2185CE-1204TT-HORIZON SURFACE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE

It was quiet. Far too quiet.

There is something missing.

Maresia groaned and opened her eyes, finding herself staring into the brown cloth of her hat. She reached up carefully, though still managing to cause a twinge of dull pain, and lifted it.

A bright and alien sun blazed in the sky, momentarily blinding and disorienting her.

Too quiet.

Birds chirped, a nearby creek gurgled, wind shifted in the trees...

And suddenly she felt it, a hole where there had never been a hole before, a gaping chasm in her mind.

She could not feel the emperor.

She could not feel the emperor!

And then, as she was about to scream out in utter rage and despair, she reached out even further.

She could feel his presence, she realized with relief. It was distant, impossibly distant, but the warp between them was like a calm, flat ocean, and the normally overwhelming light of his presence was now only a haze on the horizon.

To be thrown so far by the death of a mere, pitiful demon...

Maresia heard another groan, and looked over to see the vast Space Marine she had fought alongside previously, hammer still in hand. He seemed to be in a similar state of discomfort.

"Gah..." He groaned again, brining a hand to his forehead. "Where in the Emperor's name did that accursed demon send us?" He began to carefully prop himself up, working his way to a sitting position. "This cannot be Cadia."

A buzz and a whirr confirmed that the tech priest was also still present. "Prototype relatively undamaged... systems operating at 87% capacity... planet appears to be unkown. No previous records, stars unfamiliar."

Maresia used a fraction of her remaining energy to raise an eyebrow. "You can see the stars through daylight?"

She heard the Tech Priest chuckle. It was the most human thing she'd ever seen a tech priest do. "Indeed. Modification of retina and general ocular facilities has provided vision with various filters... anti-sunlight filter allows for regarding stellar formations."

"Interesting." Maresia gathered her strength and levered herself up to a sitting position, joining Typhan. The tech priest remained prone, however, as his repair arm went through thorough repair of the minor damage passing through the warp had caused.

Maresia felt her energy begin to return to her as she began to scan their surroundings. They sat on a hilltop covered in long green grass. A tree behind them provided shade from the fierce orange sun in the sky. A small stream ran around the base of the hill, the source of the gurgling noise. The hill seemed to be part of a plain of hills stretching on into the distance, the long grass in the light wind and the rolling of the hills making it appear to be a great green sea. In the distance, Far across the plain, she could see some sort of settlement.

"Typhan. Mossk. Until we learn where we are I suggest you remain under my command. For the time being, consider yourselves part of my personal retinue. Emperor knows you've earned it." The Astartes nodded in assent, while the techpriest whirred in apparent confirmation. "Very well. When we've regained our strength," she continued, "we journey to that settlement on the far side of these hills."

She could sense many souls there, but they were very strange. Most seemed human, but where the dull tone of those untouched by the emperor. Others seemed almost alien, though she could hardly fathom humans abiding xenos. Perhaps they had been enslaved.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed what appeared to be an object violently re-entering the atmosphere. She could detect two souls there as well... one of whom appeared to be a psycher.

Reaching further out, she sensed a soul beyond the atmosphere. Beyond that, however...

Something was coming.

2185CE-1205KT-HORIZON UPPER ATMOSPHERE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE

Teresa Swann had had her share of sticky situations before. From dodging Dominion pickets to outracing pirate goons, she'd always been just on the edge of disaster. Yesterday, however, had taken the figurative cake. Heck, the literal cake too. ALL the cake. Well, she thought it was yesterday. Technically speaking, it was still happening. She'd cut it too close trying to save trapped civilians and had missed her evac shuttle. 'No problem!' She thought. 'I'll just find my own ship.' Which would've been easy enough if she hadn't fallen out of the Dominion frying pan and into the inferno that was the Zerg. Honestly, she'd been almost out of fuel and hope when the ghost had popped up from out of nowhere and pulled her out of the fire, so to speak.

Not that it wasn't possible he had just pulled her into an even hotter fire. She was fairly certain he'd worn Dominion colors, meaning of course there was a big chance he was a crazy raving murderous psychopath, or at least an unhinged sociopath(not that she was jumping to conclusions-she knew there could be nice people who happened to be Ghosts too... she'd just never met any... and all the ones she'd met were at least a little crazy...oh god oh god I'm suck on a shuttle alone with a Dominion Ghost!) One wrong move could mean her death. Also, as he was probably a psychic, one wrong thought could mean her death. She decided to camouflage her thoughts by using her classic technique... of concentrating on cat pictures. Adorable cat pictures. Cat pictures so distractingly cute... that she lost her train of thought.

While thinking fiercely about an adorable ginger-furred kitten, she forced open her eyelids to check on the other occupant of the shuttle. For some reason she felt really tired... possibly related to the strange portal thingy the Ghost had flown them through. It looked like he was tired too, as his head was laying flat on the control stick. Maybe that was why the shuttle was now diving really fast into a strange atmosphere.

