Avengers: Spartans Assemble

by RedVitBR

Earth's Mightiest Heroes are thrown into another universe against their will. Now they have to join in a war for humanity's survival while their allies have to protect their home and find new heroes.

2. Lost Heroes

I know I took a long LONG time to post back, but it's because my schedule has been pretty crazy lately. Along with my mental health state not getting any better, well, you can see how hard it was to write anything.

But alas, WELCOME BACK EVERYONE! Chapter two is finally here!

I hope you all enjoy it and comment on what you thought about it!

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CHAPTER 2: Lost Heroes

---

- Unknown Planet -
- Unknown Time -

-"Tony?" A faint familiar voice could be heard amidst the darkness of being unconscious…

-"Mr. Stark?" Another one…

-"Boss! Wake up!"

Finally, Tony Stark woke up from his sleep, still wearing his armor, and slowly got up with help from his best friend. Vision was beside the two, probably thinking about life and the universe in silence like always.

-"Are you okay?" Rhodey asked him, worried about any concussion he might have.

-"Yeah." Tony answered, still uncertain but wanting to get his bearings fast, -"I think I'm good. Where are we?"

Neither Rhodey nor Vision answered him, with the former only giving him a look of uncertainty with slight fear.

Tony was about to understand the lack of response as soon as he looked up at something in the sky that made his heart beat faster than ever.

The billionaire and superhero known as Iron Man has had many crazy nights in all his years that ended up in him having a hangover and waking up in some unknown place most likely naked, but waking up to find himself on another planet with two moons had to be the most unbelievable and scary one.

His heart rate dropped for a split second before going back and speeding up at an unhealthy speed. Images flashed at the back of his mind. A portal, but not the one they had just gone through. An army of aliens. And the deep darkness of space that he would never want to return to.

When he carried a nuke through Loki's portal into a Chitauri Mothership in New York, 2012, a part of him never recovered. No one said space could be so traumatizing, but he knew it first hand. He thought that he had "cured" that trauma, but it seems that being on an alien planet tore that old wound open again, even if just by a second.

His breathing picked up fast and Rhodey noticed this. He put a hand on his best friend's back for comfort, -"Hey, hey." Rhodey called out to him, -"Breath in and out, okay? I'm here."

Tony slowly did just as told and tried to keep calm. He did NOT want to actually be stuck in space, but at least his friends were there with him. -"You know where we are?"

-"No idea, but at least we're still alive."

Tony couldn't help but be thankful for that at least. He activated his helmet again, -"FRIDAY, what do we got?"

-"This planet does not match any in my accessible database. Though I do need to point out, I am not connected to any Earth computer system at the moment." His A.I. assistant said in her usual slight Irish accent.

-"Noted. Is there anything you can tell us?" Tony asked while investigating the landscape before him.

-"I am detecting short radio bursts from all directions, but since I'm limited to this suit's capabilities, I can't decipher or direct them to you."

Tony grunted and sighed in annoyance. He hated being in the dark and not being able to know stuff, especially by technological capabilities. This was going to be more frustrating than he thought.

Vision then advised the group, -"It appears as though the sun is about to set in. I suggest we stick together and try to find our teammates or any kind of civilization."

-"I agree with Vision." Rhodey responded, -"Finding anyone is better than just staying here and waiting for trouble."

And Stark could only agree, -"Alright. Let's take it to the air, but we need to be quick. I don't have a good feeling about this place."

With that Tony and Rhodey closed their masks and the three flying heroes took flight towards the unknown.

---

- Unknown Planet, Desert -

While the three techno heroes were making their first steps to find help, the two powerful women from the group had been transported together to the middle of a dry desert.

They had both woken up in a state of shock and a little bit of distrust, but after a minute of realizing that they couldn't do anything alone, the animosity was put aside. And ignoring the side-eye they were giving each other every few minutes… well they were still stuck together in the middle of nowhere, so it wasn't exactly a good situation.

Walking almost without speaking a word, Wanda decided to take the first step (not literally as they have been walking for about 10 minutes) towards better communication. -"So… Daisy, was it?"

-"Huh?" Her attention now split between keeping her guard up and talking, -"Uh, yeah. Daisy Johnson."

-"I'm Wand-"

Daisy interrupted her, -"I know who you are. I mean, you're an Avenger. We don't have to do this whole thing…" She gestured to them both in an awkward way with her hands and rolled her eyes a little.

Now Wanda was beginning to get offended, so she questioned her with a more assertive tone, -"Did I do something to make you so hostile?"

Daisy was feeling bad and uneasy, but at least Wanda deserved an explanation as to why, -"I'm sorry, it's just that I don't have the best experience with people who are ex-HYDRA." Wanda's eyes widened in understanding, -"I know you're an Avenger now, but with how you got your powers and Ultron and… I don't know, I guess I was just judging a book by its cover. I've been fighting HYDRA since the beginning of my life without even knowing. It's hard to trust anyone who worked for them after what me and my team went through."

The red avenger looked down, understanding Daisy's emotional state at the moment. -"Believe it or not, I know how you feel."

Johnson looked at her as they stopped walking for a second.

-"When I joined HYDRA, I was so blinded by my hate towards Stark and his country that I let them do experiments on me. And… my brother." A sadness washed over her, remembering her brother's tragic fate, still recent in her memory.

-"His name was Pietro right?" Daisy remembered, -"He was recognized as a hero and an avenger for saving people in the Battle of Sokovia." She said, trying to cheer her up a bit.

-"Some people may have pardoned us and the Avengers might have forgiven us, but I'll never forgive myself." She turned to Daisy, -"I was the one who convinced us to join HYDRA. I just needed to do something more, more than just the protests. I was tired of the government and the Avengers not listening to our problems. But because of me, there's no government left to change and the Avengers almost died along with Pietro."

Daisy really couldn't even imagine what that was like. Wanda may have been blinded when she joined HYDRA, but when that curtain of hatred fell away, she finally saw what she had done. Wanda blamed herself for the destruction of her country, the killing of hundreds and the death of her own brother.

And knowing just how much guilt she must have been carrying, Daisy put a hand on her shoulder, -"Hey, look at me. I'm sorry that I was rude to you. But I need you to know that you've changed. You understood that what you did was wrong and tried to make it up, and you're still making it up even now." She then pointed to herself, -"Take it from me. I had to deal with making a bunch of bad decisions, even betraying some of the closest people to me, but I'm not that person anymore."

Daisy then pointed at Wanda with motivation in her eyes and voice.

-"So, are you still that person, Wanda?"

The Maximoff twin looked at herself, at her inner self, and closed her eyes. She still felt that guilty, but knowing that she can be a better person now helped ease her mind to a nicer future. -"No."

Agent Johnson smiled, -"Then that's all I need to know. Nice to meet you."

Wanda smiled back. With that the two continued walking the dry desert hoping to find something. Little did they know what they were about to encounter.

---

- Unknown Planet, Forest -

Meanwhile, Captain America and the Black Panther had the same idea of searching for any sign of civilization and continued their walking journey, only exchanging information when it might seem important. However, seeing as it could still take a while before they actually reach… somewhere, Steve wanted to know more about his current companion.

-"T'Challa, would you mind if we talked and knew about each other more?" He hesitantly asked, hoping the Black Panther wouldn't be hostile towards him.

-"I…" as much as the prince knew about his nation's rules and duty, he also knew that sharing at least some information would be crucial in working together with the Avengers to go back home, -"...I will try to answer to the best of my ability, Captain." He offered Rogers a sincere smile, in which the man gave one back as well.

-"I noticed you were very focused on Klaue. What did he do to you?"

The prince hesitated to answer a bit. Not because he didn't want to, but because it was a hard topic for him. -"Not to me captain, but to my people. He recently stole a large shipment of vibranium that was supposed to come back to Wakanda, killing our people responsible for delivering in the process." He stopped for a moment, thinking of his next words, -"Ultron may have bought most of his vibranium a year ago for large prices, but he never stopped stealing from us."

Steve felt a tingle of regret for not arresting Klaue after their skirmish in his base in South Africa last year. He understood exactly what the prince was feeling. -"I'm sorry about what happened to your people, your highness."

Shaking these thoughts out of his head, the prince brought on his smile again, -"Please captain, there's no need for formalities, you can call me T'Challa."

Steve raised up his hand in sincerity, -"Then you can call me Steve as well."

The two leaders shook hands, forming a closer bond and understanding. They continued walking again towards the unknown.

Steve decided to ask another question, -"May I ask what exactly is the prince of Wakanda tasked with going toe-to-toe with an international arms dealer by himself? Unless this is an act of rebellion. God knows I've had my fair share of them in my life." Steve said.

The Avenger remembered when he himself had to go up against orders from the US army, S.H.I.E.L.D. and even his own friend's wishes to get to the place he is now. Applying to join the war multiple times under false names, disobeying Nick Fury… all things that made Steve realize that the world wasn't as black and white as he thought when he was young.

He just wished that the world they ended up in wasn't as hard to deal with as well.

-"Ha!" T'Challa chuckled remembering that even America's poster boy went against his country from time to time. -"That… isn't that far off." Then he became a bit more reserved, -"However it is a much harder question to answer now."

-"It's okay, we just met each other." Steve then felt the need to say something important to the prince, -"And… I know it doesn't help, but I'm sorry we got you into this mess with us."

-"I choose to go there, Steve. And if you all weren't there, I could have gotten hurt. Not even I could have taken that many people along with Klaue's weapon on without help."

-"But won't your people be worried about you?" Steve questioned.

-"My father still governs our country and he will know what to do. And at least neither of us is alone in this journey."

