Time Compressed

[Lykaios]

OPEN FOR PROFILES - Time Compressed Information and Profiles

An abrupt explosion tore everyone's attentions from their assigned duties, and in the direction the blast had sounded from. Each and every member of the local personnel was presently terrified at what the explosion could have been caused by. This was a highly secure facility, after all. After a brief communications over the speaker system, most staff deposited themselves back in their seats, disappointed by the order to remain stationary and return to their jobs. five personnel had been called by name to see to the damages, and everyone else was to continue with their otherwise boring lives here.

A person from each of the five major jobs on site, were attending: an engineer, a scientist, a doctor, an electrician and a security officer. That way, any injuries or concerns caused by this explosion could be dealt with without fuss. But noone expected what they saw when they arrived.

The explosion had been caused by a man who appeared to just be traveling ordinarily; with a briefcase and nothing that seemed to have a combustible nature about it. But the explosion had occurred and he was in the supposedly secure facility. What was worse; he was in the process of stealing the project they'd been working on:
Time Suit Alpha.

"Stop!" commanded the security officer, raising their pistol to display seriousness to the tone used. Security's role didn't do any good, however, as they merely got lifted and sent flying across the room in a heap of unconsciousness almost instantly. The man never moved, never made any attempt to utilise the suit's powers, but still security was disposed of without the slightest trace of anxiety. And in short accord, the rest of the team felt the same way the security had; shocked as they were lifted by invisible hands and tossed aside like ragdolls.

The man smirked into the camera in the room, as he started up the suit, and he said his first words since his arrival.

"With this; nothing can stop me from taking this world into my own hands. Find me. In time."

And with that bold proclamation, he vanished. He'd used the time suit Alpha's primary feature, and travelled forth through time.

-------- Twenty Minutes Later --------

"Wake up." a voice called, and was reacted to, when the person began to lift their head, only to realise there was a helmet in place with a display blinking into life. Looking around, the suited person meant to speak, but noticed the bio-signs by their side. Their own, and realised they were slightly erratic.

"Don't worry about those. It's only temporary while your body recovers, and then adjusts to the Beta suit we had to put you into, to keep you from suffering trauma." the voice spoke. It belonged to a woman in her mid-thirties, looking for all like a scientist trying to be a doctor.

"What happened? Where am I?"
"You were attacked by a man who stole the Alpha suit. We had to put you in the Beta suit to stabilise you. Unfortunately though, it means only you can use the suit now. You're going to have to be re-coded. The brass want you to refer to yourself only as 'Shifter' from here on, got it?" she paused, more out of anxiety, than for the benefit of who she was speaking to.

"And you're going to have to follow that man. The brass want you to get that suit back, at all costs. Because with it, he can do whatever he likes in time. And that means change everything."

Shifter, was stumped by the idea. Despite being privy to the information in the project, as Shifter's role had been focused around the Time Suit's in the first place; it didn't make any difference now. Shifter was going to need to prevent changes to the timeline itself?

That would prove difficult. But, Shifter had no other choice. The Beta suit was bonded to them, and them alone.

"Where do I need to go?" Shifter replied slowly, the jumbling system for outbound audio taking effect at that moment.

"Right! Um...first stop is twenty-five-fifty..."
"The future?!"
"Yeah."
"Damn. Alright. I'm good to go, then."

--- Shortly After ---

Shifter stood in a podium central to the rings around the podium as they slowly circled. It was odd being in the middle of that odd and steady rounding of rings as they spun, but it was necessary to kick-start the suits ability to jump through time. As the rings began to speed up, Shifter felt the vibrations begin to disappear, as the time 'jump' ability activated. And in a flash, Shifter was gone from the twenty-third century.

And in the twenty-sixth. Which looked quite hellish, to Shifter. They were fighting aliens...

