I sincerely apologize to all of my readers out there for taking so long to update this fic. Ever since school started, I haven't had much time for writing and I seem to get several writer's blocks. But never fear! I will finish this story.

"(thoughts)"

History Lesson

Hours after the discovery of the mystery bullet, Robotnik finished some routine diagnostics of the major systems and industries of Robotropolis. It had been quite a while since Snively was put in charge of examining the item and so the malignant scientist chose this time to check in on his nephew's progress.

"Snively!" The ruthless dictator bellowed as he opened communications to his personal laboratory.

"Yes, Dr. Robotnik, sir." The needle-nosed human replied, almost completely recovered from his uncle's most recent tirade.

"Report, what have you found about the object, and it had better be good." Robotnik grumbled in his usual impatient tone.

"So far the tests are proving most informative. We should be completed with them within the hour."

"Very good, see to it that you DON'T disappoint me." With that, Robotnik severed the link between them.

-----Robotnik's Personal Laboratory-----

Snively had been working feverishly on the task set before him by his uncle, mostly in fear of a more brutal thrashing. "(That overweight oaf, if it wasn't for me, he would never have gotten so far in his quest for world domination. The Freedom Fighters would have defeated him long ago if I wasn't there to salvage something from our losses.)" He fumed silently.

"(Sure, dear Uncle Julian does small items which are more than likely robotizations, but it's me who keeps this blasted city running. I'm as smart, if not smarter, than him; he should be treating me with the respect I so richly deserve. For soon, I will be the one calling the shots around here and he will be answering to Snively the Great!)" This brought a small smile to his overworked features.

In a mere fifteen minutes, the analysis of the bullet was completed, and with forty five minutes to spare, just as he intended. Now he had plenty of time to work on his own personal project without any interruptions.

-----Robotnik's Control Center: Forty-five minutes later-----

"Well, Snively, what are the results of the tests?"

Snively quickly cleared his throat as he set up the computer screen to show the detailed schematics before giving Robotnik his long awaited answer. "The ballistic seems to be comparable to that of an automatic weapon, especially judging from the amount of shells found at the site. However, it seems to be far more advanced than any on the databases." Snively referred to the weapons database stored on their hardware. Robotnik insisted that they keep records of absolutely everything, especially concerning human civilization, because you 'never delete information, no matter how obsolete it seems' as he put it.

"Really, how so?"

"The bullet appears to be made from a similar alloy, but there are some noticeable key variations." As he mentioned this, the model onscreen highlighted said variations in red while the similar fragments were highlighted in green. "These elements have been isolated and it is confirmed that they are highly unlikely to have been found on Mobius."

"Then how were those Freedom Fighters capable of creating and using such armaments, Snively?" Robotnik questioned, even though he already had his suspicions of an answer.

"It seems that the only possible explanation for an occurrence such as this is that we may finally have been found by Earth." The statement from his lackey caused the ruthless overseer of Robotropolis to growl in frustration.

"I don't know how they did it, but it's too little too late. There's no way I'm leaving this planet, especially now that I practically have it right in the palm of my metallic hand!" Robotnik struck the arm of his command chair with his aforementioned fist. This caused Snively to slightly cringe and shrink back towards the supposed safety of the computer console.

"What do you intend to do, sir?" Snively questioned of his superior, but all that met him was a stern, contemplative silence.

-----Clearing Near Knothole: One Hour Later-----

Cortana had arranged to meet with Sally and the other Freedom Fighters to tell them of what she had pieced together from Nicole's data. Even Master Chief had been kept in the dark as to what she was about to reveal. But she did assure everyone that it would be interesting to say the least.

Sally did have a time explaining all of this to the other Freedom Fighters, but in the end they all agreed to meet this human. They found him waiting stoically in the middle of the given clearing, although inwardly he was nearing the end of his patience with passing the time doing nothing. As they neared his form, he turned his head in their direction. To him, they seemed a motley crew.

