(This is a prelude to the first chapter, about the main character's battle on Tampa Station. Sorry if it gets confusing, and I don't know if you'll like it as much as the last one, but please: read on.)
"Hey, private!"
I froze. Oh, great. I get Sarge when he's angry. I turned around, trying to smile as I did. "Yes, sir?"
He stood in the hall, a fearsome sight. Two hundred five pounds of alien-killing Marine. He frowned. "What the hell are you doing, Marine?"
"Um…" I slid the SMG behind my back. "Nothing, sir."
"Don't lie, Marine, or I'll put you on a flight all the way to Reach." He stepped into the room. "I repeat: What are you doing?"
"Just…" I sighed. "I was trying to adjust my SMG, give it a better range, sir. I know you said we shouldn't tamper with our weapons, but…"
"Sorry, Josh, but it is standard UNSC policy." He shrugged. "I'm gonna need your gun. Leave the modifications to the techies."
I nodded and handed him the weapon. "Any news from Command, sir? I heard that the Covenant is going to attack."
"We don't know for sure, private." He clipped my SMG to his belt. "Alright, I'm heading up to Computer L-04. If you have a problem, contact me there."
"Yes, sir." I watched him leave. Nothing to do.
My room didn't offer much comfort. Just dozens of small bunk beds and a small pull-out desk. I stood and stretched. Better head to the Armory.
I headed towards the hallway. We'd just gotten back from patrol duty at New York City, and I still had my uniform on. I passed other Marines, some in uniform, some not, others in dress suits. No one really of importance, just Marines either patrolling or wandering around, like me.
Life on Tampa Station gets boring sometimes.
I walked into one of the computer rooms. A techie sat at the console, typing in some code. I passed him and headed down the stairwell. The rec room stood before me. I leaned onto the stairwell, lost in thought.
What if the Covenant did attack? We wouldn't stand much of a chance against a huge armada, that was for sure. Maybe some of the crew would be able to escape to Earth, but only non-military personnel. That meant if we were attacked, the only way I'd survive was if we won.
A big if.
"Hey, Job! Over here!"
I rolled my eyes. Sitting on one of the benches was Al, my fellow squad mate. He waved me over. I jogged to him. "Yeah?"
He grinned. "Guess that woke you up. Yeah, Jess wants us to meet in Rec L-02. So, start moving."
I sighed. "Listen, I need to head to the Armory for a new gun. Care to come with me?"
"Why?" He leaned forward. "You can get them in a lot of places."
"I feel better with one at my side." I shook my head. "Listen, if you don't wanna help, fine. But I'm going to the Armory, whether you like it or not."
"Fine, fine." He shrugged. "It's not my concern. But I need company, and all the others were on patrol. It's okay if we're a little late."
I nodded. "Thanks. Let's go."
We headed to the lift. It could ferry us to any of the station's six levels. We only needed to get to the fourth one for the Armory. I reached it first and waited until Al had entered before hitting the button. The elevator rumbled as we headed up.
Al twiddled his thumbs. "Shouldn't there be some cruddy music or something playing?"
"This is the Marines, Al. We don't have elevator music."
"Alright, just checking." He studied the control panel. "Why are there seven numbers on here? I thought there were only six floors."
"What?" I looked at the numbers. L-01, L-02, L-03, L-04, L-05, L-06…and L-07. I stared at it. "But there are only six floors."
"Hey, there's an echo in here." He shrugged. "Ah, well. We can ask Sarge about this later. Maybe Jess knows."
"Yeah, maybe…" I tapped my foot on the elevator floor. This is taking too long. Then I realized something. "Hey, Al."
He yawned. "Yep?"
"We stopped moving."
Then the elevator rocked violently. I slammed into the far side, Al right beside me. Blood trickled down from my nose. I spit some out and stood. "We're trapped!"
Al opened his mouth to respond when the station shook again. I coughed as smoke filled the lift.
Al punched the wall and winced. "Ow! Not getting out that way."
My eyes darted around, searching for something to help us. I caught a glimpse of something brownish-green and round. I did a double-take and saw that Al had a frag grenade on his belt.
"Hey, Al, we could—" Another tremble caught me off, though not as violent as the last two. Al jumped back as a chunk of the ceiling fell down.
He pointed up at the newly-formed hole. "Come on, we gotta get out of here!"
I jumped up and grabbed onto the ceiling outside the hole. Al pushed me up into the shaft. I put out my hand and pulled him up. "Where should we go!"
"There!" He singled out a large door about two meters above our heads. "We can climb through! Come on!"
I clambered up the small holes in the walls. Al followed me to the door. I got to the ledge and held onto another handhold on the wall. "The door won't open! We can't get out!"
