Homecoming

“Run baby! We can’t stop!” Robert exclaimed. The plasma bolts from the Elites weapons melting the jungle foliage all around them as they tried to escape. He slows and turns to fire his weapon, a quick burst from his assault rifle, just enough to slow them down, but only briefly. The lead Elite lets out a guttural, primal scream that causes the little girl running at Robert’s side to jump, almost out of her skin, and cover her ears. Just a few more meters, and they will be at the gates of the makeshift bunker set up by the marines on the road into New Mombasa. Just behind those gates is a pair of Warthogs and a few Marine bad asses with Rocket Launchers waiting for a clear shot.

“Almost there sweetie! You’re doing great, just keep running!” Crash! The little girl suddenly trips on a root and falls. “Daddy!” she cries. He screeches to a halt, and falls down scratching and clawing at the ground to get to his daughters side. It’s too late. The Elites have them. He reaches for his weapon, but it is kicked from his outstretched hand. The leader of the group, a black armored Elite, picks the two of them up, and slams them to ground in a heap. He then unholsters his plasma pistol. “Don’t look sweetie.” Robert whispers to his daughter. “Don’t look.” The Elite fires…

“No!” he awakes with a start, and jumps up out of his seat. “Sergeant Jayne, are you ok sir?” The flight attendant asks. “Just a dream, I think.” “We will be landing shortly sir, is there anything you need before I begin preparations?” “No, thank you mam. He replies taking his seat. “Just glad to be home.”

Shortly after his plane lands, Robert hops into his warthog, a stripped down version without weaponry, and heads off the base for home. “What the hell?” He remarks to himself noticing how the weather patterns have seemed to change almost instantly. He reaches into his duffel bag to retrieve his chatter, and call home to let his wife know he is on the way. NO SERVICE! Flashes on the touch screen, not even a welcome message from Sam, the tiny, customizable AI that comes “Free with a one year contract agreement!” He tosses it gently onto seat next to him, and turns onto the Tsavo Highway for home.

“Welcome home babe!” Shannon exclaims, and greets her husband with a long, deep, kiss and hug as he walks thru the door. “How did it go?” “OK, “he replies, “well, not OK, I...it’s over now. How’s it going here?” Quickly moving on to a less depressing subject. “Usual stuff,” Shannon replies. “I dropped Isabelle off at school, and Faith and I were just watching cartoons. That is until the television went dead.” She added. “That’s weird,” replied Robert, “did you check your chatter lately, mines fragged!” Shannon walks into the kitchen to check in her bag. “Yeah, mine too.” Robert falls in behind her in the kitchen, first stopping to snatch up his young daughter off the floor, spinning her around, and pretending to munch on her neck. This always makes her giggle. The sweetest sound in the world.

He looks over at his young wife, with a thoughtful look about him as if he were, piecing together a puzzle. “Miranda was acting odd when we spoke at the funeral. There is something going.” Waaooo! “What’s that?” Shannon asks anxiously. “Air raid siren.” replies Robert. “Were under attack.

“Stay put.” Robert says, handing Faith over to her mother. “I’m gonna head back to base, and see what is going on.” “Rob wait!” Shannon replies, giving chase as she runs out of the house to catch him before he leaves. She is stopped suddenly in her tracks, by the view that has already stunned her eager husband. The darkened, stormy sky has now given way to a brilliant borealis of reds, purples, and oranges that is growing ever larger seemingly meters above their heads. Suddenly, with an earth shattering crash, and flash of fire a Covenant battle cruiser bursts thru the sky, and over their home. The ship is so low that the turbulence, and noise of the immense engines sends shock waves throughout the tiny community they live in. Shattering windows, peeling away at rooftops, and knocking the three of them to the ground. “You alright!” Robert screams, trying to be heard over the noise. “Come on!” He picks himself up off the ground, and grabbing his daughter, and his wife’s hand runs around the opposite side of the house, giving chase to the immense enemy craft. He watches in horror as the cruiser is now joined by three others that have settled over the comm. Tower that rises up from the center of the UNSC military base Ukuzenzela. The three ships simultaneously charge up there plasma weapons, and proceed to melt the comm. Tower, and everything around it, to glass.

