Orbit of Chi Ceti IV, Chi Ceti System, 2525
A three minute timer appeared on the heads-up display of John and Kelly's MJOLNIR armor.
"There. It's decided." said Sam, grimacing in pain. "Now—get going, you two."
John clasped Sam's hand and squeezed it. Kelly hesitated, then saluted. Then, John turned and grabbed her arm. "Come on, Spartan. Don't look back."
The two made their way through the ruined Covenant ship as the time slowly ticked away. With about a minute left, they came to a large crater that burrowed into the superstructure of the vessel and left a ragged maze of twisted metal in its wake. It had been left by a lucky MAC shot, and it was the Spartans' ticket out of the doomed ship. Their comms no longer blocked by hundreds of meters of metal, John sent a quick coded chirp to the Commonwealth, alerting the Pelican pilots that they were ready for extraction. The two scrambled up the side of the impact crater and, with only a few seconds left, slipped through a hole in the shields left by a firing point defense laser and began floating through space. John made a mental note of the Pelican drifting towards them before twisting with Kelly to watch the Covenant ship explode.
A blazing orange fireball lit up near the midsection of the ship, popping the weakened shields almost immediately. The once proud vessel shattered across its spine, both halves brightly flashing with secondary explosions. John sadly smiled behind his faceplate as he thought of Sam. At least it was one hell of a way to go. He began to twist back towards the Pelican when he felt Kelly tense up. He turned to follow her eyes, gasping in fear when he saw it.
Something was happening to the rear section of the broken ship. An unearthly light hung like a halo around the engines, and space itself seemed to be twisting around the ruined superstructure. Too late, John realized he was watching an uncontrolled slipspace rupture. He frantically activated the tightbeam comm channel to the incoming Pelican.
"Incoming pilot, break, break! This is Sierra 117 and 087, declaring emergency! The ship's not safe! Repeat, it's not-"
The expanding rupture washed over the two Spartans, and John clung to Kelly as tight as he could. He felt the peculiar sensation of falling through another dimension before he stopped feeling anything altogether.
Citadel Space, Widow Nebula, 2183
"Commander, I'm glad to see you're getting settled in."
"Yes sir. Flight Lieutenant Moreau has us in the pattern for the Widow Relay, we should be transiting in about an hour. I have to say though, sir, she's not the same ship without Captain Anderson."
"No, I'd imagine not. Listen, Commander, you earned that ship, like it or not. Being the first human Spectre is a great accomplishment, and right now you're humanity's best chance at showing our worth to the galaxy at large. The Systems Alliance naturally wants to give you the highest possible chance of success. Don't worry about your Captain, we're not done with Anderson yet."
"Of course, sir. I'll do my best to make you all proud. Was there anything else you needed?"
"Yes, actually. I'm sure you're aware of our somewhat strained relationship with the Turian Hierarchy. They see us as overeager upstarts, trying to carve out a bigger place in galactic society than we necessarily deserve. Well, now they've offered us an olive branch. Their Blackwatch special operations team has requested the Normandy's help in tracking down an anomaly on their homeworld's moon. She has a top of the line sensor suite, and the stealth tech doesn't hurt either. The whole moon is off limits to civilians and classified at the highest level, but as a Council Spectre, Alliance High Command has successfully argued that you and a small ground team should be allowed to accompany the Turians as they neutralize the anomaly. This is not a good sign, Commander. Something has them spooked, and badly. I want you to get to Palaven as soon as possible and figure out just what the hell is going on. Understood?"
"Yes sir. You can count on us."
"I knew I could, Commander. Hackett out."
Shepard scanned the horizon, following the Blackwatch troops with Garrus and Tali by his side. He had figured that Garrus might help him make a good impression with the Turians, and he still wasn't quite sure about Tali's combat ability. Anomaly or no anomaly, a Turian-controlled moon full of allied spec-ops soldiers was probably the safest environment he'd get to put her to the test. They came to a small bunker dug into the planet's surface, and the Turian leading the group held up his hand to stop them.
"This is the place. Your Normandy picked up two thermal signatures here, and it fits the pattern we've been seeing. Small, isolated structures with few guards. You and your team stay here, we'll scout it out."
