Terminus Launch Complex
Mojave Province, Kroedis II
3 March 2549
1603J

WINTER CONTINGENCY DECLARED

H PLUS FIFTEEN

Bianca reflexively ducked as the crippled Banshee shot by overhead trailing smoke and debris. It slammed into the tarmac, cutting a scythe of destruction across their path, one their Warthog would not be able to leap over especially loaded to max cargo capacity and hauling a trailer at the same time.

"WATCH OUT, WATCH OUT, WATCH OUT!" Cheong screamed into her ear from the passenger seat.

Bianca ignored him as she slammed on the brakes and twisted the steering wheel hard to the left, trying to turn the Warthog parallel to the trench the Banshee had dug. The Warthog turned but as it did, all the weight of the ordnance they were carrying started shifting and their vehicle's center of gravity correspondingly changed too.

"Holy shit!" Makinen yelped from the Warthog's bed as the vehicle's right two tires began lifting off the ground. "Chief! WATCH OUT! You're about to flip the 'Hog!"

"Shut it, both of you! I know what I'm doing!" Bianca snapped as she twisted the steering wheel in the opposite direction, forcing the 'Hog's wheels back onto the ground but in doing so, she threw all of the vehicle's weight beyond its center of gravity, causing the heavy utility vehicle to start tipping far more pronouncedly in the new direction.

"AHHHHHH!"

Her men's screams were starting to get on Bianca's nerves and thus it was with a little more force than necessary, she yanked on the e-brake while spinning the steering wheel hard over to the left. The motion threw the Warthog back onto the ground and caused it to once again lean to the left but Bianca immediately released the e-brake and jerked the wheel left and right, trying to compensate for the swaying all the while she continued to accelerate forward. The Warthog continued to violently oscillate side to side before eventually settling back down on all four tires.

"Chief! Where the HELL did you learn how to drive!?" Cheong screeched at the top of his lungs.

"It worked, didn't it!" Bianca yelled back as she jammed down on the accelerator and brought the Warthog back to full speed.

"Not the point!"

"Corporal, shut up and keep an eye out for any more low flyers! Private, you still alive back there!?"

"Chief, I think I'm gonna be sick…"

"Hang in there! We're almost back at the Battery!" Bianca grabbed the radio. "Alpha Battery, this is the Chief: I've got your ammo resupply. Inbound, your location, thirty seconds. Gerson better have that Cyclops fired up and ready to go the moment I arrive, over!"

Looking forward, Bianca could see Alpha Battery's position rapidly approaching. Equipped with two M71 "Scythe" AA turrets and a single M95 "Lance" SAM turret, they had been assigned a defensive position near the battalion headquarters tent. Just behind them, the massive hull of the "Crown Jewel" - the civilian interstellar cruise liner the colonial government had commandeered to use as an evacuation ship – sat on the tarmac, connected to the main terminal building via five separate gangways and jetways. Even though she couldn't see inside, Bianca knew all five were fully loaded with civilians desperately looking for a way off this doomed colony. All the while, a joint force of UNSC Navy and Colonial Militia worked on holding a defensive perimeter inside and around the entire spaceport, doing their best to hold back the Covenant advance long enough for all of the civilians to escape.

"Chief! We've got high attitude Seraphs passing by overhead!" Makinen warned as Bianca pulled alongside Alpha Battery.

"We gotta get this battery back online! Everybody, out! Start unloading!" she barked.

There was a loud hiss of hydraulics, accompanied by the sound of heavy footsteps, as Corporal Gerson walked up with a HRUNTING Mark III [B] "Cyclops" exoskeleton. Bianca immediately waved at him, then gestured wildly at the flatbed trailer they had been hauling, upon which two fully loaded Lance pods had been lying.

"Hurry up and get those straps undone, Private!" Bianca yelled at Makinen as he quickly worked to release their tension. "Cut 'em if you have to!"

"Got it!" Makinen yelled as he pulled out his puukko and began sawing the ratchet tie-down straps apart. The sharp knife easily cut the nylon fabric, and Makinen hurriedly moved them out of the way to allow Gerson to walk up, slide his Cyclops' forked hands under one of the Lance pods, and lift it cleanly off the trailer.

