Azubuike Okanu Enitan

"Your file says you're great with a rifle. I say otherwise. Prove me wrong and I'll buy you a drink."
-Azubuike to Seba during operation Sword Hand on Trost.
Master Gunnery Sergeant/Sergeant Major Azubuike Enitan is an Orbital Shock Drop Trooper commando of the UNSC Defense Force. He served extensively as a civilian combatant throughout the end of the Human-Covenant War, namely during the Fall of Reach and the Battle of Earth. Azubuike is considered the king of the jack of all trades. Specializing in a wide range of professions such as marksmanship, reconnaissance, and leadership, close quarters combat, and sabotage. He is also somewhat of a lone wolf, being able to take down entire organizations from the inside on his own within months. Even weeks. He has participated in the assassinations of many political leaders of the Covenant Remnants and Insurrectionists. Azubuike was the former leader of  SPLINTER Team, an elite squad of Hell Jumpers that was deployed numerous times since its creation in 2556. Azu is now the leader of the recently formed TEMPEST Team, which has been deployed only twice since it's creation in March 2560. Azu's call sign on SPLINTER was Splinter One. And Tempest One for the new team.
== Childhood and training ==
"He'll survive. The boy is the son of an Orion. Spartan blood runs in his veins. He ain't dead is he? Sure, he's vomiting and shaking. But he's not dead. I'm not here to be his best friend, Abioye. I'm here to make sure he has the tools to survive in this galaxy. He'll hate me now, I know. But he'll thank me later. This training is going to save his life one day."
-Okanu to his wife about Azu's hellish training.
From a young age, Azubuike was taught how to kill. His father often told him this was a eat or be eaten galaxy. While Azu never took the words to heart, he did understand that he had to earn everything he wanted. Many of the people Azu had worked with compared his childhood training to that of a Spartan's, as he was trained from the age of four to eighteen by his father. The training was so tortuous that Azubuike had escaped on several occasions from his home. One such occasion had Azu on the other side of the planet for eight months. Found only because the village he was stealing from had called in search parties to find him. Aside from his training, Azu has been shown to be extremely intelligent. Some would call him a genius of his generation, while others wouldn't go so far. He graduated high school at the age of thirteen. and was two years into his college education when the Covenant invaded Reach.
Azubuike had fruitful relationships with others, his mother referred to him as a "social butterfly" or a "people person" quite often. But like all of the people on Reach, Azubuike's life took a turn for the worst in 2552.
== Fall of Reach ==
When Reach was invaded, the boy was one of the many civilians who chose to fight along the Spartans and UNSC soldiers who gave their lives on the planet. Azubuike would have been one of those brave lives who had been lost as well, if not for Spartan-029. The Spartan gave his life to save the fifteen year old boy from the blaster fire of a Covenant cruiser, taking a direct hit.
== Involvement in the Battle of New Alexandria ==
[]Planet Reach[]
[]2552, August 23[]
[]0254 Hours[]
"Azubuike Okanu Enitan! Dammit boy get back here!"
Azu had wrenched his hand from his father's grasp, the doors of colony ship closing shortly afterwards. He watched as his father, his face streaming with angry tears, and his mother, sobbing along with his sister, rise into the sky. Unable to do anything about Azu, who had decided to stay behind and fight. Azubuike wiped his own tears away, turning from his family who had now made it safely off the planet and someplace safe. Hopefully safe. The boy had begun to run through the streets of New Alexandria, his tears now gone and replaced with anger and determination. These beasts, these Covenant had attacked his home. Of course he'd only heard of them during his mother's lessons, but thanks to that Azu could tell you the easiest way to kill a Sangheili with the least threat, or how to dismember an entire Mgalekgolo. Azu moved swiftly among the dead of the battle, the buildings and streets littered with dead aliens and humans. As pissed as he was, he couldn't help but feel a little sorry for all the dead aliens. The humans too, of course, but still, all the lifeless bodies made him cringe.
That was until he heard the gunfire. Plasma and and bullets flying everywhere so suddenly he ran straight into the wall of a building trying to get away from it. Azu ignored the pain and heard the screams of a marine near him, he whirled, UNSC troops were being pushed back towards him. He froze. Immobile. Scared out of his damn mind. The gun of the fallen marine was behind the line of human troops, and Azu figured, somewhere in the back of his mind, that if he wanted to live, he was going to have to kill. The teenager lunged forward and picked up the Battle Rifle, it wasn't much heavier than the paintball guns he'd been practicing with all his life. He blinked the sweat from his eyes and leveled the weapon, firing two, three times a Kig-Yar's shield, causing it to turn to the young boy for the kill. The distraction Azu caused got the Jackal shot in the neck by a marine, killing it.
Azubuike ignored the heat and the explosions as he battered a Sangheili's shield until it fizzed out and he could shoot it in the face. He watched as the beast fell to the ground, dead. His first kill. His first of many. Azubuike helped the marines push back the Covenant advance around the block. Azu found himself on the front lines, his chest singed by plasma fire and his eyes stinging from smoke. He was taking cover behind a wall while plasma pelted it from the side. Marines took the initiative, protecting him as they fought. One of them reached out and pulled him from cover before a plasma grenade exploded and into a building. Along with two more marines, Azu scaled the building. Leaving the front lines suddenly made him more comfortable. Then again how comfortable could one be in the midst of a warzone?
