Hello dear readers. I present to you another chapter of War of the Hearts which I hope is to your satisfaction.

As always, leave a review Pls.

I own nothing except Samantha and Eternal Vigilance

My beta Spartan-626 owns Logan.

Everything else belong to their respective owners.

Logan stood at the base of the Pelican's ramp, dozens of questions filling his mind without a single answer. Here stood this old man in an outfit fit for a Medieval convention claiming to know who he was. And his calm attitude was getting on Logan's nerves and he let his frustration show. "Alright then Yen Sid, a lot of shit has happened the past few hours." He began to take a few steps towards the elder human as he continued speaking, "A hostile force shows up out of nowhere. Most of the crew, good men and women, have been slaughtered. And our ship has been destroyed." The Spartan stopped just a few feet in front of Yen Sid before gesturing to the Pelican and its occupants, "I think I speak for the survivors when I ask, just what the hell is going on?!"

Yen Sid gave off a melancholic sigh as he responded. "You frustration is understandable, for you and your companions have indeed been through much. But if you all will come with me, you will have the answers you seek."

The old man then turned around and departed, the Spartan along with the rest of the Pelican's occupants following close behind. Shortly after they began traveling, the party ended up encountering a massive ravine dropping down to a wide river that ran along the ravine's path. The symmetrical shape and form of the alloys on both side led them to assume that it was some kind of bridge. Their assumption was proven correct when Yen Sid place his hand on some sort of access panel, activating a cyan-colored hard-light bridge spanning the ravine. After a brief moment of hesitation, the various UNSC personnel stepped onto the bridge, following their guide across the expanse and granting them a breathtaking view.

To their left, the ravine opened up to a vast expanse of forest that stretched on for as far as the eye could see. The sun hung high in the sky, its light reflecting off the canopy, the resulting glow adding to the beauty.

To their right, a range of mountains continued beyond the horizon in opposite directions. The trail suddenly took a sharp turn, leading the party through the mountains until they passed through and encountered something that caught them off guard.

Settled across a grassy plain was a large cluster of buildings populated by humans. But what shocked them was that the buildings design was the simple, uniform gray of the UNSC. As most of the party was at a loss for words, one of the Marines, a medic known as Corporal Angela Zeilger, voiced their confusion. "H-how is this possible?"

Yen Side chuckled at this as he responded. "As your war against the Covenant raged, refugees from numerous worlds were cut off from your UNSC. With nowhere to go, they eventually found their way here, where I offered them safe haven. The crew of you ship are currently among them."

That last statement caused Logan to stop in his tracks, shock evident on his face as he gave his response. "That's not possible! Only a handful of us managed to flee the Zancaster. And no one could've survived the ship's self-destruct!"

"You are correct Reclaimer. But they were nowhere near the ship when it imploded."

Logan and the others then turned to the source of the voice to find the floating orb, the glow from its turquoise bulb softer than before, indicating its friendly intentions. "Greetings, I am 247-Eternal Vigilance. I am the monitor of the Shield World Disney." The monitor then direct it's attention towards Yen Sid as it continued speaking. "And before you ask, the name was his idea."

Sweatdrops met that statement as a few ODSTs facepalmed and Samantha spoke. "Seriously? You name, but spelled backwards?"

The man in question sighed in mild frustration at this. "Will I ever live that down?"

Despite what the others thought of the planet's name, Logan sought to clarify something with the monitor. "Hold on, what do you mean 'they were nowhere near the ship?'"

"Well Reclaimer, I was able to utilize the planet's teleportation grid to evacuate 80% of your ship's crew and ground contingent. Yourselves and those that escaped comprised 5%, while the other 15% were killed in the fighting."

Thought the Spartan was surprised at the statement, he sighed with visible relief on his face, knowing that casualties were less than what he feared. But moments later, Lubbock got in front of him and ranted at the monitor, multiple veins popping out of his head. "THEN WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU DO THE SAME FOR US?!"

