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"Make sure that the safety is on." I don't know how many times my father had said that. Holding that gun at age seven was not fun. It was heavy. I remember him and me in the backyard, shooting 9mm into a tree. "Keep your finger off the trigger…that's it." It scared me. Having so much power in my hands. My father was a marine medic, but you wouldn't have guessed it. He was built like a soldier and loved to shoot. I always knew him to be a great marksman.
The war…
The war had been going on for a while now. It was only a matter of time before my father was called…
He was away for almost a year before we found out that he was wounded. He was sent back to earth, along with countless others. He stayed in the hospital for two years. When he came home, half of his body was covered in bandages. After that, I stayed away from guns. I never wanted to be in any war.

The city of Lushoto had grown in the past year. Some wealthy governor decided to put a heap of money into building the city into a businessman's paradise. All around the world, the wealthy and the lucky decided to bring their business into this place. I was one of them. Having been educated in the art of construction, I decided to place my company in the heart of Lushoto, Africa. My company, however, comprised of twenty employees and a construction crew. We even brought in a software technician from New Mombasa. Everything was fine in my life.
The war was worse, though.
Every day, you would hear something on the news or rumors from the paper. The covenant keeps getting closer. There were fewer soldiers in the city. The marine headquarters in Lushoto was almost empty. When I heard about Reach, my heart bottomed out. I knew it was only a matter of time. Everyone thought the same way. I was thankful, though, that I was in Africa and not in one of the major cities around the world. Covenant forces would probably attack Washington D.C. first or Britain.
Wrong.
Dead wrong.

On October 20, 2552, the covenant attacked. Mombasa received the brunt of the attack. However, Lushoto is Mombasa's next-door neighbor.

"You did check it right?" Mary-Ann asked. I rubbed my eyes and asked her to repeat the question.
"The progress report. You did look over it right?"
"Um," I stalled, "maybe."
She looked at me with a glare and put her hands on her hips.
"Carl, I told you to read those yesterday."
I raised my hands up in defense. "All, right. All, right. I check them now. I just don't know why I am reading these on such a beautiful day."
It was a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky.
Mary-Ann rolled her eyes. "Sometimes, I don't know how you became my boss." She walked out of the office. The old progress reports always bored me to tears. There was one consolation. The company had actually purchased some new underground scanners. I had sent a team to the outskirts of Mombasa to test them out. The scanners would help find better ground for better foundations for buildings. This progress report would tell me how the testing went. After opening the file, I skipped all the boring parts and went strait to the scanner report.
"What? Metal?"
In the report, the scanning crew said they found a large hunk of metal. A very large hunk of metal. They said it was about a hundred miles long. This made me stand up out of my seat. Nothing was in that dessert. It was just a big, flat piece of land. I was about to make a call when I heard my name being called in the other room. I walked out into the cubical area, only to find my employees gathered around the television set. They all had blank looks, but in their eyes you could see…fear. I gazed at the T.V. and what I saw almost made me run out the door.
"My God."
The covenant had just arrived.

I gathered my suitcase and headed out the door. Mary-Ann and the others had already left. As I walked out the door, I heard the roar of people everywhere. Mothers, Fathers and children all ran like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. I thought "where are they going to go?" I knew that there was nowhere to run. I jogged to the nearest train station, but I knew what I was going to find. Thousands of people were packed into this small train station lobby, praying to hitch a ride. Instead of pushing my way into a train, I thought it best to find another way out. Of course, there is not way out. I knew what covenant ships did after conquering a planet. There would be not hope for anyone. As I walked towards the airport, the first covenant ships appeared above the city. Even more panic.
I do not know what it was. I must have gotten my fathers instincts, because I headed strait for a pawnshop. I could not escape, so I would do the next best thing…fight. Better die fighting than to die standing around. After dropping my suitcase, I ran as fast as I could to get to my destination. When I arrived, I found five other men and three marines standing outside the shop. They had striped the store of all its guns. The sergeant looked at me with a face that would make a man cry.
"Do you want to help?"
I nodded.
He nodded.
"Here." He passed me a small handgun. It was a little outdated, but still shot bullets. The other civilians had sawed-off shotguns and more handguns. The marines were equipped with SMGs. I only could only see one grenade. They handed me three clips of ammo. With a long sigh, the sergeant gave us the plan.
"Okay… The covenant will be raining down our throats in a couple of minuets. We need to slow them down so the city can evacuate."
One of the civilians piped up.
"Uh, sir? Are there any other marines in the city?"
The sergeant paused.
"Yes. But I haven't been able to contact them. They are probably doing the same thing that we are going to do."
"Sir?" It was I talking this time.
"What?"
"I just came from the train station and it is full of people. That would be the best spot around here to defend."
The sergeant only nodded in approval.
"You lead us to the train station then."
A young man, about the age of eighteen, asked the question that was on all our minds.
"Do you think that a couple of shotguns and machine guns are going to hold off the covenant?"
The sergeant's face went dark. He was about to answer when the scream of covenant banshees flew overhead. We all dove for cover.

