Defiance Part 1

Haven't been here in a while, decided I wanted to finish this all up in a little two parter.

Enjoy.

Mars, Gagarin City, 2629. 77 Years After the Human-Covenant War.

"Grandpa… were you in the war?"

The old man opened up his blue eyes, to find a young child sitting before his chair on the floor, legs crisscrossed as he stared up at him.

His voice came out like gravel in reply, "How do you know you about the war?"

"We learned about it today, in school." The child replied, his piercing blue orbs staring back at the old man's. "And Misses Anders asked if we had any relatives who fought. Daddy said no, so did Mommy. What about you?"

Uncomfortable sensations flowed through the elder's body, the harsh feeling of a drill sergeant bearing down on you wasn't dulled by age, nor the pain of plasma searing your skin to char. The hot blood of friends covering you, as they begged for help. The angry kick of your gun as you took an enemy's life.

It all came to him like a flood that couldn't be dammed up.

Unconsciously, his hand went up to his ribs. He could feel the scars underneath his thin shirt. Shivers raced up his spine as he finally replied, "Yes, David. I was in the war."

Holding out his shaky hands, he motioned little David to stand up. Straining, he lifted the child onto his good leg, to other too thin now to hold anything but his own weight, and even on a good day that was a challenge. The child kept his eyes locked on his grandfather.

"Did you fight?"

He almost laughed, but instead allowed only a smile, "You better believe it." Sniffing, he closed his eyes again and asked slowly, "I'm guessing you want to hear a story?"

David smiled, showing his gapped, pearly-white teeth, "Yes please, Grandpa."

And then he tried to remember what happened all those years ago. Back when he was still young, still a fighter in a conflict that swept across entire star systems, claiming billions of lives. A needless conflict that nearly threw mankind past the brink of extinction. The harsh memories came back to the old man easily enough, and soon he told his tale to the young child in his lap.

2552. Aboard UNSC Cruiser Arcturus. In Earth's Upper Orbit.

"Request denied, Commander. That's final."

Jackson couldn't believe what he was hearing. This was their only chance to go back, to save thousands from death, and he was being told to stay put. To cower while the Covies burnt away what was left of his home and its inhabitants.

Officially, what was left of Reach's navy was ordered to follow the Cole Protocol and then make a jump for Earth, to receive repairs, rearm, and bolster Home Fleet. Until recently, Jackson had no major problem with the plan, it actually did him and the rest of the crew a little good seeing a planet that wasn't set ablaze by plasma.

But within hours of returning, long-range comms picked up a distress beacon that personnel aboard the Arcturus received and forwarded to Jackson.

It was a distress signal, issued by a Gunnery Sergeant Buck, an ODST. He claimed that he and his squad managed to find a large group of civilians in a fallout bunker in mountain range, so far safe from the glassing. Rescue was immediately requested.

And Command was giving him the finger.

"Lord Hood, please." Jackson hissed, unable to take 'no' for an answer, not with people's lives on the line. "If there are civilians and marines still trapped back there, I say we shouldn't leave them. Reach hasn't been completely glassed yet, meaning there will be survivors."

The man on the screen sighed, his shoulders slumped, "And by the time we respond, the planet will be totally glassed, all those civilians dead."

"We have to try." Jackson pleaded. "If we leave them behind, then we're no worse than the Covenant. Give me a chance, sir. Home Fleet won't miss one cruiser, and I can run the Arcturus, all systems dark. The Covies won't know we're there."

"Home Fleet won't miss one cruiser? Commander, are you insane? Do you realize that we don't have anywhere else to go? Reach is getting glassed as we speak, most of her fleet gone, you and a handful of vessels are the only exceptions." Hood kept his calm demeanor, but his voice was laden with anger and frustration. "Once they find Earth, and those bastards eventually will, the UNSC is going to need every ship it has."

"And the UNSC will need every man and woman it can get as well."

Hood remained silent, his eyes drifted from Jackson's. After a moment, the Fleet Admiral nodded, "You and your ship will be sent back to Reach, alone. Evac those civvies and marines if you can, if not, make damn sure you don't lead those Covie bastards back to us. Hood out."

The Commander saluted the screen as it faded away, before he turned to Lieutenant Bern. "Set a course for Reach, make sure we go dark before the Covies can pick us up."

Nodding, the woman belayed the orders to the rest of the bridge's crew.

Jackson took one last glance at Earth. MAC Stations waited in her orbit, some fully constructed, others still being hastily built by zero-g crews. Various naval vessels littered everywhere, all of them carried battle scars from previous engagements.

