Chapter VII: Downtime

Recommended Listening: Diary of Jane (Acoustic) by Breaking Benjamin

Alex stared out the windows at the passing terrain with bleary eyes, he was running on empty now. Even so, he felt he could go back into battle again; no matter what. Even if he hadn't slept or eaten in a million years he could still blast through an endless number of Covenant. Alex kept picking up snippets of conversation between the Marines around him, he kept nodding off; fading in and out of reality like intermitted static. He felt drained and empty inside, like there was nothing left. It was a common feeling, yet still on some level worrying nonetheless. The dropship began to land at Delta Station and Alex found that it was somewhat difficult to stand up. The back ramp lowered and he and the others made their way down it.

Twilight had descended across Delta Station, and now there were more personnel and vehicles spread out across the landing pads and the grounds than ever. Alex began to make his way across the landscape towards the main building, he spotted a tech in a blue jumpsuit leaning up against the wall smoking and approached him. After asking for a spare cigarette and getting one, he lit up and relaxed against the wall as well; feeling himself calm.

"What's the word?" Alex asked.

"On what?" The tech replied.

"On our survival, on how we're doing on this godforsaken ringworld."

"Oh, that. Well, we've got just over two hundred and fifty personnel here; a good five hundred at Alpha Base. We're gathering up the survivors. We've started raiding small Covenant patrols, scouting parties, outposts and camps. Most of the stuff we steal gets hauled to Alpha Base or sent out into the field, there's a number of operations going on out there at the moment. Ever since that fiasco at the Silent Cartographer, the Chief and Cortana have gone searching for the Control Room. And word has it that Keyes and Johnson have gone off the grid." The tech explained.

"What are you, a frickin' cyborg? What do you mean, 'off the grid'?" Alex replied, worried slightly; Keyes and Johnson were major figureheads amongst the survivors by now no doubt. The way he saw it there were four major players amongst the Humans, Captain Jacob Keyes, Sergeant Avery Johnson, Cortana and Master Chief Spartan-117. If two of them were to suddenly disappear off the map...that would bring down morale heavily.

"I mean they're gone. Alpha Base picked up some Covenant transmissions and found out that those alien bastards were digging for something. So, Keyes, Johnson and some others outta Alpha Base flew out to some swamp in the middle of nowhere; contact was lost I think." The tech replied. Alex cursed softly, this was definitely not good; but it wasn't up to him to worry about it. Let someone like the Chief rescue Keyes and Johnson, if they needed rescuing anyway. He shrugged the matter off, killed the cig and then headed deeper into Delta Station. He moved over to one of the entrances to the underground section and went down.

There were lots more Marines now, sleeping or eating or just sitting around; cleaning their guns and talking. Alex moved past them all, alone in a sea of faces he didn't recognize or want to recognize anyway. He found a small medical station where three medics were seeing anyone who would come to them. There was a least some privacy, small curtains had been set up; each curtain room containing a foldout examination table, an open crate of medical supplies and a medic. Alex waited in the small line that was formed, holding onto his guns as if they were life preservers; because in many ways they were. He had learned down the years to be ready for combat at any time, prepared to jump back into the slaughter at any second. The Covenant gave no quarter and took no prisoners, usually.

Within a few moments, Alex found himself contained in the closed environment of one of the curtain rooms. He set down his weapons and then removed his armor and placed it in a small pile in one corner after being instructed to do so by the medic. The man's uniform was stained with blood and bile and God knew what else, but the man seemed generally competent; even if he was just as bloodshot eyed as Alex. Alex stripped down to his boxers and then took a seat on the cold metal table.

"Damn man, you've taken a beating." The medic commented as he examined his bruised and battered pale body. Alex looked at himself in a mirror that had been hung on one of the more solid walls. He did look like shit. Various scars stitched across his arms and torso, as well as many open wounds, bruises, cuts, scrapes, burns and a variety of other marks. The medic did the best he could with what he had, patching up all the open wounds after cleaning them and in the end he gave Alex general painkiller and antibacterial injections. After all that, Alex pulled on his uniform again, reattached his armor, snatched up his weapons and exited the curtain. He made a beeline for an open bed and then collapsed onto it and passed out.

Dark, and cold. That's how it always was. Or at least, that's how it always began. Just black and chilled, frozen, icy wind; blowing endlessly. Howling like a thousand Banshees, like a fleet of them. Then, a bright flash; Alex threw up his hands to protect his eyes. Slowly, vision returned and he could see everything perfectly; focused. Around him was a frozen wasteland, snow and ice and dark, craggy mountains off in the distance. And then, directly ahead of him; his hometown of Blizzard. He realized all at once where he was, Omni Delta IX; his homeworld where his family was living. But he'd left, hadn't he? Gone off to join the Marines, see the universe, meet interesting new Covenant and kill them.

