Forests of the Tell Atlas Mountain Range, Algeria, Africa

"All I'm saying is better safe than sorry."

"So you can give them the same welcoming you gave me?"

"Fair point."

"Exactly, so when we get near the drop pod, you stay back and let me handle the talking. You were lucky it was me who landed, not all ODSTs are as amiable as I am…or have anything above average intelligence but that's beside the point. Besides seeing a cowboy isn't gonna help much to convince them of the situation."

McCree scoffed, "You said something like that when you first landed here."

"I wonder why." Adrian replied dryly as the two hiked through the lightly wooded terrain, keeping an eye out for any unusual activity. Adrian dropped off a small ledge as Jesse followed behind him, a stealth transport shipped that Winston called the Swordfish circled overhead in the clouds. Prepared to drop atmosphere at a moment's notice for a quick getaway, the slipspace rupture had occurred unfortunately close to a number of populous cities meaning that time was against them if they wanted to get to the landing zone

"If you'll enlighten a poor ole southern boy like myself, "McCree drawled with an exaggerated accent, "What guarantee is it that its someone like you?"

"A charmingly roughish man with a steeled exterior that secretly harbors a heart of gold?"

"You know what I mean, or – and this is from a more cynical perspective – what's to guarantee they're still alive?"

Adrian nodded, "Well there is no guarantee, but the survival rates of past encounters has been pretty high so I'm cautiously optimistic."

"You didn't answer my first question, what if it's more damn aliens?"

"Well the covvie drop pod equivalents are pretty damn big, enough to fit Reinhardt in at least because they're meant to be used by every race in the Covenant which according to Winston would cause a greater energy disruption or whatever. Anyway it can't be a regular old or rather if it is they'll be dead on arrival, they wouldn't know how to operate the pod and their gear lacks force compression like ours do. A spartan could easily survive though they'd be too big to fit in the drop pod and they've got their own orbital drop rated gear but as a whole they're small than a drop pod. Process of elimination and well…it's either a guaranteed dead marine, or a fifty-fifty ODST."

"How bout you run that by me one more time, wasn't paying attention the first time." McCree jested.

Adrian sighed as the two broke into a clearing, a wide field of flowers opened up before them. Like something out of a painting which would've been nice to admire had the two not been on an urgent mission. The two crossed the path of flowers, the sun above them a little past it's peak casting a warm glow upon them. Halfway through the field a crackling sound stopped them in them in their tracks. Looking up Adrian spied what appeared to be a far smaller and far cruder slipspace portal utilized by the Covenant. Not long after their eyes became glued to the tear above them, a black object shot out followed by the thunderous crack of a sonic boom as it rocketed towards the ground near them. It crashed with an explosive clap, a shockwave blasting out as it tore up the earth in the surrounding area sending Adrian and Jesse stumbling back onto their backs. The two recovered quickly as Adrian felt a pit of dread growing within his stomach like a parasite as he saw the crashed object.

"Jesus Adrian ain't that-"

"Fucking shit!" He dashed over the drop pod, its bottom still smoldering in the dirt as it laid motionless with its parachute only barely deployed.

"Is this an older model? Your didn't land with a parachute." Jesse questioned as he ran behind Adrian, the two moving to the opposite sides of the windowed hatch.

"The parachute's meant to slow landing speed at the half-way point of the drop before releasing the pod as the thrusters kick in. The fact that we still see a parachute means that it landed too early."

"Christ."

As the two dug their fingers under the hatch, they began to pull with all their might, heaving backwards until they heard a click as the hatch broke free of the pod. Tossing the metal sheet aside, McCree stood back as Adrian ran to the interior of the pod. The distinct armor of an ODST sat unmoving in the seat as a faint patch of blood began to soak through the under suit around the neck. Adrian quickly moved into the pod and removed the helmet, revealing a young boy only a couple years older than Hana. Blood pooled from his mouth as his eyes cracked open just a touch, confusion and fear dominated the boy's eyes before a small hint of recognition shown in them as he gazed upon a fellow ODST. He tried to speak but his body was shaking, tears welled in the kid's eyes as he coughed out the pooling blood with a disgustingly familiar chunk of muscle hitting the pod floor.

