Out of the night sky appeared a bright blue circle, a portal, swirling like some vortex in mid air. Moments later, the UNSC "Hell Itself', a Midlothian class Heavy Destroyer, rocketed out of the portal, which then collapsed behind. The ship, seemingly undamaged, was infact on a collision course with whatever stood below it. The ship tried to cut its thrust and fire its emergency thrusters on the bow, but it did nearly nothing to slow the massive ship down. The ship banked to the left, its helmsman having spotted a suitable clearing in the middle of a rural area in northwest of Rome.
"Mayday, mayday, this is United Nations Space Command vessel Hell Itself, we are currently on trajectory for a hard landing, estimated impact time 3 minutes, 43 seconds and counting." The ships Artificial Intelligence, Gracie, let out this distress call, and set it on a loop on any open channels she could get.
Meanwhile, below decks in the Deployment Bay for the ships ODST contingent, Commander Annalith Hawk was prepping her Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle, or SOEIV, for use as an escape pod. Dozens of other Orbital Drop Shock Troopers were doing the same, packing as much kit as humanly possible into their cramped pods.
"This is Commander Hawk, all pods, prep for drop. Double time, go go go!" She slid into her pod and shut the hatch, her MJOLNIR Generation 2 power armor fitting snug into her pod. "Standby. 3, 2, 1. Launch." Her pod dropped out of the clamps it was held on, going first, as any Commander should. The other pods dropped seconds behind hers, as they rapidly descended to the surface.
In the woods surrounding the SWA compound, Allison McDonnell and Jay Valentine lay together on the bonnet of the former's Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione II, engaged in their usual Friday night stargazing. The two had been spending the past few minutes locating various constellations, when an unusual sight came into view.
"Look Jay!" said Allison, pointing her finger at an object descending in the night sky. "A shooting star!"
Jay squinted at the object. "That doesn't look like a shooting star," he said as it suddenly split into smaller pieces. "Yeah, that's no shooting star..."
"What could it be?"
"I dunno..." said Jay, noting that whatever the object in the sky was, it was growing bigger. "Is... is it coming towards us?"
As if to answer his question, the object grew massively within the next moment, and as he grabbed Allison and pulled her off the car, something big, fast, and loud streaked in over the treetops, rumbling the earth, overshooting them before it continued into the open field nearby. Moments later, a smaller object came hurtling just past them and Allison's Lancia before it crashed through some tree branches and thumped to a stop in a clearing in the trees. A crash suddenly shook the ground when the first unidentified object finally impacted in the open field, and after that, everything had gone quiet.
"What was that?" Allison asked when she finally opened her eyes.
"Something big, something not of this world, I'm gonna guess," replied Jay as he let go of Allison while they stood up. Glancing at the smaller object that had landed nearby, he looked to Allison again.
"Wanna check it out?"
Allison opened the driver's side door and retrieved her Kimber, checking to make sure there was a round in the chamber. Jay took the hint and went to the rear hatch to retrieve his hunting bow and quiver as additional insurance to his Beretta 93R. Weapons retrieved, the couple closed the doors and went to investigate the smaller Unidentified Object, finding it in a forest clearing. The UO resembled some kind of supersized metallic dandelion seed without its drogue chute-like stalk, and the pair were curious, but cautious. There seemed to be some kind of window where they assumed was the front of the object, but just as they were about to check if anyone or anything was inside, an entire part of the pod exploded loose, and the teenage cyborgs jumped back, weapons at the ready.
The door to Sgt Andra's SOEIV burst outward as a result of the explosive bolts firing. She stepped out, looking at the kids, and then turning to grab her gear out of the pod. She took her M6C SOCOM sidearm and M7S Suppressed caseless SMG, clipping each to her person via magnetic bars on her legs and back.
Allison and Jay could not believe what they were seeing. From the pod emerged someone or something that very much resembled an ODST from the Halo video games that Jay liked to play on his Xbox 360. However, it was Allison who finally snapped out of her stupor and leveled her Kimber at the otherworldly visitor, followed by Jay nocking an arrow on his bow and drawing it back.