[Elario Luminus]

The air was alive and burning with plasma fire, and all around him were burning wrecks of vehicles spewing both petrol and plasma fires. Smoke curled from the ground and the corpses that littered it, both human and alien. He was crouched low, holding his back against the crumbling wall of a destroyed building, the aura of his domed Dropshield healing him from the onslaught of plasma he'd just been hit with. Reloading his assault rifle, Acheron peered over the disintegrated wall at the enemy position he was charged with taking. Off the side of his heads-up display, the Mark V MJOLNIR suit he was clad in reported a massive energy spike about two kilometres north-east of his position. Acheron NAV marked it for later, relaying it back to the Crusader ship above him for analysis after the battle. Just ahead, he saw what was unmistakably a small team of four Jackals, lead by a chrome-covered Elite. Momentarily surprised by the new armour, he shook it off and watched the squad advance upon a scattered troop of Marines.

Bursting from his cover with a vault, the Spartan unclipped a grenade from his waist and, after pulling the pin, ditched it at the Jackals feat. When the grenade exploded, his visor instantly polarised, giving him full view of what was going on inside the cloud of smoke and heat. Opening fire on the stumbling aliens, he quickly dropped one, then another, and kicked the third jackal in the centre of his shield generator, easily breaking its birdlike arm. He put its shriek to a sudden stop with a mouthful of rifle rounds, then span around and, unsheathing his combat knife, drove it into the last Jackals neck. Acheron flicked the purple blood from the blade and sheathed the knife and set to reloading his assault rifle again. He finished just in time, too, as the Elite had lunged at him, roaring. Fending it off with a swift punch to the side of its head, Acheron could see now that the chrome wasn't armour at all; it was actually the Elites skin. The Marines around him opened fire, screaming, upon the metallic alien, bursting its shield. A few bullets ripped and tore at the metal, revealing circuitry and electronics.

Acheron simply blinked at the new development in front of him. For a full two seconds he stood there, watching the alien...no, not alien...android he was fighting. Then he got back into it. he switched weapons to his shotgun and blasted the now shield-less Elite in the chest, dropping it instantly. He approached the creature slowly and prodded it roughly with his shotgun, and when it didn't move again, Acheron inwardly relaxed. The last thing the UNSC needed were android Covenant that didn't die properly.

[Lykaios]

Inside the helmet; Shifter frowned. The twenty-sixth century looked like a complete nightmare, and was not in any hurry to slow down and end. Watching the commotion for a moment, Shifted speculated on what could have happened in the past, that could have brought on the sudden war between humans - wearing surprisingly simple and low-tech armour - and these distinctively different alien life-forms. Shifter noticed five different species in combat roles, in the local skirmishes. Not only that, but there appeared to be some floating pinkish-blue creatures, that resembled balloons in a very obscure fashion. From what Shifter could tell from the looks of it, it was a supporting unit and definitely not a combat role.

A screech came from behind, and Shifter spun around; reacting on base instinct, and looked at this incredibly vulture-like creature, with the body density of a twig almost; as the creature screeched again, and raised what looked like a blue rifle. Shifter didn't react in time to what they had no idea about; and was horrified when an energy beam shot from the rifle. If the Beta suit's internal coding had not been properly set to focus on the wearers safety at all costs; Shifter would have lost an arm.

The Beta suit had reacted and paused time itself. For a moment, Shifter looked around, completely gob-smacked by the active success of the suit's abilities. A gauge was depleting in the bottom left-most corner of the heads-up displays screen, so Shifter took the time to step aside from the projectiles path, and moved behind the creature. The gauge depleted entirely, and the creature stopped dead. Looked forward, and realised that the target it had fired at, was completely gone. But not from its weapon discharge.

Shifter decided it was not wise to loiter around this location any longer, because the creature could turn and face them at any second. One eye on the 'time gauge' - as Shifter had instantly coded it - as it slowly began to refill, Shifter moved. Attempting to escape the area before being shot again...while still defenceless. Running full-out, Shifter barely had time to register the weapons being discharged all around, and could only sprint for the nearest available cover site. Dust blew up as Shifter ran, and several times, came near misses with weapons fire. Terrified and weapon less, Shifter hid behind a large steel container - praying only that it wasn't full of volatile chemicals - only realising now that the gauge had fully replenished, and the local company was gratefully, human. A man was staring at Shifter's suit, one eyebrow raised quizzically, and his gun slightly pointed towards this unexpected development. From the rank insignia; it was clear to Shifter that this man was the troop sergeant. Opposite the sergeant, was a few more marines, laying fire and suppressing fire; occassionally blind-firing over their cover.

