Chapter 2

R reyes- If you want more, then why not just look at my other stories, they might tickle your fancy as well.

Guest- I think both are fitting names for her, but I'm to alternatives, but I believe I'm sticking with Joy or Eve as both seem appropriate for her.

Edboy4926- Thank you for telling me that. I've updated that chapter to avoid that mistake. If any such mistake happens again, please let me know in a review.

Austin- I won't. I think Chief is more than prepared to face off even Newtypes in battle. He may even be mistaken for one as well.

We shall see if more Banished show up. And we shall also see if Jega can put enough fear and respect into his soldiers to keep them in line.

RedRat8- That doesn't sound like a good name, but whatever.

CasualFictionWriter23- I'm thinking of a GM Mobile Suit and not a Gundam for him. Just to keep it slightly fair to Zeon. Slightly. Also I like the design of the GM Mobile Suit and I feel that its underrated.

Kiryu79- Excellent suggestion. I'll consider it.

Zeon base

"What on Earth did you find, corporal?" Asked a Principality of Zeon officer to himself as he gazed upon the technological monstrosity that was laid upon a table in front of him while dozens of engineers were trying to pull it apart. Taller than any human the officer has seen in his entire life and wearing advanced armor that looked far superior to any type of body armor available to the Principality of Zeon, the officer wasn't sure what to make of it. At first, he thought it was something from the Earth Federation, but there was proof that this thing wasn't from the Earth Federation. And that proof was in the form of the ship that they found it on and what they found from it was very interesting. Not only did they find weapons of designs that they'd never seen before, but they also acquired some interesting technology as well. Technology that was simply far too advanced to be from the Federation. Even someone as ignorant to the inner workings of technology as him could see that. And then there was the human passenger that was with this robot. Both his uniform and mannerism didn't depict him as a Federation soldier. Currently, he was being interrogated, but he wasn't divulging anything. In time, he'll break, but for now, the officer was focusing on the robot and the technologies from the ship.

Right now, what techies they had were dissecting some of the weapons and tech right now. Unfortunately, due to how remote their base was along with its insignificance to the war on the American front, they weren't given the most advanced equipment. Thus their progress in deciphering the technology from the ship was slow. Fortunately, they had all the time in the world.

Looking at the engineers as they tried to open up the giant before him, the Zeon officer thought about the possible secrets the technological beast contained within. If it was even half as advanced as it looked, it may provide Zeon an edge against the Earth Federation. Who knows, it may even help them win the war. As he thought about the possibilities, a soldier suddenly came up before him and whispered into his ear.

"Sir, we got something you may want to see. One of the other patrols found someone near the perimeter. A woman. They brought her here for interrogation." Said the soldier. Upon hearing that, the officer raised an eyebrow. Why would one of the patrols bring a woman to the base? Curious, the officer followed the soldier to where the woman was being held.

The next day

"Chief! Chief wake up!" Yelled Joy as she restarted Chief's spartan armor, trying to resuscitate the Spartan as their suit was being prodded by several men in uniforms that Joy had never seen before. She had just woken up along with the suit when she noticed what the human men were doing. Though she was, at first relieved to see more humans and was about to greet them, she saw what they were doing and overheard how they were going to break the suit apart to glean what they can from it. Thus she tried to revive the Master Chief so he can escape and fight them off.

After the third attempt, John finally woke up and saw what was happening through his visor. Seeing several humans trying to tear his armor apart to no avail, the Master Chief instantly went into action.

Grabbing the nearest man by the throat, Chief tossed him aside while backhanding another, sending him flying across the room they were in. The third man, upon seeing this, freaked out and instantly ran away for the door, screaming for the guards. As he did so, Chief instantly got off the table he was on and spoke with Joy.

"Where are we?" Asked Chief as he checked on his suit's systems, finding nothing wrong, as well as getting his bearings.

"I don't know." Said Joy as she tried to get her own bearings. "Last thing I remember was a bright light erupting from the Banished own base and then I wake up finding several humans trying to pry open your armor." Looking down at the humans, Chief noticed that their uniforms were both far too clean for them to be apart of a rebel outfit and that they were radically different from any known UNSC uniforms. Noticing the symbol on the chest portion of the uniform, Chief had Joy scan it for any matches. Once she did, she informed him that it belonged to no known entity in her database.

"It could be a newly formed Rebel group or some new UNSC group?" Suggested Joy. "I mean, the UNSC is largely in ruins, right?"

"Possibly, but I have a feeling that's not the case here." Said Chief, having a bad feeling about this. "We need to get out of here and find Fernando. If we're here, he has to be here as well. Can you find him?"

