SNOWFALL: Ruin and Endurance

2560: Six months after the loss of the UNSC Infinity
It was morning again in this icy expanse, and Spartan John Sterling was chilled to the core. 
For months, John Von Bach Sterling had been alone…  And like clockwork, he had been out all night, searching for signs of any other Spartans that had survived the fall of the Mortal Reverie.
This lone Spartan had wandered the desolate wasteland of Zeta Halo’s frigid reaches, searching for any sign of life. He had long since given up hope of finding any other survivors of the fall of the Mortal Reverie, but he continued to search, driven by a sense of duty.
He had been one of the last Spartans to escape the destruction of the Mortal Reverie, and he knew that it was his responsibility to find other survivors and help them rebuild. He had traveled for weeks, covering hundreds of miles, but he had yet to find anyone.
In this vast and unforgiving wasteland, he was starting to doubt that he would find anyone. Though he kept going, driven by a stubborn determination, the only thing he knew for sure was that the snowfall would be deadly for anyone not prepared for the white frost of winter.
Today, however, he felt as though the silence was ending. But it wasn’t because he thought the MIA Master Chief would somehow rescue him. Instead, John Sterling felt The Banished was trailing him, and whatever group of Brute-led soldiers seemed focused on collecting his head was gunning for the recognition tied to snuffing out another Spartan among a dwindling few. John Sterling had been on the run for months. 
Today, he felt as though the silence was coming to an end. He had been on the move for days, ever since he had escaped from the Banished stronghold in a more arid section of Zeta Halo, and he had been careful not to leave any tracks, alongside avoiding any major outposts or game trails… In the end, however, he knew that it was only a matter of time before they found him.
The Banished were relentless. They would stop at nothing to capture him. And they were led by a Brute who was even more ruthless than the others named  Herreum, who had a personal vendetta against him for killing their prior leader, Prikahis... And they would not rest until they had avenged his death.
As dawn crept into a proper morning, John Von Bach Sterling would keep an ear open for the careless chattering and complaining of Unggoy, while the comfortable coolness of his MJOLNIR armor kept them shielded from the elements… As he trudged up the hill he felt trapped  on, he couldn’t help but feel like forcing their foe to regret pursuing them, and the most surefire way to invoke a total party kill would be to set off an avalanche… If he was lucky, this snowfall would be fatal.
In an instant, the Banished below would regret their decision to follow a Spartan from the low ground… And as the aliens below were swallowed up by the snow, silence reigned once more. For now, the weary Spartan could finally rest easy as he collapsed on his back and looked up at the grey sky, with only the falling snow to accompany him.
Category:Vman0
Category:The Weekly