The battle still raged below them, and as they moved higher and higher the Covenant resistance to them only increased, however Azu and the marines moved forward with swift death. When they had reached the 32nd floor Azubuike nearly collapsed from exhaustion. He vomited and fell to the floor, convulsing and shaking badly. He had no idea what he was doing. Everything was trying to kill him. He had killed so many things in those short two hours he was sure nothing else was alive. But something slapped him hard and he realized that he still had a job to do. He had stayed to fight. He needed to stop freaking out. The colonel who slapped him asked him if he could shoot more than just a Battle Rifle, and Azu blinked the spots from his eyes, nodding.
The marine shoved a Sniper Rifle into Azubuike's hands and told him that he was to kill anything that wasn't human at will. The Colonel and the other marines would cover him as he silently took down everything alien down in the streets. Azubuike got his shaking to stop and moved towards the window, getting into position and aiming down towards the streets. He exhaled, spotting a Jiralhanae chieftain stalking down marines. Azu's face hardened, and he pulled the trigger. The bullet blasted through the Brute's helmet and his brain, he dropped to the ground, not knowing what had ended his life. Azu did not admire his kill, and moved on to take out two Sangheili quick enough that there was almost no time between kills. Azubuike's hardened face softened into a smile. He silently thanked his father for all of those tortuous training sessions, all the times he handled a rifle or fired a sniper round in his presence. Paint ball or live round made no difference, he was a warrior now. This sniper rifle was his fury. His vengeance. He fired again, killing a Kig-Yar and then reloading before leaning down once again to shoot a Mgalekgolo two times in the orange areas, killing it, and then moving on to it's "Bond Brother" to kill them as well.
Before Azubuike could get too settled with his position as a rifleman the area behind him exploded in plasma and Needler rounds, the three marines behind him falling back. Dead. Azu didn't question, scream, or move around to fire. The Spartan 1.1 did something that was the complete opposite of smart. Or even reasonable.
He leaped from the building's window. Dropping the sniper rifle as he flailed through the air.
[]Planet Reach[]
[]2552, August 23[]
[]1154 Hours[]
[]New Alexandria[]
Azubuike rode on the passenger's seat of a warthog, the previous passenger had her brains blown out by a Needler blast. The wide-eyed fifteen year old was unarmored, nearly naked to the enemy, and driving at sixty miles and hours through the streets of New Alexandria, trying to kill every Covenant Bastard he saw. But he was determined, and aside from that he'd been through training that would make the Marine Corp shit their pants and call the police for child abuse. However, that didn't stop him from being scared out of his goddamn mind.
"We're gonna be okay we're gonna be okay we're gonna be okay WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!"
The marine in the driver's seat shouted over the gunfire and the chaos. "Goddammit boy shut your trap! Either that or I hand you over to Elites for target practice! I didn't watch you jump from one building to the other and snatch your ass out of plasma fire to hear you bitch! I don't know who the hell you are but you're damn good shot! So stop complaining and shoot! Then maybe we won't die! From this point on you're a soldier of the UNSC! Now act like it!"
Azubuike gritted his teeth, swallowing his fear. His hands loosened on the grip of the Battle Rifle, his muscles relaxed. His eyes blazed with a new hatred for the Covenant. "Understood sir."
The gunner on the back of the warthog pointed the gun upwards and fired, blasting down two Banshees which screamed as they sailed downwards and into the street to explode on the ghosts that were on their tails. The marine whooped and Azubuike spotted two hunters down the street, charging their cannons. "Turn turn turn!"
"They're blocking the intersection! Shoot shoot shoot!"
Both Azubuike and the gunner fired their weapons as the pair of hunters. Azu took a grenade off the belt of the driver and pulled the pin, waiting until they got close and tossed the grenade at the left hunter. As it was busy blocking it couldn't notice the grenade heading toward him and bounced of his head just before exploding and blasting its head to bits. This gave the warthog hog room to move at the gunner focused more on shooting the other hunter.*Azubuike focused forward at the ground of "suicide Grunts", Elite ultras, and Jackals heading their way. His father had told him many times that being an Orion's son gave him many perks other kids didn't have. Especially during threatening situations.
This was one of those times.
Azubuike held his breathe, willing his ears to shut out everything and ordering his reflexes to go into overwork mode. His whole body relaxed, then tensed as he pulled the trigger of his Battle Rifle. The three bullet burst firing directly into the plasma grenade of one of the grunts. Needless to say the grenade exploded on the poor bastard, causing all of the other grenades he held and being used by other Grunts to explode as well. The entire squad was destroyed by the chain reaction of grenades. The Elites, Jackals, and Grunts lied dead as Azubuike and the two marines drove past them. Suddenly the whole planet came back into focus and Azubuike went out of what his team later came to call badass mode to fire and mow down two Sangheili that dared to block their way.
After moving around the city, blasting alien sons of bitches and making way to the east side of New Alexandria, Azubuike and the two marines eventually met up with a whole company of marines, who were waiting for them and preparing to leave the city. Upon hearing this, Azubuike approached the captain of the company. "Wait, hold on! We can't just leave! We were doing fine out there! New Alexandria is my home I won't leave it in the hands of those. . .whatever the hell they are!"
