Disclaimer(please read): In order to fully comprehend what is taking place where, and at any giving moment, you may need a map of the area, as it can get pretty confusing even if you've played through the game many times over, trust me. It won't let me copy and paste the link here so you'll just have to find one yourselves, but I VERY highly recommend you do so, at least for this part of the story. And make sure it's a version that has all parts of the game included (except for the underground bit, you don't need that); for reference, the four circles in the bottom left corner are the area of the nature reserve where this all starts, the grand entrance is the small area in the top left corner above it, which is confusing I know, but this is the expanded complete map you see when you open your HUD, so it is what it is. The waterfront highway is the long snake-looking thing running along the edge of the city and the service elevator is at the northernmost part of it shown on the map, and the ONI building is the big tower that looks like it's in the middle of a lake, which it is.

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"Hey Seth, how much further do we gotta go?"

The radio call, which Seth recognized as coming from his sort-of friend Chris, came over the radio from the Warthog behind his, which led the small convoy of four such vehicles as it rolled down the highway. They weaved their way through the fields of abandoned cars, heads on a constant swivel for a Covenant patrol or, god forbid, an ambush.

"It should be this next offramp." Lionel, Seth's navigator, responded, and they spotted the tunnel just a second later.

Just two hours before, A company, 16th marine battalion had been 93 men strong; now, the total survivors numbered just 17.

It had all started when a Covenant fleet suddenly showed up over Earth with absolutely no warning; everyone knew the aliens would find the human homeworld eventually, but it still hit like a glassing beam, often literally, when it finally happened. In the ensuing battle, a single CAS-class assault carrier slipped through the UNSC defenses and made a B-line for the African mega-city of New Mombasa; once they arrived overhead, the carrier established a landing zone in a small, mostly cut off section of the Uplift Nature Reserve, on the few spots in the city proper where heavy vehicles and equipment could be deployed en masse. Knowing this fact, A company had been dispatched to defend the reserve earlier, but due to the widespread panic and chaos that had gripped the whole planet, they arrived a little bit after the aliens did.

However, office of naval intelligence(ONI) higher ups insisted the company push forward anyway and, having no other choice, the marines obliged, hoping to defeat this threat before it grew too strong to handle and taking heavy casualties in the process. A small force, which included the battalion commander, had even managed to reach the landing zone itself, but in the end there were just too many; the company was decimated as fresh Covenant forces poured from the carrier, splitting up and pinning down the survivors throughout the park.

The remaining marines were only saved by a last-minute Warthog charge led by a freshly-arrived Orbital Drop Shock Trooper(ODST), who somehow managed to clear the entire park of Covenant forces before leaving the park and the surviving marines by driving through a breach in the park walls and falling over 30 feet into the city streets, coming out miraculously uninjured(unlike his Warthog).

Once everyone gathered, the survivors took stock of their situation: 17 marines remained, only 12 of which were fit(physically and/or mentally) for combat, four standard Warthogs, limited ammunition, next to no heavy weapons, and no clear orders as to what to do. But wait, it got better; every last officer and NCO, from the battalion commander to the squad sergeants, was either dead or so badly shaken up(once again both mentally and physically) that they might as well have been.

So, with no clear direction as to what to do next, the survivors did the only thing they could think of; retreat. It wasn't like a dozen marines and a few beat-up light vehicles could do much anyway.

"Okay, turn in here." Seth said as he drove the Warthog down the tunnel and around the bend, then exited the tunnel into the grand main entrance to the Uplift Nature Reserve. "Alright, everyone gear up and move the wounded!"

Their plan was simple enough; using a tunnel that connected the nature reserve to the waterfront highway, the marines had mounted up their Warthogs and quickly moved to to their old staging ground, the grand entrance to the majority of the nature reserve, where the majority of the company's heavy weapons had been left behind in the panicked rush to get moving when the Covenant had appeared over their city; there they hoped to find some more transport, extra weapons, equipment, basically anything that would help them get out of the city.