"What the hell are you??"
"Human." Shifter responded, the voice jumbling feature working perfectly to hide the wearers gender and identity.
"What's the suit? I'm not familiar with that."
"It's a top secret prototype. Highly classified."
"Goddamn, I'm sick of 'need-to-know basis' bullshit! Where's your weapon, soldier? ...wait a second. Are you even a soldier?"
"No, I'm not."
"God...DAMNIT. I need soldiers out there, not frigging field-testers! This is a goddamn battlefield! Private Sanders! Radio that SPARTAN. Immediately!"
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"Now, what's your prototype do, exactly?"
"I don't know all the details, but it's got some time manipulation functionality."
"Some what? Son, that don't mean shit to me."
"Loosely put? I control time."
"Holy shit! Now that's some good news."
"Only I am unaffected by what I use."
"Meaning?"
"I can keep moving; but everything else could be frozen."
"Shit. Shoulda known it was too good to be true..."
"Sir! Radio contact established!"

And with that, a stray round caught the young private in the chest, burning right through his heart. Shifter quickly thought about rewinding time, and the function began; rewinding time enough for Shifter to respond. Deactivating the ability; Shifter pulled the private forward, and the sergeant watched as the plasma shot missed entirely.

"Nice reflexes, son."
"I used the suit. I watched him burn once."
"When can I expect one of those suits, myself?"

Shifter was confused by that question. Three centuries in the future, and it wasn't mass-produced? Not even in this kind of war; where man was clearly in need of any advantage possible? Unable to respond without risking leaking information that would be possibly disastrous, Shifter shrugged and looked around. The gauge was once more depleted, and Shifter thought all was safe...until the private was caught right in the back of the head, by some high-angled sniper fire. The immediate thought in Shifter's mind was along the lines of how unfair that had been. But, that was brushed aside when realisation dawned that at least the sergeant was alive.

"Can't you save Sanders again?"
"My suits ability to use those powers is presently depleted. What's this 'Spartan', you wanted radio contact with?"
"Son, how can you not know of the SPARTANs, as they live and breathe and fight for us, out there?"

The questions answer was blatantly obvious, and as easy as it would have been to answer; Shifter merely shrugged and hung low in the cover. Praying not to be covered by one of those shots, any time soon. If Shifter had any hope of stopping the Alpha's thief: it involved not dying.

[Elario Luminus]

Acheron heard the click of a radio connection in his ear as he scanned the battlefield for any other immediate squads in dire need of assistance. In the corner of his HUD, he saw the Sergeant's face appear with an audio tracking bar beneath it.
"Seargeant, Sierra-013 responding. Covenant group near ambushed ODST squad taken out. Reporting strange new enemy unit, Elite class. Seemed like an android. Awaiting orders."
He reloaded his rifle, his battlefield diagnostics taking in any data from the warzone. After looking across, he refocused on the android Elite at his feet, still confused as to what it was.

((Remember, they have to appear the same to everyone else.))

[Lykaios]

((Believe me, I know that.))

The radio crackled beside the privates corpse, and the sergeant listened to the message, tuning into the frequency on his headset. He again; raised an eyebrow quizzically at the SPARTANs report. As Shifter listened, their interest piqued at the knowledge.

"Come again, son? Android Elite? What else is there? An actual species like that? Son, have you hit your head, or somethin'? the Sergeant responded, as he gestured his marines to fall back.
"Your orders are to eliminate as many hostiles as you possibly can, and regroup with my squad at grid coordinates zero-one-eight. ASAP."
"What are we going to do, Sergeant?"
"We? What good are you, without a weapon? You'll probably get killed, or save us a couple times. We're going to retreat to the location I gave the SPARTAN, and pray he can get us out of this situation alive."
"Well, that's a flawed plan..."
"By all means, if you've got anything better; do fucking share."

