Dremuchiy Les Village, Republic of Sakha, Russia

Being told the Russian Army had arrived had complicated the mission immeasurably, though Winston had no reason to lie, Adrian had still felt that this military presence had felt oddly timed. They'd only been here two hours tops and yet they'd already zeroed in on their position, sure it wasn't beyond imagination for them to be watching the skies but if they'd been detected earlier than why hadn't their involvement been immediate? It raised questions in Adrian's mind that he'd want answers to, normally he'd couldn't be bothered to give a shit and would've chocked it up to administrative incompetence because of a lax governing body but with an elite here…doubt raced through his thoughts. Despite these holdings, he was curious to see what an official state sanctioned military was like, while the actionable freedom of Overwatch was similar to an ODST's choice of approaching a mission, some part of him did miss the strict organization and responsibilities that came with service.

Adrian and Amari continued to trudge through the ankle-high snow as signs of the village could start to be made out through the tree line. It wasn't long until they walked out into the village clearing to see a few troop trucks parked on the outside of the village with a couple dozen of soldiers holding perimeter around the town. What had surprised Adrian however was the singular piece of heavy calvary, what appeared to be a light tank hovering above the ground. He quirked his brow in admiration, Covenant technology had been difficult to reverse engineer to say the least as most hover-based vehicle were still experimental prototypes with most ending in failure. Yet here it seems that'd managed to find an alternate path to achieving the same goal, if he got the chance, he'd see what he could find out about it. Thinking on it, he'd actually seen very little of any populated center, there was no telling how common this hover tech was; regardless being able to bring back some of this world's technology could bolster humanity's defense – or what's left of it anyway. At the least he was interested in the tech itself, curious to see how this version of humanity came upon such an invention but that would have to come later for now they have tangible problem right in front of them.

Standing a ways ahead of Adrian were a small group of people having a heated conversation with Winston, three of the group seemed to just be an armed escort so Adrian temporarily ignored them instead focusing on the last two of the group, both older man if their gray hair was anything to go by. The tallest had short buzzed hair with a nasty scar running from his right cheek to down under his chin, situated upon his shoulders was a two star insignia with a trio of golden lines crossing back and forth behind the stars. He was likely the commander of these forces, had this been in his world he would've immediately saluted in the presence of a major general. Though for obvious reasons he refrained from such actions, also reminding himself that prior to the UNE unification of governments most countries probably had their own individual ranks, though it didn't matter much considering the grizzled veteran was clearly ranks above what Adrian was. While the first man was undoubtably military, the second man was the exact opposite, oddly thin without a trace of military discipline in him, he'd seen his types before under ONI though he figured his role in this was different. Based on the man's suit and formal manner, Adrian assumed he was a diplomat or liaison of some sort, for what reason he was brought here was beyond him.

As Adrian and Amari approached the group, the armed escort immediately turned their rifles toward themselves, the commander lazily turned his head to the disturbance before a wary smile graced his lips. "Ah these must be the agents you had in the field, now tell me, were you successful in hunting down…what it is that exists in these woods? The thing that has been seemingly hunting my people down like wild animals?" Neither of them spoke a word, the general snorted, "Of course you weren't, you lack the power of a fully fledged army, the immense resources at my disposal, Overwatch has none of this. Now I hope you won't take my snide remarks as disdain for your organization, I appreciate the efforts you took in combating the Omnic crisis when they knocked upon the motherland's doors. You must understand that despite this, I take it as an insult to my work when you come into my country to solve our own problems, especially considering your groups evident failures."

"Lieutenant general," Winston began, "you must understand that this is like nothing any of us have ever faced before! Sending your men into that forest will only result in their death, one village has already had its inhabitants slaughtered!" Winston tried to reason with the man, but his words fell on deaf ears. Though briefly Adrian curiosity was momentarily piqued at the commander's rank, Lieutenant General in the UNSC was the second to highest rank an officer could achieve though clearly the rank held different albeit still immensely powerful status here.

"Do not underestimate my men beast, detain them!" The scarred man snarled, several soldiers that had previously been milling about encircled them, Adrian felt himself forcefully pushed to the ground as his hands were bound behind his back. He swore under his breath, they were just wasting fucking time with this, the longer that Ultra was in the woods the more likely it was to just move somewhere else. If it saw the Russians mobilizing larger squads, it'd just wait it out somewhere else while picking off whatever poor human bastard came its way. Reinhardt was far larger than any of the soldiers here, with no one to forcibly shackle Reinhardt nor having any equipment big enough to restrain him, they settled with simply aiming the tanks main turret at Reinhardt. Honestly it would've been rather comical had the situation not been so dire.

