Red Letter Days/Chapter Ten

Previous Chapter: Chapter 9: Trapped in Alienville

Chapter Ten: One Last Shot


 * ''Vega Ceti System
 * UN Colony: Second Base
 * Pvt. 1st class Leonard Schaeffer
 * Trapped in New Luxor''

Schaeffer opened his eyes slowly, immediately slamming them shut as the light blinded him. He was numb and cold, the feeling in his hands and legs completely gone and felt pain pushing sharply into his ribs in the form of a rock. The events of the day slowly came back to Schaeffer, the interrogation at the base, their convoy to the city, the rebel ambush... but he could swear he was forgetting something important...

It took Schaeffer a few minutes of lying on the cold concrete with his eyes shut to realize, but when he did, his eyes opened immediately. The Furious was going to be leaving with or without the marines and if sun was already coming out...

He tried not to think about it as he forced himself up. His whole left side was coated with dirt, mud and god knows what else from having laid in the gutter for so long. Dried blood coated his other side, his wounds having opened and ruined his uniform. He felt woozy the second he was up and almost fell back to the ground in pain, having no idea on how to tell how much blood he lost, Schaeffer assumed it was not a good amount. Then again, was any amount good?

Deciding to hold off on deep medical questions, he stumbled to the side in order to lean against his flipped Warthog. Looking up, the orbital elevator was still intact and floating through the air a few miles away was one of the Covenant transports, well away from him. The city was dead, even more so than the night before, for all he knew he was all that was left.

No... there has to be others... he told himself. If he was alone he was dead, there was absolutely no way he could get to the elevator and call the Furious before the ship left without help. Looking around though, it seemed like he wouldn't find help here. Ten Warthogs sat in the middle of the road, four of them were burnt to a crisp, while the others were just riddled with bullets and abandoned. Every time the wind blew down the street, the turret of one of the destroyed Warthogs creaked and swung, it was almost as unnerving as the bodies.

The bodies themselves filled the streets from end to end, Marine corpses, twisted and just as broken as the Warthogs were left where they had fallen along with those insurgents who had fallen from buildings or out of their cover. Blood trails hinted that some had been dragged away, but the vast majority were laying stiff, blood frozen and skin pale. Schaeffer could see the scene unfolding in his mind, a Marine having tried to run between cover to receive shrapnel to the neck. Another where her cover behind a pillar was ripped apart by machine gun fire and her remains splattered across the building behind her. The scene was grizzly at best, at least twenty bodies in the street, Schaeffer would have thrown up if there was anything left in his stomach.

Deciding on a path, Schaeffer took his first, shaky steps towards an alleyway where most of the blood trails seemed to lead. From the positioning of the bodies, Schaeffer thought it looked liked the Marines had fallen back into the alley. Stepping over a body, he found himself frowning to get a view of the dark and dirty alley. He reached up to click the light on his helmet on but found it cracked open, along with most of the devices on his helmet. A nice crack in the metal was running up the side and he counted himself lucky he had decided to grab a new one. No helmets were for propaganda posters and officers, or people with broken skulls, Schaeffer supposed.

He reached into his tool belt, pulling out a survival pack that Marines were issued. He hadn't thought he would be needing it today, but he rooted around for a moment and then found what he wanted. He was happy he had never thought of discarding the pack and pulled one of the flares he had from the small bag. He ripped the cap off and then rubbed it against the top, sighing in relief when it sparked and gave him light. Schaeffer proceeded once again into the alleyway, grimacing at the bodies he had to step over and the stench of gunpowder, blood, puke and the other various smells of death that had congealed in the alley.

Passing by a dumpster, he saw a hulking body slumped over behind it with a dead corpsman close by. He immediately identified the body as Riley and shook his head sadly, the man was obviously dead and Schaeffer wished he had known him better. He seemed to have liked Schaeffer and Schaeffer didn't mind having a 6'6” slab of muscle watching his back, but all good things had to come to an end it seemed.

Schaeffer fell to a knee and ripped the dog tags from his neck. He wondered if he should take the tags from the rest of the bodies but quickly realized the futility in that. Sighing, he grabbed hold of the dumpster and lifted himself back up, then began stumbling back down the alleyway. He followed the signs of retreating Marines through a doorway and into the kitchen of a restaurant A box of ammo sat next to a table, leaning on some gathered medical supplies. The Marines must have tried holding in the building... how long they lasted he had no idea.

Schaeffer wandered through the building for some time, hallways filled with nothing besides discarded shells, the corpses of formerly wounded Marines who had been dragged away, more and more death and destruction. Stepping through some wide doors and into the dining area, he frowned as he saw men in civilian clothing dead alongside Marines, many gripping old rifles or with vests over their clothes. The rebels must have forced their way in and by the lack of Marines, they probably won.

Schaeffer glanced up at the balcony that wrapped around the inside of the dining area, leading to another restaurant. He briefly wondered if he should search the second floor, but stepped back when set of doors on the higher floor slammed open and the sound of clicking boots wormed its way into the air. He had only a moment to wonder where he could hide when he saw the silhouetted shapes of Marines line up on the balcony and point their rifles at his chest.

“Contact sighted! Contact sighted!” someone screamed, Schaeffer rose his hands. He recognized the voice, but he had a feeling that the recognation wasn't mutual.

“Identify yourself!” A man he recognized as Busy screamed, Schaeffer stammered at the sight of six different rifles pointed at him from the balcony and then stumbled as his legs began to fail in fear and pain.

“I think that's a Marine, Sarge...” he heard Kelano say, some of the rifles dipped for a second but stopped when Busy's didn't. Schaeffer let out some mix of a plea for mercy and a statement that they were assholes.

“Leo, that you?” it was Red now, Schaeffer let out an affirmation and the rifles dipped immediately. One of them kept steady, but fell after someone punched the owner in the shoulder. Schaeffer felt his knee wobble for a moment and then his legs go out from under him. He fell to the floor in a clatter of armor and stared at the ceiling above him, Schaeffer's attempts to get up didn't amount to much more than him looking like a flopping fish.

“Schaeffer!” someone cried, there was a series of thumps and a minute later, Schaeffer's view was filled with worried faces. Red, Kelano, Busy and two Marines he didn't recognize were checking over him and trying to get him up.

“God damn it man, you realize how much blood and mud you're covered in?” Red asked, the Marine wet his finger and then wiped it across Schaeffer's forehead, despite his protests. When the finger came away, it was completely brown.

“Well I've been s-sleeping in a gutter, thanks...” Schaeffer replied as Busy gripped his breastplate and lifted him fully back to his feet. Schaeffer stumbled and steadied himself against Kelano before finding his feet again. Red offered him a water bottle which he chugged greedily, but when he looked over he immediately spat the water all over the Russian Marine.

Rat was sitting on one of the tables, staring at him. Schaeffer looked back to the other Marines who were watching in surprise and a very annoyed Red. Ignoring Red's whining, Busy decided to ignore Schaeffer's horrified expression and instead launched into a recounting of the day's events from his view.

“We got in the city, but we hadn't thought about what would happen when we got here. The Marines didn't really defend the city like they did in Garmed, so when the rebellion began, no one stopped it from snowballing and the city was almost entirely on the side of the rebel before the aliens even landed... they must have been waiting for the Covenant and then saw us strolling down the road.

“The convoys got wiped out, most of them at least. Ours fell apart and split up. A lot of us ran into the alleys to hold off while some of us-” Busy indicated the Marines around him “-tried to escape to the rally point. Time we got there, the Covenant had already landed. We got to pick up the remains of the slaughter, last we checked, the Covenant left the area and began searching the city for survivors.

“Wasn't much good sticking around there, so we decided to come looking for survivors. Been doing that for a while, me, Kelano, Red, Rat, Vasquez and Smokes. There were... others... but we got ambushed by Covies while walking into an apartment, not far from here, we've been breaching door by door ever since.”

Schaeffer nodded and then sighed, he was the only one they had found...

“You won't find any other survivors here. I didn't see anyone else breathing when I got up,” Schaeffer told them. Busy looked sad but unsurprised, one of the other Marines, Vasquez by his Spanish appearance, looked sad for a moment but then found a nervous smile on his face.

“So we don't have to keep going?” Busy glared at him and then nodded his head,

“No reason to if Schaeffer says there isn't anybody left. I don't want to risk another ambush out here... alright. Let's get moving,” Vasquez smiled even broader and then shrunk back at Busy's intensifying glare. Red tapped Schaeffer on the shoulder and then shoved a rifle into his hands when he turned around, the man cursing as he continued wiping the water off himself. It was cold and had a bit of blood on the stock, but the ammo counter still showed 20 rounds brightly and it didn't seem jammed.

“Anyone want to tell me what the plan is... exactly?” Schaeffer asked, Busy seemed surprised he was still talking in his state but began after a moment's hesitation,

“Cut through some alleys, hope for others, then get to the elevator and out with the Furious. They've been broadcasting that they were still on the way for some time, but we don't got long at all.” Schaeffer nodded, it was about what he expected. With everything decided, Busy gave Schaeffer one more look over, had him wipe his face down and had the group set off. Schaeffer grinded his teeth in a mix of pain and annoyance when Rat knocked shoulders with him. The criminal giving a grin over his shoulder.

Schaeffer, tired with Rat, decided to see if he could anger the Marine at all,

“So Rat, how is Mouse doing?” Schaeffer saw Rat's hands clench and the column slowed to a stop, the feeling of victory came pulsing through him as Rat spun around with pure anger playing across his face.

“Dunno, where's your whore ODST girlfriend?” Red countered. The reply seemed juvenile and when he shoved his way to the front of the column and towards the exit, Schaeffer knew he had won the exchange. Still, Rat got him thinking. Where was Meyers? He prayed she was alright, or at least not in pain.

''And if she is, then what? You're going to carry her off, break up with your girlfriend and ask her on a date?'' Schaeffer asked himself. He realized it was the first time he really thought of her romantically and found himself getting flustered over nothing immediately. Red patted him on the back to get him moving and Kelano whispered in his ear,

“Stop fucking around Schaeffer. We don't need this right now, we need every man we can get...” Schaeffer was surprised, it was about the first time in the day that someone in the platoon actually railed against him on the Rat situation. Red nodded in agreement with the brunette Marine.

“Yeah man, you're just going to make things worse, now come on...” Red said pleadingly, Schaeffer sighed and nodded after a moment and the three jogged to catch up.

They went through some hallways and exited through a broken fire door in the back of the building, once again walking into the chill outside air. To Schaeffer's delight, this alley wasn't filled with blood and bodies, though it seemed the road outside was. He could see the broken down cars and the half melted flesh from when the Covenant had attacked earlier in the day and was happy when they turned down another alley instead of into the battlefield.

The journey was nothing if not a careful one, the Marines cautiously checking every corner for the rebel or the alien. If either were there, they didn't bother exposing themselves and the Marines continued on, unmolested. Schaeffer flicked the safety of his rifle on and off nervously, something was going to happen. He just knew it.

