Watchpoint Gibraltar, Iberian Peninsula, Europe
With those four words everything that Adrian had lived his life for fell apart around him, 'the Covenant don't exist', but that couldn't be right. He'd… he'd dedicated his whole life to eradicating those bastards and now what was left for him? But maybe this was just an isolated planet, right? Maybe they'd never heard of the Covenant, maybe it was just an extreme coincidence that it looked exactly like Earth, called itself Earth, had the same cities…he sighed. During his time as a prisoner he'd briefly entertained the thought of a similar situation like one he'd read from one of those old sci-fi novels, that he'd arrived on a different Earth in a different universe, he just never thought it might ever actually be a possibility. He was never formally educated, having joined the marines before he'd even finished high school, but being the tech specialist for his fireteam required more education than other specializations and he'd always had a knack for learning something new. The whole point of this rambling being that while he of course wasn't an expert on slipspace, and his interest and knowledge in the translight engines was minimal at best, but it was enough to know that however far-fetched and unlikely it may have seemed…it was at least theoretically possible. The FTL system utilized by the UNSC and Covenant quite literally rip a hole in space and time to travel, its why its so dangerous, the potential consequences are unfathomable. An explanation didn't help to calm his nerves or his heart, he could feel himself growing tense, his breathing became erratic, he sensed the overgrown ape come close to him and say some words, maybe out of pity, he wasn't sure, but he instinctively backed up. The Covenant may not be here, this thing may not be a brute, but it still wasn't human and there were too many unknowns. This group – Overwatch – they fought evil, but whose to say it was even telling the truth. In the eyes of the Covenant they were also fighting evil, they were the holy ones come to cleanse the galaxy of the heretical filth and while it was unlikely that this group was on a similar war path they couldn't be trusted, especially if they were ruled by such a creature. Most importantly, this wasn't his home, he'd had a war to fight and he'd be damned if he gave up on it, losing or not he swore he'd gave his life to fighting the Covenant and there'd be hell to pay if he was stuck as some pathetic prisoner. He'd find a way back and he'd kill every Covenant bastard he saw to make up for his time gone, no one was going to stand in his way.
His hand went for his pistol, but his holster was empty, he forgot he'd been stripped of weapons after they'd knocked him out. Adrian's eyes darted around the room for an exit or a way out, it seemed the primate had picked up on his thoughts, he saw its body grow tense and eyes become wary. The door he came through was still guarded, but he wasn't seeing any other way out, at the least he'd have the element of surprise on the Guard Captain, she had armor and a height advantage because of it, but she wasn't as tall as an elite, he could take her. Eyeing a mug full of pens on the table close to him, he decided to pull the age-old trick of throwing it at the ape across from him. It would do absolutely nothing but hopefully it'd distract it for just the smallest split second for him to run, and it did. He saw its eyes leave his persons and focus on the cup, its arm coming up reflexively to block itself, Adrian used that time to dash back towards the door he'd come through. Sure, enough the woman in blue armor was there standing guard, her eyes widened in surprise as she saw it was him, she tried to bring her rifle to aim but he had the advantage. He threw a punch into her throat, she choked on the break in air and doubled over, now that she was closer to his level, he grabbed the back of her head and brought it into his knee. Disoriented she stumbled back into the railing, Adrian lucky enough to still have his armor shoulder charged her and threw her over the railing, she landed with a heavy thud into the ground, her armor denting the floor. Not having time to check if she was out cold, he picked her rifle and hopped over the railing, landing with a graceful roll next to her. An alarm started blaring in the base, the ape must've set it off instead of chasing after him, Adrian sprinted towards the exit with the strange rifle in hand. It was odd but easily usable, after learning how to fire Covenant weaponry with the ODST instructor he could probably find out how to fire a stick.