Shifter's silence answered the sergeant well enough, and they all began to fall back to a heavily armoured location a bit further on in the area. The area was clearly heavily defensible, and a good choice against these aliens, but Shifter was still uneasy. It was too simple.

[Elario Luminus]

Acheron nodded and sent a silent signal acknowledging the order; two brief flashes of a blue light, then he quickly disconnected the link. Last thing he needed was the general military shouting into his ears all at once. He looked around the bloodied and scarred battleground for any other survivors. At this point in the battle, where the Covenant had easily won, it was evac and support that was most needed. As he searched the horizon, Acheron noticed a plume of purple smoke and the tip of a blue flame.
'That was where the Scarab was, before it was taken down by the Shortswords.'
Just as he had this memory, a cry for help came out over the public channel.
"Mayday, mayday, this is Fireteam Foxtrot in need of assistance! We've taken cover in the Scarab corpse, but are surrounded and pinned down by Covenant forces! We have wounded, and we need evac now! Mayday, mayday, this is..."
The cry for help was set to repeat, which meant that the Marine squad in trouble had the smarts to try and get help and keep their heads in the battle at the same time. Resolving that there were no other survivors, Acheron sprinted towards this last group. As he ran, he answered the call.
"This is SPARTAN 013. I'm en route to your location."

The ground around them was reflecting sunlight like glass would. The seemingly endless stream of plasma fire hit the dirt and Scarab husk, sending burning sprays of debris at the struggling Marines. Out of the thirteen that were alive, ten were firing back. One Marine, a Private, was cowering in the corner clutching the sides of his helmet, crying and shaking his head. Another soldier was the team medic, who was told not to fight to keep his full attention on any injuries that might occur. The other was the Staff Sergeant, who'd sent out the distress signal, and was now keeping an eye on the long range motion tracker for any signs of help. Just as all hope seemed lost, he saw a yellow blip on the tracker coming in...and coming in fast.
'That can't be the Spartan...he'd have to be in a vehicle to be travelling that fast...'

Acheron sized up the enemy as he approached low and fast. The destroyed Scarab was in the middle of the crater its destruction had caused, and Covenant Elites - the android kind, again - as well as Jackal snipers and a small horde of Grunts. He made the Spartan equivalent of a smirk; they were all distracted by the Marines, making them all easy kills. Drawing his combat knife, Acheron charged towards and spear tackled an Elite, stabbing it in the neck before it could protest. Using the momentum to roll off the body into a crouched position, he threw the knife into a Jackal, sinking it to the hilt. He stood and pulled out his assault rifle and gunned down a trio of Grunts. One spare round pierced the methane tank of one Grunt, and the resulting explosion sent the corpse hurling towards another Jackal sniper. Turning around, he kicked out the legs from a charging Elite and unleashed half a clip into its body, killing it in a spray of purple blood. From the other side of the crater, Acheron heard the high pitched launching sound of a Fuel Rod Cannon and dived to the side, dodging the green explosive. Retaliating, the Grunt responsible fell, gurgling blood from its throat. The rest of the Covenant charged him at that point, and Acheron fell to his hand to hand combat.

He dodged the clawed hand of an Elite and back-handed it to stun it. While it stumbled, Acheron kicked backwards into the chest of a Jackal, crushing its bird-like bones. A Grunt ran forward with an armed plasma grenade, who was promptly stopped and hurled into the air after Acheron broke the Grunts arm and punched it into a Jackal. The Elite he stunned earlier recovered and attacked again, only to have its legs swept from under it and a fist plunged against its neck. The bones inside snapped loudly, and Acheron noticed the lack of Elites now. As such, the other species of the Covenant were slowly backing away. While Acheron reloaded his weapons and retrieved his knife, he heard a stream of gunfire from the inside of the crater, and the Marines shot down the last of them.