After almost an hour of moving from door to door, alley to alley, only going on the main roads whenever they had no other choice and finding no survivors, the group found itself walking through a door in a parkling garage and into a completely bombed out building of an indescrminable purpose. Two of the walls were down on the streets in piles of scrap and rubble, exposing the insides like some sort of skeleton. The floors had all collapsed as well, leaving nothing besides two walls and a two story tall pile of rubble to show that something had once stood there.

They walked back inside the parking garage, Busy shaking his head and stretching his legs.

“Right, let's rest here for a minute. Reorganize and all.” Busy told them, exhaustion making its way into his voice. Each of the Marines nodded and began finding things to do with the rest period. Smokes walked past him, sliding an MRE out from behind his breastplate and smiling. Schaeffer wondered how he could smile at a time like this before he remembered he hadn't eaten in over a day.

He also wondered who the hell the man was, his face being achingly familiar, but decided he'd rather not spend his time talking to the younger Marine. Instead, he opted to talk back out the parking garage and onto the pile of rubble with Red.

They had a good view, the building being on a corner where two large roads met. Schaeffer and Red talked about small things as they scanned the streets, the conversation slowly dying off for a minute,

Red was about to say something when both of them saw something at the same time. The color green briefly flashed between trucks down the street and then again as a Marine shuffled down the road. Red was about to yell out when Schaeffer hushed him to silence, squinting in order to recognize the Marine.

“That's Sorelsky...” Schaeffer gasped. Red's eyes widened to saucers and then down to an angry glare.

“Great, of all the people we could find. Come on, let's get everyone. Time to play babysitter...” Schaeffer grabbed his shoulder before he could turn around and get the others and the Marine looked over in confusion.

“How about I go and talk to him privately?” Schaeffer asked, a hint of conspiracy in his voice. After a moment of silence, Red broke into a blubbering mess.

“S-Schaeffer. You can't be thinking of doing what I think you're doing...” Schaeffer shook his head sadly,

“I got to Red. If we get off this rock, he's going to take me down. He's been fucking us since moment one. I have to...” Red continued trying to shoot out reasons why he was wrong and he shouldn't but Schaeffer cut him off again,

“Red if you want me to make it out of this, you'll make sure to not let anyone know what I'm doing and never tell anyone what happened here.” Red tried to give one more argument, but his voice quieted to nothing when he saw the fire in Schaeffer's eyes and his face turned from disbelief into... Schaeffer didn't know. Fear?

“F-fine. Just go...” Red said, defeat playing across his face and all of his body movements. The Marine stared at Schaeffer for a moment, for the first time all day looking as old and tired as he really was. Before Schaeffer could comment on how it seemed the man had added five years, the Marine turned around and back into the garage, closing the door behind him.

Schaeffer stared at the metal for a moment before shaking his head and sliding down the pile of rubble, jogging towards the green shape. Schaeffer leaned over when he reached the body and found the crushed corpse of a police officer at the bottom. Schaeffer popped open the man's holster and slid out the pistol within before sliding the rifle onto his back and running to catch Sorelsky.

The major was unarmed besides a holstered pistol at his hip. He was completely covered in dust, had a dreary look in his eyes and had a scowl of annoyance playing across his lips. He turned around slowly when Schaeffer stumbled into the street behind him and his eyes rose, he didn't even notice the pistol in his hand. Sloppy.

“Private. Nice to see another familiar face, though I wish there was... more of you. I hope you're not planning on punching me again...” Schaeffer grinded his teeth at what must have been an attempt at an insult, the captains scowl turning into a smirk. Schaeffer's hand gripped his pistol.

“Just saw you in the distance sir, decided to come say hello,” he replied. The major chuckled nervously,

“Well I was moving to the elevator. Was hoping to find a rifle, but by the look of your back, I guess you found one first. Now let's go, I hate wasting time.” Sorelsky was turned halfway and Schaeffer almost brought the magnum up when he heard something stumble out of a doorway and saw a Marine come out. Sorelsky nodded to him and then glanced back at Schaeffer.

“Calm down kid, he's friendly. We ran into each other half a mile back, good kid I guess...” the other Marine smiled and tipped his helmet, cradling a rifle in his arms. Schaeffer was pretty sure he was one of the men on the Warthog that Schaeffer had driven in on that morning.

“I'm Private O'Shaw-” the Marine started, his looked turned to surprise when Schaeffer raised the pistol, then anguish when the bullet tore through his neck. Schaeffer didn't bother watching him fall, opting instead to swing his aim to the equally surprised major who was trying to unholster his pistol and failing to do so quickly enough. The first bullet lodged in the man's breastplate and Sorelsky stumbled from the force before Schaeffer fired another bullet into his gut.

Sorelsky gasped for air as he fell to the ground, in two moments, Schaeffer had his gun pointed at the mans eye and in another moment, two bullets in his skull. The city seemed silent again and Schaeffer let the pistol fall from his hand as the blood began to pool around his feet. Feeling numb, Schaeffer glanced at the private's body with a bit of regret, the Marine still writing slightly as the life left him. He listened to the soft gurgling noise of the dying private before turning and walking back to the ruin.

When he climbed back up the pile of rubble, he knocked on the door once and pushed it open. The Marines were all suiting back up inside, chatting quietly. Red glanced at him, saw the look in his eyes and then stared at his own boots. Schaeffer couldn't find it in him to care.

“How was your piss break?” Busy asked, Schaeffer stared for a moment before shrugging and unholstering his rifle. It would seem they didn't hear the shots, or at least assumed it to be more distant background noise. When Busy led them back out of the building, they slid down the rubble and went down an alley to the right, away from the bodies. Schaeffer was glad to distance himself.

Their path was lit by the flashlight of Busy's rifle and Schaeffer wished he had his flare still. At least with that, he could see more than a small circle at the end of a wall. They continued their pattern of breaching doors and carefully moving through the city for half an hour, the space elevator looming a mile or so until they found a backdoor to a resturaunt in the dead end of the alley they were walking down.

They carefully pushed open the door and slipped in, not wanting to alert anything to their presence. Busy took five steps into the building when there was a smashing of glass and he rose his fist to signal a halt. The Marines immediately ducked down to their haunches and waited for him to give the order to move.

Busy got into a crouch as well and began carefully moving forward, checking the area ahead of him. His hand moved up to signal them forward again when there was a scream, further in the building and the Marine let out a light curse.

“Real careful now, nice and quiet...” he ordered, still beckoning them on with his hand signal. The Marines were now nervous, the flashlight being cut and Busy moving down by the small amounts of sunlight that filtered through the holes in the wall, they weren't alone anymore it seemed. Schaeffer found himself praying it wasn't Covenant.

Busy opened another door and they were in a small kitchen. Some weapons and armor were stacked in a corner and ammo was stacked next to it. To the left of the door, a man in Kevlar was leaned over one of the metal counters and was fighting with a foil package, mumbling to himself as he struggled to get to the treat inside.

The sergeant carefully closed the door again, making sure not to make a sound. The Marines looked at him expectantly and he sighed in annoyance.

“Of course it's Innies. It's always Innies...” he said, Schaeffer glanced down the hallway. Were there patrols that were going to trip on them, or was their sentry the man in the kitchen? He didn't want to wait and find out.

“We can just leave. Find another way out,” Schaeffer whispered urgently, several of the Marines nodding in agreement. There was another scream from the cafeteria and Busy shook his head.

“We have to find out what they've got in there. Might be one of ours that's making their screams, we have to get whoever that is and get out.” Busy stated, Rat looked doubtful,

“And if it's just one of their wounded?” more nods of agreement from the peanut gallery, Busy smirked,

“Then we're going to look like glorious idiots. Now come on, who has a bayonet? We're going to have to take down that sentry.” the Marines all searched their packs, but none had one still on them. Schaeffer reached into one of the packs on his belt and felt his heart sink when he felt the grip of a knife. After a moment's hesistation, he pulled the knife out.

The Marines all looked worriedly at him, besides Rat who was besides himself with amusement. Kelano grabbed his shoulder,

“If you don't want to do this Newbie, I can go...” she said, Schaeffer winced at the word Newbie and shook her hand off his shoulder. He mind as well do it, no one else had experience murdering someone, he didn't think. Well maybe Rat did.

“Alright Schaeffer, just slip in there, make sure no one is looking, grab his mouth and stab inwards. Pull him down so he can't be found and make sure you're holding tight enough so he doesn't scream.” Schaeffer nodded at the advice, though he was sure Busy was talking out of his ass. After pushing his rifle over his shoulder, he began to grip the knife tightly and shoved through the door and back into the kitchen.

The rebel was just about finished opening the wrapper and was starting to pull out the treat within. Another scream resounded from the cafeteria and the man, who couldn't have been a day above thirty, glanced up before going back to his food. Schaeffer slid up behind him with all the grace of a mule, but managed to not kick anything and went unnoticed by the rebel, who had the food halfway to his mouth.

A quick glance to the cafeteria showed no one watching and Schaeffer stood up and grabbed the man's mouth, the food falling from his hand and clattering on the counter. The man tried to scream but had his protests muffled by Schaeffer's hand, his hand flying to a pistol sitting on the counter not far away but Schaeffer brought the knife down on the man's shoulder before he could, the arm going slack. He screamed through the hand but almost no noise came out as Schaeffer stabbed it over and over.

The rebel sobbed and Schaeffer stabbed the knife into his throat, finishing him. He gurgled out a bit more as the blood seeped over his chest and through Schaeffer's fingers and when he stopped protesting, Schaeffer slid him to the floor and laid him behind a counter. Blood pooled quickly and he dully realized he was soaked in the stuff before he knocked on the door to signal everyone back in.

Busy and the rest slipped in through the doorway, all the Marines glancing at the body and then to the blank look in Schaeffer's eyes with a bit of worry, but not commenting.

“Damn fine work, Schaeffer,” Busy told him. Schaeffer didn't feel at all like he did damn fine work, but didn't comment, nodding instead.

The Marines carefully moved around the tables and to the counters where the food would have been served. They had a good view of the cafeteria from there and saw exactly what was going on.

A Marine sat in a chair, shackled with handcuffs and completely covered in blood. Rebels paced around him, with one trying to cut out information from the man with a knife. The Marine moaned and cried and tried to tell the rebels he didn't know anything, but the butcher kept coming at him and cutting him more, to his screams.

Further down the room, six or so Marines sat on the ground next to one of the tables, their wrists cuffed to the table legs of the table and with two rebels pacing in front of them. Some more rebels sat on the tables, watching the interrogation and others paced in front of the windows, keeping watch. All in all, there were around twelve rebels and probably more not far away.

He couldn't recognize the Marines, but he recognized the scream now that he was so close, and from the sound of it, so did the others.

“Is that Mackenzie?” Kelano asked and Schaeffer nodded.

“It's gotta be. What do we do Busy? We gotta help him,” Schaeffer asked, suddenly changing his mind about the whole event, Busy looked disgusted and worried at the same time.

“Firing positions, take aim, pick your targets,” Busy ordered, steel entering his voice. After a moment of preperation, they all had targets decided and took aim for the order to fire.

“Smoke 'em!” Busy shouted, the rebels glancing over at the sudden noise. They didn't get much of a chance to reply as each of the Marine's rifles opened up on the exposed insurgents. Schaeffer felt the rifle kick into his shoulder and saw the interrogator collapse onto Mackenzie, another kick sent one of the men who was hopping off the table sprawling to the ground, gripping his side.