The commander gave Azubuike a glare for several seconds before looking around at the marines who were climbing on the pelican. "Who brought the kid?"
Azubuike made an inaudible low growl in the back of his throat upon being called a "kid" and being disregarded so easily. He'd done in New Alexandria what most other people would rather die than do. He was most definitely not a kid at this point. The Pelican lifted off and out of the city of New Alexandria. Before he could do anything else hazardous to his health, the marine that had driven him here had grabbed his shoulder and spoke to the captain with much more respect than he had with Azu earlier. "Ma'am, I did. He may be a kid but if it wasn't for him Cannon and I would have died several times over on the way here. We owe him our lives."
The commander's expression remained stern, like she had a sudden but amusing distaste for Azubuike. She told both Azu and the marine to sit, as they were on their way to someplace the Covenant weren't burning yet.
Of course Azu never got to know the details, but what he did know was that he was watching his life long home get burned to the ground behind him by Covenant Supercarriers. "Glassing" is what the marines called it. And from their grim but silent looks, Azu suspected that marines had seen this before. He didn't speak, but he couldn't help but wonder if any of his friends had made if off the planet in transport ships before the major fighting began. He'd a lot of friends back then, a girlfriend too. Thinking of them all dead and burned to ash actually made the poor kid burst into tears. He didn't wail like a baby, oh no, Azu cried . . . like a bitch. But it was silent tears, fierce, burning tears.
Azu had of course gotten memories he'd keep with him for a lifetime. Azubuike had taken up arms and fought with a fury to protect his home, he'd saved his parents. He saw giant armored people who seemed to be invincible. He'd saved hundreds of people that day. But in reality he knew not too many made it out of the city. Anyone who wasn't on a colony ship was burned or hunted down. At least that was what he assumed. Azu sighed hard, getting the tears to stop after a long while. Or what had felt like a long while, anyhow.
He realized just how tired he was, and passed out in the seat of the Pelican, not waking up until the alarms blared in his ears, something burning and people shouting all around him. He got up to his feet, despite the pelican that was descending fast and taking heavy fire on the way down, and watched as marines, one after another, took a hop out of the pelican's hatch. One of the last marines, the one Azu recognized as Cannon, shouted to him. "Both the commander and the pilots are shot dead! And this thing is gonna blow, if it doesn't crash and burn first!" *He then hopped out of the pelican.
The last marine patted Azu forward, shoved a parachute into his arms and yelled as jumped out of the pelican and went down. "Jump, kid! Gerominooooooooo~!"
"You can't be serious! I did NOT just sleep through all that!"
Azu slung the parachute over his back and ran forward, keeping steady as the pelican dropped like a stone out of the sky. And for the second time that day, Azubuike Enitan jumped to his death.
== Escape from Reach ==
Beaten, battered, and realizing just how scared he was, Azubuike ran, from the fallen Spartan, the battle, and the Covenant. He couldn't hide long, he didn't know what he was doing. He'd done the impossible. He stood toe to toe with Covenant forces and not only lived to tell the tale, but saved hundreds of lives. He watched as fleeing colony ships flew into orbit and into hyperspace. He watched his family climb onto one, fighting and screaming as he ran back to fight. He hoped they were okay, or at least alive. He apologized to his mother, and to his siblings, and to his father. He apologized to that Spartan who's name he'd never know, for saving a life that would die anyway. How can I not believe I'm going to die? This planet, my home, is overrun with overzealous alien bastards, all of the Colony ships were gone, or destroyed. The UNSC defense has all but been wiped out, the stragglers being picked off for fun and unable to gather and form a significant resistance, only- like me -accept the inevitability of death.
All of this processed in his mind in seconds as he ran. He didn't stop running, even as his lungs burned and his feet bled. What could he do but run? He shut his eyes, hoping to fall off a cliff or into a river that he'd drown in. But he smashed into something solid. Something burning. He was surprised that the smell didn't catch earlier, probably because everything was burning. The boy's eyes widened and lit up with hope as he let out a hoarse chuckle, staring at the downed Pelican. He scrambled inside, it was in horrific condition, but Hell it was a way off the goddamned planet. Azu ran inside, now brimming with hope until he saw the crashes' pilot, and only survivor.
A man in blue armor, coughing his lungs out, a shard of metal shoved right into his ribcage, Azu had seen enough people die to know that this man was going to join the long list of this war's dead heroes. But even still, he moved forward to assist. But the man only shook his head, waving Azu off, probably telling him to run. And that's when he heard the sniffing, and then the firing. You're meaning to tell me that I ran all that way and the Covenant were right behind me?
Azu cursed, ready to give up. The flames of hope were now extinguished. But he shook his head and gritted his teeth, he wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of begging. His hands moved like the wind across broken circuits mending them just enough so that the ship'll operate. After about thirty seconds, he heard a voice, worse than his. "How long?" Azu turned, and the man in blue armor spoke again, referring to the repairs of the ship. "How long?" 
Azubuike watched him carefully, and as the man took a rifle out of the Pelican's shaft, Azu understood. "Ten minutes. Buy me ten minutes." Without waiting for an answer, Azu went back to work, ignore the gunfire pounding the side of the Pelican.