Stepping outside, he quickly thought about what he'd do now. If he went back to the ship, his gear was likely all taken and there's not saying if he'd even be able to take off but staying here longer then necessary wasn't a great idea either. Still if he left without his gear, there's no telling what they'd be able to gleam from his helmets internal data or his drop pod, though based on the date he saw, if that was entirely true, it was unlikely they'd have the technology capable to crack it. More so he's uncertain how much of a divergence there is between tis world and his, the talking ape was a big one but that's beside the point. He'd try the ship, leave his gear behind, and figure everything else as he went along. Jogging outside, it'd gotten noticeably darker, the sun was only barely peaking above the horizon, though it didn't matter much as the entire base was lit up. He heard shouting coming from the left and saw a group soldiers run out from a door, yelling orders, aiming his new weapon he fired. It curved in an arc and exploded at their feet, they were sent flying backwards and didn't get up. He heard more shouting coming from the doorway and blindly fired into it, hopefully he'd at least slow them down. He was halfway to the ship, its ramp was still lowered and hatch open, a couple guards were standing watch by it. They noticed Adrian too late as he fired two consecutive shots at each guard, both shots went wide but still had enough explosive force to knock them out. He tried to fire one more shot behind him, but it seemed the weapon was out of ammo, he tossed it to the side as he boarded the ship. Making his way through the troop bay, he entered what seemed to be the cockpit, there was one person in there doing an instrument check. They sloppily drew a pistol from their hip, it was child's play for Adrian to swiftly move out of the pistol's sights to the side, he knocked the gun to the side with his armored bracer and used the same hand to grab the person's wrist. Placing his free hand on the man's back he pulled until he heard the pop of a dislocated shoulder and shoved the man outside. These soldiers or guards or whatever were poorly trained, their technique was sloppy, they were unprepared, and worst of all, they couldn't control their nerves under pressure. Adrian was still erratic, his whole body was tense and nervous, but it was one of the first things they taught you in regular ole boot camp, how to keep your composure. The two he'd meet earlier, they had training and experience, but these grunts were pathetic, they'd never survive even bootcamp where he came from.
Before the door to the cockpit door closed, he swore he saw a blue light pass by him, bolted the door shut only to turn and see a woman standing there that hadn't been before.
"What the hell…" This whole world was baffling to him, talking apes, super soldier cowboys, and now people appearing from nothing.
"Ello love, sorry but you've hurt enough people. I'll be stopping you 'ere." A wild-haired Brunette in a bomber jacket spoke, she had a Venezian…no British accent, its doubtful any of the colonies he was familiar with existed here. Most planets and colonies had specific cultural influences, Reach was Central Europe mostly, Hungary specifically, Kroedis II before it was glassed was South American, most immigrating from the Republic of Brazil, and Venezia was largely influenced and emigrated by those in United Kingdom. Languages and cultures became tricky and complex with most planets completely dissociating from their original country of influence, but there's better times to amble about ancestry. Adrian raised the pistol he'd taken off the guard and fired, but she'd disappeared before he'd even pull the trigger. The bullet cracked the dropship's windshield and ricocheted back, harmlessly bounding of his chest plate. He heard a strange sound from beside him, turning he saw the woman only inches away from him. Throwing his elbow into her she disappeared once again, the room was small, and her options limited, even with her strange ability, if he had such an ability and his target was stumbling forward, he'd appear behind them. Following through with his elbow strike he twisted his body and sure enough he saw here appear where he thought she would. The strike landed across her face and he felt his armored padding dig into the skin, it didn't stop her from teleporting again. The follow through to get her backfired when the force of his attack pulled him off-balance, his attack landed but she'd disappeared and the remaining power behind his blow carried him forward. He stumbled a bit into the side of the cockpit, he heard the thrush of air moving behind him as she teleported into place, unlike those before her it seemed she would take any chances with talking. He felt a hard blow to the back of his head and slumped to the ground, his last thoughts being why he had been knocked out twice in one damn day.
Winston watched as detachment of security personnel carried the foreigners on a stretcher with extra precautions taken. He sighed, this was all his fault, he'd hoped to slowly ease this man into this new world and reality, there were still tests and theories to run for such an unlikely possibility, but…there were too many things pointing towards this unusual event. The plan in his mind was to perhaps bring this man into the fold of Overwatch, they were still growing and could use every possible resource, especially a military man with experience in the field and with organization. It'd failed spectacularly, he'd been too focused on logic and reason to accommodate the overwhelming shock the man would be presented with, on top of that the man had taken actions into his own hand with grandiose fervor. Its clear he'd had training beyond even some of their best, luckily none had been too severely injured, whether due to the man's own discretion or pure luck he wasn't sure.
"What's the plan for him now? It doesn't seem like we can trust him or that he'll trust us." Winston turned, watching as Amari walked up to him, a limp in her step and nursing a nasty bruise on her face.
