Legosi Main POV

My boots splashed through a puddle made by a burst pipe as I moved through the ruins with my sniper at the ready. Aiming down the side of the gun, not directly through the scope, as that would make things zoom in to a really up close perspective, which would not be fun to try and move around with.

I'm currently scouting ahead of the soldier and civilian group, looking out for any 'covies' that might be lurking in the area.

Suddenly my instincts light up like fireworks and tell my body to duck and dodge to the side, resulting in an odd sort of stumbling-throwing myself backwards and to the side sort of move, which saved me, as I heard a low buzz and my VISR lit up with boxes of flashing yellow words telling me of my 'Shield' being down, and my body was shrouded in red crackling electricity.

I turned around whilst backing away at the same time and came face to face with a glowing sword that was floating in mid-air, its blue light reflecting off of the puddles on the ground and creating a blue glow around the area. I focused hard on the sword and noticed a shimmer in the air behind it. I sniffed the air to create an image of my foe's position in my head, the filter in my helmet unhindering as it is only meant to filter out harmful chemicals, forming a mental radar, and waited, holstering my sniper rifle and taking my knife out, as in such an alleyway with so little space between us, being unsure of my opponent's speed, I opted to use melee, as I didn't want my sniper rifle cut in half.

I held my knife in reverse grip in my left hand and gestured for them to advance with my right. They seemed to recognise the gesture as they rushed forwards, slashing diagonally, and if they had hit, it would have sliced through me from shoulder to hip. But they didn't. Because I had feinted to the side and now their sword was lying on the ground a few feet away, with their hand still twitching around the handle.

"Guaaaaahhh"

My assailant finally revealed themselves to be a tall-relatively-lizard like creature with four mandible mouthparts. They were also clutching the stump of their right hand as it spurted blue blood lazily.

I flicked my knife to get rid of the blue blood and sheathed it.

"Get out of my sight, do not bother me again, do not make there be a reason why I have to finish the job". I kicked the sword back towards them, as they stared at me, perplexed. Then a look of understanding came to their face. And then a look of abject depression. Their mouth parts started moving and twitching, like there was something they didn't want to say, but had to say it.

"~Under Sangheili battle honour I now owe you my lifetime service and loyalty, seeing as you bested me on the battlefield after being dishonerably ambushed by myself, do with me as you wish~"

A distinctively female voice came from the reptile, who I now know is a member of the Sangheili race. Well, shit.

"Follow me, do not give me a reason to kill you" I said, having nothing else to say. I'm kind of shocked at my own decisions and words at the moment, I guess my instincts might be making me a little cold, the fact I got dropped in a universe where nothing is familiar and yet seems to be at the same time is probably a contributing factor.

I pressed a little button on my gauntlet after flipping up the protective cover that, well, protected, my arm interface, noting that the microphone symbol that did the same thing in this universe, or wherever I was, as my own did, and notified the soldiers of my tag-along, and messed around with the setting of my HUD figuring out how to change the HUD of anyone in my vicinity to recognise the one handed elite as a friendly, with a blue outline instead of red.

Continuing my scouting once more, I advanced forwards, with my pistols out and at the ready, checking corners and rooftops as I went around, my instincts and a weird feeling guiding me on how to do so. I flinched backwards as my visor picked up a bright glinting light, which was quickly dimmed by the self polarising visor I wore. I didn't understand what it was or why it had gotten such a strong reaction from my instincts. I-I feel off a bit-I.

Memoryflash

"Hehe, come on, Doug, stop telling jokes out here, there are covies, I don't wanna die pissing my pants with laught-" *BLAM*

There was a hole in Marcus's head, more accurately, half of it was missing, and the shaky view from first person turned to the direction of the shot, catching a glimmer of light reflecting off of a scope.

"JACKAL, GET DOWN!"

I heard my.. My voice? That doesn't sound like my voice..? I.. I heard my voice screaming the command, before my view was directed at the grungy concrete of the factory we were trying to salvage materials from.

Memoryflash end

I came back to my surroundings quite confused and disoriented, now knowing what caused my instincts to flare up. I took out my sniper rifle and peeked around the corner, hoping I hadn't been noticed yet. I was facing away from the sun in the shadow of a fallen building, and thus there shouldn't be any glint from my scope. How I knew that I had no clue myself, probably intuition, common sense is a lifesaver.

I zoomed in on the glint I saw and was rewarder with a view of a sniper rifle and a Jackal attached to it. The Jackal itsself wasn't looking down the scope or actively looking for a target, and seemed to be eating some raw meat. I aimed in on his head, and my HUD showed me wind conditions and bullet drop curve data.

I was glad I took the time to learn how to shoot a sniper rifle on my trip through Japan being a self-employed trash disposal mammal. I adjusted my aim, flicked off the safety, placed my finger on the trigger from its resting position laying flat above the trigger, gun safety and all that, and squeezed the trigger. The Jackal's head exploded like a blue watermelon, and the wall directly behind him had a large spiderweb of cracks and a small hole now decorating it.

I checked on my map and noted that there was less than 500 meters to go to get to the ship yard.

I radioed back to my group and let them know that they could advance in relative safety from the direction that I had cleared, but made sure to tell them to stick to cover and watch for shimmering air.

Now it was time to go and get a ship secured so that we could get out of here.

AN: Part one and two of Escape reach will be merged and there will be a delay as I pre churn out some chapters so I can get to having a semi regular rate of dropping them. Sorry for any inconveniences. If anyone wants to beta or co-author this I'm open to it as long as you know your spelling and grammar.

There will be an escape from Reach part three to come.

Editing and grammar fixing done on March 24th 2022