The duo acknowledge that the situation wasn't as bad as they thought.

That train of positive thought only grew once they saw a low light flash in the distance, hidden behind the uphill.

The two nodded and immediately went running up the hill to see what caused it. But the sight before them would never leave their minds for some time.

A futuristic small city engulfed in chaos was the nightmare of many people, especially soldiers and rulers. Small explosions were set off on the streets by what they could only assume were powerful grenades or worse… tanks.

But what caused real panic in their minds was the big purple ship hovering a few kilometers above the city, slowly deploying smaller transports and shooting the occasional energy shot down to the surface.

The captain spoke to T'Challa and with both fear and worry in his voice, -"What is that?"

And while T'Challa didn't show it much, he was also scared, -"I don't know. But we need to act now."

-"You've read my mind."

They didn't waste time and ran to try to understand what was happening… and to save as many people as they could.

---

- Kilometers above the planet -

To make sure that the group wasn't caught by surprise by Anti-Aircraft guns on the ground, like it had happened before, the mechanical trio flew high up, above the clouds, and they used their armor systems and sensors to see if they found any civilization below.

It was also to see if FRIDAY could connect to any known interface or satellite better. As for the moment, he was thanking himself for installing her in his suit to make sure he could have backup even in space. An experience he already had and would not like to repeat.

Rhodey spoke to Tony over their comms, -"So, how much longer do you think we fly until we try another option? It's been almost an hour."

Tony knew this, but he was letting panic sink in. He was thinking of all the alternatives that could happen in his head. -'How far away are we from Earth? Could we call Thor for help? How would we even do that? Maybe there's aliens around here somewhere. I hope they're better than the Chitauri.'

-"Tony!" Rhodey spooked his friend out of his thoughts, back to the present.

-"Uh, We'll fly until we run below 50% on power. Then we stop and-"

His line of thought was interrupted again, but this time from his AI, -"Boss! I'm detecting large amounts of radio chatter coming from 20 miles away! About 70 degrees to your right."

-"So that's where we're going! Follow me!" He called out in his comms to Rhodey and in his speaker to Vision.

The two followed tails and went as fast as possible to the origin of the radio signals.

But as soon as they reached a certain distance, Tony's fear and worry shot up by a lot. The trio was witnessing a full on alien invasion of a heavily guarded futuristic military facility of some sort. There were small purple ships flying around, shooting green plasma balls at the facility, cars and… humans.

Rhodey's weariness, Tony's fear and Vision's curiosity and surprise shot through the sky as sight a sight. They knew that races that resembled humans existed outside of Earth, Asgardians being a prime example of them, but it was still a shock. -"FRIDAY, what are we looking at here?" Tony asked, his voice shaking a bit.

-"I don't know, sir…" Even FRIDAY seemed uncertain and scared, -"But I can tell you these aren't Chitauri. And they seem to be attacking a human base with civilians inside!"

True enough, the trio zoomed in their optics and saw large ships, resembling planes, stationed at a hangar. A large number of civilians and non-military personnel could be seen boarding them while the soldiers protected the ships with armored jeeps and even tanks.

-"Those people need our help!" shouted Vision in worry for their lives.

Clearing his mind of every other thought and staying focused, Tony spoke with conviction, -"Alright, let's stay together while fighting these things. We don't know how strong they are, so we want to be dancing around them like buzz flies, but don't let them hit you."

-"Got it!" said Rhodey while Vision just nodded his head.

The three then sped up and flew as fast as possible to protect those people.

---

- Weapons Research Facility T12A -

For the last day or so, the proud soldiers of the base had been fighting off against the alien army for longer than they wanted to, but it was their duty to make sure every last person had fled the planet safely. Their resources were thin, ammo was starting to dwindle, they were down to their last tanks and not many troops were left.

In one of the defense trenches they had dug out, a soldier looked up and called out to their superior, -"Sergeant! Incoming Banshee wave!"

The sergeant saw the swarm of Banshees, the purple small fighter-type ships coming right at them, and gave the only order they could, -"Everyone get cover!"

The platoon all readied themselves and ducked under the small trench they had. But while waiting for the blast, it never came. Instead only some explosions could be heard.

When the men looked up again expecting to see one of their ships or tanks that had reinforced them, what they actually saw was three figures by themselves that appeared to be wearing heavily armored suits, gaining the attention of the Banshees and even blasting some of them left and right.

The one in the bulky black and gray suit looked like a walking, flying one-man army. Missiles, lasers, guns, and even a blast that came from his hands were shooting all at once.

The one in red and gold wasn't as impressive, but he compasseted with maneuverability and more powerful blasts from his hands that destroyed the ships

But it was the one that had a yellow cape that truly made the platoon stop and be amazed. The man didn't even look like he was wearing armor, but they thought he must be! He was literally flying straight through the ships like a human bullet. And when he wasn't doing that, a yellow beam coming from his forehead was tearing through his enemies like they were butter!

-"Sarge… What the hell are they?" One soldier asked, both amazed and in a little bit of fear.

The sergeant steadied himself. He was just as surprised as the others were, but his face never showed a hint of that. As if he wasn't human. -"I don't know. But it seems they're on our side. Let's take advantage of that."

With that, they all started to fire again, picking off the stray that the flying trio couldn't finish.

---

- Outside Military Base -

While that was happening, the two powerful lost women had fortunately found a military base while traveling through the rocky desert and were staring at it from a distance, deciding if it was wise to come close to it or not.

-"Do you think we should approach it and ask for help?" Wanda asked Daisy. She was part of the government, so she had more experience with this than her.

-"I don't know… Something seems wrong." Daisy then pointed at some hovering vehicle just outside the base, -"See those vehicles? They don't match the aesthetic of the base at all. They're all curvy and purple. Almost alien-like."

-"But the base itself seems human." Wanda concluded.

-"Exactly. And even bases this far out would have some sort of security outside, but I can see anyone from this distance."

The Maximoff twin thought for a bit. If they got close and it was an enemy base, there's no guarantee of what could happen. But on the other side, it was better than aimlessly walking around in a desert from another planet. Her line of thought stopped once she saw something in the corner of the base, -"Wait… look."

What Wanda was pointing to was a group of soldiers coming out of one of the entrances, but they all had their hands up and were walking in a single file line.

-'Prisoners.' Both thought at the same time.

It was then that they saw who, or rather what, was escorting them. A big ape-like creature wearing some sort of armor and carrying a weird looking gun. More of them came out of the base through different points and exits, all carrying different weapons and such. One even had a large hammer that Wanda and Daisy did NOT want to find out what it was capable of.

-"I think we need to intervin." said Wanda.

-"I'm not so sure." Daisy rebutted, unsure about the whole situation. -"We can't say what's really happening here, for all we know those oversized apes could be the good guys."

Meanwhile the apes had gathered about 30 human soldiers in the front of the base. But then terror struck when the apes let them all go, letting them run for their lives, only for some of them to start shooting at the soldiers too hurt to escape. Luckily most were able to run at full speed, but the apes had already started diving themselves to go after them.

Wanda put her hand in her mouth in surprise and anger. She looked at Daisy and saw the same furious look on her face.

-"Okay, let's go!" The two women bolted to save the prisoners.

---

While running for their lives, one of the aliens shot a soldier's foot and it came clean off, blood scattered in the dry rocks and eventually in his dark short hair as well. The soldier started begging for his life in vain. He knew that the alien would not spare him, he had gone up again it's kind countless times before and they never showed any mercy towards humanity.

His life flashed before his eyes and regrets came flooding in. His short stature probably wasn't something the army wanted within their ranks, but humanity's desperation was greater than its judgment. In the many battles he partook in, he never came this close to actually dying. He was usually one of the people helping evacuate the planets, so the action he experienced was mostly always with backup right alongside him.

But here… There was no way to get out of here alive, even if he could run.

Maybe a fellow soldier would save him. Or an miracle. But what he never expected is for a strange red energy to encompass the ape, keeping him from moving and striking the final blow. The soldier barely had time to say a 'What' before what looked and sounded like an earthquake to literally hit the alien, throwing him away from him and hitting his head on a rock.

The soldier looked back and saw two women, one wearing a red leather costume and one that looked like a black ops agent. The latter crouched down to check on his foot.

-"Hey, hey, how are you feeling?"

His initial shock subsided and the pain started kicking in hard. -"AGHR, I… I think I'm fine." He tried getting up, -"We need to get out of here."

She started to make a makeshift bandage with the soldier's pants to stop the bleeding from his stump, -"Not before we save all the others."

-"What?!" The soldier shouted, -"They're gonna kill us if we don't escape now!"

-"What kind of soldier are you?! Where're gonna save the others." She finished the makeshift bandage, making a knot that caused him a bit of pain, -"You stay here hidden while we go out there."

-"Wait!" She was starting to get up, but he tried to stop her by grabbing her hand, -"Are you crazy, you can't kill them all on your own!" He pleaded.

But he clearly didn't know what THEY were capable of, -"Just stay, please. We got this."

The soldier then saw that the redheaded one was on top of the unconscious alien, doing something with her hand in his head.

---

While Daisy was helping the soldier, Wanda had gone over to the alien to try to probe his mind and make him go crazy. She didn't like doing this since it made her remember the days when she used the same tactic against The Avengers themselves. But this scenario was very different and they could use the extra help.

Daisy came close, -"Hey, so what's our plan?"

Wanda didn't answer. Her eyes returning to normal from the red energy that signified her power being all the answer Daisy needed.

The ape got back up and screamed in anger. He grabbed his hand and ran towards the other aliens, already shooting them at a distance.

