Chapter 1

Discovery

I have decided to write a Halo/Mass Effect crossover alongside my Halo/Star Wars crossover, don't worry I'll release updates for both stories simultaneously, I'm not going to abandon Fighting for a Purpose, I spent months working on that.

March 3, 2553 The Human Covenant war is declared over, and the UNSC begins to rebuild, although the Great Schism rages on.

March 8, 2553 UNSC finish contact with military bases around Earth and the surviving Inner colonies, revealing that the casualties from the war were not as high as once thought, although still staggering. Billions died in the war, but it was confirmed that the majority of the Inner Colonies were not glassed, and many left completely untouched, as apparently they were "skipped" as they Covenant found Earth before them. 168 planets are confirmed to have survived the war and Humans populations stands at 117 billion, where it was once 275 billion before the war.

January 17, 2558 Covenant Separatists bring an end to the Great Schism, due to so many Loyalist planets being glassed that they were unable to continue the war. The San 'Shyuum becoming extinct due to the battle of Delta Halo, and the lack of Jiralhanae tactical knowledge contributed to their downfall. Separatist forces formed a blockade between Loyalist and Separatist territories, threatening to shoot any Loyalist that pass it.

January 28, 2558 The Sangheili, Unggoy, Mgalekgolo, and Huragok unite under the Sangeili's leadership forming the Republic of Sovereign Nations commonly referred to as the RSN. The RSN are technically allied with the UNSC, but due to hatred that was spawned by the war, things between them are cold at best, despite the best work of negotiators on both sides, and the RSN contributing resources and new technology towards the UNSC, causing massive technological jumps. Also the Sangheili resume their old roles as technological researchers as well as warriors.

December 12, 2561. The RSN discovers a Forerunner relic, that contained data the disproved the Covenant religion, which was still practiced by the RSN. It would be the first of many discoveries that caused the RSN to slowly drift away from said religion. As a gesture of friendship, the RSN allowed UNSC research teams into the relic site. It is a well know fact that despite tensions, the RSN and the UNSC still run joint research operations. This has resulted in both factions gaining new technologies, for example the UNSC can now develop shields on their soldiers and ships, while the RSN are capable of developing their own smart A.I.s.

November 5, 2571. Eden Prime is colonized, bringing the UNSC's total number of colonized planets up to 200. Eden Prime was colonized to provide agricultural support to other colonies, basically a new Harvest.

August 9, 2584. Terraforming of many glassed colonies, which had been going on non stop since the war's end, begins to show results, scientists hope that in a matter of years they will be habitable again.

October, 30 2592. Reach is completely de-glassed and colonization begins on it again. It will be awhile before it becomes the power house that is was before the Human-Covenant war, but the UNSC are simply glad to have it back. It is worth noting that the UNSC has temporarily halted searching for new colonies, stating that the main reason the Outer Colonies fell so quickly was they were underdeveloped and the UNSC fleet was spread too thinly. The UNSC is now focusing on developing its existing colonies.

January, 1 2600. ({CLASSIFIED}) A freak slipspace accident caused a UNSC ship to drop out into a completely uncharted territory. The crew of the ship ({CLASSIFIED)} reported seeing a large metallic object floating in space. Captain ({CLASSIFIED}) remarked "I have never seen anything like it." An expedition fleet will be sent to the coordinates ({CLASSIFIED}) to analyze the object. The common theory is that it is some sort of Forerunner relic.

January, 11 2600. Present day.

Captain Richard Peterson led out a sigh as he walked towards the bridge of his ship, the Bright Dawn, a UNSC destroyer that packed a lot more punch than the destroyers of the Human Covenant War. The MAC guns had been upgraded, and while they weren't as powerful as a super MAC, the two shots that it could fire before having to reload and recharge, which now was much faster, they were more than enough to take down the shields of any ship that the UNSC had encountered, save the largest of the RSN ships. The Archer missiles had been upgraded with plasma warheads, making them much more deadly and capable of eliminating shields and breaching heavy armor. In addition to weapon upgrades, all UNSC ships were now outfitted with shields, improved armor, and point defense lasers, allowing them to take much more punishment before going down.

