Cave had been expecting to be falling through the air when she jumped through the portal after MAGES., but she instead found herself propelled forward on solid ground. The redhead looked around for Green Heart and her other companions, but they were nowhere in sight. From what Cave could tell is that this city was under attack from the distant sounds of gunfire and explosions in the distance. Some of the noise were close enough that Cave decided to investigate further in the hopes she would find people and receive information on her surroundings. There was no telling where the portal dropped them off, so Cave figured it would be best not to disclose her own origins. The sounds of gunfire and shouting were getting closer as she looked over an edge to another floor level below. In the distance and past a bridge, she could see human figures taking cover behind walls while being shot at by strange looking creatures. The very few soldiers that were armed returned fire, but they did not have numbers on their side.

They're going to need my help. Whatever those things are will make a push on their position if those creature's numbers aren't thinned soon.

Vaulting over the rails, Cave rolled upon landing to reduce the impact from the momentum. Near the bridge to the other platform was an opened weapons crate with a long barrel of weapon sticking out of it. A dead soldier was slouched over the crate, which Cave was forced to move out of the way. Cave pulled out what she now knew was a sniper rifle and a hefty one at that from the size and weight of it alone. The Lastation units she was friends with after the end of the Console Wars would have loved seeing a rifle of this magnitude. She grabbed the ammunition pouches inside the crate and fitted them onto her waist. Taking a position on the bridge, she propped the rifle over the rails and looked into the scope for her first target.

The large creature of the small beings seem to be their squad leader. Cave's aim led to the head of the bulky simian biped leading the push forward. Time to put a stop to their advance.

A release of the trigger followed and Cave's shot rang true with a shot to the skull of her target. The walking ape fell to the floor and the smaller beings started scattering and running around in panic. Looking around for other targets, Cave spotted avian looking creatures with what looked like shields. Three shots for three more kills as the human soldiers picked up on the fact that they had sniper support and poured out from cover, opening fire and dispatching the panicking smaller creatures. The other shielded thin bird-like creatures were disposed of by some sort of explosive ordinance the human soldiers tossed at them. Cave reloaded her sniper rifle as she started heading over to the human soldiers and civilians that came out of hiding and were regrouping. The leader in charge of them was dressed differently in a darker battle armor with shades of orange on their metal plating.

"Nice shots there, lady." The one in darker armor said as Cave reached them after figuring out how to reload her new weapon. "You former military contractor or something?"

"My name is Cave." She introduced herself to the group. "What's the situation?"

"Name's Marcus Hudson." The leader said before pointing towards the direction that the aliens had been blocking. "We're making our way to a building in a plaza area up ahead where civilians are taking temporary refuge. Come with us and show off more of your fancy shooting against the Covenant. There's bound to be more Grunts, Brutes, and Jackals for you to fit a nice hole through their heads."

"Understood." Cave nodded her head. "I'll follow and provide support."

Following the group of soldiers and civilians, Cave did her best to identify which name belonged best to the Covenant forces she had killed. The small creatures had to be Grunts, the bulky simian was a Brute, and the avian looking creatures with the glowing shields had to be the Jackals. Going up a flight of stairs, they all stopped near the top as one of the soldiers who reached the top was suddenly shot through the head by some flash of purple. One of the other soldiers caught the dead man before he could fall over, propping the new corpse against the walls of the stairway. Some of the civilians screamed from the shock and started retreating further back down the steps.

"Shit, Jackals with needle rifles! Keep your heads down, people!" Marcus spoke as he crouched down low. "Cave, you're up! Come with me and I'll do my best to spot 'em for ya."

Cave nodded her head and reached the near top of the stairs alongside Marcus. The soldier slowly crept forward and peeked his head up and two more shots of purple light barely missed him. He dropped down, panting heavily from the adrenaline that was no doubt surging through his body. Cave held her sniper rifle up in a position ready to aim and fire at a moment's notice. The precision of these Jackals were not to be underestimated or else she would face the same fate as the newly deceased soldier.

"Two Jackals to the northwest of our position. One's positioned near a tree and the other on a platform above a sign of a wrench." Marcus reported once he calmed down. "I'm going to draw their attention away from the stairway. Make your shots count, Cave."