-"You knock them out, I make distractions, we save everyone." She said with confidence.

Daisy understood the plan and smiled in anticipation, -"Let's do it."

The two women heard a cry of war and saw that they had caught the attention of the pack of apes there. They had finally seen them from afar and were shooting and charging right at them.

Wanda created one of her signature red energy shields that was strong enough to easily protect them from the plasma shots from the aliens while they ALSO ran towards their enemies.

When The two were close enough, Daisy called out to her teammate -"Open up!"

The Sokovian shrinked her shield to just cover her. Daisy meanwhile had been using her hands to sort of 'charge' her power, containing it in a ball ready to explode.

When the shield lowered, the agent threw her hands forward towards the aliens and the sheer force of the concussive blast she made was so strong that threw the entire pack away towards a nearby giant boulder.

Some were almost knocked unconscious, but before any of them could get up and back into the fight, Wanda was already on top of them and used her mind manipulation to turn one half against the other.

And while that group was fighting, another one charged on towards them. Daisy put her hands on the ground and made extreme effort, creating a literal earthquake towards the troops. They all lost their balance and Wanda took the opportunity to shoot them with her energy blasts, sending them to the ground, if they didn't die.

The soldiers all saw the power those two had and were perplexed, but some took the chance to go back to the base, while others started to try to fight back against the aliens that the two didn't take down.

Eventually, with Wanda and Daisy distracting all the ape troops, the soldiers that got back into the base were able to get their weapons and assist in a real firefight.

The team heard one of them shouting towards the others, -"Grab the guns! These Brutes got nothing on us!"

One by one, the Brute's numbers started to swindle, with only a few left. Wanda still had some under her 'spell' and they were picking on the others.

The remaining soldiers started to gather around the agent and Avenger, hoping to learn more about them and to stick together.

They were talking to each other about whether or not they should approach the women, but one of them took the first step. A blonde woman whose clear skin would have most people thinking she never stepped in a battlefield before, -"Thanks for the save." She said.

The woman was definitely impressed, if not a bit scared of the two, but approached them nonetheless. She didn't care to know exactly whatever they were at the moment, just that they saved her and her company's lives.

-"Yeah, don't mention it." Daisy said between taking breaths. The aliens were heavy and took way more effort than just throwing around regular humans. Though it was also a bit exciting as she didn't have to hold back her power as she does with humans.

-"So… who exactly are you?" She asked, very curious and wanting to know if they really were allies or not.

-"Oh, Uh…" Daisy didn't want to reveal too much, but they seemed willing to help and there was no better option, -"I'm agent Daisy Johnson from the ATCU. And that one…" She pointed to the Maximoff twin throwing a giant boulder on 3 of those aliens, -"...is Wanda Maximoff of the Avengers."

Inside, Daisy was giggling a little from being able to say that and be true.

However the soldier didn't really seem impressed as she didn't know what the ATCU or the Avengers were. Daisy guessed that that could be the case, -"It's a long story. We'll talk more later." she tried to handwave the worry. -"And you?"

-"Captain Luna Quinn, Kilo Company." She said in an assertive tone, like a proper soldier.

Daisy was about to ask for more information, however before they could continue the conversation, there was one sound that made them all turn. A scream. No. A battle cry.

-"AAAAHHHRRRRRR!"

The fury in that shout was enough to send fear on almost everyone there.

One of the apes, a big one with a dreadlock beard and carrying an imposing hammer charged at the group.

-"Looks like that one's their leader." said Daisy, already preparing for another fight.

The Brutes manipulated by Wanda attacked him, but barely making an effort, he swung his hammer and killed one. Another one tried to attack the leader, but he punched him so hard he knocked him out. More and more the controlled Brutes tried to tackle and stab, but none could stop a being with such burning ferocity in his eyes. Eyes that were locked on a single target.

Wanda.

Daisy turned to the soldier she was talking to, -"There's a soldier that lost his foot behind a rock that way, take him and get to a car, we'll take care of this guy."

Captain Quinn was almost offended at how this strange woman was speaking to her, -"Excuse me? I'm in command here, so how about you stand down, we'll deal with him and you can-"

But before she could continue, Daisy used her power to launch herself through the air and get to Wanda, who was already throwing boulders at the leader, but he kept evading.

Luna cursed under her breath and turned around, -"Let's get some Warthogs to get out of here!"

Meanwhile Wanda was realizing that the leader was way tougher than the others combined. He was dodging or destroying the boulders with strength unmatched. -"This guy is way more dangerous."

-"Okay, how about you hold him down again?"

She nodded and closed the gap between them, with him almost in striking distance. She used her powers to trap him in place again and lift him in the air, exhausting herself more as he was stronger.

-"Okay, drop him!" Daisy shouted. She planned on using a concussive blast powerful enough to send him crashing into the base.

But the Brute leader was smarter than his brethren. As soon as Wanda released her hold over him, he smashed his hammer on the ground, sending a gravitational wave that knocked the two back and made them hit their heads on the ground. He immediately got back up and tried to grab Wanda by the throat, probably to rip it out, but Daisy protected her by sending a blast to his feet, knocking him off balance and then sending another one, blasting his hammer far away.

Then Wanda sent a small boulder right to his face. He staggered a little, but it was just enough time for Daisy and Wanda to get up and escape using their powers to fly away. Or in the case of Daisy, jump really far away.

He growled angrily and threw a big rock right at Wanda, who had to protect herself and thus had to stop her concentration flying and create a shield, mankind her have a bit of a crash land.

Daisy helped her get up, -"Wanda! Are you okay?"

-"I'm fine." She tried to handwave her concern, -"He's coming back again." She pointed out.

The leader was running like crazy to catch the two. But before he could, the controlled ex-soldiers that survived started to tackle him again, keeping him in place.

Captain Quinn then came back with her company, all driving two versions of a vehicle that looked like a military grade 4x4 with no cover made to withstand combat and heavy terrain. One version was a two seater plus a gunner in the back and the other version had more seats in the back instead of a minigun. Daisy thought it could probably seat about 10 people in it.

-"Hop on!" She commanded.

Daisy and exchanged a look of uncertainty, but that quickly went away when they remembered the unique situation they were in. They sat on the back, facing the wounded soldier from before and Luna.

They turned their eyes towards the Brute trying to fight almost a dozen of his own species to survive. But then they piled on top of him. Luna took the opportunity to throw two grenades right in there.

BOOM!

The group waited a few seconds and saw no movement from the pile. -"You think he's done for?" Luna asked Wanda white holding another grenade, thinking of just tossing it there for measure.

Wanda was getting tired of death at this point, even if it was an enemy. And she was tired of fighting as well. She just wanted to go home. -"Yeah. Can we leave?"

Luna waited a few moments before storing her grenade back and replying, -"Sure. Let's go to the evac point!"

The convoy fired up and left the abandoned base and the pile of corpses, thinking they had everything handled.

-"Evac point?" Daisy asked, curious.

Lune squinted her eyes in distrust. -"We're evacuating the entire planet."

Wanda and Daisy looked at each other with much concern in their eyes. The soldier beside her got confused. -"How do you not know this?!" He questioned, -"The order was given days ago!"

-"It's nothing we were lost in the desert for about a week and-"

Click!

The duo looked down and saw Captain Luna pointing her pistol at her. Daisy didn't know what kind of pistol that was, but based on the size, she didn't want to find out what it could do to a person.

Wanda was about to act, but Daisy put her hand up, stopping her from initiating a fight.

The captain gave them a sadistic smile, -"Now I know you're not telling the truth. You both have abilities beyond anything I've ever seen, and I've seen my fair share in this war. So either you're part of the Covenant, some kind of infiltrators wearing human skin and new technology, you're something else, and you have until we reach our destination to tell everything you can."

Just when they thought their situation was getting better.

---

- City -

Steve and T'Challa were able to enter the city and were traversing through it without anyone noticing them yet. That was a good thing and a bad one.

Good because that meant the fight was more concentrated and that meant less enemies to worry about and a clear objective.

Bad because that meant the forces protecting the city and its civilians were clearly losing as there was no checkpoint, guards or even a scout to secure the outskirts and exits of the city.

The giant ship hovering above it had also sped up and left the city's sky. For what reason, they didn't know yet, but they didn't want to find out before making sure everyone was safe.

-"I think I can see people down the road!" Cap shouted to his partner.

-"Hey, you two! Stop!" Someone they couldn't see shouted.

Turning around the duo was met with a platoon of soldiers wearing armor they had never seen before, but it clearly advanced, just like the city. They were relieved that these people seemed to be human, look like it at least.

The group also had a small convoy with them. Two military 4x4s with mounted machine guns on the back and one tank, which had four individual tracks, two on each side, for better mobility.

The soldier who shouted at the two spoke again, -"If you're lost, we're handling evacuations that way." The soldier pointed to the northwest of their position. -"I can have some of my men escort you there quickly." He suggested. The man clearly spoke in a tone that meant he had been in this situation before, but that didn't mean he was scared. Just brave.

The two men looked at each other in acknowledgement, knowing what path they were going to take. -"We wanna help you fight whatever this is."

-"You two coming from an underground party or something?"

-"Must be." Another soldier chimed in by his side, -"Why else would they be this far away from the evac zone by themselves?"

Suddenly, the building right around the corner exploded in a fireball. Purple and green energy shots flew towards some buildings and towards the group. The smoke and debris impaired everyone's vision. They were shocked, but ready for anything, with their weapons up.

But from the smoke came a full platoon of alien troops that made Steve and T'Challa pause just to understand what exactly they were.