"I still hope that we can convince him of our cause," At her scoff he elaborated, "B-but, for now we'll keep him isolated in one of the jail cells. We'll strip him of his gear and examine it all, that pod he had, maybe it holds some analytical data. That would be quite useful, and if you're feeling up to it, I'd like you and McCree to look over his armor and weapons, in-depth, see what we can gleam from them. In the meantime, for him specifically…I'll have Dr. Ziegler run some tests, bloodwork and the like. When he wakes up I'll have her talk to him and if we're lucky, maybe he'll even consent to a physical evaluation. There's so much I'm curious about, but that's for the future, Angela's always had a knack for connecting with people, hopefully this man's no different."
Fareeha nodded, "Alright, you know I trust you. I just want to make it clear though, my duty is to my men and this base, I won't see them harmed again. If he can't be reasoned with, I'm not taking another chance."
"Uhm-well…" Winston sighed, "I understand. If…it doesn't work out, do what you have to."
Once again waking up in a daze, Adrian set a string of curses that would make even a sailor red. His head pounded along with his jaw, the lights felt far too bright and even the sounds of him sitting up resounded like drums in his brain. He groaned and ran a hand through his disheveled hair, his plan to escape and make his own way had failed horribly. Now he was presumably once again a prisoner, and if the look around the room told him anything, he was under even greater restrictions than before. His armor had been taken he'd been dressed in some cheap cloth clothing, plain white shirt with grey striped pants. Maybe Barbie wasn't entirely wrong after all, sitting here in this barren room with a single bed and toilet with one wall being an entire window looking out into the other cells, he thought that maybe it really COULDN"T get any worse than this. Although the bed he was sitting on was far softer than anything he'd had in years, decades even, the only thing that came close would probably be his old been when he was a kid and shared his room with – her. Shaking his head he went back to thinking about the bed, it was unbelievably soft, especially for a military organization or one that at least seemed to exude some power. The UNSC beds could hardly even be called that, they were more like cardboard mats held up by bricks, from what he'd heard the officers had it better but only barely. That was only during active service, in-between fighting and traveling on ships, everyone got to sleep in the luxury of cryo-pods, freezer burn and all. The sound of footsteps clacking down the hall from his cell caught his ears, he turned to look at the window and saw a woman step into view, she was wearing a lab coat with her blonde hair down up, sharp yet kind blue eyes stared into his own. Speaking plainly she was stunning, he'd be lying if he said he didn't have a thing for older women, and at any other situation he would've been thrilled at a chance to talk with her, but times were different and the situation difficult.
"Hello there," She had an interesting accent, sounded like a guy he knew from New Harmony, "I'm Doctor Ziegler. I understand that everything has been a bit difficult, but I'm hoping some communication will be best for us all." Adrian stayed silent, he had nothing to say to these people. "What if we start off with some basics, I introduced myself and I know that you Adrian Kasporov, so what about where you're from?"
Once again, more silence, Adrian's sight began to drift around the room.
"Okay, what if I tell you that by cooperating, we can see about getting you out of this cell. Still nothing? Mein gott, you are a stubborn one. Winston has told me to tell you, that he can help you 'return from where you came'."
That caught his attention, his focus shifted to like a hawk, a chance to get back to the fighting? That would be fantastic, but what about trusting these people? He'd hear what they have to say first and go from there.
She adopted a stern face like a mother would scolding a child, "But! You must talk; we can't help you unless you do. Is that fair?"
"Alright Doc, you've got yourself a deal." Her stern face turned into a serene smile and she gave a sigh of relief, "So what did you want to talk about?"
"A small number of others and myself know of Winston's theory about where you're from. As ridiculous as this may sound-"
"I'm from another universe, yep I figured that a while back."
She held a surprised expression on her face, "Oh well…that helps to pave the way for the rest of this. How…never mind we'll get to that later if we can. For now I'd just like basics if that's okay with you."
Adrian shrugged, "Sure."
"Okay, can you just briefly tell me about where you're from? This is being recorded so feel free to go into detail. So as…you mentioned you're apart of this UNSC? A Lance Corporal I believe? Earlier when talking to McCree, you mentioned who you served with. Could you elaborate?"