"Hello Master Chief." Greeted Sally. "These are the Freedom Fighters; Rotor," she pointed to a purple walrus with a tool belt and red cap; "Antoine," a coyote in what appeared to be an old fashioned uniform; "Bunnie," then there was an orange rabbit in a purple jumpsuit who had, to Chief's amazement, a robotic left arm and legs; "and Sonic," finally, the super-soldier's gaze fell upon a blue hedgehog in white gloves and red shoes wearing a backpack.

Master Chief only nodded slightly in acknowledgement as Cortana then addressed the gathered group. "Now that everyone's here, far-be-it for me to keep you in suspense much longer. That is, if you all can stand some of your own history quickly being told to you for the benefit of those who may be unfamiliar?"

No one protested against it so the AI continued. "To start off, we'll begin in the distant past to when the UNSC, our government, was first testing the Shaw-Fujikawa FTL drives. FTL stands for Faster Than Light. These engines allow our spaceships to travel to worlds that would normally take far longer than a human's natural lifespan to reach.

"Unfortunately, the earlier versions of the FTL drives weren't as efficient as they are today. Some ships actually experienced malfunctions when the drives were activated. However, this didn't deter the UNSC from sending ships to colonize inhabitable planets since the problem seemed minor and easily fixed.

"It's because of that that we come to one of Earth's greatest mysteries. A colonization ship named The Pathfinder made a slipspace jump but it never contacted the UNSC when it reached its destination. The UNSC lacked the funds for an effective search party at the time, with their resources already stretched thin with the constant funds required for their new colonies, and so they had to accept that the FTL drive overheated either en route to its destination or at the destination itself and the ship had been destroyed."

Sonic chose this time to speak up. "I really hate to interrupt this riveting story, but what does it have to do with what we're here for in the first place?" This earned him a disapproving glance from Sally. She didn't have a chance to reprimand the blue blur for Cortana answered his question.

"I'll get to that later. But now Master Chief needs to know some Mobian history. According to the records Sally so graciously divulged, I have discovered that approximately two-hundred years ago Mobians made their first encounter with humans.

"The Mobians back then lived in relatively small groups much like early humans of Earth were thought to have lived. The humans brought with them technology far more advanced than the Mobians and the two quickly became trading partners. In a short amount of time the Mobians had built their own civilization and had formed a government similar to a monarchy.

"The point I'm trying to emphasize is that when the humans made contact, they came under a unified flag. It was fortunate that a picture of this flag survived within Nicole's memory banks. As soon as I saw it, I recognized the design almost immediately. If you would be kind enough to have Nicole bring up a holographic image of the human's flag, please Sally. I believe it's under the file 'First Encounter'."

"Very well. Nicole, display image of human flag from the file 'First Encounter'."

"Processing. Image found." Nicole presented something familiar to all present. But it meant something more to Master Chief.

"Cortana, are you absolutely sure this information is reliable." The hardened soldier questioned, unsure of what he was seeing at the moment.

"What's the matter?" Rotor vocalized their collective inquiry.

"That can be answered rather simply. You see; every class of ship has an insignia which separates it from other classes. The Pathfinder was an exploration ship and that was its insignia." Cortana clarified.

It only took a few seconds for this information to sink into each of the Mobians in turn as the reality suddenly dawned on them. "So y'all are sayin' that the humans we met weren't from Mobius?" Bunnie breathed.

"That's about the size of it. I believe that The Pathfinder's communications grid and other systems must have been damaged when it reached its destination, including the FTL drive. They couldn't return to Earth so it appears that they searched for an inhabitable planet to set up a colony while they made repairs.

"I can only assume that they found this planet and landed on the opposite continent. The early Mobians must have just thought they had always been there since no explorations were made. This could also explain why Master Chief can understand your language, because the humans taught it to your ancestors all those years ago."

"But why wouldn't they call it English?" Chief interjected, remembering how confused Tails was when he mentioned the word English.

