Neryungrinsky District, Republic of Sakha, Russia

The sun shone down with brilliant radiance; its warmth was a welcome reprieve from the harsh weather they'd been suffering the past few days, it was a beautiful day for fishing. Alexei took in a deep breath of the crisp cool air, there was a distinct smell to the cold air, he couldn't put it into words, only that it was refreshing, reassuring in a way. A vast forest of pine trees surrounded him, but just over the horizon in front of him, one could start to see the clearing where the lake sat. He could already picture its glistening blue water, the calming sound of lapping waves, excitement within him was already building at the thought of spending such a day out in the fantastic weather. Snow crunched behind him, he turned to see a man walking several paces behind him, the man's features reflecting Alexei's own, dirty blonde hair, dark brown eyes, a strong jawline with a light stubble. The biggest difference was that the man had always lagged behind, not just physically slow but…in thought and mind as well, but Alexei had never heeded their words, they were brothers and he'd always love his brother.

"Come on Kirill! What will happen if the fish all fill their bellies with flies before we get there? Do you need some help brother?"

Kirill gave him a lopsided grin, "Hah, I'm fine, but I…think of my bootstraps is coming loose."

"We can fix it at the lake, leave it for now." They continued walking through the sparkling snow, crunching under foot. When they crested a slight hill, the view opened up before them, a wide lake laid out before them like it's always been waiting for them, its shimmering blue watering stretching out for miles. Alexei patted his brother on the shoulder and they begun their trek down the hill, he turned to his brother.

"The Harvest Festival is coming up, are you playing to ask Sasha out with you?"

Kirill turned his head to the side, a faint blush gracing his cheeks, "I…Uhh…not sure. I want too, I really do…"

"But you're nervous, scared even. Everyone is nervous when they find someone they like, the fear of 'what will happen if they reject me'." Kirill nodded, "Then tell me this, would you rather live the rest of your life wondering whether she likes you until someone from a neighboring village comes and takes her away forever. Or would you rather know for certain, to put these feelings to rest, if she rejects you it will hurt, but then you can move on with the knowledge in your heart that you tried. Though if you ask me…I don't think she'll say no." Alexei winked, he'd know about his brother's crush for years, it was hilarious that younger siblings always think they're being sneaky, that no one else see's what their heart yearns for. He did know that Sasha cared deeply for Kirill, they were both kind souls longing for something more in life. If Kirill could overcome his shyness, he had no doubts that they'd be happy together and most importantly, he trusted her to care for his brother.

Kirill had a serious look on his face, Alexei knew it meant that he was mulling something over with deep thought, "Alright, when we get back to the village, I'm going to go straight to Sasha's house and ask her to go with me to the festival." He ended with a firm nod, as if solidifying his thoughts.

They were almost to the bottom of the hill when Kirill face planted into the snow, it seemed he'd accidently stepped on his loose bootstrap.

"Do you need help with it?" Alexei asked.

"No no no, I can do it."

"Alright, I'll go ahead and start setting up at the edge of the lake okay?"

Kirill let out a string of unintelligible words as he put all his focus into his boots, Alexei walked down the rest of the hill and found a perfect spot right on the edge of the lake. A tiny bit of the snow had melted giving them one of the few grassy spots to set up, he unloaded all his gear and rolled his shoulders, the relief was immediate. Alexi began setting up their equipment, after a few minutes he looked around to see that Kirill still wasn't with him. Strange, though maybe the bootstrap was in worse shape than he thought, Kirill could easily get absorbed in something for hours if he couldn't get it right, maybe it as broken and he was trying to fix it himself. Alexei scoffed to himself, that was probably it, he loved his brother dearly but sometimes he'd had to remind his brother that there was more to the world than the one thing he was focused on. He began walking back to the hill only to see that while the equipment was still there, Kirill wasn't. The gear was exactly where it had been when'd he left to head down to the lake, but there was no sign of Kirill anywhere.