There were three different types of aliens in front of them. Most were from a small hunchback species wearing orange and purple armor, with a breathing apparatus to their mouth and even eyes. They carried a purple weapon that looked like a pistol with green energy at the tip.

Scattered through the group were the ugliest of the species. A mixture of a bird and a reptile created a human-sized fear-inducing enemy with flesh beaks filled with teeth, quills behind the head and feathers in different parts of their bodies. They carried two different weapons: one of those alien pistols in one hand and a gauntlet that produced an energy shield in another.

But the most intimidating ones were the tall species wearing slightly colorful armor. They had gray skin with four mandibles in their open mouth. Their size was taller than any human there and if Cap and the Panther were to guess, these were clearly more advanced and stronger troopers than the other two.

And they would be correct as one of them gave a battle cry while pointing at the group.

-"Covenant! Take cover!" The soldier in command ordered the others.

Everyone started to get behind the debris on the ground from previous fights to take shots at the open Covenant platoon, but some weren't able to make it. Steve and T'Challa followed suit, with Steve using his shield to make sure he wasn't hit. And to the surprise of no one that knew what the shield was made of, it not only protected him, but also reflected the shots back at the Covenant troops.

As soon the two got into cover along with the soldier in command, they wanted to know how to proceed, -"Sergeant, how many can you see?" The soldier asked another one by his side.

Said man got up from cover and tried to discern the number, but there was still a lot of smoke and the Covenant didn't stop firing at them, -"I can't tell, Lieutenant. But there's a lot. Grunts, Jackals, Elites… a whole platoon." the man said, taking a few breaths due to the adrenaline.

Cap then looked at his shield and had an idea, but he needed to confirm something and turned to his partner, -"T'Challa, is your armor made of vibranium?"

The prince was surprised by the sudden question, -"Wha-"

Steve interrupted him, -"I saw how durable it was and you're the only nation with access to vibranium. I won't tell anyone, I just need to know." He then showed his shield, which was almost in perfect condition even though T'Challa saw some blast hit it.

The Wakanda prince understood just what was at stake there and what the Avenger was planning and nodded, -"Yes, Captain."

-"Alright. Then take a peak and see how many there are."

The Black Panther did as ordered, and while none of the Covenant hit him, they still tried a lot. He came back down after a few seconds, -"I saw about 30 enemies. There could be more hiding behind the smoke or around the corner."

-"Okay. I'll provide cover and you jump, got it?"

T'Challa nodded.

The sergeant then spoke to the two newcomers, -"I'll have someone escort you to the Warthog in the back, you can't be here!"

Captain America and Black Panther simply looked at each other, already knowing that they'd have to show just what they were capable of to those Covenant AND to these men.

The sergeant saw the looks they gave each other and got confused, -"What are you two thinki-"

But before he could finish the question, Steve raised his shield, which allowed enough protection for T'Challa to jump over him and start gunning it to the nearest enemy. Now that their attention was on him, Steve started running to the other side of the street to cover the whole thing.

The plasma shots only staggered the Black Panther, but did nothing to his actual armor. And the same could be said about Cap's shield. While running, he redirected any shots aimed at him to some other Covenant troop.

As soon as Steve was close enough to those 'minions', he used his shield as a blunt weapon, hitting the Grunts hard enough to knock them out or kill them. The metal devices they were wearing were tough, but not invincible. He used extra strength to shatter them to pieces. He figured that they couldn't breathe without them since none had their mouth or nose exposed. If they even had mouths and noses.

Three Elites saw how much trouble the Grunts were having with one man and tried to intervene. They were about to shoot Steve, but he saw their plan and without wasting a single second, threw his shield at the first one with such strength that it staggered him. The shield bounced off him and into the other two, causing the same effect.

When it came back to his hand, he was already on top of the first one and used it to hit him even harder and make him drop his gun.

Steve didn't like using guns at all, he's never been really good at it, at least not compared to how good he's with his shield. But in this circumstance it was better to be safe than sorry, especially since these aliens were tougher than the Chitauri and even the Ultron sentries he fought in the past. And their personal shield made it even harder.

He quickly grabbed the gun from the ground, a purple pair of segmented curved bodies that are joined via the trigger guard. It was awkward to hold and it looked almost organic in appearance, but he needed the advantage. He pulled the trigger and multiple shots were coming out of the lighted tips. Strangely, the weapon had no recoil. But that was a good thing for Cap.

Using both his shield and the weapon in rapid succession, the avenger was able to take out the other two Elites rather easily, as he was fast enough and way more agile than standard soldiers and kept evading their shots.

Cap then went on to work against the rest of the troops.

On the other side of the street, the Black Panther was making easy work or most of the Covenant. He slashed the Grunts and Jackal's throats and bodies, making sure they wouldn't be standing again. Like Steve, T'Challa was no fan of killing his enemies, but these aliens, these Covenant were attacking a city full of innocent people, and he wouldn't let this slide.

One Elite tried to tackle him to the ground, but the alien invader definitively wasn't expecting the superhuman strength of the Black Panther. T'Challa threw him away to the wall, punched him a few times, activated his vibranium claws, and, gathering up his strength, sliced through the rest of the Elite's personal shield and his throat, splashing purple blood all over the ground.

One fear-inducing look back made the nearby Grunts throw their weapons and run away in fear. Luckly, the soldiers were able to shoot at the cowardly ones.

Speaking of the soldiers, when they saw the duo running straight into a fight, they were cursing mentally and scared to shoot back and accidentally hit the 'civilians'. But when Cap and T'Challa started killing Covenant left and right, without even a weapon, just using their bare strength, a shield and wearing a plasma-proof armor, it was like watching a miracle happen in front of their eyes. Their raw strength, their tenacity, their agility and tactics. All made the soldier stand in awe.

The lieutenant was the first to snap back into the real world, -"Come on people! They need support."

The platoon then started shooting again, killing off any Covenant that threatened the duo's impeccable close combat kills.

A couple of minutes passed and the Covenant force was extinguished. However, before they could call it a win, the Sergeant saw something moving and distorting the air and image from behind the Black Panther.

-"Look out!" She called out to him while raising his weapon to fire.

T'Challa felt a strange sensation and turned around. Suddenly, a type plasma energy sword was ignited from what looked like thin air and was about to strike him.

The Black Panther blocked the swing it took at him with both his arms, but the sheer force had him down on the ground. While the single plasma shots had no effect on his armor, the continuous exposure to the energy sword was starting to heat up his arms as the Vibranium wasn't dissipating the heat the sword produced. -"Ughr!"

The invisible attacker deactivated his technology and revealed himself to be an Elite, but this one wore white armor. He spoke something in a language T'Challa didn't understand, but he could guess it wasn't something nice. Lucky for him, the Elite received a shield to the face from Cap. T'Challa took the opportunity to get his footing back and in a series of martial arts movements, throw the hilt of the weapon away and lock the Elite in a chokehold as his prisoner.

His strength was great, the Black Panther's was greater.

The Elite spoke again, but this time in English, which surprised the unfamiliar duo, -"Your strength means nothing against our Covenant. You won't stop the Great Journey. Humanity… will die for their sins."

The soldiers looked at the Elite with disgust in their faces. Some even wanted to spit at him. And while his species wasn't able to smile, Cap could see it in his mannerism and arrogance that he was indeed smiling.

-"Then we will avenge it!" said T'Challa.

With a fast move, he slashed the Elite's throat, letting him die just like his men.

With the fight over, Cap stored his shield on his back again and the soldiers relaxed. The lieutenant approached the two strange men. -"So, you're strong."

-"You could say that." Steve gave him a smirk.

-"I didn't know the UNSC were sending reinforcements here." The men stood straighter, -"I'm Second Lieutenant Benjamin Bradford, Second Platoon, Charlie Company."

-"This is the Black Panther." Steve pointed to his companion, who just nodded in acknowledgment. -"And I'm Captain Steve Rogers. Codename: Captain America. And… I'm sorry to say but we're actually not reinforcements."

The soldiers looked at each other, confused. -"Then who the hell are you?"

-"That's… complicated. We're not part of your army. We just ended up on this planet by accident."

Benjamin was wary about the duo, thinking that they could be Insurrectionists that never stopped fighting, but decided to contact his superior on how to approach this, -"Sir, I've got two strange men here that appeared out of nowhere and beat an entire Covenant platoon by themselves. They claim to not be part of the UNSC and don't even know the planet they're on."

Meanwhile, T'Challa whispered to Rogers, -"Captain, are you sure this is the right move?"

-"If we want to know the entire situation then yes. Besides, we haven't done anything to make them distrust us. But still keep your eyes open." The Wakandan prince nodded.

After a talk with his superior, Lieutenant Bradford turned to his men, -"Alright, we're down to our last transports, and as far as command can tell the last group of civilians is already on their way to the evac zone, so we'll be going back there and protecting it before that Covenant battlecruiser decides to come back."

-"Yes, sir!" They all responded in unison. Strangely, Cap felt like they were scared at all.

-"But sir…" The sergeant asked, -"What about them?" She pointed to Cap and T'Challa.

The lieutenant looked at the two anomalies again with skepticism. Cap decided to take the first step towards cooperation, -"We wanna help you while also finding some of our friends. We're lost on this planet and they could be as well."

-"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. First, we need to know who exactly you are and where you come from, but that can wait until we're off-world, so you'll be coming with us. Sergeant Chen!" he called out to the officer beside him, -"Introduce yourself."

She stood in attention, stiff as a statue. -"Sergeant Chloe Chen, Second Platoon, Charlie Company."

