Outskirts of Dadaab Relief Camp, Kenya, Africa
The wind howled past Adrian as he crouched down on one knee, his visor zoomed to the max taking in the imminent threat that would soon reach the camp. The Covenant scouting party was currently investigating some abandoned buildings far off to the East, for now it would buy him a couple minutes to think of a strategy. It was unlikely this was the entire group hence his hesitation, especially when he spied the lumbering form of a god damn brute. There could be just one or two back at the ship, or maybe an entire war band following not far behind, too many unknowns and too little firepower for a blind assault but it wasn't looking like they had many other options. Currently Doctor Ziegler was radioing Winston advising him on the situation, fat load of good that would do be that wasn't important. He brought Vickers back to the camp, obviously questions would be raised opening a whole new can of worms, but that would be an issue for later. If he got desperate, he could bring them in but the shock of seeing a foreign creature would probably overwhelm most of the Overwatch squad stationed here. So for now it seemed he was on he was on his own he thought to himself as he stood up, pulling the battle rifle off his back as he hoped off the roof he had been using as a vantage point.
Landing with a muffled thud his mind wandered to his squad once more, they'd faced worse odds together and look he was alive if slightly worse for wear. Standing on the outskirts of the camp he rolled his neck, a series of cracks sounding out into the empty air, despite the shitty situation he found himself in there was a silver lining; he'd been longing to crack some Covenant heads ever since the encounter with the elite and well grunts and jackals were always easy prey. His enjoyment at the thought was tempered by the brute, while they're dumb ape bastards he couldn't deny they were strong, especially when they went berserk and gave into their primal rage. At that point it seems they lose any inhibition, can't even feel pain making them a real threat, so if he wanted to have a chance of living he'd have keep the brute in the forefront of his thoughts.
A faint humming sound behind him caught him by surprise, turning with his rifle raised he was surprised to see the good doctor speeding closer to him decked out in her armor, the wings seemingly working overtime. Lowering his gun, he depolarized his visor giving her an incredulous stare.
"Doc…shouldn't you be back at the camp?" He questioned as he snuck a peak behind him, seeing no sign of the covvie scouting party making any progress.
"They'll be fine without me for a bit, but you're facing an immediate danger. I wouldn't be a very good doctor if I don't help you to the best of my abilities." She quickly responded landing on her feet with graceful practice.
"I appreciate the sentiment, but the Covenant won't leave a chance for me to be healed so your efforts are gonna be in vain. Besides they won't care much that you're a medic, if anything they'll try to take you out first."
"I may despise violence but I'm not helpless." She responded sharply as she pulled a small pistol from her hip, "If necessary, it'll do the job. More importantly my abilities are just as much preemptive aid as it is for post-injury, using my Caduceus staff I can give your body a much-needed boost. It will essentially push your body into overdrive, meaning you'll be able to go beyond what you could normally do."
"Huh," Adrian mulled that new information over, it'd definitely allow him to take more a beating; he still wouldn't want to be reckless with the brute but the knowledge that he wasn't completely vulnerable was a reassuring though, "Alright much appreciated Doc. Now if you want to help…I think I've got a plan. In the scouting party is one big guy with four smaller ones, I'm going to take on the big guy, but I don't want to leave myself open to the smaller ones. With your wings, you can cover a lotta distance in a short time, so using your blaster there just skim the edges of their vision and pelt them. Don't have to do much damage, just keep them occupied, they're small and generally pretty pathetic in small groups so if you just keep them busy with some blind-fire they shouldn't be much of a threat to either of us."
She gave a firm nod, "It will be done."
"Alright good, stay a few meters behind me and whenever you get a chance hit me with that damn fancy staff of yours, I think we got this is hand, the second half we can worry over later."
As Adrian took point the old building came clearly into view and with that the covvie scouting party having just started to leave the derelict structure. Even from this distance he could here they're foreign tongue speaking, the only recognizable phrase was when the brute pushed past the grunts and jackals yelling, "IMP!" in its guttural tone.
