A/N: New chapter yay! Apologies for this chapter not coming out for two months, I didn't expect some of the distractions and delays that would take away from working on this chapter. But here it is, finally!
Big S/O to my beta reader, LucDragoon, for going over this and checking for mistakes.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except for my original content.
The buildings towered hundreds of feet into the air, and the sky glowed orange with distant fires roaring long into the night. While the stars were the same as they remembered, to Booker and Elizabeth everything else was different. The skyline, the buildings, the roads; hell, even the air tasted different.
"Booker," Elizabeth said, voice tired. "Where… where are we?"
"What did you do," asked Booker, temper rising. "Elizabeth, what did you do?"
While Elizabeth and Booker stood confused and frightened, Buck felt a wave of familiarity wash over him. The high-rises, the ONI symbol on the building behind them, burning corporate offices of Jotun Heavy Industries and Vyrant Telecom, and the destruction and death that surrounded the trio.
"New Mombasa," Buck muttered. "We're back in New Mombasa."
It was late into the night, and the rain was sprinkling down with the occasional rumble of thunder from a storm miles away. The street lights were malfunctioning, casting the area in darkness, with only the emergency lighting and glow of the neon business signs illuminating the roads.
On the opposite end of the bowl-shaped section of the city, a burning Wraith tank sat next to a crashed Phantom dropship, while behind them were multiple elevated barricades to prevent the Marine and NMPD forces from being taken out by Covenant bombardment or air support. A lot of them, however, were either completely destroyed or were missing large sections of protection.
To their left were multiple charred chassis of the M12 LRV Warthogs, along with what looked to be the front half of a D77-TCI Pelican dropship embedded in the street and destroyed chassis of M808 'Scorpion' Main Battle Tanks. A long way down the street were burning and destroyed shells of Ghost hovercraft, Banshee aircraft, Wraith tanks and even Phantom dropships. The smells of blood, burning metal and charred flesh stung his nostrils, but the ODST kept it together for everyone.
"God dammit, Elizabeth!" Booker was now only inches away, anger boiling over. "What the hell did you do!?"
Buck grabbed Booker by his vest and slammed him hard against a pillar, eyes locking with his. "Calm. Down."
Booker broke Buck's grip on him and walked away towards a different part of the sector. Buck, meanwhile, walked over to a visibly shaken Elizabeth. He put his coat over her to shield her from the rain.
"Elizabeth, it's going to be alright."
"Edward, where are we?"
"We're in New Mombasa, Kenya. Do you remember when I told you about that mission I underwent? When everything went wrong the second we dropped?" It took her a while to remember, but she nodded her head when it finally came to her. "Well, this is the exact same day of the drop, six hours later."
Thunder once again rolled across the African sky, as the rain began to intensify. Buck saw Booker sitting inside beside a ruined Warthog, hands clasped together on top of his head and chin tucked in against his chest.
Buck looked around, and he found a few feet away an overturned military crate with a faint image of the CH252 helmet stenciled on the outside. Buck went over to the container, opened it, and saw that there were over a dozen of the standard-issue helmets still inside. He pulled out three of the olive-drab helmets, tested to see if the boom microphones on them still worked, and then proceeded to remove them from the helmets. He also pulled out a pair of orange ballistic goggles for himself.
Buck placed the communicator around his had before gently placing one on Elizabeth, showing her how the mike worked and how to get a hold of Buck and Booker.
"I'm gonna go check on Booker. Stay here, and keep your eyes open; there might be snipers."
Elizabeth nodded her head as Buck headed towards Booker, her large blue eyes staring back at Buck's deep brown eyes as she took deep breaths to calm herself. Meanwhile, with the young woman standing underneath a dry overpass, Buck walked over to Booker. The private investigator was staring at the street, lost in the recent sequence of events that took him from a floating city in 1912 to a ruined metropolis in 2552.
Buck lightly whistled, drawing Booker's attention and snapping him out of whatever train of thought he was in. The ODST handed his partner the comm mike before giving him a crash course on how it worked.
"You cooled off," Buck asked, giving DeWitt a hand to pick him off the street.
