Watchpoint Gibraltar, Iberian Peninsula, Europe
Winston eased back on his haunches as eyed the prototype slipspace device standing upright in front of him. Reaching out a paw he inputted a number of commands into out as his free hand reached for a dark red ball sitting next to him. Backing up after he entered the final inputs, he waited a few seconds before lightly rolling the ball forwards towards the slipspace drive which after another few seconds created a blueish-purple vortex of energy that consumed both the device and the ball in the span of moments. He stared at the spot where it disappeared with an intense gaze until another portal opened across the room, the device was deposited, and the ball rolled out as if nothing had happened to it.
He hummed appreciatively, "How long was that Athena?"
"One minute and twenty-four point zero three seconds."
"Excellent." The ape grinned a toothy smile as he walked over to the device, doing the exact same thing as the previous attempt. As the device began to power up, he began to roll the ball as he sat back on his haunches but tripped on a stray piece of machinery causing him to land on his back with a heavy crash that shook the room. The prototype flared up then just as quickly died out leaving the ball to harmlessly bump into the metal chassis.
Winston derisively snorted through his nostrils as he pushed himself off the ground, "It's still far too sensitive, though I suppose for a one-way trip it won't matter much but still…" He trailed off.
"It would be unfortunate for it to activate unexpectedly and whisp away all our work. I will look into possibilities for better chemical stability."
"Appreciated. For now though, input the coordinates taken from the spy drone."
"Are you sure?"
Winston chuckled, "Never, I am however curios and want to make sure that at least for now it works transporting outside our world."
"Understood, I'll make the adjustments."
Winston waddled over to the prototype, careful not to jostle it as he picked it up and moved it to the center of the room with the red ball in his hand. His steps lightly reverberated throughout the room as his feet hit the floor. Lightly placing the metal body down on the ground, he backed up even a bit further this time, unsure of what these new coordinates would yield; on his end hopefully nothing. He watched as it pulsed with energy, it's humming growing louder as he rolled the ball with slightly more force, it's red form barreling down the room as the vortex opened the same as it had before, swallowing the ball once more into its maw. This time the burst of energy upon its creation was much larger, shaking the ground with unparalleled force as a wave of raw dynamism erupted outwards throughout the base. Unlike the other times however there was no return, no similar portal splitting space-time across the room, now the ball was in theory, gone from this world.
"That was…something." Winston said breathlessly as he loosened his tensed muscles. "Does it seem to be a success."
"As of this moment I have gone no spikes in slipspace ruptures around the Earth. That is not a hundred percent guarantee, there is the chance something is operating in one of my numerous blind spots. However, based on the readings and preliminary compilations, it was for all intents and purposes, a success.
"Wonderful, absolutely fantastic news. Now to clear the systems-" Winston was cut off as numerous voices could be heard outside his primary office, likely members of Overwatch questioning what just happened. Walking towards the chatter he turned off the lights within the room, he chuckled to himself at how insane everything he was doing truly was, explaining it to others would make him seem even less sane, telling himself he would clear the systems cache at a later point because it's not like anyone would be using it for now anyway.
Adrian's hand froze as he felt the tremors of a light shockwave shake the foundations of his room, he was currently sitting at his desk doing a routine check-up of his gear with his helmet laying in front of him. Numerous pieces carefully removed laid out methodically in a tight organization, the interior of his helmet facing him with its metaphorical guts spilled open. As the shockwave passed by, he swore he heard a crackle of static from his helmet's internal comms, sounding vaguely like radio chatter? Shaking his head of the notion, he peered to the side where his bed laid, normally rarely used but now occupied, just not by him. Angela's sleeping form laid wrapped up in his covers, her figure covered in the warm light of early morning giving her a beautifully ethereal coloring. Adrian smiled to himself as he heard her loudly snoring, the tremors not affecting her much deserved sleep. Focusing back on his work, he reconnected a loose wire with practiced precision, as his body worked his mind drifted to the information, he'd skimmed from the data pad.
