Chapter Text
"This better help," muttered Anne Ryder as she sipped on her specialized protein shake, mixed with three different types of antacid to soothe her heartburn from hell. She had been downing bottles of the liquid medicine prescribed by her doctor, but nothing seemed to be working.
"It's common for women at your stage," she remembered the turian doctor saying unenthusiastically.
Anne was in her third trimester, her baby due within two weeks, but to her, it felt like an eternity away. The constant swelling, trips to the bathroom, mood swings, sensitivity to smells, and overall miserable feelings were taking their toll. She let out a gasp as her child delivered a harder than usual kick. She patted her swollen stomach soothingly as if to calm her baby down.
"Easy there, Anya," she said, "not until your father comes home."
But Anne knew that wasn't going to be possible. Her husband, Scott, was on Reach, while she stayed behind on Titus. The distance between both planets made Scott being present for the birth close to impossible. He was working overtime as an agent for the Office of Naval Intelligence, and was neck-deep in work. It pained Anne to her soul that he wouldn't be there, but she knew it was for a good cause. The Covenant were attacking UNSC colonies in the outer parts of the territory, and they were showing no signs of slowing down and claiming billions of lives. Scott and countless others were working nonstop to prevent the Covenant from finding anymore worlds, but the aliens always did. But before he left, he and Anne were able to pick a name for their baby girl: Anya. They were still in discussion on what to do for her middle name, but it seemed to be that choice was for Anne to make. She already picked out one: Jolene. It was based on her older brother's name, Joe. Although she had few memories of him, Anne loved her big brother tremendously. He was a hero to her. He had died when Anne was four-years-old. The Covenant attacked their homeworld and their parents were killed in front of them. Joe led Anne away from their burning home as the aliens chased them.
"Annie! Run!" Joe yelled as he held her hand, running through a war-torn street. She had been running as hard as her little legs would allow, dodging plasma fire as best she could. She remembered marines coming to them, reaching out their hands, but they never made it. Anne got hit in the shoulder as they neared relative safety. It was like a spike that was made of magma drilled into her body, making her fall down and letting go of Joe's hand.
"Annie!" Her brother screamed at the top of his lungs as she fell, blacking out from the pain of Covenant plasma striking her little body.
The next thing she remembered was waking up in a medical bed on an evac shuttle, laying on her stomach as a pair of marine medics knelt over her, treating her shoulder. She screamed the hardest she ever did, the pain was too much for her to bear. She had to be held down by one of the medics as the other dressed her wound. She cried for her parents and for her brother, but no one came to comfort her. The medics offered no reassuring words, no displays of kindness: only focusing on her injury. That's what drove her to enlist in the army. She had seen action, but had to come back when she tested positive for pregnancy. Anne worried day and night for her teammates, who haven't checked in long enough for her to be calm.
Anne shook her head, trying to keep those memories out of her mind. However, they were becoming more frequent lately, and she had no idea why. She had to stop from looking at the news; the attacks on colonies were getting more frequent than they had in the past five years. Almost every media outlet was flooded with images of refugees flooding into care centers with burns on their faces. The worst ones were crying children standing alone in a sea of people, unable to find their parents. She had more than her fair share of seeing families get torn apart.
"Call coming in from: Sergeant Major Ridley," her home's vitual intelligence assitant announced through the speakers.
Taking a quick sip of her shake, Anne replied out loud, "I'm unavailable."
Anne had nothing against Ridley. In fact he was an old friend of Scott's. It was just that Ridley had appeared to taken more of an interest in her since Scott left three months ago. Lately, he'd been driving by her house late at night and looking around the yard. She didn't call the police yet, as she knew Scott would've been furious if she did, but something wasn't right. She'd never let Ridley in the house when he knocked, and now she was trying to distance herself from him.
She slowly eased herself down on the couch in the front room and turned on some mindless entertainment.
"Call coming in from: Sergeant Major Ridley. Message flagged as urgent."
Anne let out a disgruntled sigh. She might as well tell him to stop creeping in on her rather than assume the man knew how to take a hint.
"Accept," she reluctantly said, rehearsing in her mind what to say to him when he picked up.
I want you to stop checking up on me. Stop going through my yard.
When the line connected, she was met by loud background noise from Ridley's end. People were screaming. Sirens were going off.
"Anne? Anne, can you hear me?" Ridley frantically said.
"Yeah," Anne replied, trying to turn down the volume before she went deaf. "What's going on?"
"Do you have an overnight bag ready?"
Anne had one packed on the day she entered her 37th week, knowing that babies sometimes decide to come around that time.
"Y-Yeah. Why?"
"Grab it and wait outside your house! I'm en route with a Warthog! I need to get you to an evac center now!"
Evac center? Titus was rather deep in UNSC territory. The only real threats on the planet were a drunk ship captain crashing into the sea. What could be so horrible that there needed to be an evacuation? Unless...no, that was impossible. They can't have gotten this far in already.