One of the Innies ran to a rifle, balanced on a table and collapsed halfway when Schaeffer took him down next. He felt like some sort of reaper, choosing who was next to die and taking their life away with the flick of his finger. Another flick and another Innie spun around dramatically as he grabbed his shotgun.

Schaeffer saw movement in the windows and more rebels were suddenly firing into the cafeteria. The Marines ducked down at the fire and Red prepared his grenade launcher but Busy stopped him, not wanting the hostages to get hurt.

“Schaeffer, I want you to run in and get behind that table in there. We'll cover you, but it should give you a shot on the rebels,” Busy said as he pointed to the table in question. Schaeffer nodded in response, ejecting a clip from the rifle and clicking a new one in. He pushed up a bit and waited for the shout that would give him his shot, another bullet lodging into the metal only inches from his head.

“Covering fire!” Busy screamed and the Marines all opened up at once. Schaeffer hopped and rolled over the top of the counter before hitting the ground, immediately bolting to the table which was seventy feet away from him. The rebels began firing again and Schaeffer found the ground around him being riddled with bullet holes. He slid the last few feet behind the table and gasped in a breath as he lay there. He was amazed he was still alive, but had a feeling it wasn't going to last long with the number of bullets slamming into the back of the table.

The amount of fire laying into him shrunk as his allies continued their fire on the rebels and Schaeffer finished reloading and took aim once again. Schaeffer leaned out of cover and saw two of the rebels drop and then added a third and fourth with his own fire. The remaining rebels threw a few more bullets in the air, but when they received no less, they broke and scattered into the streets.

Silence fell again, besides Mackenzie's moans in pain, the Marines wearily stood up. Schaeffer's legs were jelly and he felt his muscles burn as the adrenaline wore off. He was sure that if there was a god, he was watching out for him, because he lost count of the bullet holes between the table and the kitchen at around 50.

“Great job, Schaeffer,” Busy told him as the Marines hopped over the counter and into the cafeteria. Schaeffer nodded in response as the Marines all sent their regards. Even Rat looked a bit awed, though he tried desperately not to show it.

Busy and Red ran over to help Mackenzie while Smokes, Kelano and Vasquez watched the windows, leaving Schaeffer and Rat to deal with the other prisoners. As he walked towards the surviving Marines, he passed by a moaning rebel, a bullet in his thigh. Schaeffer deposited another into his brain without skipping a beat.

Rat glanced over at the shot and quickly took a step away from him and all of the Marines looked like a mix between thankful and scared of him as he approached. He spotted Mouse in the mix, who smiled at Rat and laughed when he saw his friend. The rest of the Marines were nobody to him, besides Venendez who was breathing in relief off to one of the ends.

“Hey Smike,” Schaeffer said, smiling as he walked down the line. Venendez glared at him, but still smiled from relief at the Marines sudden appearance. Schaeffer stopped next to one of the rebels bodies and saw he was in an officer's uniform, with a set of keys on his belt. Schaeffer tore them off and began working the locks on the cuffs.

One by one, the Marines were unlocked and allowed to stretch out. Each Marine thanked him profusely and two hugged him, Schaeffer nodded in response, happy to play the hero for now.

“There are guns in the kitchen back there, you guys better report to Busy when you're done,” Schaeffer told them, motioning at the sergeant with his rifle. The Marines all nodded and walked towards the kitchen, Schaeffer and Rat walked back to Mackenzie. When they reached the tortured Marine, Schaeffer found the final key and unlocked him from his shackles before tossing the set onto the floor.

Schaeffer held his breath at Mackenzie's wounds. The rebels had ripped off his fatigues and cut up his chest like some sort of roast. Slashes poured blood all over and Schaeffer saw burn marks from a cigarette. His face was cover in cuts as well and was swollen from the constant beating.

“Did you free a medic?” Busy asked as Schaeffer gaped at his dying friend. Rat saw he wasn't answering and told Busy the bad news.

“Guys, please, p-please...” Mackenzie said, Busy rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“We ain't going to leave you Mackenzie, don't worry.” as he said it, he broke open his medical kit and slipped out some biofoam, starting to fill in the wounds. When his canister emptied, he threw it out and took Rats, continuing with his shoddy attempt to stabilize the Marine. Schaeffer reached into his own kit and found some bandages and began wrapping the spots that Busy filled or that were too shallow for the foam to do much.

He remembered the pain in his arm that had passed into normality for him and felt bad for Mackenzie. His shoulder was filled with the foam and it still hurt like hell, he couldn't imagine his whole body being filled with the foam like some sort of stuffed bear.

“What were they even trying to beat out of you?” Schaeffer asked after handing him a canteen of water. Mackenzie drank greedily, water pouring down his lips and washing away some of the blood as Busy finished up.

“W-wanted to k-know... where everyone else... w-was,” Mackenzie told him after drinking for a minute.

“Did you know?” Schaeffer asked after a moment's hesistation. Mackenzie managed a smile.

“Y-yeah. They're at the M-Museum... half a c-cl-ick away.” Schaeffer was impressed that the man hadn’t snapped and happy that there were other survivors. Busy looked like he had more questions but didn't want to press more and instead turned to find a bullet proof vest for Mackenzie that wasn't full of holes.

–

The group left the building, now far too large to sneak through the city as they had before. They numbered twelve able bodied men now, with Mackenzie being carried by one of the Marines as they went. They still kept to alleys, but could hardly move at the careful crawl they were at before and carry Mackenzie without taking a day to get to their destination.

Their destination was no longer the space elevator. Now they walked towards a large square building to the east, which they could occasionally see in the distance. It was filled with the best sculptures, paintings and other works that had been made on Second Base, along with a few that were made off world. It was also an impromptu fire base, as of four hours ago, said the Marines they had found.

They met blissfully little resistance and were soon walking towards the Museum. The men strolled through a large plaza in front of the building, a series of gardens to their side and a large and still running fountain sitting in the center. A Warthog sat in front of the fountain, the passenger seats in the back still holding luggage. Polic tape was tattered around the plaza, EVACUATION ZONE printned across.

Bodies were liberally strewn about as well. Human bodies, definitely insurgents by their garb, were laying in pools of dried blood, obviously having been there for some time. Fresher were the bodies of Covenant soldiers, Squids and Squats laying where they had been gunned down by human gunfire. Insurgent and alien both faced the entrance of the building, which was covered with bullet and scorch marks.

Schaeffer could tell that they were walking straight into an ambush as they passed the fountain and began walking up the steps to the large set of doors, the only question was who set it up.

Busy must have felt the same way because he was soon ordering the Marines to tread carefully and they fell into their previous bit of checking every inch for hostiles. The group propped up around some of the doors, then shoved through at a nod from Busy.

Like every damned building in Second Base, Schaeffer thought, a balcony ran around the sides of the room that connected it with the second floor. Some odd piece of abstract art hung from the ceiling and painting and sculptures lined the walls. As they crossed into the building, they heard something kick a piece of trash on the second floor and every single rifle pointed up.

“Friendly! Friendly!” the ODST screamed before he could be blasted away. Schaeffer glared at him and then heard a shuffle and several other ODSTs and Marines began to slide out from behind the various sculptures and columns. Schaeffer watched the new arrivals, or the old he supposed and then looked back to the ODST on the balcony.

“Do you know Lieutenant Meyers?” Schaeffer yelled up, Busy and the other Marinesg glanced at him but then looked up expectantly. The ODST nodded and leaned on the railing in front of him nonchalantly.

“She's leading this defense, along with some Marines. She's higher up in the building, if you go up that staircase there, I'll lead you up.” Schaeffer nodded and made for the stairway before any of the other Marines could get their bearing. When his foot reached the first stair, he heard the Marines begin jogging after him. Behind them, the defenders slipped back behind cover, waiting for hostiles.

“You guys are probably the last ones who are going to get on the transport out. Anyone not here is going to get ditched. Though until we saw you, we thought we were the last friendlies on the planet, the LT called for evac hardly half an hour ago.” The ODST stepped into an elevator at the side of a hallway into an exhibit and the Marines all shoved in behind him.

The ODST clicked on the button for floor 10 and the glass doors of the elevator clicked shut soon afterwards. Schaeffer felt the tug as the elevator began its ascent, pushing higher than the art galleries on every floor and each time showing the Marines an impressive view of some sort of the planet's greatest art, Schaeffer felt a bit sad that all of it was going to be destroyed soon.

When they passed the eighth floor, Schaeffer saw the refugees. Civilians crowded around screens and huddled together, with Marines playing peacekeeper. Schaeffer figured there was at least a hundred civilians huddled in the gallery and he saw a platoon's worth of various military personnel walking and working on the next floor. Finally, the elevator stopped at the tenth and the group stepped in a large and airy gallery.

They stepped around some displays and up to a table with an assortment of ODSTs and Marines huddled around. The ODST announced them and the soldiers turned around to stare at the new arrivals. Schaeffer saw that the highest rank among them was first sergeant and guessed that they had lost the colonel and the rest in the battle, it didn't bode well, but nothing that day had.

He spotted Meyers leaning against the table, gazing at a map of the city laid down and glanced up for a moment at the arrivals. She looked back down, halfway through a word, when she looked back up and spotted Schaeffer. Her features softened immediately and Schaeffer found himself smiling for the first time in hours after a moment. Schaeffer glanced to her side to see the lieutenant standing next to her, stern faced as always and then lowered his smile back to a more serious facade.

“It's good to see some survivors, any news?” she asked them, Schaeffer almost spilled out about the day when Busy pushed forward and explained all that had happened. When he got around to the point where Schaeffer killed the major, Schaeffer felt the wind catch in his throat, but Busy didn't mention it and Schaeffer realized he was safe. Red shuffled awkwardly at the same point and looked like he wanted to say something, but a sharp glare from Schaeffer silenced anything he might have revealed.

Meyers nodded at Busy's assesment and Lieutenant Hartfield piped up,

“Sounds about in line with what we've been facing. Rebels overran the city before we even got here. We thought they were friendly militia units, we thought they weren't going to bother with their damn rebellion after the Covenant attacked. It looks like we triggered a trap meant for the Covenant and now the fuckers are swarming in through the holes we made...” he looked behind himself as he said this, out a window and Schaeffer took a step to see the cityscape as well. He could see the shapes of Covenant transports in the distance, unloading troops all around New Luxor.

“We've been hit three times since we reorganized here, first by Innies and then by aliens. We only got about one more defense in us before we crack, we're leaving in a few minutes, by the last message we got, the Furious will be here in just under an hour. The ships been dodging the Covenant all damn day and might be able to lose them long enough to get us. Hopefully,” the lieutenant told them. He glanced at his watch and then showed Meyers, who nodded and told everyone to start packing.

“We have an hour until the Furious jumps, people. Let's get ready to move, get your gear!” Meyers shouted to the men around her, the men and women all scrambling to obey. Meyers looked around, sighed and then walked up to the group of men who awkwardly stood in the middle of the bustle.

