A few months earlier

Berlin, Earth, Unified Earth Government space

Shore leave was promising. Beautiful German girls, handsome lads for the ladies and hard drinks at the local bars. Jake couldn't ask for more as he was there, sat down with his boys and girls at a pub situated in an old industrial area of East Berlin, sipping on a local beer and watching a game of football(Or Soccer, for the URNA-born) on a large holovision near the bar. He was wearing his civvie clothing this time around, namely a leather jacket, a shirt with some neo-punk band's name and jeans. He wore a smile on his face. He looked at his digital wristwatch, a relic of the bygone era of the 1990s and an heirloom from his lost family.

He hummed, noting that the local hour was twelve of the AM variety, meaning bloody midnight. He hummed, looked back at his boys at one of the tables, playing beer pong with a couple of ladies at their sides. Ayaan was trying to impress some local chick from a similar background as him, while Morozov and a Kazakh girl that'd come to Berlin to study were simply enjoying their drinks quietly together.

Jazz played from the Jukebox, where a couple girls were dancing to the tune. One of them, a beautiful blonde with green eyes and glasses kept shooting quick looks his way. She smiled, her cheeks a little red when she saw that he'd caught her. He waved awkwardly, smiling, too, before grabbing his pint of beer off the counter and walking toward her. Her two friends saw him approaching and gave her a nod, smirking and walking way.

She turned toward him, still dancing on the spot, with a smile on her face. He greeted, "Guten Abend," with an accent so hardly German it made the girl giggle.

"Good evening to you, as well," She replied, her accent Irish, "Didn't expect to see a soldier-boy in a University pub, much less with all his mates behind him." And she motioned toward the squad, most of them already staring at the Corporal with grins on their faces. Niura herself was smoking a ciggy while watching them, arms crossed and smugly waiting to see him either win or fail.

He snorted and said, "We gotta loosen up somehow during Shore Leave," as he turned toward her, "We just got dropped off here from Finland after some time training the National Army there."

"Take it the Finns've gotten a lil' rusty?" She asked.

He shrugged and said, "A bit. I'm Jake Weston. What's your name?"

"Sara McCormick. Nice to meet you, Jake," She nodded calmly. turning to him while still wearing that smile. The young woman was a beauty to behold to someone like him. He smiled back and nodded in kind, suddenly a bit awkward as he sipped his drink. The two of them sat by the jukebox, slowly getting into a bit of a groove as song from the '90s came on.

"Sharif don't like it...!" Sara mouthed, a smirk on her face as she made a few conservative dance moves toward it.

"Rockin' the Casbah," He smirked as he moved closer as well, the two of them singing the chorus together. The rest of Jake's platoon all let out quiet cheers at the sight of their most awkward mate getting his groove on. Jane, however, seemed a little less than happy about it as she swirled her drink in her glass. Niura elbowed her in the shoulder and the girl shrugged.

"Jealous?" Ayaan quipped, grinning. Jane flipped him the bird, before taking a swig of her drink and sighing deeply. She arranged her uniform jacket, then looked over toward the TV. The Arabic man let out a short laugh, while Morozov and the others looked to Jane with sympathy, the young woman and the Sergeant being the sole people without anyone to really call their partner here.

Jane had honestly hoped her childhood friend wouldn't mind tagging along with her for this outing, but, as it turned out, she was... Well, no, she was not wrong. He just misunderstood what she meant by calling him to it. She really should've been more blunt with the dumb motherfucker she considered a childhood friend, so she thought as she watched the Irish girl pull him away.

With a sigh and her head dropping onto the table, the girl said, "Fuck..." with the quietest, but most angry voice possible...

Meanwhile, the young Corporal and his new date had found their way to a cab after paying their drinks. Before long, they were in the girl's dormitory room, enjoying a relatively quiet night while trying not to disturb her bloody neighbors. IT was a hard job, considering she was a particularly loud girl when enjoying this type of particular vice. Admittedly, Jake was not used to the loud type. He'd only had one girlfriend beforehand and she had been a shy, quiet type.

... Jake stirred awake the next day with a mild headache and a smile on his face. The sun beat through the window of the somewhat spartan room, right onto the beautiful blonde Irish gal in front of him. She was in her tank top and her panties, tapping away on a holo-computer and a mug of coffee in her hand. She had felt him stir and turned toward him, offering a smile. "Mornin', sleepy head."

"Hey," He chuckled, then rubbed his face, "God damn..."

"Was good, eh?"

"Yeah..." He chuckled, then looked at her, "Whatcha doing?"

"An assignment due next week, honestly," She said, then grabbed a mug off a table and extended it to him, "Here. Fresh-brewed. Irish," She snorted. He nodded in thanks, sitting himself upright, letting the blanket fall off of him and revealing the same scars and burns she had seen last evening. She told him, "Didn't know you were a vet, honestly... I've seen Covvie plasma burns before."