Epsilon Indi, it rang a bell in his head so loud it was making him deaf. He'd traveled to so many systems, heard so many war stories, they all started to blend together and the fact he'd couldn't accurately recall what was important about the star system was driving him crazy. Was it familiar because he'd been there, or familiar because he heard it from someone else? Athena had hit a dead-end getting anything more from the drone which didn't surprise him in the least, no offense to Overwatch's personal A.I, but UNSC's protection and classification of information was second to none, designed to be difficult to crack by their own A.I which in his own opinion were on a whole other level. That meant that in terms of valuable information, there was frankly very little, the most 'important' pieces he could gleam were that the Clarion spy drone was launched from the UNSC Heavy Frigate Death Rode Upon a Pale Horse, whose name meant absolutely nothing to him. It was a part of the Third Fleet, which in itself is notable if solely because that was the armada previously under the command of Admiral Preston Cole though considering the Third Fleet contains hundreds if not a thousand ships doing little to narrow it down.
During his musings, a pair of arms wrapped around him, sending a jolt through his body as he was so absorbed in his thoughts, he couldn't hear Angela waking behind him.
"Bylat ubl'udak!" He swore as he jumped in his seat, turning to see Ziegler looking more than pleased with herself.
"If I can sneak up on you, maybe you need to go back to bootcamp?"
"If I had to go back to training on Reach, I think I'd rather just flunk out." He joked as he regained his composure. "Not that it's much of an option now anyway."
"Are you still trying figure out that star system?" She asked as she walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
He leaned back in his chair and ran his hands over his face, "Yeah, its – it's going to drive me nuts unless I can figure it out."
"Take a break then, turn your mind to something else and you'll figure it out eventually. Or maybe instead of smashing your head against a wall, try to think of every major planet that could be involved, like the one you just mentioned." She called out from the bathroom; her voice almost drowned out by the running water.
"Christ that'd take me months at the least assuming I could even recall all those planets. Reach is easy though, arguably the second most important planet behind Earth and the most recent planet to be lost. Its uhh…in Epsilon Eridani and probably one of the most decisive losses we've had that rings hollow considering we've barely won any fights." He drummed his fingers along the desk as he started to talk more to himself than to Angela, "Honestly our significant victories could be counted on two hands though classifying them as 'victories' muddles it a bit since most of them are so pyrrhic like…like…" His voice drifted off as the pieces began to fall into place, answering the question he'd been searching for, and it wasn't a pleasant answer.
"Is everything alright Adrian?"
He was stunned for a second before answering, "Yeah…yeah…Angela there was a date associated with these files, right?"
"Yes though it's only the year, 2529."
He slapped his forehead, "Why didn't it click sooner. Athena, I need you to tell Winston to stop testing those coordinates immediately. I'm heading over now to explain everything."
"Understood."
Adrian quickly began to put his helmet back together piece by piece, securing every armored plate in place before he pushed himself away from his desk. From the bathroom Angela's head peeked out with a curious expression, "Did you figure it out?"
"Yeah, I'll…I gotta talk to Winston first."
As he began walking towards the door the entire room became drenched in a red glow followed by a blaring klaxon causing him to freeze. The large window in his room was immediately covered up by steel blast plating on the exterior casting the room is darkness and crimson.
"Well, that's not good." Adrian muttered under his breath.
Ziegler came dashing out of the bathroom dressed in her typical doctors attire save for his still wet hair, "The base is on lockdown, this only happens under a serious threat."
"Talon."
"They've been so quiet we never thought to assumed they would try a full-blown attack on Gibraltar. How could we have been so clueless, so reckless."
"That makes two of us at the least."