He guessed the Arcturus would have a few more before this was all over.

Planet Reach, Centaur Mountain Range. August 30th, 2552.

Jacoby couldn't believe that he was still here, still on this god forsaken rock.

It had been a full week since he was evacuated from New Alexandria, a full week since Staff Sergeant Marshall and Dirty stayed behind as hellfire fell down around them. A full week since Jacoby was dragged to a barely intact medical center while the civilians were given a first-class ticket to Earth. This center was where he received a rush-job of a treatment for his stab wounds before being sent back out into the field.

Sam had stuck with Jacoby every step of the way, the Bullfrog being the only familiar face that the Sergeant knew, everyone else from the Wolf Pack was dead. Gave a new meaning to the term 'lone wolf' that's for sure.

Since then, a trooper from the 11th ODST picked both of them up, a Gunnery Sergeant by the name of Edward Buck.

Jacoby didn't like him. The guy was uptight one moment, then chummy with you the next, only to come back as an asshole seconds later. But Jacoby respected him, a fellow Hell Jumper was a welcome sight in a place filled with Army troopers like Sam.

Buck seemed to know what he was doing, so when he came around asking for a few extra hands for a special op, Jacoby jumped to it. Sam followed.

But if Buck had told Jacoby they'd be searching for leftover civilians out in what was left of Reach's wilderness, eventually leading them to the Centaur Mountains…Well, the Bullfrog would've politely declined with a 'screw you.'

And now they were stuck in an old fallout shelter with about three dozen civvies. The shelter itself was dark, damp, smelled like shit, and cramped as hell. You couldn't exhale without your breath hitting someone in the back of the head. Despite the conditions, Jacoby found himself a corner to nap in, next to Rummy.

Rummy was with Buck when he recruited Jacoby. She was a fellow ODST, a good-looking one at that. Platinum blonde hair and amber eyes complemented a great figure, even with all her armor on. Too bad she was a complete bitch, kinda manly too. She was fond of smoking, cursing, spitting, and had an annoying habit of talking nonstop about how she earned every scar on her body.

The woman lit up another cigarette as she jarred Jacoby right out of his nap, giving him a hard slap over the helmet.

"Agh, Jesus. What was that for?"

She pointed to her cheek, tracing a line down from the end of her eyebrow to her jaw line, "I ever tell you how I got this scar right here?"

Jacoby lowered his head again, shutting his eyes, "No, and I don't want to know, but you'll probably tell me anyways."

Another smack to the crown of his helmet, "Damn straight I will. You see, there was this Jackal, right? Little bastard tried to get smart with me, using his buddies to distract me while he tried to flank me, right?" Jacoby didn't respond, which earned him another smack, "So what it did, after I killed its friends with a grenade, was tackle me." She puffed from her cancer stick, letting gray smoke drift from her nostrils, "So it tries to claw at my face, gets one of its claws to dig right there and dragged it down the side of my face. So you know what I did?"

Jacoby groaned as he scooted away, just out of her smacking range, "What'd you do, huh?"

Rummy grinned, lifting her hands into the air to demonstrate her next few actions, "I grabbed it by its lower jaw and the back of its head, and twisted 'til I heard a snap, right? Turns out, the thing was still alive when I got back up, this thing still twitching at my feet. So I had to shoot it not once, but twice to actually put it down."

Rolling his eyes, the Bullfrog asked, "Any reason you needed to tell me that? I was having a nice dream."

The fellow ODST shrugged, "I don't know, you're the only one who listens anymore. Buck's heard all of my stories, Haggard and Luis seem offended whenever I tell them, and that Jenner kid looks like he'll heave every time I mention a bit of entrails."

Jacoby's eyes drifted throughout the shelter, the layout was compromised of a main housing area, which they and most of the civvies resided in. There were a few bathrooms, one kitchen and food storage room, and the comms station.

Haggard, a big marine from some ship that crash-landed on Reach, just exited one of the bathrooms with a content grin on his face. He was tall with a barrel chest, arms and legs thick with muscle and hair as white as snow. With his own fair share of scars, Haggard had seen a lot of combat, his skill with heavier weapons had kept him alive through most of them.

Luis wasn't present, out on scouting duty at the moment, keeping watch for Covies. Like Jenner, Luis was Army. But on their way up this damn mountain, Jacoby personally saw the man's skill with a rifle, and was impressed. Luis was able to pick the feathers off a bird at several hundred yards without killing the thing. He wasn't nearly as tall nor as burly as Haggard, but he definitely not scrawny.

