Watchpoint Gibraltar, Iberian Peninsula, Europe

Sweat glistened off Adrian's body as he laid another blow into the training dummy, it flew back with a crash. Nearly as soon as the drop ship had landed, Adrian had sought out a training room to brush up on his skills, to his delight there was a not only a well kept training room, but it had programable dummies to test a variety of events. Humans were an entirely different beast than the Covenant; in theory human should be far easier, we're weaker, more fragile, less well armed and armored, but there is one things that humans had in spades that the Covenant lacked, ingenuity. It seemed like a strange thing to have, but it had been a fact proven throughout the war that the Covenant lacked great tactical thinking, had he been in his universe he could already imagine the arguing his statement would cause, but here in his head, he had all the time in the world to argue it out. The Elites are ferocious warriors not to be trifled with, far more refined than the damn brutes, but like all those in the Covenant, they relied too much on their power, their technology. For instance, if they hit a wall in the form of the UNSC, they'd rarely try any sort of pincher movement or think outside the box with a radical plan, no they'd simply throw bodies at the UNSC until the wall finally collapsed. First they send in the grunt as cannon fodder, when they eventually fail, they wait a bit before sending in more grunts but this time backed by jackals and maybe a couple elite minors, finally once the second wave has died, they send in the heavy armor supported by the main force of elites or brutes. The Covenant are predictable, they often do the same plans over and over again, they've never been forced to adapt to a changing situation because their technology so vastly surpasses our own. Its why they often try to avoid ground confrontations because they actually have a chance at losing, looking at the statistics, the UNSC have won a far greater amount of ground battles than space battles though compared to the victories of the Covenant it doesn't mean much. The point of his whole inner monologue he supposed was to justify his own shortcomings back in Peru, he'd grown so used to fighting the Covenant, to combating their stale tactics that he'd grown rusty fighting clever opponents, though it'd probably be better phrased as unpredictable opponents.

So he'd set these targets to be as erratic as possible, the closest to human as they could get, in the short time he'd been training he'd already been noticing a great improvement in his form, all the insurrectionist training on Reach was coming back to him. Footsteps alerted him to the final dummy coming up behind him, he instinctively bent down and turned to face the threat behind him, the sound of whooshing air above him telling him the bot had swung and clearly missed. As he stood back up, he wrapped his right arm around the dummy's outstretch robotic limb and threw a series of punches to the robot's head with his left hand. Bringing his right leg behind the training dummy he pushed it onto it's back, with a fluid motion his brought his boot over the dummy's neck and pressed down with all his force until a cracking resounded through the room with the robot going offline.

Running a hand through his disheveled, sweaty hair and looked around at his handywork, over half a dozen training dummies laid in various states of destruction around the room. A mirror in the corner drew his attention, he saw himself in his brutalized entirety, what caught his eyes was that despite the passage of time and multitude of scars, the flaming skull of his ODST tattoo was still visible on his right bicep. Frankly, it was baffling to him that it still looked as vibrant as the day he got it, for now he ignored that one-in-a-million chance and simply appreciated having such a personal reminder of home. He took a swig of the water bottle laying on the bench, his dry throat greedily accepted the cold water, but it didn't quench the specific thirst he had.

"Athena, there's a city close by right?" Adrian questioned as he wiped his body down with a crumpled towel.

"Affirmative. It's the city of Gibraltar from which this territory draws its name."

"All right, and where's the nearest bar or pub or whatever in this city?"

"There is a fully stocked bar on base located in the recreation area."

"Eh I'm still not on speaking terms with most of the members here, besides, I'd like to see Earth…I'd like to see what its like before it'll will all get destroyed. This is probably my only chance to see humanity's crown jewel in all its glory."

Athena was silent a moment before responding, "I'll send the information to the computer in your room, might I also recommend wearing a set of casual clothing…if such an outfit for you exists. Before you leave however, Winston has told me he has urgent news regarding your situation, he requests you see him as soon as possible."

He headed back to his room to find set of casual clothing laid out upon his bed, probably Athena's doing, and while he found it scary how fitting the clothes were, the gratitude for being able to blend in outweighed his unease. A quick shower was taken as well as a mental note to continue his work on bridging the technology between his world and this one, he felt he'd been making a decent amount of progress. The hardest part was over known, the initial connection, all that was left was stabilizing the connection and making sure that the data was cross compatible from his world. He wasn't too worried about future progress; the largest hurdle had been crossed now everything would sort of snowball forward in a much more rapid pace than he'd initially had. Pushing that to the back of his mind, he began heading to the ape's lab, no matter how often he told himself that the ape…Winston held no history with the brutes, he couldn't shake his personal revulsion at seeing the hairy humanoid. Walking into the room, he saw the aforementioned ape frantically typing into his computer, dozens of screens being pulled up at once showcasing various statistics and news articles.

