I heard the pilot's voice over the intercom. “We've got Seraphs inbound! 5 marks at 11 o'clock!” I could hear the fear in her voice. “We're gonna die!” one of the Marines wailed. “Pull yourself together Leatherneck! We're gonna make it, just you wait and see!” I moved past the crew chief and up to the cockpit. “Give me a status report pilot! How long till we're topside?” The pilot gave me a quick glance and read her instrument panel. “About 6 minutes sir!” Shit. 6 long, vulnerable minutes. Does the UNSC even have a presence on Charon? “Fuck. Try getting any planet-side UNSC forces on comms. I'd prefer not to get shot out of space today.” “Yes sir!” she replied with purpose. “All UNSC forces, this is Pelican Delta 308 from the UNSC Vienna, requesting immediate assistance! We've got contact all over us!” I felt the ship shake. “Goddamit! We've been hit!” the co-pilot said. A Seraph zoomed past us. “Pilot, can you take that fucker out with the chaingun? We won't last long if we don't knock down a few of their fighters!” “Negative sir, they're moving too fast! Cannon can't get a good lock on.” I swore under my breath. We were sitting ducks here, and everyone knew it. The Marines had a panicked look on their face. They knew they were about to die, and I couldn't help them. I glanced back to the cockpit. A red light on the console started flashing, and a warning siren began to blare. “Fuck! We're in his sights! I'm going to try and shake him. Hang on!” The artificial gravity projectors had a hard time keeping up with the sudden movement, and I went off balance as the ship lurched to the left. I heard someone throw up, and saw blue plasma bolts overshoot as as we dove down. “This is Pelican Delta 308! We're about to get fucked over here. We need support NOW!” As the pilot had finished her hail, her co-pilot pointed to an object ahead of us and cursed. I looked up, and saw a Seraph with a glowing green light, unmistakably a fuel rod cannon being charged up. I prepared to meet my maker.
	The Seraph was engulfed in a blue explosion. Coming up from the bottom of the now wrecked fighter were two Longswords. The co-pilot sighed in relief and I heard the pilot say “Oh thank fuck”. I saw the two black ships pull along side us from the cockpit window. “Malevolence-1 and Malevolence-2 at your service ma'am. How can we help the Corps today?” a male voice with a Southern accent said. I heard a Marine in the back say “Damned flyboys! Always wanting to put on a show. I think I'll have to change my pants after that one!” The comment got a few nervous laughs, myself included. I spoke up. “We're grateful for the assist Malevolence. Our ass would have been toast if you guys didn't show up when you did. Is the rest of your squadron dealing with the Covenant?” “Yessir! We got 20 Longswords up here engaging the measly force those Covvie bastards sent up to deal with you. I guess they wasn't expecting Charon's finest now was they?” I heard a chuckle on my comms. These pilots were a bit bombastic but I owed them my ass. Maybe I'd get them a case once we we landed. “Status report, pilot. Did that Seraph do any damage?” “Sensors say that some of the shielding above the troop compartment is gone, but all my flight controls are still functional. We'll be alright.” I took a deep breath and sighed. I guess we're not toast after all. We entered the atmosphere shortly thereafter.
. . .

	ATC had us redirected to the only city on the planet, Berlin. I took the extra time to ask Jennifer about the destruction of the Vienna. Not wanting to potentially ruin morale, I turned the microphone off so that only she could hear what I said, and vice versa. “So what exactly destroyed the ship?” I inquired of her. “It looks like the Covenant brought a series of anti-matter charges with them.” She responded. They probably placed one on each of the major levels in order to blast it in two.” “Don't you know for certain Jenn?” “Honey, I lost control of the ship when you yanked me, remember? Did she just call me “honey”? “I was in communication wirelessly with the ship's sub-routines, but I couldn't view everywhere at once like normal. So no.” I remained silent for a few seconds. “Did anyone else make it?” “From when we left, it seems only a team of ODSTs were able escape. I lost total communication with the ship about 5 minutes later.” “What about the Captain?” She sighed. “I'm getting nothing back from the Neural Implant. He's probably...” She didn't finish the sentence. “Dead,” I said. My tone of voice had a certain finality to it. I stood their standing for a few seconds more, thinking about what just happened. Another ship gone. Another irreplaceable capital ship, and all the materiel inside it. Tanks, guns, planes; everything. What's worse, we lost a lot of good soldiers. We need men just as much as bullets in this war, and our numbers are already dwindling. A lot of wives, daughters, sons, and husbands will grieve today. We lost a brilliant Captain today too. How can we possibly win this war? It'd take a miracle to happen.
	I switched my microphone back on and went up to the pilot. “Hey,” I said solemnly to her. “Do you think you could open the ramp up? I'd like to see the planet we'll most likely be defending.” “No problem, sir. Enjoy the view.” The ramp lowered and locked in place with a satisfying metallic thud. Down below, I could see strip-mines pockmarked along the earth like bomb craters. “Damn, that's a lot of mining!” I heard Pulowski shout over the engines and wind. “Yeah. Jenn says it's 10% of the titanium alone.” “BXR Corporation?” “Probably”. The young marine gazed out onto the ground below. Perhaps he was wondering if he was going to die there.