"Kirill? Where'd you go?" Alexei yelled with worry in his voice, his brother wasn't much for pranks, so he probably wasn't hiding in the trees. Maybe he'd just had to take a shit or something…maybe he was… he didn't know. His pace quickened as he continued yelling, he ran towards the abandoned supplies laying upon the hill. There were odd prints around the bag, ones he'd never seen in the thirty years he'd been living and exploring this forest, but most worrying was the crimson stained snow where Kirill had ben sitting. He touched the stain with one finger, it was still warm, in his mind he already knew what it had to be, but in his heart, he refused to believe it. Despite that, his brain still questioned everything, where had Kirill gone, why had he gone, if this blood was…his…then where had he disappeared to, where had he managed to go in such a short time, his eyes darted back to the unusual footprints, the pieces in his mind began to fall into place but there were still so many questions left unanswered. There was a sound behind him, he snapped his body to look but saw nothing, he slowly stood up, frantically looking in every direction. He tried to call out for Kirill, but he'd yelled so much earlier all that came out was a raspy cough, another sound behind him and once again he twisted his body only to see an empty forest. He started backing up, away from the lake and deeper into the forest, "I'm sorry Kirill, I'm so sorry, but I…I have to go." He desperately mumbled to himself, he thought he saw a glimmering movement out of the corner of his eye but saw nothing when he turned, that was the final straw for him staying.

With all his force he sprinted into the forest, his legs pounding against the ground, snow crunching underneath him with every thundering step. The further into the forest he got the darker it seemed to become, he tripped over a root sticking out ground and tumbled into the ground. He prayed that someone would hear him cry out for them, for anyone to save him from this nightmare brought to life. Face down in the snow, he could hear footsteps coming towards him, ignoring the reality he'd just ran from he instead clang to delusion, he eagerly got up ready to see Kirill walking towards him with the same lopsided grin he'd always had. But it wasn't Kirill, the smile that had graced Alexei's face morphed into one of abstract terror, his mouth opened like a maw to scream but he never got the chance. Immediately a pain like nothing he'd ever felt before burst through his abdomen, as he was lifted off the ground the pain in his stomach grew worse, unimaginably worse. He briefly opened his eyes that had been tightly shut from the pain, he'd immediately regretted the action, what he saw was the devil incarnate, it had to be, he had thought that there was nothing on God's Earth though could inflict such anguish, such terror, oh how wrong he had been.

Skies above Republic of Sakha, Russia

Adrian paced the deck of the Orca, he'd been worrying about this, thinking of contingencies for if the Covenant came to this Earth but his mind drew a blank. He could tell Overwatch everything he knew but that wouldn't matter, the UNSC had the same knowledge for thirty years and look where it led them.

"Would you stop pacing already, it'll get you nowhere." Spoke the security chief, Amari, she sat on one of the troop benches wringing her hands.

"Don't think you know what were up against, the videos are nothing to the real thing." Adrian snapped back.

She sighed, "Listen, I'm one of the few members of Overwatch with actual military experience like yourself, I've long given up trying to understand what to expect in war. But you out of everyone should know that you need a clear head."

He sighed alongside her, "You're right…I've done similar ops dozens of hundreds of times, but I've never felt so uncertain, like its slipping through my fingers before my eyes."

"Because the stakes are different, there's no telling the consequences. Whereas from what I've seen, shits already fucked beyond hope. Sorry if I'm overstepping."

He chuckled darkly at that, "Nah…you understand it better than most, when its someplace you've never heard of before, theses almost this disconnect that maybe its not even real. As soon as that terror comes home…to a familiar place it feels different, but even now this is different from when the Covenant attacked my Earth. I think its because…I hoped that when my world eventually falls, this one will still be here standing."

Thunderous steps brought his head to the front of the drop ship where Winston and the behemoth he'd come to know as Reinhardt walked from. Adrian walked towards the ape; they didn't have the time to formulate a plan as they'd almost immediately hauled ass out of Gibraltar when they got the news.

"So what's the plan? If there's something from my world here it could be anywhere in the forests of Russia."

"Well most of the reported disappearances have come from these three villages here, as you can see they're all relatively clustered in this one area. Whatever is causing this can't be too far outside of this area, we're going to land right outside the largest of these villages and attempt to interview the residents here, find out if there's a common thread connecting their stories."

"I doubt any of them will speak anything other than Russian this deep into the wilderness."

Winston smiled, showing his massive feral teeth, Adrian felt himself flinch from instinct, "It's a good thing we have you here then, Angela's told me your fluent."

He questioned what else Dr. Ziegler had told this ape, but he pushed that out of his head instead focusing on the fact that he'd be acting as a glorified interpreter.

"Der'mo" he cursed under his breath.

The mountain of a man, Reinhardt let out a bellowing laughing and slapped him on the back, "There you go raumfahrer!"

"Raumfahrer?"

"Space-man! Fitting no?"

