Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa

Template:Ratings Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa is the fourth and last story in the Halo Graphic Novel.

File:SSONM.jpg

New Mombasa as depicted in the story.

Summary

The whole story is a flashback told after the Battle of Mombasa. The protagonist travels on a monorail train arriving at New Mombasa. He explains that his job, is to edit and manipulate images coming from all over the UNSC space and make them more "digestible" for the public to watch. He tells his employers are making him rich, though he doesn't even know who is working for. He feels both proud and guilty, because he helps hiding the truth about how mankind is losing the war against the Covenant. He describes Mombasa as a cosmopolitan city before the Covenant attack. He remembers when his friends and familials though he was working on a new campaing for the Civilian Warthog, but in reality was being put under pressure by his employers and his job was getting harder and harder, due to the continuous UNSC defeats. Then, he tells of when the Covenant found Earth: the war always seemed a distant problem to the planet's inhabitants, but soon after it wasn't any more. The train on which he's travelling homebound gets hit by space-falling debries. He then awakes in a hospital when the enemy's ground assault has already begun. During the fight, he manages to translate a Sangheili's message saying "We need to clear this area before we can secure access to the Ark". He is then told to get the recording out of the city to the UNSC High Command. Arriving at the waterfront he finds the whole city's population trying to leave aboard "anything that floats": he realizes that the recording is too important and that he has to get on one of the remaining boats. In the end he gives the recording to a child who otherwise would've remained on the shore lonely, and hopes she will make it. The last words he says are: "What will it matter? This is the first day of the end of the world".

Appearances

Characters

• United Nations Space Command
• Office of Naval Intelligence
• Unnamed ONI "Photographer"
• Unnamed UNSC Marine Corps Officer
• UNSC Marines from the 17th Marine Regiment
• Civilians
• Covenant

Locations

• Earth
  • Africa
    • East African Protectorate
      • Kenya
        • Mombasa
          • New Mombasa
          • Old Mombasa