Reclamation and Ascendancy
The year is 2615, and the winds of change are starting once again. Humanity has suffered greatly over the last century. Entire generations have perished. Entire families wiped out. Family trees have withered and died. The once vibrant voice of humanity has become nothing more than a whisper in the breeze. The hopes and dreams of an entire species had been burnt to a cinder alongside billions of its people. When humanity once gazed upon the stars with wonder and hope, they now look with nothing more than a pained and wary stare.
Wracked with dissent and strife, cracking at the seams humanity was no match for the brutal unstoppable march of the Covenant. A collection of alien races, grouped together in order to fulfil the mandate of their scheming prophets they fell upon humanity like a predator onto its hapless prey. Entire planets burned. Their populations powerless to stop them as the remains of their defenders burned in orbit above their worlds. Countless billions died as humanity was pushed backwards, powerless to stop the technologically superior juggernaut that was bearing down upon them.
Humanity almost perished then; screaming into the night for help, for a saviour. In their darkest hour, when all seemed lost, a flicker of hope appeared in the all-consuming blackness of fear: One man. One man who was taken from his home that he barely remembered. One man who defied all the odds. Not once, not twice but thrice he defied those who would seek to wipe humanity from the galaxy. He became a symbol, an emblem of humanity and its determination. He was the Master Chief.
But the Master Chief is gone now, as are most of the other brave souls who stood shoulder to shoulder and gave their lives for humanity. In their place stands a new generation, one which never had to live with the knowledge that every day brought you and all those you held close one step closer to being wiped out. They will see humanity rise above those around it. Ascendant. Triumphant.
It began at the close of the 26th century. Scientists had studied the Forerunner ruins on mars for years, but nothing major had ever come of them. But then they discovered something…else. Another set of ruins built inside the remnant of the Forerunner ones, newer and untouched. They yielded secrets that none could have ever dreamed off. The art of manipulating the mass of an object itself using a curious substance that had not yet been discovered, named, aptly enough, Element Zero. That was not all that happened, the discovery of the ruins activated a protocol left by its owners as one last gift to their successors, sending a signal out across the Orion Arm that activated a series of portals hidden in asteroids and moons across human space, from the edges of the Solar System to the fringes of Epsilon Indi. When a ship was sent through these strange devices they emerged out of another almost instantaneously, giving an FTL ability unmatched even by reverse engineered forerunner Slipspace drives.
It was from here that humanity once again expanded, aided by the marvellous technologies made possible through use of element zero. Although the Sangheli also managed this, they were still exhausted by constant struggles with the Covenant Remnant and the machinations of the Office of Naval Intelligence. New colonies, financed by the rebuilt human colonies under the governance of the UEG sprang up around the mapped out relay system. For the first time in over a hundred years there was hope again, and mutterings of a brighter future.
However, all was not as good as it seemed. The Insurrection, thought annihilated by the Covenant re-emerged once again, demanding freedom from 'tyranny' and the oversight of the UEG. Knowing they could not hope to rally support among the population, who were well aware of the sacrifices made by the men and women of the UNSC, they resorted to terror and piracy, becoming nothing more than twisted mockery of everything the original Insurrectionists stood for. The New Sangheli Dominion, formed by the Sangheli with the support of their Lekgolo and Unggoy allies began to stretch its muscles, and the uneasy peace between the UEG and NSD looked increasingly fragile.
It is upon this backdrop the stage is set. It is the year 2615, and the face of the galaxy is about to change beyond all recognition as two very different worlds collide in an event that will permanently change the course of galactic history.
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Authors Note
Wow. Okay, the prologue wasn't meant to be that longwinded. Basically this is my take on a Halo/Mass Effect fusion. While I won't reveal the plot just yet, know that I will not be writing yet another fic were humans and elites are BFF's and will team up to beat the idiot turians at Shanxi before going on to curb stomp the citadel because 'Humanity F**k Yeah!' before becoming a re-tread of the first game with some names switched and a token OC, humanity cosying up with the quarians, krogan and true geth before telling the council to shove off. And then dying because the author got bored. While I can't say how long the fic will be expect it to at least cover first contact, the rush for the Traverse, the Verge skirmishes, the Terminus Crusades and the Human-Batarian war. Some of these will last longer than others and some will be quite short.
I also can't promise a regular update schedule, but will try and finish this before developing any of my other ideas. A lot of the issues, such as the whole Forerunners/Flood/Protheans/Reapers issue will be resolved as the fic progresses with some bits left for readers to work out (but will be plotted, before you think that is an excuse for me not to think things through).
Again apologies for the bad prologue but I was trying to avoid to the standard info-dump timeline, because that seems lazy to me. Instead a lot of things will be revealed or extrapolated upon in the story or in a special 'codex extract' at the end of each chapter that will be there for world building purposes. This is my first fanfic, please Rate and Review (god I'm long-winded).