The fighting was tough coming from the Brig, but not as hard as it was on the way in. It would have been easier, except there weren’t enough weapons to go around and we were the walking wounded. We made it to the ships Command Center where the fighting picked up. We lost two more men. Private Wendell Vickers and Private Mamengaroa Haney. The Chief relayed a brief he got from Cortana that it was too hot for Foehammer to make it to the rendezvous point. We were going to have to improvise. We were almost to the Shuttle Bay when I figured it was time to give my troops the good news.

“Hassan!”

“Yessir!”

“We still got an exit?”

“Club Johnson is still exclusive, boss!”

“All right. I want you to blow that door and make your way to the Shuttle Bay. Foehammer won’t be able to make it, but the Captain has been so gracious as to offer to chauffer your sorry ass’s back to Alpha base in our brand spanking new Covenant dropship.  Just follow the trail of bodies and you’ll probably get there before I do. Keep’em tight, Hassan. I want all my people off this tub. Even Walker and Perez.”

“Gee, thanks Sarge! You’re the best!”  Walker said sarcastically over the comm.

“You won’t be thanking me when we get back to the base, boy. Johnson, out!”

We made it into the Shuttle Bay. The Master Chief lowered a repelling line down to my troopers. I could tell they had encountered some resistance on the way in from the looks on their faces.

“Where’s, Barry?” I asked Mobuto. He just shook his head. I looked over to Hassan. He had a lock of brown hair tied to his dog tags. It was against regs, but I wasn’t going to bring it up.

“We’ll talk about it when we get back to base.” I said patting his shoulder. “Get’ em loaded up and lets get the hell offa this heap and back on the ground where we belong.”

We boarded the dropship, and the Captain got us back to Alpha Base.

In my tent, I wrote three letters. One to PFC Maria Barry’s parents telling them how competent and brave their daughter was. One to PFC William C. Reynolds folks; offering consolation in how tenaciously he fought the enemy even to the very end. One to Sergeant Ellen Parker’s husband and children telling them how proud they should be of her for fighting for so long giving her life the same way she had been living it for so many years; saving the lives of other soldiers. My words were not enough; not by a long shot. Maybe I wouldn’t even make it off this Ring to get them to their destinations. Still; getting those letters where they were supposed to go did give me another reason to make it through.