Authors note
- Several years ago I remember reading a truly great story on this website. It was called A Far Flung Hopeand it was a truly epic crossover with dozens of members. It was a great story and it had a great author, Bombsquad. It only had two faults, the first was that it got too big, just way too damned big and was hard to follow. The second was that even though the author knew what he needed to know aboutmost of his participating universes, he didn't know much about some and that was a slight downfall. I will try to rectify that in my epic crossover story by only including stuff I know about-no offense meant to Bombsquad. Bombsquad, if you're reading this (which I doubt) I used the Covenant as the bad guys and the Idea of Conscripts (heavily modified mind you) in homage to your great story; not to rip it off.
Disclaimer I don't own anything I don't own. All ideas are my own except for the ones mentioned above. Everything concerning the Jeran Empire is completely mine; look for the Jeran Chronicles (my original story concerning The Empire and its Emperor) on towards Christmas time. It's not needed to understand this story but it is recommended.
On with the story!
Meetings
"Chief, wake up!" the sharp sound of Cortana's command called Master Chief Petty Officer John, Spartan 117, into instant alertness. He opened his eyes and saw her excited image mime banging on the cryo chamber. The door slowly opened and he ignored the wave of nausea as the zero gravity combined with the taste of the sleeper chemicals in his mouth. He grabbed the assault rifle from its rack and slapped a magazine into it. He floated down the hallway to the armory and grabbed a shotgun and a couple of frag grenades, when he got back he could see Cortana positively seething with barely controlled frustration.
Now that he was ready he looked to her and asked, "What's wrong?"
Cortana said nothing, but she pointed to the off-line sensor panel. As soon as he looked at it, it flicked on. John looked at her and said "Exactly how long have I been out?"
This time she answered, "Only three weeks; now look at the panel John!"
Noticing the hint of exasperation in her voice, the Master Chief complied, what he saw perplexed him, "There's an incoming ship but it doesn't match any in the database; Human or Covenant, and it's small, no more than sixty meters long." He looked at Cortana and said "It's headed right for us isn't it."
Cortana smiled at him and said, "It was headed for us a couple of hours ago, now its here." At that moment a loud thump sounded from down the hall. Master Chief held out his hand and Cortana took it, transferring her program into his suit. As he launched himself down the hall she remarked "It's a bit more cramped in here than I remembered."
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Commander John Shepard stood in the airlock between a Turian and a Krogan. Usually not the best place to be as the two species had an almost universal hatred for each other but these two were different. Garrus Vakarian (the Turian) and Urdnot Wrex (the Krogan) had the sort of friendship, forged under fire, that would endure anything; but you wouldn't know it from the bickering.
"I'm telling you," Wrex said, "That's the front half of a Turian transport from the war against my people"
"Wrex, I'm a Turian, I think I know what our ships look like and that's not one of them." Garrus replied.
"You two should get a room," Commander Shepard said with a grin. They both snorted and promptly began arguing again. In truth the Commander also wondered what this wreck was. He also wondered why the first (and only) human spectre, himself, was being dispatched to investigate a derelict ship. It was almost like the council was rewarding his saving their asses in Sovereign's attack on the Citadel by giving him a bullshit assignment. Again the little voice in the back of his head nagged at him to think that the council wouldn't give him a useless mission when the rest of the reapers were out there, but if they had a good reason to send him out here he didn't see it.
It almost looked like there was English lettering on the side of the wreck but it was obscured by some carbon scoring and that was impossible anyway. This ship could not be human, he had looked through all of the files and it matched no human starship ever designed. It was all dull grey metal and angles; more like a Turian design but without the arrowhead shape. It was also obviously a warship and an unlucky one at that, there were spots of partially melted hull all over it and what he took to be the front half was totally gone. The bisection didn't seem to come from weapon-fire though; it was too neat, too clean to come any weapon he'd heard of.
There was a slight thump and he knew they'd docked with the wreck
"Commander," Joker's voice came over the com-system, "Go ahead, we're latched."
Commander Shepard took a deep breath and stepped through the opening airlock.
P.S. sorry for the large author's note and the small opening chapter I'll update as soon as I write more chapters.