Captain Marcus Roberts (ret.)
Mason Hills Residential area, Actium
May 5th 2545 19:25 hours
Nothing stood out about this day, there was no big event, no indication about the events that were about to transpire. It was just another typical day on Actium. Ships had been arriving all day. Civilian and Military transports alike. Julie Roberts had been waiting for her husband to get home Julie Roberts was reading the paper on her balcony, there was a thunderstorm rolling in from the north that evening. As usual, Actium's storms were more powerful than other earth-like colonies. Storms got so loud that Julie's husband built an underground bunker to protect themselves from large storms that would roll in now and again. The thunder and lightning cracked as Mr. Roberts got home. His person was soaked from top to bottom. He slammed the door closed behind him, throwing his wet briefcase in the closet beside him.
"Honey? I'm home!" He yelled. looking out into his freshly cleaned home. A man in a freshly pressed suit and bow tie came from around the comer
"May I take your jacket sir? The Roberts' butler asked
"Yes, thank you Reginald, could you get me a coffee while you're free?" Marcus asked
"Of course sir, Madam Roberts is on the balcony" Reginald said, pointing down the hall to the balcony.
Roberts walked by his office on his right and kitchen on his left. His home was new; open concept. The kitchen lead cleanly into the living room. Roberts walked to the small coffee table in the living room before opening the door to the balcony. He noticed that the tablet lying there was on, but on low power. He picked it up and dismissed the low power warning. Though the tablet had low brightness to conserve power, Mr. Roberts could read the Headline clear as day
"New Constantinople Attacked, No Survivors" the news report read
"Jesus, Reginald did you hear about this?" Roberts asked
"Yes sir, it was on the news not to long ago. Quite tragic I'm afraid" Reginald yelled back from the kitchen, waiting for the coffee machine to finish heating.
Mr. Roberts started for his balcony when another crack of lightning struck, knocking out the power to the oversized mansion
"Dammit" Mr. Roberts exclaimed "Not again, Reginald, get the emergency power on would you? Reginald?"
Lightning cracked again, lighting up the darkened house, showing a path to the balcony. Roberts aprached the door, wanting to get his wife ou of the rain. Marcus slid open the door to find his wife, motionless on a patio chair
"Julie? Sweetheart?" Marcus asked. He felt her pulse, still beating. It took him awhile to notice the plasma burns on her torso. Rain came down hard down from the sky as Marcus thought of what to do
"Oh my god!" Marcus thought to himself. He ran back inside and picked up the phone. Dead. He pulled out his work phone from his pocket, it still had a signal. He dialled 911 and waited to hear an operators voice
"The number you've reached... " the line went dead and cracking started to come out of the audio ports. Marcus threw the phone on the ground and ran back outside and collected his wife, cradling her in his arms
"Its gonna be fine honey, I'm going to get you some help" Marcus said. He was about to head inside when something caught his attention in the sky. Marcus looked up in the sky to see a large object, looming over the Space Elevator. Something large and red started forming under the object, getting larger and darker in a matter of seconds. Finally a large blue beam was released, hitting the surface below. Turning everything it to liquid glass in an instant.
"No." Mascus stated "It can't be"
He watched as the surface glowed red beneath the ship in the sky, he could only imagine the death and destruction just minutes from his home. He ran back inside with his wife in his arms and ran into his office, slamming the door behind him. There was a part of him that prepared for this years ago when he got his new job. he opened up a false back on his desk that housed a M6G PDW. In most circumstances it was illegal for civilians to own military weaponry, but with the war going on there was no one to enforce such petty laws. He went to his bookshelf and spun the Earth globe, sliding up a barrier that covered a retina scan system. He pressed his eye close and the system ran its diagnostics
"Identity confirmed, Welcome Mr. Roberts" the system stated over a loudspeaker.
The bookshelf split in two, showing a staircase to a storm bunker he had built years ago. Marcus, stil carrying his wife, ran down the stairs leading to the storm shelter and layed his wife down in a makeshift infirmary in the bunker. Storms on Actium were worse then storms on any other colony. The bunker was built into the rock formation below to ensure safety from most types of storms common on Actium.