In the meantime, Bianca had run to the back of the Warthog to begin unloading the boxes of ammo stacked there. Cutting through the straps holding them down, she grabbed a hold of a can of 20mm cannon shells but before she could yank it off the 'Hog, Cheong intercepted her.

"Chief!" he yelled as he politely but firmly shoved her away. "You're pregnant! We got this!"

"I'm only three months pregnant, jackass! I'm not an invalid!" Bianca snarled but Cheong had already grabbed two boxes and was hauling ass towards the nearest Scythe.

Growling under her breath, Bianca defiantly worked on cutting the rest of the straps holding the boxes down, but Sergeant Darvish intercepted her before she could do much more.

"Chief! You're needed in the Battalion HQ!" she yelled.

"See, now that's a reason to pull me away!"

"…what?"

"Never mind!" Bianca yelled as she shoved one of the boxes towards her. "Take this!"

Grabbing her rifle, Bianca started sprinting towards the command tent, but a loud siren split the air and she reflexively ducked, glancing over her shoulder as she did. Gerson had just finished reloading the Lance, but as he was moving the Cyclops out of the way, the SAM turret had activated, spinning around before locking onto an aerial target. The Lance let out another earsplitting siren as two plastic caps were spat out – one from the front and one from the rear – before a missile was launched, followed rapidly by a second one. The missiles rocketed through the air, tracking a Covenant Vampire that was locked in a dogfight with a UNSC fighter over the spaceport. Distracted by the dual, the Covenant pilot failed to react as the two missiles slammed into the lower hull.

There was a blue flash as the Vampire exploded, sending debris scattering all over the place, and maybe a few hours ago Alpha Battery's crew would have cheered, but at this point they had shot down so many Covenant fighters to seemingly no effect, the small victory was barely even noticed by the ground crew.

The shrieking of incoming Banshees was being met by the roar of the Scythe turrets activating as Bianca ducked into the command tent. Inside, there wasn't much to see as command tents were pretty much the same no matter where they were: a large number of screens and radios lined the walls while in the center of the tent sat a large holoprojector depicting the tactical composition of military forces at both the spaceport and the surrounding area. As was standard, friendly forces were marked in blue, while Covenant forces were in red. A quick glance at the projector showed a depressingly small amount of blue.

"Where's Battalion Commander!?" Bianca demanded to know as a quick scan revealed no sign of the man.

"Lieutenant Colonel Sheidan is in the terminal, ma'am! Naval Infantry is getting pushed hard by the Covenant, requested we send troops in to take over crowd control while they deployed all available forces to hold the Covenant off!" one of the technicians reported.

Bianca gestured at the technician's station, and the Soldier obligingly moved aside to allow her access. When setting up the tent a few hours ago, one of the first things the IT guys had done was tap into the spaceport's network, allowing the military full access to the facility's security cameras. It was those cameras Bianca was looking at now. She rapidly scrolled through the feeds; most of the cameras showed crowds of civilians rushing towards the Crown Jewel, hoping to get onboard before the Covenant caught up to them, however she stumbled across one camera still pointed at the north entrance, where the Covenant were mounting their main assault, trying to gain access to the main terminal building.

Holding them at bay were elements of the UNSC Navy's Naval Infantry force. Fighting was fierce, and bodies were stacking up on both sides. But while the Covenant attackers consisted only of light infantry supported by Ghosts, unfortunately, the defenders weren't that much better off; despite the word 'infantry' in their title, in reality, Naval Infantry weren't all that much better equipped than a standard colonial militia military police battalion for a conventional fight.

"Our defenses aren't going to hold much longer," Bianca whispered in horror.

"Chief?"

Bianca ignored the tech as she finally spotted her commander on one of the cameras. "Colonel Sheidan, this is Chief Sinnott."

On screen, she watched as Sheidan raise his hand to his ear. "Sitrep, Chief!"

"I just came back from the main armory: we have completely emptied that building out, sir. I've got Heinrich doing an ammo sweep of the secondary warehouses, but as of right now, whatever the Batteries have on hand is it; once they run out, we'll be out of ammo."

"Any chance the garrison at Cronos can send us a resupply?"

Bianca abandoned the station and hurried over to the tac display. "Negative, sir, Covies have recaptured I-6, and Charlie Battery is barely holding onto the parkway: we are officially cut off from Cronos, I say again, we're on our own."