Flames spouted from higher up in the shaft. He glanced around. "Get down from there!"
I descended from the doorway. He reached up and put his grenade right next to the door, then jumped down. "Stay back!"
I closed my eyes as an explosion rocked the shaft. The elevator made a creaking noise. I hurried back up the shaft wall to the now-nonexistent door. Al came after me and we burst into a rec room.
The whole station shook. I tumbled up against the wall. Al clamped onto a pole and stayed. The rumbling subsided.
Al stood up. "That wasn't plasma that hit us…"
A voice boomed over the PA. "Prepare to repel borders. All non-military personnel to the escape pods. Prepare to repel borders."
Al's shoulders slumped. "Great. And we have no weapons."
I surveyed the room. "Hey, we're on the second floor! There's a weapon storehouse around here somewhere."
"Thanks, Job." He sighed. "Don't even let me complain properly. What a shame."
We headed towards the stairwell. I looked up at a computer room similar to the one I'd visited earlier. "Man, all these levels look the same…"
"Amen to that, brother." He ran up the stairs. "Come on, there might be some guns up here."
I trailed him into the room. A device on the wall slid out as we approached, revealing two SMGs. Al grinned. "Just what the doctor ordered."
I took one of the guns from the rack. I don't really like to use an SMG. One, they have an enormous recoil, two, their range stinks, and three, the magazine depletes in a heartbeat. But, hey, beggars can't be choosers.
Al looked at the door. "Do you know where the Covenant are?"
I stared at him. "Yeah, Al. All I need to do is pull out my handy-dandy notebook, and—"
He shook his head. "Don't quit your day job, Job."
"Yeah, well, someone needs to keep you company, huh?"
He shrugged and moved to the door. "If this is the second level, I bet Jess and the others are here. That's good."
"But what about the Sarge?" I took a deep breath to calm myself. "He went to the fifth level, to the computer lab."
"Damn!" Al checked his ammo. "This thing's out. Check yours."
I looked at the ammo counter on the side. A full clip. "Mine has one clip, but that won't last us very long."
He bit his lip. "Alright, let's see…"
I went over to one of the computers. Several brightly-lit keys flashed on its surface. I scratched my head. "One of these should bring up a map…"
I pressed a button. The screen lit up. Letters scrolled across it: ACCESS DENIED…ACCESS DENIED…ACCESS DENIED…
Al walked up behind me. "It's all right, we can find our way."
I nodded and started to head to the door. Al ran up to open it.
Just as he got there, it slid open. Two Grunts came out, plasma pistols ready.
Al stared at them. "Boo."
The Grunts raised their weapons to shoot. I hefted my gun and fired a few quick shots. One of the aliens fell over, throat slit by the bullets.
The other Grunt ran in a circle, screaming. Al reached down to get the dead alien's pistol. I fired over his head and nailed the Grunt in its rebreather mask.
The alien crumpled to the ground, methane tank leaking into the air. I breathed a quick sigh of relief. Al looked around. "Well, this is getting nowhere fast." He glanced down at the alien weapon now in his hands. "Piece of crud. But hey, better than nothing."
It took us a good ten or fifteen minutes to find the weapons storehouse. I peeked in. Nothing but dust…and echoes. : )
"Nothing." I stepped in. "I guess everyone's gone."
Al nodded. Empty racks lined the wall. He approached a locker and kicked it open. "Just dandy. 'Well, there's not gonna be some two dumb as hell Marines who get trapped in some elevator shaft. Better take all the weapons.' Damn soldiers."
"They were trying to survive." I got to one of the other lockers and started digging through it. "There's a bunch of junk in mine…looks a bit like your locker, actually."
"Har har, very funny." Something clanged behind me. "Shoot! Oh, in the name of—Hey, I found a gun!"
I looked over my shoulder. Al stood there, clutching the M90 Shotgun and grinning from ear-to-ear. "I think this'll do."
Footsteps approached. I stood and held my SMG at the ready. "Sneak up," I muttered out of the side of my mouth.
He furrowed his brow. "Why?"
"Because, you have a shotgun."
"Right. Yeah."
I watched out of the corner of my eye as he headed to the doorway. His hand held out three fingers. "One…" Two fingers. "Two…" One finger. I readied my finger on the trigger. "Three!"
I charged forward and nearly doused Frankie in bullet fire. He flinched, then seemed to realize we weren't Covenant and swore. "You idiots, you could have killed me!"
Al jumped past him and unloaded a slug into an Elite creeping up near us. Frankie leapt back. "In the name of Heaven…How'd you see that thing!"
Al loaded a fresh clip into his weapon. "I wasn't listening to you whine and moan, Frankie. Something that takes a lot of talent."