"Waiting for your go." Cave simply said in response.

"On my mark..." Marcus took a deep breath as he readied himself to bolt up the stair. "Mark!"

The moment Marcus leapt up and veered right, Cave stood up fully from the stairway seconds after she saw projectiles flying his way. Cave found her first mark and took the Jackal down with a shot into their center of mass. Tracing her next target, the Jackal changed its sight from Marcus to Cave, but Cave fired first before it could. Despite taking the Jackal out, Cave preemptively held her sniper rifle in front of her like a shield and a sharp purple crystal lodged itself directly into her weapon. Startled by the projectile now stuck in her weapon, Cave fell back but was caught by a soldier behind her. She looked back at the soldier and nodded her head in thanks before looking down at the damaged sniper rifle in her hand.

"No use lugging that thing around anymore." The soldier said as Cave set the weapon down and dropped the unnecessary ammo pouches on her waist for it. "Grab my friend's assault rifle and ammo instead. He doesn't need it anymore."

"Sorry for your loss." Cave spoke and moved to grab her new weapons and ammo.

"Nice shooting, Cave." Marcus reappeared at the top of the steps. "Area looks clear, but keep your eyes peeled as we move up."

Cave followed after Marcus and they found what was the aftermath of a bloodbath in the plaza. There were plenty of dead corpses of human soldiers and civilians with only a few casualities of Covenant Grunts and two or three Brute bodies. This temporary refuge had been compromised and it looked like the majority of civilians were trying to get out of the main shopping center building judging from the piling dead bodies at the main doors. From where the Jackals were positioned, there had probably been more Covenant sharpshooters during the heat of battle. Wherever the other Covenant forces had went were long gone after cleaning this sector of human lives.

"Damn it..." Marcus cursed before motioning to the other soldiers. "Fan out and search for any possible survivors."

"You will not find any."

"We're the only ones left, Marcus."

Everyone turned to the doors of the shopping center where Cave saw a familiar face walking out of the main doors of the shopping center. It was MAGES. standing by the side of a man in similar armor to Marcus, but the colors on their plating were blue. Unlike Marcus, he lacked a helmet and his armor was severely damaged with several marks and scarring on his battle dress uniform. Marcus approached Ethan and they clasped each others hands tightly as a form of greeting, nodding at each other while Cave walked up to MAGES. with a smile that showed relief.

"MAGES., it is good to see you are okay." Cave said and looked over the blue haired girl for injuries. "You appear unharmed."

"I was found by Ethan Graves and his team of soldiers." MAGES. answered before pointing to all the dead bodies around them. "We took a moment of respite here, but then the Covenant ambushed us as we were attempting to leave."

"Took a blast from a plasma grenade, but she dragged me away from the fight while I was unconscious." Ethan supported MAGES. claim and looked back to Marcus. "Heard anything from Victor or Ava?"

"Radio chatter from either has been silent." Marcus shook his head. "I think we're in an area now where Covenant are starting to set up jamming devices to cut us off from command. Must be long-range variants for now because in another sector, I could get in contact with some other units in short distances."

"By nightfall, there will be more of them. We need to get these civilians out of here before then or it's going to get a lot more messy once more of the Covenant's ships arrive."

MAGES. and Cave moved away from the others as MAGES. grabbed a pistol off a dead trooper and their ammunition for it. Other soldiers from Cave's group that she tagged along with were collecting dog-tags and ammo on their dead brethren and sisters-in-arms. Cave had seen these types of sad sights before when it came to operations with the Regal Regiment of Defense. However, the scale and number of losses these soldiers had compared to what Cave had seen in Gamindustri couldn't be compared. Gamindustri monsters could injure soldiers and with proper medical assistance, a Leanbox soldier could return back to the fight. Here in this world, a life could be gone in seconds and that was the end.

"What do you know so far about our situation?" Cave asked. "I understand that these people are under attack by something called the 'Covenant', but beyond that, I know very little."