-"They could have guessed those last parts."

-"Sorry, sir." she said, sheepishly.

-"Me, you and your squad will be responsible for these two. Don't let them out of your sight until we're planet-side."

-"I- Yes, sir. Understood." It was clear she didn't want that responsibility.

-"Good. Let's load up and go then."

---

On the relatively short path towards the evacuation zone, Cap and T'Challa decided that it would be good to learn more about this entire battle.

Steve looked at Bradford, -"You said those things are called the Covenant?"

The Lieutenant looked at him as if he was asking if grass was green, -"How do you not know this? We've been fighting the Covenant for decades!"

-"When you say we, you mean…" T'Challa tried to get him to talk.

-"Humanity!" Bradford started losing his patience, -"Those alien bastards have destroyed more planets than we can count."

-"You've never seen them before?!" Sergeant Chen asked.

-"I've gone up against a species called the Chitauri. Do you know them?" Cap asked to try to see any similarities he shared with this side of humanity.

-"Never heard of it." Bradford replied. -"The Covenant are made up of Elites, Grunts, Jackals, Hunters, Buggers and Brutes."

-"We've never seen anything like those creatures back there." T'Challa answered.

Bradford then wanted some information of his own, -"You said you're the Black Tiger, right?"

T'Challa groaned at the mistake, -"The Black Panther." He corrected in a slightly grumpy tone.

-"Him I can see being part of the UNSC…" Bradford pointed to the Avenger, -"...but where do you fit in? What's your rank?"

-"I am not a part of any army. I'm the protector of the Wakanda nation on Earth."

Chen chimed in, curious. -"There's a country called Wakanda?"

-"Never heard of it. And I grew up on Earth." Bradford revealed.

Should it be anyone else, they would be worried about this information. However, the prince knew that his small nation kept its true nature hidden from the rest of the world and never tried to get attention from the outside world.

To anyone from outside, Wakanda was just a very small third-world country in the middle of Africa. He knew most people, especially those from first-world countries, probably didn't even know Wakanda existed at all.

The sergeant looked like she wanted to ask something as well, -"Captain Rogers, right? How did you get that title?"

-"I was part of the US Army a few years ago, but I dropped out." It wasn't technically a lie, since from his perspective, it had just been 5 years since he woke up from the ice, and only 4 years since becoming an Avenger.

The Lieutenant blinked twice in confusion, -"US? As in the United States Army?"

When Rogers nodded, Bradford and Chen looked at each other with distrust, thinking that the man must be lying.

Cap noticed the look, -"What's the issue?"

-"The United States dissolved about 25 years ago." said Chen, as if it was a normal thing.

-"And even if they were still around, there's no way someone like you just became that strong AND a Captain without anybody in the UNSC or ONI knowing." said Bradford.

Now it was Steve's turn to be confused. But not just confused… he was starting to be afraid. -"What year is it?"

-"It's 2549."

His heart skipped a beat. -"No…" Steve clenched his hands and looked down. His face hardened and he became stiff. With eyes almost bugging out of his skull, Steve was experiencing a fear he didn't even know he had.

When he came out of the ice in 2011, the entire world was different. He thought everyone he knew was long gone and having to adjust to a completely new age almost without help was harder than any battle he fought in World War II. He only found some sort of comfort with the Avengers and knowing that at least Peggy and Bucky were still alive.

Thinking about relieving that loneliness, that… forced change, was too much. It was starting to feel like the universe was playing a good joke with him.

T'Challa, seeing the man and soldier he respected in such a state, decided to help, -"Steve, listen to me." He took out his mask and put his hand on Rogers' shoulder, -"We don't know what happened when we went through that portal, but whatever it did, we can figure it out together and go back to our world, alright?" He looked Steve straight in the eye, almost making a visual promise to him, -"You're not alone in this."

Steve clenched his face a bit more, but hearing those words made him relax a bit. What T'Challa said was true, they didn't know the full extent of what happened. And he wasn't the only one going through this. -"Thank you, T'Challa."

The Black Panther smiled, trying to comfort both himself and the Avenger, -"Anytime, Steve."

The car started to slow down and Bradford, having let the duo have their private talk, announced, -"Pull yourself together Captain, we're here."

The closed off zone had three house-sized green ships parked on the designated take off area. They were clearly military ships, judging by the weapons and how they were fitted for troops rather than civilians. Around them there was another platoon of soldiers alongside a couple of tanks making sure no Covenant would even get close.

Looking to the side, there was a large group of civilians there that arrived just like them. They were clearly scared, but the soldiers were doing their best to try to comfort them while escorting the group to the ships.

-"Alright, you two will stay right by my side." He referenced the superhero duo, -"We'll only board the Pelican after everyone is already in."

The two knew that they needed to gain their trust, so they nodded.

Another soldier approached them. He was a tall black man with a Van Dyke style beard. -"Lieutenant Bradford." the man greeted.

-"Captain." Bradford saluted. He turned and pointed to the heroes, -"Sir, that is the Black Panther, protector of the Wakanda nation. And this is Captain Steve Rogers, codename: Captain America."

The man looked back at him confused about those titles.

Bradford sighed, understanding the confusion, -"Yeah, we got a lot to figure out, but as far as I know they're on our side and saved my men." He then addressed Steve, -"This is Captain Geoffrey Grey of Charlie Company."

-"Captain Grey." Steve extended his hand in peace.

-"Captain Rogers." The two shook hands. -"I'm going to be handling the last group to evacuate." He turned to Bradford, -"You take care of them until we're out of this mess."

-"Got it, sir!" He replied.

Meanwhile, T'Challa observed a few children and teenagers among the group. He knew that having to leave not just your home, but your whole planet at such a young age because of an alien invasion would take a toll on anyone, but seeing their faces was still hard.

-"You said you were at war with the Covenant for 20 years…" T'Challa went to ask Captain Grey, -"Did you have to do this a lot?"

Thecaptain took a few seconds to respond, -"More times than any of us wish."

The duo thought about how to exactly handle such a complicated situation. They wanted to help in any way they could, but it was clear that these soldiers at least knew something about what they were doing. More than them at least.

After a few more minutes, all the civilians had safely boarded the ships. -"Okay! Time to load up those Scorpions into the Pelicans, marines!" Bradford called out to his platoon.

The two tanks slowly drove towards the Pelicans dropships. When they were right under the uplifted rear end of it, they magnetically connected with it, which enabled them to be transported.

-"Marines, get on board! You two as well." He mentioned the heroes.

-"Where are we going?" asked Steve.

-"To a weapons research facility down south. These Pelicans can't go into slipspace and there's not enough room for everyone in our frigate in low orbit, so we're taking the civilians to a few Banta-class transports there. They can hold out more passengers and we can connect to the frigate if necessary." Benjamin explained.

-"Are you sure there isn't anyone else in the city?" T'Challa asked.

-"Even if there were, command ordered a full retreat. There's nothing left for us here and the more time we stay here, the less likely we are to make it out alive."

He then boarded the Pelican, accompanied by Chen, Steve and T'Challa. They looked on at the devastation caused by a single one of those cruisers, and the superheroes were angry and found a new motivation to keep fighting alongside these soldiers. And with a final view of the destroyed city, the three pelicans made their way towards the last location on the planet still inhabited.

---

- Weapons Research Facility T12A -

Speaking of, right outside the facility, the last of the latest Covenant strike force had just been defeated by the combined forces of the three Avengers and the UNSC Marines.

Together, the three heroes provided a much needed aerial support that made sure the marines would focus on the ground without being shot at.

With the skies and most of the ground cleared, Iron Man decided to land close to the group of soldiers that he was providing support to for the past battle to try to finally gain some much needed information.

-"Good job out there guys. You should ask for a promotion after this."

Nobody responded, they just stared at Tony. He saw that the men were still wary of him and his capabilities. They have probably been fighting since forever and never saw anything like him before and he couldn't blame them.

His helmet retracted, revealing his face to try to calm them, -"Hey, look. I'm human too. I just want to know what's going on."

One of the men, the sergeant, approached him. His deadpan stare felt like there was no soul behind those eyes, -"Who are you?"

He decided to humor them first to gain trust, -"I'm Iron Man."

-"You got an actual name, Iron Man?" the man asked again.

-"Tony Stark. You know, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Owner of Stark Industries" He boasted. It was not common for him to have a chance to show his ego a little. Especially if it could calm him down from the whole 'being stuck on another planet' thing.

-"Are you part of the UNSC or not?" the sergeant questioned him, still wary.

-"I don't know what that is, but I'm here to help, trust me." Tony tried to claim.

-"Trust doesn't come easily to me." He narrowed his eyes.

One of his men put a hand on his shoulder, -"Sir. He helped save us. More of us would have been killed if it wasn't for him."

The sergeant knew what he meant and knew that if someone had that kind of power and didn't use it against them then they would most likely be friendly. -"Hmm…"

The marine stepped forward, -"Thank you for your help Iron Man. But what unit are you guys a part of? I thought the UNSC couldn't send reinforcements anymore."

-"Again, I don't know what that is. But we…" Tony gestured towards Rhodey and Vision who were landing beside him, -"Are the Avengers. Earth's Mightiest Heroes."

-"You're from Earth?" The marine asked. This raised everyone's interests there.

Tony got hopeful, -"You know about it? A portal sent us here and we were hoping to find our way back."

The sergeant took the lead again and became a bit aggressive in his approach, -"If you really claim to be from Earth, then how come you never heard of the United Nations Space Command?"

Rhodey saw the tension between the sergeant and Tony and stepped in the middle of the two, -"We can figure this all out later, but right now those people need to get out of here." He turned to the sergeant, -"How can we help?"