Adrian groaned; the rest of the flight was blissfully short. When the hatch at the back of the door began to slide out, Adrian saw a crowed of curious onlookers peering in. Given Overwatch's tumultuous legal status, they couldn't set up a teatime to organize, so they'd just have to drop in unannounced much to the confusion of probably everyone in the village. Adrian grabbed his helmet from the chair next to him and slipped it on, polarizing his faceplate from the bright afternoon sun. Reinhardt and Winston walked out first, whispering began to stir amongst the crowd, among their hushed tones he could pick out 'overwatch', probably from some of the older villagers that lived during the prime of Overwatch's time. Wooden cottages and multi-story cabins practically encircled them, it seemed to be rather small community but larger than some of the independent villages he'd seen back home on some of the lesser populated colonies. Amari and himself followed the others, stopping at the base of the ramp where the crowed began, Winston shot him a look.

Sighing he spoke as loud and clearly as he could, "We are here to help, we know of the people vanishing in this village, as well as the others. I know that many of you might wish to deal with the problem yourself, you feel that you can't trust others to do it for you and I understand that, I do. But what you're dealing with is far beyond what you can handle," grumblings of discontent grew through crowd, "I say this because I don't wish for more of you to disappear. What is out there in those woods is dangerous, frighteningly so, it is like nothing you have ever encountered before. With this said, I ask with the deepest respect that you help us find those missing…because they might not be coming back." Adrian finished, it'd been a while since he'd had to speak so much in Russian, he stumbled a few times and felt that much of his pronunciation was harsh. He'd also decided to leave out the fact that these people were not missing but almost certainly dead, it was cruel, but the prospect of survival would hopefully push them into helping them. To no one's surprise, the villagers only spoke Russian, leaving Adrian to handle the talking while the others set up a perimeter around the village. He depolarized his faceplate at the first to come forward, it an old man, thin grey hair upon a ragged face, he explained that his son, Yuri, was the first to disappear. Yuri had gone out into the forest South of the village to collect firewood, but of course…never returned. As the others told their story they all followed the same pattern, it seemed that none actually went missing from the villages themselves, but instead had disappeared in the forest. It had felt like an hour had passed by the time he reached the final person, a younger woman with long dark hair flowing freely, her eyes were deep brown, unlike the others she wasn't related to the missing, her name was Sasha.

"They're not my family…but I love them as if they were. Alexei and Kirill, brothers, they went out early this morning to fish but haven't come back. Normally they'd be back by now, but with all the news of disappearance I'm worried somethings happened to them." This was the most recent case they'd had, but in the hours that have passed the covvie bastard could've gone anywhere.

"And you knew these two well? They couldn't have gotten lost in the forest somewhere?"

"We grew up together, they're practically family, Alexei knows the forests like the back of his hand, he'd never get lost on such a short trip. Kirill would never stray far from his brother." He nodded in understanding.

"Hmm, is there any way we can quickly get in touch with the other villages from here?"

She perked up at that, "Yes, I work in Administrative Communications here, I keep contact with the other villages."

"What luck, would you mind?"

"Not at all!"

They walked into the largest building in the village, it was three stories tall and the widest out of any of the buildings here. For some walking inside the building might be refreshing, but Adrian's suit as all other ODSTs armor is climate controlled, he took off as helmet as they walked to a corner off on the first floor. Adrian looked around the room while Sasha called, looking around he'd felt a strange nostalgia for his home, the style of the room reminded him a lot of what his grandma styled her house with. He wished she could have been here to see this, the circumstances aside, he picked up the tail end of Sasha's conversation.

"You haven't been able to get in touch with Mr. Ogliz? Huh that's a bit strange, he's normally the most paranoid out of any of us, I'll call him up. Have a good day…thank you – you as well." Adrian shot her a questioning glance.

"One of the neighboring villages hasn't been answering, though it's not entirely unusual, our phone cables often go down during storms." She felt the need to clarify.

"When's the last time you spoke to someone there?"

"Hmm, probably about three days ago."

A pit began to form in Adrian's stomach but he brushed it off as simply paranoia, an entire village was ridiculous escalation, it was probably just the phone lines but still something to investigate, especially if it was intentional.

"Is there a truck or something I can borrow? Our ship would draw too much attention to us being here."

She nodded, handing him the keys to a rusty pickup truck in the back of the village. He nodded his thanks and turned to leave, outside he saw Winston conversing with Amari, walking over to them he waved them down.

"I've got two leads, pair of missing brothers to the West of here heading towards a lake, and a lack of communications with a neighboring village."