"Do you under--damn it, Corporal! I said ``step on it! Do you understand, Anne? ETA is within five minutes. Grab your bag and wait outside. Ridley out."
Anne could feel her hands shaking and started to hyperventilate. There was an immense weight on her chest which felt like it was squeezing every bit of air out of her lungs. She gripped the cushions around her and sank her fingernails deep into them, threatening to puncture the putet wool lining. Before she went into a panicked frenzy, she started to take long controlled breaths that she learned when dealing with PTSD.
Through the nose for five-counts, out through the mouth for five-counts.
Anne did those breaths until she felt calm enough to grab her overnight bag. It had a change of clothes plus some toiletries for when she would go into labor. But now, they would be her only other change of clothes for the time being while she evacuated. She prayed to whoever was out there that if this was a crisis or a drill that she'd be able to live through it, or at the very least, have her baby before she passed.
Anne waited anxiously outside her front porch, and she could tell by the area surrounding her that something was terribly wrong. The birds that endlessly chirped from the trees were silent. The neighborhood kids that played in the street were nowhere to be seen. Even the breeze felt wrong.
The only thing that wasn't out of place was her crotchety old neighbor watering his lawn.
"'Bout damn time we got some quiet around here," he said to her. "Shame everyday can't be like this."
Anne didn't respond, just kept looking around uneasily.
"That an overnight bag?" The old man asked. "You in labor or something?"
"No!" Anne blurted out, but lowered her voice. "No, uh, just spending the rest of the day at...my mother-in-law's place."
The old man let out a huff. "Fine. Just don't make too much ruckus if you do. And don't think I'll help you out."
Anne remembered why she didn't like him. He was always unnecessarily aggressive and rude.
A distant but loud explosion echoed among the houses, sending all the birds that were hiding in the trees to scatter. It was quickly followed by a second, then a third. The old man slowly craned his neck up to they sky.
"What the hell? Am I going senile or did you hear those too?"
"I heard them," Anne said, turning towards him. "Hey, where is everyone?"
He gestured all around with one wrinkled and curled finger, "They were all scuttling around this morning, all packing into their vehicles and driving off. They were knocking on people's doors and telling them they had to evacuate. Mrs. Iverson knocked on your door but you weren't answering. Then everyone just left."
If this happened in the last hour, then most likely she was still in the shower when Jenny knocked on her door. She must've assumed Anne wasn't home. It was especially odd that none of her personal communication devices told her to evacuate. A vague sense of dread blanketed Anne, causing her to anxiously look up and down the street for Ridley.
Another series of explosions, but these ones sounded closer. The windows on most of the houses rattled, and the ground shook. Anne turned herself to look over her house, and could see large plumes of smoke. A fast flying vehicle buzzed her house, being chased by two AV-22 Sparrowhawks. Then, a large-purple-shell looking aircraft flew into view. Anne froze with terror, knowing what that thing was: a Covenant Phantom dropship.
As the Phantom flew over the neighborhood, the door on its left side peeled open and began to descend. She started to back away, letting out panicked cries.
"Oh shit...OH SHIT!"
She didn't have a sidearm and she was out in the open. She was screwed.
The old man dropped his hose, taking feeble steps back, uttering terrified groans.
A group of tall figures fell from the Phantom, landing on their two-toed feet as the dropship flew away. They were less than twenty feet away from Anne, close enough to see their yellow-eyes. A majority of them were clad in dark-blue armor except for one, who wore crimson. He craned his serpentine-like head towards her, then gazed at the old man. Elites.
"Secure a perimeter," the crimson-alien ordered his troops. They began to spread out, pointing their weapons in each direction as their leader raised a plasma rifle at the old man.
"Oh god," he began to plead, stretching out an arm in a hopeless attempt to stop the Elite. "Please! Don't..."
A single blue bolt of plasma all but vaporized the top of his head. What was left was a lump of unrecognizable flesh that had been burned in less than a second. Anne let out a bloodcurdling scream as his body sadly slumped to the ground and the Red Elite started walking to her with intent of exerting himself quite yet. Anne turned to run, but she couldn't go very fast. Alas, in her condition, she wasn't going far on her own.
"Run if you can, human," Red called to her in a deep and bassy voice. "It makes no difference to me."
The other Elites didn't pursue Anne, knowing that she wasn't going to cause any trouble. They seemed to let Red have the honor of killing the first humans.
She went as fast as she could, coming up on a three-way intersection at the end of the block, but a leathery four-digit hand caught her by the neck from behind. She tried to scream fire help, but she could get out a small gargle. She was thrown to the ground, and tried to get back on her feet, but a massive foot slammed down on her chest and forced her down to the sidewalk. Red had effortlessly caught up with her and examined her with a curiosity that scared the hell out of her. She attempted to crawl away, but to no avail.
"Help!" Anne screamed on the top of her lungs, the kind that felt like her vocal cords would tear. "Someone help!"