“Can we do anything, ma'am?” Busy asked, Meyers nodded, pointing to the elevator,

“Get down to the eighth, make sure everyone is getting ready for evac and reinforce the guys down there. I don't want it turning into a panic when we announce we're leaving, can I trust you?” she asked, Busy nodded and saluted, telling her he'd get it done. The lieutenant smiled again and Busy started leading the squad out, Schaeffer made to follow.

“Schaeffer... wait... walk with me for a second,” Meyers asked, grabbing his good shoulder with care. Schaeffer turned around and followed her as she walked to a window, she stopped and stared out at the city, Schaeffer felt awkward standing in silence.

“So... LT Hartfield is taking orders from you...” he said, Meyers nodded in response.

“Hartfield's great at what he does, but he's a follower to the core. He can lead men to death, but he can only do it if there is someone above him shoving him to a goal. It's a bit sad, he'd be the finest officer I've ever met otherwise.” Schaeffer felt surprised but remembered how the lieutenant always seemed to be right next to the captain. He had assumed that was because the two were close, but it sounded more like Hartfield was afraid to be left alone.

“But that's not what I wanted to talk about. Schaeffer... I'm scared about what's going to happen. I'm really scared. I don't think I'm making it out, I hardly think I can even get us to the orbital elevator in one piece. And when we get there, for all I know the Furious won't even show up and ditch us.” Schaeffer looked over again and saw her frowning, he felt her pain, the weight bearing down on his shoulders and he rubbed her arm reassuringly.

“It's alright Meyers. You're a great leader and an ODST, you have to be damn good to be able to say that,” he told her, feeling his voice break out of the even level it had been at for most of the day. She smiled at him and to his surprise, turned around and hugged him.

Their breastplates clinked awkwardly as Meyers held him for a minute and the two untangled themselves quickly afterwards.

“I'm just glad that I can talk to someone here who isn't an ODST,” she told him, rubbing her shoulders and smiling.

“If... if I can ask... why am I the one you're talking to? I hardly know you Meyers... even if I wish that could change...” she raised an eyebrow at the question before looking back out the window,

“ODSTs don't live long Schaeffer... all my friends from my platoon are dead. And you're still here, the guy who saved my life. That counts for something,” she told him, Schaeffer glanced at his feet, but then smiled at the end,

“Like a kiss?” he asked, she laughed and shook her head,

“How about a beer when we get out of this and then we'll see where we can go from there.” Schaeffer nodded and the two shared a smile.

Her radio blared with a scream of warning and she looked down at the box on her belt that connected to the headset in her helmet. She flicked a switch and turned a dial and the voice came out much clearer. Schaeffer recognized it as the ODST from the first floor.

''“Covies! They're swarming the fucking plaza! Drop ships everywhere! Shit!”'' the color drained from Meyers' face and a Marine ran up to ask her for orders, telling her what they just heard.

“Get men downstairs to hold the line, get the civilians in the warehouse in the back and get ready to speed up the evacuation plans.” the man nodded and was about to turn around when a Covenant transport hovered up next to their window.

The two pronged vehicle was made of an odd purple metal, bright blue lights inlaid on the side. The cannon on the bottom swung around and began spitting blue plasma at the Marines inside the building.

“Get down!” one of the men screamed as the window exploded in front of them. Meyers grabbed Schaeffer and threw the two to the ground, plasma flying through the now gaping hole and cutting down the Marines who still stood. Schaeffer stared wide eyed as he saw an ODST practically explode as the plasma impacted his chest, blood spraying several feet around him.

The transport seemed satisfied with this and lowered again, disappearing from view. The Marines slowly got back to their feet, constantly making sure the gunship was no longer in the window. Meyers pulled both of them up, then limped away from the window. Schaeffer wondered if he should ask about her leg, but decided against it.

“Damage report?” Meyers asked, an ODST with a bandage around his gut shook his head,

“Six dead, four wounded, ma'am,” the man said, idly picking up what was left of an arm and dropping it on a table with disgust.

“Well that's perfect. Get everyone loaded in the second lift, Corporal Brodie and Sergeant Davis, get the wounded in the maintenance lift and get them loaded in the vehicles. Everyone else, second lift, lets move.” Meyers' voice turned hard, in stark contrast to her talk with Schaeffer and the men all confirmed her order. The woman grabbed a rifle from the ground and marched off towards the elevator, Schaeffer followed her to the elevator and crammed in with the ten or so troopers still on the floor.

One Marine clicked the button for the first floor and the elevator shuddered before descending. Schaeffer watched through the glass door as they passed the now deserted 8th and 9th floors, papers and personal objects laying forgotten on the ground from the hasty retreat. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some tension leave Meyers' shoulders as she saw her orders had been carried through.

The building shook and the lights flickered, a Marine falling to the side and bracing against the wall. One of the Marines shouted as the din of gunfire grew louder,

“Mortars!?” another Marine checked the clip of his rifle,

“Sounds like it, guess those split-jaws really don't want us here.” Schaeffer cursed as he realized that they might have to fight their way out and checked his ammo as the building shook again. He had three more clips on him, besides the half filled one that was in his rifle and still had the bloody bayonet on him as well. Once he ran out, he had no idea what exactly he'd do.

They passed the second floor and then finally settled on the first. The hallway in front of them was filled with plasma and lead as the two forces exchanged fire on either side. Two grenades flew out from the UNSC's position and the Covenant fire stopped momentarily as the aliens took cover. Three Marines ran past the elevator and moved up the line as their door opened and the soldiers all sprinted out of the lift.

“Move! Out of the way!” someone screamed and they all pressed against the wall. Four ODST's groaned as they pushed a huge metal box through the hall and towards the door, the odd blue metal scraping on the ground as it went. Schaeffer glimpsed two of the huge Tank creatures from the hospital smashing through the buildings entrance as the Humans slammed the doors shut and pressed the hunk of metal against it. The doors shook and melted as huge beams of plasma cut through, but they stopped against the box and did little more than dent it.

The Covenant attempted to break through and the odd piece of metal shifted slightly but held, satisfied with their blockade, the ODST's stumbled away before getting behind defensive positions. A Marine ran up to Meyers and saluted hastily,

“Ma'am! We've got aliens swarming through every door in the god damned building! We can hold them here, but they're going to find a way around soon and even this door ain't gonna last all day...” the woman's voice was teetering dangerously on panic and Meyers cut her off before she could fall even more into fear.

“Get ready to withdraw, there's no use holding this area. Get into the warehouse and mount up, then get the hell out of here. I don't want to stick around any longer than I have to,” the woman nodded profusely but then the doors dented inwards and the square was shoved back half a foot.

“Ma'am, the doors won't hold long enough to keep them! We're going to get hit from behind!” Meyers groaned in frustration and glanced at the door, then around the hallway, before her face lit up with an idea,

“Get the drop troopers to organize their demo charges, they should all still have some explosives. I still want to save some for when we get to the elevator, so get everyone to use only one charge, stick the C-12 on supports and in hallways, I want this place brought down when we leave,”-the woman nodded but stood still until Meyers shouted-“go!” with that, the woman bolted off to relay orders to the waiting ODSTs, those who were in earshot moving to comply.

“What should I do?” Schaeffer asked as she began to shout orders. The lieutenant looked surprised he was still there for a minute but quickly remembered the Marines still milling about and looked down the hallway.

“We're going to have to stay back and plant the charges, but there's nothing you can help with that I don't think. Go down that hallway, there”-Meyers pointed down a corridor-”and then go through the maintenance exit till you get to the warehouse. We've got vehicles loaded up there, so find an empty one and hop in. We'll be right behind you, but we gotta get this settled.” Schaeffer looked at her for a moment, unsure if he should say anything, before nodding and making off down the hall.

A glance behind showed around twenty Marines following him as they gave up their defensive positions. Schaeffer found the door he was looking for easily enough and was soon stepping into a massive room, filled with shelves that reached to the high roof above. The shelves had been pushed to the side in order to make room for far more vehicles than the building was initially meant to hold, around thirty Warthogs bunched up, all besides two of them transports.

Schaeffer wanted to groan, it was difficult enough to fight through the city with the machine guns, with nothing? It would be a slaughter if they met heavy resistance. Schaeffer didn't even know how they were meant to get through the formerly busy streets of the city.

Every vehicle was filled with civilians, around a hundred of the weaponless citizens in all. As he walked in, Schaeffer heard a shout and looked for the source, seeing a waving Hooch leaning on one of the vehicles.

“Hey Schaeffer! Schaeffer!” Schaeffer wasn't sure if he should sigh in relief that the man was alive or groan that he had to deal with him, but stepped down the ramp into the cargo area all the same. The Marine ran up to him and grasped his shoulder, a smile breaking out across his face as he spoke at a million miles an hour, rambling about how he had survived the ambush by breaking off with some Marines into a sewer grate and how he had fought some sort of weird bug alien and other things Schaeffer cared little about.

“So then we got here and I found out that 1st Company wasn't completely-”

“Lieutenant Meyers says to get out of here, the building is overran, it's being rigged to blow, she'll be following shortly. Let's go.” Hooch look hurt that Schaeffer interrupted him, but nodded after a moment and ran off to tell whoever was in charge of the convoy. Schaeffer was getting sick of columns of vehicles, but just gritted his teeth and followed Hooch to the rest of the Marines.

The only Marines in Warthogs were drivers or gunners, the passenger and transport seats of all the Hogs being filled exclusively with scared looking refugees or the wounded who couldn't walk. Schaeffer turned back to the crowd of Marines that was formed up near the large cargo doors, checking gear and trying to waste the little time they had until they left. He briefly said hello to a surprised looking Masih when Hooch came back with the leader of the formation.

Schaeffer watched the man for a moment before his gut sank and he realized Gaffer was in charge of the convoy. The man didn't notice Schaeffer among the crowd of dirty, bloody Marines and began talking to the troopers as a whole.

“Right, it's time we get out of this hole. Fuckin' Covenant are swarming the god damned AO and we got this place ready to drop. We don't need anymore ambushes anymore and us jarheads are going to fuckin' sweep the area ahead of the fuckin' convoy. We've got permission to shoot any god damned thing that gets in our fuckin' way so weapons free

“The elevator is a half hour away. Once we get there, we link up with any fuckin' Marines still humping that position or evict whatever ungodly son of a bitch is living there now. Then the Furious fucking Five will come in and save us, but that's going to get screwed. Anyway, that's our plan and it's starting now. I've wasted enough fuckin' time explaining this to you people, now let's get this organized.”

Gaffer was charming as always Schaeffer noted and the man proceeded to tell the fifty or so Marines and ODSTs exactly where they were assigned. He narrowed his eyes when he chose the men for the forward sweep, noticing Schaeffer for the first time and put him in a group of thirty or so men. The ten remaining men were assigned to guard the back, making sure nothing closed in behind the undefended transports.

Schaeffer wished he could sit down and rest in one of the 'Hogs, let his weak legs recover from the long day of walking and running. Still, the thought that most of the Warthogs he had seen that day ended up destroyed with its occupants still in them occurred to him and he tried to content himself with the fact that if he was going to die, it wasn't going to be from an explosion. Hopefully.

Schaeffer was put with several Marines and they were told to sweep the buildings on the left side of the street. It was impossible to do every floor of the skyscrapers, so the Marines were just going to move through the first floors and clear the upper floors if any contacts were spotted. Along with him, he was teamed with Busy, Hooch, Masih, Red, Vasquez and Smokes.