"If you can get me to a terminal, I can find him." Said Joy confidently. Chief nodded at that before exiting the room that he was in. As he walked outside the building he was in, Chief noticed things were even more wrong than he originally thought.

While all Halo rings had habitable environments on their surface, they still were artificial enough that someone can tell the difference between actual dirt and the dirt found in the Halo rings. Being on several in his life, Chief could tell that the place he was on was most definitely a real planet. Then there was the very real Earth birds flying around him in the military base he was in. He wasn't born on Earth, but he could tell these birds were from Earth. The gasp of excitement from Joy confirmed that.

"Oh my, those are Blue Jays! Actual Blue Jays!" Yelled Joy with excitement. Sticking around longer than she was originally intended to be, Joy lacked much information about…well everything. She originally didn't even know what the Banished were along with the Covenant as it was deemed unnecessary by Halsey, her creator. Thus, during her time in Zeta Halo, she immersed herself in studying everything about their enemy along with other topics she found interesting. That included various animal species on the various planets humanity colonized. Not surprising, Earth was at the forefront of it all. "They went extinct before the Human-Covenant War started and I never thought I get to see one in real life. Oh, if only we weren't in a hostile environment, I'd ask you to stick around and let me study them. But first things first. Finding Fernando." Chief just acknowledged all that before looking around. Upon doing so, he found even more things wrong with his surroundings.

What was around him looked more like a twentieth-century military base than someone in the twenty-sixth century. There were no prefabricated buildings. A long airstrip for fighters. And there were buildings of design that were long considered obsolete or inadequate for the needs of the UNSC. Looking around once again, Chief had no idea what to make of all this. Even the Insurrection, a mismatch of various rebel cells and groups that fought against the UNSC during at its most powerful, wouldn't use such archaic technology and designs. As he wondered what this all meant, he suddenly heard the yelling of various humans.

Looking to the source, he saw a group of human soldiers in the same uniform as the ones that tried to break open his suit charging at him, wielding guns that didn't match anything in usage within both the UNSC and the Insurrection. Not knowing their capabilities, Master Chief ran towards a nearby building, forced open the door, and ran inside.

"I need a weapon." Said Chief as he stopped and looked around his surroundings for a weapon, finding nothing in the empty hallway he was currently in.

"I'm on it, but I'm finding nothing to hack into." Said Joy as she tried to find something to hack into. Something electrical that she can hack and bypass, but she found nothing. "I can't even find a single security camera here. Damn, it's like we're in some sort of weird, archaic place, Chief. I have no idea what to make of it all."

"Neither do I, but we have to make do." Said Chief as he saw the group of soldiers coming for him, firing their guns wildly at him. A few of the bullets hit his shields, but they didn't do much damage. In fact, they were barely even draining a single percentage of the shields, showing the low power of the rounds. Either they're trying to capture him alive or their guns were very impractical to use against energy shields. Whatever the reason, he saw he has no reason to fear them, especially when they were funneling towards him in the narrow hallway, eliminating their numbers advantage. With that gone, Chief aimed his grapple launcher at the front soldier before firing.

To the soldier's surprise and pain, the launcher fired its projectile with enough force to pierce right through his uniform and embed itself into his flesh. It then unleashed a massive shock that caused him to scream in pain as blue electricity flowed throughout his body, shocking his fellow soldiers. As this was happening, Chief was being pulled directly to the soldier by his launcher, but that wasn't the end of it. Raising his right fist, he boasted himself straight towards the soldiers using both thrusters mounted on his suit as well as the grapple itself. When his fist connected with the soldier, it unleashed a shockwave of force that outright broke the bones and bodies of everyone around them, sending bodies flying everywhere. As for the soldier hit with the grapple, his face received a power-armored enhanced fist that held over half a ton of weight behind it. Resulting in his face caving in and for blood and broken bones to splatter everywhere. Assessing the carnage around them, Joy spoke up.

"Well, I can safely see why only Spartans can use that grapple." Said Joy as she saw the carnage again, seeing blood coming from the blood. "I can also safely see that the species that comprise the Banished are tougher than humans because they don't spill as much blood as unaugmented humans when you do that trick. Even the little ones don't spill as much blood as these guys did." Making no comment on that, Chief grabbed one of the guns from the dead soldiers. Seeing the gun, Joy scanned it and found it quite curious.