"Consider it done, Soldier." The man replied, taking the rifle and moving outside the Pelican, the firing become erratic and louder as he engaged them. Azu almost froze as he was referred to a "Soldier" by the man, it seemed almost impossible, but after all he'd done this day. The fighting, the running and now the repairing of the Pelican, Azu certainly felt more soldier-ish. The boy's hands began to move like lightning, within the promised time of ten minutes, the ship was in flyable condition, he started the ship's engines and prayed to anything that would listen, then screamed for the man to come back inside to leave with him. Unfortunately the soldier didn't obey, maybe the Covenant were too close for them to achieve liftoff? Azu ran to the hatch and before he could yell once more, he was cut of by the hoarse but fading voice of that man.
"Don't wait for me! Get a move on!"
Azu had no idea why the man had decided to say something so stupid, if he didn't go with Azu he'd die. He knew that didn't he? Azu was just supposed to let him sacrifice himself. "You have to come with me! I can't let you die out here alone!"
"There's no time left! Don't worry about me!" The man continued to fire into the increasing number of enemies, but Azu could see his strength waning, dying. In the midst of the chaos, the man gave Azubuike a set of dog tags with a curt nod.
Which made Azu only more entitled to his new found comrade. "But you're going to d--"
"Spartans never die kid! They're just missing in action!"
"What kind of bullshit is that?! Get on the pelican! I won't leave you here!"
"I SAID GO! DO IT NOW!"
With that Azu yelped and scrambled back running for the controls of the Pelican, he'd never flown one of these before, but his father had, and he was a good teacher. Azu's fear-triggered adrenaline caused his fingers to blaze over the controls and by a miracle the Pelican lifted into the sky.
== Movement to the Sol System ==
Azubuike had successfully escape the glassing of his homeworld Reach. That didn't make the nightmares go away. He'd spent weeks staring at the dark void of space through the cracked windshield of the pelican. Azu didn't know how long he'd been drifting, but the Covenant either didn't follow him or they thought he was dead. Azubuike hopped it was the latter. He did what he could to keep the failing pelican in flyable condition but nearly everything was busted. He wondered how it didn't explode and fry him in space. After hours of occupying himself with something other than staring into the void, the pelican's light flickered on. Yet this was now irrelevant, as something flew over him. Something big enough that the entire pelican rocked violently.
Azubuike would come to later call this "something" the UNSC Thanatos. Once safely aboard the frigate, Azu took the time to immediately "roll over and die", as the crew had stated many times. The young boy spent the next month recuperating and taking therapy aboard the ship. Retelling his story to anyone and everyone who asked. Once Thanatos had made its way to Mars he was awarded a high civilian medal for his service on Reach. And moved to Earth to start a new life. Azu was told that he would be sent to someplace that would remind him of his home on Reach. Upon hearing this he expected to live on a military base, due to his father's training. But what he got was much more heartwarming. The pelican that descended from the UNSC Thanatos had dropped him off in New Mombasa.
After getting arrangements to live alone with the city paying rent as long as he was productive, Azubuike settled in a small apartment near the coast of the city. During the end of September he got another surprise. Two in fact, the second of which affects him into adulthood. He figured out that not only did he family survive Reach, they had tracked him down and found him when he moved to New Mombasa. He soon moved in with his family again, and that was when the vision began. Azu had a string of what he thought were nightmares, which progressively worsened as he got older. He did not find out the origin nor what these visions actually were until his military career.
== Life In New Mombasa ==
Over the course of the next month and couple weeks, Azu enjoyed the good life. His father made his training less strenuous, partly because of his mysterious dreams and his nightmares from Reach. But also because He realized Azu needed a bit of a break after surviving the glassing of an entire planet. During the months between Reach's fall and Earth's Battle he spent his time relaxing and rehabilitating mentally and emotionally from his experiences and nightmares. He spent more time with his brother and sister, mainly because he thought they were dead and vice versa, so to keep their bonds strong as siblings he did everything he didn't have a chance to do before Reach was glassed. While his training was more laid back, that didn't make it easy, on multiple occasions he had to sprint through New Mombasa straight down the middle in less than an hour. He learned to embrace his training an endure it, simply because it had saved his life on Reach. This helped to heal the rift between his father and himself, and the two began to communicate more.
While he did have an official therapist to help him with his psychosomatic shakes, Azu often found himself speaking to his mother about everything. He was, in retrospect, a "Momma's Boy". Only because he never hid anything from her, and while Azu knew his mother, as an adult, wouldn't tell him some things, he would later come to figure out secrets about his mother that would change his life.
Near the end of September Azu got another heartwarming surprise from his past, several of his friends survived Reach, including his girlfriend, Cassandra. After reuniting with his three pals and lover, the five of them soon gained the title "Reach's Remnants", as to signify that they were survivors of Reach. This group would go on to become SPLINTER SQUAD. Things were all well for the next four weeks, through the end of September to October 20th was perhaps the easiest Azu has ever lived. Though he was still only fifteen, he felt so much older after his exploits on Reach, something that would help him out when the Battle of Earth finally surfaced.