Vasquez and Smokes were still nobodies to Schaeffer, but the two smiled broadly at him as they formed up and Schaeffer wondered what he had done to earn their apparent friendship. He was happy however that Rat had been placed in the back team, thoughts of having to trust Rat with his back not withstanding.

--

Schaeffer had been afraid of Covenant air support, but from the looks of things, the nuke in Garmed had damaged the aliens almost as badly as it had the UNSC and the alien vehicles weren't coming in the same staggering numbers as before.

Or they just weren't bothering to send them in for what they deemed was a small threat, but the thought disconcerted Schaeffer so much that he tried to think of anything besides the aliens, despite the sounds of gunfire coming from the building behind them.

They ran down a back street and out into the main road, thankfully devoid of hostiles. After a minute of jogging down the road, Busy motioned them through a doorway and the men were soon shoving into the lobby of an office. They waited for a moment when a runner from the convoy came sprinting down the road, their signal to start screening.

The Marines walked through the hallways and office spaces and other assorted buildings, making sure to keep close to the street. It was difficult to always move towards one direction, even when the buildings weren't built to allow it and Schaeffer wished they could find their ways faster.

The men were completely silent as they made their way and Schaeffer yelped slightly when the sound of a large explosion filled his ear, the ground shaking as the museum collapsed. He wondered if that meant that Meyers was safely away and thus able to detonate it, or if she had triggered it within the blast radius. The thought stuck with him for the next half hour and before he knew it, they were walking into a cafe in front of the elevator. Schaeffer breathed in relief as he realized they had not been assailed while sweeping, but his breath caught when Busy rose his hand in a fist and the men all fell to a crouch.

“Unknown movement in the elevator. Possible insurgents, or UNSC. Don't look like aliens, but no way to tell...” Schaeffer watched as he called for one of the group up, an ODST holding a DMR in her hand. Busy took the weapon from him and looked through the scope, scowling as he watched the lobby of the elevator through the window of the cafe. A minute passed before he shook his head and handed it back to the marksman, simply looking exhausted as he turned to the men.

“Some of them are dressed like Marines, but most of them are just wearing old vests or no armor at all. Probably rebels. It looks like they're in a UNSC position, so they probably killed whoever set it up before taking over.” he took a deep breath before continuing, “we can loop back and stop the convoy before they blunder straight in. Let's move.” the Marines all nodded and stepped through a doorway and into an alley, running through the narrow passages before passing back into the street a safe distance from the elevator.

They met up with the second team and quickly regrouped, Busy explaining the situation before leading them down the street. Gaffer seemed to have lost control to Busy and the man seemed to be fuming.

The Marines set up around some discarded cars, waiting for the vehicles. Busy was the only man out in the open, standing behind the hood of the car so that the convoy could see him when they turned the corner. Minutes passed, the Marines sitting silently, waiting, when the first Warthog slowly turned, weaving between abandoned vehicles and other obstacles.

Busy hopped out from cover, telling the Marines to keep down. He stepped into the middle of the street and waved the cars down, the Warthogs slowly stopping as he jogged up to the driver of the lead vehicle. They exchanged a few words and the driver nodded, Busy walking back over to Schaeffer and the rest of the men.

“Meyers made it out and linked up with the rear guard. They want to let her decide on what to do, so we're gonna need to send a runner... Smokes, I'm volunteering you, get a move on and get her up here,” Smokes nodded and shoved his rifle into Vasquez's hands before taking off down the road, sprinting past the stopped cars, “we'll figure out what to do when he gets back. Until then, stick tight and hope Smokes is still a good a runner as ever.”

Schaeffer had no idea how good a runner Smokes was, but he hoped that Busy wasn't overstating the man's speed. Gaffer muttered some choice curses when the man took longer than he would like, but after some time they heard his boots clicking on the ground and saw the Marine slipping on a bit of ice as he turned the corner. He quickly recovered and Meyers and two of her ODSTs came running behind him. One of the men held two DMRs in his hand, huffing as they closed in on the Marines.

The woman ignored Gaffer and went straight to Busy, to Gaffer's obvious displeasure. The man filled her in on the points that he suspected Smokes didn't bother with and the woman nodded along.

“Right, we don't have much choice besides storming the bastard. The clocks ticking and not just cause the Furious is going to be dropping in less than an hour now either. The Covenant are disorganized but they are going to be coming back from the museum in force and they were already picking their way over the rubble when we left.” Busy nodded and was about to say something when Gaffeer butted into the conversation, trying to make it look like he was part of the planning,

“Then why the fuck does he have two rifles?” Meyers and Busy both slowly turned and stared at him for a moment and the older Marine just scowled at them. After a brief showdown, Meyers sighed and explained,

“We're going to need marksmen support to take the elevator, but only two of my men are good with a marksman rifle. I was hoping you might have a marksman still alive.” Schaeffer glanced around nervously, his mind racing. No one noticed the sweat beading on his forehead and Busy thought for a moment before speaking,

“Uh... no one that I can think of... I'm sure some guys here did good with a rifle in basic... Smokes, what did you score?”

“19, sergeant, not much of a shooter,” Busy nodded and then looked at Schaeffer.

Shit, he thought to himself.

“What did you score? Higher, at least?” Schaeffer took a breath, knowing he wouldn't be able to hide with the other Marines.

“I qualified sharpshooter, sergeant...” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. Everyone who wasn't already looking at him slowly turned and stared.

“Schaeffer, why aren't you a marksman?” Busy asked, Schaeffer glanced at Meyers before going on.

“I uh, just wanted to join the Marines and get out, so I blew the next test, evened me out nicely...” more staring and then Busy barked a laugh.

“Right then, guess you're our man.” he nodded towards the ODST and the shocktrooper tossed his second rifle to Schaeffer, who caught it with his spare hand before looking at it reluctantly. After a moment of hesitation, he dropped the assault rifle on the ground and checked the bolt on the DMR. Satisfied that it worked well enough, the ODST reached into a bag at his hip and pulled out two clips, handing them to Schaeffer.

“We're going to need someone to keep their back, lieutenant,” Busy added when he saw that Schaeffer was ready.

“Right... you, you and you. Make sure the marksman make it out-” she pointed to Vasquez, a Marine named Sable and one of her ODSTs “-and you should all set up in one of the buildings across from the elevator. The lobby is practically a greenhouse with all the windows. Look for me in there, I'll give you the signal to start shooting.” The Marines all nodded and Meyers ordered them to move. The rest of the Marines gathered around for their own orders and the two ODST marksmen led them down the road.

After cutting through a building Schaeffer motioned to, they walked into the cafe Schaeffer had just been in minutes ago. The group walked through a door and up a serious of stairs to the apartments above.

After reaching the fifth or so floor, Stanley, the senior of the two ODST marksmen, carefully tried to push open a door. The other ODST called herself Athena, and stepped in right after her compatriot, being followed by Schaeffer and the other Marines.

The room was richly decorated, a penthouse if anything and Sable whistled as they stepped in. Athena and Stanley ignored the ogling Marine and walked towards a window facing the elevator as the men took defensive positions. Stanley lifted a pack of bubble gum from one of his pocket and lifted his helmet slightly as he tossed a piece inside his mouth, dropping the black helm immediately after. He tossed the box to Schaeffer without asking if he wanted any and the Marine shrugged and grabbed the last piece from the pack.

He began chewing as Stanley stepped up to a large window and pushed it open, pulling the clips from his pocket and laying them on the floor next to the window, Schaeffer sat at the next window over and mimicked the man's movements, trusting that the marksman had a better idea than him of how to set up, Athena doing likewise next to him. When they were done, Stanley leaned into his scope and then tapped Schaeffer on the shoulder.

“Rebels, definitely. I see some dead Marines... it looks like they snuck up behind them... no idea how... they got men on machine gun turrets though, just look for the big plant in the center and you'll see 'em... get the one on the right when it goes down,” the ODST whispered, his voice level and calm. Schaeffer nodded and raised his rifle, leaning into the butt and looking for the large plant he talked about. After a minute of looking through the clear glass front of the building, he saw the sandbags which were gathered around an indoor garden, men in ragged armor manning two stationary turrets on either side.

Several others were walking around the lobby, setting up behind the barricades, clearing debris or dragging away the bodies of fallen Marines. Schaeffer wasn't sure how many there were or if there were any others outside of his view. Above the rebels was a large flight monitor, one of three mounted in the center of the roo and facing down. Two of them had collapsed and lay smashed on the ground below, while another held on by a series of tangled wires and twisted supports.

Glancing back to the side, Schaeffer saw his allies slowly making their way up the street. Quickly readjusting, he took aim at his turret gunner.

The Marines and ODSTs crawled under the windows, one by one stopping in firing positions. Minutes passed achingly slow and Schaeffer saw that the insurrectionists realized nothing and finally, he heard the pop of gunfire as the Marines opened up. The machine gunner was half asleep but bolted upright at the sound, his first round of bullets going straight into the floor in front of his machine gun.

The man didn't get a chance to adjust his aim as the rifle bucked against Schaeffer's shoulder. The bullet lodged into the barrel of the machine gun turret and the man's aim was jerked off by the sudden impact. He stumbled back a step and Schaeffer's next bullet cut through his gut, the rebel dropping to the floor and clutching his stomach.

Another one ran for the turret, not realizing who exactly fired on his friend and he dropped in a heap as Schaeffer fired at him as well. Schaeffer had to smile to himself at his good aim but his eyes widened when a bullet slammed into the window frame, dust flying into Schaeffer's view. He quickly fell under the window as several more bullets peppered his position. Stanley ducked down and yelled something, but Schaeffer couldn't hear him over the gunfire. After a moment, the Marine leaned in further and shouted louder,

“Shooters in the burger shop! Right side! By the green sign!” Schaeffer nodded and waited for a pause in the gunfire before leaning back out and finding the large green sign, a picture of a cheese burger emblazoned on it. After a moment, he saw a man with a rifle reloading behind the counter and quickly dropped the man, the insurgent flying backwards as the bullet lodged in his chest.

A man near him saw and aimed at Schaeffer, but Schaeffer saw the helmet pop off his head before he could fire off a shot. He gave Stanley thanks before firing at a woman in a police officers uniform, the rebel crying out as a bullet passed through her arm.

The rebels slowly began falling back at the overwhelming fire of the Marines, rebels falling to the ground mid run as they attempted to find better cover. Suddenly, more insurgents came pouring out of the back doorways to the lobby, the Marines stopping their advance as the rebels doubled their number in minutes. The new arrivals quickly set up firing positions and covered their retreating comrades, even more scrambling from almost every nook and cranny to fire at the Marines.

More and more Marines started dropping and after a minute, the Marines began losing ground. Stanley tapped Schaeffer on the shoulder as he dropped another insurgent and Schaeffer glanced over in confusion.

“There's a flight monitor latched to the ceiling that's barely holding. Drop it!” the man ordered and Schaeffer quickly nodded, aiming at the screen and finding one of the large wires that kept it attatched to the glass ceiling. All three marksmen fired and the supports on the screen began quickly snapping, those that were not shot off tearing from the added weight.

