Halo: Heart of Darkness/Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Not so everyday life
March 23rd, 2553, 23 days after the official end of the human-covenant war

Vladmire System, Vladmire IV, capital city of Arguna

Sammy looked at her watch, it was 7:58. The bus to work would arrive at exactly 8:00, never earlier, never later. She felt scared, going to her new job, with no one she knew. She looked down the road and saw her friend, Yasmine Myers. They only knew each other because they were in the same room on one of the colony ships that brought them here.

As Yasmine crossed the road, Sammy took another look at her watch. It was 8:01 and the bus was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey Sammy".

"Hi Yasmine"

"Sammy, i though you worked on the other side of the city, why are you here?".

"I'm going to work at the city transmission tower".

The transmission tower could be seen from almost anywhere in the city. At nearly a kilometer high, it could be seen from space.

"Your working there?, i work there too!".

Sammy looked at her watch. it was 8:05 and the bus hadn't arrived.

"Yasmine, what time does the bus normally arrive?".

"8:00 am sharp".

"Its 8:05".

"that's strange, why not walk instead".

They got up and began walking to the tower. After half an hour, they turned a corner a saw the entrance to the tower. The tower was on the very edge of the city, and you could see the swamps and forests from the bottom of the tower.

As they were about to enter the tower, a deafening screech rang out from the swamps. A police officer, Michael Esado, tried to calm everyone down.

"Everyone, please stay calm, nothing is wrong, just stay ca...".

A huge spike, silver spike went straight through him. As the spike went back, the officer's body fell, revealing his killer... a large, vaguely scorpion shaped creature, with silvery skin and a huge, silver spike attached to its tail.

Several other officers drew there guns and fired on the beast. As it went down, hundreds of screeches came out from the swamp, shortly followed by an army of the creatures. Everyone ran.

As Sammy and Yasmine ran towards the tower, its lower sections exploded and it collapsed, spreading across the entire city and further. From under the tower's wreckage came the sounds of machinery as the ground flew up. Everyone stared as a huge metallic thing rose of the ground.

It had four large legs, all attached to a center section on a spinning axis. It stepped out of the hole and the center span round. A round section on the center glowed blue and what seemed to be a weapon fired and a nearby building exploded. The weapon fired something that looked like a plasma blast, but this was obviously not covenant. Sammy and Yasmine ran for a building with open doors. As they got in, all they heard was screaming from outside.

There was a police officer in the corner with a radio.

"Hello, hello, can any UNSC ships respond. we are under attack, i repeat we are under attack from these thi.."

The corner of the room exploded, and the police officer was no more. Sammy and Yasmine followed several other people through a tunnel. At the end was a large warehouse, presumably underground. This was there home now, until these things were delt with.