One hour later

Date: April 10th, 2552

Location: Axiom landing pad, Reach, Niobe Aino system

Reach, once a UNSC planet of the Human race, now it was a warzone. Large sections of the planet had been glassed by Humanity's enemy: the Covenant when they attacked earlier on in the day. Thousands of UNSC soldiers and workers had been killed, along with many thousands of Covenant soldiers and many of their ships, but still the Covenant were able to win the battle and were now mopping up the last of the Human forces on the planet in the few remaining pockets of resistance. They would fall, that was certain, but not without a fight.

"Uuugh!"

On the ground next to the remains of the cannon turret near the Axiom landing pad were several Human men and women dressed in red and green bodysuits. One of the men lifted himself up from the ground. He had black hair, though it was covered in dust, and was heavily built and dressed in a green bodysuit. It was Marcus.

"Oooooh!" he groaned as he stood up from the ground and brushed the dust out of his hair.

He looked around at the landscape around him. The grassland that he had seen when he had climbed into the cannon turret earlier on to shoot down a Covenant CCS battle cruiser that had threatened the Axiom was now more of a charred smoking desert. The other buildings that had been scattered around at the bottom of the turret were also just piles of rubble and, turning to look at the weapon, the turret was now crushed and bended, a large piece of silver metal sticking out of the pile of metallic remains. The large piece of metal, that had been one of the spires on the CCS battle cruiser, had shot up into the sky by the explosion brought onto the ship when Marcus had fired a rail-gun charged projectile at it and then fallen down onto the turret, crushing it from the top down right through the middle of the base of the turret to the ground. Marcus and his squad had been lucky to have gotten out of the way of the object just in time.

Or so he thought.

Limping slightly as his leg hurt from the pain brought on by the fall, as he had jumped about ten feet from the stairway that went up the side of the turret just as the metallic remains of the spire hit the top of the turret, he moved over to Stinger, who was lying on his side about five feet from him.

"St-Simon!" Marcus gasped as he knelt down onto the ground when he reached his friend and turned him over onto his back to reveal a dust covered face with a small scar down his cheek. His eyes were closed and he was not breathing. "Simon!" Marcus said again, patting his face slightly. "C'mon, man, wake up,"

At first, his pleas for his friend had no effect. He just lay there, looking as if he was dead. Then, to Marcus' relief when he just about believed Stinger had been killed, his eyelids moved and opened groggily.

"Oh!" Stinger groaned as he sat up and placed a hand on the back of his head. "Wha-what happened?"

"We lived through the main assault," Marcus replied.

"Oooh!"

"Aaaaah!"

The two looked up to see Tanya and Alima slowly get up from the ground, both brushing themselves clean of dust. Alice and Tyler sat up. All of them were dusty and had bruises and scratch marks from where piece of metal had struck them across their faces and hands.

"Everyone alright?" Marcus asked as he stood up and helped Stinger to his feet.

"Yeah!"

"Yes,"

"I'm good,"

"Uh huh,"

Marcus nodded and looked around to take in the devastation again. Far away were the remains of the battle cruiser he had shot down earlier with the rail-gun. They were lucky to have done so or the Axiom and everyone on it would have been destroyed, and with it their ticket off Re-

Wait! Marcus' eyes went wide at the thought.

The Axiom! He turned and his face fell with disbelief.

The landing pad was empty, save for the remains of several shot down pelicans, some of which had been carrying warthogs, but the Axiom was gone.

"What the Hell," he muttered to himself.

"Where's the Axiom?" he heard Tyler ask from behind.

"I thought they would have stayed to evacuate us," Alice replied.

"Well they haven't," Marcus said, turning to face the others. He sighed in annoyance. "I can't believe they've left without us," he added.

Silence fell among the group again as some of them began looking up at landing pad with disbelief. They could not believe the Axiomhad left them! They had tried to defend it, and yet they were left behind! How were they supposed to get off the planet now?

"So what do we do now?" Tyler asked after a few moments.

Marcus looked at him and then at the faces of the rest of the group, all of who were looking to him now for guidance. What were they to do though? Their only hope of escape was gone, they were basically defenceless, save for their bodysuits and their hand-to-hand fighting skills, and they were far from any other UNSC forces, which were unlikely to have also survived. What were they to do now?

After a few moments, Marcus sighed.

"We'll search around at the nearby bases for any other UNSC forces," he told the squad. "See if they have any other ships there, though we can only hope they do,"

"And if they don't?" Tyler inquired.

"Then I don't know what we're gonna do," he paused for a moment and looked over his shoulder at the pelicans and the warthogs that lay on the ground next to them. His eyes searched the vehicles until they rested on a passenger warthog that was laying on It's side, though it looked to be in working condition. He turned his head back to his squad and said: "Alright, let's go," and he ran over towards the pelicans. The squad followed him.

When they reached the warthog, they all gathered on the left of the vehicle, which was where the top of it was facing, and, with all their strength, pushed it back onto It's wheels.

"Alright, climb in," Marcus ordered and they did so. He got into the front passenger seat whilst Stinger climbed into the driver's seat and Alice, Alima, Tanya and Tyler climbed into the back of the vehicle. Stinger started the vehicle. The engine hummed loudly. He pressed his foot down on the accelerator and the tires screeched loudly as the vehicle shot forward away from the landing pad and in the direction of the remains of the CCS battle cruiser in the distance.

"Where exactly are we going?" Tanya asked Marcus.

"To the Michigan base," he replied. "Hopefully, the ship'll be there waiting for us,"