About 15 words over... [quote][b]“Go ahead dad, tell him." He sighed and put his arm round my brother’s shoulders. “I was nineteen when it happened son, bastards came down from the sky and took everything humanity had within forty-eight hours – wiped the slate almost crystal clear. I was out on patrol with a few other guys in our fireteam and our [i]ell-tee[/i]; we heard Phobos Station had gone to shit but none of us knew they’d be heading our way that quickly. The radios went static and alarms echoed for miles around, at least that gave us some advanced warning.” Dad closed his eyes to stop them from watering – my brother wished he’d thought of that sooner. “The [i]CO[/i] made the call and we all hunkered down behind some trucks just right of the courtyard, just like in boot camp. We were naïve enough to think they wouldn’t see us. By now the Fallen ships were just coming into view, like stars on the horizon. One of the lower grades came and crouched next to me, terrified, but then who wasn’t. I put her hand in mine and looked into her eyes for a moment, just long enough to see the Devil Walker’s reflection behind her pupils. I threw her aside and emptied three clips into one of its legs as the chin-gun blazed over our heads. My squad weren’t far behind, deploying ghosts to make sightlines for [i]ell-tee[/i]’s Thunderlord.” He paused. “But it wasn’t enough. When I turned round there was hardly anything left of her.” He closed his eyes again but this time it didn’t work. “She was beautiful, even then. I yelled for medevac but I was desperate, nothing could have saved her. My fireteam were screaming but she was all I could think about.” He looked up at the sky, tears dripped down from his chin. “The Buried City.” “This is where your mother died.”[/b] [/quote]