Louis Bentley surveyed her passengers. Diverse in their appearance, she felt empathy with them upon seeing the sadness in their eyes.
They're about to lose their homes she thought in sorrow. She closed the hatch of the Pelican, and turned to her charges.
"Hello," she said in a friendly tone. "I'm Louis Bentley. The Covenant alien scumbags found your planet. You're refugees now. They are going to obliterate it. Me and Jeffrey here are going to get you to a place where you can-"
"We don't have time for this," Jeffrey cut her off. "The Covies are ETA 38 minutes. Get us airborne now."
Louis winced at Jeffrey's order. They were both of the same rank, and he had no right to issue commands to her. Before she could make a point of it, her radio buzzed.
"This is Captain Dillieon. All EVAC ships get into the Jade Heart ASAP. The Covenant bastards are ETA 37 minutes."
Louis sighed. There was no time to argue. "Everyone strap yourself in," she ordered. She touched the control panel of the Pelican, and it slowly lifted off.
After a few minutes of travel, Louis's radio buzzed again.
"God damn it! We were wrong! The covies are here! Damn it, I repeat, the Covenant is here! The Jade Heart is entering slipspace in 10 minutes! For the love of God, if you're an EVAC, get the hell over there!" Before the Captain could continue, an explosion could be heard on the other side of the radio, and the feed went dead.
Louis pulled the transceiver to her mouth. "Captain, do you come in? Repeat, Captain, do you come in? For God's sake Captain, do you here me?"
The only response to Louis's attempt was static. Captain Dilleon was dead.
Jeffrey turned to the passengers. Louis didn't pay attention to what he said, but she figured it was along the lines of "Don't worry, we'll be fine."
Suddenly, Louis saw something on her radar. She looked closer at it. There were four incoming enemies, each barely a kilometer away.
We're dead Louis thought as she began to make out the enemy. Four Banshees, the Covenant's atmospheric bomber. The Banshees weren't too tough but compared to a Pelican they were extremely agile. They could get behind a Pelican and rip it to pieces: the Pelicans had no defenses on their rear sides.
The EVAC ship had only one chance. "Hold on everybody!" Louis yelled. She pulled down on the Pelican's chaingun trigger. After a few seconds, high speed bullets poured from the ship. One of the Banshees was destroyed by the wave of bullets, but the other three evaded.
Louis cursed. The Banshees were behind the Pelican now. There was no way to stop the Covenant now. She turned to her passengers. All of them could read her expression. They knew they were doomed. As Louis resigned herself to her fate, she made eye contact with one of the youngest passengers on board: a young girl, probably younger than 6 years of age.
Not today Louis thought. They were going to survive.
The Covenant Banshees opened fire on the Pelican. The vehicle shook as its armor plating began to melt under the heat of the Banshee's plasma.
Louis gritted her teeth. She pulled the controls of the Pelican hard right. It was an unorthodox maneuver, but it worked. One of the Banshees exploded into millions of pieces as the Pelican crushed it.
Two Banshees remained. They both attempted to evade the Pelican's turn of destruction, and both succeeded.
Louis looked intently at the two Banshees attack patterns. They were both making hit and run attacks. She watched as the armor plating of the Pelican began to melt. Suddenly, just as the Banshees crossed the same flight path, Louis accelerated the Pelican. It slammed into both Banshees, destroying them.
We won! Louis thought.
And so the Pelican landed on the Jade Heart, and the refugees' adventure began…