Date: September 5th, 2551

Location: Ira base, Yuri, Takra

250 miles south of Rodum,

Ira base was one of the largest military complexes on Takra. It covered an area about five miles in length and width. In the middle of the base was a large HQ building, a large rectangular building with two cube shaped blocks at either end with a small but wide tower, about twenty feet wide and forty feet high, sticking out of the top of building from the middle of the rectangular section of the building. Seventy feet to the right of the HQ building were twenty fifteen half-cylindrical shaped buildings placed in rows of about five long and four in depth. Next to the rows of barracks was a large square shaped building, which was the mess hall. Seventy feet to the left of the HQ building were three hospital buildings, large rectangular shaped buildings about one hundred feet long and forty feet wide and placed vertically in rows of three. About one hundred feet behind the HQ building were four enormous cube shaped building, whose insides were set into different cubicles with either a scorpion tank or a warthog or mongoose. They were vehicle bays. Further on behind the vehicle bays were several large circular shaped structures with thick armour around it and inside each of the buildings were large lift that went underground to an underground safe haven for civilians and wounded. About one thousand feet further on behind these structures were nine large square shaped hangers with landing strips going out towards each other, forming a large star-like airstrip. Scattered around the bases were large AA missile launcher turrets and on the ground around the base's perimeter were several large Paladin cannons, which were large spherical shaped weapons with a thick metallic neck stretching down to the ground, which made it look as if it were attached to it, with a large silo sticking out of the front of the sphere.

Construction on Ira base began in 2356 and was completed in 2372. Since then, it had grown to almost twice as large. It was home to about 6,000 UNSC military personal and was one of the main hearts for the military on Takra. It's main mission was to protect the surrounding areas, mainly comprising of the cities of Gorvach and Sukuki, in the event of an attack. This mission, however, was deemed impossible to happen as it had been centuries since Humanity last went to war and it looked as though it would stay that way.

That was until March 2551. On the 3rd day of that month, Humanity came into contact with an alien coalition, made up of seven alien races known as Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Hunters, Brutes, Drones and Prophets, known as the Covenant, and, as it was feared by all leaders if they ever were to come into contact with an alien civilization, they were not friendly.

Since that day onward, the Covenant had smashed their way across the Niobe Aino system, wiping out all Human presence on the colonized worlds. The UNSC had fought bravely, but it was no use. No matter what they had done, the Covenant seemed to win every time, and now they were laying siege to the most populated Human planet in the Niobe Aino system: Takra.

For months, from around about the middle of June this year, they had launched small attacks to rry and gain footholds for the main invasion. It was not until later on in the year that the Covenant launched the feared and coming all-out invasion of the planet. The UNSC had hundreds of thousands of soldiers here and, because Takra was even more populated with civilians from the destroyed worlds, they were planning on holding back the Covenant long enough for everyone to get off the planet and escape to the safety of Humanity's home system. It was difficult though in making sure that would happen as the Covenant were showing no sign of easing their attack on the planet, and the UNSC High Command knew that they would only end when Takra was destroyed. Until then, they were not leaving.

Outside one of the barracks, along the back row and the third building along, a group of soldiers were walking towards the building. They had just returned from Sukuki, about 165 miles away to the east, which was under siege by Covenant forces. The city had been under siege for about three weeks and had resulted in much of it being destroyed, but still the fighting went on. Neither side wanted to give up battling in the city until, either it was completely hopeless in winning, or until one side had been defeated, but with the way the war was going and that fact that Humanity had done very little in succeeding against the Covenant, it looked like Humanity would eventually have to abandon Sukuki to It's fate.

One of the soldiers said something to the rest of the group and they nodded and walked off towards the mess hall. The soldier walked into the barracks, which was almost deserted save for a few other soldiers sitting around the barracks on their bunk beds or around tables with their friends.

The soldier's name was Moe. He was about twenty three years old and had been born on Vorgra. He had short black hair, brown eyes and he was a shorter than most other UNSC soldiers, about 5ft 9. Still though, he was respected by the others and he had many friends, though most of them were away fighting the Covenant on other parts of Takra.

Moe walked over to one of the bunk beds and sat down on the bottom bunk, his bed, and took out a small box from underneath it and placed it on his lap. In it were several items including a small book, his diary, a small pistol, which all soldiers here to keep with them in case of a Covenant surprise attack on the base, a photo of him and his friends taken just before the war began and a small tube labelled: Antibacterial hand wash and he squeezed the tube and a clear liquid came out of the tube onto his hands. Moe rubbed his hand together to clean his hands.

If you guessed that he was doing this to keep his hands clean, you guessed right. He was quite mysophobic and every time he came back from a battle, he would clean his hands to get rid of any dirt and bacteria brought on from the fighting. His friends teased him about it sometimes but he ignored them and carried on cleaning his hands.

Then, just as he out the tube back into the box, he noticed something else in there as well. It was a small device the size of the palm of his hand with a small square object attached to the size of it in a tiny pocket. The smaller square shaped device was no bigger than the size of his thumbnail. His eyes lit up when he saw this.

"Sweet," he said as he picked up the device.

It was a camcorder. On the bottom of it was a magnetic device that would attach it to anything when activated. The small square shaped object was the camcorder's battery and memory card. It could be left for twenty days without any charging and could store a lot of memory on there, whether it be videos or photos or even maps, which it would scan through the scanner built into the bottom of the device and then bring up information in a holographic version of the map. Also, it could upload and download any information without having to take out the memory card.

Then, Moe noticed a small note attached to the bottom of the camcorder. He took the note off the camcorder and read it.

Dear Moe

I know how much you love camcorders and so I thought I would send you one for you to use. Make sure you look after it well and stay safe.

Love you

Mom

Moe smiled at the note. "Thanks, Mom," he said.

Ten minutes later

Camcorder's POV

Date: 5/9/2551

17:32:08:24pm

The screen shook a little as Moe, holding the camcorder in his hands, walked into the mess hall, which was a large square shaped room with several rows of tables facing vertically towards the opposite wall. It was mainly full and he walked over towards a table where his four friends were sitting.

"Hey guys, look what my mom sent me," he said as he reached them.

"Cool!" one of his friends, who had short red hair, blue eyes and was named Alan, asked. "What type is it?" he asked.

The screen shifted to look down at the floor as Moe moved it to look at the make written on the side of the device.

"A Shinjuku Type 3 make. Newest make of the Shinjuku Types so far," he replied.

"Nice," another of the soldiers, a young looking soldier with brown hair, green eyes and called Isaac, piped up. "Can we use it later on?" he asked.

"Sure, as long as you guys don't break it," Moe told him.

The screen then changed to reveal the table and the four marines sitting around it as Moe stepped back a few paces. The other two friends were a young black soldier, who had blue eyes and was about nineteen years old and was called Jerry, and a soldier, called Michael, with blonde hair, brown eyes and was about Moe's age.

"Say hello to the camera guys," he said.

The four greeted the camera screen.

"Hey!"

"Wassup!"

"What's going down?"

"Hi!"

Moe laughed a little.

"Nice one, guys," he said.

"So when will you let us use it?" Michael asked him.

"Well, soon," Moe replied. "I only got it today. It's not like I got weeks ago, so I still want to use it,"

"Just let us know when you're done," Isaac told him.

"Uh, huh, whatever," was Moe's reply and the screen faced the wall and shifted slightly as Moe walked over towards it to get something to eat.