Sheidan let out a string of curses, and Bianca found herself anxiously rubbing her belly. "Only reason we haven't been overrun yet is because Cronos is holding the main Covenant force at bay. If that town falls, Chief, we're going to be in trouble. We need to start reinforcing our defenses. Have Charlie fall back to the spaceport, switch Bravo's Scythe turrets from air targets to providing indirect fire for the perimeter, and tell Alpha they're going to need to pick up the slack!"

"Understood! Sir, how much longer before we're finished with loading the civilians?"

"We still got about three thousand souls in this terminal!"

"Then we're gonna have to load all military personnel," Bianca muttered. "Are we gonna have enough room on that ship?"

"I've been reliably informed that Crown Jewel is designed to comfortably carry seven thousand people, but it can carry twice that amount and a half if we really push it! Last I heard from the crew, we had about eleven thousand civilians already boarded - we'll make room!"

"Copy that, sir! Chief out," she lowered her radio and barked out loud, "Comms! Send a message to Charlie Battery, tell them to immediately abandon the parkway and assume defensive positions on the southern perimeter! Send another message to Bravo and have them switch their Scythe turrets from anti-air mode to indirect fire mode; I want one gun supporting the south, one supporting the west! Runner!"

A Soldier immediately appeared by her side. "Chief?"

"Go find Doc Dasgupta, tell them to begin preliminary evacuation procedures: all civilian volunteers and the critically wounded are to immediately board the ship."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"As for the rest of you!" Bianca yelled at the room at large. "Arm yourselves!"

At once the tent exploded into activity as the Soldiers immediately moved to execute their orders. For her part, Bianca walked over to the tac display showing Cronos's situation in real time; a single blue spot defiantly standing out among a sea of red.

"Come on, Cronos," Bianca muttered. "Hold out for just a bit longer."

Immediately Bianca felt guilty as her own words hit her; did she really just wish for an entire garrison of Soldiers to sacrifice themselves in order for her to live? Yet, at the same time, in the fifteen hours since the Covenant made landfall, this was the fourth time Kroedis's defenders had lost control of I-6. Part of the reason why her air defense battalion was so low on ammo was because they had expended so much ordnance trying to keep an evacuation route open for the citizens of Cronos. And now that they were finally loading the last evacuation ship in the entire Mojave Province… surely the Cronos garrison had to have known they weren't making it out alive?

Somehow, that rationale did not assuage her guilt in the least bit.

Abruptly, Bianca realized she had started stroking her belly again.

"Sorry kiddo," she whispered to her belly, even though it was far too early in her pregnancy for her fetus to even be considered a viable baby. "Should have waited a bit more before having you. I promised you a happy life and a safe home; with the way things are looking, I don't think either are possible anymore."

"Chief!"

Bianca automatically moved her hands away from her belly as Cheong burst into the tent.

"Relay from Sergeant Heinrich," he breathlessly announced. "He's completed his ammo sweep and picked up some small arms ammo, but no other ordnance. Whatever we've got on hand now… that's it!"

Bianca grimly nodded. "Alright. Have him distribute whatever he's got as best as he can. In the meantime, let's get all the Cyclops operators to start flipping the empty ammo trailers, see if we can't turn them into a barricade of- "

"Attention all UNSC call signs, this is Blue Dragon broadcasting in the clear across all military channels!"

Bianca sharply looked up as the call cut across the radio. "Blue Dragon" was the call sign for the Cronos garrison, whereas "broadcasting in the clear" meant they were speaking on the radio without any encryption, which was dangerous as that meant the Covenant would also be listening in. They would only do that if…

"All call signs: Starburst. I say again, Starburst."

Bianca inhaled sharply while everything in the background seemed to shrink before her very eyes as the implication of what was just announced hit her. "Starburst" was the current code word for when a friendly unit was about to be overrun, and needed all available aircraft to come in and nominally rescue them, but in practice against the Covenant, it just meant expend all ordnance on said position as a last act of defiance against the enemy.

A quick glance at the tac display revealed all available fighters in the AO were already en route as the last blue spot representing Cronos was washed away by a tidal wave of red.

Bianca immediately grabbed her radio. "Colonel - !"