Adrian turned on his heel back to the desk and began to equip his armor as Winston's voice blared out over the comms what Angela had already surmised, that Talon had attacked. Strapping on his final gauntlet, he told Angela to pull out a wrapped mat from under the bed which after doing so unfolded it to reveal the entire arsenal he'd compiled during his time at Overwatch. Arming himself to the teeth with all UNSC weapons at his disposal, he grabbed a plasma rifle for himself and a spare one for Ziegler. Putting the alien weapon in her hand, he wrapped her index finger around the trigger and looked her dead in the eyes.
"I know you hate it, but we can't just survive, we have to drive Talon out."
Despite her reservations she nodded firmly and held the plasma rifle with relative ease. Walking over to his desk he swiped his helmet off the table, taking one last look at Angela he donned his helmet and moved the entrance of the room. Sliding open it revealed a handful fo Overwatch troops rushing to the heart of the base, over the comms he could hear a number of orders being barked out at once from across Gibraltar, it truly was a bull rush invasion.
From behind he felt Angela put a hand on his shoulder, "Go support Winston and the others, I need to fetch my Valkyrie suit."
"Are you sure that's safe?" He quickly looked down both ends of the hall.
"I'll be fine here, you're needed elsewhere."
Adrian hesitated before caressing her cheek and turning away, plasma rifle in hand, he made his way down the crew quarters hall with several others. Reaching the first sealed door, gunfire could be heard opposite of the steel gate. Positioning himself with some cover, one of the Overwatch troops overrode the security lock causing the door to open with a whish of air to reveal the heart of Gibraltar in absolute chaos. Heavy fighting filled the base everywhere he looked, explosives rocked the earth, smoke filled the halls, and Talon forces spread like wildfire. Exiting the cover, he raised his alien weapon to bear, unleashing a constant stream of plasma on his enemies. When the first bolts of molten energy hit their human targets, he winced just a touch as the all too familiar screams of melting flesh and sizzling armor filled his ears. Letting up on the trigger just as the rifle was about to overheat, he drew his SOCOM from his hip with his free left hand and began taking measured shots as any merc foolish to be exposed. A few bodies dropped as he ducked behind the nearest possible cover, a heavy metal crate that offered decent protection for now. Peeking over the crate as his rifle clicked cool, he saw that neither side was making any headway, for every Talon merc or Overwatch troop that went down, two more from their respective faction filled their place. A bullet ricocheted off the metal crate only inches from his helmet forcing him back into cover. Replacing the magazine in his SOCOM, he also pulled a grenade off his belt and threw it down towards the Talon frontline. A reverberating pop echoed as shrapnel was sent outwards, severing tendons, and imbedding itself deep in the muscle of Talon's soldiers.
Aiming from his cover, he unleashed a torrent of plasma fire onto the rest of the Talon forces within his few. Most of his shots were poorly aimed, missing their targets completely but forced them back down into cover at the least, allowing Overwatch troops to push forward with a surge.
In the middle of the fighting his comms squawked as Athena's synthesized voice filled his helmet, "Winston is worried about Talon discovering the slipspace prototype device if they haven't already."
"Yeah, well I'm a bit busy trying not to get shot."
"Reaper is on the battlefield and making his way towards the labs, when the moment presents itself, please make your way there to support the others."
With that his comms clicked off, Adrian grit his teeth as bullets zeroed in on his position hitting the ground only inches from where he was crouched. Flinching when a stray piece of shrapnel rebounded off the floor and pinged off near a gap in his chest plate. He let out a heavy breath as he blind fired over the crate before dashing to a destroyed piece of machinery that offered a larger berth of protection. As he struggled to think of a way to move through an entire room without getting shredded to bits, the familiar bark of a heavy UNSC shotgun echoed throughout the area bring a grin to Adrian's face.
"Time to clean house amiright?" Liam's voice spoke in his ear.
"Took you long enough." He joked as he holstered his SOCOM back into its holster.
"Have to be fashionably late to make a good entrance."
"You cheeky fuck. Listen I need to make it to the labs, can you draw their attention and buy me some time?"