Winston turned to him, "What do you think we should do? You have the most expertise if this is the Covenant."

"Fuck I wish we weren't spread so thin." Adrian shook his head, "We split up into two groups, you and Reinhardt take the missing brothers, you've got a better head than mine for noticing details meanwhile I'll check the village with Amari. Going with the assumption that it is the Covenant, if it ends up being an elite, make sure to keep your distance, rule of thumb is the more ornate its armor looks, the more dangerous it is. If it's armed with an energy sword, it'll slice through your armor like a warm knife through butter and most are armed with an energy dagger anyway." Winston nodded in understanding before turning to find Reinhardt. Meanwhile Adrian and Amari hopped into the rust bucket, looking to waste no time, Adrian gunned it out of the village following the telephone cables to the nearest village.

"I have to ask from a tactical standpoint, why bring me? We're both ranged soldiers, unlike Reinhardt and Winston, I hope you have enough sense to at least see that."

"Of course, but neither of those two giants would fit into a car and I ain't lookin to walk." He joked; Amari snorted at that before focusing back at the mission at hand. They drove the entire line of cable not once seeing anything that would cause disruptions, the pit that Adrian felt in his stomach slowly started to grow. In the distance wooden buildings began to make themselves visible, as they drew closer, they saw that it was a far smaller village than the last, only about a dozen or so cottages that they could see. Adrian brought the truck to a stop not far from the outskirts of the village, they hopped out their weighty gear crunching the snow with a heavy thud. He shouldered his battle rifle as Amari followed behind, walking into the middle of the village they were surprised to see nothing, absolutely nothing. Walking further into the center of the village, they called out but heard nothing in return, Amari gave him a shrug, but something caught his eye. Kneeling to the snow covered ground he could see the distinct marking of a massive two clawed print, "Elites" he growled out.

"Keep your eyes and ears open, it's a worst-case scenario, remember to keep your distance if you see it. Check those buildings over there, I'll clear the ones over here.

They split up, a move that Adrian would normally berate a rookie for doing against the covvies, he couldn't say for sure what compelled him to do such a ridiculous move, but you can't change the past. Adrian walked up to the first building battle rifle in hand, cracking the door he slowly made his way in only to see his worst fears come true. Blood splattered the floor and walls, three corpses lied face down in puddles of their own blood, a family slaughtered in their own home. Walking over to the corpses, he rolled one over with his foot, it was stiff but slowly loosening, he'd guessed they'd been for a little more than twelve hours.

"It's a massacre." Amari spoke with disgust over comms.

"Yeah but these bodies are pretty…keep checking the other homes. Maybe we'll find a survivor."

Adrian moved to the next house, a similar scene laid out within, this time a family of five huddled in a corner, their entrails spilling out onto the floor like an overflowing pile. The rest of the cottages were no better, they found no survivors in that village, only death. Adrian finished first, Amari walked the corner of the nearest cabin while he was smoking a cigarette, she shook her head with a grim face.

"Couldn't find anyone, whatever that…the 'elite' that slaughtered them was ruthless, it didn't leave anything up to chance."

"Typical." Adrian muttered under his breath before flicking his cigarette away. They hoped into the truck and began the drive back, it'd gotten a whole lot more complicated, they'd probably have to spit into two groups, keep watch over both villages but then that'd leave no one to hunt the bastard. It was a tough situation. As they drove Adrian spied a faint glimmer ingrained into his mind from a decade of combat, had it been anyone else in this world they probably would've played it off as the shine of the now or a trick of the eye, but Adrian knew. Slamming on the brakes he drew his SOCOM from his hip holstered and fired through the driver side window, faint flashes appeared where he shot, only confirming what he already knew. The damn bastard was camouflaged.

"What the fuck Kasporov?"

"Its here, camouflaged in with the trees." He responded coldly, he kicked the truck door open as he aimed with his battle rifle, firing bursts as he saw the shimmering form run to the side. Most missed but he knew the last burst hit when he heard the familiar warbling of a pissed elite, reloading his rifle he slowly began to ease out of his seat. Motioning with his hands to Amari that the enemy was hiding behind the tree directly across from himself, they spread out to encircle the bastard but when they came behind the tree it wasn't there. Branches cracking above caused Adrian's neck to snap upwards, above him, balancing on the branches was a large elite covered in ornamental white armor with a large crested helmet curving backwards, it was emblazoned with red stylings.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me, it's a god damned Ultra." Elites as a whole were no fucking slouch, but Ultras were some of the worst to come across in the field. They were the highest rank Sangheili infantry could achieve, only the fiercest veterans from the bloodiest battles had a chance at becoming an Ultra, and only a fraction of those veterans was ever actually promoted. Aside from their combat experience, they often had shields far stronger than a regular elite and their armor was some of the finest the Covenant had to offer. In short, they were fucking awful to deal with.