Booker sighed, taking another look around at his new surroundings. "Yeah, it's just… a little too much right now. One minute you're in a city thousands of feet in the sky, and the next…"
"I know, buddy. I know." Buck put on his orange-tinted tactical goggles, and long-missed information such as weather patterns, tactical maps and motion trackers materialized in front of him. It wasn't anything like the VISR in his ODST HUD, but it would do the job for now.
"Right now we need to keep it together, scavenge as much ammo as we can, and wait until we can figure out a way back to Columbia." Buck brought his machine gun up and aimed forward. "By the way, can you use some of those powers of yours and light the way?"
"Got it." Booker's eyes flashed a burning red and his hand was quickly engulfed in molten lava, casting an eerie glow along the darkened alley.
Booker fell in line behind Buck as the two scanned the area for the first thing that looked like a weapon. Despite the large amounts of dead bodies and ruined vehicles, neither could find any traces of weapons. And what weapons they did find were either out of ammo or mangled beyond use.
"So, this New Mombasa…" Booker started, after finding another ammo-less rifle. "Where exactly are we?"
"A super-city in Kenya. And judging by the amount of barricades and the armor the enemy threw at them, I'd say Sector Ten, right outside ONI Alpha Site."
"ONI?"
"Office of Naval Intelligence," Buck said, pointing to the ONI logo of an eye placed inside a pyramid etched into a building overlooking the entire area. "This was their African Headquarters."
"Is there any way inside the building from here?"
"It would take a clearance higher than mine or someone from the inside to open the door."
"Damn."
Buck's spirits picked up when he thought he saw an assault rifle clutched by a fallen Marine, but he was crestfallen when he sat the weapon half melted. He threw it away in disappointment and kept looking.
"Yeah, wouldn't have mattered if we could get in there, though. It was leveled about… four hours ago."
"Why would they do that," Booker asked.
"Standard protocol. The building contained data extremely vital to the UNSC that ONI couldn't let that fall into enemy hands. It also housed the Data Center of the Superintendent, the Artificial Intelligence unit that controls the city."
"Seems a little excessive if you ask me," Booker replied.
"Well I wasn't asking you," Buck sharply responded. "When you've been fighting a group of advanced extraterrestrials bent on the genocide of the human race for the past twenty-five years, you do whatever it takes to prevent the unnecessary loss of any more life."
Booker threw his hands in the air defensively, abandoning the entire conversation. It was a sore spot for Buck, having come from this time and having fought the enemy for much of his adult life, he was the expert in this situation.
With the rain falling without any indications of stopping, the two continued to search for any signs of weapons in the darkness, trying not to disturb the bodies of the fallen men and women who gave their lives to protect the ONI building.
"So tell me about this outfit of yours," Booker asked, eyes straining to see anything in the darkness. "Orbital… something?
"Orbital Drop Shock Troop Division. Insertion from miles above the planet in a pod no bigger than your average bathtub. "
Booker's eyes widened and jaw dropped slightly before shaking his head. "Why in God's name would someone go and do something like that?"
"It's a much faster method of troop deployment. If it gets taken out by anti-air fire, only one man dies instead of a whole squad. Plus there's the whole shock-and-awe mentality going behind it."
"You'd never see me doing something like that…"
Just when Buck was about to give up, he caught a glimpse of a weapons crate behind a destroyed M12G1 LAAV Warthog. He grabbed Booker's wrist and pointed the light towards the back of the Hog and nearly jumped for joy when he saw not one, but two weapons field lockers. Also sitting next to the UNSC weaponry was a Covenant weapons stand, easily identifiable by its deep purple metallic exterior.
Buck resisted the urge to jump and click his heels together at the sight of the weapons cache.
"Booker, my boy, we hit the jackpot," Buck exclaimed, sliding over the hood of the wrecked Hog and sprinting over to the weapons. Booker lagged behind a bit, walking around the vehicle and taking his time to reach Buck.
Inside the first locker, Buck found five wrapped clips for his M6C SOCOM, which he happily tore open and slipped into his back pocket. He also found a standard-issue utility belt with a number of ammunition pouches attached and two boxes of grenades, along with a standard-issue Marine tactical vest, both of which he slipped on.
