The Wrong Side of Heaven.
July 1st, 2517
Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) research and training facility, designate CASTLE.
Highland Mountains, Reach, Epsilon Eridani system.
Halsey
On some days, Catherine Elizabeth Halsey just had wonder if there really was a God in this universe, influencing the course of history; in ways that were both subtle and overt.
Case in point was a day like today.
It had started out pretty normal for her-or whatever passed for normal for a brilliant 25-year-old scientist whom was heading the most important project in human history. She had sent her teams out to their destinations in the Outer Colonies in order to scout out 74 of her 75 candidates ONI had approved the funding for, to see if they were truly capable of being the sword and shield humanity so desperately needed, especially now since the Insurrection against the United Earth Government was beginning to reach catastrophic levels, with a full out Civil War between the Outer and Inner Colonies being a probable scenario.
The 75th candidate, however, she wanted to see for herself.
Out of all the candidates she had selected for training, this one seemed most curious. He was not the strongest, or the fastest, or even the most precise of the candidates, but two things stood out primarily to Catherine.
The first was that he had what could be described as the natural ability to lead others. In and of itself, this was a rare trait, but not too unique, as 051, 092, and 104 had also demonstrated potential in leading others.
The second trait that 117 had, however, was definitely unique. According to the field agents, 117 seemed to possess some uncanny ability to pull himself out of seemingly impossible situations without much injury to himself. Some would say that he was blessed by some divine power; others could say that it was an inordinate amount of luck.
Whatever the case may be, there was something about that boy that made Halsey hopeful about the future of humanity.
She was in the middle of getting packed for the month long journey to Eridanus II that would begin early tomorrow morning, when the klaxon alarm began to go off throughout the facility. Alarmed, and annoyed, the doctor immediately dropped what she was doing and ran over to her desk, where her personal "Dumb" A.I assistant, Deja, was waiting.
"Ma'am, we have a breach in Level 8, Section D. There appears to be no damage whatsoever to the facility, and security is already on its way."
"Show me the feed." Halsey commanded. A microsecond later, a holographic feed popped up of the hallway in question. As she watched the feed, she saw ONI security troopers, garbed all in black, surround what appeared to be an unconscious human male, Caucasian by appearance and wearing nothing but a tan t-shirt, blue denim jeans, a pair of tennis shoes, a wristwatch on one hand, and what looked like a memorial bracelet on the other. Across from him, several feet away, one of the ONI troopers was picking up what looked like a handgun.
Judging from this angle, it looked to Halsey to be a Glock 19, GEN 2, a weapon that had not been in manufacture for nearly five hundred years.
Now she really was curious.
"Deja, playback the feed from the minute the breech occurred." Halsey ordered. The camera on her end re-wound back a couple minutes, and started to replay. Halsey watched the feed more intently this time, concentrating on the spot where the breech occurred.
A few seconds into the replay, a brilliant flash of white light erupted from the spot where the breech supposedly occurred, and when the light died down a fraction of a second later, the same man from before had appeared, pointing his gun at something while shielding his face from the bright light. When the man lowered his arm, he panicked; it was obvious to Catherine that this man had been transported from someplace else. Probably relaxing at home when he was attacked by something, if she had to make an educated guess.
The feed played on to show the security troops surrounding the man. It was a testament to the discipline of these security squads that they did not immediately pump the man full of lead at hypersonic speeds with their assault rifles, as he raised his archaic handgun at them. Instead, one of the troopers behind him ran up behind him and clobbered him on the back of the head with the butt of his rifle, knocking the man unconscious and sending him sprawling to the floor in an undignified heap, with his handgun landing a few feet away.
"Cut the feed." Halsey ordered, now confident that this day was just going to get stranger. "Where are they holding him now?"
"Interrogation cell A343, located on the same level and section." Deja answered. "I must inform you, ma'am, that CICONI has most likely been contacted already, and will want to send someone to interrogate him."
Of course, Halsey thought darkly, if she had it her way, Parangosky would want to 'question' this fellow herself.
She turned back to Deja, her hologram still waiting patiently for the young scientist.
"Deja, inform the security team on Level 8 that I am heading down there to speak to the prisoner personally." She commanded the AI.
"Already done, Doctor."
With that, Halsey turned from her desk and headed out the door, making her way to the elevator to take her down to Level 8, where the mysterious prisoner now resided.
If she had been intrigued before by the mysterious man before her, she could say that she was honestly dumbfounded now. Before her on a table facing a one-way window into the interrogation room proper were various items and trinkets ONI had taken off of him before throwing his still unconscious form into the room, literally.
First was the archaic handgun he had wielded, the Glock 19 GEN 2. As far as Halsey knew, no one had ever produced a Glock ever since the mid-22nd Century, when caseless ammunition became available for general use.
Next was a driver's license, issued to one "Wilson, Daniel G." out of the state of Kansas. A picture of a white male with short, military regulation length dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, and Germanic features was plastered on the license, which was issued on January 25th, 2014, with the expiration date the same month and day, in 2018. On his license, his birth date was listed as August 17th, 1988.
Next to his driver's license was a military identification card. The same face was plastered on this one as well, but instead of the confident, disarming smile that was shown on the Kansas driver's license, this one showed a serious demeanor, and garbed in an early 21st Century U.S uniform, dubbed an ACU at the time. The branch listed on the military I.D listed "United States Army", with rank and pay grade being listed "Staff Sergeant" and "E-6", respectively.