Adrian shut his eyes and clenched his teeth for a split second before taking deep breaths and removing his helmet. The boy was going to die, that much was certain. Shock has his body shivering in convulsions, the landing was far too rough probably causing a number of internal hemorrhages, any number of bones could be shattered from the impact, and perhaps worst of all the kid couldn't say any final words because he'd bitten off his own tongue on impact. The whole war was just a waste of lives, but it felt pitifully wrong to have this kid not even die in his own universe. Dying on Earth might've had some impact if it was their own, or if this kid even knew what the hell was happening. Looking the kid straight in the eyes, he grabbed the kid's hand in his own as it laid there upon his lap lightly twitching. With his other hand he put it on the side of the kid's head so he could at least have some semblance of human contact before he passed.

"Look at me, you did a damn fine job. You made your family proud; you made your brothers and sisters in the UNSC proud, you made that pain in the ass drill sergeant from boot proud." Adrian spoke softly as the young man tried to chuckle at the end but only ended splattering Adrian with blood. He didn't mind, he kept the smile on his face as he reached down to the trauma pack of his thigh. His fingers brushed over a syringe that he grasped onto as he continued to talk to the boy, "You train on Reach? Did you know a Sergeant Brewer? No shit, she was the meanest son of a bitch I ever saw. Once a buddy of mine addressed her as sir instead of ma'am, that poor bastard was running laps till the morning." Adrian kept rambling as he slid the needle into the kid's leg, pressing down on the syringe until it was empty. Eventually the kid's focus started to fade as his face took on the look of serene peace, his family would never know the fate that befell their child leaving a painless death the only mercy that Adrian could give.

It made him feel sick.

Reaching around the kid's neck Adrian pulled the dog tags off and took a closer look at them, Private Feng Mian. He stuffed them into his breast pocket before reaching under Mian's chest plate for the familiar touch of a soft cloth flag. Finding what he needed, he pulled it out and flapped it open laying across the lap of the dead ODST before laying the helmet ontop of the ensemble.

"Shattered Glass this is Kasporov over." Adrian radioed the Swordfish flying high.

"Roger Kasporov, what do you need? Over."

"Got a casualty, requesting immediate retrieval for safeguard. Load everything in the area, and treat the body with respect, he's earned it. Over."

"Affirmative, dropping from atmosphere now, over and out."

With a sigh he turned from the crashed pod nodding to McCree as they continued to their path to the original crash site though now with a faster quicker pace. At a light jog they left the meadow and returned once more to the conifer forest with a growing urgency with every passing second.

"Did you know the ODST back there?" Jesse spoke up from beside Adrian.

"No, but he was just so damn young."

McCree shook his head in disgust, "It's a shame, you know what I'm talking about. Their whole life ahead of them just put to a stop. Though your situation is beings tuck between a rock a hard place, either option is shit frankly."

"Especially for the poor bastards growing up in the tail end of this war, born just in time to live a life of constant fear where aliens raze the Earth and the last thing, you'll think of is the extinction of humanity. What a fucking life." Adrian growled out the last sentence as they continued on in silence as his thoughts were ablaze. He'd briefly mentioned a thought to Winston that he hadn't taken stock of and at this point still didn't put his backing behind it, but it made an apt feeling. Before he came this shit didn't happen, a few debris would come through but that's just glorified space junk. Though once he landed, one he made an impact on this world it seemed as if the universe sought one thing and that was to get him the fuck outta here or lately with that baring minimal success, just to kill him outright.

Did he believe that the cosmic forces of the universe were conspiring against him? No as in his mind that's one of the dumbest fucking things he'd ever heard of, he was just throwing shit at the wall for lack of any real explanation. It's just as likely that the worst damn luck existed for him and him alone at this period, maybe the collective hotpot of bad luck was actively taking a shit on his time spent here. If they couldn't get him to leave, and they couldn't kill him, then they'd just further brutalize his psychological state by killing some poor kid that probably hadn't even gotten to third base.