"Identify yourself! Who are you?" she demanded in English. Jay repeated the question in Italian, default languages for both himself and Allison, both who were originally from English-speaking countries.
"Woah woah woah, chill." She said, hands up, as her visor went from it's blue color, which obscured her face, to clear. "United Nations Space Command, Sergeant Lilly Andra, 25th Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, ID Tag 324-2256-98LA. Where am I?" She turned on VISR mode, marking the two as possible hostiles in orange.
"United Nations Space Command?" Allison asked.
"No way," Jay said. "That's from Halo! And she's an ODST!"
"You're kidding..." Allison muttered, before re-focusing on Lily. "You've landed on Earth, Sergeant Andra. Italy, to be exact. Year 2012."
"You're joking." She turned back to grab her backpack and the rest of her kit. "It's 2557. Not 2012." She rolled her eyes.
"Really, if it is 2012, prove it." She walked over to them, no weapons in her hands, as the small accent lights on her suit turned a cool blue.
Allison and Jay lowered their weapons, but kept them nearby as they thought of a way to explain the situation to the sergeant.
"How do we tell her?" Allison asked.
"I'm thinking," Jay replied, racking his brain. He then looked to Sergeant Andra as he went about tossing current events at her in an attempt to convince her of where she was.
"Sergeant Andra, you're in the year 2012 right now because automobiles still run on fossil fuels despite an upsurge in Electric Vehicles, Barack Obama is President of the United States, and United Nations Space Command won't come to be for quite a few centuries yet. Doctor Halsey hasn't even been born."
"And here, check the date on my smartphone," Allison said, retrieving and unlocking her iPhone. "That is honestly the current date, and if it was 2557, this phone would have long since become something else."
"Alright, but how the hell does your friend know about Halsey?" She looked out to the flaming wreckage of the Hell Itself. "We need to get moving."
She tapped her helmet. "Commander Hawk, you there?"
"Affirmative Sgt, status?"
"One click north of the Hell Itself, I've got civvies telling me its...2012, ma'am, can you confirm?"
"Date doesn't matter at this point. I'm loading a global rally point to everyones HUDs, get there, now." A blip appeared on Sgt Andra's Heads Up Display, pointing to the ship.
"I guess you need a ride to that crash site?" Allison asked.
"Yeah, double time." She looked at the car. "Huh."
Allison opened the left rear pasenger door to the Delta and moved her racing seat forward a bit. "Might be a bit of a squeeze in that armor, but you should be able to fit. Get in and buckle up, and we'll be at the crash site in no time."
She does just that, maneuvering her ODST Battle Armor into the car, it didnt weigh much anyways, so there was no worry about the extra weight effecting the handling too much. "I'm in."
Allison entered soon after, as did Jay, and as soon as everyone was buckled in, she fired up the engine, the turbocharged 4-cylinder powerplant roaring to life, and after putting it in first gear, she let the clutch out and started accelerating, waving through a few trees to get to the open field, where the low grass allowed Allison to open up the throttle, Turbocharger surging, feeding ever more air into the engine, which responded with force as she shifted into the next gear, boost pressure and the resulting torque pushing all the occupants of the hatchback into their seats. The Hell Itself grew bigger as they approached, and Jay marveled at its sheer size.
"It's like a cruise ship, a destroyer, and an aircraft carrier had a lovechild that could survive in outer space..."
When they were within fifty meters of the crash site, Allison clutched in, threw the car into neutral, and threw the car into a handbrake turn that threw up roostertails of dirt before coming to a complete stop.
"Here we are."
Seconds later, on a small quad, an M274 Ultra Light All Terrain Vehicle, came Commander Hawk and a UNSC Navy officer holding onto her for dear life. The quad stopped near the car, and the woman and officer got off. She wore angular, white armor with orange and gray trim, and the letters UNSCDF-STN, which stood for UNSC Defense Force, Spartan. Since she was part of the newly commissioned Spartan branch. She looked at the car, and at the ODST inside of it, confused.
"What the?" She looked at the car, as one of her ODSTs stepped out.
"Got here as quick as I could ma'am, I needed intel from those kids." She shrugged.