The soldier looked inside the first box and found a quartet of M9 HE-DP fragmentation grenades, while the other box contained three M3 smoke grenades. Buck placed the grenades in different pouches of his utility belt. Buck also found three clips for an MA5C Assault Rifle, but he couldn't find the rifle to use them.
The second locker was jammed shut, so Buck took out his knife and tried to wedge the doors open. Another rumble of thunder rolled across the African night as Buck finally opened the jammed door to the weapon container. Sheathing his knife, Buck opened the door and smile from ear-to-ear quickly appeared on his face.
"Oh man," Buck said, trying to stifle any giggles. "It's like Christmas!"
Inside locker number two was a fully stocked treasure trove of UNSC weaponry. While there was an Assault Rifle and an M90 shotgun and their ammunition, what really drew Buck's attention were the two heavy weapons lying at the bottom of the crate.
The first heavy weapon was an M41 Surface-to-Surface Rocket Medium AV/A Weapon, while the other was the M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle. While Buck couldn't tell how much of a charge was left in the M6, he could see that the M41's barrel was empty, and that there was only one spare case of ammunition.
Damn, Buck thought. Could've used more ammo for the SPNKr.
He shrugged and began handing weapons and ammunition to Booker, who took the heavy weapons with wide eyes. Buck slipped a full magazine into the MA5C and placed the rifle onto the magnetic clamp of his tactical vest.
"Are you sure we need these big things," the former Pinkerton Agent asked, looking the M6 over before struggling to gently place it on the wet ground. "Are we waiting for a tear to appear or are we invading a small country?"
"Trust me," Buck replied, slipping several shells into the shotgun before tossing it to DeWitt. "With the kinds of trouble out there at this time, we're gonna need it. So quit your bitchin' and go check out what's in that purple crate."
Booker rolled his eyes as Buck went over every piece of ammunition and equipment inside the lockers. He respected the man's leadership, especially in a situation such as this, so he let him have his moments of being the boss before the returned to Columbia. If they returned to Columbia.
Booker headed towards the foreign-looking purple cylindrical device, immediately lost on how to open it. The container was relatively boxy in shape with jet-black edges that acted as stands. The light-purple metal appeared to have a scale design etched into the metal, the design reminding Booker of the hide of an insect.
DeWitt easily found what he assumed to be the doors to the containers, but he couldn't find a hatch or button to open the doors after searching all over the damn thing. He tried pressing as many of the scales as he could, he tried using his Sky Hook to pry open the hatches, and he even tried to shoot it open, but he found no success.
He was about to give up and call it a lost cause when an idea popped into his head. His eyes flashed red and both hands turned white-hot as he placed his fingers into the slots separating the cover from the rest of the container and focused his mind on melting the doors.
The alien metal proved to be very resistant to heat, frustratingly so. It took several minutes just for the metal to warm up but once it did it was only a matter of time before DeWitt was able to peel off the melted cover and finally get a look inside the alien weapons container.
Inside the container was a purple, long-barreled rifle – or at least what Booker thought was a rifle – with a small, glowing green indicator towards where his hands would go. He lifted the weapon, noting its weight despite its appearance. He readied the alien rifle against his shoulder, satisfied that its weight was evenly distributed, before setting it next to the container. He also spotted two more identical-looking cylinders with green-glowing indicators and pocketed them, assuming they were the weapon's ammunition.
DeWitt continued to look through the alien box when he saw three dark-blue balls resting in shaped spots. He picked one up, noting how light it was, before observing the green lights that dotted the device. One of the markings – a circle with two parentheses intersecting each other- stood out to him. He rubbed his thumb against the markings and felt a difference in the material between the orb and the button.
"Hey Buck," Booker asked, inspecting the blue sphere closely. "What the hell is this thing?"
As Buck turned around, Booker's thumb carelessly depressed the large green symbol. A small hissing was heard as the device was engulfed in a blue gaseous-liquid.
"Grenade," Buck shouted, ducking away from the orb. "Throw it, throw it, throw it!"