"Oh can I, these cunts won't know what hit them." The Aussie replied with glee as a near deafening stream of shots rang out followed by intermittent screams of eviscerated troops. Noticing that the incoming fired lessened as it was directed elsewhere, Adrian took the reprieve and bolted for a random door on the opposite side of the area. His legs pounding against the ground as he ran, he spied a hallway door stuck open with a corpse blocking it's closure. Gunfire screamed around him as he dashed the last few meters, diving the last bit he cleared the corpse and landed with a roll inside the hallway. Thinking he was in the clear, he inwardly groaned as he looked up in front of him to see a Talon member staring at him in surprise.
The merc quickly aimed his submachine gun at Adrian but he wasn't fast enough to pull the trigger as Adrian grabbed the barrel, twisting it away as the man fire. Bullets riddled the wall next to them as Adrian brought the 'barrel' of the plasma rifle to bear upon the goon, but the Talon soldier kneed the weapon out of his hand before he had a chance to fire. Without wasting a second, he used the momentum of his swinging arm to deftly pull put his serrated knife with his now free hand and jam the blade into the foot of the man he was fighting. The knife easily tore through the leather boot, slicing through meaty flesh and scrapping bone as it dug itself into the floor. The merc screamed as his grip loosed on the submachine gun, taking advantage of the man's shock Adrian sprung up and tackled the man to the ground with a crash. Now without a readily available knife, Adrian put the heavy elbow plating of his armor against the man's neck who's hands fruitlessly tried to gain a grip on the titanium alloy. The merc's legs bucked wildly as Adrian laid across his body, pressing down with all his force on the man's throat until fed up with the struggling stood up briefly allowing the man a final second of respite before he dropped down with all his weight on his elbow, the force of the titanium alloy plate landing on the man's neck sent a sickening crunch throughout the hallway as blood spurted from his mouth. It splattered across Adrian's visor as he pushed himself off the second corpse in the hallway, yanking his knife out of the dead man's foot and wiping the blood against the nanofiber of his legs. Picking up the plasma rifle, he continued to make his way down the side passage and towards Winston's labs.
After a minute of trekking, he came across a bend in the hallway where voices and fighting could be heard past the corner. Not a second later the body of a Talon soldier came flying into view and smashing into the metal wall with such force there was a heavy dent where the body had hit. Peering around the corner, Adrian was pleased to see a familiar face in the form of the only man capable of sending two hundred plus pounds of man and armor flying.
"Reinhardt! Glad to see you haven't lost your edge, but hallway fighting feels a bit cheap for you."
"Ah raumfahrer! True this is not my ideal fight; however, this is a vital access point to the heart of the base and must be protected at all costs."
"Well the calvary's come to help defend."
"Wunderbar, see Winston a few rooms down. Help sort of where we're weakest."
Adrian offered a half-assed salute as he walked past the massive German who gave him a pounding pat on the back sending him stumbling into one of the few secured area's on base. It seemed to also be acting collection for wounded, as a dozen or so soldiers laid groaning across the far walls, and it would only grow as time went on. He expected Angela to be showing up not long after him to begin healing. Through a myriad of glass walls, he could spy Winston and Fareeha a few meters ahead likely discussing strategy as Amari donned her iconic blue power armor. Near the wounded he eyed the slipspace prototype standing against the wall, haphazardly surrounded by junk and injured. Walking through the rows of reflective glass he passed by several familiars faces, nodding as he saw Vickers and Kadia standing guard outside the room. Knocking on one the glass panels surrounding the duo, he caught their attention.
"A bit hectic today." He said dryly.
Amari shrugged, "Looks like the day after the World Cup."
Adrian furrowed his brow before Winston simply shook his head, "Local custom, as for the reality…well we're not doing too bad all things consider. Talon has made considerable progress on the Northern and Eastern wings but ultimately their lack of understanding of the layout is to our advantage and slowed progress at the best of times to a crawl.
