The plasma flew as an unstoppable onslaught of grimy marines, army troopers, and Spartans began to take their final stand, many fell, few stood in the end. The UNSC had lost, Reach was doomed. Or so he thought at that time…

Hours past as if they were years. Minutes were days, and seconds were precious. The now wounded SPARTAN-III fought until it was the end. He fell near many a brother and sister, not by family or marriage, but of blood and sacrifice. The blade, inches from his face, the look of death in the monster's eyes, the blade swerved down and struck him in the chest. Him seeing that the monster truly wanted him dead, stabbing the blade farther into his chest. The blade, cold inside of him slowly emerged and the monster screamed a call of victory. The final Spartan fell…

But for others, it was his awakening…

The young man, slowly fading into a blissful slumber heard more than cries of success, but a familiar noise, one he had heard daily since he was barely six.

Gunfire…human gunfire…

Perhaps he was only dreaming, remembering how he grew up, before everything was bad. Before…

More fell…

But in the wake of the death, he opened his eyes one final time to show his brothers and sisters that the veil of death meant nothing, he gave all, he won all. But to the mans eyes, tears sliding steadily down, he saw that they were winning, they…

His people…humans…

For every one marine or army trooper that fell, ten Covenant fell. Maybe he was seeing things, maybe this was a dream…but no. He heard a feminine voice saying, "Die…SPARTANS Never Die!" This female, her voice angelic stood strong taking on all, never retreating. Who was she to know that this one male, looking at her through death eyes, saw what she truly was. She was no woman of war, but a guardian. In the end, they prevailed. In the end, he was at peace…

"You're not going to die on me now Lieutenant, are you?" said the angelic voice.

"No ma'am…"he said with a slight chuckle, "Why haven't you left, its over, Reach is gone."

"Dammed Spartans and your negativity…" she thought. "Lieutenant, why do you always have to be negative? Reach hasn't fallen and it won't fall. Understood soldier."

"How?" he said, coughing as she applied Biofoam to his wounds."

"Punctured a lung…damn. What? Sorry. Reach won't fall because our faith hasn't. We also have a secret weapon…"

"Ma'am. Sorry to interrupt," a marine said as he jogged up, "The Covenant have retreated, we need to get Project Defiant out of here."

"Good job. Attention all UNSC forces, rendezvous at Point Alpha Three at 2300 hours. We've got a war to win."

"How will we do this ma'am?" the injured man asked again as he was struggling to get up. Just before he fell, two marines caught him. "Thank you."

"Anytime, but now we're even." the female smiled.

"You're the stinkin bastards girl, aren't you?" he said with the hint of a smile.

"Yep." she said, popping the 'p'. "The one and only, name's Emma by the way."

"Nice to meet you…well again, but this time we aren't getting shot at." he said groaning as he sat down in a transport. He looked at his helmet laying approximately twenty feet from him and decided to leave it. Marines and Army Troopers were carrying stretchers and helping the previously thought 'deceased' Spartans and ODSTs that he had seen laying around the chaos of what used to be a section of the dry docks.

"Hey Spartan. Don't jinx us." she said with a smile as she went to help others.

"So Doc? How are all these people still alive?" he asked looking around curiously. He saw several familiar armor suits and symbols along with some faces. Looking down at the dog tags still wrapped around his wrist, purple blood staining them. He thought about his fellow team members and their deaths. "Are any members of my team still alive?"

"Yes. Noble Three and Noble Five. One, Two, and Four…I'm sorry. Nothing could be done." she said with a sad look in her eyes. "All patched up. You'll be issued new armor and weapons at Defiant."

"Jorge is alive? How? He would have been killed in the explosion. Wait, Kat said transported to oblivion. What if, they didn't die? What if the slipspace drive just teleported him?" The doctor saw the look in his eyes and smiled, he was thinking deeply.

"I don't think they train you to think Spartan, they train you to fight." she said with the lightest of laughter.

"Huh? Oh yeah. I do it anyways." saying that made her smile even thought the darkening skies closed upon them.

"Yes. Jorge is alive and well. 117 and the Pillar of Autumn were sent to rescue him and those of the Odyssey." she said, not even looking at him as she clambered into the back of the Hog.

"The crew is still alive?" he relied in utter shock, his sister and mother were both Saber fighter pilots on that ship.

"Yes. A majority of the crew escaped and they landed on a planet. The planet is habitable and they have made a small colony." saying this and seeing the pained look in his eyes fade pleased her. "Your mother is alive, and your sister and niece are fine."

"I have a…niece?" he looked at her as if she just took away his Spartan abilities.

"Yes, your adopted niece. Her mother and father were both killed sadly." seeing that this troubled him, she stopped and asked the driver how far out they were. "We've got about ten minutes of driving left. Depending on the traffic conditions and how the weather is, back to you Jim." laughing the man in the passenger seat begins a story about the Sports. "And for all you sports fans and when I say sports fans I mean all you hard-asses bent on killing the…ah…the pests that came to say hello. We've got our best team of grenade chuckin, trigger happy Spartans working for us to defeat the Covenant, but as you all know…this isn't basketball!" several marines began to laugh uncontrollably, causing the driver of the Hog to jump. "Now for more sports. Our ODSTs have been fighting a good season and have a kill/death ratio of…in your face mother! And that's it for sports, back to you Dave." the marines were laughing so hard, some were crying and others couldn't breath. The man that very rarely smiled or even talked was trying to suppress a large grin but couldn't.

As they neared the large base Defiant, he could see three UNSC frigates entering a very large cave in the cliff and spotted two more, already in dock. The large convoy of Spartans, ODSTs, Marines, and Army Troopers rolled in to hear many people, civilian and military, clapping. For once he felt bliss in the war…to be continued