"Hmm, fascinating." Said Joy as she finished examining the weapon. "It uses the old 5.56 ammo of old rather than the standard 7.62×51mm used in the UNSC. Quite strange huh?" Master Chief couldn't help but nod in agreement. Out-of-date building and base designs. Odd uniforms and symbols. Even out of date weapons using out-of-date ammunition. Something was very wrong. And Chief just knew he wasn't going to like the truth behind all this. Before he could comment on this, he heard some groaning behind him. Turning around, he saw that one of the soldiers was still alive. Seeing that Chief was looking at him, the soldier panicked and tried to run away, only to trip and scream out in pain.

"Broken bones in his right leg." Said Joy as she scanned the soldier. "Must have still been caught in the blast for that to happen." Chief didn't make a comment on this before going over to the soldier and hoisting them up, causing them to scream in fear as they tried to squirm away.

"G-get away from me, you monster!" Yelled the soldier as he tried to break free. As he did so, Chief noted just how young he was. Around eighteen years of age. Making a note of this, Chief decided to be a little lenient on the boy as he only wished to find Fernando, their Pelican, and get out of here as well as secure any lost UNSC equipment. Protocol stated that no unauthorized organizations or individuals can have access to UNSC equipment and weapons. Failure to recapture stolen equipment meant they had to destroy it instead to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. And the quicker he found Fernando and the Pelican, the sooner he can do that.

"Where's the man that I was with?" Asked Master Chief as he forced the boy to look at him, scaring him. "Tell me where the man I was with is and I'll let you go."

"I…I don't know what you're talking about." Said the soldier truthfully. Seeing that the soldier was telling the truth, Chief spoke up.

"Then are there any prisoners here? If so, is one of them a man with dark hair and a beard?" Asked Master Chief in his typical no-nonsense voice. Upon hearing that, the soldier nodded.

"Yes, two prisoners! One woman and one man! They're in here! In the basement!" Yelled the soldier, remembering hearing that they found two people and are interrogating them in the basement of the storage building as they didn't have a true interrogation room as this was a simple backwater base of no real strategic value to the Principality war effort in this region. "They're being interrogated by a few other soldiers, but they're being treated humanely as possible! I swear! Now let me go!" Hearing all this, Chief then asked another question.

"Are there weapons here?" Asked Chief, causing the soldier to gulp as he stared at the golden visor.

Later

Fernando

"Talk! Where did the Earth Federation build the ship we found you on!" Yelled a soldier as he glared at Fernando Esparza, who just spoke up.

"And I told you before I don't know what the fuck you're talking about!" Yelled Fernando in frustration as he tried to break free of the cuffs that were attached to his hands. Sitting in a metal chair while cuffed to it, Fernando couldn't do anything as the weird human soldier in the weird uniform spoke. "I don't even know what this Earth Federation is. The ruling government for Earth is the United Earth Government, isn't it!?" Rather than be confused by the question, the soldier just slammed the table in front of Fernando and spoke out.

"Don't play stupid with me Feddie! We know for a fact that you Earthnoids have created a project meant to create your own Mobile Suits! Is that ship part of it!? Along with that worthless suit of armor that shouldn't even be called a Mobile Suit!" Yelled the soldier. "Now talk or else the Antarctic Treaty won't be enough to save you from what I'm about to do to you!" Fernando just grunted in frustration at this, sick and tired of this man's inability to understand that he had no idea what he was saying. He didn't know about this Earth Federation, Earthnoids, and even this Principality of Zeon he talked about earlier. He didn't even know what the fuck a Mobile Suit is! Before either of the men could speak to each other, the door to the interrogation room was opened, and out came the Master Chief, wielding the traditional UNSC assault rifle. Before either man could react, Chief fired a single shot from his gun, which killed the man. As the body fell to the ground, Chief went over to Fernando and broke him free of his bonds.

"Thanks, Chief, I knew you would come to save me." Said Fernando as he rubbed his wrists a bit.

"Did they harm you?" Asked Chief as he kept an eye out for more guards. During his transit here from a large room that contained a few UNSC weapons and equipment, which he took all that he could carry before destroying what he couldn't take, an alarm broke out throughout the base, meaning the whole base now knew something was wrong and will soon come for them.

"No." Said Fernando as he went to the body and grabbed their pistol. "Even though they said they wanted to, they couldn't. Said a treaty prevented them from doing so."

"A treaty? What kind of treaty?" Asked Joy, her voice heard through Chief's armor.

"Called it the Antarctic Treaty. It's something that two governments signed that prohibited them from harming prisoners of war. They thought I was a soldier in some government called the Earth Federation." Explained Fernando. "Chief, this may sound redundant and crazy, but I got the feeling that we're not on Halo anymore. Or in our galaxy anymore. I mean, that guy told me some stuff that I haven't even heard about. Like this Earth Federation. This Principality of Zeon. Heck, he even yelled at me for saying that I came from a colony. He told me that humans only had one habitable world and that's Earth. Chief, just what the heck are we dealing with?"

