Disclaimer
Bioware, Microsoft and various other companies have claim to Mass Effect.
Bungie and various other companies have claim to Halo.
I have claim to neither and this is for recreational purposes only.
!Notice!
This is my first attempt at writing in the Mass Effect Universe. I'm not asking you neglect to criticize, I'm asking you take this into consideration, and not flat out insult me. Anything less than appropriate will be reported. Cortana is still 'alive' because she goes into hibernation for extended periods of time, only checking up on the Chief for a minute every month before going back to sleep.
For clarification, this is what happened after the battle in Mass Effect. I'll get to Halo when it matters.
Ashley and Tali stayed with Shepherd on his new ship The Silver Gale. Tali only until she found something of interest for her pilgrimage.
Joker was given his choice of ships and chose to go with Shepherd, for obvious reasons.
Wrex returned to bounty hunting, and then went into the Krogan military when the council agreed to lift the genophage, on the condition that the Krogan explore and inhabit their own space if they couldn't control their population.
Garrus went on to become the head of C-Sec.
Liara returned to her research.
Anderson became the first Human councilor.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Title- Momentum
Summary- Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117 destroyed the ark three years ago in his universe. John Shepherd defeated Sovereign four weeks ago. Master Chief drifts aimlessly in space, through the Venos Xenos cluster, a nebula with several star systems, housing a large abundance of Prothean structures, even some cities near completely intact.
Chapter- First Encounters of a familiar kind.
Chief
The rear-section of the Forward Unto Dawn drifted aimlessly in space, lost in the confines of a slipspace pocket, trapped there by a cruel twist of fate. Her engines were black and her halls silent, no more controlled chaos of her long-gone crew. It was silent, all that one could discern was that it was a ghost-ship, a monument to the past and sins best forgotten. This ship was an enigma for her people, though there was nothing statistically special about her.
In fact, all that made her unique was she was the tomb of heroes. An AI and soldier to be precise. The soldier was the last of his kind, a breed of augmented super-soldiers code-named SPARTANS, and the AI was the best in her field of decryption, hacking, and various other routines. Both were recognized universally back home as the destroyers of the flood and covenant, the saviors of humanity. `Twas their fate to slumber blissfully through the passing ages in a coffin of cold steel, which tempted ever so slightly with death's embrace. The AI would hibernate days on end, waking up only once every three days, checking up on her systems and sub-routines, before gazing at her protector, deciding if she should wake him up or not, before deciding better of it. 'Wake me, when you need me.' A sentence that stated all too clear what it meant, he was to sleep until they were discovered, by friend or foe, or until she needed him for another emergency.
If she was to 'die', for example.
She woke up, her holographic form appearing on her pedestal, glancing furtively about unconsciously as she checked up on the ship and its systems. She passed over what remained of the radar, wait, what was that? A huge energy signature appeared on her charts. She couldn't get a visual or any accurate readings, so she did the only thing she could do.
She woke him up.
The pod hissed and worked its way pen, slowly, as its occupant placed a massive, olive-plated hand on the side of his coffin, before rising, shouldering a nearby weapon and turning to the AI. He was a monster, seven feet tall, with an olive-drabbed armor covering most his body, excluding the abdomen which had some sort of hard-weaved substance. His face was invisible, behind the polarized, amber plate on his helmet. "How long was I out, Cortana."
"About three years, Chief.", she replied, "I just picked up several hundred energy spikes on my scanners, and you can guess the rest. If you don't mind, being in a decaying mainframe for months on end isn't comfortable."
He nodded and placed his hand onto the pedestal, downloading her into his suit. Chief didn't question her lifespan, it was a sensitive subject. He shook off the cold feeling he got from her and started off through the door, following a sign clearly reading ARMORY.
"Is it me, or has it gotten more cramped in here?", she joked.
"You must've gained weight." Was his reply. Even the stoicest of soldiers couldn't stay quiet forever, it was just too much.
