- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
This is a story I wrote a while back...
1830 Hours, July 18, 2552 (Military Calendar) /
Sigma Octanus IV, Cote d’Azur
If you’d have told me yesterday that today he’d be leading twenty strangers through the Covenant infested streets of Cote d’Azur, I’d have laughed in your face, Tom thought. Well, I’m certainly not laughing now.
Tom had served for five years with the Marines aboard the Leviathan. He’d made it all the way up to Sergeant before a stray plasma bolt got him a Purple Heart and an Honorable Discharge. Since then he’d moved to Sigma Octanus and gotten a job in the arms factory. His wife had been skeptical when they first left Reach, but they had both come to love the tropical city. The beach was five minutes from their apartment, and for two years it seemed like Cote d’Azur was paradise.
Still, Tom had seen a dozen other paradises scorched by Covenant ships, and he was determined not to be another nameless victim of their brutality. He kept his standard issue sidearm in his closet, along with his old uniform. He was the only one on the block with a gun, and the other guys at the factory all told him he was paranoid. The city had next to no crime, so what did a guy need a gun for?
When Tom awoke that morning, he’d put on the news and saw the first reports of a battle with the Covenant in orbit. The anchor had said the report was unconfirmed and that it was highly unlikely. So Tom had kissed Amanda at the door and trod off to work as usual, with an anxious feeling in the back of his mind.
He stopped for breakfast on his way, and just as he took the first sip of his coffee, he saw the evacuation announcement on the café’s screen. He’d dropped his coffee and sprinted back to his apartment, only to have Amanda meet him at the door.
“Tom, what’s going on? The news said to evacuate. What do we do?” She was clearly distraught, but Tom knew he didn’t have time to explain.
“Get dressed. Wear a set of my work clothes and your boots.” He reached into the hall closet and pulled out two duffel bags. One was his survival bag, with enough water and sealed food for a week, plus one or two other surprises. The other he handed to his wife. “After you get dressed, fill this with stuff for Jack. Milk, diapers, whatever. Go.” She rushed out of the room and he stripped off his work clothes. He hoped to himself that his uniform still fit as he pulled up the fatigue patterned pants. After he got dressed he pulled down his web belt and strapped it on. Then he got down the box he kept his pistol in and opened it up.
It had been a pain to get a permit, and he’d had to pay the Corps for the weapon, but all that seemed insignificant now. As he slid a clip into the M6C, a wave of calm came over him. He had feared this day for two years, but now that it was here he was surprisingly serene. Tom knew the city’s evacuation plan was a joke, so he’d prepared his own plan. He’d take them to his sister’s in the hills and wait until the Marines landed. That is, if the Covenant don’t just glass the planet, he thought.
Amanda came back into the kitchen wearing her husband’s loose fitting clothes, with Jack in her arms and the duffel on her back, half ready to cry. But when she saw her husband in his uniform and steel in his eyes, it calmed her. She knew if anyone could get them out of this it was Tom.
“Ready to go?” he asked softly. When she nodded assent, he took her hand and they stepped out into the hall of the building. Their neighbor Ben was wandering the hallway, half crazed with fear.
“Hey Tom, what’s going on pal? Ten minutes ago the news says evacuate as fast as possible, now it says stay inside and lock your doors. What’s it all mean?” His hair was disheveled and he was wearing flannel pajamas. Tom had always envied Ben’s work hours, but today it meant he was unprepared for an early morning catastrophe.
“-blam!-. They only tell the civilians to lock their doors if the Covenant have landed already. Look Ben, calm down and listen to me. Your life depends on it. Go inside, wake Jane, get dressed in rugged clothes, pack some food real fast and meet me back here. I can only wait for three minutes, then Amanda and I are leaving.” Tom noticed that his forceful speech made the situation register with his neighbor, and within two and a half minutes the small group was ready to move.
“Okay, now, if we stay here, the Covenant will come eventually and it won’t be pretty. I’ve seen it plenty of times. We’ve got to get away from this population center. My truck can get us to my sister’s house in the hills. We can wait there until the Marines land. They’ll get us out of here. Unless, you have a better plan?” Tom hadn’t intended to take others with him, but he certainly wasn’t going to leave people behind for the Covenant.