"Get them to safety, or get them suited up, hell, just ask em if they wanna help us salvage this thing. All our shit's on it anyway." The Commander looked up at the ship. "Fuckin mess."
"A chance to pull stuff out of a real UNSC ship?" Jay said in awe. He glanced towards Allison, who nodded.
"I have to make a phone call, anyway," Allison said as she pulled out her iPhone, which then suddenly rang. "Oh."
Allison answered the call. "Hello? Oh, Brian, hey!"
"Allison, I need a status report!" Brian McDonnell hurriedly replied, making his way to an idling 4x4. "There was a huge crash of something right now, are you and Jay all right?"
"Jay and I are fine, we're first on-scene and investigating the crash site. You have to come see this to believe this."
"Stay put! I'm on my way with a few other fratello! For god's sake, Allie, don't touch anything!"
The call ended, and Allison turned her attention back to the flaming wreck of the Hell Itself, where Jay had joined Commander Hawk and Sergeant Andra in trying to get back aboard the ship to rescue whatever items they could.
"Umm...fuck." Hawk looked at her backpack. "I only got room for one on my jump pack. You, kid, hitch on and hold me tight."
Jay swallowed and held on tight to Hawk. "I hope my girlfriend doesn't mind this, but damn, a real jump pack ride!"
She hit the thrusters and ascended to one of the docking rings that would usually be used for ship to ship or ship to station docking.
"You still with me kid?" To be fair, she was 19, but he didn't know that.
"I'm here!" Jay yelled over the noise of the thrusters. "Man, we're high up!"
"Good." She cut the thrusters and landed on the docking ring, wedging her fingers into the gaps in the door and prying it open with a hiss. "Stay here, I gotta ferry Andra up."
"Yes'm." said Jay, taking a seat where it would hopefully be safe to do so. As Hawk went back down to the ground,
he could see several sets of headlights heading their way from the general direction of the SWA compound, but at their speed, it would take quite a while before they arrived at the crash site. looking down, he could also see Allison fishing out a fire extinguisher from the Lancia, attempting to quell at least some of the flames.
From a different direction a pair of M12 Force Application Vehicles, or Warthogs, came rumbling out from the treeline. What apparently had happened was, a Pelican dropship did in fact make it out, bringing vehicles to the scattered ODSTs and crew. The Warthogs approached what would now be considered the staging grounds, as Commander Hawk flew back up to the docking ring with Andra in tow.
"Umm, I got you one of these." Andra handed him an Exopack, like a gasmask. "Gonna need it in there."
"How come there's no fire suppression systems aboard?" Jay asked as he tried to figure out the Exopack and how to properly wear it.
"We had to reserve power to primary systems, besides, the crew, or most of it, got out safe." Andra pointed to the Warthogs, before helping Jay with the Exopack, clicking a button on the side. "If all's well, you wont need it, but for now, follow the Commander, I'm right behind you."
Commander Hawk slowly walked into the airlock of the docking ring, motioning for the others to follow. "It's clear. Our main priority is the Med Bay and the Armory. If we can get to the Hangar, we might have...wait, nevermind, the hangar is trash."
"What exactly are we trying to salvage?" Jay asked through the Exopack. "I don't think we wanna stay in here too long while the ship's burning."
"Gracie?" Hawk asked, seemingly to noone.
"Yes commander?" A voice, from seemingly nowhere, replied.
"Get the fire suppressors goin, please?" Commander Hawk asked. Moments later, a hiss sounded, as the doors to the main atrium of the ship opened. "Air's clear." She took her helmet off, revealing a young girl of 19, with red hair, and blue eyes. "We're here, friend, to retrieve meds and our own weapons. I'm not sure of your ammo is compatible."
"Well, a lot of it might not be." said Jay, taking off his Exopack. "However, 7.62x51 NATO is plentiful, though I'm not sure if your guns feed the same kind of ammo we make. As for meds, well, our lab is on the cutting edge of things at the moment, and it's the best the world at this time period has to offer-though I wish we had the kind of ballistic protection MJOLNIR armor could afford, but since you guys are here, I suppose we'll have all the time in the world to figure that out. Now then, let's continue that search?"