She skipped over his watch and cell phone, which was an Android model, and looked at the memorial bracelet that he had been wearing. It was made of pure, black steel, with an engraving on the outward side:
'SGT Miguel Sanchez.
1st Bat., 327th Inf. Reg., 101st ABN
KIA 25 Jun 2016.'
She frowned. She needed confirmation on whom this person was. For all she knew, he could be a fake, but that didn't explain the bright flash of light and his sudden panic.
"Deja." She spoke into the intercom. "I need you to pull up some history on one 'Daniel G. Wilson.' Medical records, military background, anything you can dig up. I need to know whom were dealing with."
"Searching." Deja spoke thorough the intercom. A second later, several files popped up on Halsey's datapad.
The first file was a DD-214, the discharge file used by the U.S Armed Forces, and later the UNSCDF. According to his file, Daniel had entered the U.S Army in June of 2010, completing his Infantry One Station Unit Training at Fort Benning-which was still in use as a training center for the UNSC Army-, and serving for six years, being first stationed at Fort Carson, and then at Fort Campbell. He had been deployed a total of four times in his career; the first to Iraq in the waning days of the Iraq War, the next two to Afghanistan, and the final deployment was to Syria during the final, bloody days of the Syrian Civil War, after the U.S Government led by President Rubio had declared war on the Islamic State when ISIS terrorists had launched a devastating attack on the Mall of America during Valentine's Day, killing 500 men, women and children. The U.S invasion of ISIS held territory was swift and brutal, wiping out the religious zealots in a matter of mere weeks. The outcome of that conflict was the Kurds setting up their own state in northern Iraq and eastern Syria, then internationally recognized for the first time as Kurdistan, and the furthering of animosity between the U.S and Russia. After the war, Daniel had been honorably discharged from the military on December 2nd, 2016
The file Catherine read next was an after action report that was written by the CO of C Co., 1st Bat., 327th Infantry, in the aftermath of the Battle of Raqqa, the final and bloodiest battle of the Syrian Civil War. Apparently, Daniel's platoon had been tasked with taking the ISIS headquarters. They ended up accomplishing their objective with only five walking wounded. But it was after the engagement that tragedy struck, as one of Daniel's subordinates, one Sergeant Miguel Sanchez, stepped on an unexploded pressure plate IED, vaporizing him and critically wounding Daniel.
Poor man. To lose his friend like that after the battle was over. Catherine thought as she shook her head. She closed the AAR and opened the next file; an obituary out of the Johnson County Gazette. What she read next chilled her to the core.
According to the text, Daniel was at his home on July 1st, 2017, when an explosion reportedly vaporized him and the entire living room in his house in Olathe, Kansas. The body was never found, and a memorial service was held a few days after the incident.
Today is the first of July, she realized. A possibility began to form in her mind, but she needed some confirmation first.
"I'm going in." She announced to one of the security agents.
"But ma'am," he began to protest. "We should wait for a field agent to arrive-,"
"Do you intend to stop me, Lieutenant?" She asked calmly, putting as much ice as she could into her voice.
The lieutenant opened his mouth to protest, then decided it really wasn't worth the effort, and let her in anyway.
Halsey strode into the interrogation room, her mind full of questions for this apparent time-traveling soldier.
Daniel
Daniel groggily blinked his eyes, almost being blinded by the bright lights emanating from the ceiling of the cold, grey room. He noticed that he was sitting on a metal folding chair, and that he was leaning on a white table. Across from him, he could make out a hazy, human shaped figure trying to say something to him, though he couldn't really make it out at first, due to still being a tad disoriented from being hit in the back of the head. He pushed himself up to sit straighter, and focused on the person in front of him, as his vision began to clear.
The person-a woman, by the looks of it- was northern European in appearance. She had dark, almost jet black hair, and ice blue eyes that held a curious look to them. She was wearing white lab coat over a blue shirt. He felt as if he recognized the woman from somewhere, but as of the moment, he couldn't remember exactly where.
"Ah, our mysterious time traveling soldier has awakened." She exclaimed. "Please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, head of research and development here at CASTLE Base."
At the mention of her name, it clicked for him. The equipment the troops were carrying, the futuristic looking hallways, the woman before him…
His mind began to race with the possibilities. Perhaps this was just some nightmare; he was sleeping back at his house in Olathe, getting some rest for the start of a new day. Then, it suddenly dawned on him that it was not a dream, but rather a horrifying, sobering reality.
He was stuck here, in this universe, with no way to get back to his own world.
And now, he was going to have to figure away out to survive.
A/N: Yep, it's another time travel/alternate universe story. I know what most of you are thinking. "Oh God fucking damn it, another Mary Sue self-insert story *click*". Don't press that button just yet, though. My story WILL be different from the other "multiple universe" fics, for reasons below:
This isn't going to be another rendition of Kyle-091, which, while a decent piece of fiction, was a little too far-fetched for my tastes. Namely the part where he becomes a Spartan-II, and all the others immediately trust him, especially John and the rest of Blue Team. (This is unbelievable since John trained and fought with Blue Team since childhood-a literal bond closer than blood ties.)
That being said, there are some changes being made to the canon of Halo, both in the background lore (minor) and what happens in the story proper. (No, no one's becoming a demigod. Let alone an actual god. Nor are any blatant fantasy elements being presented, such as magic and elves and dwarves). That being said, I am bringing in the concept of the multiverse into this, as well as the idea of the prime universe, or the metaphysical realm, if you will, inspired by Cor Tenebrae's work.
And yes, I am still working on I&F: Total War. This is just going to be a co-project along with it.
Till next time.