Earth, UEG Capitol Building, New York, URNA, September 20, 2560

One hour until the President's announcement of the alien invasion of Falkland

Chancellor Adam Hewitt ignored the small video display tuned into the Waypoint news channel as it detailed yet another private ship going missing in the Shanxi sector. Another one of nearly a dozen now. The reporter was throwing out theories about the disappearances, but the chancellor wasn't listening, instead he busied himself with his work.

Outside his office grey rain clouds loomed and a steady patter of rain impacting the large window that dominated the wall behind his desk seemed to echo throughout his office. In the end he gave up on the idea of getting anymore work done after he read the same paragraph for five minutes.

He knew why he was distracted from his work. The disappearances Shanxi was a prelude to war, he was sure of it. When he'd taken over the office of the chancellor he had a difficult task stabilising the economy after the war and yet, nearly a decade later, it was only just beginning to stabilise.

But it was more than that. Isn't it? You're worried about David. Not that he'd believe you.

David, his youngest child, and only son, was from a marriage that ended before his political career even began. When the divorce finalised his ex-wife had already changed her name, and the kid's names, back to her maiden name. Now his son only spoke to him when he needed, or wanted, something, his barely adequate pay check couldn't cover. Like his car. And of course Adam gave it to him, hoping that it would at least mend some of the bridges that broke during the divorce and yet their relationship was still strained.

Unlike his sisters David had chosen the UNSC Army, enamoured by the immense history of all the different divisions, brigades and regiments. David wasn't the only one of Adam's children in the military; his eldest daughter was an officer in the Navy after all and his second daughter worked as a scientific consultant with ONI. So why was he worried about only one of his children?

When the small intercom built into his desk beeped, indicating he had a visitor, he was almost relieved and the fact that his secretary didn't call it in first meant it was someone he knew quite well. He took a moment to sort himself out, making sure he looked presentable before he buzzed through, letting his secretary know he was ready.

Seconds later the door opened and in walked Aiden Oduya, Minister of the Colonies. His dark complexion seemed ghostly white and his dark eyes were wide, darting all over the office before they settled on Adam.

"Aiden, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Adam asked, standing up and offering his hand over the wide desk. Oduya took his hand and the seat offered a second later. The minister's behaviour was beginning to make Adam worry. Of all the times they'd spent in each other's office meant they'd gotten to know each other pretty well. This was unlike Oduya.

"Adam," said Oduya. "There is no pleasure in what I am about to tell you."

Adam furrowed his brow, as he moved to a small cabinet tucked away in one corner. He grabbed two crystal tumblers and bottle of extremely rare scotch, poured two shots, he hesitated about putting the lid back before deciding to leave it open, just in case.

He sat himself back down at his desk, placing one tumbler in front of Oduya and one on a dog eared draft he'd been trying to work on for the last hour.

"What's wrong, Aiden? You looked spooked." Adam said as he offered the drink. His chair, a large, comfortable, black leather office seat, appeared to sigh as the hydraulic pump cushioned his weight perfectly.

"Indeed," he said. "As you know, many vessels are going missing near Shanxi." Oduya motioned at the small video display on the wall where a young looking reporter still droned on about the missing ships.

"Of course, it's been all over the news for the last few days. Even the navy's finally getting involved."

"Yes, too little, too late. The president will be making a speech about it shortly but I wanted to come and tell you first," Oduya said, taking a large sip of the scotch. "The disappearing, it wasn't pirates or the NCA, it was an alien fleet. Over a hundred ships strong!"

"What!" Adam nearly choked on his drink. Suddenly Adam knew why Aiden looked as white as he did. All the blood in his own face drained away. The fallout from this would be massive and if the aliens are responsible for the missing transports then it could very well lead to a full scale war. "Aliens? Aiden, that's… I- I don't even know what to think of that. How can you be certain?"

"I received word from an ONI officer, one our colonies has already been invaded."

Adam's heart sunk. Now he really knew Oduya's reason for being here, he didn't want to hear. But he had to. To either confirm his fears or relieve him of them.

"Which one?"

Please, please don't be-

"Falkland," Oduya said after what felt like eternity. "The aliens launched an all-out invasion of the colony six hours ago. After that nearly all communications with the UNSC military forces and colonial government have ceased."

The world seemed to shrink away from him. Oduya's voice faded. The office got darker and the sound of rain hitting the window escalated as the light rain became a torrential down pour. The next time he'll see David could very well be as his body is unloaded from a UNSC troop ship, covered in a body bag. Could he bear witness to that? Witness to his own, and only, son's funeral? No. no, he couldn't.


San Carlos Bay,

1723 Hours, September 21,2560

Sixteenth Fleet's Arrival; Eighty Hours

Sound was the first thing to come back to him. A distant thump of artillery and missile strikes echoed through the streets of the city. Sporadic gunfire could be heard in between the explosions as local police- what remained of them- and army units engaged the aliens inside the city. Over it all he could hear Taylor and Allie talking, their words indistinguishable.

The pain in his leg and arm was quick to return, a painful burning sensation that spread up his thigh and into his hip. There was a ruffle of clothes and boots before he felt someone's hands on him and Allie shouted that he was alive. He opened his eyes- only to see a bright blur of unfocused light- the headache brought on by it was instant and painful but nothing compared to the pain in his leg.

David could hear Allie and Taylor fuss over him, talking to him. A thousand fire ants suddenly seemed to explode into his leg, the pain was ten time worse for a second- he gasped out loud in a cry of agony- before the pain disappeared.