The Monitor's response was to ram itself into his chest, knocking the ODST flat on his back and leaving him in pain with a sizable dent in his armor. With the annoyance dealt with, the monitor gave his answer. "To answer that question, the ancilla you encountered earlier somehow managed to damage the grid in a fit of clumsiness. So I could not take the risk lest you end up as disgusting piles of flesh and bone."

The others could not deny such reasoning, but Yen Sid grew curious about one detail. "Vigilance, where is Pyoro at the moment?"

The monitor turned towards the town before answering with a mischievous tone. "Oh he's still...hanging around."

True to this word, in the middle of the town where a flagpole stood flying the UNSC banner, also hanging from it was the same little robot from before. Although, the little guy was futilely flailing about due to being glued to the post, drawing a few chuckles from the ODSTs and a sigh from Yen Si. 'I assume you are here for a reason other than your personal 'exploits.'"

"Why yes, of course. I've come to report that the construction drones have partially repaired the teleportation grid. So you are able to use it to travel relatively short distance without trouble."

A shorter ODST that still had his helmet on then launched an inquiry. "So does this mean we won't have to walk anymore?"

This prompted a response from Leone who spoke with amusement in her voice. "Seriously Tatsumi? Traveling across long distance on foot is part of basic training you wimp."

The trooper now identified as Tatsumi stepped back in embarrassment. But moments later, each individual was engulfed in pillars of light. This led to a sudden change of scenery as the light dissipated. Instead of the grassy plains from before, they found themselves inside a round, spacious, white room ceiling formed a dome at the top and a ring of seats lined the walls with two doors at opposite ends. And in the center was a single pedestal with a white glowing orb on top. Surounding it were the UNSC members in various states of disorientation. In particular, Tatsumi stumbled around like a drunk and Lubbock's face was as green as his hair. Only the two Spartans remained unaffected as Eternal Vigilance hovered above them and spoke with a smug tone. "Does that answer your question?"

Yen Side sighed in indignation at the monitor's antics before responding. "Was that really necessary?"

"Not really, no."

Before a response could be made, Logan took the opportunity to interject. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but will we be getting an explanation now?"

Yen Sid nodded in understanding before he responded. "But of course. Although you may want to take a seat. For we have much to cover."

Taking his advice, each of the humans sat down on one of the many chairs, but not before Vigilance 'borrowed' the Spartans respective armors, much to their protests and the viewing pleasure of most of the others in the group.

Their bodysuits didn't leave much to the imagination.

Moments later, the room suddenly dimmed as the pedestal emitted a holographic map of the wider galaxy. At this moment, Yed Sid began to speak. "In order for you to understand the full scope of this conflict I must start at the beginning, over 100,000 years ago."

The screen then switched to two separate figures.

One was humanoid in form and possessed pale skin with two slits replacing the nose. It also possessed silver armor with orange lining.

The second figure was a human male with dark skin, raven hair, and silver armor lined with dark blue. "Around this time, the galaxy was dominated by two separate races: The Forerunners, and Humanity."

This revelation caught everyone by surprise. Humans were space faring millennia before the ancient Egyptians? Just what the hell happened to make them technologically regress so far? Before they could think about it for long, the hologram switched back to the map, only this time, parts of it were color-coded orange and blue. "It was also at this time that a major threat emerged, known as the Flood."

This new detail confused a few of them, Samantha in particular decided to speak up. "The Flood? Is that another name for the Heartless?"

"No but they are connected."

It was then, that the area in blue gean to rapidly shrink, replaced with a sickly green. "When the Flood began its war, Humanity bore the brunt of the assault, quickly pushing us back, consuming world after world despite our best efforts."

Then, the blue area started creeping into the area in orange, drawing a groan from Logan. "Don't tell me..."

"Yes, the decision was made to move into Forerunner territory. As expected, this caused tensions to rise between the two races. But this, in fact, is where I come in."

I'll admit, I could not think of a better name for the shield world.

I apologize for the cliffhanger, but this felt like a good place to cut it. The next chapter will cover the rest, including how the Flood and Heartless are connected (spoilers: the Flood are only getting a cameo. Nothing more).

Major characters will also be revealed next chapter.

With that, I bid you farewell. Until next time.