Wait.

Ship was diving... really fast... at a gigantic piece of rock...

"Ghost!" She shouted at the pilot. "Oy! Ghost dude! Guy! Person! Whatever your name is! Wake up!"

The Ghost dude continued to sleep.

Teresa quickly glanced around for a throwable object, finding a convenient plush zergling at the base of her seat. After a minute of straining and straining to reach it(no way in Char was she going to unbuckle her seatbelt) she finally grasped hold. Pulling back her hand, she took expert aim and chucked it at the sleeping figure.

It missed, instead hitting the radio half a foot to Ghost dude's right. The radio came on, blasting "Heeeeeeyaaaayaaaaayayay! Heeeeeeyaaaaayay! I said hey! What's go-in on?" To which Teresa covered her ears and asked the universe why someone would have such an annoying thing on loop in their starship. At least, she thought, That's gotta wake up Ghost dude, right? To which the universe, and Ghost dude's mask's audio filters, answered with a no.

Craaaaaaaap! Teresa tried kicking his chair, but found that her legs were just slightly too short.

Come on dude! Wake up! Please? Pretty please? Gorgeous please? With a cherry on top?

Alas, the universe cared not for cherries.

2185CE-1205ET-HORIZON ORBIT-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE

Cortana's systems came quickly back online, finding no damage from the strange anomaly they'd passed through. Master Chief was fast asleep, although she could see no particular reason why and assumed it involved the effects of the anomaly. As his systems were stable, Cortana decided to check on the ship.

Slipping through the cyberverse to where she'd left a clone of herself in the ships systems, she found that they'd been sent... well, she had no idea where, but they were in stable planetary orbit. For a brief moment she considered waking the chief, but decided to wait and monitor the situation for a time first.

Cortana settled back on the sensors, happening to notice a strange blip on the radar behind the planet's moon.

2185CE-1215TT-HORIZON SURFACE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE

The trio of Imperials had been walking along for some time now. Conversation was not something that was generally practiced by Inquisitors, Astartes, or Tech Priests, but the walk was certainly beginning to grow boring and they had nothing in particular. Additionally, Maresia was beginning to feel curious about the Astartes. She had had no time to truly observe the man before, preoccupied as she was with the forces of chaos, and she had thought him to be a regular space marine. A veteran, a Terminator no less, but they were not entirely uncommon. Yet his armor was clearly different, seeming to have far more speed and agility than a normal carapace yet maintaining the indomitable defence of a Terminator suit. It appeared to be custom made, and recently too, something completely unheard of in the imperial forces. His helm appeared to be that of a Grey Knight, and his hammer...

"Typhan..." Maresia said, "Your hammer."

"Hmm?" The space marine responded.

"That is no normal force hammer. That is a... dare I say that is a Nemisis Daemonhammer?"

"Indeed." He responded.

"B-but they are legendary weapons, crafted only by the Inquisition as a perfect combination of Thunder hammer force and Daemonhammer psycher energy and given only to high level inquisitors or members of the Grey Knights! And you would have to be a psycher to wield one-"

"I am."

"...how is it that you have won the right to wield a Nemisis Daemonhammer?"

"It is called Emperor's Fist. As to how I received it..."

The Astartes stopped. "We have other things to worry about at the moment. Namely, that." He pointed a giant gloved hand into the sky, directing their attention to what appeared to be a small spacecraft diving at breakneck speeds towards their general position.

"It may be a good idea," Maresia murmured, "to get out of the way."

2185CE-1216KT-HORIZON LOWER ATMOSPHERE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE

Teresa had finally had enough. She had yelled until her throat hurt trying to wake the lazy Dominion lackey up from his catnap, and the gorram radio had officially driven her halfway to insanity. It was time.

IT. WAS. TIME.

She reached for the seatbelt, but paused. Choice between possible maiming/death and certain death...

She unplugged the seatbelt and crawled to the controls, careful not to lose her grip. She really didn't want to end up a Terran pancake on the back wall.

She finally reached the control panel, only to find mister lazyghosts fists gripping the controls and really not letting go.

Aww come on! She tried to pry him off, but multitasking holding herself down and getting his hands off was impossible.

Then she had another idea. It was kind of awkward, but it would do. She took a quick look out the viewport and really wished she hadn't.

She took a leap and latched onto the Ghost's arm, frantically swinging under and between his arms. They seemed almost rock solid, which she guessed was probably some sort of defense mechanism in the suit, as the whole thing was like a Ghost statue. Sitting on his legs and doing her best to not feel awkward, Teresa grabbed the throttle and pulled upwards, managing to shift it a little out of the unconscious Ghost's hands.