"If you insist Sergeant. Give us a call if you run into trouble, though"
The Turian didn't answer, busy coordinating a breach of the bunker's door. The Turians disappeared inside, and Shepard let out a frustrated sigh. He would much rather take point in finding the anomalies, but this was the Turians' moon, and so they made the rules. He turned to his ground team. He might as well try to be useful.
"Tali, go check the door. See if you can figure out how these things got inside. Garrus, you stay with her and watch the entrance. I'm going to check the perimeter and see if I can find any signs of where they came from."
"Will do, Shepard." "You got it, boss."
His crewmates set to their work, and Shepard began a careful walk around the structure. He had excelled in the tracking courses back at N-school, and his training as a sniper had given him a keen eye for detail. Sure enough, at the rear of the bunker, he spotted a set of slight indentations in the thin layer of sand leading into the wilderness. He followed the trail for a couple hundred meters, hand on his pistol, past the jagged boulders and cracked rock that made up the terrain on Menae. He stopped when he came to a ravine. Climbing down wouldn't be smart to do alone, he should go find-
His thoughts were interrupted by a human voice behind him and the unmistakable click of a weapon's safety being disengaged.
"Stop. Take your hand off the pistol and slowly turn towards me."
"Stop. Take your hand off the pistol and slowly turn towards me."
The words sounded more confident than John felt. The man looked dangerous, more so than the hand-picked trainers John had frequently clashed with on Reach. And John and Kelley were weak from hunger. They'd finished their survival rations two weeks ago, and all the food they had found here had made them violently sick. The MJOLNIR armor definitely gave them a sizable edge in combat, but even it couldn't help if they passed out from exertion. Kelly had him covered from a nearby boulder though. If the man tried anything, she'd take him out.
The man slowly turned, with his hands away from his sides. His armor was strange, not anything John had ever seen before. Was it a new Insurrectionist model? John's grip tightened on his rifle.
"Who are you?" John doubted the man would admit to being an Innie, but it couldn't hurt to ask.
"I'm Commander John Shepard, Systems Alliance Navy, Council Spectre. Who are you?"
John frowned behind his helmet. None of those words had made any sense besides Commander and Navy.
"That's classified. Where are we right now?"
The man's eyebrows raised in surprise behind his transparent visor. "Menae, a moon of Palaven. The whole thing is one big Turian outpost. How did you get here?"
More nonsensical words. Were Turians those aliens he'd seen walking around? They had to be Covenant, right? John had never heard of a friendly alien. "I crash-landed. The Turians, are they Covenant?"
Now the man frowned in confusion. "I'm not sure what that means."
John wondered how he could be on a moon with aliens and not know what the Covenant was. "Are they hostile to humans?"
"Oh. No, they're friendly. What species are you? You're clearly not from Council Space."
John tensed. That felt like a dangerous questions to answer. But the man looked human and sounded human. And he and Kelly needed help, especially, if they had somehow travelled outside of UNSC space. Maybe this man and these aliens were part of some long-lost colony.
"I'm... Human. What about you?"
The man looked confused again. "I'm human as well. Listen, you might not know it, but you're in trouble. The Turians are looking for something, and I think that something is you. I have a ship that can get you out of here. If you take me to your crash site, I'll tell the Turians where it is and smuggle you offworld while they search it. Then we leave the system and try to figure out how to get you home. What do you think?"
John considered the offer. He closed off his external speakers and whispered to Kelly. She had, of course, been listening to every word. "What do you think? It seems risky."
"It is risky. But we don't exactly have a choice. The Turians are looking for us, and we can't eat their food. And the Pelican is trashed. It's just a matter of time before we're captured or we starve to death. Besides, it feels like he's telling the truth. I say we take it."
John winked his status light green to Kelly and reactivated his speakers. "Deal. I have a teammate too; she's been watching us. The Pelican isn't too far from here, we'll show you the way."
The Normandy burned for the Trebia relay. The two stowaways were currently being examined by Dr Chakwas, and the body of the crashed ship's unfortunate pilot was stored in a freezer in a remote corner of the cargo bay. Shepard was on the comms with Admiral Hackett.
"Just an empty ship, sir, blown to hell. The Turians are looking it over now. No sign of any survivors."
"Very strange… Well, I'm sure you did all you could, Commander. I'll take this up with the Turians and see if we can find out where that ship came from. Good work. Hackett out."
Shepard walked out of the briefing room, making a mental note to have Pressly call a crew meeting. He had some introductions to make.