-"..." He may not trust them at all, but he couldn't deny their power was great to have in battle, -"The last civilians are coming here. The Covenant will probably send another last attack to try to destroy us. They don't have mercy." He then turned to the Avengers, -"And while I saw your capabilities, I don't think you're qualified to be on the battlefield, so you'll be taking orders from us."

-"I'm Colonel James Rhodes from the US Air Force. I know my title probably doesn't mean much to your army, but I do have training and know the procedures in this situation. We'll help where we can."

Tony didn't like this. He wanted to help, but he wasn't about to be enlisted in a war to do that. He couldn't imagine following the military's order like that, this was more Rhodey's job than his. He's an Avenger, independent.

-"Vision!" Someone called out to his side. He recognized the voice and saw Wanda and one of the agents that was in the warehouse with him when they got transported exiting a Warthog along with a few other troops.

-"Wanda!" The android called out. The two hugged each other in a way that definitely made some of the marines narrow their eyes, -"If you're here, then the rest of the team can be as well."

-"Oh, that's good." said Daisy. She approached Tony, -"Hi! We don't know each other, but I'm agent Daisy Johnson. I'm a big fan."

He was about to respond in a snarky way when he was interrupted by Captain Quinn, -"Introductions later." She pointed to the sky, -"Covenant dropships inbound!"

Everyone looked up and saw a bunch of purple ships heading their way. Contrary to the Banshees, these were bigger since they were transports, and blue and green lights detailed then. Their underbelly showed more metallic gray parts and had four anti-gravity devices to be able to fly. There were plasma weapons attached on the front and both undersides of the ships. Most of the dropships were also carrying a vehicle of some sort underneath them. Either a purple tank or what looked like speeders.

But it wasn't the dropships that scared the people on the ground. It wasn't the air support with Banshees that accompanied them.

No, what truly had everyone on edge was the giant Covenant battlecruiser that was deploying both the dropships and air support. It had left the city after the crew heard about how the hit on the facility had been repelled better than expected and how their forces were completely destroyed.

-"That- That's too many…" The soldier with his foot blown off spoke with fear.

-"More alien butt for us to kick." Captain Quinn said with confidence, already reloading her BR55HB Battle Rifle.

Tony turned to Daisy, -"Nice to meet ya, Daisy. You got powers?"

The agent smiled and brought her arms up, -"Like you wouldn't believe."

-"Then we keep them occupied while they get the people to safety."

Turning around, Iron Man saw that the sergeant he was talking with had disappeared. He zoomed in on the facility behind him and saw him entering it.

-'What is he doing?!' He thought. An officer didn't just abandon the battlefield like that. And from what he had seen from him, he didn't seem the type. There must have been something in there for him to just leave his men behind.

Tony spoke to Rhodey, -"You take care of this while I figure something out!" Not waiting for a response, he flew out to where the sergeant was seen entering.

-"Wait, Tony! Dammit!" Some of the marines looked at him, not believing that he just left, -"He does this sometimes. He'll be back."

Captain Quinn then put her hand on her helmet, listening to a wide broadcast to all officers on the field. After a few seconds, she cursed out loud and warned the group, -"He better be back! Cole protocol has been enacted. We are to destroy all data left on the base, get the last group of civilians and leave as fast as possible!" She turned to a few Marines she didn't recognize, -"You four, which company are you from?"

-"We're from the Hades Corps, ma'am." One of the soldiers answered.

-"The demolition squad?" Quinn questioned, -"Shouldn't you be destroying the base?"

-"Our sergeant ordered us to stay here and support you. Said that he was going to deal with enacting the Cole Protocol on the base by himself."

-"Unorthodox, but we need any help we can get to keep those alien bastards occupied until the last transport arrives. Which brings me to you four…" She turned to the superhero squad, -"You lot are a wild card, and I still don't fully trust you after hearing Wanda and Daisy's stories, but we could use your help."

-"We will fight the best we can." said Vision with honesty.

She gave them a smile worthy of someone who clearly enjoyed the fight more than anyone should. -"Then go to town!"

---

- Weapons Research Facility T12A -
- Hangar 1030 -

While the outside of the hangar had people protecting it, the inside was almost abandoned. The large hangar was used to create new weapons to help fight the Covenant, but all the scientists were already being evacuated when the sergeant entered the building.

There were screens showing blueprints of some sort of battlesuit, along with metal plates, missiles and unfinished projects hung by chains attached to the ceiling.

The sergeant went to one of the bigger screens that started to erase every file in there, making sure the Covenant wouldn't even find a trail of their existence here.

He heard something coming from behind and immediately turned to fire.

Iron Man put his hands up, -"Whoa, whoa, whoa! We're on the same side here."

-"Hmph." He puffed, -"You here to stop me?"

-"What do I have to do to prove to you I'm not in cahoots with the ugly ones out there?" Tony asked, sarcastically.

-"Maybe go back and fight them. Leave me be."

-"My friends are handling it for now. I wanted to know why you abandoned your men."

-"Just doing my job." He lowered his weapon and went back to erasing the database.

Tony started to look around in awe, seeing the creations this base had to offer, -"Oh wow… This is something else."

-"You understand all of this?" The sergeant asked, curious to know more about the man in the flying suit.

-"I'm an inventor. I built this suit myself." He taped his Iron Man suit to make his point.

While he wouldn't admit it out loud, the sergeant was a bit impressed by the feat. Being a scientist was one thing, but one that also went head on into battle with his own suit was a type of courage he wished other brainiacs had as well. If the UNSC would ever allow it of course, he knew they were more important alive than risking their lives.

Tony examined upclose a few of the prototype suits that failed testing, -"If these things work, we have to give them to some of the guys out there, they could use the upgrade for now."

While he didn't like the idea of any government having access to such powerful technology, in a full out war like this, it was better to use everything at your disposal.

-"Can't. I'll be destroying it all." the sergeant revealed.

-"What?!"

-"We can't have the Covenant using these designs against us or knowing more about humanity through the information here." he explained.

-"Yeah, I got that, but if you have a working one here, we should use it." Tony tried to convince him.

-"And I plan to." he responded, in a more sober tone than usual, -"But that armor won't be coming back with us."

-"And you?"

The man didn't respond, deciding to just press the button on the screen that started the purge of all Project HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL files.

But Tony didn't need an answer, he knew what the sergeant was going to do. Tony then went to a computer close by and put on his helmet. -"F.R.I.D.A.Y." He whispered only inside of the helmet, -"Do me a few favors…"

---

- Battlefield -

Back on the battlefield, the three Avengers and the agent were trying their best to fight hoard after hoard of Covenant troops.

But contrary to their previous engagements with the aliens, this time the battlefield was engulfed with much more chaos.

The UNSC's main fighting force might have been here, but the Covenant was clearly throwing most of their forces here as well.

The purple speeders that the Marines called Ghosts were zooming on the battlefield and were hard to hit by anyone except for the most trained troops and Vision, who was calculating their trajectory and one-shooting them with his Mind Stone laser.

Wanda found the Elites, Grunts and Jackals easier to fight then the Brutes, but their quantity wasn't making it easy. She had already been tired from fighting before, but now their exhaustion was beginning to take a toll. And even Wanda's most powerful energy shields weren't holding on as much due to the sheer amount of plasma being fired at her.

But she was faring better than her secret agent friend. Daisy could never really use the full extent of her powers because she was always fighting humans that she needed to contain or arrest. But she was pushing herself in a new way. Fighting against aliens that could survive her weakest blows meant she needed to really shake the battlefield up, even creating earthquakes on the ground to destabilize the Covenant.

However, the biggest problem was the tanks, or Wraiths as they called them. And with Vision having to deal with the fastests attackers, Rhodey had to do the heavy lifting. Quite literally. He was picking up the Wraiths and throwing them at the other tanks or unsuspecting infantry. They were heavy, but once he knew how to use their anti-gravity repulsors against them, they became easy prey for the Major.

But even with all their effort, they were still getting pushed back.

-"I can't keep this up forever!" shouted Wanda.

-"Is this how Tony felt in New York?" Rhodey wondered to himself.

-"We need to hold on!" Daisy tried to encourage.

Suddenly, one of the Elites was able to get a lucky shot that grazed Daisy's shoulder and she fell in a slight ditch. The Elite, accompanied by two Grunts, got closer to the downed woman. She clutched in pain, but there was no one around to help. The Elite laughed as it was about to kill his prey.

Fortunately, a round shield hit it in the head and sent him to the ground. The shield bounced back to its owner, Captain America.

The star-spangled man didn't waste time and made quick work of the two Grunts. he then hit the Elite a bunch of times with such strength that his energy shield broke and he was able to kill it without issue.

-"You okay?" He asked Daisy while extending his hand to help her get up.

The woman was still impressed by actually seeing Cap fight, but that quickly faded once she saw a Jackal behind him trying to get the jump on them. She acted in an instant and sent him a blast that made him fly in the air and land right in the line of fire of a Marine.

-"I am now." She took his hand and stood up, -"Great to have you with us Cap. Did you get teleported with anybody?"

He was about to respond, but the Black Panther jumped in front of the two to protect them from a shot, then later ran up to the alien who fired it and started slashing through their ranks.

-"Him." He smirked.

-"He's good." She joked. But the light laugh got her to wince in pain at the burned shoulder, -"I don't know what they shot with, but it hurts a lot."

From the side, came Sergeant Chen carrying what looked like a med pack. It was a small white kit in octagonal shape with a big red 'H' in the middle.