The Sergeant saluted Acheron while the rest of his squad, or what remained of it, death-checked the Covenant, placing single shots into their heads.
"Thanks for the assist, Sir. We thought we were goners."
Acheron said nothing, only nodding and placing a gargantuan armoured hand on the Marines shoulder. Inside his helmet, he placed a waypoint over the evac point and displayed it to the Marine team. The Sergeant looked over to the evac point.
"That's the way out, huh? Sounds good to me. Men, lock and load! We're leaving Hell for now."

[Lykaios]

Shifter and the Staff Sergeant they had formed up with, were on the move to the location that the sergeant had ordered the so-called 'SPARTAN' to meet them at. Shifter wasn't sure about this reserve of solider class, when the armour they wore seemed so primitive for what was supposed to be the twenty-sixth century. Shifter was more used to much more advanced armour and weapon systems, but it was quickly becoming apparent that this was an off-shoot, or branch in the timeline of Earth's possible futures. As they travelled, Shifter utilised the suits inner functions to establish contact with the headquarters from the twenty-third century they had travelled from, and was soon answered by the same scientist woman from earlier. Despite a barely audible connection, Shifter had a short discussion and deliberation with the woman.

"Do we have any information on twenty-five-fifty, to expand my knowledge of the field?"
"Negative, Shifter, I'm afraid. As I'm sure you are aware by now, being in the future to us, could mean infinite possibilities of what could be. Whatever you've stumbled upon, might be covered, or it might not. Time doesn't just travel in one definite line. Events, actions and motivations can be enough to change what could be, from what should be."
"Well, I'm in the middle of a warzone, with humans fighting aliens."
"Could you repeat that?"
"Aliens. Damn aliens. Extra-Terrestrials. And apparently; mankind has seriously annoyed these things."

The conversation didn't deliver much information, or anything valuable, so once the main information had been adequately discussed and filed away for later observation and analysis for the coats back in the twenty-third century, Shifter returned focus to the sergeant, his troops and their location. It was quickly becoming apparent they were very close to their destination.

"How much farther, sergeant?"
"Half a klick, give or take. The Covenant haven't got an ambush set up, we should be okay and safe, in a couple minutes."
"How long till this Spartan arrives?"
"Maybe in less than a minute, with how fast they work. Depends how many stragglers he finds."

[Elario Luminus]

"Sergeant, fall back in squads! Keep each other covered and secure. I'll provide the main defence!" Acheron ordered through the radio, gunning down a couple of Spec Ops Grunts.
"Roger that! You lot, get to the evac point ASAP! Lynch, you're in charge of Team 2! Everyone else, on me!"
As the Marines charged back towards the evacuation zone, Acheron reloaded and ran after them, forever keeping an eye on his motion tracker and laying down covering fire where necessary. It took them about two minutes to reach the evac point, and while the Marines tended to their wounded, Acheron approached the Sergeant who'd called him over earlier. He noticed the strange armoured suit standing nearby, and his mind instantly went to combat mode again, but a quick scan told him it was human in origin. He settled straight away and went to attention in the presence of the Sergeant.

"Spartan-013, Green Team, reporting for duty. All human military survivors are accounted for, sir. May I ask who your acquaintance is?" He asked, eyeing off the strange armoured man. He wondered who he was, but reporting was his main priority right now.

[Lykaios]

Shifter remained low, using snippets of the time manipulation abilities of the suit where available to protect as many soldiers as possible. It wasn't long after his brief chat with the sergeant, that the Spartan arrived on the scene. Shifter was quite impressed with the display: an eight foot tall soldier, wearing full-body protective armour of a brown and tan colouration. He was no ordinary soldier; this Shifter knew instantly.

"Bout time you arrived, SPARTAN! Good work, out there. No idea who he is, but he's testing some secret project."
"Call me by the title of 'Shifter'." Shifter supplied, and without hesitation continued, "Spartan; what was it you were saying over the radio about a new-kind of Elite class, enemy?"