“We’re with you Tom.” Ben and his wife were an older couple, and their children lived on Earth. They had moved to Cote d’Azur to retire, not be attacked by aliens, so they were glad to have a neighbor who knew what he was doing.
“Alright then, good to have you aboard. Now, let’s hustle.” They took the stairs down the three flights to the lobby, in case the power shut down on the elevator. Tom led the way, followed by Amanda and Jack, then Jane, with Ben bringing up the rear. When they reached the lobby, Tom opened up the front door and poked his head out.
When Tom had left for work, Cote d’Azur had been peaceful. Now people were running around, some screaming, others looting, and some just wandering aimlessly. The roads were jammed with cars, but traffic was moving, which was a good sign. He pulled his head back into the lobby and looked over his team. His wife, their six-month-old son, and the sixty something neighbors. Not exactly the elite squad he’d commanded in the Corps, but he’d have to make it work.
“It’s four blocks to the parking garage, so we’re going to have to run for it. Stay close and don’t bother slowing down to take a look. The city’s a mess, and a lot of people are losing it. Just stay behind me and we’ll be all right.” They nodded and he turned and started to jog. Not too fast, but definitely a brisk pace. He jumped over a stopped car in the road and waited at the corner for the rest to catch up. They made their way as swiftly as possible, but it took them nearly twenty minutes to go two blocks with all the chaos around them.
While they were still a block away from the garage, a U-shaped purple craft appeared and shot at the garage, setting off the parked cars like a string of firecrackers. Then it landed on the roof and dispatched a team of Grunts. Tom saw this and immediately stopped. He turned to the door of the building next to him and kicked it open. Then he waved his wife and Ben into the building, just as the purple craft took off and began shooting again.
It turned out they were in an apartment building, much like the one they had just left. Tom’s mind began racing and he formed a new plan. “Okay, the truck’s out of the question, so we need a new plan. I say we head down to the wharf. Maybe we can find a boat to get away in. If not, we’ll just have to walk. The coastline should keep us pretty well camouflaged if it comes to that. Any questions?”
“What if we run into the Covenant?” Ben was afraid again, and he had started to sweat.
“We’ve got my pistol, but let’s pray it doesn’t come to that. All right, we’ll go to the other side of this building and go out the back door. Stay quiet from now on.” With that he put a finger to his lips and started to slink through the building. He noticed the layout was nearly the same as his apartment building, until he got to the back wall. Some genius had built this building without a back door.
Tom held up his hand for them to stop. He looked around and saw an apartment to his left. He figured it would have a window they could climb out of, so he headed towards it, stopping dead when he heard sounds. As Tom pulled out his pistol, Jane gasped loudly, but Amanda put a hand over her mouth. Tom leaned and put an ear against the door and heard a lot of rustling noises, but he couldn’t identify any specific sounds.
Since there was no other apartment that would have a window on this wall, Tom decided he’d have to risk a forced entry. He hoped it was only a Grunt or two, otherwise his pistol wouldn’t be enough. He motioned the others to stay back on the far wall, took the time to wish he had a grenade, then stepped in front of the door and kicked it in.
When the dust settled, he saw a group of ten people sitting around a table.
“What the hell? What are you people still doing here? The city’s been invaded. You should have left a long time ago.” Tom was surprised to see these people just sitting around when he’d seen Covenant ground forces land less than a block away.
“The news said to stay inside and lock our doors. That’s what we did.” The speaker was a balding man with an overly large nose and an attitude that told Tom immediately that this was a man he would not like.
“Who the hell are you?”
“I am Craig Schneider, head of this building’s apartment owner’s association, and these are my neighbors. Until a moment ago, we were following the Colonial Administration Authority’s orders. Who, may I ask, are you?” The little man was amazed that someone dressed so outlandishly had disobeyed the city’s orders and barged into his apartment.
“I’m Tom, and if you ask me, you people need to get the hell out of here. The Covenant are on the ground as we speak. I’m taking my wife and our friends to the wharf to look for a way to get out of here. You’re welcome to join us, but we’re leaving now.”
“Are you a Marine sir?” a woman at the table asked.
“Retired ma’am. I was a Sergeant a few years ago.”