The marines parked the Warthogs, set down the wounded and started searching through the mess that had been left there.

As Seth looked through one crate, he heard something; static. Quickly, he uncovered the source of the noise: a long-range radio antenna, hidden under a rain tarp. The company had been equipped with four such devices, but the other three had all been destroyed at the nature reserve, leaving them with no real way to get enough signal strength to contact anyone in the city. But now, they could do just that.

"Hey, can someone help me with this thing?" He called out, and quickly he and two others carried the precious antenna over to his Warthog and began hooking it up to the short-range radio that all such vehicles were equipped with. But as they did so, Seth's gunner, who everyone just called Jinty for some reason, spoke up.

"Um, sir?" She said nervously.

"Oh, you mean me?" He said after a second of awkward silence. "No, I-I'm not an officer."

"Oh, sorry si-" She started, but caught herself. "Um, can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot." He said back.

"Well, I was just wondering..." She said, nervously scratching her arm. "We're actually gonna get out of here, right?"

He looked at her and was about to respond, but he stopped right before sound started to come out- because he realized that was a very good question. If they hooked up this antenna and actually managed to contact someone, who was to say they wouldn't just be ordered right back into that shitstorm?

It was at that moment that Seth started to ponder whether installing the antenna was such a good idea.

But before he could do anything, the Warthog's radio crackled to life. "-16th UNSC composite battalion, calling any UNSC forces in the New Mombasa area. Is anyone out there!?" A person's panicked voice came over the radio, explosion, gunfire and screaming sounding in the background. "I repeat, this is-"

On instinct, Seth hit the response button as other marines gathered around him. "This is A company, 16th marines. We read you, go ahead." He said, cutting off the man on the other side.

"Wait, A company? We thought you guys were wiped out!" He said, surprised.

"Not quite." He responded. "What's the situation on your end?"

"We're under heavy fire from Covenant forces, and taking heavy losses!" The marine said back. "The battalion's been scattered across the city, and we've only got one or two tanks left. Considering the situation, we may have to evacuate- what about you?"

Seth felt a mix of emotions at that; on one hand he was tempted to just say sorry, we're in the same boat, but on the other hand, he could help them!

Seth knew that without transport, the survivors would be chased down and destroyed; he looked over at the four transport Warthogs which they'd also found there, then noticed everyone else was looking at him; apparently they were all facing the same dilemma he was, and wanted someone else to make the decision for them.

He knew what he wanted to say, what every man there probably wanted to say; but at the end of the day, Seth was a good person. He sighed; curse his big stupid heart. "I think we can help." He said into the radio. "Get your people to the coastal highway, we'll meet you there."

"Much obliged A company, we'll be waiting for you." the marine, the relief audible in his voice, said; Seth wasn't sure, but he thought that maybe the man knew what a mental roller coaster he had just gone through. "16th composite out."

As he turned back to the company, silence filled the air; they didn't know if they had just signed their own death warrants, or shredded many other's. But they had chosen him to answer for them and that's what he did, so now he was going to get them all through it.

"Looks like this evacuation just turned into an operation, and I don't intend to leave our fellow comrades hanging!" He said. "Have all vehicles ready to move out along the highway in 5."

"Oorah!" The marines shouted before running off.

Then, Seth turned back towards Jinty, who had not moved. "Well, it's 50-50 now; either we're all getting out, or no one is."

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The now much larger convoy of vehicles threaded down the coastal highway, formed up in an improvised battle formation; the four combat Warthogs drove in front in a sort of wedge formation, while the four transport Warthogs, each being driven by the 3rd person from the original crews, drove behind them.

The convoy had been on the road for the last ten minutes, making their way around the city to the position where the rest of the 16th was due to meet them, and so far they had been lucky; other than the occasional Phantom dropship or Banshee fighter patrol flying just a little too close for comfort, the marines had not encountered any enemies along their path. Seth had no doubt they knew they were there, but for now he'd take the peace and quiet.