As the grenade's flare grew hotter, Booker cocked back and threw the explosive as far as he could away from them before ducking for cover. The grenade briefly arched before coming back and landing on the hood of an out-of-commission vehicle. There was a brilliant flash before an intense wave of heat washed over the nearby vicinity. Booker couldn't see what kind of shrapnel was being flung, but he could definitely feel his skin being burned from the heat of the weapon despite being over 15 feet away from the blast zone and an odd feeling of a static charge around him.
Booker picked his head up, still feeling the heat from the explosive, and saw that the front half of the strange-looking vehicle had vanished, the segments where the front of the vehicle glowing orange from being vaporized.
As the heat from the plasma grenade dissipated, a silver shimmer materialized out of thin air behind a now partially-melted vehicle. It seemed to suck in the surrounding air like a vacuum, yet the rip in the fabric of space didn't make a single sound.
"Like Christmas," Booker mumbled, staring at the otherworldly object in front of them.
"I should let you throw plasma grenades more often," Buck said with another smile. He then keyed up his COMM.
"Elizabeth, this is Buck, we've found a tear," Buck said, turning his gaze away from the portal. "Elizabeth, this is Buck. Respond, over."
Unlike the warm voice he was expected, there was only silence on the other side. He rolled his eyes and keyed the mike again.
"Come on Elizabeth, drop the act. I know you can hear me. Respond, over."
As the solider was once again met with silence, worried thoughts crossed his mind. The interference from the Slipspace event should've been completely cleared up by now, or at least enough that communications could be made. And Elizabeth was smart enough to be able to figure out how to work the advanced communications tech eventually.
"Elizabeth," Buck said, voice now filled with worry. "Elizabeth, are you alright?"
A shriek of terror pierced through the night, and Buck knew right away that Elizabeth was in trouble.
While Edward went looking for Booker, Elizabeth was quietly and intensely studying and exploring her new surroundings. While the take-charge soldier had originally ordered her to stay put, Elizabeth wasn't one to stand by while an opportunity to learn had presented itself.
While the future soldier was off looking for the more serious DeWitt, the daughter of Comstock began to take a walk around in the massive courtyard. It was unlike anything she had ever seen, in both size and scale. The tallest buildings in Columbia – even her own tower – looked small and insignificant compared to what she was currently staring up at. It seemed as though they went on forever until they touched the sky.
Staring up at the buildings above, Elizabeth gently bumped into an idle, destroyed vehicle. She curiously inspected the futuristic vehicle, noting the lack of any places to hook up a horse to and the strange device sitting in the center of the interior of the front of the vehicle. She saddened when she saw a blood splatter on the cracked windshield.
Walking around the strange vehicle, she heard what sounded like a high-pitched voice coming from a wall next to her. When she turned, all she saw were odd-looking, metallic displays with dark screens. There was an entire row of them, all lined neatly and embedded into the wall of the building. Above the wall were the words 'Remember Reach' crudely painted. The exact meaning of the phrase was lost to Elizabeth, but she imagined it held a similar significance to the rallying cry after the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.
She cautiously approached one of the terminals, seeing a reflection of herself in the display. She saw there was a keyboard attached to the base of the display. She hesitantly brought her hand up before touching one of the keys, and she was then greeted by a chime and an image of a green circle with two blank eyes.
"Hello, Traveler," said the display, in a synthesized voice. "Mombasa welcomes you. Angry? Stressed? Please remain calm."
"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said, startled by the talking machine. "Where am I? What are you?"
"Please remain calm," the display said, now with a confused look to the green face before switching to a much happier one. "Information kiosks are highlighted on all city maps. Enjoy your stay in Mombasa."
"Where is Mombasa," she asked. "What is your name?"
"Please remain calm," the display repeated. "Information kiosks are highlighted on all city maps. Enjoy your stay in Mombasa."
With a huff of annoyance, Elizabeth gave up and walked away from the strange device.
"Please use caution," the display said again. "Criminal activity is high in the following areas…"
As she walked away from the row of displays, Elizabeth heard an unfamiliar sound far off away from the console she was standing at. It sounded familiar, but at the same time different. Like the singing of a whale, only slightly lower and slowed down some.