"Yeah, I heard it too!" Sheidan interrupted, sounding like he was out of breath. "Prepare yourself, Chief, cause this spaceport is about to get hammered! I'm going to see if I can't speed things up in here. You- "

Sheidan continued to bark out orders, but Bianca was distracted by the sound of frantic shouting from outside the tent. Without thinking, she started for the entrance when it abruptly swung open and Makinen came stumbling into the tent, yelling, "Chief! Covenant dropships on the horizon!"

"What!?" she exclaimed and hurried outside to see for herself. Sure enough, on the horizon approaching from the south were over a dozen Covenant 'Spirit' dropships. "AIR ASSAULT! Covenant are trying to bypass our perimeter! Alpha Battery, open fire on those dropships!"

The Scythe turrets immediately opened fire. The brrrrttt of their 20mm rotary cannons filled the air as they peppered the Spirits with a mixture of tracers and armored-piercing shells, causing the ships to break formation as they attempted to evade. Moments later, a siren shattered the air a split second before Alpha's Lance turret fired a full spread of ASGM-7 missiles. As the projectiles rocketed towards the dropships, the Spirits started shooting back with their plasma cannons in an attempt to knock them out of the sky.

"TAKE COVER!" Bianca screamed at her men as the sky lit up with explosions. Throwing herself down behind a nearby Warthog, she held her breath as the first missile was destroyed by plasma, followed quickly by the second, but then –

There was a brilliant flash of light as the missiles began to strike home. The lead Spirit simply disappeared in a messy explosions as two missiles slammed into the ship's power reactor, causing it to instantly go critical. The explosions was so intense, there wasn't even any debris as everything was consumed by the blast. The second Spirit managed to avoid taking a direct hit, but the missile still passed close enough to trigger its proximity fuze. The warhead exploded, and a piece of shrapnel ripped open the Spirit's portside troop compartment door, and even from this distance, Bianca could see a number of Covenant warriors get ejected from their seats and go plummeting the full three hundred meters to the ground below. Needless to say, they didn't get back up.

The rest of the dropships were able to dodge the rest of the missiles, save for the very last Spirit in the formation. As it attempted to bank right then rapidly climb, the ASGM screamed towards the lower hull and exploded against the ship's anti-gravity drives, causing them to immediately flare out. As smoke and flames shot out from the engines, the Spirit seemed to hang in the air for a moment before, with a loud groan of metal, began plummeting out of the sky…

… and straight for the Lance turret.

"Oh, fuc… INCOMING!" Bianca screamed. "GET OUT OF THE WAY, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

The Soldiers of Alpha Battery immediately scattered as the crippled dropship loomed overhead. Bianca couldn't help but cover her mouth in shock as the Spirit slammed into the ground - one of the troop compartments immediately erupting into flames – before skidding across the tarmac and straight into the Lance turret, taking out the entire base and sending its rocket pods crashing to the ground. The impact seemed to cause the entire planet to shake while the loud shriek of metal being ripped apart filled the air, reminding Bianca very much of a dying whale.

"Oh, god…" she whispered as fire and secondary explosions continued to consume the Spirit. With their SAM turret down, Alpha Battery was left with their two Scythe turrets which, while powerful in their own right, simply lacked the range and destructive capabilities of the ASGM-7s. So far, the main reason why the Crown Jewel hadn't been destroyed on the ground was because of the SAM turrets had been keeping the Banshees and Seraphs at bay. With one gone, trying to defend the airspace above the spaceport would be-

"CHIEF! We still got enemy inside!" Cheong yelled as he ran up to her position.

With a start, Bianca realized he was right: only one troop compartment had been destroyed in the crash. With the way the Spirit has crash landed – almost straight down – the chances of Covenant forces having survived in the other compartment was all but guaranteed.

"Cheong, Makinen! Take cover and get ready!" Bianca commanded as she unslung her rifle from her shoulder and leveled it at the Spirit, Cheong and Makinen taking up position behind the Warthog alongside her.

Nervously chewing on her lip, Bianca tried to bring her breath under control as she waited for the Covies to emerge.

BANG.

The sound of the metal compartment doors dropping open echoed across the tarmac.

"FIRE!"

The first Elite off the ship was immediately cut to pieces by three MA37 assault rifles. The 7.62mm rounds instantly disabled the alien's shields and chewed right through the creature's armor, causing the alien to toppled forward and land face down in a pool of its own blood. Meanwhile, the other Covenant warriors attempted to jump clear of the wreckage, and Bianca quickly pivoted right, firing two quick bursts at a Grunt Major, blowing its head clean off.