A hand pressed to his chest tore him from his thoughts and quite literally stopped him in his tracks, looking to the side he saw McCree with his arm extended across his body. Jesse rose a single finger to his lips before Adrian could even ask as the cowboy focused on their environment. Following suit Adrian listened to the woods, he almost thought to ask Jesse to elaborate before a brief sputtering of noise caught his ear – gunfire. None of the possible outcomes were exactly good, it just gave a silver lining that one part of the fighting symphony was the ODST they were sent here to find in the first place.

Wasting no time, the two bolted in the direction of the previously heard gunfire dashing past trees and shrubbery to hopefully stop the mission from being a complete failure. Adrian's armored boots pounded against the grassy dirt sending up chunks of earth with each forceful step. A large boulder laid in front of him that he easily cleared by sliding over it, sparks flying as his composite armor scraped against the rock. Continuing the sprint without dropping his pace, Adrian continued his run until he came across a ruined section of the forest. Tree limbs shattered, entire stumps uprooted and a blackened path in the ground where all the surrounding vegetation was burnt to a crisp. Following the path of destruction led to another ODST drop pod, though this one thankfully having avoided the crushing doom of the last. Its hatch laid meters away, obviously having been blasted off from the inside which was already a blessing in itself.

Bringing his battle rifle to bear, Adrian slowly walked up to the pod as McCree followed at a distance. As he neared the drop pod, he raised himself to peak inside to an unsurprisingly empty vessel. The new question raised was where the hell was their missing trooper. Heavy gunfire didn't erupt in the middle of the Algerian mountains because some idiots thought it'd be fun, a conflict evidently happened and Adrian would bet his life that his comrade was involved. The second question was against who, though once more he had a hunch that they were involved with the local military. Though for the sake of all parties involved he hoped his latter guess would end up being wrong, sometimes it pays not to be right.

Another brief burst of weapons fire drew their attention to the east where it seemed to silence once and more all. Nodding towards McCree, Adrian took point as they moved away from the crash site but now before activating a small beacon and tossing it into the empty pod. Looking towards the ground he could see boot prints in the soft dirt, the sole prints matching standard issue ODST combat boots but there also laid a number of other prints in a wide swath going the same direction. It wasn't long until they came upon the first body, a standard woodland camo distinguished by the Algerian flag imprinted upon the shoulder. The solider was laying face down in a pool of blood, a hole straight through their neck as Adrian knelt down to pick up the radio. He flicked it on but only received static.

"Well the area seems clear…but uh…I assume this ain't great for foreign relations." Adrian tossed the radio towards McCree who caught it swiftly out of the air.

"You'd be right, the faster we get our target the better."

Standing back up, the two made their way further east, with each step they passed a growing number of bodies all in higher concentration. Meaning they were getting close to the where the ODST made their stand, their IFF signals should mark each other on their respective radar hopefully preventing friendly fire. Though if the other ODST was jumpy, dazed, saw McCree first or was just out of fucking range…well there was no guarantee for anything to go according to plan. They had passed at least a dozen guys when a bullet ricocheted off the tree near McCree, sending splinters flying as the two hit the ground. A heavy concentration of bullets reigned above them as the FMJ rounds obliterated the flora of the forest.

"And you were worried about my welcoming." Jesse deadpanned.

"I'm almost tempted to just let him kill you." Adrian bit back as he waited for the gunfire to cease. Once there was an opening, he wasted no time in calling out, "Where do we drop?"

He held his breath as he waited for one of two responses, either another salvo of gunfire or – "Feet first into hell!" The shooter called back much to Adrian's relief. He waited on the ground just a split second longer until the yellow dot appeared on his radar, he nodded to Jesse and pushed himself off the ground. Looking through the tree line he could faintly make out the unmistakable obsidian black armor as it stood in a similar hesitance. As Adrian drew closer a familiar design began to make itself known to him, mostly faded much like his own armor embellishments, a trio of dulled blood red scratches like a werewolf's claw dragged across adorned the other ODST's helmet. The more he looked the more he was certain he knew who it was.

"Liam? You almost made me worry about you." Adrian spoke in near disbelief.