-"Here." She took a canister out of the kit, -"This will make it heal faster." From the canister came a white foam that as soon as it touched Daisy's wound, she winced a little but she could feel some relief and it was already starting to heal the slightly burned skin.

-"Thank you." She got up again and turned to Steve, -"Cap, what's our plan?"

-"We need to take out the tanks and anti-aircraft guns fast. Those ships in the hangar are just for passengers. They won't reach the frigate they got in orbit before getting shot down." He explained.

-"Got it!" Daisy and T'Challa said in unison.

---

- Hangar 1030 -

After a few minutes, the sergeant finished experging all the data he thought there was. It was time to fight again, but with something extra this time.

In the back of the warehouse, there was the finished prototype of the suit. The HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark I ADS.

The suit towered over any human and could topple a tank with its size alone, not even mentioning its super-strength.

It was all black except for the shoulders and knee area which were yellow. Its right arm had a powerful mounted gatling gun. On its back there were missile tubes and a powerful rifle. The helmet had an orange-yellow visor with a built-in display inside.

Tony looked at the suit in awe, thinking it resembled a less bulky Hulkbuster suit merged with the War Machine armor. He could probably replicate it and improve it if he had the materials and the time.

He climbed on a small platform to reach the part of the suit for the pilot. He knew that entering would be a path without backing down, but with a battlecruiser hanging above their heads, he needed to protect everyone and distract the Covenant until they escaped.

-"That's a nice suit." Tony complimented him. Putting his helmet back on, he asked, -"You ready to go, uh…" Tony stopped for a second, -"I just realized, I never asked your name."

The visor of the Mark I turned on, it sounded like a beast recharging up to attack, -"People just call me… Ghost."

And with that he blew a hole right in the ceiling of the warehouse and flew off, with Tony following suit.

---

- Battlefield -

Before the heroes and UNSC could actually try to take out the tanks, they all heard an explosion coming from the hangar and saw two suits of armor leaving through the hole and flying towards them. One of them landed next to them and it was Sergeant Ghost wearing the prototype suit.

One of Ghost's Marines looked at the suit and recognized it, -"I can't believe it."

Another one came to the same conclusion, -"Oh my God. It's the prototype suit. But who the hell's driving it?"

Then, Ghost decided to speak up to everybody through the comms, -"Ghost to Hades Corps. Fall back immediately. Ignore the Covenant. I'll hold them off. Nobody's dying here."

One of his men agreed, -"You heard him, let's go."

But the other didn't, -"You idiot. He's not supposed to be testing that suit, he's supposed to destroy it!"

Ghost leaps into action. He flies to a Wraith Tank and hides behind the mounted gun. Then he takes out a magnetic Claymore Mine and attaches it to the Wraith and leaps clear. The resulting explosion engulfs the tank. Everyone was in awe at the capabilities of the suit, similar to how they were when they saw the Avengers fighting for the first time.

Cap, Daisy and T'Challa then hear a buzzing from behind. Turning around, they see Iron Man hovering above them, -"Hey, Cap. Missed me?" He asked, definitively sporting a smirk underneath the helmet.

-"Tony, it's good to see you." he smiles.

-"Good to see you too, Cap. And I've got a surprise. F.R.I.D.A.Y.!" he called out. Suddenly, all the other members of the Avengers had a slight ring on their ear, as their earpieces finally connected to each other. -"How's everyone doing?"

-"It's nice to be in contact again!" Rhodey spoke with excitement.

-"Agreed." said Vision in his usual monotone voice.

-"At least we won't get lost another time." said Wanda.

-"And you two…" He mentioned the two other heroes. Taking out a couple of earpieces, he threw them at the two, -"Put this on and keep in contact. It was the best I could do in a short time. You're part of the team for now."

-"Thank you, Stark." said T'Challa, taking off his helmet and putting on the earpiece, alongside Daisy.

-"Now." The Captain addressed his teammates in the comms with a plan already in mind, -"Tony and Vision will deal with their air support, don't let anything hit those evac ships. Rhodey and T'Challa will deal with the tanks and AA guns, they can cause a lot of damage. Me, Daisy and Wanda will take care of the infantry alongside the UNSC, the more support, the better. Everyone understood?"

-"Yes, Captain!" Was the unanimous response from the team.

-"Watch each other's backs! Avengers Assemble!" They divided into groups and started plowing through the Covenant forces like the team of professional superheroes they were. Even the newcomers worked well with them.

---

Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, Ghost's commanding officer, a Commander from ONI, saw Ghost using the suit and was about to bulldoze him with stern words.

-"Can you hear me, Sergeant?! What do you think you're doing?! Your orders are to destroy the suit and all related data! You are disobeying direct orders!" he called out on the Comms.

-"No sir, I am following my orders." he said in a calm tone.

-"Explain yourself!"

-"I have destroyed all the data, and I am using the time left on this suit to safely evac my people." On the internal screen of his visor, a countdown of about 10 minutes was revealed. He understood that's how much time he got to live.

Ghost uses the suit's arm mounted machine gun to destroy an attacking Banshee. The suit deploys a reversed engineered Bubble Shield as Ghost turns the arm-mounted gatling gun on the attacking infantry.

-"I'm not leaving until every one of my men are safely off-"

He got interrupted by a very angry commander, -"That is not the plan! Dammit sergeant, we already got enough trouble with those powerful strangers appearing out of nowhere, I don't need one of my men to become a wild card too! I am ordering you to stand down and-"

He interrupted him this time, while still fighting loads of Covenant troops, ripping them apart shot by shot with his gatling gun, -"There's no other choice. The mission cannot be jeopardized. And I am still responsible for these Marines."

-"Wait, Sergeant! Ghost! Listen to me!"

His commander's voice became less and less present in his mind, as his thoughts drifted back to three years ago. He remembered holding one of his soldiers' hands while she died. The bodies of the rest of his platoon scattered across the opening in the forest. That was the last time he truly felt alive, and the last emotion he felt was pain. And then he became a ghost.

-"The suit has a staggered countdown. In order to trigger final detonation, the system requires a voice command."

Ghost then switches to the shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. He fires a rocket at a Wraith, destroying it in a single hit.

-"You designed it that way for a reason, didn't you?" He rhetorically asked his commander.

A Banshee moved to destroy the suit with its Fuel Rod Cannon. Ghost deployed the suit's Bubble Shield and used a recoilless rifle on the suit's other shoulder to fend off the Banshee.

-"Ghost…"

-"Just get my men off this planet. This is Ghost. Over and out."

However, unknown to him, there was another person listening to the conversation.

-"Sorry to burst your bubble, pal, but you'll be getting your own men off this planet yourself." Tony chimed in on the comms.

-"How did you get access to this channel?" Ghost asked calmly, while still fighting Covenant troops.

-"I've got my ways, but the important thing is that you're coming back with us as well."

-"I can't. I have to find a way to destroy that ship."

-"We can work together to do that. I know you want to make the sacrificial play, but your men need you not just now, but afterwards as well." said Tony.

-"..." Ghost didn't answer. To him, making sure that his men were safe by destroying that ship was the priority and the only option available.

Tony continued, -"Besides, that suit is pretty nice. Can't really waste that."

Inside his helmet, Ghost saw that the self-destruct countdown stopped and the numbers faded. -"What- What did you do?"

-"Gave you a second chance." Tony then softened his voice, -"You're clearly carrying some sort of baggage with you. Maybe I understand what you're thinking. But instead of going out viking-style, without making sure it'll work, we can talk and figure out a better way."

The sergeant still didn't say anything, just thought about what was said to him three years ago.

'Be Human.'

That was the request the last soldier of his previous platton told him. To be human.

And for the first time in forever, he wanted to know what that was like. He wanted to live as a human, not just die as a ghost. He wasn't even thinking if he was going to get into trial for this, but he knew that that would feel better than the judgment of death.

-"Alright…" he responded, his voice low and with a hint of… relief.

-"Great! 'Cause I just heard Cap's got a plan and we need to go to the hangar now!"

The sergeant saw Iron Man flying back towards where the evac ships were and he followed suit, more prepared for anything.

---

- A Few Minutes Earlier -

On the other side of the battlefield, the UNSC had retreated quite a bit towards the hangar keeping the last two evac ships, and the Avengers with them.

They had formed a defensive line where Wanda was creating shields for the marines while Daisy destabilized the ground for the Covenant to fall. But even with their coordinated defense, they were starting to get outnumbered.

-"We can't hold out much longer!" shouted Chen.

-"There's a whole lot of 'em!" Quinn commented, having way less fun fighting than usual.

-"Their reinforcements must be coming from the other ships." Bradford suggested.

Out of the corner of his eye, Steve noticed a moving invisible force, like the cloaked Elites he met back in the city. It had broken through their lines without anyone noticing and was approaching the very last line of survivors boarding the ships, most likely to infiltrate it.

Steve ran fast to catch it in time, -"LOOK OUT!" He shouted to the marine stationed closest to the door.

The Elite, knowing his cover was blown, deactivated his camouflage and grabbed the first human he could to make a bargain. It just so happened to be a 17 years old kid.

The Elite grumbled in anger. He had seen the Avengers fighting with so much confidence, killing his brothers in a way that he never saw humanity was capable of.

The marines pointed their guns at the Elite, but none was confident enough to actually take the shot and not hit the teenager. -"Drop him, split-lips!" One of them called out in anger.

Cap took a step forward and addressed the alien directly and in an assertive tone, -"Let the kid go."

-"Humm…" The Elite was thinking about his options, but he was angry and wanted revenge for his brothers. He took out his energy sword and ignited, threatening to slice the child's throat.