Though they'd spent months apart thinking one another were dead, Azu and Cassandra grew closer knowing they were alive and together again, it soon got to a point where he began to trust Cassandra more than he did his mother, which none of them took notice of until later years. He quickly picked up where he left off in schooling and excelled, having skipped two grades and being a Junior already. Little did he know that his relaxing life was once again to be interrupted by the Covenant. Who just so decided to attack where he settled down, again.
== Battle Of Earth ==
[]October 20th, 2552[]
[]0725 Hours[]
It was midday, quite chilly for an October morning. Wasn't too bad though, it was one of those days when it was warm enough that you weren't hot, and cool enough that you weren't freezing. While Azu loved the weather, he'd been waking up the past couple of days with a nauseating feeling, one that his dad reinforced by not acknowledging it. Azu wanted to ignore it, of course. But why would he ignore something that saved his life several times on Reach?  He went to school that day nonetheless, however. Where he met up with his friends, who everyone had been calling "Reach's Remnants" for a while now. He had an idea where the name came from, but it kind of made him sound like a hero of some sort. Azu didn't fancy himself a hero, despite the medal hanging around his neck. The morning was a breeze, really, school was iffy, the teachers were fine, and he skipped out a couple hours to spend time with Cassandra, who he'd been telling about his bad feeling.
That's when he got the call from his father, who's frantic voice and calm tone got Azu tensed up really quickly. "Where are you?"
Azu gave his girlfriend a worried look and sat up out of the grass, keeping his voice steady. "Um, in the courtyards just outside the plaza. What's-"
"Get home. Do it now. Don't ask questions, and don't. Look. Up." Of course, the serious tone in his father's voice would have made him obey, but Cassandra's shaking touch on his arm made his attention turn to her, and follow her gaze.
Above them was a CAS-class Assault Carrier, and when he realized what was happening, his blood turned cold. His voice came like a whisper at first, but slowly rose louder to be heard. "Go. . .go get up now!" He was up like a predator ready to pounce on it's last meal. He dropped everything, his book bag, his phone, and his homework.He wouldn't need it. The Covenant are Reach. . . he thought to himself, then shook his head as he grabbed Cassandra's hand and bolted in the way of his home. No, the Covenant are on Earth. On his way home he didn't meet any resistance, which was good for the most part, but that didn't change the fact that there was still danger.
[]0740 Hours[]
Azu's legs burned by the time they finally made it home, and he busted through the door, his girlfriend hanging on his back for dear life. Even if he hadn't seen the Carrier he would have known something was wrong, the house was dirty. The house was never dirty. He heard his father downstairs yelling at his younger brother, he let Cassandra off his back and went downstairs, yelling at everyone to learn what was going on. With everyone silenced, his father gave him a quick glare and handed him a Battle Rifle. "We're leaving Mombasa. No questions asked."
Azu froze for a moment, getting comfortable with the weapon he was holding, looking at his brother and sister, who were both holding weapons of their own as well as his mother. The looks on their faces reminded him of the look on his face when he first killed that Elite in New Alexandria on Reach. They were terrified. Needless to say Azu didn't share their feelings, he was more pissed than anything. Before he could respond to his father Cassandra jumped down the basement stares and hugged Azu hard enough to knock him back into the wall. Thankfully the Battle Rifle was on safety so he couldn't pull the trigger out of surprise. He returned Cassandra's hug and placed the Battle Rifle on the nightstand at his side. "What's wrong?"
"Daichi had gone missing just this morning, it might have something to do with the invasion." She dug her face into his chest as she began to cry, but spoke through the tears. "He might be dead, he isn't answering our calls or anything."
Azu sighed, as much as he wanted to reassure her right now, they were on a time limit, he didn't know whether the Covenant were going to glass the city or not, and he didn't want to stick around to find out. "Cassy, I understand you're scared. But Daichi can take care of himself, right now we have to get out of New Mombasa. Or we're going to die." He slid his hand around his Battle Rifle and kissed her forehead. "We have to go, wipe your tears."
It took a couple seconds, but Cassandra slowly stopped crying let go of Azu's body. To which she looked up at him with red puffy, but angry eyes. "I need a weapon."
Azu didn't like her tone when she spoke, but he couldn't really deny her something like that when they were in such a situation. He looked at his father expectantly and he was tossed a DMR, after catching it he gave it to his girlfriend, who wasn't a stranger to combat as far as Azu knew.
"Take only necessities. We might not be able to escape right away, and we don't want anything slowing us down. Azu, take point. You've spent more time in the city than I have, so I trust you know the fastest way out that wouldn't be cluttered with other people?" Suddenly everyone looked at Azubuike, and he felt the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders. He suddenly realized that this was how everyone looked at him. Expectantly. Waiting. Depending. Even his father, the man he begrudgingly looked up to his entire life. . .even he was waiting for Azubuike to lead them out of this crisis.
The fifteen year old took a deep breath and nodded. If he was just now realizing he was a leader then he might as well get used to it. "We should be able to fly out. As far as we know there's only one Assault Carrier in the sky right now. The Navy and the rest of the UNSC can deal with those, if we go for the transport ships now we should be able to make it. But there's a good chance those would be blown out of the sky in the fighting. There's a Pelican manufacturing base on the other side of the city, a couple miles from there. It shouldn't take us too long to get there depending on how much resistance we meet with. I'd be a lot more comfortable in a Pelican, seeing as how it's faster than transport ships and can hold it's own in a fight, and we won't have to deal with hordes of other people trying to escape."