"Adrian, no shit. I land in god knows where with these cunts all over me like their girl at prom, and the first friendly face I see is you? What a shit fuckin' day." The Aussie known as Liam "Barbie" White spoke as he stuck out his hand which Adrian grabbed as the two had a quick embrace. Barbie winced as the interaction as he held onto his abdomen. "One of the bastards got me by surprise and scored a lucky shot; patched it up with some biofoam but we both know its good for fuck all. Wouldn't happen to have a medic with ya?" He asked before realizing that Adrian wasn't alone, he tiled his head in confusion as the cowboy standing behind Adrian.

"Look it's a long damn story, he's on our side and a hell of shot."

Barbie stared a second longer before nodding, "So we dealing with some innies or what?"

Adrian looked towards the pile of bodies behind him, "Something like that…but listen how the hell did you get here? Did you get caught up in the cruiser's slipspace rupture?"

Liam nodded, "Aye, tried to redirect but didn't have the time. Rest of the squad was far enough out to avoid it, but I got pulled in same as you. Absolutely fucking wild few seconds though in the rupture amiright? Had no damn idea where I was until I popped out here."

It took Adriana few seconds to remember that slipspace ruptures fucked with both space and time, just because he'd been here for months didn't mean that Barbie was traveling through space for the same amount of time. In the time Adrian had been traveling the world putting down threats, Barbie had only counted the difference as last than a minute in time. He struggled to wrap his head around it but pushed it to the side for now, there'd be plenty of time for that shit later.

"McCree radio in, we're ready for evac." Jesse nodded before pulling out one of his signature cigars and walking to lean against a large tree. Adrian turned backed to Barbie, "Let me check that wound, you've always been ass at patching yourself up."

"What are you, my mother?" He bit back but still complied, bringing himself to sit on the ground with a grunt before removing his helmet in relief. Revealing a man a few years older than Adrian with short and frizzy dirty blonde hair, an ugly scar starting on his left cheek and running between the ear on the same side. "So what the hell is goin' on mate? It doesn't take a genius to know something's off about this place, 'specially with that get up am I right."

"Again long story, I'll fill you in on everything once we get out of here." Adrian replied as he brought out a pair of tweezers and small surgical stapler. "Take a swig, this is gonna hurt like a bitch."

"Christ how is it that everyone knows." Barbie replied as he pulled a small hidden flask from the inside of his chest plate armor, "Think gunny knows?" Adrian just shot him a look, "Right dumb question."

Adrian worked quickly to pull out the shrapnel which lucky wasn't deep, the undersuit having taken most of the momentum from the bullet. When he finally finished his patchwork job on Liam, he pulled the other ODST up to his feet.

"McCree how soon until were out of here?" Adrian asked as he wiped his bloody hands on

"Two minutes top."

Again Adrian would question the absolute shit hand he'd been dealt in this one period of his life, as if the entire misfortune of a person's life were instead focused on this one specific moment in time. Even now he wouldn't beholden himself to the whims of some cosmic force, though in his mind there was a small part of him that said, 'If there is a cosmic force, they're real pieces of shit'. The familiar crackling woosh of slipspace portals opening above them drew their attention to the nebulous purple tears that existed in the sky above them before their form was broken as several Covenant drop pods broke through the portals.

The cigar in McCree's mouth dropped to the ground as he stood in dumbfound sunrise as the covvie pods landed a few dozen meters away from the trio. Barbie swore under his breath as he quickly donned his helmet and drew his assault rifle, muttering a number of the foulest curses beneath his breath. Adrian was in the same boat as McCree, simply stupefied at the absolute fucking incredulity of it all before shouldering his battle rifle and ducking behind a tree.

"Jesse, we're gonna need another ship to carry all these corpses or some big fucking explosives to obliterate their asses to kingdom come."

"Never a dull day with you around Adrian. Never a dull damn day."

A/N: A bit of a shorter chapter to set up the events of an action-packed next chapter but I hope you enjoy regardless. I'd also like to thank all of you for teh gracious support shown as we've now just passed 250 pages of Distant Stars. In my eyes it's quite the achievement so I'd like to once again thank you for the support and continued enjoyment as this story has grown. Remember to leave your comments, thoughts, or general ideas, I always enjoy hearing what you have to say about the story and yours thoughts on it so far. Until next time!