"Chief! Jackal on the left!"

"Got it!"

Leaning around the Warthog tire, Bianca blazed away at the Jackal, hoping to nail the alien before it could activate its arm shield. A quick burst took out the alien's foot, sending the creature to its knees. Quickly switching over to semi, Bianca hurriedly pumped three more rounds into the Jackal's chest, permanently putting it down.

FWOOZ!

Bianca flinched as a plasma bolt slammed into the tire beside her, and she reflexively fired off a retaliatory burst in the direction it came from, only for her rounds to get blocks by a glowing red energy shield.

"Christ…!" Bianca swore, diving into cover as the Jackal returned fire. Plasma pelted the opposite side of the Warthog and she grunted as both Cheong and Makinen landed on the ground beside her, both trying to avoid getting hit. "We're pinned down!"

"Chief! I might be able to make a run for the command tent! I do that, I might be able to draw the Jackal's fire, let you take him out!" Cheong volunteered.

"We might have to do just that! Hang on!"

Bianca peaked around the Warthog to see where the Jackal was, only to feel her heart stop as she realized the Jackal was pointing their weapon straight at her. But before the alien could pull the trigger, a green metal claw reached around the crashed Spirit and seized the Jackal around the waist.

"…!"

The Jackal let out a soundless scream as they were lifted straight up into the air, revealing Gerson piloting his Cyclops. Inside the cockpit, Bianca could see Gerson thumbing a button, and the Cyclops' claw tightened in response. She couldn't help but wince as there a sickening crack of bones breaking, and the Jackal went limp, its point defense guard winking out of existence at the same time.

"Don't worry, Chief, I got you covered!" Gerson exclaimed through the Cyclops' external speakers, before he drew his arm back and hurtled the Jackal's body at the remaining Covenant Grunts, knocking them down like they were bowling pins.

"Troops in the open!" Bianca screamed. "Take them out!"

Gunfire immediately rang out, and the surviving Covenant soldiers were quickly eliminated. Standing up, Bianca glanced around. The entire tarmac had been thrown into chaos by the Covenant's air assault and while the dropships had all been either shot down or driven away by the anti-air fire, she had no idea how many Covenant infantry had made it to the ground.

"Corporal Cheong, secure that crash site! Corporal Gerson! See if you can't get that Lance back online!" Bianca barked as she dashed back into the command tent. "Somebody give me a sitrep! What's happening!?"

"Chief! Emergency message from Charlie Battery: they never made it to the spaceport, Covies cut them off before they could get here!" a technician yelled.

"Ma'am! Perimeter guard has eyes on Covenant armored vehicles coming down I-6! They think it's the same guys that took out Cronos!"

"Breach, breach! Chief, we're getting reports Covenant infantry is inside the terminal!"

Bianca immediately grabbed her radio. "Colonel Sheidan, Chief Sinnott. Come in!"

Over the radio, she could hear the sound of gunfire as Sheidan replied, "Chief, give me a sitrep!"

"Sir, Covies managed to land about a platoon's worth of infantry between the command tent and our defensive perimeter. We can probably drive them off, but we've got Covie tanks approaching from the west, Charlie Battery is completely cut off, Alpha just lost their SAM, and I haven't gotten an update from Bravo! What's your situation?"

"Covies landed a force right on top of us. Current strength unknown, but we're trying to keep them away from the civilians! Hey! Watch that gun on the right!"

As Sheidan spoke, Bianca hurriedly lowered her radio. "Someone give me a ping on the Colonel's location!"

A video feed showing Sheidan's location appeared on the main screen, as well as a 2D digital map with a single yellow dot marking his location. Bianca silently swore; according to the map, Sheidan was on the complete opposite side of the terminal.

"Sir, you might want to consider breaking contact! You're on the opposite side of the terminal; it'll take you at least twenty minutes to reach the loading bay at a dead sprint unless…" Bianca zoomed in on the map and snapped her fingers. "Sir, you're actually not too far from the tram. We'll get Heinrich to route the tram to your location – "

"No, negative, the tram's gone! That's the first thing the Covies took out!"

"Then you're going to need double time it, sir."