"Generál-leytenánt, zachem tratit' zhizni svoikh lyudey?" (Lieutenant General, why waste the lives of your own men?). Adrian yelled; the general turned to him in surprise.

"A kinsman among their ranks? Interesting…" The general mumbled.

"I don't give a damn how good your soldiers are, most if not all of them will die if you send them out into that forest, but at your disposal are four of the best trained military operatives from across the globe. You send me out there and worst case is I die while your men live to see another day; best case is I succeed and you can take the credit for putting an end to these grisly murders. A good general does everything is his power to ensure that his men make it back or are you the vain bastard that's going to throw their lives away because of some chicken shit pride bullshit."

This brought the general's full attention to himself; it had felt…unusual to speak so callously to an a general but it needed to be done. A member of the Covenant couldn't be allowed to just freely roam as they wished, especially on a planet that wasn't prepared for it. Adrian depolarized his faceplate as the general walked over to him, crouching on the balls of his feet so they could see face to face.

"Pray tell, why should I listen to the talk of someone who failed to get this creature the first time?"

"Because I fought it and survived, I wounded it, the longer we stay here pussyfooting around and knocking the dicks out of each other's mouths the more likely it is that its going to find somewhere else to start killing."

The general let out a hearty chuckle his voice bellowing like a cannon, "Oh you've got spirit rodich but I'm not here play around." He turned to his subordinates, shouting for them to send in Yelena and Leonid squad, half the soldiers occupying the village headed out in the forest. When Adrian and Amari had started their trek back, the sun had already begun to set casting the forest in a warm orange hue. Now that comforting warmth was gone, replaced with the pitch black of the night without a moon, once the soldiers entered the tree-line they were practically invisible. Adrian pitied the men who'd just been sent to their death, night vision wouldn't help and thermals were useless on camouflaged covenant, even ODST's VISR couldn't detect camouflaged enemies, it'd only be a matter of time before their cries echoed throughout the forest. So when the first shots rang out not far from the village, it came as a shock to everyone but Adrian. Briefs flashes of light followed by the pop of rifle fire were quickly silenced, over the radio the incoherent screams of men being butchered reigned throughout the village. Watching from the outside, it was almost like watching a chain reaction, starting on the right would be bursts of fire that starkly contrasted to the void of night. As the first soldiers went down they're rifles being silenced, the group immediately to the would open fire only to be cut down. You could see the progress of the Ultra as it cut down each soldier one by one, the flashes of light quickly appearing then disappearing across the horizon.

Eventually an eerie silence reigned over the forest as the last rifleman was cut down, he could never tell what was worse, the ear-piercing screams of men being slaughtered over the radio or the awful silence that followed knowing that none of them were left alive. The general was frantically attempting to radio the squads though everyone knew it was a fruitless effort, he let out an anguished yell as he threw his radio to the snow-covered ground. Turning towards the diplomat they engaged in a heated discussion, Adrian could only pick out bits and pieces, something about a Marshal Zukhov, rebels or…dissidents maybe, and something about greater repercussions. It was clear that there was something greater going on in the country, Adrian could hazard a guess that there wouldn't be any more troops or doing so would incur the wrath of this Marshal Zukhov. It would explain the relatively small force here if they were occupied elsewhere, it could also explain why there was such a high-ranking official was doing in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. This was on just speculation on is part, but the bravado, the lack of planning, the urge to get this finished as soon as possible, the General likely had gotten on someone's shit list and was reassigned to this unit to clear up this mess. The sooner he got it cleared up the faster he was back on track to his original position; Adrian saw it all the time in the USNC though not very often as of late.

Lieutenant General Valinsky could never admit it to his superiors, but every fiber of his being was telling him not to send his men into those woods, it was a gut feeling he'd earned over years of experience that was practically begging him not to do it. Especially with Overwatch here, he knew that something of great importance was here but he was also wise enough to know that it went beyond anything he could understand. He was being honest earlier when he said he held great respect for Overwatch, he'd often had thoughts of joining but a duty to his country had always come first in his eyes. Of course, none of these thoughts matter with… him here, the Valinsky's eye shooting over to the out of place diplomat. He was sent on the guise of peacefully talking with Overwatch, to try and persuade them to help with some issues globally that Russia couldn't officially do themselves. While that was almost certainly true, there was a second motive that while not necessarily hidden was more implied than anything else, that this diplomat was to make sure that Valinsky wouldn't fuck up twice. Previously he'd taken up some issue with a series of orders that came from Marshal Sergeyev, a mistake that he'd wisely never make again, so much of what he was doing was false machismo to please the desk-sitting parasite. It made him sick to send his own men into certain death, hearing their screams as they died was simultaneously awful but…not unexpected. Deep down he figured it was all some sort of plan to make him turn to Overwatch for aid, to help create a budding relationship for future endeavors, but the absolutely fucking ridiculous thing is that Valinsky would've asked for there help regardless. So often the desk-sitting fuckwads are out of touch with the men in the field, creating these elaborate schemes and plans never having actually served themselves, it was like putting a goddamn toddler in charge. With a resigned sigh he pushed those thoughts out of his head, they'd get him nowhere.