"Studying med, I assume," He more-so stated than asked. She nodded. He smirked and said, "Nice. UEG needs all the more docs and nurses after the war..." before standing up and donning his clothes again. She smiled, tilted her head to the left and showed him where the bathroom is. With a nod in thanks, he walked off toward it. She smiled, giggled, then started checking news on the extranet.

Tapping away until she found a news stream to watch, the girl plopped herself back into her bunk, before humming. The news report playing was about a new UEG Civilian Ship's discovery of some sort of alien tech. Something that she was surprised ONI hadn't scrambled to cover up, considering their propensity for it. And what did one know? The news team aboard actually filmed the item in passing.

She blinked as she read the headline. 'First Contact made with alternate universe humanity'. For a moment, she thought to herself what sort of bogus newsreels these idiots were putting out, before she started typing into the search bar. Mouth agape, the woman read an article about the UNSC making contact with a series of three exploration ships that looked industrial in design, almost similar to UNSC ones... if not for them resembling actual boats with engines strapped to their behinds.

As Jake walked out of the bathroom, all washed and clean, he looked to her. She told him, "Hey. C'mon. You gotta see this..." as she beckoned him onto the bed. Jake crawled into the bed and looked over toward her screen, showing the discovery and the meeting. The trio of unknown vessels greeted the UNSC's own with morse code, surprisingly, to which the UNSC replied back.

"Jesus Christ..." Jake murmured. He felt his smartphone vibrate in his pocket. Taking it out, he read Jane's text. It was in all caps. 'GET YOUR ASS BACK TO BASE', followed by several exclamation marks to accentuate the point. He hummed, looked to Jane and told her, "Duty calls..." making her turn toward him. She smiled, pecked him on the lips, then nodded again and went back to watching.

Jake had quickly donned everything else, including his jacket, then stepped off...

... Back at the base, nearly two months after First Contact, the UNSC Marines watched the news for a change, Jake texting with his newfound girlfriend while the others paid attention to the TV. Jane elbowed Jake in the shoulder and the man looked toward her, quirking a brow up. She motioned to the TV and whispered to him, "The Citizen Federation and our envoy are about to fucking meet, you dumbass. Watch. Your FWB can wait..."

The man rolled his eyes and quickly texted the girl, before turning back to the TV and sliding his phone in his cargo pants pocket. He grabbed his mug of coffee off the table and started sipping it. The group stared at the TV in the barracks' rec room as the other Marines from different platoons walked in to watch as well. Geneva, the capital of the United Citizen Federation, a seemingly militaristic, meritocratic(?) Democracy state, was lined with cameras from across the Federation and the sole UEG News Team allowed to travel within the confines of the place.

They'd reached the Federation's governmental headquarters, an opulent palace of a building with insides that resembled the UN General Assembly building in New York City and the UEG's government houses in Sidney, Australia. As the UEG Delegation entered, they were met by, to the stunned reactions of everyone watching, armed guards and a sole uniformed man.

The platoon of around two dozen guards marched, surrounding the envoys and their escorting agents and raising their assault rifles, strange, elongated bullpup weapons, not too different from the UNSC's own. The lead envoy, a young woman, demanded, "What is the meaning of this, Sky Marshal!?" as she stared down the barrel of one of the men's rifles, defiant. The man didn't seem to flinch at her intense stare, but neither did she at the threat.

"... I'm afraid the United Citizen Federation cannot allow the existence of dissident elements within its realm," The man spoke, his voice harsh. The Marines all gasped as they watched the scene. The other Envoy was about to speak again, but the man cut him off, stating, "Your 'Unified Earth Government' is a fraud, a threat to the national security of the Federation and the birthplace of dissidents the likes of the Mormons. You are a dissident and hostile government to the interests of the UCF and shall be dealt with accordingly... Guards, take them away. All diplomatic channels with the UEG are to be closed and these traitors, executed on the Live Broadcast, alongside all other petty criminals!"

"What the FUCK!?" Jane jumped to her feet, "The fuckers can't do that!" as several other Marines cried out in rage and indignation. Despite what many were hoping back home, the civilians and the leadership of the UCF present in the room cried out in approval. The Guards grabbed the UEG citizens by their wrists and started dragging them out toward the outside.

"This is a mistake, Sky Marshal! Please, see reason and let us begin our talks properly! We're all humans!" The male Envoy begged, while the female one glared at the man ahead. He got a rifle butt to the stomach and was dragged out by the scruff of his neck. The female Envoy retained her decency, simply glaring at the UCF's leadership as they pulled them out of the place.

"Take them away," He ordered, then glared at the UEG Camera Crew, "And them as well!"

