Chapter 1: The Final Stand, The Final Fall
Second Lieutenant Dominic-H209, Male, 6'11
Sangheili Ultra Aila'Taromee- Female, 7'5
Date: August 30th, 2552
Time: 20:43pm
The sky was plastered in red-grey smoke as if the atmosphere itself was on fire, all the smog and soot painting Reach's sky in such a grim scene. Among that scene was Dominic, witnessing the absolute collapse of one of humanity's strongest bastions and its people. Kneeling, Dominic's hand wrapped around his standard issue combat knife and pulled it out of the neck of a Sangheili Ultra who thought it wise to sneak up on him. 'Coward', Dominic thought with sheer contempt as he stared down at the slain elite, its purple blood covering his knife and beginning to pool beneath its body. Their species was the reason for humanity's suffering, loss, and pain every day; it wasn't surprising that he thought little of them.
His stern gaze lifted upwards to an open battleground, more or less a decimated and crumbling one. Off in the distance were small pockets of fighting with the last human resistance fending off the covenant hoard as they tried to desperately escape Reach with their lives. It truly was a hopeless sight, seeing his birthplace fall to such savage cretins. Dominic stared into the darkened sky, it would have been early evening by around then, as he could just barely make out the orange tinge of light within the plasma-soaked clouds.
It wasn't a time for mourning, not yet and not now, he still had some fight in him; and be damned that he was evacuating any time soon. He was born on Reach, and he would die defending it should the opportunity arise. A phantom passed overhead, landing down at a small, deserted outpost perhaps a kilometre from his position. Wait… Not just one phantom, three? No; four, five, six?! Dominic was surprised at the number of soldiers the covenant was dropping off at a single point, but that's when Dom heard distant gunfire. They sounded like human firearms; DMRs and assault rifles. Some UNSC forces were perhaps still putting up a good fight on this god-forsaken planet, and this was his chance to put in his assistance as god knew they needed it. The spartan fighting alongside them may boost the morale of the troops, or even give them one last push to kick some covenant ass before they went down swinging. Either way, Dominic began trekking toward the origin of the noise and soon found himself on a small cliffside that wasn't too high off the ground but gave a good point of overwatch. He was only around 200 metres away from what appeared to be a small forward operations base. The wind hissed against his armour, kicking up dust and sand, staining it and shrouding him in the surroundings. My god it was like a sandstorm around here, he couldn't see too clearly in the distance besides silhouettes and shadows of nearby surroundings.
Dominic went prone and had laid flat on his stomach on the cliffside, taking his DMR off his back and aiming in towards the outpost where flashes of plasma and muzzle flashes of gunfire could be seen. It'd been hard to see through the thick smog, so he switched to FLIR thermals to get a much better view of what the hell he was looking at, as rushing in blind would be suicide. Dominic was almost taken aback, as he saw a lone spartan of dark steel armour fighting off waves of covenant, he looked tired and weak, which was proven by how he took off his helmet. Dominic couldn't let him go unassisted, so he turned thermals off and slid down the cliff's slope and sprinted as fast as those legs of his could take him in a last-ditch effort to help his comrade.
"Not now soldier not now, we fight together and we damn well will die together defending this planet." Dominic thought, rage churning inside him as he was so pumped full of adrenaline and anger, he thought he could single handily take on an entire covenant ground force.
Though his efforts to reach and assist the Spartan, a drained Noble Six was unfortunately too late. Dominic watched in horror as the last group of elites; two ultras, two zealots, a general and a minor converged on the dying Spartan III. He managed to eliminate an ultra, the minor and the general before collapsing, being impaled through the chest with an energy dagger from one of the zealots. A small group of kig-yar and grunts were arriving, maybe 4 or so from the battle. They were the last survivors from Six's final stand, and they would soon fall too. Dominic may not be able to help Six, but he can god damn avenge his death.
Silent rage overcame the spartan as he unclipped a grenade, and tossed it towards the small group of grunts and kig-yar. He heard squawks and a few child-like screams before the grenade blew up, ripping apart the entire troupe. Now it was time for the Elite's to fall, as their attention was now drawn to him. A major appeared out of the fog, standing among his Sangheili brethren and they all let out a battle cry. One of the zealots charged at Dominic with an energy sword in hand, with Dom equipping his shotgun and raising it to the dashing elite. One shell was fired, staggering the elite back slightly before he was met with a hard hit from the buttstock of Dominic's shotgun. The zealot's shields broke and it swung at him in a desperate attempt to slice through his armour, but his quick reflexes allowed him to backtrack out of the slash. Another shotgun shell was fired and the zealot was recoiled back, spewing out blood from its mouth and making a choking sound after perishing.
The major tried to take advantage of Dominic's distraction of the fight and flanked him, taking a hard swing from the side and connecting with the side of his helmet. This made Dom stagger to the side and half his shields went down from that blow, but fury and adrenaline make a deadly pair. Dominic charged the major, pumping a shell into its chest and instantly broke it's shields. He leaped into the air and tackled the major to the ground, that momentum plus 500kg of armour would make anyone smack down on the floor. The two of them struggled for a bit, trading blow for blow on the floor before Dom smashed the elite over the head with the butt of his shotgun, pummeling and crushing the major's skull in a fit of rage.
Now only two remained, the ultra and the zealot that killed Noble Six. Dominic stood up and unsheathed his large combat knife, pointing it at the Zealot as a challenge. The two Sangheili looked at each other, muttering something in their language and nodded. The Zealot ignited his energy dagger and stepped forward as the Ultra watched from a distance, with the two of them now circling each other. Dominic was honed in, rage focused and adapted to one goal and that was to eliminate this son of a bitch and to make it personal. The Zealot roared and rushed him first, irrational and predictable behaviour of an elite.
He had to time this right, so when the moment came and at the very last second, Dominic slid under the Zealot's sword swing and lunged his knife into the back of its heel, piercing their shields entirely. The Zealot cried out in pain and kneeled down from the wound, a serrated knife ripping up all the tendons and veins in their leg. With a second to waste, Dominic tore the knife out from their heel and faced the zealot. He gleamed down at it with hate, grabbing its wrist when it tried to jab him with its energy dagger and drove his knife through his throat.
"Fucking split-lip! This 'demon' as you call us will be the last thing you see, half-jaw cretin." Dominic blurted out, clearly very upset that he had to witness another one of his Spartan brother perish to these worthless aliens.
The Zealot gurgled and tensed up, one of its hands clasping around the forearm that held the knife into its throat. It shivered and its eyes went lifeless, their limbs collapsing before Dominic yanked his blade out, flicking the blue blood onto the floor.
One more to go, an Ultra who had watched her comrades die to the demon that was Dominic. Her commander Navo'Lakamee was slain in a duel with the demon, and instead of giving him an honourable death; it gave her commander a violent and brutal one as he stared into the faceplate that was his doom. Now it was her turn, and she was terrified of this demon, this ferocious warrior who took down one of the best fighters she had known. She couldn't admit that she was scared, but that tremble in her figure showed it. The demon wouldn't stop until she was dead as well..
(Small Author's note: Let me know in reviews if you want more and soon. Just a story I thought about making since I know a lot of you guys get unfinished halo romance stories. Leave a review and I might be able to push another chapter out soon :) )