The Vet's Life After...

It Begins

    "Foley! Allen, Dunn, you two go get him, keep him alive!" Alexander barked orders into his comms while firing his rifle into the smoke between him and the enemy.

     "Negative Captain, keep them there!" Foley was lying still, but he was talking through the mic nonetheless. "I'm a goner regardless, those two will just add more to our death toll." He began moving his body, slowly standing up as plasma flew by him. "I'll see y'all on the other side, Foley out."

     "Foley! Get your ass back here!" Allen climbed over his cover and ran after Foley, tackling him into the ground before he started dragging him back to the rest of the squad. "Your ass still has to pay for the first round, don't you dare think of pussying out of that you sonofabitch!"

     "Dunn, cover fire. Now!" The two men followed Allen's example, hopping over their cover and drawing the attention to them as they unloaded all of their ammo into the smoke simultaneously.

     "Looks like we'll all get out of he-" Alexander watched, frozen, as a plasma round burned a hole straight through Dunn's helmet.

     "Foley, come on man. Talk to me!" Allen dropped to the ground, quickly scrambling back to Foley's lifeless body after a plasma grenade went off just far enough away not to kill them both. "Fuck! Foley's down! Captain, we need to-"

     Alexander didn't need to turn around to know Allen was dead, all he needed was the sound of his body falling to the ground.

     Alexander snapped out of his frozen state and returned to his cover, sitting there as plasma rained down on him; he only stared at the drop pods that had sent his men feet first into hell....

     Alexander shot up, lifting his pistol and jerking it around him as he searched his surroundings. All he saw was the apartment he has been residing in since the end of the Human-Covenant War three years prior, allowing him to slowly relax as he lowered his firearm.

     He slowed down his breathing before getting out of bed and walking into his bathroom, shaving his face and neck before walking into his shower.

     After a half hour of standing in hot water before quickly washing himself, Alexander changed into a pair of cargo pants and a longsleeved undershirt before leaving his apartment for a long run.

     "I'll go four miles today, see if I can do that after these last few months." He talked to himself before putting some wireless earbuds to listen to some early twenty-first century music, he never cared for the new music. "How about.... 'Wrong Side of Heaven'. That sounds great right about now."

     After a four mile run with FFDP blocking out the rest of the world, Alexander jogs up the stairs of his apartment building to his floor; the fifth floor. What he finds waiting for him makes him reach for the pistol no longer on his hip.

     "Ah, you must be Mr. Franks. I'm here to ask for your services, you were recommended by a close friend of mine." Alexander stared at the Sangheili standing before him, undecided on whether to follow his thoughts or his instincts. "I was told about your history in the war, so I apologize if my appearance is unnerving for you; I myself never fought in the war, as I am a female."

     "I don't fucking care, what do you mean you're here to ask for my services?"

     "I'm going from planet to planet to talk with human veterans, such as yourself, about the war. I want all of the races to truly understand just how strong your race truly is, because any other race would have surrendered or died long before the covenant was destroyed! Your race faced extinction yet came out on top with inferior technology, it is an amazing feat that anyone would recognize if they heard more detailed accounts than what you see and hear in museums."