Red raised the rifle at Anne's head, feeling the intense heat from the plasma already cooking her face. She screamed for help in whatever fraction of a chance she had of escaping this situation. She closed her eyes, bracing herself to find out what awaited her on the other side, but there was a long pause. The heat from her face went away as Red continued to glance at her. His sickly-yellow eyes slithered to her belly, and tilted his head to the side.
"Your abdomen," Red said calmly, "is abnormally swollen. Perhaps of a sickness?"
Anne stopped, already out of breath and knowing she was already dead. She examined the Elite's four-mandibled face, staring at the gaping hole at the back of his 'mouth.' She had never been this close to an Elite before and was wishing she wasn't.
"Do humans swallow their food whole?" Red continued, almost to himself. To him, she was an oddity he'd never seen before.
"My child," she rasped, her throat sore from the screaming. "I'm having a baby..."
Red clasped his mandibles together, "Ah. I take no pleasure, human, but the gods demand it. We must burn away the filth of your defiling presence. I can't help but wonder..."
Red shook the thought out of his head, then retrained his weapon at Anne's head.
"Your heresy ends today hum..."
Red's head exploded into a spray of purple gore, splattering over Anne's face. Her left eye squeezed tight as she felt some of the blood get into it. Red's headless body fell to her left as an eruption of gunfire and Elites shouting echoed among the houses.
"Find the coward!"
"There's another, coming at us!"
"Slay the demons!"
Anne began to crawl away, dragging herself towards a house. She noticed a figure coming towards her, but with one eye she couldn't tell. The figure was humanoid in shape, but was taller than anybody she had ever seen. The figure wore blue armor, their face shrouded behind a gold visor as they wrapped an arm under her armpit and lifted her up with one arm and held her.
"Hold on," a voice said, belonging to a male, "I've got you."
Anne couldn't tell what was happening in the chaos, and closed her eyes shut, not knowing anything. She felt herself being carried for a few seconds and placed down on the ground.
"Stay here!" The voice said, then she heard thudding footsteps recede.
Anne placed her hands over her ears, her focus being to block out the sounds of automatic fire and plasma weaponry. All time seemed to move more slowly as Anne could only wait. It felt like an eternity as she heard the sounds of weapon fire grow quieter and quieter until there was an almost eerie silence, but Anne kept her hands over her ears. She felt an armored glove touch her shoulder, and she began to spazz out, screaming as she attempted to crawl away, but another armored hand stopped her.
"Hey-hey-hey!" A voice said, this one belonged to what sounded like a woman. "You're okay! You're okay..."
Anne turned to see not one, but four heavily armored people standing above her. Each of them towered over Anne, larger than any human she had ever met. They all wore blue armor with white details on various parts of their bodies, had different helmets, and had a symbol of a saber tooth cat skull with swords crossed behind it.
One of them came up to her and she saw the number '264' stenciled onto the chestplate.
"It's okay. We're here to help. Are you hurt?"
The voice she heard first belonged to him. He was the one who carried her behind cover, which was the sideyard of a house. She found herself staring at her own reflection in his gold tinted visor, unable to make out his facial features. He seemed more of a robot than he was human.
"N-No," Anne replied feebly. "I think I'm okay. Nice shot."
The soldier shook his head, jerking a thumb behind him to one of his squadmates, who cradled an SRS99 Anti-Material S7 sniper rifle.
"You can thank Saber-Two for that."
Saber-Two's visor was also tinted gold, but on it was engraved rifle crosshairs over where his right eye would be. His shoulders housed rifle ammo, and he had a long radio antenna coming out of a backpack.
The third, having an hourglass-like figure, most likely the woman voice who tried to calm her down, knelt down next to Anne on her left. She had a long-ass knife attached to her chest with shotgun shells housed on her thighs, wrists, and even by her ankles.
"Are there any other survivors here that we need to know about?"
"I heard they all evacuated," Anne replied, "but I didn't get any sort of warning..."
Everything was swirling too fast. She kept looking around, scared that Elites would drop out of the sky again. The fourth and final soldier, having what looked like explosive shells strapped to his chest and holding a M247 heavy machine gun scanned the skies, much too heavy for a regular soldier to shoot while holding it.
"Saber-One, we need to move out. That Phantom's gonna make another sweep if we stay here."
"Good thinking, Saber-Four," 264 affirmed. "Back to the Razorback, Spartans."
Spartans. Anne remembered now. They were UNSC super-soldiers, the ones actually proven effective against the Covenant. She'd seen posters of the Spartan known as Master Chief.
Anne's mind turned towards Ridley, who still hadn't arrived.
"I was waiting for Sergeant Major Ridley. He told me he was coming to get me in a Warthog. He should be here any..."
The woman Spartan shook her head, "He's not coming. His vehicle was strafed by a Banshee. We were diverted here to help get any civilians out. But it looks like you're the only one still alive."
Anne was helped to her feet.
"Who...whobare you guys?"
"Fireteam Saber," 264 replied. "Let's get you out of here before more Covies show up."