Quickly raising his battle rifle, he left off a quick trio of bursts, the first two sending the grunts down with clean shots to their tiny skulls. Their heads popping like neon-blue balloons, the final burst harmlessly bounced off the brute's leg armor. The jackals popped their vibrant shields in front of them, their shots going wide as Adrian began to run towards the trio of aliens. Adrian's body began to take on a tingling feeling, looking behind him he saw a golden strand connecting him to Ziegler's staff. His body felt…incredible, like he could take on anything, opening fire at the brute's center of mass it let out a guttural roar. Its feral teeth sticking out like a predator asserting dominance, out of the corner of his eye he saw Ziegler fly ahead to the side drawing the jackal's fire as she laid down her own weapons fire. It was just him and he swore he could feel the brute smirking as he neared it, his legs pounding against the dry ground, instead of returning fire it reached behind it's body pulling out a small handheld item. It tossed it against the African soil before it exploded outwards in a show of light, encasing the brute and the area around out in a golden shield.
"Shit, bubble shield." Adrian swore as he slowed his run as he got close enough to see the spit dripping from its beastly mouth. It snarled, this time Adrian knew it was smiling, hoping to draw him in for a close quarter fight where it could rip him in half, but he wasn't looking to die so foolishly.
"Hey ya big ugly bastard, hiding behind a shield pretty pathetic ain't it? I mean I guess you do what you gotta do when you're so fucking cowardly, hell those fucking dead grunts were probably more of a threat than you'll ever be." He shouted at it; the brute narrowed its eyes as it stared him down before it shifted its gaze to the bubble shield projector on the ground. "Christ no wonder the prophets chose the elite's over you, at least the elites know how to fight!"
That was the final straw, it stomped the projector underneath it's metal boot as it screamed for blood, unslinging a brute shot from it's back it leveled it at Adrian's body. As it fired it's first shot Adrian rolled out of the way, the ground where he once was exploded sending dust and sand scattering in the wind. Not leaving it time to level another shot, he hauled his body around the brute taking shots at its armored head with every chance he got. It grew wise to his running and instead aimed ahead of him, when the next thunk of the brute shot sounded off he was sent stumbling background as the ground before up blew up in a spray of metal fragments and dirt. He heard it chuckle as he rolled backwards across the ground, but not looking to be caught exposed he turned his backwards roll into a crouch as he shouldered his rifle. Unleashing a barrage of bullets at its head, the heavy impact of the rounds causing it to stumble backwards in rage. Reaching behind him for a grenade, his hand brushed over a much smoother sphere reminding him of the two plasma grenades he'd gotten off the elite. Holding the dark blue ball in his hand, he pressed the button on-top before sending it with ease towards the enraged brute, through either unimaginable luck or one-in-a-lifetime skill it stuck the ape on it's helmet. With frantic chaos it ripped the helmet from its head tossing it out towards Adrian, the helmet stuck grenade exploding in mid-air in a thunderous clap of crackling plasma.
Adrian instinctively raised his arm to shield him as he turned away from the bright blast, turning back to face the brute he saw it vaulting over the small wall surrounding the derelict building before ducking behind the crumbling house. Standing up he could hear the Doc still keeping the jackals busy, turning to see he saw that she'd already killed one but the second had backed itself into a small rise in the land making it near impossible for Angela to get a clean shot. Holding his BR in his left hand, he drew his pistol from his hip unleashing a quick barrage of bullets towards the jackal's position. In the split second it broke it's position to see the second enemy, Ziegler zipped around in her angelic armor she quickly popped a shot in the back of its head causing it to crumple to the ground like a sack of concrete.
Landing down next to him he gestures with his head to the lone building, "Doc how do you feel about a touch a danger?"
"What's life without some excitement?" She replied with a humor tone.
"Swing around to the left, get it's attention but watch out for the brute shot, it's a very dangerous grenade launcher. I'm going to sneak around from the right, try to get the drop on it but if it drops down on all fours then get the fuck away. When it goes berserk you don't want to be anywhere near it."
As she began to head to the left, Adrian swapped magazines as he ducked around the corner. He could hear its barbaric grunting as it spoke to presumably whoever was back at the crashed in phantom. Its conversation stopped as Angela opened fire with her pistol, it grunted in anger as it let loose the resounding thump from its brute shot. Peaking the corner, he saw Angela zigzagging back and forth doing well to avoid its fire as it put all it's attention on her, eventually growing tired of the game of cat and mouse it had been playing. Years of first-hand experience told Adrian it was going berserk before it even threw down its weapon. Opening fire, it turned to face him as it got down on all fours, its eyes emanating pure murderous intent. It charged him like a bull hunting a matador, Adrian pressed the trigger as fast as he could aiming directly at the head of the brute, the hail of bullets shredding the skin from its face. The more he fired the more the ape turned into a creature taken straight from a nightmare, the leathery skin of it's faced turned to bloody muscle before bits of its skull began to protrude from its face but still it charged headlong. Any semblance of pain gone from it's being as the oversized monkey's mind was focused on the sole goal of tearing Adrian limb from limb.