They'd also switched vehicles at one point; Seth and Jinty, who was still his gunner, had switched out his standard Warthog for a Gauss Hog that lay abandoned in the road(he tried not to think about where it's original crew went).

And as the convoy drove up towards a highway checkpoint station, they stumbled upon an even greater find.

As the door opened to the inside of it, everyone's eyes widened at the sight of a Scorpion tank, just sitting there on the side of the road. "Well, I'll be damned..." Chris mused, pulling up beside him. "Dibs on the Scorpion!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on." Seth said as he and his gunner started to climb out of their own Warthog. "That tank will slow us down, and plus do you even know how to drive it?"

"It'll give us a ton of extra firepower, and it can hold more people than the Warthog!" Chris pointed out. "And yes, I do know how to drive a Scorpion."

"And it's not that slow." Lionel pointed out as well, referring to that specific model. "The model C can keep up with a Warthog at the speed we're going, and it can drive right over most cars."

He sighed. "Arlight, fine. But if we need to move faster, we're ditching it."

"Fine, whatever." Chris conceded as he climbed in.

In another minute, everyone was ready and waiting in front of the next door. It opened up, and immediately they all saw the obstacle sitting in front of them: A large Covenant watchtower, two spherical Shade turrets, two Ghost light hover vehicles, and two squads of grunt infantry with brute overseers supported by two pairs of shield-bearing Jackals were splayed out in front of them.

Immediately, the marine convoy opened fire on the enemy roadblock; the Scorpion tank targeted and destroyed the watchtower in one hit, the infantry squads were shredded by the two standard Warthogs, and Jinty took out one of the Ghosts and a shade turret before they even started returning fire.

While the transport Warthogs hung back, the combat Warthogs and the Scorpion drove forward guns blazing, destroying the other shade turret and obliterating one of the Jackal pairs as they attempted to retreat down the offramp tunnel. Clearly, the Covenant had not expected an attack from a well-equipped, albeit small, enemy force so soon.

"Ha ha, where you goin'?" Chris yelled as he put an armor-piercing round through the last remaining Ghost as it tried to retreat. "I'm not done with you yet!"

But as the final Jackal was chewed up by an LAAG and the convoy began driving forward once again, Seth noticed something. "Hey, weren't there two pairs of Jackals?" He said out loud.

"Yeah, where did that last one go?" Jinty said, realizing what he was saying.

But just as she said that, the sound of a pair of plasma carbine shots filled the air, and everyone turned to see a single Jackal, carbine in hand, standing on top of the offramp tunnel. Almost immediately, a burst from one of the LAAGs sent the alien flying, but the damage had already been done: the driver and gunner from one of the standard Warthogs fell limp from their positions to the road below, a pair of burning holes straight through their chests.

Everyone stared silently at the bodies, seeing it for the reminder it was: even in rescue missions, not everyone made it back. "Come on everyone, let's get moving." Seth said, trying to get the survivors back on track. "We still have a job to do."

Slowly, everyone mounted up their vehicles, not even bothering to bring the bodies with them; the sad truth was that they would need the extra space for the still living. Seth was aware of the eyes on his back as he remounted his own vehicle, because he knew that their deaths were on his hands. "Hey Jinty, you okay?" He asked his gunner as he got back, noticing she was looking more somber than usual.

"Yeah, I'm just re-evaluating my own mortality." She answered.

Seth chuckled a bit. "Yeah, I guess we all are."

"You know they were on your hands." She followed up, voicing what everyone else was most likely thinking.

"Yeah, I know." he said back dejectedly. "Command is not all it's cracked up to be."

"Yeah." Jinty said, and they sat awkwardly in silence for a moment while everyone else got ready.

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Aaaaand there you go, part one of the first story! Sorry it took so long to start, and most likely the long waits will continue, but for now, enjoy!