The painfully long shuttle ride ended with everybody getting off on the SSV Quantico of the fifth fleet. I gazed around the shuttle bay for a bit only to see everything looked only slightly better than the now-ravaged Earth. Civilians and wounded littered the deck with civilians being the majority. Families crying and huddle together around their wounded kin. It was awful.

"All these people, man. How many you think we saved?" Said a voice from behind me. One of the soldiers from the shuttle walked up to stand next to me. His face was clearly stricken with fear and sadness.

"Not enough." I replied solemnly. Seeing all these people like this made me feel helpless. What could I possibly do to help, I wondered.

"They came out of nowhere. Not even a chance to react or figure out what's' going on. How do we fight something like this?" He looked at me, hoping for some type of answer, some sort of reassurance.

I honestly didn't know what to say and he could tell. The soldier looked back at the families.

"What's your name?" I ask trying to avoid an awkward silence.

"Serviceman 1st Class Hisham Novak. And You?"

"Gunnery Chief Dante Matthias."

Again another awkward silence. What else is there to say though? Before I have time to think about the PA sounds off.

"All attention all, this is Admiral Velasquez speaking. All able bodied marines report to the briefing room for briefings and reassignment. That is all."

"Guess we better get going then, Chief." Hisham says and begins following the other marines. I trailed behind him until we got to the briefing room.

"All right, everybody listen up" The Admiral shouted. "Admiral Hackett has ordered a full retreat from Earth and we are to defend other key sites in our territory. As we speak, names are being randomly assigned to different sectors of Alliance-"

Good God, that migraine picked the worst time to show up. Everything in the room becomes blurry and soundless. I look at the Admiral speaking but no noise escapes his mouth. I stumble and push my way out of the room.

Your leaders think because we allowed them to escape, they have a chance to strike back. They are mistaken.

That voice from before on Earth. What the hell is it? Am I going crazy or do I have a very dark conscience. I manage to get out of the room but immediately fell against the wall because of the pain.

The places you call home will become laboratories. Every trace of organic life will ascend eventually. The cycle cannot be broken and you only delay the inevitable.

I can feel the tears coming down my face as the voice continues. An oily humanoid figure approaches me as I glance up.

"This is not your conscience human. This is not a voice in your head. This is something beyond your comprehension." The oily figure says.

"You belong to us now. You will not tell anyone of your situation. You will not disobey u. If you do, you will suffer something worse than death. You will not ascend."

The figures tone was menacing but it began to fade away as its sentence progressed. Within seconds, sound began to come back and my vision was no longer distorted, the headache was gone.

"Chief? Chief? Dante, are you okay?" Hisham yells into my face.

I open my eyes and find myself lying down in the infirmary. Hisham and some medics all hovering over me. Hisham sighs in relief at me coming to.

"Thought we lost you, Chief."

"What happened?" I croaked.

"You walk out of the room holding your head and passed out as soon as you got out. You didn't have pulse for a while."

Passed out and my pulse stopped. I couldn't believe it. Well, at least that dream wasn't real, I think.

"How are you feeling?" asked one of the medics.

"I'm fine, just help me up."

"Good Chief, because we're going to Mars."

"Mars? Why Mars?" I asked puzzled, Mars was nothing but an old research facility. Other than looking over what we learned from the Prothean beacon, nothing really stood out.

"I don't know. Admiral said everybody'll find out more about their assignments on the way or when they're on site. Let's head to the shuttle"

Surprisingly I felt fine leaving the infirmary. Hisham and I made our way to the shuttle bay and it looked worse than before. More civilians had arrived with handfuls of marines. As I stepped in to the shuttle all I could think of was how we were going to survive this.


Just finished the second chapter for you guys. I hope you enjoy it. Please post reviews with critiques and whatnot and enjoy Super Bowl Sunday everyone