"We'll never make it, not with the Split-Lips on our tail, and not before the main Covenant force overruns the perimeter. And if the Crown Jewel is still sitting on the runway when they get here…" there was a long stretch of silence, and Bianca could almost hear Sheidan thinking. "How many people we got on board, and how many people do we have left?"

Automatically, video feeds of the jetways and the inside of the ship appeared on her screen. "We've got roughly eleven point five thousand people on board, but almost twenty-five hundred people still in the terminal."

Sheidan let out a low sigh. "Alright. That's it. Call it in."

"Sir!?"

"We're not going to be able to hold out much longer. We're not going to be able to get everyone out, and now it's time to think about who we can save. It's time to pull the plug, Chief. Begin final evacuation procedures; have the perimeter guard hold their positions, but everyone else gets out. Including you, Chief."

"Sir, we're not going to just abandon you and the rest of the civilians. If we – "

"Chief Warrant Officer Sinnott, listen to me! We've still got over two thousand people left on the ground, but if you try and wait to save them, you put eleven thousand other people at risk. The math simply does not add up," Sheidan snapped. "When you enlisted all those years ago, you swore to protect and defend all of humanity. Right now, you are being called to fulfill that oath. Save who you can. Get out, while you still can. That is. A direct order."

The radio line went dead, leaving Bianca to blankly stare at her screen. Slowly exhaling, she glanced at a nearby technician. "Open a comm. All UNSC channels."

"You're live, Chief."

Bianca cleared her throat then grabbed the mic. "Sheldrake to all call signs, broadcasting in the clear across all UNSC military channels: Starburst. I say again, Starburst."

There was a moment of silence. Then-

"This is FLEETCOM: confirm Starburst, over."

Bianca slowly pushed the talk button. "Starburst confirmed."

"Sheldrake, we copy Starburst confirmed. All available aircraft en route to your last transmission location, time to target, seven minutes. FLEETCOM, out."

Bianca closed her eyes. So. It was done then.

It took her a moment to realize everyone in the tent was staring at her, and she took a deep breath before, reluctantly, she gritted out, "Begin final evacuation procedures. Perimeter guard is to hold their positions. All Batteries, switch turrets to auto targeting. Destroy all non-essential gear, and wipe all data, then fall back to the ship. Alert Crown Jewel's crew, have them start to taxi from the main terminal. And then – " For a moment, the words seemed to catch in her throat, and it took all of her effort to force them out. "Terminate the loading. Sound alert, then disconnect all gang and jetways."

Her troops immediately sprung into action, but Bianca couldn't bear to watch them work. Instead, she turned to the security feeds showing the inside of the jetways, which were still packed with civilians trying to get onboard. On screen, a loud shrill of an alarm sounded, before the jetways began to move. The motion caused everyone inside to stumble, and initially, all the civilians looked confused as to what was happening. Then, someone realized the jetways were beginning to disconnect from the cruise liner and everyone instantly began to panic.

The entire crowd immediately surged forward even as the gap between the passageway and the ship continued to widen. The guards who had been stationed at the ship's entrance in order to control traffic at first tried to hold everyone back, but then realizing the futility of it all, quickly abandoned their positions and jumped onboard. Behind them, the civilians did everything they could to make sure they weren't the ones left behind. The ones closest began leaping from the passageway to the ship's entrance, but as the gap grew to be too large for even the fittest of adults to jump, people began looking to save who they could; Bianca watched as several parents pushed their way forward through the crowd and physically toss their children in an attempt to save their lives.

Finally, the gap was too large for people to accomplish even that, and hundreds of civilians were left crying and begging and screaming to not be left behind.

The screens abruptly went blank and Bianca dully looked up to see Cheong standing near the entrance, power cord in hand, having ripped it out from the generator.

"Chief, we gotta go," he gently urged.

Her eyes wet with unshed tears, Bianca sharply inhaled, then slowly exhaled. She nodded, unable to speak.

Looking relieved, Cheong grabbed Bianca by the arm and led her out of the tent. Pausing by the entrance, he pulled out two thermite grenades and cautiously offered one to Bianca. Nodding in understanding, Bianca took it and thumbed the activation button.

"Fire in the hole," she called out, before tossing the grenade into the tent.