Elizabeth wasn't sure what direction it came from until she heard the strange sound again, this time coming from the far right of her. She turned and saw something floating – floating! – down the street leading away from the courtyard. The lights in the direction the object was heading were unlit, so she could barely get a glimpse of it before it turned the corner.
Determined to discover what was making that mysterious sound, Elizabeth started to walk in the direction the object headed in. She briefly turned back to see if Booker and Edward were coming her way, and satisfied they were not, she quickly walked through the rain down into the darkness.
She quickly rounded the corner and was met with what was certainly the strangest sight her young eyes had ever seen.
Its semi-transparent skin was a mixture of blue, purple and pink that glowed against the darkness. Its exterior was covered in a spiky-looking metal that Elizabeth couldn't recognize as anything from her geological and science texts, with glowing lights dotting the tips of the spikes. Its head, or at least what Elizabeth thought was its head, was covered with a helmet that shone a very bright light from the front of it… a light that was staring directly at her.
It floated several feet in the air in lazy circles as it continued to point the light on the woman, observing her closely while emitting a sound similar to what Elizabeth heard earlier. Its tentacle arms slithered in the air around the woman as the alien moved closer to further inspect her.
Even as she was being examined by a very alien looking creature, Elizabeth was completely calm. Shocked that she was face-to-face with an extraterrestrial being, but calm nonetheless. She stared in wonder as the creature looked back at her, continuing to shine its unnatural light while circling around her. It moved through the air so gracefully and effortlessly, in spite of not having any visible wings or any other means of propulsion; it was like it was gliding on the air itself.
After it spent the last several minutes circling around and analyzing her, the creature stopped directly in front of Elizabeth and raised one of its glowing tentacles towards her.
This frightened Elizabeth at first, but as the tentacle moved closer she became more mesmerized by it. Upon closer inspection of the closely approaching tendril, she noticed that the feathery-tip of the tentacle was actually hundreds of thousands of tiny needles that would be unnoticeable had she not been staring intently at them.
The creature ran a tentacle through her hair, gently lifting it up as it closely inspected each strand fall. Another tentacle gently grabbed the cloth around Elizabeth's neck, studying the fabric with great interest. It let out several soft chirps as it continued to inspect Elizabeth.
As the alien's attention was directed towards her hair and wardrobe, Elizabeth took the opportunity presented and reached out her arm to touch the creature. It didn't present itself as hostile in the time she let it inspect her, so she figured there was no reason for it to act with aggression now.
When she touched the creature's skin that wasn't covered in the metallic armor, she was amazed at how smooth the alien's skin was. While it looked very sticky and slick, the glowing skin was in fact very soft and smooth; it almost felt like Elizabeth was touching rubber.
For that short moment, amidst the towering buildings and foreign technology in this partially destroyed super-city, Elizabeth wasn't afraid. Maybe it was the initial shock of their traveling through time wearing off, maybe it was the gentle roll of the thunder above, maybe it was even this otherworldly creature floating before her. Either way, she was perfectly calm for the first time in what felt like an eternity.
Something must've spooked the creature, as its head perked up and it immediately floated in the opposite direction away from Elizabeth. With a childlike curiosity and enthusiasm, she quietly followed down the alley, trying to catch up to the surprisingly-quick alien as it floated about several meters off the ground.
She saw the alien round the corner and was about to hurry her pace when she heard a low, loud, horrifying roar that stopped her in her tracks and put a tinge of fear in the young woman. She looked around desperately as she heard several squawking sounds until she saw a nearby set of stairs. She hid underneath them, keeping her out of the light but giving her a clear line of sight of the street.
A crack of lightning was quickly followed by a low rumble of thunder as four more foreign noises rounded the street corner. Elizabeth did her best not to be frightened, but it proved rather difficult when she saw the source of the squawking.
