-1 hour later, outside new alexandria in route to fire base epsilon
Alexis carried Emily as David lead the way though dense foliage, emily held onto Alexis like she was her mother or big sister. "Sorry..." Alexis said in a soft voice, gunshots and explosions could be heard in the distance to be interrupted with the pitter patter of rain and the roar of thunder, the battle was still going on all around them. "For what?...." David said as he lead the way, he looked over his shoulder as the black visor became clear, besides the speckles of blood and rain that covered his visor, his green eyes pierced hers like a sniper though a helmet. "For...what happened...I think I know how you feel" Alexis said sheeply before looking down, Davis turned his head forward again and said "I don't think you do" "jericho VII..." Alexis said what seemed to be randomly, her voice was of a shaken up women, David raised his right eye brow before she continued "jericho VII was my home...all my family lived there....I was in cryo when it happened, so there was nothing I could've done...like how you lost your brothers....you couldn't have saved them... jericho VII is how I became a shado-" "shut up" David barked at her, causing her to glance up at him, he continued with "just shut up, you aren't a shadow, this proved that" as the continued to walk, the splash of a puddle running down her leg. "I'm lucky I got somewhere to go after all this, but you....I have it better off than you do" David said before the sound of gunfire crept ever more closer. "Truth be told I don't expect to come out of this war alive" Alexis said with a shrug, David smirked before saying "then I'll have to be with you till the very end, eh?"
-2 hours later, fire base epsilon
"GO, COME ON TROOPERS MOVE IT!" A female voice said over the radio, she was a marine around the age of 26. The marine waved the ODSTs as her squad provided covering fire for both Alexis,Emily and David which were sprinting across an open stretch of valley, Alexis was shielding Emily as she ran. When the three made it to the trench Alexis ducked and rolled into it, as she then the marine was shot though the skull by a spiker as another marine said "brute to our right!" And turned to fire at the target.
David helped both Alexis and Emily up before the pair rushed inside, a soldier came over and said "sweetheart you can come with me" to Emily before looking at Alexis and David they then added "our acting CO wants to see you, he's in the building over there" as they pointed at a small metal building painted green. The two headed over to the building before David said "so much for a simple drop". The pair entered the building to see a lady in marine gear at a table on the radio saying "listen, do not send any more civilians or injured over here, we are under attack by the covenant and our birds can't take off, I repeat, we are under assault" with a growl. The ODSTs walked to the table before the lady looked up before saying "oh thank god hell jumpers. I'm corporal Mari, the acting senior officer, and we sure could use your help" as she pulled out a map and laid it on the table, she circled three areas and drew a red lime before drawing a green square. "This is us" mari said as she pointed at the square before she added "we have a ton of civilians needing to get out of here, along with injured, their destination is the UNSC defiance" "that's were we need to get to" David said before Mari said "then how about this, you take out the AA" as she pointed at the circles and she then continued "I'll put you on the first wave to the defiance"
"Ok, sounds like a deal, do you have a hog?" Alexis said before Mari sighed and said "we have one gass hog left, she's yours" as she looked at the pair of ODSTs, this obviously has been wearing on her. The two nod before turning around and heading outside before David said "so what's your plan?" "My plan is we stay fast and get behind the hostiles" Alexis said as they walked to the warthog and she hopped into the driver's seat and David hopped into the gunner's, a marine walked over and said "I'm supposed to go with you two" as he got into the passenger seat. "Alright" Alexis said as she started up the hog and reeved the engine. Smirking Alexis said "hold on" before the hog lurched forward, jumping over the trenchs outside as they took incoming fire. Alexis rammed a elite which caused it to fly over the hog before she used the hand break to drift the hog and started it back up in the direction of a AA wrath. Flying past it David took three pop shots in it's fam causing it to blow up. "Good shots!" Alexis said as she slammed on the break causing the hog to drift again, running over a squad of grunts and a elite. "Moving to target two" she said over the coms as she started to the other wrath, going directly for its fan. David fired again causing shrapnel to launch out, some of which hit the marine in the passage seat killing him and a little bit flew across Alexis's shoulder, cutting her shoulder deep. She let out a Yelp as she swerved a little before she continued driving "you alright?" David asked as he looked at her before she said "I'm fine, focus bud" as they sped to the last AA wrath. Swinging around David lined his shot up before firing his gass cannon multiple times, suddenly the AA wrath exploded in a neon blue and purple. "fuck yeah!" Alexis cheered before turning toward the base, then she heard the dreadful sound of a fuel rod cannon firing, the warthog flipped and smashed into the ground, then she felt a warm liquid slide down her arm. 'I'm not dying here' Alexis said before she pulled herself out of the wreckage, crawling over she also pulled David out, which was breathing. Taking David's side arm she pointed it at the approaching covies until she heard the hum of turrets cutting down the approaching hostiles, then everything turned black.
-10 hours later, UNSC defiance
Alexis opened her eyes and groaned as light blinded her. "Oh your awake finally" the familiar voice of David said next to her, she smirked before saying "aw, were you waiting long lover boy?" Causing David's cheeks to flush red and he said "ey, that's not why I was waiting. But to answer your question, yes about 4 hours" Alexis chuckled as she sat up slowly whilst holding her side. It felt as if her ribs were burning her insides, she looked at David and asked "did you get debriefed already?" David nodded and she let out a soft sigh before saying "we live to fight another day" "yeah, we do" David said as he looked at her, seeing a person were the void of mystery once was, he smiled.