Upon hearing all that, Chief processed all this new information before speaking.

"Let's just find the Pelican and get out of here before we can plan our next move." Said Chief. "Right now, the whole base is on alert, and we have to get out of here. It's only a matter of time before more guards come here." Fernando sighed before nodding in agreement. "I know where the Pelican is. Let's go. I'll take point." Before Chief could leave the door, Fernando suddenly spoke up.

"Wait, Chief! There's another prisoner here. The guards were talking about her and how she was like us. She just showed up out of nowhere. I think she's in the same boat as us. I think we should rescue her. She could be UNSC personal too." Said Fernando, causing Chief to stop. On one hand, this was an unknown variable that Chief wasn't sure if it was worth it or not, but on the other hand, if they're UNSC personnel like Fernando said, then they have to help them out. Deciding it was worth the risk as Chief wasn't going to leave any UNSC personnel behind, even if there was a chance this prisoner wasn't UNSC, Chief asked Fernando where the prisoner was being held.

"Just down the hall. A few doors down I think." Said Fernando as he led the way. "I didn't see her, but I heard a woman screaming with sounds of beatings, Chief. They must not have thought she was part of this Earth Federation or something because they didn't hurt me."

"Oh my." Said Joy in worry for this woman. "Were the beatings serious?"

"I don't know, but I heard a few guys talking about her recently so she's probably still alive." Said Fernando as he saw a door and inspected it for occupants. Seeing no one, he continued. "And, uh, not sure if you want to know this Chief, but some of the guys were talking about how…fine she was and wanted to…you know."

Knowing what Fernando was saying, Chief kept things professional but felt disgusted internally. Eventually, after a few more doors, Fernando found their target. "There. I think that's the one!" Upon hearing that, Chief walked towards the door and kicked it open. His strength was more than enough to forcibly kick open the metal door. Upon entering the room, he saw the sole occupant of the room and examined her.

The occupant was clearly a woman. At first glance, she looked human, but upon closer inspection, Chief saw that she wasn't. Her skin was rather pale, far too pale for her to be a human. Her ears were also pointed, almost knife-like in appearance. Looking at her attire, Chief could see she wore a green dress with a red skirt. Her hair was indigo in color and was straight but went poofy at the end as it reached her lower back. All in all, she looked human, but there were key differences enough that Chief could tell that she wasn't human and thus wasn't a part of the UNSC. Even though she wasn't part of the UNSC, he still was going to get her out of here because of her injuries.

Bruises and cuts were evident all over the woman's arms and face that bled out blood. Not profusely, but enough that it would be eventually life-threatening if they didn't get her medical treatment. Remembering the Pelican had a few first aid kits inside, though those were likely scoured clean along with most of its equipment and weapons, Chief then remembered the soldier that led him to where the weapons were along with Fernando. Before he knocked him out, the soldier mentioned a refugee camp nearby. One that was assisting displaced citizens from the war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. Not having other options, Chief decided to head there.

"Chief, her vitals are stable for now, but they won't be for long." Said Joy as she scanned the woman. "She'll bleed out if we don't treat her."

"I know." Said Chief before looking at Fernando. "We need to get to that Pelican fast. You try to stop the bleeding. I'll distract the guards. The Pelican is in a hanger destinated as Hanger two. A soldier told me that the hanger is labeled as such. It's just east of here with a few other hangers. We'll go there after I take care of our immediate threat and I made sure the route there is safe for us." Hearing all that, Fernando nodded at that, trusting Chief, before trying to find something to patch the woman up.

With Fernando busy, Chief went outside the room and headed outside, where a bunch of soldiers was waiting for him.

"You know that the odds are against us slightly, Chief?" Asked Joy.

"They always are." Said Master Chief as he checked his assault rifle, his shotgun, and his two pistols. Finding them all operational, Master Chief readied himself for a fight.

"So, what if Fernando is right? That we're in some weird alternate universe and not back home. What do we do then?" Asked Joy, remembering Fernando's theory of them being in a different galaxy. It sounded silly, but given the information they had, she was starting to think he was right.

"Then we'll have to find a way back home. That's all there is to it." Said Chief as he heard some yelling just ahead of him. Bringing out his assault rifle, he got to work on creating a distraction for Fernando and that woman they had with them. Just as the first Zeon turned to face him, Chief opened fire and began doing what he did best. Fighting.