The screen crashed into the admissions counter where a rebel had set up a machine gun along with several riflemen. With the fire suddenly lessened, the rebels resolve buckled yet again and the Marines began sprinting over their cover, not allowing the rebel another inch to recover with.

The rebels fell back into the hallways and adjacent rooms and the Marines ran in after them. Schaeffer took another shot at one of the retreating rebels before he saw that no hostile was left standing.

He slowly lowered his rifle and glanced to Stanley, who did similar after a moment.

“Should we get out of here?” he asked the marksman, trusting the man's judgment. Stanley glanced back into his scope before shaking his head.

“I'll wait another few minutes, rebels might have a few more tricks up their sleeves,” he told him and Schaeffer and Athena both nodded at the wisdom. They sat silent when the building shook for a minute, a humming sound filling his ears. Athena and Schaeffer looked at each other and a glance behind showed that their backup were equally confused at the disturbance.

He felt Stanley smacking his shoulder and spun back around, the ODST looking down his scope again.

“Something's going on. I think there is something in the elevator...” he said and Schaeffer shouldered his rifle again to watch down the scope. Watching a doorway near where the monitor lay on the floor, he saw two Marines come sprinting out of the doorways in the back, tripping over themselves as they ran. Another came behind them and several men dressed as rebels sprinted after them, but Schaeffer noticed that they were not firing at the Marines, or even holding weapons.

Green plasma flew after the men, one of the Marines dropping as he was shot in the back. Schaeffer's breath caught in his throat as bug like creatures came swarming out of the hall in the dozens, the bugs clutching small plasma pistols as they quickly began tearing apart the Marines with their fire. A similar scene came from the other doorways, Marines and rebels running out together, away from the new enemy.

The Bugs dropped as the Marines poured lead into the creatures, swarms of them falling to the ground as the bullets ripped through their fragile bodies. The rebels quickly scooped up guns and began firing at the Bugs as well, the Marines paying them little heed. Schaeffer watched in horror as several of the Bugs descended on an ODST and dragged her off her feet, sweeping her to the ceiling and dropping her from the roof. No matter how many the men killed, more seemed to swarm out from the doorways. The marksmen all began firing, desperately trying to thin the throng.

He realized he was out after he dropped his tenth Bug and quickly shifted another clip into the rifle. He was halfway to his scope when he heard something slamming on the floor outside of the apartment. He glanced back to see their guard suddenly spring into action, the Marines gathering around the doorway and loading their rifles.

The stomping got closer and the ODST with the group slowly opened the door, leaning outside after pulling the door inside the room. The man peaked outwards, his rifle at the ready and then immediately slumped into the hallway as plasma blasted into his chest. Vasquez cursed loudly and slammed the door shut, bracing himself against it as Sable began dragging furniture to the doorway.

Schaeffer heard Stanley curse and turned back to see him and Athena both pulling out a fast rope off their belts, tying it around the leg of a heavy metal table.

“We've overstayed our welcome I think...” he said as he tossed the other end of the rope out the window. Schaeffer willed him to go faster when he heard a scream from the other side of the room.

The door exploded outward, the table flying backwards and throwing Smokes to the ground. Schaeffer gaped at the huge, hulking Squid standing in the doorway, the alien quickly stepping into the room. Sable raised his rifle and managed to shoot a burst into the alien, the bullets disintegrating in its shield. The creature swiped with the heavy metal rifle in his hand and Sable went flying across the room, crashing through a television and laying still on the ground in the living room.

Schaeffer looked to see Stanley was already gone and quickly grabbed the rope after him. As he got halfway through the window, he saw the alien walk over and grab Vasquez from the ground, gripping his neck in its huge hands. Vasquez struggled in the monsters fist, but Schaeffer saw the way his legs were twisted and realized the Marine had no way of breaking out of the stranglehold.

Athena ignored her escape and fired at the creature, trying to distract it.

Without another thought, he stepped out of the window and braced himself against the wall outside. A glance to the side showed purple armor as alien troops began moving towards the elevator, creatures swarming over the parked vehicles in the street. Cursing, he slid the rest of the way down a building, landing on his feet next to Stanley.

“Let's get out of here befo-” Stanley got halfway through his sentence before they both heard a crashing sound and looked up. Schaeffer watched in horror as Athena and Vasquez came flying through a window, the two Marine's bodies plummeting to the ground and being broken against the pavement only a few feet away from them. When Schaeffer looked up, Stanley was already breaking in a run towards the elevator.

Schaeffer couldn't help but follow and watched as the man sprinted into the doorway ahead of him. Schaeffer made it halfway there before an explosion rocked him to his knees, Schaeffer landing behind a burnt out husk of a car. Plasma impacted the ground all around him, the smell of burning metals filling his nose.

He shrunk from the intensifying fire as it continued to pour on him, Schaeffer seeing no way he could possibly escape.

This is it... he told himself, finding no way he could possibly escape the situation. Even if he somehow ran into the elevator, the Marines weren't going to last against the swarm of bugs forever.

He leaned out to see his attackers and groaned when he saw the Squids running towards his cover. Schaeffer's gun was lost somewhere down the street and he began pulling out his bayonet when another explosion rocked the street.

Two Scorpion tanks were visible now, rolling over cars and Squids. The aliens turned to face their new attackers when another explosion rocked their line. The aliens scattered and ran as the Scorpions crushed them under tread. The tanks machine gun turrets opened up and began ripping the aliens apart from behind and Marines were soon pressing against them from the streets.

The Marines poured into the lobby shortly after, Schaeffer finding his feet and running in after them. The Bugs rapidly lost ground at the onslaught from the Marines and their vehicles and soon the last one fell to the ground. The rest were chased further into the elevator.

Schaeffer breathed a sigh of relief when the last alien in the lobby fell, looking over the battlefield and the dozens of corpses laying within. He took a deep breath and tried not to look too hard at the puddles of blood that were gathering around them.

The sounds of gunfire faded into the distance and knowing that the battle was over, Schaeffer slowly found his feet. Marines began mimicking the action and waved to the Scorpions as one broke through the wall of the building and came to a halt at the side of the lobby.

Warthogs began entering the street behind the Scorpions and stopping in any spot they could. Marines and civilians hopping out of the vehicles and quickly making their way into the elevator. Schaeffer saw Meyers hop over a sandbag and run over to a surprised looking Major Pelata who was leading the refugees into the building. With nothing better to do, he walked over to the scene. Walking to them, he saw Stanley sitting on a pile of sandbags, rubbing the front of his helmet. Schaeffer offered a nod before spitting out his gum and stopping near Meyers.

“Didn't think I'd see anyone left inside here,” Lorrie said, the man taking a long look at the piles of bodies on the floor. Meyers explained the situation from the beginning as the new arrivals found positions on the line or were cordoned into safer places.

“What are these things?” Lorrie asked after nodding along to the story, giving a swift kick to the shriveled body of a Bug at his feet. Schaeffer realized how large the thing was now that he was so close, the creature being nearly six feet tall. Meyers sighed and answered,

“There are tram and subway tunnels from the elevator all across the city, not to mention sewer connections. The rebels had ambushed some survivors who made it here from the tunnels and then pulled reserves from there when we hit. I got reports of these things in the sewers of the city and I guess they found ways into the tunnels too, swarmed here while we were still clearing out the innies.” the major sighed at her words and cracked his knuckles.

“There isn't a damn limit to these things... we've got those huge ones, the split-jaws, these Grunts and now bugs. What's next, apes?” the man gave a bark of laughter at the thought and then looked at the refugees. “This is only a third of the people I've got holding down at the financial center on east street. I'm going back to get the rest now that we know the elevator is clear, though I don't think it will be for long.” Meyers nodded along and took on a determined look,

“Give me an order sir, we still have some fight.” Lorrie smiled at her enthusiasm and checked the rifle in his hands,

“The Covenant are going to be coming back in force now that they know we're rallying here. You're going to have hold out until I get everyone. Together, we'll get on the Furious and out of here.” Meyers nodded and saluted as Lorrie left the building. When she turned around, she saw Schaeffer sitting on a pile of sandbags with two other Marines. She sighed and rolled her shoulders.

“This is the end of the line everyone, it's time to get ready for the ride.” Schaeffer nodded and slid off the sandbags, Meyers looking like she wanted to say something.

“Schaeffer, the Marines we have are down to platoon strength. I have only a handful of corporals and definitely not enough to lead all the fireteams we have. I'm going to need you to accept a battlefield promotion,” Meyers told him. Schaeffer's eyes shot up and he immediately started listing off those he thought would be more appropriate choices for the job, but he stopped speaking immediately when Meyers rose her hand to silence him.

“Schaeffer stop fucking around. I need a corporal, you're going to do the job, is that clear?” he felt his cheeks flush at her harsh words and after a moments hesitation he nodded reluctantly. Meyers' expression softened slightly and she looked ready to say something but then changed her mind, “you're leading Privates Masih, Hooch and Scharpe.”

Schaeffer nodded and left, thinking black thoughts as he walked to his new fireteam.

–

The Marines had set up their defensive positions in the lobby yet again, an emphasise placed on guarding the back areas of the building as well. The rubble had been pushed forward to help reinforce the sandbags and a Marine stood at almost every corner, ready for anything.

Schaeffer and his new team, Masih, Hooch and Scharpe, which was apparently just Smokes real name, stood by the elevator as they guided the civilians into the lift. Other groups were brought to the smaller lifts in the building, but the main lift was seeing the largest amount by far. Many were afraid of the integrity of the lift, but it thankfully held and they had begun sending small groups up the elevator.

Schaeffer had been given the order to defend the lift and the civilians there with his life, as well as making sure the civilians entered the elevator in an orderly manner. There had yet to be an incident, though he could tell that the people were on the edge of panic. They all knew that the Covenant counterstrike was going to be smashing down on them soon and they all knew that it would be the worse attack yet.

Hooch and Schaeffer hustled a family of three into the elevator, Schaeffer only stopping when their child dropped his toy bear, scooping it up and handing it back to the crying child. They listened to the mother try to tell them something when a noise broke the two Marine's attention.

It was a sound the two had become used to, an odd whishing noise. Schaeffer turned around to see the look of horror on the other Marine's faces.

The civilians stopped moving, wondering why the Marines had gone still and then broke into a panic when one of the walls exploded. Blue-white plasma sprayed across the lobby as what part of the wall wasn't outright destroyed melted and crumbled. He managed to see several more balls of plasma falling on the lobby before the line of civilians broke into a sprint, charging past the Marines and into the elevator.

Schaeffer fell to the ground as the civilians stormed the lift, feeling the air rush out of his lungs as he hit the ground and was kicked by the running citizens. He saw another Marine who was helping the civilians into the elevator be trampled by the crowd, his body crushed by the boots of dozens of screaming people who he had just been helping along their way.

The Marines in the elevator who had been escorting the civilians to the top attempted to shove the crowd back out, trying desperately to restore order. Someone in the elevator panicked and slammed on a button in the lift and a cry of collective horror came out of the civilians as the glass doors slowly slammed shut and the elevator lifted into orbit.