"It seems like a good plan, Azu." His mother finally spoke up, and he realized this was the first time he'd ever seen her with a weapon in her hands. But she'd gotten rid of that face from earlier, she suddenly seemed more experienced, and determined. "But how do we know the shipyard won't be destroyed? Or if it's overrun with Covenant forces?"
"The same could be said for the transport ships, I'm not willing to bet on slow, easy targets." He replied to his mother.
Cassandra gave him an incredulous look. "That's ridiculous, you do realize we'll be stealing from the UNSC, right?"
"Hey, you guys asked me to come up with an idea, didn't you? You didn't ask for the easiest way out, you asked me for the fastest. A pelican is our best bet. Unless we get lucky and find a Broad Sword. But let's not get our hopes up. Sooo, uh. Let's get moving."
Azu started out the back door, but his father grabbed his arm as the others went out. "Don't speak, just listen. Don't. Just don't do to me what you did at Reach, Azubuike. You have no idea what you put us through. No heroics. Don't stay back this time. Just come with us. . . please."
If Azu hadn't been so tense, he would have gone into shock, he'd never heard his father's voice so sincere before. It was like being draped in an uncomfortably warm blanket. He closed his eyes and nodded reluctantly. Knew there was a very slim chance that he would actually do what his father wanted.
[]0800 Hours[]
The first twenty minutes were tense. Nothing happened, the streets were filled with people scrambling to flee, police officers and marines trying to calm the riots and panic. Meanwhile Azu and co made their way through New Mombasa. During these brief twenty minutes, Azu used Cassandra's phone to call his friends and tell them the plan, as well as their parents and Cassandra's. Because he sure as hell knew she wasn't leaving without them, and he wasn't going to risk them all dying because of it. They all met at the docks, a while away from the base.
They took a small break, at the need of something to drink, and Azu decided to count everyone. There was himself, his brother Zaki, his sister Zeriyah, his parents, Cassandra, her parents, the twins Chase and Abayomi, their parents, and Themba, who's parents lived on Mars. The thought made his heart sink, if the Covenant were on Earth, UNSC Mars must've been lost. . .
Before Azu could get lost in his thoughts, Cassandra pulled him aside and out of earshot of the others, and kissed him. While surprised, the gesture calmed his nerves and allowed him to relax a little, but that didn't stop him from asking what brought it on. Cassy jabbed her finger to his chest with each word. "Don't you dare. Your dad told me exactly what you were going to do. Don't. You. Dare stay behind, I will never forgive you. I lost you once on Reach, I won't lose you again, not when we can escape together."
Azu's stern face softened into a sad smile, he let his arm slide from around her and looked down a moment. He knew in his heart what he was going to do. And Cassandra knew she couldn't stop him. But Azu saw how much it pained her to know that he was going to do it anyway. It got him thinking about how this war had made them grow up so fast. Before Reach, Azu was just a normal excelling student, a run of the mill guy. He should be at school, back talking teachers and turning in homework late. But now he was a hero, whether he liked it or not. That's what people saw him as, and he had to accept it. The boy shook his head. "I can't promise you that, Cassy."
She sighed and turned away from him, crossing her arms the way she always did when he was being stubborn, and said in reply: "Then I'm staying with you. I have to find Daichi anyway. . ."
Before Azu could object to anything, the ground shook, and when he looked up he realized they'd wasted too much time, a Scarab was gleaming in the October sun, it's ocular eye ray charging up as two Pelicans came into view. The ray tore through one Pelican, and the turret on top downed the other, realizing just how bad things got, Azu moved to the front of the group, which was like a small strike team of thirteen, and rushed down the docks into the city, as to not be sitting ducks. They had an entire city to cross before Mombasa would be presumably glassed, that didn't give them much time.
[]0812[]
Covenant troops were everywhere.
But this was still nothing compared to Reach. Why were there so few enemies? In New Alexandria and Aszod Covenant were swarming like drones, here. . .well it was a bit easy. Of course Azu didn't take the situation lightly, but it was strange. On Reach there were so many enemies there weren't enough bullets to compensate. He and his friends were making it through a quite a relaxed pace, but everyone knew that the danger was still present. Things weren't neat and tidy forever, even though they were taking the route with the least civilians, that didn't stop the Scarab from parading over them just to ruin Azu's day. It knocked down several small buildings, forcing the group to find a different way around and through, and then they met with heavy Covenant resistance.
Azubuike's Battle Rifle barrel exploded with sound as he fired the signature three round burst into a Brute's eye socket, killing it instantly, the other Brutes at its side became enraged because of it, and began moving so recklessly that Azu couldn't shoot them down fast enough. He took down one, but the other two advanced on him too quickly, he rolled out of the smash of one into the swing of another, the force of the attack sending Azu sprawling across the ground in pain. But he'd hurt before, he wasn't going to let a little pain get him killed. He leveled his Battle Rifle and shot from the hip, spraying bullets into the chests of both Brutes, making them stagger slightly and giving Azu the couple seconds to stand up and get ready to fight. The sound of a sniper rifle rang in his ears, however. And the two Brutes fell, dead with holes in their skulls. The 1.1 turned towards his savior, which turned out to be his little sister, with angry tears in her eyes.