The kid started to panic more than he was already and Cap noticed that and put his hands up to try to get his attention, -"Kid, look at me. It's gonna be alright. What's your name?"

The teen didn't know if the Elite would allow him to even speak, but he tried anyway, -"P-P-Paul. Paul D-DeMarco." he said, almost crying and trembling in fear.

-"Nice to meet you Paul, I'm Steve Rogers. We're going to get you out of this."

The Elite laughed when Steve said that, as if he knew there was no way for the kid to come out alive.

But that wasn't true, as Steve glanced at the side and saw Daisy slowly approaching them from behind. Steve tried to distract the alien, -"You think this will make you win here. We'll survive and stop you, like we always do."

This angered the Covenant soldier even more, but before he could do anything drastic, using her powers, Daisy vibrated the Elite's sword and armor at such a high and specific frequency, that they literally started to dismantle right in front of him, with him being too disoriented to understand what was happening.

He tried to strike at the kid, but the sword turned off right at that moment. He turned around and saw a smirking Daisy, who sent a blast so powerful, it sent him flying fast and hitting the crates at the other side of the hangar and bending them due to the sheer force. He didn't get up again, but just to make sure, a marine went to check, pulled out his M6D Magnum pistol and put a few bullets through his skull.

Cap on the other hand, was tending to the kid he and Daisy had saved. -"Are you feeling okay?"

-"Y-Yes." He breathed easier. The teen wanted to hug Steve, but didn't know if he should.

-"PAUL!" Cap saw who he assumed were the parents coming to take their kid inside and most likely hug him through the whole trip back. The mother mouthed a silent 'thank you' to Stev, which he simply smiled and nodded.

Then he went to check on Daisy, as he saw she was breathing hard and normal, -"And you? Can you get up?" He was worried she would be killed if she kept pushing herself like this. He didn't understand her powers, but it couldn't have been good using them so much for hours.

-"I'm good, I'm good." She tried to play it off, but when looking at how chaotic the outside was, she realized how bad the situation really was. -"Cap, we can't keep this on forever. Even if we take out all of their infantry, that ship could just open fire on top of us and kill everyone here. We won't escape if we don't destroy that ship."

Steve knew that was easier said than done. -"Captain Grey, are there any weapons here that can take out that cruiser?" He asked through the comms.

-"Nothing, Rogers. The MAC guns that we had were destroyed. But I doubt they were even powerful enough to pierce that cruiser's shields." His voice went low and hopeless, -"We're stuck here."

Steve thought about all the options that could be done. He didn't know anything about Covenant technology, nor their most powerful capabilities, but he wasn't going to sit by and do nothing. He had what could be described as a crazy idea. -"Not necessarily. Vision." He called out.

-"Yes, Captain?" The android answered in his built in comms.

-"Did any of the Covenant energy shots affect your body?"

-"I am working perfectly fine. None of my body has been damaged as of now."

-"Good, then I want you to do something reckless. I need you to go right through that ship."

Daisy widened her eyes, -"What?"

The rest of the soldiers there also got confused by that statement.

And Vision was as well. -"I'm sorry? I don't think I understand."

Steve explained, -"I saw how effective the Mind Stone was at taking out their vehicles' shields. Use it at full power to take out that ship's energy shield. Don't hold back. Then shift your density and punch a hole clean through."

-"That is… a solid plan." Vision admitted, running through thousands of calculations in his head.

-"Can I interrupt for a second?" Sergeant Chen asked as she heard what Cap said, -"If he really is capable of doing that, which I this point wouldn't surprise me, then he'd have to hit the fusion reactor in the middle of the ship to cause an explosion."

-"You know where it is?" Cap asked her.

-"Yeah, I can show him."

-"Thanks. Vision, meet up with Sergeant Chen in the hangar. She'll explain what you'll have to do."

-"Understood, Captain Rogers."

-"Don't keep us waiting." He turned to the marines there, -"A ship is about to come crashing down right there in the middle of the field. We need to clear the area of any more forces and make sure to barricade here. Let's keep these people safe.."

While Captain Rogers wasn't part of the UNSC, the man exalted an aura of respect that the troops couldn't help but listen to him.

---

- Present Time -

After receiving the exact instructions from Sergeant Chen, and making sure all UNSC troops were barricaded, Vision flew high up in the air, reaching the upper atmosphere at a high velocity. From this altitude, he could even see the lone UNSC frigate in orbit waiting to receive the survivors of the battle.

He knew the amount of force, speed and density he needed to punch through the ship, that's why he went so high. Using his enhanced optics, he saw the Covenant cruiser right beneath him. And he flew in head first.

Using the full known power of the Mind Stone in his forehead, he shot a beam of light so powerful that it could be seen from space. The laser was something the Covenant cruiser had never gone up against before. It was a constant beam of energy more powerful and condensed than plasma that was weakening the shields by the second.

Vision increased his body density to be heavier than 500 tons, and while that didn't sound like much, the speed that he was going through made him a literal human-sized bullet.

The cruiser's shield finally gave in just as Vision passed the clouds, and with a bright flash of light, the ship had been breached by the sheer force of Vision's body and the laser accompanying it. He went through the ship almost like butter, with his powers making him practically unstoppable at that point.

The Covenant didn't even know what hit them before the ship started to not only fall from the sky, but to also blow up from the inside out. Since Vision had hit the Pinch fusion reactor in the middle of the craft, it was unstable and beginning to crumble and explode.

Vision hit the ground with more force than he expected, clearly he needed to learn how to better control his abilities, especially the Mind Stone, which was still emitting a powerful glow, even after the laser stopped.

The android got up, feeling strange. Exhausted somehow. This was the first time he used his abilities to his full extent and his mechanical body was showing a sort of mental fatigue, even if he wasn't actually hurt.

---

The blast was more powerful than they imagined it. The humans were more perplexed than anything. They knew that a MAC round from a space station could destroy a Covenant cruiser with ease, but for a single person. No, an android, to do this was… terrifying.

The Covenant weren't the only ones who gained a fear of the Avengers and their powers that night.

Once they were sure the smoke and dust was high enough, Captain Grey gave the order, -"Everyone, GO, GO, GO!"

The civilians were already in the ships. The two Banta-class transports just started to take off, while the UNSC soldiers boarded the Pelicans, including Ghost in his suit, which was magnetically attached to the back end of one of the Pelicans.

Him, Iron Man, War Machine and Vision served as extra air support just to get out of the hot zone.

The convoy stuck together to make sure no one would get picked off. Once they were sure the Covenant hadn't realized they had left during the chaos, one of the Pelicans opened up so that Tony, Rhodey and Vision could enter before reaching the atmosphere.

---

- UNSC Pelican -

Inside one of the Pelicans, stood the five Avengers and their two new allies, alongside Captain Grey, Lieutenant Bradford, Sergeant Chen and some of their company.

The Iron Man and War Machine suits were battered and clearly needed fixing before joining a single fight again. Wanda and Daisy were exhausted, with Daisy being checked by Chen on her injury. Vision was trying to understand what happened to his body and the Mind Stone, while being comforted by Wanda. And while Steve and T'Challa were considered super-soldiers, they were also breathing a little hard, especially T'Challa as he had to destroy tanks alongside Rhodey.

Daisy was the first one to speak, -"Did all of that really happen?" Reality was finally starting to set in for them.

-"Unfortunately." Came the response from Captain Grey.

Ghost chimed in over the comms of the Pelican, -"What about the base? I was supposed to blow it up with the suit."

-"Don't worry Ghostface." Tony called out, -"We had a solution for that."

On the ground, the Covenant battlecruiser was still imploding from the inside. A small explosion could set it off. And that's what it did, when before leaving the atmosphere, the soldiers of Hades corps threw in some Satchel Charges right at where the ship was with some assistance from Vision. The charges immediately blew up in the center of the downed craft, destabilizing it even further, to the point that it literally blew up like an atomic bomb.

The passengers watched from the Pelicans in awe and relief for the third time today.

-"I almost feel sorry for them." told Daisy while giving a chuckle.

-"I don't." said Rhodey, dry as a rock.

Captain Grey then went to the cockpit and told the pilot to contact the frigate aboard, -"This is UNSC Pelican Bravo 002 to UNSC Exodus, requesting permission to dock with civilian transports in the lower hangar."

-"This is the UNSC Exodus, permission granted. Welcome back Charlie Company." said the operator, relieved that they were able to escape. -"I don't know how you did it, but it's good to have you back."

Captain Grey was the one to answer instead of the pilot, -"It's a long story, just be glad we're here."

-"Can't wait to leave Algolis."

-"Me too. Over and out." the captain nodded to the pilot and went back into the cargo area. -"We'll be docking soon after the transports." he warned them.

-"So…" Daisy started, -"...What happens now?"

Bradford stood up, -"What happens now…" Him, Chen and Grey stood by the door, facing the heroes almost in a confrontational manner, -"...is for the UNSC to decide. Command will have many questions and I suggest you all collaborate."

-"It would be better for all of us." Grey complimented.

The heroes understood that very well. The situation they were in was unlike anything they've ever experienced before. Away from home, on a place with a different Earth, a different humanity, fighting a war bigger than they could imagine.

Only time will tell how things will change.

---

AND SCENE!

Well, there we have it. The introduction to the Halo universe. But don't worry, it's not over yet, there's still things to deal with on the Algol System before we move on to the rest of the galaxy.

Keeping track of Halo canon is hard, so if I got anything wrong, please comment. Or just comment in general, I love to read them and respond when I can!

Stay safe everyone, and until next time!