Before long, all feeds from the Camera Crews ceased as they, too, were taken by the newfound hostile nation, all in front of tens of billions of UEG Citizens, watching with incredulous looks on their faces. Another month of fruitless endeavors and failed attempts at negotiations later, the UEG had sent a Special Operations team to extract the survivors. They'd only gotten the female envoy, one Kira Mann, before the camera crews, the other envoy and their escorts were executed on a sickening live broadcast...

A week later... War was declared by the UEG in response to the aggressive actions of their newfound twin. The UNSC stirred once more...

... Jake stared at the remnants of a pub within the Federation city's ruins, its neon sign destroyed by the ever-increasing combat within the confines of the place. Its facade had collapsed and the glass had shattered from an artillery shell one of their guns had struck it with. They'd been in the city for less than 72 hours and had gained a strong foothold in the place. Behind him, tanks, IFVs and Warthogs rolled forward under the escort of infantry.

"Hey, Jake," Jane started as she approached him. She saw the young man, his helmet off his head as he stared at the pub. One hand held onto the strap of his MA40 tightly, while his other gripped a paper telegram written on orange paper. She blinked, then said, "El-Tee's calling a gathering. We're gonna be moving deeper into the city later tonight... They'll need our platoon on point."

"Yeah, yeah," He sighed. She gave him a gentle nudge in the shoulder and he gave a knowing smile, then sighed again and told her, "She broke up with me. Dear John letter..." As he lifted the telegram, his pain felt, audible in his words. Jane winced.

"... You two have barely been together for like... Three fucking months, dawg," She stated the obvious, "What the fuck..."

"Guess she doesn't wanna deal with a soldier boyfriend," He shrugged, then scoffed. Crumpling up the letter and tossing it into an overturned trash bin, the man turned to her and took his helmet off his belt, before stating, "Let's get a move-on if the LT wants us forward. Sarge also there?" as they started walking. Jane looked at him empathetically, but simply let him process things on his own, offering him a nod.

As the childhood friends rallied up with the rest of their group and sat down to listen to the Lieutenant's briefing, Jake took in the sights. Collapsed buildings to his right, damaged ones to his left, the body bags filled with corpses of the enemy's units across the street and the column of armored vehicles passing through the outskirts in order to bypass the town. Ahead of him, the Lieutenant pointed at a holographic three-dimensional map showing the unit's current position within the city and the remaining pockets of enemy resistance that the infantry was gonna take.

In the meanwhile, Niura looked over to Jake to see him with a dispassionate look in his eyes as he listened to the briefing. She leaned toward Jane, who was sat behind her, and asked, "What's got Jakey down in the dumps...?" which made the girl wince. She leaned forward and whispered to Niura the situation, which made her furrow her brows in confusion. She asked, "You're fucking shitting me, right?" her anger audible even through the whisper as she gesticulated with one hand.

"Nope," She noted, still whispering so Jake didn't hear her, "Man threw the 'Dear John' Letter in a bin nearby..."

"Fuck's sake. What a bitch," Sighed the Sergeant. A cleared throat took the two girls' attention forward. They turned to the man that was giving the briefing and, with apologetic looks on their faces, they quietened down. The man looked over to Jake and saw the look in his eyes, the pure disappointment. He might've gotten bad news and that was what the Sarge and Doc were taling about, he thought. So, he decided to let them off easy.

The man sighed, then turned back to his briefing, pointing at the map of the city as he told them, "Right. As I was saying, our operational objective will be assisting elements from the Sixth Mechanized as they and their IFVs push into the center of the city. We'll be doing house-to-house clearing, which means you'll have to keep your eyes open for Civvies..." before he spoke with a hardy tone to his voice, "These assholes left them behind like some dogshit tactic out of the Iraq War. They still have their quote-unquote 'professional' Mobile Infantry divisions in the place, so eyes open... And watch your fire. God only knows the kind of fucking propaganda these people were told before our arrival, so keep it Hearts and Minds."

"Sir," The Platoon replied.

He nodded, "Alright... We set off at twenty-three hundred hours. That's all. Dismissed..." And he picked up his kit, walking toward their temporary bunk. He motioned to the Sergeant to follow along, which, despite wanting to go comfort Jake, stepped up to the man as ordered and saluted. He showed her to follow with a wave of his hand, before the two of them began walking past a few of the pre-set positions and barricades the UNSC was using as cover in the narrow streets of the walled city. He asked her, "Take it Weston ain't doing too hot?" as they sidestepped an MG position.

"Just got dumped by his girl via a Dear John, sir," Replied the Sergeant.

The Lieutenant sighed, "Fucked if I don't know that feeling. He'll be good to operate, though, I suppose. Being pissed is gonna make for a great grumpy soldier that'll wanna fuckin' kill the Feds," And he stopped in front of one of their Oryx IFVs, a thick, heavily armored transport with a 30mm cannon and SACLOS ATGMs. Niura snorted, nodded and gave a quick tilt of her head to the left. He nodded and said, "Dismissed, Sergeant. Get the men ready."

