God I can't wait for my shift to be over, I swear if I have to tell this guy again that he has to cook pork before he eats it…

No don't think about that; go get lunch now, complain about patients later.

Tanner was logging patient information as I was walking out, "Hey I'm gonna grab some lunch over at that Asian restaurant down the street, want me to grab you anything while I'm there?"

He thought for a second, "Yeah can you get me some spicy ramen and some egg roles?"

"Sure just pay me back when I get back, you still owe me from last week."

As I walked out of the clinic I got hit with the same feeling you always get when you go from a climate controlled building out into the blazing African sun. Almost like the complete opposite of getting cold water splashed in your face. Sometimes when I'm in a rush and I just finish in the shower, I don't even need to dry off all the way cause 20 minutes under the sun here is about as good as hair dryer.

Making my way down the street, I also remembered another reason why I like working in the city.

No one tries talking to you.

Everyone is either in a rush to get somewhere or they can't be bothered to acknowledge some random guy walking past them. Hell, you can even bump into some people and they won't even register it and that's fine by me. Social interaction has never been my strong suit; I'm just fine with going home everyday, heading straight to my apartment and then either just chill with some music or reading a good book. Medical school never really left room for a social life either; I was always focused on my studies and I never really had the income to go out and party when I had time off.

This wasn't based on a dislike of other people though, I wouldn't have minded having some people I could hang out with and study for exams with. It's a simple matter of people just being too complicated for me. You can never predict what someone will be like one day and then if they'll be the same the next day; the human mind is an endless maze that I don't have a map for.

Human bodies are different story though.

While I had no social life when I was in school, I did graduate with top honors in my class. I may not be the life of the party, but I'll sure as hell be able to figure out why half the people end up feeling sick two days after that party and make sure they get properly treated. Because health and sickness are based on facts and logic.

Someone is coughing up a storm all the time and they have breathing issues? That happened cause they smoke three packs a day and developed an addiction which is causing lung cancer.

Someone comes in with their spouse saying that their experiencing heart issues and that there's something wrong with how they're breathing at night when they sleep? That person likely has sleep apnea and is beginning to experience heart issues because of it.

Someone comes in late at night, bruised and having difficulties standing up and breathing? He likely came form a fight and is currently dealing with a concussion and some broken ribs.

I can't predict the circumstances which caused these people's ailments, I didn't train to be a psychologist. But every sickness and every injury has a clear cause and effect, and I've trained to make sure that it ends on positive note. And even if they forget about me the week after they've come in for treatment, at least they'll live to forget me.

I'm soon snapped out of my introspection by the sweet smell of fresh cuisine, the rough diamond of New Mombasa known as Rising Sun Eatery. Normally if you wanted fresh cuisine at a good price you'd have to make your way over to the old city where the markets were. But luckily for me, this small luxury was barely a five minute walk from the clinic.

You could tell as soon as you walked in that the owners were quite big fans of old Japan; paper lamps hanging from the ceiling, fake bamboo plants near all the tables and even hand made spirit masks adorning the walls. There was even one night where they gave a music performance with traditional Japanese instruments, which was a nice change of pace form the bass thumping techno and synth music I listen to at home.

The owner recognized me when I walked up to the counter and smiled, "Ah hello Mr. Nurse, very nice to see you again!"

I smiled from his warm welcome, "Nice to see you as well Kazama-san, how's the hand doing?"

He held up his hand, discolored by a burn from a hot grease spill, "Good as new, you best doctor in Mombasa!"

I smirked from his praise, "Just promise you'll keep your gloves on from now on alright?"

He shrugged in response with a big ear to ear smile.

We got on well since I was regular, even more so after I treated him one night when he rushed into the clinic after he ate some improperly prepared puffer fish, he showed his thanks by giving me a permanent discount at the restaurant. Turns out that thick accent he has is a complete facade, he speaks perfect English and just puts on the accent to add to the aesthetic of the restaurant.

He stepped up to the counter to take my order, "You want your regular order today?"

"Yeah the chicken katsu curry with white rice. Can I also get a bowl of spicy ramen and some egg-roles."

"No problem Mr. Nurse, be ready in five minutes."