When it was just a foot away reaching out with it's massive arms Adrian deftly sidestepped it's reach, as the brute charged past him with reckless abandon he brought the stock of his BR-55 down upon the back of its head with a sickening crunch. The force of the impact only strengthened by the weight of his titanium-alloy forearm armor; the brute went down with a thunderous wallop. It wounds finally taking their toll as it pitifully tried to push itself up from the ground, Adrian placed the heel of his boot on the back of it's send with a bone-crunching stomp sending it back to the ground. Without missing a beat Adrian brought his rifle to the back of its head letting out a double-tapped burst, an explosion of brains and blood erupting from its already battered skull. Letting out a breath he suddenly began to chuckle as the realization of the success dawned on him, looking down at the brute's corpse he gave it swift kick to the head but immediately regretted the action as his boot sunk into the ape's brain with a wet squelch.
"Even in death you're a fucking pain in the ass." He muttered as he flicked gray matter from his foot, splattering the already blood-soaked ground with more viscera. The crunch of dirt brought his attention to Doctor Ziegler, in the commotion he'd almost forgotten she was there.
"The other aliens did not give off the…feeling of genocidal creatures but this beast certainly fits the bill." She comments with a rare tone of revulsion.
"Grunts and jackals aren't too terrifying but can be deadly in their own right but ones like our pal the brute right here." He gestured with his hands, "Are a real bane of our existence, quite literally." He chuckled darkly.
"I would hope that would end the confrontation, but you mentioned they were only a scouting party. Do you know how many more to expect?"
"Not a clue, though it would be unusual to send out a scouting party that's stronger than your main force. So, at the least I would expect the same but more than likely we can assume double the danger we met here."
"Well that's certainly not optimistic."
"No…no it's not."
An orange blip on his radar appeared denoting an unknown, this head snapped up to the location but the house was blocking his view. If it was orange, it wasn't Vickers nor would it be a covvie, a civilian that came wandering from the camp or something worse?
"We've got someone on approach." He whispered to Ziegler as he instinctively pushed her behind himself, tracking the slow movements of the target. As it drew closer to the coming into view Adrian felt his body tense for another fight though he would later find his fears unneeded though not entirely unwarranted. With a controlled gait a tall, brawny man in black combat pants, a vibrant leather jacket, and most noticeably a crimson red visor stepped into view. Adrian tightened his index finger around the trigger but refrained from firing, he'd see how this played out before deciding on a course of action. For a moment they stood in strained silence as the empty winds whined past them kicking up dust and rusting the small flora scattered on the ground.
It was broken by the unknown man, his voice was rough and terse leaving little room for questions, "It's been a while Angela."
Silence followed in confusion before she began to piece the puzzle together, Adrian could hear a faint gasp escape her lips as she took a step back, "I…Jack? But we all thought-". Lowering his rifle, looked the man over once more, questions raised about how they knew each other but also who this man was. Just by looking at him it was clear he was military, his stance screamed of being in the service as well as his analytical eye scanning over every deal showed he was special ops at least.
"Couldn't be bothered to die when there's still unfinished business." He spoke as he looked the area, taking in the dead Covenant before settling on the brute by his feet.
"What are you doing here? Why wait until now to come back? Jack there's so many questions we've had." She stepped past Adrian, the previous surprise in her voice turning to faint anger.
"I enjoy a teary-eyed reunion as much as the next, but we've got a bigger problem on our hands. The pressing question now…are you with us or just here to waste our time?" Adrian spoke up, directing the latter part to this new arrival, Jack.
"I should be asking the same of you…I've heard how you handle a fight, not exactly what I'd call Overwatch material."
Adrian took a step forward, "Need a personal demonstration old man?"
"Both of you knock it off, you're acting like children. Adrian you just said it yourself we have a bigger problem to worry about, I'm sure Jack will be more than willing to cooperate later but for now we need to take care of these Covenant." Angela stepped between them with a stern expression.
"Covenant? That what you call these freaks of nature?" Morrison grunted.
"Heh at least we got idea in common." Adrian chuckled.
Angela sighed, "Yes it's a long story, I'll fill you in on the basics while Adrian can tell you how to fight them. If you're here too Jack I feel we stand a good chance of beating them."