Adrian straightened up, "The UNSC stands for 'United Nations Space Command', it's the military and scientific branch of the UEG, United Earth Government. History was never my strong suit, but they become the main military force a bit before the 22nd century, taking over for the UN. Though currently the UNSC have enacted emergency military control."
"You've managed to unite the nations of Earth under one government? That's…amazing! How did your people manage to do that- wait…you mentioned the 22nd century? Is then when you're from? So far into the future?"
"Oh boy, this is gonna be a lot to unpack. This is 2075 right?" She nodded, "Where I'm from its currently 2552."
She let out an audible gasp, "I apologize its just, this is all so fascinating. Its unprecedented that this could be or rather that it is true. Its hard to wrap my mind around."
"How do you think I feel Doc? I got dumped right into the middle of this whole mess."
"Is that why you ran? Tried to escape on your own?"
Adrian nodded, "For the most part, but that can be discussed later, you wanted more info on humanity. As for your earlier question, the unified government came about through a lot of wars and establishment of power, the Jovian Moon campaigns, the Rainforest wars, the mars campaign, and the suppressing of rebellion in the interplanetary wars. This is off the top of my head, can't give any further information really."
"You mentioned interplanetary wars, and the UNSC, you've achieved planetary space traveling then? And the UNSC acts as the military space force for humanity essentially?"
"Bingo, but this is all some 300 hundred years ago, by now we've gotta have about… a thousand colonies or more under our belt."
The pen that Dr. Ziegler was jotting down notes with fell to the ground, "A thousand colonies but that's…how? Even with all our technological advancements I can't imagine us colonize so many planets, what about the distances?"
"That's thanks to the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, created a couple hundred years before I was alive. The specifics are far above my paygrade, but basically it works by creating these ruptures or rips in space-time. I don't know how the science-fiction is here, but its basically works as a far cruder version of a wormhole."
"This is fascinating, I have more I'd like to ask you about but if you don't mind. I'd love to continue these conversations in greater depth, solely for my own interest. Though I understand if you want to decline, being a prisoner isn't the great incentive to talk."
Adrian thought it over, on one hand, these were people he still couldn't trust but this Dr. Ziegler had seemed earnest enough, and its not like anything he was saying was classified. He'd learned this himself in middle school and having some friendly company here might be for the best, "Alright, I think I'd enjoy that. Anyway, what else was there that you wanted to ask?"
She gave a warming smile and looked down at her notes, Angela was quite pleased with the progress she was making with the man in front of her. She'd initially been surprised to learn that not only had McCree and Genji found a man in Africa, but that he'd managed to wound them both. That surprise had grown to horror when she'd heard the alarm raised and that the man had tried to flee, wounding several in his attempted escape. Angela had always tried to see the kindness and good in others, it what strove her to help people and become a doctor. She abhorred violence but understood that it was necessary at times, but the senseless wounded had angered her deeply. She'd jumped at the chance to see the man that had caused such destruction, she knew she was overreacting, blinded by the fact that those close to her had been injured, but still. The reality had been so much different, the man was as normal as anyone could be in this situation, he'd been nervous and uncertain about this new world and its no wonder he'd tried to escape. If anything, he was quite friendly, there was just a weariness in his eyes, he clearly wanted to be free of here as soon as possible. Flipping through he notes she had, she saw one that was started for discussion, the Covenant.
"One thing I'd like to ask you about is this other group, the Covenant. Are they a religious faction or…?" Her voice trailed off as she saw the weariness in his eyes spark with a hatred at the mere mention of that name. It piqued her curiosity, she found it odd that such a relatively young man could hold such exhaustion in his eyes but chalked it up to a new environment, but now this hatred that he showed was unlikely anything she'd seen.
"The Covenant. The Covenant are death, they bring destruction and an end to everything they touch. About thirty years ago from my time, we made contact with aliens on one of our planets, Harvest. We welcomed them with open arms and excited at the prospect of peace and greater relations, you know what they did to those hoping for harmony? Those damn aliens slaughtered them, every single person at that initial meeting. That moment would start the worst war humanities ever faced, for thirty years we've been fighting and for thirty years we've been losing. I was only two when Harvest was lost, I've never known a time before this war. You remember the near thousand colonies I mentioned?" She nodded, shocked at this revelation, she'd figured there been some type of war or religious fanaticism but never anything on this level. "I'd say we only have around a hundred or so colonies left."
