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The Pelican swooped low over New Mombasa, plasma bolts ingulfing the outer hull. With all the heavy fire, its destruction was eminent. The pilot fought desperately to regain control as they headed toward a skyscraper, racing enexorably to their doom.
Inside the back, a marine by the name of Jack Oleander prayed for his life to be spared. He had already seen some of his fellow squadron leap out of the hatch in desperation to their deaths. He wasn't that eager to die...
Outside the ship, a bloody battle raged on the streets, inside buildings, and anywhere in between. Chaos enveloped the city like an...envelope...
Shrapnel rained from grenades, and artillery fired from both opposing forces. Jack looked out the hatch, seeing the carnage from above. He never thought that he would see this kind of action back when he enlisted.
He also never thought the Covenant would invade Earth.
At that final moment, a jolt threw him violently out of the Pelican as the ship clipped the building and spun out of control. He flew backward in the air, the sounds of the battle soft and distant. He recognized the beauty of the golden twilight sky all around him, and then saw the Pelican he was just in explode into a crimson fireball. A shower of glass flew about the city from the building's near destruction, and then he hit ground.
Black.
His hazy eyes opened, and suddenly the fight was all around him. The sound of gunfire and cannons of all types, alien and human, shook him to the core. The noise was deafening. He scrambled up from the hard asphalt, pain shooting through his legs...
...And saw the horrific figure of a Jackal. The birdlike-reptilian nightmare that could end his life in a pull of the trigger. It screeched, and approached him. Not too fast not too slow. Cautiously.
Despite the relentless assault commencing all around the combatants, their particular duel seemed isolated from the rest.
Jack Oleander was quick in readying his MA5B, and unleashed a hail of bullets into the beast.
It rolled to the side, apparently shocked, and then a shell pierced its side. It screeched again, this time in alarm, and ran away, hands sheilding its head.
"Get back here you bastard!" Jack said, chasing his prey. Adrenaline seemed to coarse through his very veins. It was a combat high. He was so scared that he ignored it. Nothing mattered. Except for that Jackal to die.
He sprayed the alien in a blind rage with his rifle, and it twisted and flew back in a plume of blood. Its body went limp as it finally died.
Jack emptied the rest of his clip into its corpse, and reloaded. He had no idea what to do next. He was all alone without his squad. He had no guidance, and he hated it.
Frantically, he started to run down the street in search of cover. He was a coward. He had just realized it. Jack never thought that he would hide in the line of fire. It appauled him. Yet, he kept running. Not to join up with any other marines, not to fight, just to hide. And that's exactly what he did as he crouched behind an overturned Warthog halfway wedged into an alley.
Jack must've stayed there for a full half an hour. He was terrified. He listened to all the explosions, all the screams around him. And then he thought of himself, hiding here, on the brink of tears. He didn't want to be here.
Suddenly, the Warthog creaked behind him. It overturned, and he immediately held up his gun. "Oh shit!" he whined, thinking it was a Covenant.
But then, before him, stood the angelic yet imposing figure of the Master Cheif, outlined by the setting sun.
Two marines were following the cheif and they piled in the car. "Comon, we need all the help we can get!" yelled the soldier over a screaming Banshee.
...A Banshee...
It was heading right for them. It almost went into a nosedive just as it reached them, an opened fire with its dual cannons.
A blue shower of death rained over them, and the marine that helped Jack into the gunner's seat, died right before his eyes. Jack's eyes glazed over, and then the engine roared to life, and the car sped off down the street. Jack kept his eyes on the dead marine as they sped off, driven by the Cheif.
"What the hell are you waiting for!? Shoot it down you idiot!" screamed the marine riding shotgun, he opened fire as he turned around in his seat.
"Reid?" gasped Jack.
The marine stopped firing. "Oh my God...Oleander it's you!" Reid said. They had both known eachother in the academy before they enlisted in the military. They hadn't talked for more than 6 years.
The Banshee tailed them like death itself.
"Heads up!" Reid screamed.
Jack spun around and wailed on the Banshee with the M41 LAAG. Its sound filled his ears as he saw sparks fly off the pursuing Banshee. It continued to fire its plasma, gaining inches toward its target with each shot. Shells fell like rain from the M41, and the muzzle flash nearly overtook Jack's vision. The Banshee suddenly jerked, as if it had clipped something, and then exploded in a firey inferno. The blast lifted the Warthog's back tires up, but the car just sped away as the burning aircraft hit the street behind them, fragmenting into flaming wreckage. Jack then realized he had been yelling the whole time.
They rounded a corner. "Jesus, that was close!" yelled Reid over the rushing wind all around the speeding car.
Jack said nothing.
"Take the wheel," came the voice of the Cheif.
"What?" Reid was puzzled.
"Take it," insisted the Chief. A speeding Ghost was right in their path.
The Cheif got out and stood on the side of the car as Reid scrambled for the wheel. And then he jumped. He landed on the Ghost with a loud thunk, deturring it just in time to save the marines from a head on collision. The Ghost swirved out of sight.
Reid couldn't control it, not from the passenger side.
The Warthog flipped.
The next thing Jack knew he was on the ground. The Chief was gone. His unconsciousness was momentary, but now he wished he could go back to it...
An Elite stood with a plasma rifle to Reid's head. Reid was kneeling.
Now he couldn't be scared anymore. He had to do something. His friend was about to die. He saw that a tunnel was behind them, a sloping road leading into it and down. Maybe if he distracted the Elite, Reid could get away.
Ok, count to 5. 1, 2, 3...
Now dammit.
Jack Oleander got up, and ran toward the Elite firing. He screamed for Reid to run, just to get away. The Elite switched its attention and Reid scrambled up to escape. The blue alien charged.
"Die!" Jack screamed. He emptied a clip into the oncoming beast but to no avail. It wasn't dead. "Oh shit!" he threw down his AR switching to his pistol. He shot and missed, shot, and missed. "NO PLEASE!" Miss. Miss. Miss. Miss. He turned and ran.
At least Reid will be ok, I'll meet him when I--- It felt like a brick hit the back of his head and a blue flash flared in front of his eyes just before he died.
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