"Alright…I'll put down whatever stands in my way." He spoke as he shouldered his pulse rifle. Adrian kept his thoughts to himself but agreed with her sentiment, the man seemed capable and there was something more to him than a superficial glance would reveal. Despite his bristling at the accusations he knew that a man like Jack could turn the tide of this battle to their favor.
As they began the trek towards the crashed phantom Angela gave Morrison a very brief overview of the situation, leaving out the parts about Adrian being from another universe deciding that it'd be best to handle that fact when Winston got involved. Every now and then Adrian would speak up to add some more pertinent facts, laying out the enemy behavior, what to expect from their arsenal, and how to best kill them. After they crested a small rise in the land the phantom became visible, it laid wreck in a small dip in the Earth seemingly pure luck that it managed to crash of all places into a hidden trough.
"There it is…a Type-52 Phantom along with all its crew. I spot two brutes, three grunts, and four jackals, Jack see the-"
"You'll address me as Morrison."
Adrian shot him a disbelieving glance before shaking his head, turning back to the phantom, "Alright…Morrison, you see the ape with the decorative gold plate? That's a War Chieftain, by far the most dangerous not only because those brutes can rip your arm off without breaking a sweat, but they only become War Chieftain by proving themselves in vicious battle."
"So not only is he strong but he's experienced as well."
"Exactly, and their armor's nothing to fuck with either, it's practically like trying to shoot through half a foot of pure steel. We'll focus on the small ones then move onto the brutes, last bit of warning though, see those two jackals in the back with the glowing head gear? Those are jackal snipers, they're bloodthirsty crack shots so if they even catch a whiff of you they'll spit your head in between your eyes from a mile away."
Morrison nodded, "I'll make them regret stepping foot on Earth, they've got the advantage in power, numbers, and territory, doesn't seem like there much in the way for a plan."
"Figured we go in guns blazing, what could go wrong?" Adrian quipped back, "When we draw their attention go for the snipers first." Morrison nodded back as they ducked behind the mound.
"Are neither of you going to mention how dumm this plan is? Its utterly ridiculous, you have a better chance of killing yourselves than the enemy." Adrian gave a half-hearted shrug while Jack simply ignored the comment instead deciding to start the assault. Swearing under his breath Adrian jumped over the mound leading into the dip in the land, he felt the loose dirt underneath his feet crumble out before him causing him to clumsily slide down the couple meter incline. Morrison had already put pressure on the smaller covvies, pushing the grunts and jackals back towards the phantom, his pulse rifle cutting down a grunt and a shield jackal.
Setting his battle rifle's sight on the nearest sniper jackal he fired a controlled burst; the loose terrain caused his shot to slide the left but still blew the creature's scrawny arm right off. It screeched in agony as it fruitlessly tried to cover up it's bleeding stump. Turning towards the next jackal he fired again but aim went wide, causing the bullets to bounce off the phantom's hull. The sniper jumped in surprise before dashing off to a different position. At the bottom of the incline Adrian opened fire on the remaining grunts while Morrison put down the last shield jackal with ease. The first grunt was riddled with bullets, causing it to slump over dead in a haze of neon-blue blood; the second grunt had it's back facing Adrian when he opened fire. The bullets punctured its methane tank resulting in a small explosion, leaving only the lower torso of the grunt intact. He spied Morrison cracking the neck of the final sniper jackal before tossing its limp body aside like a discarded toy, even Arian had a mirthful chuckle at the brutality.
That just left the two brutes, turning to face them he saw they hadn't even moved an inch since they'd made their presence known, it seems they couldn't be bothered to help in the fight instead preferring to fight the enemy themselves.
"The brute on the left has a spiker, it has a moderate rate of fire but packs a powerful punch in the form of superheated metal spikes. The War Chieftain has a brute shot and what looks like a plasma rifle on it's hit, just keep moving and don't give them an opening." Adrian spoke to Morrison as he opened fire on the Chieftain. It let out a guttural roar before charging Adrian while firing its brute shot. He rolled out of the way of the explosives, hoping to pull a similar move to the Chieftain as he did to the last brute. Sidestepping it's charge he was about to bring his elbow down before a crushing blow to his ribs sent him flying towards the phantom. He rolled ass-over-head until he landed with a thud in the shadow of the crashed ship. Groaning he struggled to pick himself, looking up towards the Chieftain it seemed it wasn't a complete moron, it'd seen through his plan and instead swung out with its fists to land a pulverizing strike. His ribs were definitely fractured if not outright broken, pulling out a small dose polypseudomorphine from his trauma kit, his stabbed it into an opening in his thigh sighing in relief as the pain in his chest resided to a dull soreness. On top of that he could feel Ziegler's staff working its magic as the golden stream flowed into his body.