Schaeffer's vision faded slightly and he didn't bother helping himself up, opting instead to lay there on the floor. He soon felt his back shifting and bolted his eyes open.

His vision began to unblur and Schaeffer realized he had been moved out of the crowd, his impromptu fireteam looking down at him with a look of collective worry. Schaeffer saw plasma and lead flying in different directions and realized that the Covenant were already there.

Seeing him awake, Hooch lifted him to his feet, but both of the men nearly fell over again when an explosion rocked the lobby, plasma spraying across the tiled floor and disintegrating several of the defenders. Civilians had scattered in every direction and those that weren't getting in the way of the Marines were crying behind cover. Some of the braver ones had picked up the arms of fallen Marines and rebels and had begun firing on the encroaching Covenant.

The sound came back to his ears next and he blinked when he realized Hooch and the rest were screaming straight into his ear.

“Schaeffer! What the fuck do we do!?” he heard Smokes scream into his ear. Schaeffer had as little idea as the Marine, but realized that the UNSC forces were already being overran. He looked around for Meyers or Busy but could see neither in the chaos as the Marines desperately fought for every inch of the lobby.

“We have to get the hell out of here!” he shouted back, pointing towards the elevator which was slowly lowering back to the ground.

“Schaeffer! The elevator will be here in fifteen minutes, we gotta get ready to go!” Schaeffer looked back at the elevator and shook the haze from his head, wondering how hard he had been kicked exactly. Ducking as plasma flew a foot from his face, Schaeffer guided his team over to the elevator, going from cover to cover and doing anything he could to put himself near the escape route.

He found himself some cover behind the remains of the reception desk and began firing into wherever the plasma flew from. His team set up around him and Schaeffer attempted to coordinate his team so that they could bring down the larger Squids.

The next few minutes were a spiral of chaos and Schaeffer wasn't sure if the puking was from fear or nausea. The bodies of the Covenant soldiers were beginning to pile up, but slowly, ever so slowly, the Covenant pressed towards the Marines positions, seemingly pouring out of any crevice they could find. When Schaeffer's hearing recovered long enough when he wasn't shooting, he could hear the signs of more battles ringing down the hallways of the building.

Then the fire in the Covenant line became to lull and Schaeffer wondered if they had somehow broken the spirit of the seemingly indomitable foe. The defenders laid on as much fire as they could as they ran around, gathering wounded and exchanging ammunition. Schaeffer found that he had only a clip left and gulped as he looked back pleadingly at the lift.

Schaeffer saw the lights of the Jackals shields pop open and suddenly they were forming a wall, two rows of twenty creatures marching in formation, guarding an equal number of the Squids behind them, ducking in order to fit behind the wrist mounted shields. The machine guns opened fire, but the bullets did little besides ping harmlessly off the shields, only one in ten popping as they made their advance. Schaeffer ducked as the Jackals began firing off with the pistols they held in their off hand, firing through a hole in the side of the shield.

Thinking quickly, he leaned out of cover and took aim. Finding the hand of one of the creatures, he fired as accurately as possible and smiled in satisfaction as the Jackal's hand exploded and the creature was left behind by the closing rank of his comrades.

The aliens continued their march however, getting so close that Schaeffer could make out details on the creatures bodies through the shields.

Then the shield wall fell apart and the aliens left space open for the Squids, Schaeffer's eyes widening in fear.

Five Squids in the center of the formation, no doubt the leaders, were decked in golden armor and threw their arms to the side, blue Energy Swords appearing in their hands. The rest held the Plasma Rifles that were so common to their ranks and all of them let out a war cry as they charged the Human formation.

The shield wall had put them close enough to get to the Human lines with minimum losses and Marines quickly scattered as the Squids hopped over the barriers they had made and began bashing their way through.

In a panic, Schaeffer looked behind for the elevator and saw it slowly lowering towards the lobby. There just wasn't enough time...

Looking back, his heart stopped. A Squid, at least eight feet tall now that he was next to one, yelled some sort of challenge from the other side of his cover and dove at Schaeffer. He could do nothing besides stumble to his side as the Elite charged over his meager protection and Schaeffer found himself backing away, trying to fire into the mad creature.

''Bang! Bang! Bang!'' Schaeffer's hands began to go numb from the firing, but he knew just one more shot would take down the creatures shields.

''Click! Click! Click!'' Looking down at his useless weapon, he attempted to back away but only made a step as the Elite ran forward and swatted him aside like a fly. Schaeffer soared at least sixty feet, feeling his bones break in new and horrifying ways from the punch. He slammed into something hard and fell in a daze, dully realizing he was next to the elevator and on top of Venendez.


 * ''Epsilon Indi System
 * UN Colony: Second Base
 * Corporal Gabriel 'Smike' Venendez
 * Cursing at Schaeffer''

Venendez let out a flurry of curses, the Hispanic Marine shoving his counterpart off of him. He was about to yell some more obscenities in Spanish at Schaeffer when he realized that the man was near dead on the floor under to him and looked around in fear.

The elevator let out a ding! as the doors slid open and Venendez thought quick, grabbing the man and hoisting him over his shoulder. Venendez groaned as he lugged the dead weight of the Marine and all his armor into the elevator, shouldering in with a crowd of others, all desperately trying for their chance at safety.

He dropped Schaeffer into one of the seats in the elevator and slowly found himself being shoved into a corner as the elevator crowded. A warning light appeared, telling the Marines that the elevator was reaching its weight limit and the Marines near the door attempted to steer their comrades away.

“Let us in! Let me in!” screamed Marines he had known for years, like Bellephonon, Lusana and Cheng. Shoving his way through some confused civilians, Venendez found the control panel and slammed on it until the doors began to close.

He was just glad that he was too far away to see the looks of betrayal.

The sounds of battle began to become more faded and distant as the elevator flew out of the atmosphere of the planet and into the station above. Venendez wondered how long they had until the Covenant negotiated the lift, he wondered if the Furious Five had abandoned them or if they were still coming, he wondered if he'd ever see his wife again or if he'd ever see his children.

These thoughts rocked Venendez, who began to feel guilty. Not for not thinking about how he could help the wounded or how he could reorganize the Marines in the elevator, but guilty because he honestly didn't care. Venendez realized that the fight was gone from inside him, the spark that had made him wake up every day having sputtered out and died somewhere below and only snapped out of it when he heard Schaeffer groan from his seat.


 * ''Epsilon Indi System
 * UN Colony: Second Base
 * Pvt. 1st class Leonard Schaeffer
 * Leaving Second Base''

Schaeffer groaned in pain as his eyes fluttered open for what seemed like the tenth time that day, fire shooting up his chest at the sensation, every breath making him feeling like he was being stabbed and gutted from the inside. Venendez was in front of him in a minute, looking worried and the older Marine called for a medic from somewhere on the elevator, though Schaeffer didn't see anyone respond.

“Schaeffer, are you alright?” the man asked and he managed his best glare,

“Do I fucking look alright?” he asked, coughing violently and crying out in pain at the same time. Venendez winced as if stricken, but shook his head and rubbed Schaeffer's arm reassuringly.

“You're going to be alright hombre, I saw some corpsman go up there when we first lifted up. You'll get help,” Venendez tried his best to be reassuring but was surprised when Schaeffer erupted into a series of curses.

“Fuck corpsman and their god damned biofoam, they don't help anyone...” he said, finding some new found energy in his anger. Venendez just shook his head and began calling for some medical help again, being met with nothing besides guilty looks from the helpless Marines.

“Just... just tell me about Skopje?” Venendez asked, trying to keep Schaeffer's mind focused on something like he had seen in the flicks. Schaeffer squeezed his eyes shut in pain before scowling at Venendez.

“It looks like Earth and I'm never going to see it again!” he cried out, his voice gradually raising in volume. Venendez seemed surprised at this and tried to speak in his most soothing tones,

“Schaeffer... you're on the elevator... you made it out... we're safe...” Schaeffer stared at Venendez for a moment, processing the words. When their meaning came through and he realized that Venendez wasn't lying, he looked around, noticing his surroundings for the first time. The knowledge that the Covenant were now hundreds of miles below him made all the energy, the fight, the collective anger and fear and blood lust leave Schaeffer's body as if the dam had been broken.

The Marine, suddenly looking much younger to every man in the elevator who bothered to look at him, slumped into his seat and broke into tears. The liquid running down his mud and blood covered cheeks, soaking the ruined uniform that clung tightly to his body from the dirt. Venendez gripped Schaeffer's arm for comfort as the Marine cried out.

Memories of the day went through Schaeffer's mind like machine gun fire. He remembered the bodies stacked at the hospital, he remembered the pilot screaming and Red running as they crashed in the Hornet, he remembered children screaming as they were blinded as their home was incinerated and turned to ash. He remembered everything and more, he remembered killing Sorelsky and an innocent Marine whose name he had already forgotten, he remembered falling in love with a superior officer in the middle of a battle when he was already in a relationship, he remembered his large family back at Skopje and wondered how he would ever talk to them again.

The thoughts assailed him as he felt like he was conscious for the first time since he had stepped off the Pelican that morning, everything he had done or witnessed was drawn out before his eyes and he only looked in horror. He looked at the rage of the Squids and the fear of the running civilians, he looked into the evil he had seen in Rat's eyes and realized that he only saw himself reflecting out of them. Rat wasn't stupid, he had seen Schaeffer for what he was when he asked Schaeffer to help him trade contraband, he saw him for the dark thing that was within.

He heard a ding! as the elevator reached its stop, the Marines stumbling out, dragging out the wounded and those who had died while they went up. Venendez watched him uncertainly for a moment before helping him out of the chair and draping one of Schaeffer's arms over his shoulder. Venendez did most of the walking as Schaeffer cried and cried.

Marines were waiting for them when they left, Marines, ODSTs and armed civilians, all aiming guns at the elevator and looking obviously relieved that Humans were filling the station and not the Covenant. To each one of them, Schaeffer was nothing but yet another bumbling survivor, but those who had fought with him stared. No one had seen Schaeffer like this, all had just seen the quiet and reserved Marine who had shaken the company so by his mere presense, now he was broken like the rest of them.

The more veteran members of the company, those few who remained, shook their heads sadly and wandered off to find something to do. The younger and greener looked in horror, wondering if that was their fate as well. Venendez dragged Schaeffer to where the rest of the wounded were being treated and then went to find a corpsman.

Schaeffer sobbed quietly on the floor, the wounded around him crying out in pain or laying silent. He sat there and wondered at what had happened, where he had went wrong.

–

A half hour passed, Venendez finally persuading a corpsman to come and treat Schaeffer as best as he could. Word had spread around of what had become of the young Marine and a small group of men followed the corpsman over to where Schaeffer lay.

Opening his eyes, Schaeffer saw Venendez, Hooch, Norman, Smokes and Masih leaning over him with several others he didn't recognize. The corpsman began tearing off the man's armor immediately and Schaeffer did nothing to stop him, only groaning in pain as he was manhandled.

“Hey man, you survived,” Hooch said, a healthier looking Norman nodding empathetically.

“Busy and Cameron wanted to come, but they are busy organizing things,” Masih added, looking at Schaeffer like she would a destitute child.