"These humans belong to a faction known as the UNSC that are at war with the Covenant. Nothing I know of from Gamindustri history archives shows any connection to our world, so we can definitely be correct in the assumption that we're in a separate time and plane of existence from Gamindustri." MAGES. explained as she fiddled with her new firearm, finding the magazine release button on the pistol. After inspecting the ammo inside, she shoved the magazine back into the weapon. "As for location, we're on a planet called Reach and the city we're in is New Alexandria."

"You referred to this planet as a name." Cave picked up on how MAGES. worded her last sentence. "You sound like you are saying there are more than just one planet..."

"Yes, you are correct." MAGES. nodded her head and held out a small device in her hand with words written and image displayed on it, but they were not physically written. "I found this while I had been hiding away in the shopping center building with Ethan. While I was waiting for him to wake up, I came across this information tablet. There are a lot more worlds out there filled with humans belonging to this UNSC group."

Cave wasn't much for expressions, but idea that there were more planets out there beyond the stars and that humans found a way to inhabit them traveling through the skies was enough to widen her eyes. The advancement of technology on that level would be centuries after Cave had passed on from old age, but here she was hearing that it is possible to travel the skies to other planets. If the situation weren't so dire and dark as it is right now, Cave would have wanted to see much of this world and maybe become an adventurer like IF once she retired from the Leanbox military.

"Perhaps if we help the UNSC forces here fend off the Covenant on Reach, we can ask for their help in locating Gamindustri and returning home." Cave suggested as she noticed that UNSC soldiers were starting to form up. "If they have technology capable of traveling the area beyond the skies, it's possible to find our way back to Gamindustri, yes?"

"Possibly, but with the way their casualities have been here..." MAGES. trailed for a moment as she stared at the dead bodies around them. "We may be fighting a losing battle. We also need to find Lady Green Heart and IF too."

"Finding you here means it's possible they are in New Alexandria as well." Cave said. "It is best if we stay with this group. We have a better chance of survival in a group than on our own."

"I agree." MAGES. could not refute the suggestion. "Those two are resourceful enough to make it out on their own too if we are unable to find them. IF's an experienced fighter on her own and Lady Green Heart is a-."

MAGES. and Cave cut their conversation short as the two UNSC troop leaders approached them. Disclosing their information with them wouldn't have been wise, but they weren't distrusting of the UNSC soldiers either. They were all humans here with a common enemy, so allying with the UNSC was the best decision for the two Gamindustri citizens. Cave and MAGES. just couldn't just tell them they arrived in New Alexandria through a portal and ask for transport away from this war to their home. Last thing either wanted was to be sent to this world's version of an asylum or worse.

"We're heading out now." Ethan stated and motioned behind them with his thumb. "We don't want to chance Covenant coming back and sweeping this area when they haven't heard from their units."

Cave nodded her head and looked to MAGES. who shrugged before the two kept pace behind the UNSC squad leaders. Though Cave had confidence in the ability of their goddess and IF, the uncertainty still lingered. The rules of warfare and fighting here were all distant, but much more deadly compared to Gamindustri's rules of combat.


"Ugh, my head..."

IF groaned as she started to awaken and realizing she had been knocked out going through the portal. Opening her eyes, IF wobbled on her way to standing up fully and leaned to the nearest wall beside her for support. As IF's visions began to clear, she could see know that she was in some sort of hospital room. However, the building began to shake and rock after the sound of an explosion set off, causing IF to fall to the floor again. This time, IF recovered much faster with adrenaline surging through her body as she ran out the door, entering the hallway to panicking civilians, nurses, and doctors running frantically and screaming.

I have no idea where I am, how I ended up here in a hospital, but it's time to check out!

Following the fleeing crowd, she saw a connector bridge up ahead to another building. As IF entered the bridge, she looked to her right and down below to see a strange fat blue vehicle hovering slightly above the street ground it was on. The vehicle looked like it had some sort of cannon on top of it and IF's assumption was right as it fired a giant blue ball at the bridge. The moment it hit contact, an explosion tore the bridge in half and the people who had been at the center of the blast were gone in the blink of an eye. IF turned around along with the other hospital staffs, but the bridge connector's remaining half on their side started to fall down.

I'm already regretting this decision to go through the portal if it means watching dozens of people die in seconds! How did I end up in a world that's a war zone!?