Looking back towards the fight it seemed that Morrison was having a tough fight against the brute, it's spiker making it hard to get up close. Shifting his gaze towards the Chieftain he saw it stomp towards him, swearing to himself he saw his battle rifle sticking out of the sand where he'd been practically bitch-slapped. Pulling his M7S from his back-hip holster, he opened fire with small controlled bursts, the submachine stumbling the brute a bit but otherwise not having much effect. He'd need to aim for the head if he wanted a chance for his submachine gun to be effective. Taking measured steps towards the brute he kept up the barrage of small bursts, hoping to whittle down it's armor or get a lucky shot. It opened up fire once more with the brute shot sending Adrian running to the side, as he circled around the Chieftain, he could see the other brute go down under a barrage of Morrison's pulse rifle. Jack turned to Chieftain, with its focus entirely on Adrian it left it's back open for assault, easting no time he opened fired with his pulse rifle. The brute stumbled forward, surprised from the rear assault as he turned to see his ally laying in the dirt, its dark red blood soaking the ground.
Finally seeing the opening as the brute turned to face Morrison, Adrian rushed it drawing his serrated blade from his sheath. Drawing near he slashed low, cutting deep into an opening on the back near its heel, thick dark blood gushed forth like a fountain. The brute roar as it fell to a knee, with the height difference balanced Adrian hoped on it's back burrowing his knife deep into the side of its neck. He felt the beast shift beneath him as it stood up once more before he felt a hairy paw grip his shoulder before he was tossed from its back and into Morrison. Adrian felt the wind get knocked out of him as he hit Jack with a weighty thud. The pounding footsteps of as the Chieftain got nearer echoed in his helmet, the same massive hairy paw that had thrown him off now picked up from his wrist. It felt like his arm was going to pop out of its goddamn socket as he was held there dangling like an ornament, the Chieftain looked him over before snorting to itself.
"Well shit, "Adrian thought to himself, "This ain't a great situation …" But his thoughts trailed off as he remembered that he got more than just plasma grenades from the elite. With his free hand he reached into a latched pocket on his hip, pulling out of it a slim silver object in the shape of a handle. Flicking the silver piece forward a cackling blue blade shot forth around his hand, the Chieftain narrowed its eyes in confusion. Adrian didn't give it much time to think before he brought the energy sword slicing through the brute's arm, severing it at the elbow. He fell to the ground landing in an unceremonious lump with the half of the brute's arm landing next to him. It stumbled backwards in agony before it went berserk as it ripped it's helmet off with it's remaining arm. It stormed towards Adrian, but he narrowly missed, clumsily rolling out of the way as the pain from his ribs worsened. The brute turned around, huffing in fury before once more stampeding in a hope to bash him to bits. As it charged, Adrian stuck to his tried and true method and sidestepped the beast, except this time when it tried to swing outwards it swung with it's severed limb, meaning that Adrian watched in amusement as a cauterized stub passed him by. Swinging low with the energy sword, he felt the blade cut cleanly through the brute's leg causing it to fall flat on it's face. It's cleaved leg now laid smoking in the open land of Africa while the brute rolled onto it's back now pointlessly trying to defeat its opponent. Adrian shambled over to the brute, his ribs flaring with every step, careful to stay out of its reach as all the memories he'd had of brutes came flooding back. Every time one of these bastards killed his squadmates, tore apart someone he knew, massacred a planet's worth of people, feasted on the flesh of his family. The urge to drag out its death came to the forefront of his mind, the idea to make it suffer as long as possible seemed like such an enticing idea, but he threw the thoughts from his mind. His family…had they still been alive wouldn't have wanted such pointlessly cruelty, such barbarism on his part, especially Chloe she would've never forgiven him.
He stared into the eyes of the ape, a frown gracing his lips, with a flick of his hand the sword cut through the brute's neck sending the head rolling away towards its discarded helmet. Plopping down next to it's corpse he looked to see Angela tending to Morrison, the white leather of his jacket growing a deep red. Turning back to the dead ape he stared at it for a while longer…it's done…the Covenant came to Earth and for now they lost. He could take solace in that for now.