The sergeant quickly found it apparent that Shifter had something important to discuss with the SPARTAN, and went about issuing orders to his men, and the gathered survivors. It would be difficult to retrieve the whole lot of them quickly, but it seemed they had a few dropships coming to pick them up. After a moment, the sergeant returned to the pair.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Command has issued an Albatross dropship delivered for your use, Spartan. Apparently, it's part of your contingency plan should this planet seem lost. We're being given strict evac orders, and no room to give you any further assistance. Sorry, son." he stopped, and turned towards Shifter. "You, on the other hand, Command has not seen fit to share details of your project with us. Something about 'no such project existing', or some such. We won't be able to take you with us, because you supposedly don't exist."
"Understood, Sergeant. No, they wouldn't know of my project." Shifter replied.
"Then, luck be with you...spook." the sergeant responded with a knowing, but grimacing expression. Shifter didn't understand the use of the title reference, but assumed it wasn't neccessarily something good.

[Elario Luminus]

Acheron could quickly tell this "Shifter" character wasn't from around here, and in this case, 'here' meant 'UNSC-Controlled space'. When he asked about the new Elites, though, he answered straight away.
"My helmets recorder has the details, Shifter. When the Albatross arrives, I'll connect the suit up to the ships mainframe and display the video to you. In a summary, the Elites have been turned into an android-like race. Physiology remains the same, but made metallic. Unlike anything I've ever seen, and I've seen a solid amount."
As he finished, the Albatross dropship arrived, carrying a Scorpion MBT in its hold. Acheron watched it land, as much happiness as a Spartan could feel at the sight of the tank. The pilot and her co-pilot climbed out and saluted to him.
"Sir, Albatross prepped and ready to fly. On board is an arsenal of weaponry and more than enough ammunition to keep a small army supplied, as well as the tools and materials you might need to turn your Scorpion into a Grizzly."
Acheron nodded and saluted back to the pilots. "Much appreciated, Foehammer."
As the pilots walked away, the Spartan turned back to Shifter and gestured towards the dropship. "Let's see that video," he suggested, walking towards the Albatross.

Reaching the bridge, Acheron took a memory chip from the rear of his helmet and slipped it into the dropships drive. The video recording of the battle appeared on a large screen, displaying normal enemies falling to Acheron's gunfire. Then, about twenty minutes in, the first android Elite appeared and Acheron stopped the video. "There. That's when they first appeared, at 1534 hours. What do you think happened?"

[Lykaios]

Shifter and the Spartan had entered the Albatross dropship and - whilst Acheron could not see Shifter's expression of amazement at the transport - both immediately traveled to the bridge and played back Acheron's video recorder, displaying the Android Elite's. Shifter was unfamiliar with the events this time period curtailed, but it was quickly apparent humanity was facing extinction here. That was a sour bounty to taste.

"Spartan; is it to your belief that these android Elite's are a new development in this war, and not as the Sergeant and his men believe; about it having always been that way?" Shifter asked, the question would require thought from the Spartan, but if he was as good as they said he was, he should comprehend. But just in case...
"What I mean to ask, is do you specifically have memory of non-Android's, and find yourself confused by others not having memory of them? Because; if that is indeed the case, I can tell you safely, that your crisis is more than just what you see now."

Shifter paused, letting the Spartan respond and think for a moment thereafter.

"Have you heard of a man named..." Shifter scanned the data on the Time Suit Alpha's thief, and continued, "Albert Wesker? This man stole the Alpha Suit, to what I'm wearing. And may very well be wreaking havoc throughout time. I could use your assistance to stop him."

[Elario Luminus]

Acheron nodded once sharply in response to Shifter's question, then turned his head towards the...man? He wasn't sure. "The war has almost always involved flesh and blood; these android Elites are a new situation, one I don't think my superiors or fellow soldiers seem to realise." He tapped a few keys and dropped the display, reinserting his suits memory chip.
"As for Albert Wesker, I haven't heard of him. He's certainly not of any importance to the UNSC, if they know about him. If he's responsible for this turn of events, then I want to take part in the battle. You have myself, and my full arsenal, at your disposal."
He saluted Shifter, not in a sign of giving authority, but of respect.

[Lykaios]

Shifter looked back to the SPARTAN - and in doing so, strained their neck to look up at him - and inside the helmet smiled. He was a near eight foot tall 'super-soldier', willing to take part in Shifter's mission, at the possible cost of his own. Shifter wasn't from the military; so the concept was foreign, but it seemed this Spartan was of mind to do whatever it took to protect the human race. From every threat.

