Ch 1

Only the Dead

Earth: Reaper Invasion

Church struggled to lift the large piece of metal that pinned his legs to the ground. He could feel the blood dripping from the back of his head. When he pressed against the wound, he felt the warm liquid push between his fingers, but seeing his red-stained hand made his vision swoop and his head feel light. Stumbling slightly, he attempted to stand up only to fall back down to the ground.

Need to slow down, focus, he thought as he scanned his immediate surroundings. Have to remember what happened.

All around him the air hung thick with the stench of death, reeking of burning flesh and metal. Skycars had crashed to the ground, and there were land-based vehicles that had been destroyed in the same wreckage, littering nearly every part of the path ahead. An occasional limb protruded here and there from the twisted metal surrounding him, bent in seemingly impossible angles.

Something nearby on the ground caught Church' eye: the body of a girl no older than six or seven. The blank stare on its face and the puddle of blood under the corpse said it was too late to save. Grimacing, he looked away, fighting to ignore the broken child, or else he risked being dragged down by pain of it all. He couldn't worry about the dead.

Crawling over to a car, he leaned against a tire. Every part of his body ached. He shifted his weight to his other arm, only to crumple yet again. He cursed silently and gave up on trying to move, choosing instead to rest and catch his breath. Growing desperate, he tried remembering what had happened. Church rolled his head and looked up, barely making out the London skyline in the distance.

London. We were headed to London when something hit us.

Church suddenly forced himself up, pushing every thought of the screaming pain in his arm to the back of his mind. He spotted his skycar, smashed only a few yards away from the blood-spattered spot where he was thrown as it collided with the ground. The side door was completely torn off and not a window remained intact.

Shuffling over as quickly as his body would let him, he searched the interior. He found only one seat remaining inside. All of his squad's weapons and armor, neatly packed for a future departure they would now never make, lay undisturbed. The other three seats must have been thrown or scattered. Wait, where's ... he thought as panic set in. He leaned out of the car and scanned the area desperately, memories of the crash abruptly materializing in his head.

Erin drove with him in the passenger seat. Manny sat in the back. A large beam of red light came from the sky, obliterating the vehicles instantly. Each person tensed in fear as the beam quickly tore through the traffic ahead of them. Erin attempted to dodge the relentless beam, but instead hit a skycar next to them. As the beam carved a deadly path down the road, Erin attempted to make a U-turn. She was nearly successful when the beam skimmed the right side of the vehicle, shearing off a corner of their car, while the skycar she had hit was completely incinerated. But the damage done to their vehicle caused it to fall rapidly to the ground a few dozen feet below them. When the passenger side door tore away, the car began to spin. Church flew out of the canopy before it hit the ground.

So they must be alive, oh thank God, he thought to himself as he searched around the vehicle for a sign of his friends. For whatever reason, Church believed they had survived the crash and must have gotten up to look for help or possibly him. Relief washed over him as he soon spotted them on the far side of a truck. Manny had his arm draped over Erin's shoulder, limping slowly. Church rushed over to them struggling through his own pain, but eager only to help his squad mates. Erin and Manny stopped as he approached, standing wide-eyed in shock. Both remained silent as Church helped carry Manny back to their skycar. They gently placed him on the front hood laying him flat as possible

"We thought you were dead," Manny said, his words choked off as he coughed up blood. "Or have I already kicked the bucket?"

"Come on, you could never get rid of me that easy," Church said, smiling grimly. He ripped off a sleeve of his sweater, tying it around Manny's leg in a tourniquet to prevent any more blood from escaping through the massive gash on his thigh. "Erin, I keep a pack of medi-gel in the compartment on the side," he ordered.

Nodding, Erin opened the side flap revealing an emergency med-kit. She rushed it over to Church who was able to stabilize Manny's condition. Erin leaned against the car and slid down to the ground, her hands covering her face, smearing her features with a mixture of dirt and blood. Manny passed out, and Church attempted to clean his wounds and burns. After finishing some basic first aid, Church turned to Erin. He knelt down next to her, noticing the tears she could no longer fight. Despite all the destruction in the past few minutes, this was the sight most difficult for Church to handle. He had known Erin for a long time, and she never once had been brought to tears, even after everything they had been through on Halo.