"I'll be right back' he said, kissing her forehead. Marcus ran back upstairs to collect fresh food, and hopefully find Reginald. Marcus feared that some of the food would have gone rotten after 20 years, even with the advanced preservatives he infused them with. Marcus ran upstairs and into the kitchen directly across fom his office. Marcus started to scavenge frantically through the cabinets that hung above the counter-tops. Marcus started putting all types of non perishable food in a bag when he heard a metallic bang on the floor behind him, Marcus un-holstered his magnum and scanned the room. The banging got louder and quicker, whatever it was it was close. The room was pitch black from the loss of electricity. Then he saw it, a long sword made of blue energy light up in front of him, like it was floating by itself. He fired a few shots, the outline of a creature then appeared, it was at least 7 feet tall, the creature was in some form of cloak mode, but when it swung its true form appeared. Marcus dogged out of the way and the creature wasn't able to react quick enough, effectively splitting the nearby the stove in half. It yelled in anger and ran at him again. Marcus took a knee and emptied the last of his magazine at the quickly approaching creature and threw the useless weapon aside seeing as he had no reserve ammunition As the alien approached, Marcus tackled it full on. The alien did not expect such resistance from this human. As they both fell to the ground the alien heabutted Roberts and threw him into the fridge at the end of the countertop. The alien got back up, grabbing its sword and walked towards its injured prey. It activated its blue sword and went for the swing, when a sword went through its chest. It gurgled blood for a few seconds and collapsed to its knees, and eventually the floor, revealing its killer.
"Reginald?" Mr Roberts asked
The butler was breathing heavily, he had a large cut across his face and was visually exhausted
"Bastard got me too sir, I'm lucky I found you"
"Thank you Reginald, I owe you one"
Roberts relaxed and sat down lying against the kitchen island. Reginald sat down next to him and let out a sigh of relief
"That you do sir, I'm afraid however the coffee machine was destroyed the the kerfuffle, i wont be getting you that coffee you ordered anytime soon" they both chuckled as Marcus struggled to get up, grabbing his head in pain. Remembering his wife, Marcus ran downstairs to the bunker, she was gone. Reginald followed close behind
"So this is the bunker, in all my years-" Reginald was cut off
"She's gone, how is she gone, I left her right here" Roberts stated as another large crack of lightning hit, Reginald's focus was alerted to a noise upstairs
"Sir, listen it's coming from upstairs"
"Your kidding that bastard has to be dead"
they both ran upstairs to find raptor-esque aliens carrying Julie to the balcony where another tall alien stood waiting.
"Why you skinny rat bastards, put down my wife! Mr Roberts yelled
One of the aliens turned around and screeched back at the pair of humans. Marcus ran at the aliens. He jumped one of them and begun to neutralize the rest of them when a bright light rose from the balcony
"Sir, get down!" Reginald yelled
Blue bolts started to rain from the nearby Covenant dropship. As the gunner slowly adjusted its aim towards Roberts, Reginald jumped in front of Roberts to get him into cover behind the Island countertop. They covered their heads and braced themselves as they were suppressed by plasma weapons. The aliens loaded their incapacitated prey onto their dropship and took off into the sky. The pair waited before coming out of of cover, they checked their surroundings and cleared the house. Roberts walked to the balcony and smacked the railing, releasing some of his growing anger in the process. Reginald joined him as they looked out over the stormy night, fire coming from whatever buildings were still standing from the glassing. In a matter of minutes, Actium's capital had been reduced to nothing. It was once a crown jewel for the 1% of humanity's richest men and women. Now, one would be hard pressed to find any evidence that such a city ever even existed
"Sir may I recommend we get moving? there may be more coming now that they know we are a threat" Reginald asked.
Roberts sighed and walked back to his bunker and opened up a tool locker in the corner. inside sat a M45E Tactical Shotgun with reserve ammunition. he help out the weapon, signaling Reginald to take it. The butler took the weapon reluctantly and examined it. he aimed down its sights and loaded 12 shells into the reserve. Roberts then opened the drawer below the first which held a M392 Designated Marksman Rifle. Roberts was familiar with the weapon, he had served with this very same weapon during the Human civil war and the first contact war on Harvest.
"Planet-wide evac will start within the hour, I need to get you and Julie on those ships" Mr. Roberts stated
"What about you sir?" Reginald asked
"My place is here, the UNSC will need all the help they can get"
The pair made their way out of the bunker into the attached garage on the main level of the house. inside sat a heavily modded SinoViet HM 1220 LTUV-M, a SUV-military hybrid. Roberts opened the heavy metal door leading to the driver's seat. He placed his rifle in-between the gear control and his seat and started the engine. Reginald sat in the passenger seat with his weapon on his lap, still shaken up by the events that has just transpired.
"where will we go sir?"
"where else Reginald?..." Roberts switched on the floodlights of the SUV and put her into drive "...back into the fray" Roberts finished. He opened the Garage door and sped out onto the deserted street and towards UNSC HQ in the Spaceport. The only thing in their way? An entire Covenant invasion force.