"Yeah, sure. Must've been the ark that did it." She said, chuckling at the impossibility of her 'gaining weight', as she had no mass to weigh anyway. She was an electrical current, at laymen terms.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Shepherd
Another boring patrol for Commander Shepherd, as his ship, an alliance frigate and the first of the new class to be produced. It was the first production series modeled after the Normandy, which was a prototype. The only difference was it was slightly larger, and had more firepower. And it was stuck patrolling around one of the safest, or at least most peaceful, sectors of space. This would be the Venos Xenos cluster.
His ship was the Silver Gale
He continued on his way, toward the mass relay beside the wreckage, which he only noticed because it drifted aimlessly in front of him, the words 'Forward Unt' written boldly in white paint. He watched it drift by, and noted the high carbon scoring. The rest of it drifted by, revealing the point where it was cleanly sliced.
"Joker?"
"It's an unknown classification commander, but that's English on the side. Looks like the res of the message got cut off, quite literally. That wound is a perfect cut, whatever caused it sliced through the ship like butter."
"Right, anywhere we can board it from?"
"Hold on, I'm checking.", Joker replied.
"There are several airlocks on the side, you could possibly go EVA and enter through one of them, several of them are open. They were probably escape pods."
"Right." He opened his comm. "Tali, Ashley, we're doing a salvage run. Meet me in the drop-bay."
Shepherd didn't bother to scan for life-signs. After all, how could this ship support life anymore?
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
(For clarification, Tali is a Quarian, and is native to the Migrant Fleet which is a huge nomadic fleet made of ramshackle ships, so she knows how to salvage very well. He brought Ashley to help guard Tali while she salvages. He could of brought a random marine, but Ashley would be a better fighter.)
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Chief
"Hold on Chief, my sensor just got something. The energy signature just got a lot closer, we're most likely going to be boarded. Put me in that console over there, I'll seal the airlocks. Despite your expectations, the reactor still works." Cortana announced, 'Though we'd be dead if it didn't.'
Master Chief obliged and Cortana waited for their boarders to get inside.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Shepherd
Commander Shepherd lead his squad to the nearest airlock, which was closed. Tali hacked it, commenting that she was surprised the ship still had any power. They proceeded through the now open airlock, to see that there was a short corridor, which was circular in shape and had a door with broken windows, leaving only a bent metal frame, on the end. This confirmed Joker's suspicions that this was meant for an escape pod. The door was easy enough to due to the zero-g enthronement. They just floated through the broken glass, careful not to get cut.
They moved past a maintenance passage, which was blocked from the inside by an unknown, heavy object. It wasn't a crate or shaped like a container, so none of them wanted to find out what it really was, lest it be a corpse. They entered a hallway with a long, thin window on the wall, on each end of the window were crevices. There were no other passages. As they reached the end of the hallway, they heard the sound of metal scraping metal, and turned around to see a blast door crash closed behind them. They looked in front of them and saw another airlock do the same thing. The lights turned on and the lights on the airlocks turned red.
"Nothing is ever simple around you, is it Shepherd?" Tali remarked as she approached the airlock, cautiously examining it.
"Well, can you open it?" Shepherd asked.
"Well, yes. But it will take time, someone, or something, has placed several firewalls on the controls. And we're not blasting through it, it's made out of a thick metal, my guess is it would take several shots from the Mako's cannon."
"Great, get on it."
Looking through the window on the door, which he punched and found to be bulletproof, at best, he saw the lights on the other side were on as well. There was some sort of pedestal directly across from him. To his surprise, or maybe not, a hologram flickered into life of it. It was a blue woman, who promptly smiled and waved at his face, before vanishing. Shepherd blinked, an AI?
"Almost got it." Tali muttered, before cursing and turning to Shepherd. "Just as I was about to bypass the last firewall, another set of them appeared, there's twice as many this time."
"Great, we're trapped. Never a lack of excitement with you Commander." Ashley remarked.
"Sit tight, I saw a hologram on the other side, she waved. There's probably someone coming."
"That's impossible! This ship hasn't seen use in at least several months." Tali feuded.
"It does have power, someone would have to maintain it." Ashley mentioned.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Both
Chief downloaded Cortana into his suit and she made a remark, "They're trapped near the starboard escape pod bays, floor twelve.