I looked over Frankie. The Marine had just shipped out from Delta-9, one of the few colonies still standing. He'd joined the squad with me, but I didn't know him well.
I didn't really want to at that time, come to think of it. He was kind of a jerk.
No, he was a jerk.
I sighed. "Listen, we're trying to get to the others. Do you know where Jess and Kenny are?"
"No." He stared at the dead alien near his feet. "No, I don't. I was going to meet them when the station got hit. They could be anywhere right now."
Al picked up the Elite's plasma rifle, inspected it, then threw it to the side. "Did you check the rec room where we were supposed to meet?"
"No, but didn't you guys just come from there?"
I nearly kicked myself. Of course! We'd been in such a rush we hadn't realized we were in the right room!
"Uh, yeah." I tried not to catch Frankie's gaze. "But no one was there. They must have left."
"Yeah, well, they can't be far." He kicked the alien corpse. "We can find them if we hurry!"
Al shook his head. "No, they might have gone down another hallway. Either way, we need to hook up with some Marines, and fast."
We all nodded in agreement and started down the hall. Al in the lead, me next, and then Frankie in the back with a battle rifle. I halted. "Wait. What if there was some more ammo in there or something? We could use it."
"You're right." Al turned around. "Let's head back."
I was just about to go back when Frankie shouted. "Contact!"
I wheeled back around. Two Grunts and a Jackal fired a few blasts at us. I dived against the wall.
Bullets lit of the hall, causing purple and blue gore to splash the walls. I poked my head out and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God there were only three of them."
An Elite rushed out. Al backed up and nailed him with his shotgun twice. The dead alien slouched over.
Frankie fired a burst into one of the Grunt's head. "Never say it can't get worse."
I rolled my eyes. Come to think of it, I was a bit of jerk too back then. "Let's just move, alright? I don't want more Covenant finding us."
"Shouldn't we pull back?" He stepped over one of the corpses. "If the Covenant are ahead, we can get out of—"
"NO! HELP! OH, NO, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE—NOOOOOOO!"
We ran forward. What I saw next made me sicker than I'd ever been before.
Dozens of dead bodies littered the floor. Grunts were on them. Eating. The really scary thing: One of the bodies was still moving.
"OH, NO, PLEASE, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" One of the savage aliens bit his arm. "NOOOOOOOOO!"
I charged forward. "Son of a—"
Al jumped ahead of me and sent the Grunt flying back with a shell to its head. I opened up fire on the feasting aliens. Rage filled me…I wanted them to die, die for what they had done.
Rage is almost like a drug: Once you have some, you want more. It comes from fear, though. I guess I was afraid of facing the same fate as though soldiers. But it was too much…I kind of blacked out back there. Actually, I passed out.
When I came to, Al was standing there, a cloth in his hand. "Hey, sleepyhead. Tired of snoring already?"
I frantically looked around. "What—what happened?"
Sarge walked up to us. My mouth hung open. "Sarge? But where—how—did the Covenant leave?"
"Oh, they left alright." He rubbed his arm. It was coated with burns. "Took quite a few of us with them, too."
I sat up and noticed blue blood staining my uniform. "Oh. I guess I kind of went crazy back there."
"Yeah, you sure did." He looked back. "Frankie and Al said you were in there, shouting things you'd never say…You all right?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." My muscles ached like crazy. I stretched my arms. "But…how did you make it out?"
"I used the stairs. And had a little help along the way." His forehead creased. "I'm worried about you, Josh. Usually you're the most stable of the guys."
"Yes, sir…" I sighed. "I guess the whole Grunts eating the Marines thing kind of took me out of it. I'm sorry."
"It's alright, soldier. I just want you to be careful. Something like that could really hurt you next time." He sat down next to me. We were in a small room, no one but me, Al, and the Sarge. "If you ever need any help, you can talk to me."
"Yes, sir." And there was someone else I could talk to. Someone with a lot more power than Sarge. "So, what happened with the Covenant?"
"Well, apparently, they weren't satisfied with bringing us to our dooms in space." He stood. "We're going planet-side, boys. Get ready."
I nodded. "Yes, sir."
He left through the doorway. Al stared at me. "You sure you're all right?"
"You know me." I rose to my feet. "I don't have to wallow in self-pity to get attention, unlike some people."
Al raised his eyebrows. "Was that an insult, Job?"
I smiled. "I don't know. Did it sound like one?"
(Sorry if I didn't go in-depth in this one. It may have gotten confusing with the whole 'prequel' thing, but don't worry: The next story will be set in the present. Or at the time of the first chapter. You get the idea.)
(Please R&R!
