The Ashes of Reach

7.

—7 years ago—

The two set off in a warthog, Alison in the passenger side while looking over at her new partner, Jason, both in their armor. Already, the two don't get along. Jason has always been the lone wolf type, you see. He resented the fact that he's going to be working with someone else other than himself, feeling that his partner is going to be more of a hinderance then a help, so Alison has to deal with his attitude.

Jason would park the warthog next to the base and as he gets out, he says to Alison "Come on, don't keep me waiting." Alison hopped out of the warthog and they both aimed their assault rifles at the base. It was late at night, the mission was to capture or kill the rebel higher ups that are hiding out in an abandoned warehouse. "It seems... pretty quiet." She says as they approach the warehouse.

"Nice observation, Alison." He says in a sarcastic tone before going to take cover next to the door. Those sarcastic comments made her annoyed, but she's dealt with shittier people, like the rebels. Alison would get into cover on the other side of the door. Soon the two nod to themselves and then Jason kicks down the door. The two aim there weapons at a group of rebels all around a table, two of them being their targets: the group would stand up and point their guns at the Spartans. "You all! Put your guns down! You're coming with us!" Yells Alison, though knowing they wouldn't do such a thing. Soon the opened fire on the Spartans without a word, making the two back up into cover while shooting their assault rifles, managing to kill a couple of them. The two take behind a couple pillars as the group of rebels splits, two of them push over the table to use as cover, one of them takes cover behind a pillar opposite of Alison, and another falls back to climb a ladder to a little tower to try to hit them with a DMR.

Alison would start to fire at the rebel who's behind a pillar, managing to hit him while he takes pokes his head out. While doing that, Jason was shooting at the rebel in the tower, killing him with a headshot with his Magnum. Then there's the two in the middle of the room, the two higher ups. Alison would get out of cover and start shooting at them, though she would quickly get back into cover as her shields get shot "Dammit! I-" She would get cut off as a grenade is thrown at her feet, making her jump out of cover before it explodes. One of the enemies tried to aim his gun at her, but then Jason quickly rushed at them and fired an entire clip, killing both enemies almost instantly.

Alison would stand up and nod to Jason "Thanks." She says as Jason starts to search the bodies of the rebels "Yeah, whatever. We got what we came for. Lets go." He says as the two make their ways to the warthog. Then something didn't sit right with Alison. There wasn't many enemies. If that were the case, they wouldn't have told us to deal with these enemies. As the two make it make to the Warthog, she would gasp as she sees a C4 charge in the driver seat as Jason wasn't getting in it "WAIT! DON'T GO-" but it was too late, the bomb went off and the warthog exploded with it, making Jason go flying out and into a wall, before dropping face first onto the ground "NO!" Alison yells before an ambush comes from the allies and starts to shoot at Alison.

Alison quickly returns fire, getting hits on some of them before using the destroyed warthog as cover, as she does, she looks back at Jason who is barley moving "Fuck..." She would then calm herself down before breaking out in a  sprint to Jason, turning around and shooting at the attackers as she does. When she reaches him, she quickly turns him around to see heavy damages to his armor and blood stains on the armor as well. "Fuck... hold on man! You're gonna be okay!" She yells before pulling out her pistol and grabbing him by the back of the armor, then slowly dragging him back to cover while shooting at the rebels, her shields getting hit a couple times

"Agh... f-fuck." He says to himself in between hits of grunting and groaning, it was obvious he was very hurt. "Don't worry man. We're gonna get you out of here! Just try to hold in the blood, okay?" She says as she reloads her pistol, then calling back to command "THIS IS ALISON TO BASE! We need immediate medevac on my location now!" She says while firing at the attackers again "Negative, our forces are too busy pushing the rebel assault outside the city." Command says, making Alison angry "Are you fucking kidding me?! Fine! We'll get out our own way!" She says and immediately after, one of the rebels rushes towards them and aims their gun at Alison. Alison quickly sprung into action, getting behind the rebel and taking out her knife, stabbing him in the chest, then she uses the body to rush towards the rebels, using the body as a meat shield before dropping it as she got close. With a magnum in one hand and a knife in the other, she killed about twelve of them. Using her magnum first before she was out of ammo before slaughtering the rest with her combat knife. She was determined to get them out, by any means necessary.

The rest of the rebels fled, though there weren't many remaining. She would then notice an empty rebel truck in the ally that was still on. She's found their ticket out of there. She would then quickly rush back to Jason, who seems to be barley able to keep himself awake. Alison would wrap his arm around her before getting him to his feet. She then starts to help him walk towards the truck. She would've carried him, but she isn't very strong, and definitely not as strong as Jason. She doesn't even know if she would've survived an explosion like that. "You're going to be okay, man. Just gotta stay with me." She says as Jason looks at the bodies in the road

"Heh... n-not bad kid." He says and tries to let out a chuckle, only to make him wince and grab at his ribs "Hey hey. Save your strength okay? We don't know what's broken and what's not. You just got to stay with me and rest in the truck okay?" She says, making Jason nod to her. Alison would get him into the passenger side of the truck before going to hop in herself. She would then start to drive to the evac point herself. While driving there, she constantly checks up on Jason. Despite him being a total dick at times, they were partners. And Alison looked up to him cause he was just so damn good at everything. She wouldn't ever leave him behind, she just couldn't.