IF managed to grab onto broken pieces in the floor of the bridge before it collided against the wall of the building. Anyone in the hall of the bridge who wasn't lucky enough to grab onto anything plummeted to their deaths to the ground below. IF did not dare to look down because it was a very long drop; anyone who survived that fall somehow would never be the same again. That's also assuming that the attackers assaulting this hospital right now wouldn't find and kill survivors that lived from the drop. As an adventurer, climbing came naturally to IF, so she successfully made it back up top and looked back to see the vehicle that shot at them shooting the other half of the bridge.

"Climb, guys!" IF shouted to the people still stuck, but they were either too paralyzed to move or didn't know how to climb up without the risk of falling. "You have to try before that thing turns...oh no..."

The vehicle that IF now referred to as a tank now had its attention on their side. IF turned and dashed as far as she could, throwing herself onto the ground as she felt the airwaves from the impact of the explosion. Getting back up on her feet, IF looked back and heard the sounds of the bridge connector disconnecting from the building she was in. There was no time to grieve for so many lives lost, so IF started running down the corridors. IF started seeing more people up ahead and were starting to cluster up the hall. There seemed to be exit doors on the other end of the large crowd, but nobody was moving. In fact, everyone seemed eerily quiet as IF soon realized why. Strange sounds were emanating on the end of the door, like people were talking in another language entirely.

Whatever is on the other side of that door...I should be away before-

Almost as if the world heard IF's thoughts, the doors slammed open and bright blue flaming ball of light flew threw. It stuck onto someone who screamed, but IF didn't stay long enough to find out what happened to them as she dived into a nearby room and slid underneath an empty hospital bed. The sounds of strange noises that she assumed to be firearms of the attackers went off along with more explosions and death wails. She covered her ears with her hands, attempting to block out the sounds of people being slaughtered. If she lived through this ordeal, those noises will haunt IF's dreams for a very long time.

IF couldn't tell how much time had passed, but only silence remained. She mustered up her courage and crawled out from underneath the bed. Staying low in a crouched position, IF slowly moved to the open door and peeked her head out. The sight of a hallway that was once clean was filled with pools of blood, bits and pieces of human flesh on the ground or barely hanging onto the owner's body, and charred corpses burned to the point of no recognition was enough to make IF instantly hurl on the ground. To think if she hadn't made a quick decision, she could have been a part of that pile of body pieces on the ground. Checking both sides of the hallway, there was no sign of anyone which meant whatever beings had been here moved on.

Have to get somewhere safe. IF told herself as she started slowly moving out towards the doors that were open. I will not die like them. I need to find Vert and the others.

The paths diverged into three different directions, but aside from the one she just came from, only one had the least amount of bodies. That might have been where the attackers headed next as it was better to follow the road of corpses as it means they already passed that area. The signs above were no help because they had been damaged, so IF could only rely on her instincts as an adventurer which basically just meant dumb luck. If only Neptune were here, but by that same notion, she would not want to subject that happy free-spirited girl to what IF just witnessed. She took a path and kept to it, eventually coming across a small alien looking corpse on the ground with a body of a female nurse just beside it.

From the knife in that alien's head, I'd say it's pretty damn clear she went down fighting. IF yanked the knife out and wiped the blood off the metal by scraping the sides of it on the alien's face. This must be its weapon. Don't mind if I do, but how the hell does this thing work?

IF pried the strange looking weapon from the alien's hand. From what she knew about firearms in general, this one would have to be categorized as a pistol. It had a claw-like appearance with the round open area on the firearm being the handle and trigger area. That meant the area at its front with the green electrical line had to be the equivalent of a barrel. She didn't know what the display was near the grip area, but it didn't seem like an ammo counter if the gauge was empty. By that logic, perhaps this weapon overheated so IF tested her theory by pulling the trigger. Unfortunately, when she fired, IF heard a weird garble of noises behind her. IF turned around and saw a tall, muscled figure of an alien donned in white armor pointing at her before grabbing a curved hilt off their leg and turned it on, revealing itself to be a sort of sword made of light.