Some hours later, the Marines began their patrol, acting as a security detachment for a pair of Oryx IFVs belonging to the 6th Armored Division of the Marines. Jake had taken point with the Sergeant, while Jane stayed in the rear with Ayaan and Niko, plus several of their other platoon mates, including a fairly chatty private and two Finnish soldiers from the National Army that'd tagged in.

The two privates, young women, hummed a tune together as they advanced. They were probably twins, redheads with short hair and blue eyes. Jake advanced, pressed against the wall at the head of the column. Niura was behind him, shotgun at the ready, followed by a pair of other Marines, then Jane, the Lieutenant in the middle of the formation and the others in the back, finally.

Jake raised his balled fist, motioned to Niura to cross over as they reached a door, then pulled out an opti-wand, a specialized device, to scan underneath the door. Doing so quickly, he gave a once-over on the other side, finding it to be semi-darkened, but just bright enough to notice if there was a tripwire. There was none, so he gave the go ahead, taking a step back.

Niura motioned to Ayaan and another Marine to step up behind her, so they could breach and clear. She racked her shotgun, aimed at the first door hinge as the other Marines set up a perimeter around the Oryxes and them, then watched for Jake's signal. The young man slid a cigarette between his lips, flipped his lighter open and lit it with one quick touch, before raising his thumb, index and middle fingers. She nodded.

He counted down. On three, the group tensed, Jake's grip on his MA40 tightening. On two, Niura shouldered her shotgun proper and kept aim on the hinges. On one... And Zero, the door was blasted off its hinges. Jake kicked it open and called out, "Flashbangs!" before pulling a long, tubular grenade out of his pocket and pulling the pin. Two flashes flew in and detonated with a thunder and a white light. The Marines pushed in, with Jake calling out from the right, "Room, right! Checking...!" And pushing in. He turned on his rifle's flashlight and did a three-point scan of the room. "Clear! Coming out!"

He exited the kitchen just as Ayaan came out of another room and called out clear. The other Marines called out clear in the rooms adjacent and the living room, before they pushed up the stairs of the three story building. Doors right, left and center. Perimeters formed, checks, re-checks for traps and kicking the doors in. They did this for both of the last floors of the place, before the Marines emerged out on the rooftop.

Niura leaned over the side of the building and called out to the Lieutenant, "We're clear in here! Coming down!" then she turned to Jake and gave him a bump on the chest. He gave a nod as they descended, before she asked him, "You good, man?"

"Yeah, I'm alright, Sarge," He replied as they descended and exited out onto the streets, reforming the column on this side of the road. Opposite them was a collapsed building. Up above, meanwhile, UNSC Air Assets flew cover, "... Why, did Jane mention anything?" to which the Medic started whistling as he glared her way. The Sergeant snorted and nodded.

"What, about your girl dumping you?" Ayaan started, grinning.

"It's okay, Jake. She didn't deserve you anyhow," Morozov quipped as he held rearguard. Jake rolled his eyes.

"Does everybody in this fucking unit know I got Dear John'd?" He inquired rhetorically, glaring toward Jane. The girl rubbed the back of her neck, letting out an awkward laugh as they continued their advance. Jake sighed, shook his head and said, "Girl could never keep a fucking secret..." as they pushed forward. He looked to Jane and told her, "You owe me a pack of smokes, Touma..."

She sighed, "Yessir..."

"Give the poor girl a break, Jake," Niko commented, "She was just trying to tell us what we oughta do to make you feel better... And why you need to feel better..."

"I just wanna get this dumbass patrol over with, guys," He told them, annoyed, all while they pushed further into the city. The Oryx Commander popped out of the hatch and showed the team to wait. A building laying at the end of the road had movement in its windows. The commander dipped back into the hatch and the turret of the Oryx shifted toward the thing. It looked like a school.

The radio blared and the officer called out over it in warning, "All units, this is Steel 1-1, be advised, Thermal ID'd multiple hostiles in building on our immediate twelve... Guns hot on targets in hardened building... Out..." as the gun laid onto the target. The first shot shook the dust off the ground around them and the debris-filled road, followed by a staccato shot every half-second or so. The rounds fired were obviously high-explosive. Shards of concrete and glass mixed with the red mist of soldiers being hit by the rounds.

Within ten seconds, the building's facade had been cratered and a sole corpse hanged out of one of the balconies, missing a couple of limbs. The teams advanced toward the T-intersection with the transport and Jake did see that the bastard was, in fact, wearing Feddie gear. One of their own more 'crazy' Marines commented, "Gnarly..." as he wore a grin on his face. Jane and Jake exchanged a glance of worry, before continuing the advance with the rifleman in the lead.

Crazy kids these days, Jake thought, annoyed as he scanned each window while prepping for any ambushes...