. . .

	We finally reached the city about half an hour later. It reminded me a bit of New Alexandria. The city park had been converted into a makeshift landing zone, and we began to lower our altitude. As we landed, I could see Army troops mulling about, moving to and fro on their orders. I saw a burly black Lieutenant waiting for us as well. As the Marines took their harness off and got out of their seats, I stepped off the Pelican. The LT made his way towards me, and I gave him a casual salute, which he returned and dropped. I did the same. “Are you Sierra One-One-Four?” He spoke with an English accent. “Yes sir, that's me.” “You can call me Lieutenant Morrison. You and your Marines are to come with me. Major General Andropova needs to see you.” Not the bullshitting type huh I thought to myself. He led us to a pair of transport Warthogs, and we filed in. I took shotgun in his vehicle, and we took lead. “So tell me about this Major General of yours. Andropova was her name, right sir?” “Yes. She's head of the Army detachment here on Charon II. She has some urgent orders for you and your squad.” “So tell me about yourself sir. Where do you come from?” “I'm not one to give out personal details, Spartan. It distracts me from my job, and that can cost lives.” Damn dude, lighten up a little. We're not exactly in the middle of a battlefield. 
	We arrived at a massive skyscraper. The front had two spires going up, one longer than the other; it reminded me of the Vienna's cannons in a sense. “Alright, we're here.” said Morrison. “Everyone out.” We all disembarked and made it to a humongous elevator. “The General should be waiting for you on the 77th floor. Her office will be right in front of you. Don't be late,” Morrison said flatly. The glass doors closed and Morrison went off to another objective, wasting no time in doing so. 
	The view on the way up was magnificent. Save for the floor and the ceiling, the entire elevator was made of glass. We could see the expanses of the city around us; from her gasp, even the AI in my helmet seemed impressed. I wondered though, Why hadn't the Covenant started glassing the city yet, or even attacked us yet? Did the Captain manage to disable the third vessel as well?
	The elevator began to slow down, and the Marines all looked at each other nervously. A call like this always meant a new assignment, which meant more combat. I shared their anxiety. The elevator finally stopped, and a pleasant “bing” sounded as the doors whooshed open. Various Army personnel were running around in a state of near-panic. I saw some kitted-up troops but most of them seemed like paper pushers. Pulowski rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. We made our way forward. Pleasantly, I saw three ODSTs with their helmets off just ahead of Andropova's office. I recognized one of them as Barnes, and took my helmet off as well. I ran over to him. “Barnes!” He stopped talking to his squaddie and a shit-eating grin appeared on his face. “How the fuck you doing? I thought we lost you back there. How'd you get off?” I inquired. I outstretched my arm and he grasped it, our elbows bent downward. I gave him a quick pat on the arm and saw him wince a little. “It was just pure fuckin' luck man. Cap'n ordered us to our drop pods just in case something fucky happened. We got there just as some big explosion shook the ship. We realized it was fucked and dropped manually...Say, what happened to Captain?” The smile faded from his face. “His neural implant went offline. He's probably-” “Don't finish the sentence” he said, and gestured for me to turn around. The Marines caught up to me, and I could tell they were glad someone else made it off. “You sure brought quite the party. Well, I shouldn't keep you. She already briefed us, so we'll meet you when that's over. Damn good to see you Jake.” The smile reappeared on his face. “You too Barnes, see you in a few.” I held the door open for the Marines and gestured them inside.
	I made my way to the front of the group and caught my first look at Major General Andropova. She had a wrinkled face, with distinctly Slavic features. I assumed she was either from one of the Slavic countries on Earth, Reach, or New Harmony. I gave her a rigid salute. “Chief Petty Officer Sierra One-One-Four reporting for Duty ma'am”. “Ah, Petty Officer. I've been expecting you. Please, have a seat.” She gestured to a mahogany seat in front of her desk. Her accent was thick and rough, not gentle enough to be from New Harmony. “No thank you ma'am, I'd like to stand with the rest of my troops if that's alright with you.” She looked away to her window overlooking the city. The sun bathed her face in rays of golden light. “As you wish.” She looked back to me. “So, Spartan. Jake is it? I have a special task for you and your Marines.” She booted up a holographic display of the city. “So far, the Covenant have not attacked us yet. We're not sure why. Right now, we're taking this time to evacuate the civilian population of the city. Standard procedure, as I'm sure you know. There is one person that I want to be sure gets off this planet safely.” The projector switched to show a young girl's face. She was probably no older than 15. “An HVI ma'am?” “Yes. Her name is Danielle Silverman. Her father is the CEO of BXR Mining. It would be detrimental to the war effort if he were to become...distracted by such a loss as grievous as his own daughter. Do you understand?” “Yes ma'am.” “I'll have her location shared with your AI. I'm putting at your disposal a troop and recce Warthog. Try to return them the way you received them. I know that can be rough for you Marines sometimes.” The centuries old Army-Marine rivalry making it's way known. I had expected a bit more professionalism from such a high-ranking officer. She looked back at the window. A few seconds passed by. “That will be all Petty Officer. You are dismissed.” She didn't even turn to face me. We saluted her once more and left the office.