At Least it was Blue

Xenia Castellanos crouched down against the icy wall behind her, hugging her legs, clutching a magnum. The food had run out over a week ago, power shut down soon after, and the creeping cold had frozen the water supply in the days following. Whatever the Forerunners were doing in these caverns, it had needed to be kept cold. Funny. The very thing she had come down here to investigate all those years ago would be what killed her. Assuming the Covenant didn't find her first.
That's what had happened to most of her team. Sure, a few had starved or frozen to death or died of dehydration in the past few days. But before that? She had seen friend after friend, ally after ally fall to barrages of plasma, slowly losing ground, cut off from all support. 
They had been down here, studying these ruins, when the Covenant had attacked the planet. At first they didn't know what was going on. ONI agents were a common sight down here, sure. Hell, even she technically became part of ONI when she had signed on for this job. But that many of them, showing up all at once? And followed by practically the entire continent's worth of Marines? Something was up. And she soon found out.
Xenia had heard rumors, around the excavation, that they could be expecting company soon. Alien company. She had dismissed them as paranoid murmurings from being cooped up so long, underground, in the cold. But she had to admit. After a while? She started to believe them, too. Why else would the Marines be here? Why did their radio contact get cut-off? It certainly wasn't just the 'maintenance' that the site administrator claimed. And what was that her cousin had told her, coming home on a refugee ship from Kholo? That the aliens were looking for artifacts of some sort? Surely that had to mean they would be after what the excavation had uncovered so far. Maybe she was being paranoid from spending so long down here, too. How long ago had she seen the sun last?
But none of that mattered now. She hadn't been being paranoid. The Covenant did attack. And in doing so, everyone she had grown close to, everyone she had worked with, laughed with, loved... They were all dead, now. All that was left was her, the cold, and these damn ruins.
She stood, blinking her eyes open and looking around. She wasn't going to die here too. Checking her magnum, she saw five rounds left, and one in the chamber. That would barely down one of the big guys, but it was better than nothing. Sighing, she stepped out of the broken down shelter and into the frozen caves beyond.
Normally, she'd be met with instant regret from such an action, the cold outside shocking her to the core compared to the warm, toasty interior of the shelter. But with the power out for so long? Even the best insulation in the UNSC could only do so much. Instead, it was how bright it was that disoriented her. Inside, the lights had gone out and the windows had been boarded up, but out here? The soft bioluminescent lichen reflected off the glacial ice making up the walls of the cavern, casting the entire area in a gentle blue glow. 
Shaking her head, she pulled her jacket tight around her body and pushed deeper into the excavation. Surely there had to be a back way out, right? She had never used it if there was. Hell. She had never used the main entrance except for the first time coming down here. But what she did know was that this way was further from the Covenant, and that was good enough for her. But still, where would she go next?
The way through the excavation went without much trouble, at least none that she had seen. The cavern was, well, cavernous, sure, but that didn't make it feel any less confining. Towering walls of ice and rock on all sides of her only serving to make her feel all the more insignificant. Narrow paths between the pre-fabs and partially excavated ruins pushing her along set paths. The cold, biting air making her press in on herself, weapon forced away from a ready position. And those ledges, up along the cliffs... She swore she saw a flash of light. Purple against the soft blue of the lichen and ice.
It was hopeless... It always had been. Pressing deeper into the excavation, she found no way out. Only more frozen bodies. Dipping into the structures, she found no food or warmth. Only further hunger and biting cold. And was that another flash of purple up along the cliff face? And what about that soft hum? One of the alien fighters overhead? Collapsing to her knees, she fell forward, barely enough strength to roll over and look up at even more ice. She had always wanted to die beneath the blue sky of home... 
At least it was blue...
Category:The Weekly
Category:Siege of Sirona (Story Collection)