"So what's the end goal here?" He asked as he looked at a number of screens inside the room showcasing the heaviest fighting.
"Well," Fareeha grunted as she hefted her massive chest pauldron on, "Attrition is all we need. Obviously the sooner they're out the better, but if that's not feasible all we realistically need to do is hold out until they wear themselves down."
"On top of that, I've acquired support from a few countries: Russia, India, Spain, and South Korea. However, they won't be making a public move of support, so we have to hold out for the forces to arrive at their pace which means for now, we're on our own."
"Wonderful."
Amari pointed to a screen depicting a trio of soldiers holding out against an overwhelming amount of Talon forces, "I'm going to support Fireteam Charlie, try not to lose the base while I'm gone."
Winston chuckled, "I'll try my best."
Fareeha walked out, her heavy armor clanging against the floor as she left to eviscerate some Talon bastards. He spared a glance outside as vocal fervor reached his ears seeing the iconic reflective white sheen of Angela's Valkyrie armor as she went to work treating the wounded. Focusing back on Winston, the two discussed plans for fortification of the base, highlighting choke points that would increase the time they could hold out though they had to be flexible, Reaper could easily change any plans. Winston thought about recalling everyone to hold a smaller position, but Adrian argued against it, numerically Overwatch is at a slight advantage as well as having the home-turf advantage. Spreading out Talon's forces was for the best as things stood, especially because if they fell back, it would be even harder to eventually push Talon out when reinforcements came. All the same chokepoints and holdouts they were highlighting now would quickly become used by Talon when the defensive roles switched. Talon was bleeding soldiers faster than Overwatch, as it stood, they just needed to hold what they had.
The voices outside rose once more, except this time it was not a positive fervor but an agitated worrying eventually turning into shouts as gunfire opened up in the labs.
Rushing outside with plasma rifle at hand, he saw a black mist bursting into the room followed by dozens of red-eyed helmets from Talon soldiers. Reinhardt swung his massive hammer sweeping some of the enemies out of the way, but even more flooded in at the opening. Adrian opened fired, dropping targets with super-heated bolts of plasmas, searing skin on contact. His attention was immediately drawn to the black nanomist of Reaper's ethereal form hauling towards the line of wounded soldiers. His eyes then immediately darted to the prototype, the inevitable goal of Gabriel, 'Reaper' Reyes. Dashing over to the object, Adrian also opened fire upon the black haze only for his shots to narrowly miss as the mist morphed volume and shape in the blink of an eye. The skull masked man formed right behind the protype, immediately resting his clawed hand upon it. Adrian almost pulled the trigger but stopped, biting the inside of his cheek in anger as he held his aim but didn't fire, the worry of hitting the device taking precedent.
"What's wrong soldier boy? Don't have the guts." Reaper growled out.
"If you value your life, you'll listen to reason." Winston spoke up from behind Adrian, "You don't understand what you're dealing with."
Adrian slowly inched forward, "He's right, that will spell disaster for us all if you don't fucking cool it." The fighting seemed to exist in a bubble around them, their conversation in a sperate plane foe existence. Out of the corner of his eye he could spy others also inching their way closer as the Talon numbers thinned.
Reaper drummed his metal fingers along the top causing Winston to back up significantly, before Adrian could do the same, he heard Reinhardt roar is the fog of war as he lifted his hammer high above his head and bring it down with unbelievably fury. The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck causing the room shake with violent rumblings, Winston looked at Reinhardt in horror, attempting to yell out to the German over the sounds of chaos. Ignoring Winston, Adrian's eyes were immediately drawn to the prototype that began to pulse with energy as it crackled, not like it had before but as if overflowing with unstable power. Links of energy arched across it as it began to burst with uncontainable force that seemed to catch the attention of everyone in the room.
"Oh god no." Winston uttered in horror, the last thing Adrian would hear before the device seemingly burst with power outwards, engulfing himself and others in the all-consuming vortex of a slipspace rupture.