The ground was scarily close now, to the point where she could make out individual trees. COME ON! She shouted in her mind.

They were pulling up, but way too slowly, and there was no way to get the stupid Ghost's hands to move any further.

"Wha... where am I?" A voice said drowsily from behind her.

"DUDE! PulluppullupullupullupPUUUUULLLLUUUUP!"

"What the f-OH GOD!" Roy woke from unconsciousness to find a crazy girl on his lap, holding the throttle to a ship that was about to crash into a very green planet.

He immediately hauled back on the throttle, turning the ship 180 degrees and breaking large amounts of fairly important equipment with the G-force. He gunned the engine, pushing against their descent, but it still wasn't strong enough. The girl sitting in his lap was not being particularly helpful either.

"OH GOD YOU IDIOT WHAT ARE YOU DOING WE COULD"VE RIDDEN OFF THE ENERGY BY PULLING UP AT AN ANGLE OH GOD WE ARE SO SCREWED WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?"

"Could you please stop shouting for half a second! I can't even see the viewport, move your head! Just get off the chair!"

In response she turned around and locked her arms around his waist and locked on tight. "Happy place happy place happy place-"

"Oh for the love of-BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

2185CE-1221TT-HORIZON SURFACE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE

The three Imperials watched, somewhat bemusedly, as the ship attempted to right itself far to late, managing to hit the ground with enough force to plow a reasonably sized trench but not explode or shatter into rubble. It was, however, on fire.

"Should we... help?" Typhan asked.

The inquisitor shrugged. "I see no particular reason to. It looks as if they should be able to exit the ship without assistance."

They did not need to wait long before the occupants of the shuttle made themselves known.

2185CE-1221KT-HORIZON SURFACE-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE

"Whoa!" Roy sat back up. The chair had actually broken loose from its fittings in the crash and was now leaning on the far end of the ship. Luckily, the former owner had seen fit to pad the seats significantly, and combined with his combat suit's protection he was fairly undamaged.

It took him a moment to remember and check for the girl. Her grip had slipped, and she now lay unmoving on the deck a ways behind him.

He carefully stood, adjusting to the strange angle of the floor, and made his way to her side.

For half a moment he considered leaving her there. She would be extra baggage, a distraction. He'd need to find his way to the nearest Dominion outpost, and there was no particular use to having her with him.

I can't just leave her here, though, He thought as the smell of smoke wafted in through the engine room.

He kneeled down, preparing to lift her up, when she stirred. "Uhgn..."

"Hey. Girl. Can you hear me?"

"That's a little rude. You could just ask me my name. It's Teresa, by the way."

"Get up." He grabbed onto her arm. "There's a fire in the engine room, or there will be soon, so we only have minutes to find a way out of here."

With a sigh, she levered herself to a sitting position. "We could always just use Kate."

"Kate?" Roy was fairly certain that there were no other people on the shuttle. He really hoped there were no other people on the shuttle. If there had been... there probably weren't anymore.

"Oh. Duh." Teresa facepalmed. "Sorry, my SCV."

Roy nodded. "That could work. Let's go then."

Teresa grumbled as she got up. "No rest for the wicked, I guess."

"Oh, you could rest if you want to." Roy said, tension entering his voice as he began to pry open the door to the loading bay. "You would just, ugh, rest forever, if you catch my drift."

"Yeah yeah. Let's just get outta here then, okay?"

With a last grunt, the door was open. "Right this way." Roy said, gesturing her through.

When they were inside, Teresa gave a small yelp and rushed to her SCV. "Oh no! Kate, are you okay?" The SCV seemed to have suffered some small structural damage from being slammed into the wall. "It's okay, Teresa's gonna fix you up right after we get outta here, okay?"

"Are you... talking... to your SCV?" Asked a slightly disturbed Roy.

"Shh!" She replied as she climbed into the SCV's cockpit. She flexed her fingers, then started the engine. In a moment, the SCV had whirred to life.

"You might want to move a little." She said to Roy, who quickly moved out of the way as the large machine clanked to the side of the ship.

She pulled back the SCV's drill arm and punched.

After making a large hole in the wall, Teresa and Roy found themselves out in the blinding sunlight of a very green-looking planet. Three figures stood watching them, less than a hundred feet away.

"Uh, hello!" Teresa said with a wave.

Roy, on the other hand(who had somehow managed to recover his rifle) assumed a defensive posture. "Who are you?"

They were a very strange group.

There was the largest one, with a red and white armor suit the size of a Marauder and a hammer bigger than Teresa.

The one with the robotic arms sticking out of his back was particularly strange, with the rest of his body contained in red robes and robotic enhancement braces, and he held a rather large cannon in his hands.

The last, though the shortest, stood in the center as the clear leader, radiating an aura of confidence and intimidation. Roy knew this would be the person to talk to/eliminate if necessary. Teresa really wanted her hat.

