Five months later

Date: January 1st, 2552

Location: Rodum city, Takra

Time: 19:51pm

Rodum, the largest city ever built on Takra and one of the greatest cities ever built by man. It's size was twice that of the Rhode Island state in America on Earth and It's population was over 20 million. Built around a large lake with an island in the middle, it was a bustling economic, scientific, political and cultural centre of Takra and the Niobe Aino system filled with museums, observatories, parks, space centres, transport centres and some of the best hospitals with some of the most advanced medical equipment.

However, despite this city being so great and with an enormous population, it was living under a cloud of fear that was sure to break on them soon. This cloud was the threat of the Covenant attacking the city. They had already been laying siege to Takra for several months and had fought the UNSC across every inch of the planet, killing millions of UNSC personal and civilians. Most people, however, believed that if Rodum was to be attacked, which was most likely to happen, it would hold out, but they just did not know when the Covenant would attack the city. It could be next month, next week, or even tomorrow or maybe even tonight, they just did not know. Everyone was scared and the UNSC High Command was worried because Rodum's population was usually only around 19 to 20 million, but the loss of many cities around the planet and the flood of refugees from other worlds such as Eucia I, Eucia II and Lupo had swelled it to about 26 to 28 million, it may not sound like much of an increase but it stretched the already thin resources the UNSC had to defend the city even further and it meant more people would have to be evacuated quickly before the Covenant laid siege to Rodum.

On one of the many skyscrapers that seemed to tower over the cityscape, on a floor that had a small window ledge, two people were sitting, looking out over the city. It was Debbie and Hans, who had been lucky enough to escape Eucia II to Takra. They both looked exhausted and older than they actually were, but they were not tired, they could not be anyway. With the threat of an imminent Covenant attack on the city looming over them, no one could sleep and were always either talking or wondering how much longer the city would escape the fighting that was growing ever closer with every passing day. One day, one week, or a few hours?

Hans lifted up the sleeve of his arm and looked at the scar of the blast wound he had there. It had healed much over the past few months but he would have that scar forever.

"How is it?" Debbie asked him, not taking her eyes off the cityscape in front of her.

"It's fine," Hans replied, lowering his sleeve and looking back out across the cityscape.

Despite the threat of the Covenant attack on the city looming over them, the two were entranced by the peaceful look of the night sky filled with trillions of stars. What really drew their attention was Takra's moon Descendus, which shone brightly in the night sky almost like Earth's moon, Lunar. Descendus had been lucky. When Eucia II had fallen, the UNSC were worried that the Covenant would glass the planet, which they feared would have an effect on Takra. So, deciding it was the best thing to do, they called for an early evacuation of Descendus and every base and settlement, which were mostly on villages, were destroyed to prevent anything knowledgeable to Humanity from falling into the hands of the Covenant. It had been a hard move as there were many refugees there and several UNSC warships had to be sent to aid in the evacuation of the planet, but it had saved several hundred millions lives and strengthened the UNSC presence on Takra. Not by much, but right now every man available to fight was needed.

"Do you think Takra can be saved?" Hans asked Debbie, with shook her head.

"No," she replied. "If there's one thing we haven't learned properly about the Covenant is that once they get their sights set on a planet, they don't leave until it's destroyed,"

Hans sighed. She was right. The Covenant were showing no sign of leaving Takra despite being tied down here for several months, which was a lot longer than the other short and quick battles they had fought on other colonized planets. Rubbing his hand across his eyes and pressing his thumb and index finger on his nose for a moment before looking back up at the cityscape of Rodum, he knew that every night could be the city's last night of being safe. Tonight might even be their last night alive. For all they knew, the Covenant might launch an attack tomorrow.

A distant but loud boom drew their attention to their left and the two got up and ran to the left end of the window ledge to see a large object fly into the sky. It was too dark to make it out, but they could easily see the engines on the back of the ship. It had come from the direction of the island in the middle of the lake. It was an evacuation transport, the twentieth to leave today. At least 200 of these ships, each one carrying 2000 passengers, both civilians and UNSC personal, most of who were wounded, had left the city over the past three weeks since evacuation procedures had begun. A total of 4 million had escaped so far. A good start, but there was still over 20 million more civilians to evacuate and plus there were several hundred thousand wounded marines to be evacuated to safety.

"How long do you think we have left?" Debbie asked.

"A few days, at the most," Hans replied, looking at her.

Something in his mind began nagging away at him, something he had felt before but had ignored it, but with doom looming over them, he just felt he could no longer ignore this nagging feeling.

"Um…Debbie?" he asked and she turned her head to face him.

"Yes?"

"I…I," he began, finding it more difficult to say what he wanted to tell her than he thought it would be. "I…have something to tell you," he said. "I…-"

Suddenly, the rest of his words were drowned out by an ear splitting wail that seemed to erupt from everywhere across the city. Debbie and Hans looked around them as if they were trying to find the source of the noise. Then, the wail began to fall in sound, but when it came to the point of almost going quiet again, it rose into another wail before falling again. Hans and Debbie looked at each other with terror in their eyes.

That wail was a siren, and it only meant one thing: The Covenant was here.

"Guys!" a voice exclaimed from behind them. Debbie and Hans turned to see a tall young looking marine standing in the doorway of the building that led onto the window ledge. "C'mon, we have to go!"

The marine turned and ran back into the building. Hans ran after him immediately. Debbie paused and looked behind her at the cityscape and then up at Descendus as if the moon were a God looking down on the city for one last time on a peaceful before it was to meet It's destruction.

Sighing in hopelessness, Debbie ran into the building after Hans and the marine. Behind her, the noise of the siren continued to fill the night sky, signalling the coming doom that would soon engulf Rodum and everyone in it in terror and war.