Chapter 2

A woman shuffled around her house early in the morning. Well, it was about eleven AM but she had only woken up a half an hour ago. Today was a bit more comfortable it terms of weather. The last day had been scorching hot, but it had finally rained during the night, and that made today a bit better. Plus the smell of rain always adds to a day's atmosphere.

The woman walked over to the coffee maker and drew back the mug. In the living room was her son, about seven months old, playing on a place carpet. She sat down with her coffee and watched him.

Andrew fixed his tie in the mirror, then pulled his black shoes on. He grabbed his keys and jacket, then decided against it and put his jacket back.

"Oh hell," he went back again to get his jacket. In fear it might get colder today.

"I'll just leave it in the car if I don't need it," he said to himself.

He pushed out the door of his apartment and started down the stairs, saying 'hi' to a few people he passed, a lot of them seemed happy to have a Marine living in their co-op.

"Yeah, I ain't so great," he thought to himself.

The building had an elevator but he decided to always go up and down the stairs, as subtle exercise. Not that he wasn't in shape.

Andrew woke up early this morning to he could stop off at the base's barber before going to work. He pushed the steel bar on the door and left the building. Glad to see the weather was cooler.

He stuck the keys in the door of his car, opened the door and got it. It was early so he probably beat the morning rush hour.

Andrew pulled out of his building's parking lot, and started on the short drive to work. It was short, but he still needed a car to do it, and it was a lot slower in traffic.

He flicked on the radio, bad music, more bad music, talk radio that he'd rather not hear, infomercials, bad music, patriotic propaganda, blah. He turned it off.

Uh, here it is, he drives past a funeral home and sees a funeral in progress, some people are dressed in Military uniform,

"I wonder if it was anyone I even knew, maybe in training," he wondered. Then shook the thought away and continued driving.

A few minutes past, a few cars, not many. He slowed down so the gatekeeper guy could let him in, it was a different person this time around, so he had to show ID, Andrew would later learn that his gatekeeper was sent off to the Frontline.

Andrew walked into the Marine barbershop

Sat down on the chair, no one else was there, he picked up a news paper, the guy knew what he wanted, because Andrew was in there a lot, trying to keep his hair as short as possible. It was great for the Marines, they just had to pay a bit of a tip. The corps pays the barber's salary. He looked through all the advertisements encouraging youth to enlist, at the few pictures from New Mombassa. Some rumors about the Covenant planning to land in other places on Earth.

Before he knew it the barber was done, he guessed maybe his hair wasn't as long as he thought it was.

He tipped the Marine and went off into the main building of the base. Greeting the usual people. Today they were doing some maintenance on the elevator he uses, the one closest to the entrance. So he had to make a small detour around the halls.

Andrew never really went through these halls, so that's why he never noticed the TV up in the corner constantly tuned to a news station. He stopped for a few seconds to see what was happening. It showed Marine's pushing the Covenant out of New Mombassa, this is true, the Marines actually did win there, well, before the Assault Carrier blew up the whole damned city by performing a slip space jump in it. The battle was now being fought in space. Mostly, there was some Covenant on Earth. But the media was instructed to make the situation look as hopeful as possible.

They were interviewing a man who said that they had reason to believe that the Covenant is planning a massive strike against Earth. That's not too good for morale.

Andrew pulled himself away from the TV. He already knew more than any civilian would until the war was over, probably.

UNSC Observation Post, Atlantic Ocean:

"The fleet seems to be pulling back. Either we're pushing them back, or their regrouping for an even bigger attack. Either way their coming back." Erin Bryant reported.

"Keep your eyes peeled for any high energy signatures, re enforcement's, the usual," The Navy Commander said.

Andrew's car pulled up beside a medium sized suburban house. It had every stereotype possible, perfect lawn, white walls, flowers around the building itself. You name it.

He got out of his car and walked across the path towards the house.

The woman heard three knocks on the door, put her coffee down on the ground, then picked it up again and placed it on the table so the kid didn't nock it over and burn himself or something. She walked towards the door and opened it.

A woman came to the door,

"Excuse me, are you Mrs. Roberts,"

"Chase Roberts is my husband, I kept my name though, why, is he okay?"

"Ma'am, the United Nations Space Command regrets to inform you that your Husband, Sergeant Chase Roberts was killed in the line of duty, on an operation that was essential to winning the war."

The woman closed the door without a word. Andrew stood for about a minute to see if she would come back so he could give her the papers in person. She didn't so he left them on her porch leaning against the door in the brown envelope.

He turned and began walking to his car.

"Shit," Andrew said under his breath as he realized he locked the keys in the car. He began reaching for his phone when he felt an extremely sharp pain in his lower back, on the right side. He looked at his car to see a hole bored into the side of it, then he placed his hand on his back, it was cold and wet, he pulled his hand back to see it was covered in blood. Terrified and confused Andrew looked back at the woman only to see her turn the gun on herself.

He felt weak, he scrambled for his phone but couldn't hold onto it as he fell down onto the ground and began bleeding onto the sidewalk. Looking around for anyone who could help him, he saw no one on the empty suburban street, he tried calling out for help but couldn't get the words out. He tried putting pressure on the exit wound, but was too weak to hold it there, he could feel himself slipping away, and just as quickly as the bullet entered him, everything went black.