The Marines crowded around for a bit, chatting with Schaeffer and trying to fill him in, trying to make him stop crying. Slowly, the tears dried up and Schaeffer couldn't find it in him anymore, the Marines continued their conversation, talking about anything they could that wouldn't remind Schaeffer of the war. The awkward attempts at conversation were ended when Meyers walked up to them.

She gave the Marines various excuses to leave and they were all quick to obey, saying whatever goodbye to Schaeffer they could. The corpsman filled her in on his status and then left right after, going to tend the other wounded.

The female lieutenant fell next to Schaeffer, sitting next to where she lay. She looked straight ahead for a while and when she turned, Schaeffer realized that tears were welling up in her eyes.

“Schaeffer... I'm so glad you're alive...” she began and Schaeffer mustered whatever he could inside of him to speak,

“Meyers... don't cry, I'm fine,” he told her, hoping to prevent her tears at his expense. The lieutenant smiled but shook her head, looking even sadder.

“Schaeffer... that's not why I'm crying,” she told him and she left it at that for a few minutes. Schaeffer didn't ask for her to expand, not being able to fully understand what she was saying and deciding she would explain soon enough. He wished she didn't.

“I... the Covenant they're... they're going to find out how to get up the elevator. There's only one way to stop them from getting up the main lift or going up the smaller ones and... and that's through destroying the elevator from the shaft. Cu-cutting in half...” she looked ahead again and Schaeffer stared in confusion.

“You're crying because... we couldn't hold the position?” Schaeffer inquired, Meyers continued shaking her head conspiratorily.

“No Schaeffer, you don't understand. To blow the shaft, s-some ODSTs are going to have to do it themselves. The trip down is one way and we are the only ones with enough experience to do it. We have just enough to cut the tether in half.” she let the words settle on Schaeffer and after a moment of thinking, his eyes widened.

“No! No, no, no Meyers. If you do that, who is going to lead us? If you go down there, what about me and...” Meyers stopped him from continuing,

“Busy is taking over until you guys get on the ship,” she told him and Schaeffer was silent for a moment more.

“And me and you?” he asked. Tears began going down her face.

“Schaeffer... there is no me and you. This is something that could never work, something that was doomed from the get go. Now it won't happen for sure, I'm sorry Schaeffer, but there is nothing. There can't be.” Schaeffer winced at her words and tried to gather what argument he could.

“But... we haven't even been able to give it a chance Meyers. Meyers, please...” he found himself begging and the ODST shook her head.

“Goodbye Schaeffer,” was all she said before she leaned over and kissed him. The kiss was clumsy and sad, and Schaeffer wished he had the strength to hold her to him as she stood and walked away.

–

Not many of the Marines came back, either finding excuses or being legitimately busy. With Schaeffer was Hooch, Norman and Smokes who had heard that Schaeffer was still alive and had gone rushing over. Smokes guided him towards one of the docks full of civilians, apparently where the Furious would be landing. Schaeffer limped along with them, completely numb from something the corpsman had injected him with.

They made idle conversation but this slowly died down as Schaeffer said absolutely nothing and the Marines lapsed into silence. Norman said nearly as much as Schaeffer, but looked like he wanted to say much more, the Marine glancing nervously at Schaeffer every few minutes. After a few minutes of waiting, Norman cursed and stopped the group.

“Schaeffer, I need to tell you, thank you.” Schaeffer looked at him for a moment and then raised his eyebrows, Smokes doing similar, Hooch just nodded at his friend.

“Your welcome?” Schaeffer said cautiously, unsure what the man was getting at,

“You saved my life, remember? If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead under that Warthog right now. I'd be dust from the bomb, you saved me.” Seeing where he was going as soon as he began talking, Schaeffer began shaking his head in denial.

“Hooch just grabbed me, Riley lifted the 'Hog, I'm just the guy who had to drag you out. I didn't save anyone,” shaking his head and thinking it was over, Schaeffer began walking away but was stopped as Smokes didn't go with him.

“Man you really are a hero. I never knew you saved Norman too!” Smokes said, awe creeping into his voice. Schaeffer glared at the Marine, getting to his wits end with the man.

“God damn it Smokes who the hell are you and why do you follow me around like a stray fucking dog? Who the hell are you?” Schaeffer growled, his voice gaining strength and volume and taking all of the Marines by surprise. Smokes looked confused, while Hooch and Norman looked between the two uncertainly.

“Schaeffer you don't remember me? From this morning? We were pinned in the bank and I lost it and you...” the Marine slowly stopped talking, looking at his feet awkwardly. Schaeffer stared at him before the events of the morning finally registered. The attack on the bank, the police APC destroying what little cover they had, a private crying and screaming next to him who he had to comfort through the bloody mess.

“Jesus Christ that was you?” Schaeffer asked, disbelief entering his voice in place of the anger that had just filled it. Smokes nodded rapidly and Hooch and Norman glanced at each other again before Hooch piped in,

“See Schaeffer? You really are something of a hero. Stop being so hard on yourself.” Schaeffer stared at them, the weakness creeping back into him and then leaned into Smokes for support.

“Just... just get me to the air lock-” looking to Norman and Hooch he said “-call me whatever you like, but don't call me hero.” the Marines stared at his back as he dragged Smokes along with him and then they slowly began to follow.

Schaeffer found a decent chair and was helped down. The large waiting room was populated by nervous looking civilians and patrolling Marines, hushed conversation filling the silence. Schaeffer was amazed at how calm and serene everything seemed, amazed at what a few hundred miles from the aliens was doing for morale. Truly, the fight seemed to have left everyone. The Marines holding their weapons apprehensively but loose enough to show they didn't expect much threat, the civilians no longer huddled together like scared groups of children.

Still, Schaeffer felt a pang of sadness at just how few people were up there. There were around two hundred seats in all in the waiting area and only a bit more than half of them were filled. Others were walking or standing and others were patrolling the station, but even if they were all sitting down, Schaeffer doubted they would fill the seats.

He wondered exactly how many people there were trapped on the ground, how many hundreds to thousands of people were staring at the elevator, wondering if they still had a chance of escape. All of them were doomed.

Looking around, he found a monitor that listed the status of the elevator. It currently said that it was in orbit, but would be going back down in a minute. Schaeffer watched as the time ticked down and then the status switched to moving. His stomach sunk and he waited and waited, as if expecting someone to punch him.

Then the elevator was listed as stopped due to someone pulling the emergency lever. Schaeffer stared at the screen, not noticing the other Marines and even some of the more in the know civilians. The crowd slowly gathered around the screen, Schaeffer's view being blocked by the people. He didn't bother getting a better view, he knew there was nothing to see.

The lights of the station went out as there was a slight tremor and then came back on immediately as emergency generators lit. Every monitor was screaming about warnings and instructions to wait until emergency forces could arrive. Schaeffer decided it was good advice and waited for the Furious to appear, or for him to waste away and die, whichever came first.

They sat there for ten minutes before a dot appeared in the windows of the station, Schaeffer too busy staring at the debris that were slowly floating away to pay much mind. The dot got larger and larger and after what seemed like eternity, made the shape of a ship and slowed next to the station. The Furious had finally arrived and several of the now rescued survivors cheered, but most remained silent, too busy thinking about sacrifices and losses.

A few more minutes and the doors of the airlock slid open, from the hallway connecting the station to the ship a handful of Marines came storming out, weapons at the ready. Seeing the waiting Humans set them at ease and they immediately lowered their guns, a civilian ran up and hugging the closest man while Smokes lifted Schaeffer to his feet.

“Which one of you is the colonel?” the lead Marine asked as he awkwardly disentangled himself from the woman. The survivors looked around uncertainly before Busy stepped forward, rubbing the back of his head. Schaeffer noted a sad looking Gaffer sitting in a chair to the side,

“He's gone sir, just us left. I think I'm in charge now...” the Marine's eyebrow raised at this and not seeing any rank on an armorless Busy, piped in curiously,

“And who are you exactly?”

“Sergeant Arthur McBee, acting CO of the 3rd Marine Battalion.” With this revelation, the Marine's face went ashen, the man frantically looking around for some sign that this was a cruel joke. Seeing the grim set faces, he realized that Busy was in fact all that was left and let out a long sigh.

“Right, the captain says to get everyone inside ASAP and wants the CO to meet him on the bridge. Anyone not here right now is going to have to be left, we only have a few minutes until the hostile ship arrives.” Busy nodded and began ushering the civilians inside, everyone slowly marching into the ship with Marines watching closely.

Schaeffer was hustled inside at the end of the line of civilians, took one last look at the station and then walked into the ship proper.

–

The ship lifted off nearly immediately after.

Schaeffer sat in a commons room with several other Marines, watching out one of the only windows on the ship in order to witness the planet recede behind them. Several new ships had been detected on the radar and they could vaguely see their alien shapes on the planet below.

The ships had been doing something all day, firing beams of light into the planet, turning it red and black and dead. Schaeffer didn't care about this though, he was too busy staring at the broken space elevator. He wondered if Meyers felt pain when she died and hoped that her death was quick.

His mind began to wander as the drugs he had been given by the ships medics began to kick in. He wondered about all the people he had seen die down there, friends, enemies, people he didn't know and never would know.

But he thought of more than people who died, he thought of the ideas that did, the ideas of revolution or disunity among the UNSC. He had seen rebels and Marines fighting side by side against the alien threat, if the idea of the insurgency wasn't going to be killed by these aliens, he didn't know what was.

And then there was even more that died. A planet died, an era died... Schaeffer died. Or at least a part of him died. Schaeffer knew he was somewhere down there, the real him, the man he was raised to be and always had been. He had been killed in a bank by a sniper, died while defending an evacuation zone in a parking lot, executed by an angry major for assaulting an officer and crushed by a Warthog in an urban ambush. Schaeffer's body was sitting in the commons of a UNSC frigate that had narrowly escaped a Covenant ship with only three hundred survivors on a planet of hundreds of thousands.

As his vision faded, sweet drugged rest coming to him, Schaeffer wondered where he would go next. He was still a Marine and he now had a real war. But he now knew the reality of this title, he now knew what dying felt like. He saw Second Base recede into a dot as the ship made its slipspace jump.

Schaeffer finally stopped thinking and wondered if he would have nightmares of war or dreams of love.

He hoped he had neither.

–

Author's Note: This is the last chapter! Thank you all for reading this far, it has been an honor to have you guys through it all. It has been a confusing ride, one that has lasted over a year and gone through hundreds of revisions, first, second, third and fourth drafts, fifth drafts, I think a sixth draft. Oh, it's been an adventure and one that I have learned a ton from.

If you have read this far and if you enjoyed it (or despised it!) I have to ask you to leave criticism. Tell me what you liked or what you hated and most of all, tell me how I can get better. I have learned a lot from writing this, mostly on my own, but the most important advice I have gotten is from others.

Anyway, thank you to so many people for being so supportive and helpful. User:Anyonymous_Oni_Agent, User:Lieutenant_Davis, User:Minuteman_2492, everyone who voted for RLD on Halo Fanon, my friends on other sites like SuperCommando and David Vardy and more people than I can remember.

Thanks for bearing through the dirt and the gold that has come out of this and I hope you had as much fun doing so as I did.