Sent To Protect and Serve Humanity

Chapter 1: Same Mission, Different World

3rd POV

The clearing was serene. The beautiful nighttime sky blanketed the heavens; its twinkling stars winked at every creature beneath it. A natural, shattered satellite cast her mesmerizing light down unto the surface, lighting up the land. Gray clouds remained fairly separate in their neverending march across the sky but would amass in some locations. The emerald green foliage dominated the ground, seemingly stretching for miles. In an isolated clearing, six warships licked their wounds.

Hastings lie on her back, glancing at the worried arctic fox from time to time. Onwards desperately wrapped some primitive bandages around the open wound while Godspeed scanned the area, who struggled due to a strange lack of satellites for assistance. Courageous took watch over the forest, rigging poised for an attack, and Valorous sat next to an unconscious Oklahoma, who seemed to be talking in his sleep.

"You are going zu be okay, Ich promise!" Onwards applied pressure to the thick foliage he used. His ears drooped while his tail stood frigid.

Hastings looked at the worried Halberd with a smile on her face. "Shh." She hushed him. "Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep." Her voice was hoarse and weak.

Onwards continued his attempts to save her. "Bitte... verlass uns nicht." He solemnly begged.
("Please... don't leave us.")

Hastings grabbed her dog tags, yanked them off, and put the hand on his cheek, gently caressing it. "Can you do me a favor, love?" She asked, receiving a nod. "Find a beautiful girl to warm that cold heart of yours. Big sister's orders." She weakly smiled through her watery eyes and distorted HUD.

"Hastings..." Onwards could feel his eyes tear up.

Hastings looked up at the starry sky. "Oh, is that rain?" She muttered.

Onwards looked up and the clear sky, confused, but when he looked back at his sister, she lay motionless with not a breath in her lungs. He held her limp hand against his cheek, the chains of the dog tags hanging from his grasp, and tried his hardest not to cry.

Godspeed looked at the scene with remorse and watched as the boy moved his hand over her face, closing her eyelids. The old man walked over to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon, son. We'll give her a proper burial when we link up with command." Godspeed sadly told the boy.

Onwards immediately returned to a face of neutrality and slowly stood up with his dead sister in his arms.

"See anything, Courageous? Godspeed asked the frigate.

Courageous turned to the old man with a sad look, her ears drooping too. "No. Just some weird crow that stared at us for a bit."

"How's Oklahoma?" Godspeed asked the other frigate.

"He's fine, but who knows when he'll wake up. It could be days, hours-" Valorous tried to say before the heavy cruiser bolted up. "...or he can wake up now."

Oklahoma clutched his head with a palm as he scanned his surroundings. "Ugh. Did we win?" He asked.

Godspeed solemnly looked at their situation. "I'm afraid not. We've taken a beating and the last thing any one of us remembers is a bright light once we activated our slipspace drives."

Oklahoma was helped to his feet by Valorous before he spoke. "And Hastings?"

Godspeed hung his head low. "Gone."

Oklahoma turned to view the dead destroyer that was being carried by the remaining destroyer.

The mood was grim. The UNSC was stranded on a strange planet with not a single UNSC signal within reach. Not even the dust and echoes of a civilization.