After what felt like ages, normality seemed to return to him. His vision came back into focus and his hearing became less muffled, the ringing slowly faded. He was propped up against the reception desk inside the lobby, blood stained his left pant leg, and the wound- caused by a shattered reinforced bracing in the Foxhound- was sealed with biofoam.

The education minister was sat nearby, her suit was creased, rumpled by the crash and dirtied in the rush between the parliament building and now. Her hair was also equally dishevelled.

"Is the minister all right?" David asked with a grunt. Allie looked confused for a moment before answering.

"Fine, she's fine," Allie said. "What about you? You were out of it for a while, we've been hiding out here since. We don't know what to do. Well, I mean, we do but-"

"I'll live," David said, interrupting her. "We need to move, get the minister to safety. It'll take us over a day to reach Camp Moore on foot, though."

"We could call for an evac bird, we'd have to get up high to cut through all the mess." Taylor offered from his position near the wrecked truck. He was keeping an eye on the streets, making sure they weren't found and killed by enemy troops.

"Mess?" David asked.

"Yeah, we've been trying to contact Lieutenant Rowkin on the radio but our standard COMs are being jammed, or distorted, I don't know. Might that purple crap from the alien ships?"

"Purple crap, Taylor?"

"Yeah, those alien ship blew they released some sort purple cloud over the city, still hasn't reach street level yet, though." Taylor clarified. "Might explain why COMs aren't getting out. Even the Foxhound's radio stopped receiving."

"Right, how tall is this building?" David asked, trying to stand up. His head spun, the world became a dizzying blur before he collapsed onto the desk. "Ugh, that hurt."

"You sure you're okay, Dave?" Allie asked.

"Yeah, just… just give me a sec," David said. He leant heavily on the reception desk to try and keep his balance. "How tall is this building?" he asked again, trying to redirect the conversation.

"Pretty big," Taylor said, looking up at the ceiling. "It's one of SinoViet's, there's a Sky Bridge about twenty stories up that connects to a parking structure. That has connections to at least a half dozen other buildings."

More explosions echoed throughout the city, not explosive. Taylor looked up into the sky outside and let out a jubilant cry of relief.

"Ha! Yes, looks like we got resupply coming in from orbit!"

In the skies above a flight of two dozen pelicans and multiple drop pods rocketed towards San Carlos and Camp Moore, staying wide of the few remaining alien ships. ODST SOEIVs hurtled into the city, most impacting in the streets or rooftops while an unlucky few were blasted apart by the alien point defence weapons. Two pods impacted nearby, the sound of the hatches blasting open filled the streets as did the intensifying gunfire.

The two ODSTs quickly moved off towards their objective, unaware of the four of them. Not that it mattered. They each had their own mission. The ODSTs were probably doing something as equally important.

"Right, good. It'll distract the aliens away from us. Compared to the ODSTs we're no threat. We'll go up, seems like our best bet." David said. He tried again to stand up on his own, Allie hovered nearby ready to catch him but he managed to stay up right. He didn't exactly want to fight or even head up twenty stories but he would if it meant surviving.

"Wait, if we're going up what about the purple stuff you said was leaking from the alien ships?" the minister interrupted from where she was sat. She was looking up at them all, her eyes narrowed in confusion and worry.

"She raises a good point Dave," Allie said. David cursed. He'd forgotten about that.

"Gas masks, we've all got one in our survival kit," David said, snapping his fingers as he realised.

"Yeah," Allie said. "We do, the minister doesn't." Allie made a vague circular motion with her hand, indicating the three of them.

"Lee," David said grimly. "Wilkins would have had one. I'll grab his, the minister can borrow mine." He said as he fished his own S90 gas mask out of its pack. When he got it out he passed it to the minister. Walking was more painful and slightly harder than he would have liked in the situation but with a clenched jaw he pushed the pain aside.

Taylor made sure he was covered while he crawled into the wreck to grab Wilkins' gas mask. He paused for a moment as he reached in. Wilkins had been a friend to everyone on the team. Although, so far they seemed to be handling his death, the first human death any of them had seen, better than he was. Or maybe they were too afraid of dying here as well that any other emotions were blocked. When it was all over they would grieve. They would all grieve.

It took him several minutes of patting down Wilkins' mangled corpse to find it and when he did he let out a small grunt.

"Finally," he muttered to himself.

A minute later they were all up and ready to go. He paused a moment, looking at the minister. She'd put the mask on already and combined with her suit, she looked foolish. He failed to suppress his laughter.

"What? Why are you laughing at me?" her voice was muffled. He laughed harder but controlled himself. Instead of replying straight away he grabbed the mask off her head, pulling it up so she could see, speak and breathe properly.

"You won't need that at the moment, ma'am." David said, still grinning despite everything. "We've got twenty flights of stairs to get up first. You'll want to breathe correctly until then."

The minister, despite the professional demeanour she presented herself with when they first met, let out an indignant huff but said nothing else. Taylor bumped his shoulder and David noted Taylor had his own grin plastered on.

"C'mon," David said. Ignoring the glare from the education minister. "We better get moving. It's getting pretty cold already. We'll get to the parking structure then grab a quick bite to eat before we move on."

So they moved. David went first, Taylor second, the minister in the middle and Allie watching their backs. They moved through the lobby, using their flashlights as power for most of the building had been disrupted, leaving most of it in darkness with only the small green emergency lighting as guidance.


A/N; I just want to say something now; this isn't about the political grand scheme. There won't be lengthy diplomatic scenes and whatnot. this is about how first contact, and the war, effects certain characters. Yes spartans will appear but won't be main characters.