While I waited I decided to check the news on my phone. On the front page the head line was 'Heroes Return From Reach!', well that was certainly interesting. I remember hearing about Reach, what an absolute tragedy. One of our most heavily defended worlds burnt to a cinder by the Covenant.

That was honestly one of the most horrible things about the Covenant, they weren't only at war with us, they wanted to wipe us off the face of the galaxy and not let us be able to pick the pieces anywhere. I've never liked war, it was why I never joined the service. I wondered which was the best way I could help people, fight to save others indirectly or save them directly through medicine. I then came to the conclusion that I just didn't have what it takes to take another living being's life, even if that being was from a race that was hard set on committing genocide on your entire species. I suppose I should consider myself lucky being born on Earth rather than one of the colonies, I probably wouldn't have any choice but to fight if those were the circumstances.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Kazama brought me my food, "Here you go Mr. Nurse, made just the way you like."

I got up and grabbed the food, "Thanks Kazama-san, I'll see you on Sunday. Tell your wife I said hi."

"Of course, enjoy your food."

If I had known that would be last time I would ever see Kazama then I probably would've tried to say something a bit more heartfelt to my favorite cook, or at least gotten the recipe for his curry.

When I got back to the clinic it was pretty much empty, which I was glad to see cause I only had four hours left on my shift and I'd rather it go by with as little going on as possible, I still had to file my patient reports for the day after I finished lunch and my God there were a lot; everything from getting sick because they cleaned their dishes with bleach, a guy coming in sick because he thought taking birth control was a good idea and then an aunt brings her niece in cause apparently a roach crawled into her ear. Luckily the warm smell of panko fried chicken and spicy curry was already improving my day. I went to the break room where I found Tanner and Phillips watching, oddly enough, the news.

I asked as I was setting out mine and Tanner's lunch, "What no football today?"

Tanner turned to me after I asked "Oh hey Dom, yeah Phillips said he wanted to watch the military awards ceremony they're doing on Cairo Station right now."

"Oh yeah I saw a headline for that, what's so special about this one?"

Phillips responded, "Don't you know dude? One of the guys they're honoring is a Spartan."

That grabbed my attention, Spartans were no joke. No one knew when or how they were created but one day they just started appearing on battlefields like armored avenging angels sent to deliver us from death. A single one of them was worth at least fifty soldiers, a group of them could tip the entire scale of a battle.

I grabbed a drink and decided to watch it with them

Phillips went wide eyed, "Yo dude, that's Lord Hood, this must be huge if he's the one handing out the awards."

He was right, I didn't keep up with the news that much but you'd have to be living under a rock to not know who Lord Hood was. He's the highest ranking commander in the UNSC and is essentially head of the entire war effort, if there was a man with the power to move a mountain then it was probably Lord Hood.

Suddenly an alarm started going off on the station and the feed cut out, confused I asked, "Hey what's going on?"

Phillips looked just as confused, "Dunno maybe some kind of mechanical issue or-"

The feed suddenly popped back up with a panicked news caster, "We interrupt this broadc- HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUU-…" the feed immediately cut to static. Then at the same moment the whole building began to shake like we had just been hit with a massive earthquake. None of us knew what the hell was going on so I decided to run outside to see what was up.

As soon as I stepped outside it was Chaos; cars were speeding all over the place, people were running down the street screaming like the world was coming to an end, someone shouted as they were running by, "THEY'RE HERE!". I then looked up to the sky and when I saw it, all sounds and feelings around me were muted. It was a massive ship, looking like it was made of pure sliver, bigger than any skyscraper in New Mombasa, it's sheer size blocking out the Sun. I snapped back to reality when someone ran into me and knocked me to the ground; when I got up and looked at the ship again it started spewing massive bolts of plasma and I saw hundreds of smaller ships pouring out of it that were spreading out all over the city. After that I ran back inside into the waiting area of the clinic where I saw Doctor Imbeke standing with his cane.

With a concerning look he asked, "Dominic, what the blazes is going on out there?"

Panic started showing when I told him, "Doctor… The Covenant… they're here…"

All the color drained from the Doctor's face as he then dropped his cane and slipped into one of the chairs.

Looking down onto the floor all he could utter was, "May God have mercy upon us all..."