Darkness, that's the first thing that registered in his aching body. His muscles felt as if they'd been pushed to the limit, even in stillness they screamed. It seemed as if he was laying down, the vague sensation of solidness below him gave him some measure of reassurance. Eventually something appeared in his vision, words reading, 'System Reboot Successful'. The familiar logo of the UNSC appeared in front of his as his ODST suit restarted itself, memories of what had happened filtered back to him. Once more into the unknown, it was a miracle he was alive, just like his first time needed to get his bearings, understand what the situation was. As his armor rebooted, he reached out in front of him, he didn't get far before his hands touched something solid. Feeling the flat object, he came to realize why he was surrounded in darkness, it seemed he was trapped or buried under rubble. Probably a result of the slipspace rupture unleashing a powerful blast of force where it opened. His HUD became visible on his visor and immediately after power returned to his ODST suit his comms immediately crackled with activity, months of silent UNSC channels were immediately filled at once with a raucous chaos of screaming, orders, and indescribable gibberish.
"Scythe 1-2, this is Scythe 2 Actual. Give me a SITREP, over."
"2-Actual, 1-2. We are sustaining HEAVY fire East of the Utgard Memorial with a Jackal sniper keeping us pinned down, we need support NOW! Over."
"3-3, can you link up with 1-2 to provide support, over."
"Negative, negative! Heavy armor battalion rolling in – Cho get those 247's focusing on those elites on the right flank – Jesus they just keep coming. Requesting broken arrow, I repeat requesting broken arrow! Over!"
"Solid copy on broken arrow, it's been an honor Lieutenant. Over and out."
Even from his position trapped under rubble Adrian could feel the very ground shake not long after that, pushing off chunks of rubbles and debris his mind began to race. Utgard? He recognized that name, that city…and it only confirmed his worries and speculation he'd had earlier. When he'd meant to warn Winston about the coordinates. A sliver of sunlight filtered in through the crack as he continued to make his way upwards and out of an early burial as his comms continued their barrage of noise.
"Tower Actual this is Tower-2, we are down to…" The audio cut out for a split second, "Fucking, Tower Actual this is 3-Bravo Echo-4-Sierra. Tower-2 Actual is KIA. We are down to THREE MEN; I REPEAT THREE MEN. NEED IMMEDAITE ASSITANCE OVER!"
Adrian pushed away the last of the broken concrete, the world opening up before him into a barren hellscape that looked straight out of the apocalypse. A ruined city that was seemingly little more than a ghost town but in reality, was bustling with activity, just not the kind you'd see in a normal world. Here it was filled with the horrors of a war, a losing battle so early in that war that most didn't even realize it was the beginning of the end.
"Iron Horse 2 is hit I repeat Iron Horse 2 is hit, the engines up in flame. Overlord we need immediate landing options for a Longsword, over!"
"Iron Horse 1 this is Overlord, I am denying your request for landing. Ejecting is the only option over."
"Overlord we are being tracked by three Banshees, we cannot eject or we will DIE! Iron Horse 2 lost its second engine it is going down." A massive explosion could be heard over the radio, "Iron Horse 2 is gone! Three on my tail-". The rest of the communication cutoff in a burst of static as presumably Iron Horse went down like his comrade. He'd ended up in a living hell so infamous it came with its own moniker, The Five Long Years of Hell.
The Battle of Harvest, he'd just awoken on hell's front door.
yangn33: You are completely right, I'd initially had Rookie as a main character but things inevitably change and I never got around to fixing it. Thanks for the heads up and I'll change it immediately!
Sm0keyPanda: We are nearing the end game, however I also plan to have a decent bit of story left especially with the new situation Adrian finds himself in.
human dragon: Thanks for the support, always love to see enjoyment and positive reviews!
Batman9117: This was the big story pint planned as we near the final act of this story, thanks for the support and hope you enjoy!