing there, her helmet off and anger clear in his eyes.

"Idiot," Adriana whispered, the only ones who heard her were herself and Maria.

"Yes there is Spartan," he said with a bit of disgust, "you think you can do whatever you want just because-…"

Maria cut him off by grabbing his armor and lifting him a foot off the floor. He kept his mouth shut and had a look of anger on his face, but his eyes showed that he was terrified.

"Put me down soldier," he ordered through gritted teeth.

"Shut up and listen," Maria ordered as she dropped him into one of the chairs in the back, "You don't like me, I get that. I'm a Spartan, you're an ODST, and we don't usually get along. But I draw the line when you threaten my daughter."

Adriana shook her head at Jason before turning back towards the GPS.

"I don't care if you threaten me with death row, you wouldn't be able to have it done anyway, but if you threaten my daughter again, you'll learn my favorite way to kill Elites the hard way," Maria said completely calm. Her being so calm as she said it made Jason believe that she was serious. In actuality, she was bluffing. The UNSC needed everyone they could get in the fight, and a seasoned ODST like Trent was an invaluable asset this late in the war.

"…Fine," Jason said as he slightly slumped in his seat. Maria walked back to the main turret and got into it.

"Keep driving," Adriana said to Gabby. She did…for about five more seconds. The Covies had suddenly shown up in the tunnel and started firing at the APC. Adriana and Maria started firing back with the turrets. It took a few minutes, but they managed to get through the Covenant barricade. Unfortunately, some of them had survived and were now chasing them in Specters. Maria had spun the turret around and started firing. One shot managed to hit an abandoned tanker, making it explode. Two of the Specters were taken out in the blast and another was damaged, but three got through unscathed.

"Fuck!" Maria shouted as the Specters started shooting at the APC again. The one that was damaged thought it would be a good idea to attack the APC from the front. This proved disastrous since Adriana was able to shot it then. Gabby kept going forward and just pushed the wreckage of the Specter out of the way. The remains of the Covenant vehicle crashed into a damaged support beam, causing it to fall and crush two of the remaining Specters and getting the other one stuck behind it.

"Hell yeah!" Carmine shouted as they exited the tunnel.

"We'll reach the airstrip in five," Gabby said to everyone in back, "get ready people."

Just as she said, the APC made it to the airstrip five minutes later. What they found both relieved them and disappointed them. On the airstrip there were several undamaged vehicles large enough to carry all of them, but there were also several Covenant squads.

"Run 'em down Gabby," Maria said.

Her daughter happily complied and rammed down the gate and several Grunts as Maria shot at the Elite. Adriana used the front turrets to shoot at other Covenant troops as Gabby ran them over. After several minutes, the area seemed to be clear to Maria. She got out, looked around, and then motioned for everyone to follow. Carmine was the last off.

"Ha, ha, we made-…" before he could finish, a Covie sniper shot him through the head. Adriana pulled out her sniper and shot back at the Jackal, taking its head off.

"Damn, thought we were clear," Jason said as he walked over to the dead Jackal, "sneaky bastard," he said as he kicked it.

Maria was about to shake her head when a sniper shot rang out. She turned around to look at Adriana, only to see an Elite clutching at its throat, its active-camo generator having been overloaded. Maria looked around and saw a figure at one of the farther buildings. The silhouette saluted her before jumping off the roof and disappearing.

"Come on let's go!" Gabby shouted as she pulled her mother onto the police Pelican.

"Right," Maria said as she ran to the cockpit and started activating the thrusters.

"Sydney here we come," Adriana said as she held her daughter close to her.