Reveille

For those of you that don't fight...

I have no direction at the moment. I don't know what to write. I don't know what to think, I think the only reason that I'm still breathing is because my body is telling me to.

I'm lost in thought and I'm thinking why I am, and all its causing me to do is spin around on an ever decreasing circle and I'm afraid of what will happen when I get back to the point of creation, the point where I started all this pondering.

I keep thinking that, as stupid as it is, that I'm going to meet up with my past self and I won't know what to say to him.

To me.

If I was to warn him... what would I say? Whatever you do, don't think about tomorrow. Don't think about your friends, don't think about your responsibilities, don't think about your family, don't think about your job, your life, don't think about the people you have to save, or the work you have to do.

And most of all, don't think about what you're going to say to yourself when you come back to your point of origin. The point where all this pointless thinking started. Because when you get there you'll realise that you won't know what to do, think or say.

You will be completely unprepared.

There are so many thoughts floating through my head right now I think I'm going to drown in my own consciousness. There is a flailing hand bobbing up and down in this sea of nothingness and I'm sitting on a life raft holding the oars watching it happen. I don't even know if I want to row over there and help myself.

Its like someone asking you what would you ask God if you had just one question. How the hell are you supposed to know that? It's like some one saying to you, 'you have one thing to say to your girlfriend/best friend/parents/wife/husband/kids before you die'.

Not knowing what to do is absolutely petrifying. But at the same token, maybe I'm not supposed to do anything in my life. Maybe I'm just supposed to idle on through, eat, sleep, procreate, having no purpose but to be there.

On the other hand, what if I were to spend my whole life searching for my place and then discover that I had none. But then, wouldn't I have done something, something for the greater good. Helping humanity along the way?

I can't stop the endless repetitive loop that runs through my head...

What if I fail...

What if I fail...

If I had a definite place, then life would be much simpler, something like a super hero, I wouldn't have to worry about these problems, or tomorrow, they would worry about it for me...

But sometimes I can't help but think...

Am I that super hero?

============================================================



**ERROR**
**SYSTEM RESTART**

//LOADING//

COMTAC INDUSTRIES
V 1.03

**ACCESSING VIDEO INPUT**
**UNKNOWN ERROR**
**ACCESSING AUDIO CHANNELS**
**AUDIO SYSTEM ERROR, STREAM RUNNING AT 37%**
**UNABLE TO FIND LOCAL PORT**

**TAC1.05 UNABLE TO BOOT DUE TO MULTIPLE INPUT ERRORS**

**WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEND AN ERROR REPORT?**

**Y/N?**


Pain
Pain and blackness.

There was a small glowing cube, edges disappearing into the surrounding darkness. The cube flashed like a small, irritated insect.

**WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEND AN ERROR REPORT?**

**Y/N?**

**TIMEOUT, ERROR REPORT SAVED**
MISSION CLOCK RESTART

00:00:00:01

The small timer continued its count up. He wondered what it was counting to; maybe it wasn't counting to anything in particular, just counting in general. He wondered if it was going to give him any more information...

The thought froze in his head...

He...
Him..

Who am I?

The thought screamed through his head, echoing through his consciousness like some kind of insane primate, swinging from one buzzing neuron to another. A dull ache began to manifest itself in what he thought to be his temple, but at this stage, couldn't be sure.

First things first...

He concentrated for a moment and realised he was receiving information from what could only be his extremities, fingers, toes, legs... arms... he couldn't be sure, but they all appeared to be there. There was something heavy on him though, it was making his breathing a little difficult. He began to move his arm up to the object when a new sensation engulfed him, his vision swam, a white hot lance of agony speared into his body...

His consciousness slipped deeper into the darkness.


************************************************************


He hadn't been out for long...

Or that's what it felt like...

There was a milky blackness that churned in front of him, small beads of light bouncing around, circling pale white structures that drifted around his visual limits, the shifting objects jolted when his eyes twitched nervously from left to right. He concentrated for a moment, located the muscles surrounding his eyes and opened them.