Planting a finger to their jaw thoughtfully, Shifter studied the SPARTAN properly. The tan armour, the height, the carriage of himself, and everything about him said "warrior". Not soldier, not fighter. Warrior. This was a man born for war, who lived and breathed for the neccessities of intricacies in war. Not to sit on the sidelines.

"It'll be a pleasure to have your assistance, Spartan." Shifter replied, "Though; if you do assist me, you might not return to the frontlines of your war for a very long time. Your superiors might consider you AWOL. This is; unless I can get you back here, at roughly the time of your own departure." Shifter finished. It would be a dangerous gamble, but if successful; it would be worth-while for both Shifter and the SPARTAN.

Taking a silent moment; Shifter contacted headquarters internally.

"Allesandra here, what can we do for you, Shifter?"
"I've acquired a Super-soldier ally, who seems to think there's an android agenda, where there never used to be in his war."
"Explain?"
"He's codenamed SPARTAN-013, and is nearly eight feet tall. Wearing an armour of an alloy I've never even seen before; he's a walking human-tank. He's offered his assistance to help me subdue Albert Wesker; our thief."
"Is that so? Well, if he's going to come with you, you're going to need to have the Time-Distortion feature activated again. We have trouble in 2012. Some kind of...incursion from underground? It's believed these are androids acting as creatures calling themselves 'the Locust Horde'. Details are lax at the moment, but we'll update you as soon as we have more information." Allessandra replied, "Are you both ready to depart?"
"Negative, Doctor. Just need a couple of minutes to patch in, correct?"
"Mmm, yes. Patch into the equipment that will be traveling with you, just to give it a temporary time-jump function. That way; it won't be left behind."
"Of course. Would that be possible with say, a dropship?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm thinking we could use the dropship that SPARTAN-013 has been entrusted with. It might help our situation."
"Well, it is theoreticaly possible, provided you link a hardline to your own suits systems. We'll just need to boost the power for the time-jump initialisation back here."
"Okay. Will you be able to give me a countdown, when we prepare to jump?"
"Of course. Tee-minus five minutes. Be ready."
"Of course, Doctor."

Conversation over, Shifter returned their attentions to the SPARTAN. Shaking their head slightly, by means of an apology for 'spacing out', Shifter spoke.
"I've been given authority to grant you temporary access to link both your ship, and your suit to mine, in order to include them in the jump through time. We have finve minutes to organise things on our end, before the jump commences. In tracking Wesker; it seems the next destination we may have to find him, is in the year 2012. Is this...okay?" Shifter asked, uncertainly.

(( Next time my post comes along; we're transporting to 2012, to find SAMMY! GML. We need our Giant Mechanical Lizard! ))

[Elario Luminus]

Acheron nodded once, sharply. He had no idea on how to link things up the way Shifter required it to, but he figured it would be best if he just did as he was told for now. Shifter didn't appear to be any kind of soldier, but...he?...carried himself with an air of importance and demanded respect.
"Just tell me what you need done, Shifter, and I'll see to it that it gets done."
He knew of nowhere on his suit that would connect to Shifters, but he was sure that the Albatross would have something. He stepped up into the main area of the dropship and began searching for an outlet of some kind that would allow Shifter the access they needed.

[Lykaios]

Shifter was uncomfortable; it was their first time extending the reach of the time travel powers of the suit, and with all the kinks they worked out of it, for the final product, the Alpha Suit. The Beta could have kick-backs, and it was a horrible possibility. Nodding, Shifter extended a cord from the back of the suit towards the only suitable plug-in in the ship. Once jacked in, Shifter extended another cord towards the SPARTAN.

"Has your suit got any external ports? Spacial-Time jump in tee minus seventy seconds." Shifter supplied helpfully.

Once the SPARTAN was synched up, and Shifter's suit supplied them with biosigns and a few stats of his suit, that Shifter simply wasn't understanding. They had thirty seconds until they jumped into the year 2012.