Then he could hear it, softly at first; but growing steadily louder. A deep rumbling that jarred his bones, rattled his brain; made his teeth chatter together and not just from the frigid cold. He looked up, above him suddenly. There were tremendous dark shapes looming in the horizon, making good headway towards the city. It hit him in a sickening, stunning realization; they were going to glass the planet. Alex began running, stumbling, trying desperately to get to the city and warn them. Part of him knew there was no time, that he should try and get off the planet himself; but there was another, larger part that was completely devoid of all logic. The Covenant cruisers settled into place, and one by one, as if by some unseen signal; opened up. There was a horrible blast of light, and Alex screamed as he was vaporized.

Alex sat straight up in the bed, pistol clutched in his hand fiercely, his finger squeezing the trigger just enough so that it was barely a centimeter away from firing. Jackson stared at the barrel being pressed to his forehead and became very still,

"Uh...dude..." He stated, swallowing loudly. Alex blinked a few times, then uncocked the hammer and let the pistol drop into his lap.

"Sorry." He replied, laying back down on the bed; he still felt tired and now on top of that desperately hungry. Alex coughed a few times and tried to get his heart to slow down,

"You were tossing and turning up a storm." Jackson commented, he was knelt down beside Alex's sleeping mat. "I figured I should wake you and save you from whatever nightmare you were having, plus, activities kicking up again. I also figured that you weren't going to want to be woken up, and that I should save you the trouble of mouthing off to a superior. And I'm glad I did, Sergeant Kelly wouldn't appreciate a gun to the face." he explained.

"What were you dreamin' about?" he asked after a moment.

"Nothing." Alex responded, he threw the blankets off of himself and secured his helmet; he'd slept in his armor. He checked the chronometer as he holstered his pistol, he'd been asleep for little over three hours. Some nap. He still felt like shit, but a little less tired now; besides, he didn't think he could sleep anymore if he tried. It was either insomnia or the ringworld that was getting to him, or maybe he just couldn't live with his own personal apocalypses. He grabbed his assault rifle and shotgun, slung them over his back and then joined Jackson as they began walking through the underground section of Delta Station.

They stopped to pick up a pair of Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs, and then headed up outside. It was cool and clear and crisp when they exited from the underground area, the two men sat down against one of the walls of a smaller building and began eating.

"Any idea how long the days last on Halo?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, twenty hours; ten in the light and ten in the dark. We're four hours into darkness now on this section. Leave it up to the techs to figure out a lot of useless stuff." Jackson replied. They ate in silence after that and Alex looked around. A few dozen men and women milled about, standing guard or manning either LAAGs that had been taken off the back of Warthogs or Shade Turrets that had been captured from Covenant camps. They looked tired, being lulled to sleep by the soft droning of mobile power generators. Some talked softly with each other and small, round red fires could be seen; cigarettes burning in the darkness.

Alex kept eating and finished his MRE, he and Jackson threw their trash away in a waste receptacle that had been set up and then stood around; generally just enjoying the peace and quiet. It didn't last for very long.

"Private Steele." Alex perked up as the transmission came through on his comms unit.

"Yes?" he replied, it was Sergeant Kelly.

"I want you and Jackson to the landing pads for a briefing immediately. Gear up." He stated.

"Yes sir." Alex replied, then cut the link. He relayed this information to Jackson and the two of them headed towards where a Marine on guard pointed them to, a small weapons cache on top of the main structure. Alex grabbed three more clips for his assault rifle, two plasma grenades, two frags and twelve more shells for his shotgun. After pocketing this all and placing everything in the appropriate place about his person, he and Jackson headed back down the ramp and over to the landing pads where Kelly and a number of others had gathered; there was a mix of Marines and Helljumpers about.

"Alright, listen up." Kelly said as Alex and Jackson came to stand with the others. "So far we've managed a few small strikes and rescue ops against the Covenant; just small stuff. But now, we've been commanded by Sergeant Anderson to begin a real campaign against those alien bastards. We're going to hit them where it hurts. This will be our first real attack against them, we must keep them occupied while the Master Chief is off searching for the Control Room and while Keyes is searching for the weapons cache here on Halo. Now, our first official assault is going to be on a supply depot that they've set up in a valley a little ways from here. This is where they store much of their food, spare armor, methane for the Grunts; you know, the basics of survival. We are going to steal as much as we can from there and then blow the place to high hell. So, gear up men, we're going in hot." Sergeant Kelly gave his explanation.

With that, the troops all filed up onto the three dropships; there were about three dozen of them. Alex hoped that this was going to be enough to properly take down a Covenant supply depot, but he had faith. He entered the dropship, sat down in the cabin and strapped himself in. The sat back and relaxed as it took off.