Azu cursed himself and took aim, shooting down a couple Grunts and signaling for his sister to come into a store behind him. The others must've ran the other way when the Scarab approached and didn't notice Azu and Zeri fighting a strike force. Or, they were having problems of their own and Azu failed to notice. Once inside he hunkered down and reloaded his Battle Rifle, checking it for damage and looking around the store for ammo. Zeri sat, hidden from the enemy, but not do much else. Panting, the boy sat at her side, pulling out a loaf of bread and handing her a piece, and then two bottles of water. "Take a moment to collect yourself, we don't have time for this talk, Zeriyah. I love you sis, but this is a life or death situation. Yes, you killed those Brutes, but you saved my life. Think about that for a moment, if we survive this, I'll make sure to give you the whole pep talk."
At the end of his little speech, he cracked a half smile and sighed, regaining his breath and leaning back against the counter that hid them. Zeriyah leaned her head on his shoulder and rested for the few moments they had, letting her big brother do all the worrying. She took the food and ate quickly, not leaving a trace left and pausing before finally speaking. "Why us. . .why did this have to happen to us, Azu?"
"Wish I knew, but all I know right now is that we have to fight. We're getting out of here, I promise." She never had the chance to answer, an explosion outside jolted them back to the reality that they were in a war zone, Azu grabbed his Battle Rifle and the things he salvaged and rose, pointing his gun at whatever there was to kill outside. He saw a line of Jackals moving down the street, unaware of their presence in the store. Without thinking Azu took his sister's Sniper Rifle and took aim, waiting for the heads to line up. . .and shot. Four of the seven Jackals dropped with a clean shot through their heads. The surprise the other Jackals felt got them shot to death by Zaki, who seemed to be having a lot more fun than Zeri.
Zaki was accompanied by the rest of the group. Who quickly linked up with Azu and his sister and advanced forward through Mombasa. He'd not known that things were about to get a whole lot worse. He'd normally be through New Mombasa by now. But that was on a normal day, when there wasn't Covenant aliens at every turn. Things progressively got harder, the bodies piled up around them, morale was slowly dropping.
About an hour or so after the Scarab nearly trampled them, Azu watched the skies as the Battle Cruiser that had been hanging over their city seemed to be turning, and moving away. With caution, he spoke to his father while staring at the sight. "Are they retreating?"
There was silence for a moment. His dad didn't have much to say apparently, not until a dark hole appeared in front of the ship. Thing his father went haywire. "Everyone move! Inside the buildings! Find someplace and take cover! DO IT NOW!" Azu shuffled his feet nervously and turned 180, dashing into a large building behind him and taking cover in the basement. He didn't know if any of his friends had followed him, but before he could even get back upstairs to check the ground shook violently. His ears popped at the sound of an earthquake and typhoon. Things began flying everywhere, and he saw Cassandra and Themba tumbling down the stairs after one another.
Barely even able to stand Azu leaped over to his friends and covered their bodies with his, thanks to his 1.1ness, he was able to move with a heightened sense of balance. But protecting the others with his own body was all he could do. All the lights went out and the building began to collapse on top of them. The entire city was going to hell. And then everything went black.
[]1105[]
Azubuike's vision returned to him after he fell in and out of consciousness for a while. He opened his eyes and his body was numb, light shone through the cracks in the debris above him, it hurt to look at the light but he'd no strength to turn his head away from it. Aside from the light were two fuzzy blobs, he couldn't discern them, but it slowly came to him. At first it was the muffled screaming, and then the hysterical tears of joy that followed soon after he opened his eyes that made the world come into focus around him. Above him was Themba and Cassandra relatively unharmed, but nicked and bruised in several places. Both had been crying, but Themba's face was only streamed with light marks, as Cassandra was letting a river of tears flow from her eyes.
The feeling came back to his body like he was hit by a bus, the sudden revitalization he felt gave him mixed emotions. But what really knocked the wind out of him was the immense, tightening pain he abruptly felt in his left abdomen. Azubuike choked out a scream of agony as the pain flared through him, but soon after shut his mouth and screamed in the back of his throat for a minute or so. His hands came to feel around a metal pole jutting through his side from the ceiling, and he pulled on it, but not enough to actually take it out of him, and said in a strained voice, "Cut it."
"What are you talking about?" Cassy practically screamed at him, she was holding his wrist so hard he was beginning to lose feeling again. "You're bleeding to death, if we cut it now you'll-"
"Bleed to death slower, right now we don't. . .have a choice! Just do it, my knife should do the trick." Azu's chest heaved with each slow breath, he tried relaxing his body while holding the metal rod spearing through him. Azu inhaled slowly through his mouth and Themba gripped the rod with him, and Cassandra closed her eyes, trying to stop sobbing now that Azu was confirmed alive. But he wasn't out of the woods yet. As Themba cut at the metal beam stabbing through his best friend, the debris above began to crumble, slowly falling around them. Grunting and sounds of effort were heard but were distant to Azubuike. He was too focused on the pain and the roars of anguish coming from his throat to notice his mother break through the destroyed ceiling.