At least he thought they were open. There was something glowing in his focal area, he concentrated on it until he was able to define it better, it was his HUD, sitting over his right eye.

MISSION CLOCK

00:02:45:31

With a mental impulse he minimised the clock readout and focused on the room through the small display. A grainy green image resolved in front of his eyes, he was able to make out lowset ceiling above him, air conditioning ducts jutting out smooth surface. Cables and ducting hung from a hole two metres to his left from what looked to be a grenade detonation. The edges of the hole were jagged and bent upwards, with shrapnel scoring at random intervals.

Off to his right was a huge scorch mark that occupied most of the wall that is sat on. The plascrete surface surrounding the wound was melted, obviously from a fuel rod gun. There were burns on the wall to his left, probably from a plasma rifle.

Plasma...
Fuel rod...

A sense of deja-vu established itself in his head for a few moments, he struggled to make a connection, analysing everything around him until a name formed, one that brought painful memories that flashed before his eyes before disappearing just as quickly.

Grunts
Jackals
Elites
Hunters

Covenant...

Covenant had been here.

Get up Jeremy

The voice was tiny, almost indiscernible from the background hiss that was his conscious thought at the moment. It was like a small child tugging at the hem of a trouser leg, small and insistent. He ignored it for a moment, preferring to wallow in the pain that had been prodding at his body for the past couple of minutes, searching for a pressure point to inflict some more discomfort.

Get up Soldier

He moved his upper body a little, trying to exert some leverage on the object that was covering him. The ambient pain about his body pounced, jammed its hands into his chest, and pulled. Jeremy lost his breath with the sudden onslaught of his senses, the pain was unbelievable, forcing him to take short ragged breaths for a few minutes before it went away.

Get up Private

He figured it was a broken or dislocated rib, waited a few more minutes then tried to move the object, his chest burned with the effort, but he was prepared for it this time, and was able to filter out some of it. Whatever it was that was on him slumped off to one side, it hit the ground with a dull thump, sounding somewhat similar to a body.

The pain didn't look like it was going to subside in a hurry, so Jeremy reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a painkiller and popped that, along with a wake up stim. The result was instantaneous, a sense of alertness spread through his being, making him feel as though he'd just hopped out of a million dollar shower.

He hit a small button marked 'eject' on the side of his helmet, a small data crystal popped out. He examined it for a moment, found nothing wrong with the delicate object and placed it back into the data port, hit the cycle button and watched the playback, jogging his memory.

He watched the mission log, watched his squad entering a derelict structure, moving down into the lower levels. They had retrieved something, something important. Whatever it was he didn't get a good look at it, a mission specialist had placed it in some sort of travel case. His squad leader, Sergeant Chavez had wanted to leave it there, he said he had a feeling that it was a trap. The mission specialist, a cocky, green horned corporal operating under Fleet High Command, with a security clearance to rival most generals overrode Chavez and ordered Cochran to pack it up.

When they had tried to leave the room, the doors had sealed and the lights had gone out. Jeremy watched as the video went black, a few seconds later the night vision software kicked in and all he could see was Covenant. A blur of motion appeared off to his left, too quick for the camera to discern, and then the picture went black.

A small triangle flashed on the HUD, indicating that the playback had finished its loop. He hit the 'ESC' button on his helmet and sat there for a moment lapping up the new information.

It had been an ambush.

But why would the Covenant go to the trouble to ambush a numerically inferior force. In any other instance they would have just killed them, not organised an ambush.

Unless they wanted something.

Whatever had happened it had been short, sharp and violent. There were minimal Covenant casualties, one Elite body that had been on him, and a few grunts scattered around the place, but that was all.

Jeremy took a harsh breath in. it was obvious, he felt stupid for not realising it earlier. He quickly looked around the room, counting the shapes of bodies, limbs, pieces of equipment and counted his team, most of his team. The numbers didn't quiet add up, but that was to be expected, maybe some of them had made it out alive. Maybe there were bodies elsewhere...


But two things nagged at him. The artefact, the item they had been sent to retrieve, was still there and Corporal Vesper, their mission specialist...

Was gone...