Halo: Reclamation

Chapter 2

It was like one of those nightmares, the ones you couldn't get yourself to wake up from no matter how hard you tried. It was one that felt so real you couldn't tell if you were dreaming or not. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong, but even from those dreams you wake up at some point. In Akito's case, he was already wide awake and the nightmare was happening right in front of him. His family was gone, his sister and mother weren't where he had left them or in the nature reserve where he had been heading. Though, he didn't expect them to really be waiting for him in the nature reserve, he hadn't exactly told them to go there if they were to be separated. They had disappeared before he had a chance to even tell them where they were going.

At this point, he could only pray that a friendly civilian or nearby militant had found them and whisked them off to safety. He didn't want to think about the worst happening or having had happened to the only family he had left in the city. He wanted to believe that they were alive, safe somewhere and not risking their own safety to find him. He could only pray that they one day be reunited.

All of Akito's thoughts shifted when his eyes dropped to the data chip he was holding tightly within his hand. He knew it had to hold the answers to everything that was going on, who these creatures were and how to reclaim their lost city from them.

That's what he was praying was on it. Being from the UNSC, it could have been anything for a number of military issued orders or plans. Even so, it could only help the human race at this point, anything could and would.

Standing from his crouched position behind the foliage, Akito lifted his eyes from his hand to New Mombasa. The entire city was up in flames, the screams from within the city had been eternally silenced by the gunfire echoing from within. Down below him in the nature reserve, numerous types of alien species roamed freely as if they had made the reserve their new base. Akito was completely disgusted by the sight, but it made him just as nervous as well. If he were to go back into the city he would need to cut through the reserve to do so. With the invaders amassed in numbers below was going to complicate him doing so.

"Hey, you know you're not supposed to be out here."

Akito's attention was pulled from the enemies down below to the voice that captured his attention. As he turned around, he slipped the data chip into the pocket of his pants as inconspicuously as possible.

His eyes fell upon the young woman that had gotten his attention. Akito could only offer a forced sheepish, yet apologetic smile to the woman.

She was a part of a small group of people that had managed to escape New Mombasa and found refuge within the forested area that surrounded the city. When they had met she had looked an absolute mess and totally distraught from the events transpiring. Now cleaned up and more put together she had managed to pull herself together and take up the role of caring for everyone there. It was the only reason he could think as to why she was there.

Eyeing the young woman, her thin arms crossed over her chest while she jutted out a slender hip told Akito she was growing impatient with his silence. His eyes drifted to meet with her ebony gaze, questioning silently and waiting for him to speak as well. Her skin was dark, reminding him of freshly melted milk chocolate, hardened into the beautiful figure of the girl. Her hair was kissed by the night, black with a hint of a blue shine that was all done up in tight dreadlocks swept to the left. Golden hooped earrings adorned her ears with a matching nose ring on the left side of her nose. It was amazing she hadn't gotten the hoops ripped from her ears when running away, that she managed to look like she was going shopping with friends rather than running from an alien invader.

She was a walking dark angel, ready to sweep anyone off their feet. That was, if they weren't being wiped off the face of the planet and at risk of being the extinct species.