Turning towards the detained Overwatch agents he asked what he knew the diplomat wanted to hear, "Can you guarantee that you'll kill whatever monstrosities lurks in these forests?"

The four agents looked at each other with baffled confusion, Valinsky chuckled darkly to himself, it made no sense to himself either. Eventually the leader spoke, his large dark fur-covered body standing out against the crisp white now and bright lights in the village.

"Does this mean that we're no longer uhh prisoners? Or detained?"

Before Valinsky could speak, the lanky diplomat walked up, "Of course! Of course! I am deeply sorry for your treatment, my colleague here got rather carried away. We never meant for any of this to happen, inf act I was sent here with a proposition that I believe you will find rather tempting, although first we should deal with the current problem no?"

"Ahh uhmm y- yes…of course. I'll discuss with my team on how to - handle this situation."

Valinsky sighed, it was of no surprise that he'd get thrown under the bus for this whole debacle, the only hopeful aspect of this whole shitshow is that he'd get his old position back, otherwise he doubted he'd ever make it out of these god awful postings. Taking out a cigarette, he looked up at the starry sky with thoughts that eventually things would get better.

It was decided despite fervent opposition from the other members that Adrian would head into the forest alone. Absolutely reckless but the others lacked the experience to hunt an elite, sure they could all strap on some night vision or thermals but that wouldn't help them at all, they barely knew what to look for in broad daylight, let alone in worse visual conditions. Bringing them with him would only burden an already tense mission, they'd likely only end up like the soldiers sent in previously, killed without ever even realizing it.

Taking stock of his gear, he looked once more back at the inviting light of the village he trudged past the tree line and into the vast dark expanse of the forest. Turning on his VISR, it helped to lighten his surroundings a bit but not as much as he'd hoped. As he walked on, every creaking branch in the wind or wild animal calling out set his nerves on edge, he kept his breathing even hoping that it'd calm the rest of his body, but every inch of muscle was screaming at him to leave the forest. It wasn't long until he came upon the first set of corpses, the soldier's bodies unceremoniously laid in the snow their blood pooled out under them, soaking into the snow like a sponge. Steam rose from the poor bastards who had their guts spilling out like burst balloons, stepping over them Adrian's steps became slower, more measured as he scanned the area, making sure to check the tree lines as well. Following the trail of corpses, he came upon the most recent to die, the soldiers died clutching at their throat in vain hoping to stop the bleeding. Scanning the ground he spied the large two pronged print he was looking for, it led away from the bodies deeper into the forest, almost definitely a trap that Adrian had no choice but to follow.

The further in he went the more the leafless trees around him seemed like brutal fingers reaching out from the depths of hell itself. Eventually the ground began to slope downwards, he felt himself slip a few times as he made his way down the incline, the snow was crisp from the freezing temperatures, patches of ice hid themselves under the inches of snow. Wood creaked behind him, far too much too simply be the wind but his reflexes were just a touch slower than the elite jumping from above once more. It landed with a dulled thud, snowing billowing in the air as it slashed forward with its blazing sword, Adrian had always liked to think that he would've dodged regardless but the truth is dumb luck is what saved him in the end. As he stepped back, he felt his foot fly out from under him as he hit a spot of ice, falling backwards the sword missed by a wide margin as he tumbled down the hill. Hitting the bottom of the hill he quickly stood back up shouldering his battle rifle, he could hear the snow crunching in the darkness around him but it was far too hard to spot any distortion in the air from the camouflage.