"Not entirely sure there, but that's not what we need to be focusing on. This information opens up an effective avenue that we can take to return to Earth."

"What do you mean?" The soldier pondered.

"Come on, Chief. Don't you realize that if we can find The Pathfinder's landing site, then we could repair it ourselves and return to Earth in a fraction of the time that I had originally anticipated."

"And how do you suggest we find the ship? A whole continent isn't exactly compact."

"I might have a solution to that." Rotor ventured. "If Robotnik really is a descendant of The Pathfinder's crew, then he might have its location in his mainframe."

"That is worth a shot, and I'm sure that I can hack into his systems without any problems. It could work. But we would probably need a guide to take us to a suitable area in order to do so." Cortana agreed.

"We'd all be happy to escort you through Robotropolis, but it's not exactly going to be easy. There are SWATBOTS crawling all over the place." Sonic proclaimed.

"That's helpful to know. All we need is an access terminal of some kind and we're good to go."

"It might have to wait for tomorrow. I had a raid planned for then and I'm sure that it will be the perfect cover for you to infiltrate Robotnik's systems." Sally suggested. "Until then, you're more than welcome to spend as much time as is necessary in Knothole."

"Thank you. Your help is much appreciated. It'll do Chief some good to get some rest before doing something like this." Cortana courteously accepted the Freedom Fighters' invitation.

The other Mobians of Knothole didn't seem to readily become accustom to a seven-foot human that could take a plasma blast from a SWATBOT, but they weren't really in a position to complain. For one thing, no one argued with the princess, especially on matters such as this. Second, he did save Tails, so that earned a little respect from the populace, or at least a chance.

A problem that had to be taken care of immediately was how to accommodate the half-ton warrior. In the end, they decided to give him quarters in the medical hut until proper lodgings could be prepared. Since he was so much taller than an average Mobian, they had to string together two beds for Chief. Of course, in his armor, Chief would have easily flattened both of the beds, but he assured them that he wouldn't be in his MJOLNIR battle suit during those times.

With the question of lodgings out of the way, it was now only a matter of Master Chief familiarizing himself with the village. Antoine was put in charge of this task, although some wondered why he was chosen of all the possibilities. He wasn't exactly what some would call a 'first choice' for a responsibility such as this. But again, it really wasn't their decision to make.

Surprisingly, despite overwhelming odds that didn't look favorably upon the situation, the tour went quite smoothly. The first stop, stemming from the medical hut, was predictable; the dining hut. As it would be expected, it was easily the largest building within the village, which it had to be so that all of the occupants could be seated inside comfortably.

After that, there was nothing much interesting since the coyote kept going on about the smallest details that SPARTAN-117 couldn't care less about. Yet he held his tongue in concordance with Cortana's request that he do nothing that could turn their first friendly alien encounter sour, even if it did only involve a bruised ego.

So he said nothing as the uniformed furry droned on in his French accent that was barely understandable more than half of the time. It wasn't until the tail end of the half hour trip that seemed four times as long that he came to something else that was even remotely interesting; the hut where Sally was to brief him and Cortana on the following day's mission.

John just couldn't get over the fact that a 3-foot squirrel was going to give him mission specs on a raiding operation. But from what he had heard from Antoine's long winded speeches, she was apparently a master strategist here. Soon, he would see just how she measured up to UNSC standards. The moment came sooner than expected when the Mobian in question exited the hut and greeted the two of them.

"There you are Master Chief. I was just about to have Sonic find you so I could explain the mission parameters. Come in." So the super-soldier entered the domicile with Antoine close behind, ready to see what was in store for him.

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Once Cortana and Master Chief receive their first briefing, we'll see how well they work with the Freedom Fighters as a team. But that's not the only thing I'm putting into the next chapter. I have two other things planned, and one is something I'm pretty sure most of you will like. Please have patience because I have quite a few things going on that don't involve this story. I sincerely thank those of you who've continued to pateiently put up with my procrastination.