The elite gave a guttural growl before jumping to the ground, Adrian managing to miss as he rolled out of the way. It drew an energy sword from its hip while speaking its harsh tongue, the only words he could understand was when it spoke in broken English, "Imp". He didn't wait for it to strike first, opening fire with his battle rifle he landed two solids bursts to its chest before it rolled out of the way then charged at him. It swung its sword in an upwards arc, he barely avoided becoming a shish kebab as he side stepped from the blade, it passed just inches in front of him, he could feel his face become warm as the energized weapon passed his head. Taking in the brief moment it left itself vulnerable, he brought his rifle to the right, bashing the elites face with the stock of his gun. It stumbled back grunting in surprise as it shields finally broke, before it could stand back up fully Amari charged into it with a burst of slight from her suit sending it tumbling once more. It growled in frustration, drawing a plasma grenade with its free hand, it tossed it towards Amari but the grenade overshot landing close to the truck.

"Shit! Amari it's a grenade, back the fuck up!" The grenade exploded followed by the truck, the explosion wasn't large, but the concussive force was enough to knock Amari and Adrian to the ground. Seizing the opening the elite rushed towards Adrian's lying form, energy sword in hand it went to stab his body but he managed to land a solid kick onto the elite's gut, just enough to stop the blade from severing his head. Instead he felt an unimaginable pain as it nicked his neck, he grit his teeth in agony as he drew the knife from his chest plate with his left hand, in one fluid motion he brought the knife from his holster to the underarm of the elite's sword wielding hand. Violet blood began to poor out of the wound, Adrian watched as the steaming blood began to cover his visor, he felt the hot blood run past the fresh scar on his neck. Shoving the knife deep as he could, Adrian twisted as he heard the elite howl in pain, wrapping his legs around the elite's waist, he rolled over bringing the elite down to the ground with him and onto it's back. His hand still gripping the embedded knife, he drew out the serrated blade this time stabbing it into the elite's side, reveling in every anguished howl it left loose. His joy was cut short when he felt powerful talons wrap around his throat and toss him off the elite's body, he landed with a thud in the snow. It drew a plasma rifle with its free hand and fired upon Amari who began to let loose a barrage of small rockets now that Adrian wasn't in danger of the blasts, the whole scene was a chaotic shitshow as the rockets began to cause massive puffs of snow to fill the air. The firing on both sides stopped, for a time it seemed as if the world had been frozen in time as the snow hung in the air, after what felt like an eternity the snow began to settle.

Amari stood with a few plasma marks covering her armor, most were glancing hits, but a nasty scorch existed on her left shoulder pad, luckily she probably didn't feel a thing under those massive shoulder guards. The elite had disappeared, back into the forest to recuperate, they'd managed to bring down its shields towards the end but weren't fast enough to capitalize on its weakness. Standing up with a grunt, he took off his helmet and tried to wipe off as much of the elite's blood as he could.

"Not bad Amari, though I believe I advised to stay away from it, not charge into it." He jibed, "How are those plasma burns though, I assume the armor took the brunt of the damage?"

She nodded, "Luckily, but those elite are…terrifying, I've never seen anything like them what much less anything fight like them." She repressed a shutter, instead shaking her head in disgust at the creature, "What about you? Thought I saw you take a blade to the neck."

He shrugged indifferently, "I did, but the silver lining with covenant weapons is that the wounds tend to cauterize immediately if they're small enough, so there's that." A communication from Winston interrupted their conversation.

Amari handled Winston, "We just made contact with the target, it was an alien from Kasporov's world…an elite. We managed to fight back but it escaped back into the forest, we should head after it to make sure it doesn't cause more death."

"No…there's a situation back at the town you need to get back immediately." Amari and Adrian shared a look at the flaming wreck of the truck.

"Our rides gone so we'll be walking, what's so important that we need to haul back?" She questioned.

"The Russian army's here and they're not pleased with our unannounced arrival." The comms cut out after that, they shared a look before sighing in resignation and beginning the walk back to the first village. Looking up at the clear blue sky, Adrian couldn't help but think that at least it was nice weather for a walk.