Second chapter, hope you liked the first, I will keep updating when I can. Feedback is always appreciated

Many Years Ago

I'm falling

Like a bullet shot straight down, I cut through the dark clouds towards the city below, feet first into hell. The charcoal coloured clouds cover the sky, every few moments there's a white hot flash or a bright pitchfork that stabs down into the ground, always followed by the deep bellowing roars of thunder, like as if the Gods are showing their fury. My drop pod shakes during the fall but I'm tightly packed in, like a tinned sardine, I don't move but it feels like my rib cage is rattling. Suddenly the red light starts flashing and my Captain comes on the radio.

"Alright men, listen up." The Captain shouts. "This storm has messed with some of our trajectory so a few of you might end off course. Everyone set your beacons so we can regroup at the Dalton memorial. Over and out."

The orange flames begin to rise from the bottom of my eye line as I brace for impact. The red light flashes faster and faster. Then it comes to the final 5 seconds, a space of 5 second of uncertainty, not knowing when you were going hit the ground, it could happen in one second, could happen 4. My pod finally smacks the ground, burying itself slightly into the concrete round I landed on. The pod goes dark and the door fires off. I climb out and onto top of a wrecked taxi; it quickly became apparent that I was one of the unlucky ones that were off shot. I landed smack dab in the middle of a T-junction, with the roads stretching off to each side as well as directly in front of me. The gargantuan buildings loomed over me as I tried to decide which route to take, 3 options so I couldn't just go for a simple coin toss. Just as I was left with only my thoughts and the sounds of canons firing in the distance there was the abrupt sound of static that came over the radio.

"Rusty, you there? Respond." Said a voice on the other end, it was the Captain.

"I'm here Captain Edwards." I responded.

"Good, well it seems you drew the short straw and were the one who got knocked off target."

"One? I thought you said a few of us would get separated."

"Yeah, thought whoever it was would feel better about being up shit creek if they thought more people were paddling along with them. You're not too far off, about 6 blocks from the memorial. Your radar should plot out a route for you; we'll hold this position until you get here but try not taking too long, this isn't a tea party. Over and out."

I set my coordinates and followed the directions. This place was dead, burnt out cars and rubble filled the streets, buildings had craters in their sides with smoke billowing out of them. After a few more minutes of trekking through the city I began to hear shouting, and it wasn't English. I followed the noises and took cover at the corner of a building; I peered round and saw at the bottom of the street a Wraith making its way in my direction. I moved cover to an abandoned mail van and waited for the Wraith to approach. As it closed in the vibrations from its engines became more prevalent with the smaller pieces of rubble began to shake and bounce. I waited, gripping a grenade in anticipation. When it got close enough I sprinted from cover towards it, rushing it to take the gunner by surprise. I ran along its side, pulled the pin and jammed it between the Wraith's panels. As I ran away it dawned on me that there were more Covenants there. I began to sprint only to be met by a crowd of Covenant soldiers walking behind it. As they began to open fire I quickly course corrected, making a very sharp left into and alleyway. Before I was running at solider speed, now I was running 'holy shit I'm going to die' speed. Suddenly this glowing blue ball flew overhead from nowhere and landed on a dumpster a few feet in front of me, sticking to its side. Then there was almighty flash of light and then darkness.

Intergalactic Transport Carrier "Western Dreams"

Rented cabin #763

04:00am

My eyes bolt open as I sat up in my bunk, breathing heavily in a panic. A bead on sweat made its way down my forehead as my eyes dotted around the tiny cabin that surrounded me. Another dream, another memory, another nightmare, I hated sleep. I was sat there; try to calm myself when suddenly there was a screeching from the ship speakers.

"Attention everyone, we've reach Edra and we'll be docking in Constantia in about an hour."

I now it was a pretty short chapter but I just want to introduce the characters first before I start going into some of the more meatier chapters