She was one of the coldest members of their N7 squad, but it fit with her occupation as a sniper. She could remain detached until she was directly engaged with some action, the stereotypical sniper personality. Yet the entire squad had taken to her in, treated her like family. Since most of them never saw or spoke with their actual relatives, that is what they were, a family. For Church himself, he always pictured the squad as the Human family he never had. That caring made the hurt worse when he saw them in pain … or dead; but it was an all too familiar fate they dealt with.

That was all part of the job for their group of highly trained special force operatives. Their missions were normally covert, classified, and generally unacknowledged by Alliance brass. Nonetheless, Church still believed they did good work for the Alliance and Humanity, for that matter. He, Erin, and Manny were the only surviving members of the squad, but with Manny's tenuous condition, it looked like there may only be two left soon.

Church placed a hand on Erin's shoulders trying to comfort her, but her weeping went unabated. He tried to speak but was immediately interrupted by a deafening, mechanical roar that caused the ground to shake. Erin immediately looked up in horror towards the city as Church did the same. In their worry and efforts to help Manny and trying to regroup after the crash, they overlooked finding out what had even started this chaos in the first place. A monstrous mechanical beast loomed on the edge of the city, possessing a large body with tentacles protruding off the main segment, reminding Church of a cuttlefish. Soon, dozens of them descended from the sky attacking indiscriminately against the city. One was coming down near their position, but it flew over the road and headed straight towards London. Several smaller machines of a similar shape followed.

Church and Erin looked at each other. They both knew exactly what creatures caused this destruction and exactly what would follow. The Reapers were here and the Harvest had begun...

They both looked back towards the city, where smoke hung thick, blurring the sky. However, they could still make out the appearance of small blue-like ruptures in the atmosphere, the obvious sign of a Covenant ship exiting slipspace. Church checked his omni-tool, desperately seeking hope, but finding none. Most of the Alliance ships above Earth had been destroyed, yet a single frigate remained making a hasty exodus from the planet. It was the Normandy, broadcasting a visual to any Alliance forces still watching. His omni-tool screen then showed a single Covenant assault carrier along with several battlecruisers exiting slipspace and entering Earth's atmosphere. Strangely, not a single Reaper ship attacked them, and they proceeded without opening fire on any Reaper vessels.

The Covenant have found Earth, thought Church dazedly. Even after all they sacrificed at the Halo, the Covenant persisted. Worse yet, it appeared as if they had made a sickening alliance with the Reapers to assist in the Harvest.

Church looked at Erin, his voice hollow. "I don't know how Shepard plans to save us, but whatever he does he'd better do it quick. Or there may not be an Earth left to save."

AN:Hahahahah damn that felt good, I've been able to drastically change the first chapter and make it far better. While still showing what I wanted to in the original version. The Reapers are here and the Covenant is too. And since for some it's confusing I'll state it here, this is not the first time Church and the Alliance have met the Covenant. This is not a Self insert, nor is it a cross dimensions. The chapter here shows what will happen after the next few chapters and story arc.

For those of you new to The Cycle the story picks up later on and starts about 4 months before the Reapers invade. This is going to be a far better story as it progresses, my skill improves, and I level up. I'll also be putting polls and be asking other questions to encourage reviews and some of these will affect the story. Right now there is a poll to pick Shep's romance on my profile.

And as always thanks for reading!

EDIT: It has been pointed out to me that capitalizing humans and other species is incorrect. I know this. However, due to the nature of the Halo verse, species names, such as the Sangheili and San 'Shyuum, are purposely left capitalized. My only guess as to why, is that Bungie, the creators of Halo, wished to have the different species take on a more racially divided tone. Which make sense due to the large amount of alien races and their attitudes to each other, similar to the extent that the Irish "hate" the British. As such, I'm going to keep to that extent, and capitalize the names of species. I know that this may bug some people, however it bugs me more to have only certain species names capitalized and others not. Hopefully, you will understand.