"What's this urgent news? Have you finally found a way for me to get back home?"

Winston turned, a nervous look in his eyes, "Well not exactly, though it does seem to bear some resemblance to your situation. I've been looking into mapping your arrival through any means necessary, one of those was using the unique radiation signatures emitted by your slipspace technology through various testing site around the world such as-"

"Spare met the details."

"Ah right of course – as mentioned your slipspace technology emits a unique radiation, unlike anything we've seen here in this world. Well I decided to see if there have been any previous recordings of such a radiation signature…there's been several."

Adrian's jaw dropped, the myriad of possibilities rushing through his mind, most of the scenarios more often than not ended with disaster. "You're fucking kidding me right?"

Winston's face took on a grim look, "I'm afraid not, though a silver lining exists in that most of these reports indicate that the object in question that came from such slipspace ruptures were largely junk, and oddly enough all these events occurred within a period of a few months. Based on what you've told us, I would assume it's loose bits of hull or armor that came loose during battle and were lost during the slipspace jump."

His mind immediately raced back to what he'd seen at the research lab, the fragment that had seemed so familiar yet so distant, he'd brushed it off as nothing more than a curiosity but now he wasn't so sure.

"Wait so does this mean that travel here has occurred outside of my own experience? That at any time a poor slipspace jump could end up in this world?" Winston nodded, the implications of that were staggering. "And…if I came from not just a different universe but a different time as well, there's no limitations on when someone could jump here right? In my world, someone could do a slipspace jump weeks after I disappeared…but appear before I arrived here."

"Theoretically yes, there's also the chance that they don't end up here, rather they could end up in any number of alternate universes."

"Go back, you mentioned that only 'most' of the reports indicated junk, what about the rest?"

"They were…unable to find any debris."

Unable to find the debris, of course that could mean any number of things, but his mind immediately jumped to other lifeforms that had been in the same situation he was only they hadn't been immediately captured. It could be other ODSTs from his squad if they had been caught in the jump, or it could also be Covenant, there was no telling what came through those rifts.

"What are we waiting for? We need to find what came through, it could be the damned Covenant, if it is there's no telling what they'll do!" Adrian yelled.

"We can't do anything, not yet. We know there might be something, but we don't know where to look, if these Covenant did come through, they could be hiding anywhere. We don't have the power, authority, or numbers to go on a world-wide search looking."

"That shouldn't matter, if they exist on this planet, there's only one thing you should be ding, and that's wiping them off the face of the Earth. They need to be eradicated, no matter the cost." He slammed his fists on the table, these damn fools, they wouldn't be able to handle what the Covenant had. Sure, it might just be one or two, but what if it was more, what if they're scouts for the express purpose of crossing realties, an entire Covenant armada could come through at any moment and this Earth would fall in days.

For the first time since he's been here, he saw Winston's eye grow hard with a cold edge, "We can't do anything. When I hear something more I will tell you, until then kept yourself under control Kasporov." Adrian growled under his breath, now he needed a drink more than ever.

The walk had cooled him off, he was still angry at the lack of action Overwatch was taking but he'd also come to face reality, they were right. The cost of scouring the globe would be enormous, especially for an illegal group that was supposed to be disavowed. His blood was still simmering, he decided to take his mind off the previous events and focus on finding the bar that Athena had told him, a place called "The Waterfront Lounge". Taking in the city, it was far different than anything he'd ever seen before, the cities he knew were often filled with towering skyscrapers, a labyrinthian layout of glass crisscrossed at every point with bridges. This city was wholly the opposite, the highest buildings were only a few stories high, all the buildings were brick with red tiled roofs. People bustled around him heading to their own destinations, he noticed what appeared to be several humanoid robots among the crowd, he figured they were the 'Omnics' that Genji had mentioned his first day here. Despite that, it still seemed like something out of science fiction, it was strange how despite the vast differences in time, this world had made some startling technological advancements. Eventually with the aid of Athena's directions he'd managed to find the bar easy enough. True enough to its name it was hosted a stunning view of the bay, lights from the city glistened off the water giving it an ethereal feeling. The serenity was almost unnerving to him, he started to question his choice to come to the city, it was dreamlike for him to be walking through such a peaceful city, even when he was on leave, the cities he visited were still taught with a palpable tension. No one was sure whether the Covenant would appear the next day or whether they'd have one more day of peace, yet here, there was no fear of that, everyone was cheerful, unafraid of tomorrow. Walking into the building Adrian picked a seat at the bar, it gave off an almost cozy feeling, most of the interior being made of varnished dark wood.