With his hands upon his head, jaw firmly on the ground he stares in disbelief at the carnage that is laid out before him. Then, looking over at his wife, and hysterical little girl they almost instantly realize that a member of the family is missing. “Oh god!” The young mother cries as Rob grabs her by the hand and pulls her back into house. “What are we gonna do! Bell is all alone out there?!” She sobs. “Oh god please let her be alright, please, please!” “She’s OK. Schools have plans for situations like this. She’ll be safe enough until I get there.” He tries to calm her, but it’s not helping much. With her hand firmly in his he leads her upstairs into the bedroom. Flinging open the closet door he pulls out a large tote buried under some old boxes. From inside the tote he reveals a set of body armor, and some gear. Shannon looks on confused as he strips out of his dress uniform into a pair of jeans, and steel toed work boots, the closest thing he has to military issue fatigues. He then reaches into the tote, and pulls out a form fitting, Kevlar laced undershirt, and begins to gear up. Now beginning to understand, Shannon puts Faith down on the bed, and begins to help. “Agghh!” Robert grimaces a bit as he tries to flex his burnt shoulder upwards to pull the shirt on. Shannon reaches up to help, and notices some fresh blood where the scar tissue has torn from the earlier fall. “Sweetie, are you OK?” She asks. “I’m gonna head over to the school, and get Bell. I want you stay here, and hide in the basement.” “We don’t have a basement.” She replies, now confused again. Robert looks at her, and slides the bullet proof vest, and ammo belt onto his torso, the last pieces of gear he has. It will have to do. Now reaching under the bed, he pulls out a shiny silver case. He enters in the password to open the case, and takes a step back. “Rob, please tell me wha...” Shannon is stopped mid sentence when she sees the contents of the case, an MA5B Assault Rifle, and two M6D pistols. Not the standard, stripped down version the marines use, these are the cannons carried by Spartans. “Where did you get those!” she demands. “A friend.” He replies, removing the weapons from the custom foam inlay of the case. “You know how I feel about guns!” She scolds him. “That’s why I marked the case Comic books.” Loading the guns and holstering the AR on the magnetic plate woven into the back of his vest, he leads his family downstairs to explain the rest of his plan.

Opening the pantry door, and knocking the shelves out of the way, he reveals to them a false wall leading down a short set of stairs into a small bunker. “You and Faith hide here until I…we get back. “Why didn’t you tell me about all this?” Shannon inquired. “I added this when the house was built, before you arrived from the states. If something like this happened, I wanted you to be safe, and in the event the Covenant never found Earth, I didn’t want you to worry.” Just then a rumble of explosions echoed thru the house shaking dust from the ceiling. “You can hide here.” He instructed. “The room is soundproof, so Faith can cry and scream all she wants. I will lock you in. The key code on the inside is 1011, if you need to get out. Here hold this.” Rob takes his daughter, and hands Shannon a pistol. She nervously takes it and tries to hold it out. Too heavy. He strips it down, and reconfigures it as light as possible. “If the Covies start clearing houses, they will more than likely send Grunts. If they find you, click off the safety here, and squeeze the trigger. Grunts are easy to kill, just aim low, at the center of mass. Hopefully, I will be back before that. It’s only what, 10 miles to Bell’s school.”

He gives his shell-shocked wife a peck on the lips, and escorts her into bunker closing the door behind her. Back up the steps now and outside to see that the string of explosions that he heard earlier was actually a row of trees that were toppled over on fire, onto his warthog.

Unholstering the AR from his back, and pulling back the charging bolt, he looks off to west. “Looks like I’m walkin.”