Home Is Where Your Heart Is

0600 hours (earth time)

January 1, 2544

covenant planet

Asem

"Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit," Asem said driving the warthog down the same path he came following the tire tracks back to his Pelican. Asem-364 just put the UNSC nuclear fission W.M.D at the very top of the covenant base using the conveniently placed gravity lift. When he had activated the bomb he had ten minutes to make it down, get to the warthog in which he would drive to the pelican and from there he would call H.Q and have them open the experimental slip space portal and ensure his extraction. Everything turned out ok, everything went as expected. He was almost successful with the mission. There was only one problem, he was now being attacked by the ENTIRE FUCKING PLANET, but that would be expected. Currently there were 8 ghosts and 10 Banshees following him back to his pelican. So yeah the Spartan was in a bit of a pickle. Not to mention the three wraiths that were firing at him from an unrealistically far distance, how they are able to track him and fire that far with there fuel rod canons remain a mystery to him, considering that he's operated one before. Asem always seems to be the one that gets sucked into these shit storm situations but he knew it wasn't his first rodeo and it would probably be far from his last.

That is if he gets out of this current predicament he is in.

The ghosts weren't really a problem considering not many covenant land vehicles can match the speed of an M12-LVR. But they would be a problem when he gets to the pelican for they will be on his ass in less than 20 seconds when he got there. However, the Banshees and the Wraiths were a big problem. Right now he was trying to serpentine his warthog in the attempts of dodging the storm of blue and green plasma rounds and fuel rods.

(Asem's POV)

"Asem, there is a whole lot covenant on your tail." A female voice rang through my head, my A.I stating the obvious."You might want to hurry."

"No alley," I said in a sarcastic tone "I'm Just going to sit here and what for them, maybe play a game of Texas hold'em." I drove around an incoming plasma rod.

"You don't need to be a smart ass." Alley said in a cheeky tone,"I haven't spoken in the last 6 minutes." I rolled my eyes under my visor."Which reminds me you have 4 minutes to reach the pelican for extraction before the bomb detonates."

"Thanks, noted"

Alley has been my reliable A.I companion for 4 years now and some might even say she is my best and only friend. Even though she might be an A.I she is surprisingly more human than anyone I have ever met. She's smart, funny, reliable and sometimes she can be really pervertish, which I have grown used to over the years. Nonetheless we've been there for each other through thick and thin and I am glad to have her as a companion. I wouldn't tell her this though or else I would never hear the end of it.

A fuel rod detonated right in front of the warthog causing me to break from my thoughts and swivel out of control for a second before finally getting back on course. Pulling out the A.I data chip from the back of my head I put it in the data slot below the radio in the warthog."Alley pilot the warthog, I'm going take care of our little friends back here." I said while climbing over to the machine gun. hearing Alley say 'affirmative' through the speaker I mounted the machine gun and released a hell of hot armor penetrating rounds on the banshees. After a while, I finally heard the satisfying sound of an explosion and saw one of the banshees spirals out of control knocking into one another taking out 4 more in the process.

"Idiots," I said snickering to my self.

"we're all most there!" Alley said through the speakers."1 minute before boom time, Opening bay doors."

Seeing the pelican's carrier doors open, I got prepared to quickly jump out of the warthog and attach the warthog to the back of the pelican. Getting prepared I started to notice that she wasn't slowing down, But by the time I figured out what she was going to do, it was too late. Instead of stopping at the back of the pelican she crashed the warthog right into the carrier area causing me to fly from the back of the vehicle crashing into the cockpit. Alley closed the carrier doors.

Stumbling to my feet I limped out of the cockpit and faced the vehicle.

"aaahh, what the hell Alley," I said with pain throbbing from my head.

"We don't have time to attach the warthog to the pelican." Ally said through the radio speakers." besides that was pretty funny."

"You could have warned me," I said in a whining tone.

"Well whats the fun in that," Alley said snickering even more.

"That really hurt," I said grinding my teeth a little.

"Oh you're a Spartan, stop being a baby and pull me."

Grumbling under my breath I pulled Alley out of the warthog and placing the chip in the brain implant at the back of my head I quickly made my way over to the cockpit.

"Asem-364 to mother bird can you read; I'm at the extraction point and request that you open the portal, over," I said trying to get connected with the coms. Waiting a few seconds I tried again but Alley cut me off mid-sentence.

"The com's were damaged during arrival, plug me into the pelican" Alley said. And with that, I put Alley's chip in the pelican's data slot.

"What are you going to do," I asked her.

"since HQ won't be able to open the in atmosphere slip space portal I'm going to use the Pelican's slips pace engine power to make a portal off this planet."

"How long will that take.'

"Too long" she answered immediately "15 seconds"

"how much time do we have," I asked.

"20 seconds," she said "we're going to cut it close!"

At that moment that's when I saw a Hunter walk right in front of the pelican as the slip space portal opened.
"The portals open!" I heard Alley yell, "GO GO GO!."

Without a moment of hesitation, I pulled Alley out of the data slot put her back in my head grabbed the stick and lunged the ship forward taking the hunter with me as I heard a big boom and a rumbling of a ship. Going into the portal I felt lightheaded when I saw Darkness. But not the type of Darkness were you close your eyes, I saw the darkness of space. turning my head a little bit I saw a planet as a large wave of fatigue and lightheadedness washed over me. And I was not in my ship, what happened to my ship? Then I heard a female voice speak from my helmet speakers.

"entering planet's atmosphere, engaging armor lock!"

After that, I could feel my armor gel layer tighten around me as it seized my movements as I entered the planets atmosphere.

And with that, I completely blacked out.