Cassandra called out to her, and then Abioye called out to others. Then screamed at Azu's condition. Themba finally sawed through the beam and Azu could feel the pressure leaving his stomach, but tightened in pain around the rod still in his stomach. He tried not too move, as to not lose anymore blood, but it was hard not to when everything was in pain. He blacked out, the world coming in and out of focus around him.
When Azu finally came to, his mouth tasted of metal. Blood. He was choking, more blood spurted from his mouth and he turned his head, letting it flow out. While feeling returned to his body he gained a sense of what was going on. Around him were his friends, holding down his arms and legs while his brother had one knee to his chest, keeping him down. No one spoke, they all looked like they were sorry. And suddenly Azubuike tensed, but it was too late. He felt the rod ripped from his stomach in one quick movement, and he screamed horribly. But before anything else could happen he saw Cassandra's mother spray biomedical foam onto the stab wound.
At first Azu felt as though he was being stabbed by thousands of knives, and then as though Fire Ants were crawling all around his wound, he likely alerted their position to every Covenant force in the area with the bone-shaking scream he let loose as they applied the biofoam. He eventually calmed, his chest heaving, sweating bullets. But alive, and now without a rod in his gut. The others slowly helped him up, and he listened as the other spoke while he caught his breath.
"What was that? Some type of Covenant Super-Bomb?" Themba asked as he looked around at the others, handing Azu back his knife.
"No, it was a slipspace jump. They had the nerve to jump inside the city. But it worked like an EMP, knocked out a lot of our equipment for a while." Cassandra's father piped up, standing up besides Azu's father.
"Slapped a bunch of ODSTs out of the sky as well. Scattered them all across New Mombasa." Abioye said with a sigh.
"We still have a way out, hopefully. The shipyard wasn't inside Mombasa." Azu finally said, standing up slowly with his brother's help. "I know it was close, but I doubt we have any other way now. I'm sure something like caused city wide destruction. And it's the perfect opportunity for more Covenant troops to arrive and kill us while we're disoriented. We need to get moving before they realize that."
Grim silence hung over the group. No rest for the weary. . . Azu thought, and then looked around, having his brother let go of him and stand on his own. Azu went over to some debris and lifted it, retrieving his weapon and looking at the others. Even with a hole in his gut filled with biofoam, Azu felt like he wasn't any worse than he was twenty minutes ago.
Following his father, he and the rest moved out of he basement and began to move on their original course. But Azu's chest tightened at the sight of New Mombasa's desolate state, many buildings were in ruins, bodies lied around. There was silence. It was terrible, this was the second time he had to sit idly by as the Covenant destroyed his home. He hated it, he burned with a desire for revenge. He wanted the head of every Covenant alien at his feet and use them as soccer balls. Azu knew that could never happen, but it didn't change his want for it either.
Azu didn't know what happened, but thing were quiet far too long. They saw the occasional human, policeman and marine moving around, trying to pick themselves up. But as far as Azu knew all the Covenant were either dead or left with Carrier in the slipspace jump.
Soon Azu began to second guess himself, wondering if things were okay now. Whether or not they should go back home and try to go back to their lives. He nearly voiced his worries until an inhuman roar made him nearly roar back in frustration. He and co moved forward, Drones soon flying above them and raining plasma down on them. "SCATTER!" came from his mouth and he rolled to the left, the barrel of his Battle Rifle exploding as it released bullets towards the Drones in the signature three round burst. He moved, ducking and weaving, only grazed by the plasma as nearly all of his shots took down a Drone. Assault Rifle fire came from behind him, and then Sniper Rifle, followed by a DMR, the others had quickly recovered. Taking aim and firing back at the Drones. Things started to even out, the Drones' numbers were dwindling, that was until Azu heard the roar from earlier again. He took cover behind a hot dog cart while reloading his weapon, listening again for a roar. From the sounds of it, there was a Brute. And also and Elite. Azu peered over the cart and took down another dropping, mopping up the last ones.
Then he saw something that peaked his interest. A group of Brutes were being brutal as usual, but they were fighting Sangheili. They were supposed to be on the same side, weren't they? Of course Azu had to think the questions, because one of the Elites noticed Azu and his friends, and pointed towards them. While some of the Elites and Brutes continued fighting, the Chieftain and Zealot just had to be the ones who turned and fought together. No matter how much they seemed to hate each other, they seemed to have enough time to realized they hated Humans more.
Azu didn't think. He just did. He'd seen Zealots and Chieftains in action on Reach, even helped kill a few. But for each Zealot and Chieftain that went down dozens of marines went with them. There was no way he was going to let that happen to his friends and family. He would have to die first. Azubuike's genetic inheritance from his father kicked in, bullets suddenly pelting the Zealot's shields as Azu moved out from cover. Trying to attract the attention of the Elite and Brute. But calling out to the Elite.
"Hey, Squidface!" The teenager yelled out, rolling to the left and then to his feet as he fired on the Zealot. The Elite fired back, not looking too happy to be challenged by a child. Azu felt the abrupt click from his weapon as he ran out of ammo and paled, looking around frantically. "Shit!" He dived out of the way and heard a shotgun shell explode at his side
Category:UNSC Marine Corps Personnel
Category:SPARTAN-IV