"What can I get for you?" An older man spoke with a heavy accent, he had full head of black hair peppered with grey, a well-groomed mustache adorned his face, the man was probably in his late fifties, sharp blue eyes graced his features.

"Rum on the rocks, don't care much for the brand as long as it's smooth."

The bartender reached under the counter for the bottle, "Heh, that kind of day amigo?"

"Like you wouldn't fucking believe, just when stuff starts to get settled something else has to come rear its ugly head your way."

"I think I understand your troubles, military right?" At Adrian's raised eyebrow he elaborated, "The scars on your arms, the way you carry yourself, the darting eyes, I served too you know. Once you do it never quite leaves, always there in the back of your mind, I can spot military man a mile away. Here, on the house."

Adrian smiled, "Much appreciated." The spiced alcohol flowed down his throat like an old friend, "You mentioned you served?"

"Aye, served in the Great War. Lost both an arm and a leg to those damned omnics." It was then Adrian noticed that the man's left arm was a bit stiffer, less natural than his right arm, from a brief glance though he never would've guessed it was a prosthetic. The man continued, "I try not to hold a grudge I know it'll get me nowhere but its hard, especially when you see them omnics walking every which way as though we didn't just fight a war."

"I know better than you would think, old habits die hard eh?"

The old man cackled, "You're right about that. What brings you to Gibraltar, business or pleasure?"

"Work I suppose, though not of my own choosing."

"It rarely is. I didn't think we had much of a military presence in Gibraltar though."

With a quick lie on the spot, Adrian knew it was best to leave it simple, "Classified, though not for anything serious, just some government gibberish that makes it technically classified. You know how it is…sorry I never got your name."

"Franco."

They shook hands, "Adrian. What's your story then?"

Franco stopped cleaning the glass in his hand, "Well I was born in Seville, Spain. Spent half my life in the city, when I got out of college I wanted to experience something new. So I traveled the world for a bit, never staying in place for very long though that ended when my sister just up and left her daughter. She'd always had troubles, whether it was money or relationships it felt like she always had a problem on her tail. I dropped everything I was doing to fly here to Gibraltar, I took my niece in as my own daughter and I've been raising her ever since, even turned this old bar around to live a stable life."

"I'm sure some words from a complete stranger won't mean much, but it takes a lot to drop everything you have for someone else; I have a deep amount of respect for that."

"Gracias, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Though I will admit, I don't mind the free work she does when she helps out around the bar." He cracked a grin at that. "Speak of the devil." A young woman walked in from the door behind the counter, she had dark red hair with tanned skin, much like her uncle she had piercing blue eyes, though hers were much darker. If he had to guess, she was probably a few years younger than himself, mid-twenties at the earliest.

"I hope you're not boring our customers again uncle, sometimes I think you talk to keep hearing your own voice."

With exaggerated sadness Franco places his hand over his heart, "Oh how you wound me Casandra. I'll have you know Adrian and I have been enjoying a very interesting conversation."

She rolled her eyes with a smile, "Yeah sure okay, whatever you say." She turned towards Adrian, jokingly speaking with false whispers, "If he's holding you against your will blink twice."

"Aye get out of here chiquilla, clean the tables." They both laughed while Adrian sat there with a smile on his lips, it reminded him of how his family used to be. "She can be a rascal but she's a good girl."

They talked for a bit longer, Adrian had found himself quite enjoying Franco's company. The man had a charming personality hat made him very easy to talk to, though he supposed he wouldn't be a good bar tender if he weren't. Though perhaps more than that Franco's own life had resonated with his own reminding him of how things used to be, he wasn't living vicariously through Franco, but he'd found a man with whom he could empathize. After some time had passed, Adrian had bid his new acquittance farewell and begun to head back to the base, he was feeling much calmer than when he had left. Adrian decided he'd go back soon, maybe in a few days before his next mission if he had the heads up. He resolved to finish his own personal project when he got back to the base, it wouldn't do anyone any good if he left it unfinished, besides he was so close to completing it, it'd be a shame if he simply let it falter now. Though looking back Adrian had wished he hadn't been so flippant at that time for nothing could have ever prepared Adrian for the events that would occur in the coming days.