The one with the hat smiled. "You are a presumptuous one, aren't you? Very well. We are the harbingers of the almighty imperium of man, saviors come to bless you with the light of the emperor which you sorely lack. He," she pointed to the giant one, "is Arcturus Typhan, an Astartes Terminator of the Blood Ravens. He," she pointed to the one with the robot arms, "is Artisan Narkos Mossk of the Tech Priests of Mars. I am Maresia, Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus and representative of the Imperium of man. We demand you guide us unto whatever pitiful lordling you of this system owe fealty to."

"Uh..." The terrans glanced at each other.

"Could you repeat that, please? Except less... uh... confusing?" Teresa asked.

Maresia frowned. "You find comprehension of mine vocabulary problematic? Very well, I shall endeavor to utilize a more common variety of descriptors. Ahem.

We serve the mighty emperor of the imperium of man. Take us to your pitiful leader."

The two terrans exchanged a different glance. Somehow, Teresa had become their spokesperson. "Look, uhm, we have no idea where we are. Could you guys direct us to the nearest spaceport?"

Maresia's frown deepened. "We have just arrived here. Why would you ask us for direction?"

"Oh!" The puzzle pieces clicked together in Teresa's head. "You didn't happen to come here through some kind of portal-y thing, did you?"

A surprised inquisitorial eyebrow inched up. "Indeed, through some treacherous demonic sorcery we were pulled through the warp."

"Okay! Well, I don't really know about demons or sorcery or anything, but we definitely came through some sort of weird port-"

At this time, the shuttle exploded rather loudly, knocking the SCV onto its 'face' and throwing Roy several feet.

"Crap! Uh, hey, can somebody help me here?" Came Teresa's voice from the SCV.

The space marine looked at the inquisitor, who nodded assent, and then walked over to the fallen vehicle, lifting it back up with ease.

"Wow," Teresa said, rubbing dirt off of her face, "you're... really strong."

The space marine chuckled. "Indeed, young one."

Teresa grinned. "My name's Teresa." She stuck out her hand, then immediately thought the better of it. "That guy over there spitting out dirt is Roy."

The one spitting out dirt stood up. "If you're not from here, and we're not from here, I'd still bet that there's somebody from here, and whoever they are they just heard that blast. I think we should leave."

The inquisitor grinned wolfishly. "Leave? Whatever for? If we stay here, they will come. If they be friends we shall greet them. Be they heretics or xenos, we shall cast them down. There is truly no reason to leave."

"That... I don't think that's a good idea." Roy glanced up at Teresa.

"I don't know, Ghost dude, I think it would be a good idea to try to make some friends. We don't know where we are, we don't know where to go, we don't even have food! Why not just give it a chance?"

The Ghost's eyes narrowed for a moment, but conceded with a sigh. "Whatever. I guess we wait."

2185CE-1230ET-HORIZON ORBIT-TERMINUS SYSTEMS-REAPERVERSE

Cortana was growing worried.

In the past half hour, a blip had appeared. A blip that was growing steadily closer. She'd noticed signals coming from the planet below, originating at what appeared to be some sort of colony. They were very strange, but she had begun deciphering them and was almost certain that they were human. This, of course, meant that an unidentified vessel type running dark was now rapidly approaching a human colony.

Suddenly, she noticed a small human ship break out of orbit to investigate the strange object. A moment later, it was destroyed.

It was in sight range, now, a strange and alien looking ship(not that that said all that much) that appeared similar to an elongated asteroid impaled with metal struts.

This was, of course, the time to wake up the chief.

As Master Chief popped open the hatch Cortana was already feeding him information.

"There's good news and bad news Chief. The good news is, we're in orbit above some sort of colony that I think may be human."

"And the bad news?"

"There is a hostile and unkown vessel approaching it at a rapid pace. It's going to pass by in five minutes."

"I've got an idea."

"Oh don't tell me..."

"We've got a plane to catch."

2185CE-2240ET-NORMANDY SR2-EN ROUTE TO HORIZON-REAPERVERSE

Shepard decided to try again. She'd been attempting to distract herself, touring the ship, chatting with the crew. There were only so many times Garrus could tell you he had calibrations to make before it got really, very boring. There was no way around it, she had to try to sleep.

Okay. Round two. Sitting down on the bed...

Laying down on the bed...

Bing! Her cabin door slid open. "Shepard! The Illusive man has sent me a very important message for you-"

"Aaaaaaugh." Shepard groaned.

"Really, Commander?"

"Just shut up and read the report."

"Those are contradictory orders, commander,"

Shepard shot Miranda a bloodshot glare. Miranda got on with the report.

"Uhm, well, it seems that Horizon is about to be hit by the Collectors-"

"WHAT!"