Stargazing

It is the middle of the Siege of Sirona, and Lieutenant Aleksandra Zaytseva has been embroiled in the conflict for the past two and a half years. Stuck in the center of Maponos City, with nowhere left to go, the fighting slows, long enough for the Marines to take a break, and for Sasha to find comfort in the company of one Lieutenant Michael Waverly.

 2200 HOURS, December 21, 2546 (MILITARY CALENDAR) GROOMBRIDGE 1618 SYSTEM, PLANET SIRONA, MAPONOS CITY CENTER

It was quiet for the first time in a while. No plasma zipping past, no explosions, no bullets flying through the air. The only sound Sasha could hear was her own breathing, and that of the Marine laying on the floor next to her. They were cooped up with the rest of their company in the Optican Building, located right in the center of downtown Maponos, and, for once, there was a lull in the fighting. While their rifles still laid within reach of them, ready to swiftly be picked up in case combat resumed, the two Marines were content in the silence, huddled together, and not only for warmth in the cold Sironan winter.

It was no secret amongst the company, and definitely not in either of the Lieutenants’ platoons, that Aleksandra Zaytseva and Michael Waverly were “dating”, at least inasmuch two Marines in the middle of a warzone could be. Sure, they remained professional when in command, and didn’t go further than spending time together in private, but the other Marines could catch the glimpses, overhear the private conversations and the words of affection passing between the two when they thought they were in private. But tonight was different. On the fifty-eighth floor of the Opticon building, and with the Covenant advance temporarily stopped, Mike and Sasha could finally actually have some private time. And for them, in the middle of a warzone, that amounted to laying on the ground by a window, getting the angle just right to look out up at the stars, not thinking of the Covenant fleet in orbit, but simply enjoying the closeness they shared, and the stories they would whisper of the various stars twinkling in the black.

Huddled close together, Mike and Sasha gazed out into the inky black night sky. Millions of tiny specks of fire blazed and twinkled in the dark, Sirona’s moon casting a blue glow over the scene, the orange light of the system’s star reflected in shorter wavelengths off the rocks of the satellite, and scattered further by the atmosphere. And among that vast number of stars were those whose stories Sasha and Mike were exchanging. Those with planets around them that were lost to the Covenant’s onslaught were hard to avoid, but that night, with the fighting stalled, the only stories being told were happy ones. The star which each of the lieutenants first saw. The star which held the planet each first visited other than their own. These were the tales each lover told the other and, when they ran dry far too quickly, they simply joined the silence, their whispers ceasing, and their arms holding each other closer.

In the back of her mind, Sasha knew it wouldn’t last. Soldiers died far too often in war. Or get separated by different deployments. Both held even more true in this war, seemingly never closer to the end. Yet she didn’t care. She had been shut out for far too long, locking her heart to any form of love. In Mike, she found the key, and laying here, held tight in his arms, head close against his chest, gazing up at the sky, she was happy. And that was all that mattered.