The sound of hurried steps to his right brought him face to face with the charging Ultra, Adrian opened fire with his battle rifle as he quickly walked backwards. His back hit the solid trunk of an oak tree, with no where else left to go he dodged under the elite's sword swing as it neared him, going through the thick trunk with ease. Before he could stand, he felt himself lifted off the ground by the elite's vicious clawed hand its sharp talons digging into Adrians neck drawing blood. It snarled something unintelligible at him, Adrian simply responded with, "Christ on a stick you are one ugly bastard. Ever thought of cosmetic surgery?" With practiced ease Adrian swung his legs up and around the elite's neck, twisting his legs he felt the elite tumble to the side, he'd hoped it would loosen the grip around his throat or drop him entirely, instead it squeezed harder before tossing Adrian aside like a dirty washrag. His body crashed against a tree with cracked as the wood splintered behind him, he pushed himself off the ground with a groan. His head snapped up to the Elite as it inched closer to him, Adrian noticed that its sword had switched arms, its main arm likely still recovering from the knife wound he had inflicted earlier. He wasn't sure if elite had dominant arms, but it'd definitely seemed that its attacks were sloppier, less focused or maybe less controlled. Lacking his battle rifle, Adrian reached for one of the grenades he'd taken from the soldiers in the village, pulling the win he rolled it forwards under the elite. It looked down in surprise before rolling away, without his rifle Adrian drew his SOCOM from his hip, unleashing a rapid-fire burst of pistol rounds at the elite as it rolled. All shots hit their mark with the final bullet dropping the elite's shields with the telltale crackle of electricity. Adrian quickly circled around the Ultra; its armor too thick for the pistol bullets to pass through so he planned to make his way to where his battle rifle was dropped. Realizing what Adrian was planning, the Ultra let out a guttural yell as it drew a plasma pistol from its hip and began to fire upon Adrian's sprinting form. With each shot the elite walked closer to Adrian, he could see his battle rifle only a few meters way lying in the snow, his legs pounded against the ground. When it seemed he had victory within his grasp, a searing pain erupted in his leg causing him to stumble forward, in less eloquent terms he ate shit...hard. A plasma bolt has struck the back of his calf, melting the armor as easily as it melted the snow around him. Trying to stand the pain in his leg was too great, he collapsed again into the snow. Crawling pitifully towards his rifle, he kept reaching out hoping to grab the rifle, the next time he outstretched his hand a prong of the energy soared pierced the top of his hand, pinning it to the ground. He let out a blood-curling scream until his throat went raw, a clawed foot rolled him over the sword still impaling his hand. The Ultra's split jaw lowered itself to mere inches from Adrian's face, it studied him for a bit like a live specimen at a zoo. In barely audible broken English, it spoke to him, "Worthy…you have…been…may honor…guide you."

Adrian didn't care much for honor, and he sure as hit didn't care for this ugly fuckers respect, especially when he was so goddamn cocky he didn't think to check if Adrian was still armed before doing his whole honor spiel. With his non-impaled hand still gripping the SOCOM pistol, Adrian shoved the barrel of the pistol into the wide gaping maw of the elite's mouth, as absolutely disgusting the spit-chins were he appreciated that they're separated jaws made it easier for him to do this. Pulling the trigger on his pistol he fired straight into the back of the elite's mouth, completely ignoring the shields as the bullets burst through the back of his heads, erupting like a volcano. He continued to fire even after the Ultra's struggling had stopped, he kept pulling the trigger until the magazine was empty. As the elite's body fell limp its grip on the sword loosened causing it to retract, bringing the sweetest relief Arian had ever felt as his scorched skin embraced the cool relief of snow.

Pushing the corpse from off his body, he closed his eyes in solace knowing that there was one less Covenant in the world. He slowly opened his eyes back up to the night sky, the stars shone brightly above like a glittering parade. Slowly removing his helmet, he tossed it to the side before letting his head fall into the snow, damp from the sweat it felt like paradise for his head to rest in the snows cool embrace. Taking out a cigarette with his good hand, he lit it up, the glow from the tip being the only light in the forest. In the near pitch blackness, the lit cigarette seemed like its own star in a boundless of sea of nothing, Adrian decided he would just lay here for a while enjoying the quiet comfort before limping back to base. He figured he'd earned at this this small reprieve.

A/N: This chapter felt like a real pain in the ass to write, its why it took longer than the others but I still don't feel entirely happy with it despite the extra time, some parts I liked a lot, others I don't like at all. What can you do. Just a quick update, the next chapter probably won't be released within the next week either. I'm taking a personal trip for myself that will probably last about a week, and after that I'll still have the write the chapter, so I wouldn't expect it for at least two weeks. Sorry for the delay but to hopefully break up the lack of content, I plan on doing a small intermission to answer questions and reviews that have been brought up or have been asked of me through the PMs I get. Well that's about it for now, so I'll see you all when I post the intermission.