Chief nodded and became a blur as he salvaged what weapons he could carry from the armory, four grenades, a battle rifle with two extra clips, three extra clips for his MA5B, and a M6B with extra clip. He managed to put all these on his magnetic suit and picked up a shotgun, gathering up a few clips for it.
He then rushed through the ship until he reached the starboard pods, which were lit up to his surprise, and he turned off his flashlight. He walked up to a nearby pedestal in front of the blast door and inserted Cortana, before shouldering his shotgun. "Open it."
Her hologram nodded and turned to the airlock, which promptly slid open, catching the three trapped inside by surprise, as they were apparently arguing. They started reaching for their weapons, but Chief but a stop to that as he rushed forward at incredible speeds, to them anyway, and put his pistol to the head of on of them, a female dressed in an odd environmental suit. He examined the other two and let up a bit, but not very noticeably, as he guessed they were human.
The only male in the group, dressed in some weird armor, put his weapon down a little and asked, "Who are you, what race are you?"
"He could ask you the same thing, you're not wearing any UNSC suits, and you don't carry anything I'm familiar with. What are you doing on this ship?"
"Chief, its been three years.." Cortana cautioned.
Shepherd sighed and motioned Ashley to lower her weapon, which she did grudgingly. "I'm Commander Shepherd, the first human specter and ex alliance military officer. You are?"
Master Chief saluted out of habit and caught himself before replying, Tali still at gunpoint, "Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117 S-" He caught himself again.
Cortana chuckled a bit and gained the attention of Shepherd's squad. "Is that an AI?"
"UNSC AI CTN 0452-9 at your service. Call me Cortana. Chief, they're human put the gun down."
Master Chief grudgingly replied and moved over by Cortana, as the squad seemed to become unnerved as Cortana made her statement. Especially the one Master Chief just had at gun-point. "That can't be, AIs are against citadel law!"
"Are you mad?" Tali interjected.
All this shocked Cortana a little as Master Chief replied. "No, I'm not insane. Practically five out of ten UNSC ships have an AI, I was assigned to be Cortana's custodian. And we haven't had any problems with them until they go rampant, and they are shut down as soon as they show symptoms of rampancy."
Cortana blinked, it was the most she'd ever heard Master Chief say at once. But either way, the Spartan's statement made them relax a little, except Tali.
"My people were exiled by the artificial intelligences we made, and you can just sit by and let them run your ships?"
It was Cortana's turn to interject, "I'd like to know the story behind that. UNSC AIs are not made by humans, we're made from humans. We scan the brain of a dead or dying human of academic stature, and that is turned into our core. We would only betray the UNSC during rampancy, and we are killed before we go rampant, at the first symptom. I estimate about two more years before I go rampant myself."
"Besides Tali," It was Shepherd, "You treated the Geth like slaves, and even went so far as to try annihilate them before they even turned against you."
"Look, I'm not saying I'm going to try and kill her, but I don't trust her either. Now, what's the UNSC?"
Cortana replied, "UNSC stands for United. Nations. Space. Command. It was established once humanity began to expand beyond Sol, and is currently the adopted government of humanity. Its current military leader is Lord Terrance Hood."
"What's a specter?" She asked.
"A specter? Well, they're the arm of the Citadel Council, we take care of various affairs they can't."
"What's a spartan?" Shepherd countered, only for Master Chief to dodge the subject.
"Me. Now, tell me how you got here."
"The Gale, my frigate."
He raised his gun again, "Now tell me why you're here."
"We came to salvage what we could off your ship and see just who owned it. We were curious because there was English lettering on the side."
"I see. Well, I need a lift. Do I have to take it or will you let me come aboard."
"I'd like to see you-" Ashley started.
"Cool it, we're not trying to make an enemy here. We'll let you aboard, but only until we reach the Citadel."
Master Chief nodded and put his hand on Cortana's console, downloading her.
Shepherd nodded back and they started for the ship, weapons trained on Chief the whole way.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Can't believe this is so long.
