The Ballad of A Marine
Isaac McCudden
HM's 57 Commando New Zealand Royal Marines
The story of Landfall, told from the perspective of a UNSC serviceman, first-hand.
Fantastic and extraordinary things usually happen in people's lives, be it winning the lottery, hooking up with a boy or girl for life, finding a long lost relative, buying that house you always wanted or beating a competitor at an auction for that classic car you always dreamt of since you were five. Fantastic things always happen in one's life - it is inevitable - and man's tampering cannot avoid the inevitable, as I well know. Sometimes you can get more than one extraordinary event in your life. Fate loves to spring the extraordinary upon the unsuspecting.
What I am about to tell you is just one extraordinary event of my life... an event that I doubt anyone at this table would believe for a second - and so I ask of you, to keep a clear mind and let me finish before any of you interrupt, or have me thrown in an asylum for lunacy. I mean, of all the crazy shit that's happened this last century, this is hardly a drop in the pisspot.
I swear upon Her Most Imperial and Apostolic Majesty Maria-Theresa II, Arch-Empress and Supreme me Autocrat of Austria-Hungary, Princess-President of the Unified Earth Government and Arch-Duchess of Luna, etc. etc. that I tell the truth. Fuck, I'll even swear to Saint Constantine the Honest if necessary.
I can see that I'm boring you with my little speech, so I'll just cut right to the chase then. Make sure you turn your PDAs and other electronics off and that your well-stocked on refreshments and snacks; this is going to be a long-arse fuckin' story. Pass me the shein, please, and then I'll get to the story... that stuff there... thanks... right...
This is how the story goes... this is the story of Landfall...