That was the bulk of their mish-mash team now. Jacoby remembered two others, a girl named Miri and techie by the name of Donalds. Miri was Army, kind of cute, black hair. Donalds was Navy, on the same ship as Haggard that crashed. He barely talked, his pale skin illuminated by the data-pad he always kept reading.

Even with the thick walls of the shelter, you could still hear the ominous thunder that was a plasma bombardment, annihilating a city, turning the landscape to glass.

The children within would cry when they heard that sound, their parents or caretakers would obviously try to comfort them.

Haggard would stare at the ceiling, as if expecting a pillar of fire to burst through. Rummy didn't seem to care, still smoking away. Both Donald and Miri would nervously fidget around.

Sam was asleep, but the man twitched nervously in any case, as if the alien thunder penetrated his dreams.

And Jacoby? The Bullfrog just got angry whenever he heard it, knowing innocents were dieing and bit after bit of his home was slowly being burnt away.

Then silence. Just like that, it stopped.

Buck stormed from the comm room, a look of relief on his face.

"What's the story, skipper?" Haggard asked as he turned to the man.

"Got our signal out to a cruiser before it left the system, the UNSC Arcturus. Took 'em a while to respond, but we'll have pickup within six or seven hours." Buck announced, proud that he got an old communications system, which seemed to be at least twenty years old, running again.

"Yeah, if we live long enough to reach the end of those seven hours." Donald muttered to himself in the corner, a little louder than he thought.

"The fuck is your problem?" Rummy hissed from across the room, getting to her feet.

The techie snorted, lifting his eyes from data-pad he was reading, "Do you honestly think the Covies won't find us? And when they do you think we'll be able to hold them back? ONI sent practically a battalion of Spartans at them and they didn't stop jack shit."

Gritting his teeth, the Gunnery Sergeant lifted a finger and warned, "Check your tone, soldier. If you haven't noticed, you're scaring the civvies."

It was true, every civilian turned their attention to the techie sitting in the corner. Some were angry, others began to cry, believing they were doomed to die in that shelter.

Donald didn't care as he rose to his feet, "Quit living in a fantasy, Buck. We're screwed. Every single one of us. They're gonna bring a cruiser overhead and turn us all to glass come in here and slaughter us like pigs, and that's if we're lucky. They might just come down here, Elites first. Yeah," he licked his lips. "They'll string us up to the ceiling, flay us alive, take our heads as trophies…"

Making her way across the room, Rummy clenched a fist. Buck just watched. Donald continued.

"…and then the Jackals and Skirmishers will come, eat what's left of us." More civilians stood, mostly men. Looks like it was more than just Rummy who was willing to shut the techie up.

But the woman beat them all to it, smashing the her fist against the man's nose, sending him back to the floor. She then drove a boot into his ribs, "You little shit! There are kids here, man!" Another kick from her boot, she felt a bone break. She kept going, every word was another blow to his torso, "What. Are. You. Thinking!"

Donald was whimpering now, cursing and even crying.

Buck had seen enough, and he ordered the woman to stop. Growling, she got in one final blow before storming back to her old spot, lighting up another cancer stick.

Sighing, the ODST in charge walked towards the crumpled form of Donald and knelt by him. Scanning him with his eyes, Buck whispered, "You okay there, bucko?"

"Screw you." Donald spat, both hands pressed against his broken rib.

"Good to know." Buck huffed. "Now, once you've cooled off a bit, I'll bring you some painkillers. Until then, I suggest you keep that lovely little trap of yours shut tight, you read me?"

Donald sniffed, a stream of blood flowed from his left nostril.

"We're going to die, aren't we?" He croaked.

"Us?" The ODST cocked his head to the side, a big grin on his face began to form. "We won't die. God doesn't want us to die, you see. We're too damn pretty." He patted the man's cheek, "I mean, just look at those…pale cheeks. Too pretty."

Buck's transponder went off, prompting the Sergeant to stand and turn, "Go ahead, Luis."

"Sir, I got something on thermals." The man reported with hesitation, unsure of what he was seeing.

"Is it Covie?"

"I don't think so, sir… Well I'll be damned."

Buck started getting uneasy, civvies looked up at him, "What? What is it, Luis? Talk to me."

"Buck, we got ourselves a Spartan climbing our mountain."

I'll try to get Part 2 up soon, but no promises.

And yes, I made a Firefly reference.

Peace.