So much for stealth! IF started backpedaling while firing her newly weapon when the creature started charging at her. That thing is fast!

The time it took IF to reach a large room with a series of stairs going up and down to different floors, the menacing figure had closed the distance on her. It attempted to cut her down with a straight downward slash, but IF evaded the strike by sidestepping. IF held onto the trigger of her energy pistol thinking it would rapidly fire if she just held it down instead of tapping, but a large green glowing ball appeared at the pistol's tip. Releasing the trigger, IF shot a large green bolt at the alien. She grunted in pain from the recoil and saw the top frame of her energy pistol popped open and was venting out heat. Whatever that charged shot did was effective as it stunned the assailant, and forced them to drop their weapon.

What's yours is mine! I'm taking that!

IF tossed her weapon at the alien's head, increasing the stun duration by just another second as she grabbed the blade that suddenly deactivated in her hand. Spotting exposed flesh underneath the figure's armor where their neck was, IF leaped to thrust her knife into its right side jugular area. IF knew that probably wouldn't kill the creature, but gave her the time she needed to leap over the railings, soaring through the air and landing on the stairway opposite of where she had been. She practically leaped down the stairs until she reached the ground floor where a few more aliens had their back turned to her at an entrance. Glancing at the hilt of her recently acquired weapon, she saw the triggers needed to turn the deadly weapon back on. The sound it made startled the creatures, but before they could react, IF sliced through their bodies like a hot knife through butter.

By all that is holy is Leanbox, this weapon is nuts! A blade like this would have helped IF immensely against monsters back in Gamindustri. IF's katars were good at cutting, but in comparison to this 'energy sword' as she decided to name it, the katars might as well be butter knives.

No remorse was in IF's heart when she cut the aliens into pieces. The fear in her heart when she had been defenseless and running vanished. Rage for the senseless slaughter of innocent lives fueled her with vengeance as she leaped at the last surviving alien that attempted to flee the building and drove the energy sword through its pointy back. A sudden sharp pain hit her in the back as she cried out, stumbling forward before turning around. The large figure in white armor was bleeding from its neck, but it let loose a ferocious roar as small energy daggers appeared from the metal pieces on top of its wrist. IF pulled out the knife that it threw at her back and tossed it elsewhere, dropping into a stance as the alien charged her.

"You want an early grave? Fine! I will send you to it!"


Hi, Nep and Halo fans. Bringing you a new chapter around and finally introducing all the characters landing in Reach. Everyone's location and experience varied, but the one who got the short end of the stick of all their entrances was IF. Or best stick of it since she got herself an energy sword, ha ha!

MAGES. original scene had the least amount of exciting bits since it would have been more information gathering and loads of exposition and thinking to herself on the world of Halo. I figured why not just have her reunite with another Nep character and do some brief explanation there.

Okay, onto responding to the reviewers of Chapter 1:

Lord of Moons - You have a lot to say, but yeah, that's what I was going for with Vert and her powers relating to people's faith. While the faith may not be in her specifically, I played with the idea of a goddess receiving power from faith of followers to rather faith itself in another world.

So when Vert jumped through into the Halo world, there had to be some give and taking. Vert can't transform, fly, or use any of the skills she would normally use in her world. I traded those for giving her energy shielding, the prowess and ability to go toe-to-toe with a Spartan II and then some, and her own Helmet Display without the actual helmet on because why not.

Oh believe me, I am making changes. They will not save Reach, that's a bit much to ask. But we aren't just going to have them tag along for the experience of adventuring through the Halo games without screwing up the timeline in some way or form. Stick around and see if this story will still interest you or you can drop it hard like a gravity hammer smacking a grunt. Thanks for reading and reviewing though.

Cooldude101011 - Thanks for the words of encouragement and leaving a review. You don't have to say much, but that's fine by me. Reviews like yours let me know that people aren't just reading and moving on, they're commenting to show appreciation.

Okay, that's it for reviewer responding. Leaving a review on the story, adding it to your favorites, or following it is always appreciated and loved. Chapter 1 received well over 170 unique visitors to the story with 192 views to boot. That's pretty damn impressive for someone of my very low, low standards.

I will see you all in the next chapter! Peace!