Either the banshees didn't see us, or they didn't care in a couple of poorly equipped businessmen. Either way, they kept on flying. I moved out of my hiding place from behind a dumpster.
"Alright," the sergeant said, "lets move out. You, in the suit, take lead. Yole, McMahon…you watch our six. The rest of you watch our flanks."
We moved into the alleyway and headed toward the station. I could hear explosions now, all across the city. Out of all the civilians there, I was the one who held my weapon with skill. The teachings from my dad kicked in. "Finger off the trigger. Make sure the safety is on." I pointed my gun around each corner, saying a silent prayer. Praying that there would be no covenant.
I was about to clear another section of alleyway, when I heard them. It was about five elites and twenty grunts. Their objective was to clear the alleyways. Lucky for us. Our group had to retreat into a building and stay quiet for a while. It was a restaurant filled with tables covered with cloths. Lucky for us again, there was a covenant team for checking buildings. Two teams entered our building, one from the back door that leads to the kitchen and one in the front door. We had hidden under tables and behind the bar. I was under one of the tables close to the kitchen. The swinging door opened and a tall, ugly looking alien stepped through. He took long slow strides, trying to be cautious. He walked right by my table. The ground vibrated at his steps. I heard some high-pitched squealing and noticed two more aliens entered through the door. Two grunts. Small team. We waited.
These covenant soldiers were not looking for anybody. They were just finding a place to rest. The elite pulled out a chair, while the little ones curled on the floor.
The ally-way team should be far enough not to hear any gunfire.
I peeked from under the table and made eye contact with the sergeant. He gave me the "Okay" signal and passed the word to his troops. All at once, we pushed the tables aside and fired. The elite was so startled that he fell out of his chair. Hundreds of rounds bounced off the elites shielding, until finally, it burned out. Purple blood took the place of the blue armor. The grunts suffered the same fate. Each one took two shotgun slugs, nearly tearing them in half. Glowing blue blood was splattered all over the place. I had to wipe some off my face. After commandeering the plasma weapons, we exited the building and headed toward the train station.
Or what was left of it.
When we arrived, the whole building was up in flames. The ground around it looked like it was painted with glass.
"It took a hit from one of the big ships," the sergeant stated.
A lot of people died in there.
I asked the obvious question.
"What do we do now?"
Nobody answered.
After ten minuets of silence, one of the marines whispered in his commanding officers ear. He sighed again.
"Okay," his voice was choppy " we are going to find the other marines in this city. If we try to evacuate the city by ourselves…we may not make it. Last I heard, most of the marines are in the center of the city. So…lets start walking."
Our group walked for about two hours when we came across a medic and a badly wounded marine. We asked the medic if there were any more soldiers up the road.
"I don't know," the medic whispered after wiping a spot of blood off his cheek " the covenant sent almost all their troops into the city center. When I left, there were maybe a hundred soldiers defending that place."
He looked at the wounded soldier wrapped around his shoulders.
"I'm just trying to get my brother out of here."
We didn't ask him any more questions.

Our little squad arrived at the destination at nighttime. It did not look like nighttime, though. The covenant had placed huge artillery guns all over the city. Every fifty seconds, they would lobe a massive glob of plasma, lighting up the darkness.
We managed to find a small platoon resting in half a building. We decided to rest there for the night.
We talked to the commanding officer, who was a lieutenant named Gregory. Lieutenant Gregory was almost ecstatic to see us. They had been hit pretty badly. They said the three covenant destroyer loads of forces advanced on their position. The only way that they survived is that they ran and hid. Out of the hundred soldiers positioned in the center city, only seventeen men made it.
I was about to sleep, when the sergeant walked up to me. He held out his hand.
"My name is sergeant Thomas."
I shook his hand.
"I'm Carl Houts."
He gave me a small smile and sat next to me.
"You are pretty good with a gun."
I chuckled.
"My father taught me."
"Well, I will try to find you a real gun instead of that pea shooter."
"Thank you, sir."
"You get some rest."
"Yes, sir."
He walked away to sit next to a big hole in the wall. After pulling his helmet off, he brought his hand up to his eyes and cried.
The next morning, we talked with the lieutenant. We asked him about the wellbeing of the surrounding cities. We asked about Mombasa. The lieutenant looked at us with a hard face.
"There is no Mombasa."
My heart stopped.
"What happened?"
"Well," he started," It seems that a covenant ship jumped into split space while being inside the city, obliterating everything."
"My G…"
"Covenant troops, heading our way!!!"
"How many?!"
"I counted two hundred infantry, three tanks and a handful of banshees. Sir, they are headed for the hospital."
"What?! I told them to evacuate!"
"With all due respect sir, that is better said than done."
The lieutenant stood there for a second, thinking.
"We can't let them kill all those people." He turned to few soldiers he had left. "New objective. Gather all the ammo you can carry. This is not going to be easy."

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