"Left? You mean under your control?"
"No, I mean still existing. The Covenant see humanity as a stain, a heretical cancer on their religious journey and for their journey to succeed they must wipe out humanity. They have a tendency to 'glass' planets, using one of their massive ships they use a weaponized beam of radiation and blast the planet with it until its uninhabitable for any kind of life. The heat and pressure turn the ground into glass, hence the name." He sighed, its easier to fight when you don't think about the reality. Sure, everyone knew humanity was losing and had lost so much, but its easier to just pass it off when you don't really think about it.
"I'm…I'm so sorry. I never imagined that…anything like this could ever happen."
"Its alright doctor, myself and just about everyone else has come to grips that we've lost, its more just a matter of when than if. Hell before I came to whatever universe this is, the Covenant had found Earth and were wrecking untold destruction upon the world, I was in the middle of being deployed when I ended up here."
Silence filled their conversation before Angela spoke up again, unsure of where to go from here.
"I… Uhm…have one more question and then I'll talk to Winston about your freedom and what the future holds. In this war, where do you fit in? Your armor, weapons, that pod, they're unlike anything we've ever seen."
"Ah, right. I've explained to cowpoke that I'm of the 5th Shock Troops Battalion of the 105th Expeditionary Unit. The 105th is a special operations unit, specifically dealing with ODST, which is what I am. ODSTs are Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, helljumpers are what we affectionately call ourselves. Essentially, we're deployed from ships in orbit via these drop pods, with minimal brakes we reach the ground as soon as possible. We preform the missions that are too dangerous for the regular marines to undertake, we're specialized in counterterrorism, personal recovery, unconventional warfare such as guerilla warfare, subversion, sabotage, and intelligence gathering. Our weapons standard ammunition is extremely lethal, its meant to destroy enemy shields and heavily armed targets, so we often utilize larger armor-piercing rounds. The specific armor composition is classified and beyond my knowledge, but the general idea is that it's made of several layered sheets of composite titanium and specifically crafted to survive hazardous environments. Its even created to be able to function in the vacuum of space. "
"That both amazing and terrifyingly dangerous." She let herself have a small laugh at the absurdity of it all, what they did seemed near suicidal, in fact it was downright suicidal.
Adrian gave a chuckle at that, "Well our motto is feet first into hell. You have to have already had previous experience in the military and proved yourself worthy to become an ODST, then you have to go through another round of the most rigorous and dangerous training in existence just to be accepted. Its so uncommon to have deaths in the training."
"But is that the opposite of what your army needs? Shouldn't you be gathering as many men as possible to combat the Covenant?"
"I appreciate your concern, but the weak have no business in the ODSTs. Nothing I tell you about the Covenant can convey how brutal and relentless they are, ODSTs are the best of the best. I'm not arguing about any macho bullshit about weakness, what I am saying is that the only way humanity can ever hope to even slow the tide of the Covenant is to do what is absolutely necessary no matter the cost. My helmet, as do most other UNSC helmets, has a storage chip that records various amounts of data, including a visual feed. I'm a tech specialist, I can rig my helmet to work with your technology, I'll show you all the horrors the Covenant have inflicted in the last thirteen years I've been serving."
Angela was surprised at how quick his carefree demeanor had turned to one of cold detachment, but she was curious about the video he said he could show. Any further information he could give on his experiences would only serve to help her case to have him freed, hopefully it would serve to show that he could be useful to Overwatch. For now it's impossible to tell how truthful Adrian was being with her, but his emotions were sincere, in her mind it left no room to doubt what he had said.
"Thank you very much for your cooperation Mr. Kasporov, I look forward to our conversations when you're free." She gave a kind smile and left, leaving Adrian alone once more in his thoughts. He laid back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling, initially he hadn't planned to say so much, but after hearing the cluelessness of everyone here regarding the war it had almost felt insulting. All the billions that had died, the friends he's lost, the family he once had, for them to simply not exist here…it felt wrong. While talking to Dr. Ziegler, he felt compelled to tell his story, maybe that's on more reason why he accepted her invitation to talk, but most importantly, he was offered a chance to return to his world and fight till the end. If he had to work with some half-breed brute look-a-like then so be it, he wouldn't like it but he'd do whatever was necessary to get back home.