The creatures were scrawny yet lean, with yellow, scaly skin and feather-like protrusions coming from their elbows and the tops of their long heads. Their knees were reverse jointed, forcing them to walk much differently than a normal human being. Their purple, luminescent eyes greatly differed with their pale-yellow skin. As they spoke in short, sharp squawks, Elizabeth noted the rows of many sharpened teeth inside their elongated snouts. Attached to each of their wrists were glowing disks of pure energy while they held 'c' shaped devices in their free hand that glowed an eerie green at the tips.
The bird-like aliens continued to squabble amongst themselves as Elizabeth silently studied them from afar. The quick, jerky motions of their heads and limbs – along with the quills on their arms and heads and avian resemblance – reminded her of the carnivorous dinosaurs Deinonychus she read about in her paleontology texts.
She was sucked out of her thoughts when another powerful growl echoed through the night, this one snapping the aliens before her into attention. Elizabeth's eyes grew wide as she saw a towering object in dark fur that greatly resembled large African gorillas, only these were walking upright on their powerful-looking legs.
The intimidating beast was covered head-to-toe in cobalt armor that made the gorilla-looking alien look even more menacing. Its gigantic claws clutched a two-handed weapon with a large curved blade near the end of it, while two smaller weapons with two sharpened blades wrapped around a waist-belt. Dull grey skin was visible underneath the exposed parts of the armor, while sharpened claws pointed to the smaller aliens and ordered them into position. The monster's orders sounded more like furious snarls and deep growls than anything she had ever heard before.
The larger alien strode past her position behind the smaller three when it stopped and sniffed the air. The beast growled and spoke to the three avian-like aliens in a garbled series of orders, and the smaller aliens spread out with their devices at the ready. The green tips of their objects and the purple and aqua circular devices glowed greatly in the darkened alleyway, their constant communications with another filling any dead-air and silence not occupied by the pitter-patter of the rain and occasional roll of thunder.
The gorilla-alien continued to sniff the air, obviously picking up a scent late in the night. The growled as it turned to where Elizabeth was kneeling and continued to sniff. As it moved closer and closer to where the young woman was kneeling, Elizabeth instinctively inched farther and farther back underneath the staircase. The loud, plodding footsteps of the gigantic beast grew louder and louder as it moved closer, its heavy breathing and growling striking absolute fear into Elizabeth.
The alien was now standing right next to the set of stairs, still smelling the air as he tried to pinpoint exactly where the scent was coming from. Elizabeth covered her mouth with both hands as she tried her hardest to slow her rapid breathing and not make a sound.
"Elizabeth," Buck's voice came over the communicator, startling the young woman at the most inopportune time. "This is Buck, we've found a tear. Elizabeth, this is Buck. Respond, over."
"No," Elizabeth whispered quietly, fumbling with the communicator Edward had given her. "Stop it, stop it now!"
She fumbled with the device as she tried to turn it off. Everything Edward told and showed her about the futuristic communications piece was lost as she went into a panic with the frightening extraterrestrial standing just feet away from her.
"Come on Elizabeth, drop the act. I know you can hear me. Respond, over."
The creature stopped sniffing for a moment, a low rumble of laughter replacing its hunt. A gigantic claw clutched the underside of the stairs and bent over. The creature's face was completely obscured by its pointed helmet, but unquestionably visible even with no light at all were the hellish-red eyes of the best. They stared directly through Elizabeth as a deep, guttural noise emitted from its mouth; the noise almost sounded like laughter.
"Elizabeth… Elizabeth, are you alright?"
The laughter quickly turned to an irate growl as its gigantic hand reached for Elizabeth. She squirmed away as far back as she could, but the alien's long, thick arm reached all the way to where she was sitting at the back of the wall. A loud shriek was all Elizabeth could get out before the large grey hand tightly gripped her throat and yanked her out from her hiding spot.
Elizabeth struggled as she tried to free herself from the alien's grip, but it was far too strong. Her windpipe was slowly closing as the beast roared and hissed at the smaller aliens. They chirped in response as the brutish alien turned again to the struggling human.
Elizabeth's vision began to fade to black as the alien's incredibly tight grasp grew tighter and tighter. As she began to lose consciousness, the last thing Elizabeth saw was a row of sharpened, shark-like teeth underneath the cobalt helmet.
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