Flames immediately shot out of the base of the grenade, ignite the flammable items inside. Very quickly, the entire tent and all remaining equipment inside was set ablaze, and Bianca knew it wouldn't be long before there would be nothing left but slag and ashes for the Covenant to capture. Without another word, she and Cheong immediately took off running for the ship, dashing up the loading bay ramp, normally used to load cargo, but today was being used to load all surviving military personal.

Two of the ship's crew were waiting at the top of the ramp. As soon as Bianca cleared the threshold, they immediately began to raise the ramp and seal all hatches. Before the airlock could fully close all the way, Bianca glanced across the tarmac. There, in the distance, she could see dozens and dozens of plasma mortars flying through the air and landing among what was left of their defensive perimeter, and she knew it would only be a matter of seconds before Covenant vehicles were cutting across the open lot. There was nothing left they could do.

"Ma'am?" one of the crew members said as the airlock closed and sealed. "We're about to take off. We're going to put you and the rest of the military on the observation deck, at least until we can figure out how to organize everyone. If you could follow me?"

Bianca mutely followed the crew member as the dull thrum of hybrid fusion drives igniting filled the air. The ship began to rattle and shake as she walked onto the observation deck and, looking out the windows, Bianca could see the booster pods had ignited, launching the Crown Jewel up into the air. The cruise liner ascended towards the upper atmosphere, with the spaceport rapidly shrinking beneath them.

There was a host of duties Bianca needed to attend to, but at the moment, she found she had no interest. Instead, she keyed her radio. "Colonel? Can you hear me?"

At first, there was nothing but static. But then, "Go, Chief!"

"Sir, we've achieved lift off. And we're making our ascent towards the upper atmosphere." Bianca hesitated, unsure of what else to say. Whether she should apologize or… something.

"That's good! That's really good! I'm glad to hear that!" Sheidan replied in the void, sounding genuinely sincere. "You saved a lot of lives today, Bianca!"

Bianca found she didn't know what to say in response to that, so instead, she stammered out, "What's… how's… what's your status, sir?"

Immediately, she felt ridiculous; obviously Sheidan's status was that he was about die. But at the same time, she needed to say something. Fortunately, Sheidan didn't seem to mind as he replied, "Split-Lips are trying to break contact. They know with the ship gone, we're minutes away from leveling this entire area. But we're not letting them get away! These bastards are the ones who started this mess; it's only right they stick around until the end."

"Chief! High altitude bombers sighted, en route to the spaceport!"

Bianca turned at the shout. As part of the cruise liner experience, the observation deck was equipped with long range tower viewer binoculars, the idea being tourist would be able to watch the colony shrink as the cruise ship broke through the atmosphere. Walking over to the stand, the Soldier quickly moved aside to allow Bianca a chance to look. Sure enough, she spotted a flight of Shortsword bombers flying through the clouds in the direction of the spaceport. "Sir, you've got bombers en route to your location. Is there… is there anything you want to say?"

Sheidan let out a slow sigh. "Yeah. This is Lieutenant Colonel Mahoud Ali Sheidan, 1-559 Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 42nd Air Defense Brigade of the Kroedis II Colonial Milita. Ash-hadu an la ilaha illa Allah, Wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulu-Allah. I bear witness that there is no God but God-"

A series of orange flashes abruptly appeared on the colony's surface. Concurrently, Sheidan's transmission abruptly cut off, and was replaced with nothing but static.

Choking back tears, Bianca tapped her microphone. "Colonel? You still there?"

Only static greeted her and she very quietly and reluctantly lowered her radio.

It was all over.

General Notes

If I've done my research correctly (and I really hope I did because otherwise, this is going to be really awkward,) the passage Sheidan is reciting at the end is an Islamic oath known as "Shahada" or "Shahadah" and it's basically an affirmation by Muslims confirmed their belief in the "oneness of God and the acceptance of Muhammad as God's messenger" (English Wikipedia article "Shahada.") It is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, and is intended to be (among other times) one of the first things a Muslim baby hears when they are born, and the last words a Muslim utters before death.

Full translation to English is (as per Islamic Relief's UK website): "I bear witness that there is no God but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."

Full disclosure: I'm not a Muslim, and I have no association with Islam. Having been born and raised in the United States which is predominately Christian, I thought it would be interesting to try and depict a faith I'm not familiar with.