Peterson and his ship had been assigned to guard three UNSC research ships as they examined some sort of relic in space. 'Problem is,' Peterson thought to himself as he entered the bridge, acquiring a good look at the relic 'It looks nothing like a Forerunner relic.' The relic was difficult to describe, the end was shaped like a sphere, with two giant curved, there was no other word for it, arms extending a great distance. It look dormant, as if it had no power supply. When Peterson had arrived at the relic a week ago, he and everyone else onboard had been very excited at the prospect of being able to see a piece of unknown technology, but now everyone was bored stiff, just wanting this whole forsaken thing to end already.

Peterson put his hand to the Com unit in his ear and said "Peterson to Echo-1 what is your status on the relic?"

"Same status that we had a week ago Captain," came the reply of Echo-1 the head of the research team "You can't rush these kind of things."

"Can you tell me anything about it? Can you tell me how old it is?" asked Peterson, an annoyed tone in his voice.

"Um, no we can't," said Echo-1 "It's strange, every time we try to run a scan on it to find out anything about it, it nearly always comes up blank."

"You're kidding me," said Peterson, a slightly angry tone in his voice "Are you telling me that we've been sitting around on our asses for a week, and you've come up with nothing?"

"Not nothing," said Echo-1 "While we haven't found anything yet, we do believe we might be able to activate this relic soon."

"If that safe?" asked Peterson, the anger leaving his voice to be replaced by worry. "What if it's something like the Halo array, or it's a containment unit for the Flood?"

"That's what you're here for isn't it?" said Echo-1 "If there's a problem just blow to hell."

"Yeah," said Peterson, rubbing his forehead in frustration. He just wanted to get the Hell out of here. Only the research team was taking this mission seriously, even the UNSC wasn't even taking it seriously, they hadn't even been equipped with a smart A.I. for this mission.

"Captain!" shouted an Ensign standing up from his seat and pointing at the relic. Peterson turned to face the relic and felt his jaw drop. In the center of the sphere, there was now a glowing, blue ball of energy, with two rings spinning around it.

"Echo-1," said Peterson, putting his hand to his Com unit again "Did you do that?"

"I think so," said Echo-1 "We were just poking around when it activated, my guess is we accidentally hit the on button."

"We're going to take a closer look," said Peterson. "Take us in Ensign, nice and easy." The Bright Dawn began to slowly move forward along the side of the relic. "Echo-1 can you tell what kind of energy this thing is giving off?"

"It looks like Dark Energy," Echo-1 replied "It's beyond me how exactly the relic harness this kind of energy but...Captain, what is doing to your ship?"

The Bright Dawn had just passed the sphere section of the ship, and the Dark Energy in the center of the sphere seemed to be lashing out at the Bright Dawn as if it was attempting to envelope it. Without warning, the Bright Dawn accelerated forward as unimaginable speeds. The ship tore through space at unimaginable speeds, not stopping for hours despite the best efforts of the crew. After the ship finally stopped, Peterson approached the front of the bridge.

"Alright Ensign where the Hell are we?" Peterson asked.

"Captain we're..." the Ensign did a double take of the data on his terminal. "That can't be right, according to this we're a hundred thousand light years away from where we were."

"WHAT?" Person shouted "But even with the up to date slipspace drive that we have that would take over a year to travel."

"I know," said the Ensign "That relic must be some sort of method of transportation. Um, does that look familiar to anyone?" the Ensign asked, pointing towards the vast blackness of space. Another relic, completely identical to the one that had catapulted them here in the first place, was glowing in the distance.

"That looks like our ticket back home," said Peterson "Ensign, lay in a course that will take us around the relic, see if we can replicate what brought us here, we have one Hell of a report to make."

January, 13 2600 the Bright Dawn returns to Earth, making a groundbreaking report on the relic. Apparently it is part of a network of identical relics, allowing for near instantaneous transportation across the galaxy. There is a tradeoff however, the relics are only capable of transporting ships to other identical relics. Further study has confirmed that these relics are NOT of Forerunner origin, the design simply does not match. It appears that there was another space faring that once ruled the Milky Way but it is unknown if they came before or after the Forerunners. further research will be conducted on these relics.

This is my new crossover. The original cast cast of Mass Effect will all return (Well a few minor characters might not) in addition I will be adding several OCs that will be joining Shepard on the Normandy. Please note that several original Mass Effect characters will be changed in terms of personality and origin, due to the fact that things have changed drastically. Sorry that it's a little short, it's more of an introductions than a part of the plot.