I do not own Mass Effect, I do not work for Bioware, I do not own Halo nor do I work at 343 industries. This is a fan fiction AU.
"Spartan-042, are you alright?"
His helmet was pitch black as for a red emergency light blinking violently, and his head felt as if someone had split a rock across it. There was buzzing in his ears, and it hurt to open his eyes.
"Spartan-042, I need you to listen very carefully. Your still having side-affect's from the transition and-"
Before the voice could finish, 042 felt his stomach do a flip-flop, and found himself vomiting, inside his helmet. Clawing at the release switch, he franticly searched the rim around his helmet. Finding the groove, he pushed in, and with a small hiss of escaping air, his yanked his helmet off. It still didn't solve the problem of his stomach. He moved onto his knees and proceeded to project his contents onto the floor. His vision cleared up just enough to see that the ground was soaked in blood, His blood. He knew something was terribly wrong, and silently screamed to himself. Only then, when he fell back, exhausted and in pain, did he see who was speaking to him
Inch's away from his face was a women, most likely in her late 30's, waving a medical scanner in her hands. Around her, he saw five ODST trailing behind her. Looking more closely, he saw the definite shape of a Recon helmet attached to her hip. Only Spartans and ONI spooks used those. Knowing she wasn't a Spartan, 042 managed to utter "Oh shi-"before slipping back into unconsciousness.
042 opened his eyes. He felt as if he had been hit by a warthog, but he could see, and better yet move. Shifting over, He realized he no longer donned his MK. VII armor, but instead was clothed in a standard Marine combat fatigue. He was in a medical station, with an I.V dripping an unknown content into his left arm. He heard a soft hum that seemed to fill the air, and realized he was on a ship. Pulling himself up into a sitting position he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, an ODST leaning back against a chair. He expected the ODST to do something when he moved, but he soon realized the man was sleeping. As if on cue, 042 heard a pair of doors open and several people walk in. Turning his head around, 042 saw the other ODST from before, all in combat fatigues like himself. As they walked towards his bed, one member peeled off from the group. The large black man headed over to the man in the chair and with a smile, proceeded to smack the sleeping soldier right in the helmet.
"Wake up buttercup, we got company."
Looking back at the others, 042 noticed them peel out of the way as the woman from before approach him. Scanning her with his eyes, he could tell she was definitely ONI, Sec-1 by the looks of it. Her posture said it all, from the way she walked and the fact the other ODST had instinctually moved out of her way. But he noticed something in her eyes, something only described as…worry?
She stopped a few feet from his bed and in a stern tone said. "Spartan-042, my name is Captain Veronica Dare. You're safe aboard the Prowler 'Silence is the Game'. You're going to have a lot of questions, but we need your co-operation in order to do so."
"Yes ma'am."
"Good." She said with almost a smile."Now you're most likely wondering what happened."
"Yes."
"This is a rather difficult situation to discuss, so I should start from the beginning. About month after the end of the Human-Covenant war, ONI stumbled across a Forerunner artifact. This artifact was discovered to be a portal, similar to the one on Earth. But unlike the one Earth, instead of transporting things to the Ark, it opens portals into a different dimension."
"I'm not quite sure I'm following you?" 042 asked with confusion written all over his face.
"Instead of opening a portal into slip space, it opens one to a parallel dimension, where a universe similar to our own exists. We believe it was one of the Forerunners plans to fight the Flood. It was an entrance to a whole different reality than the one we know of."
"So, you're saying, that device Molare activated took us a different universe? And on another note, where is the research team?"
Veronica glanced at Buck, who was standing behind him, and gave him a nervous look.
"There's no easy way to put this Spartan, but there is no Science Team, and you've been in a medical coma for the last three weeks."
"What? 042 screamed in frustration.
The ODST moved in around him, as if to prevent him from doing something stupid... 042 gave them the "Don't Fuck with me" stare, and they backed off. ODST may be reckless, but they're not dumb enough to get in the way of an angry Spartan.
"You must understand we did this you protect you and the artifact. The orders can from Admiral Parangosky herself. She was concerned with the possibility of any Shangheili finding out, so only key members of this team had access to his data." She to him in a voice that reminded him of a mother trying to sooth her wailing baby.
Seeing as he was still upset, Veronica was trying to find a way to reassure him.
"We'd prefer to have let you know what was happening but ONI said it was too dangerous to let you in."
042 eased back into his bed. Even spooks got their orders from someone, and orders are orders.
"Okay." He sighed "What happens know?"
"You're to get ready, and meet us on the bridge at 0:600, one of us will fill you in for the time being, clear?"
"Yes Ma'am." He had just gotten up and was already back to work
Veronica and the others proceeded to shuffle out the door, all except the one in the armor.
042 looked at him, and said "Any reason why you're tagging behind?"
The ODST simply looked at him and finally said "I'm here to get you caught up to date."
"Got a name?" 042 asked.
"They call me Rookie."
"Great." 042 said sarcastically.
"Your equipment is in the armory getting repaired, and I'd advise you take a shower before you go down to the bridge, considering you smell like a brutes ass."
042 smiled realizing this kid wasn't as bad as he thought.
'Funny, I just thought of him as a kid, yet I'm only 15.'
"Hey Rookie, mind if I ask you a question?" 042 said as he pulled himself out of the bed.
"Shoot."
"How long you guys been here?"
"Depends, time moves differently here than in our Universe."
"What do you mean by that?" He asked, curious.
"What would be a 3 months here, would only be half a month in our place."
"This alternate Universe, are there other species, you know, ones with advanced tech?"
"More than you know. Most of them are pretty friendly, but there are always others that cause trouble."
"You have already made diplomatic contact?" He asked as he knelt down to tighten his boots."
"Nope, but it really helps blending in when humans already exist."
If 042 had had something in his mouth, he would have spewed it all over the ODSTs armor.
"You're telling me that Humans exist, not just in this Universe but are actually co-operative with other aliens?"
"Yep, but we'll save that for later."
They left the room and headed down the passageway, with Rookie taking the lead.
"So what type of tech do these races have?" He asked while passing by a cell.
"It's definitely unique. Their whole tech is based on this element dubbed Element Zero.
"That seems a little cliché."
"That's not the good part, this Element Zero, or eezo and some call it can manipulate the mass of objects."
"So it's better than the stuff from our universe."
"Not really, Compared to the UNSC, yes but to the Covenant tech they might as well be throwing rock. All their weapons rely on lowering the mass of a very small projectile and firing it at high speeds, like a hand held MAC. Problem is, Ship wise, a UNSC frigate has a good chance of beating one of their own, because our MACs are more powerful compared to theirs."
"So we stand a good chance against them."
"We would do even better if we could replicate plasma weapons. They use Kinetic Barriers, which means they will stop anything with mass, but plasma will just move right pass them. That's why all the weapons we brought are covie ones."
"So there kind of like a Jackal's shield."
"In a way, yes."
"Perfect." he sighed.
As they came to their destination the doors slid open he saw the others scattered across the Bridge. Veronica was in a heated discussion with the ODST bearing a Sergeants rank. Turning her head, she saw the two enter the room and focused her attention on 042.
"042 welcome aboard. I take it the Rookie filled you in on some of the details."
"He informed me on the technological advances that exist, and the fact that there are Humans here."
Veronica felt relieved "Good, I really had no way to have put it."
"It wasn't a big deal." 042 shrugged.
"How about we fill you in on the way things work here?"
"That sounds fantastic."
"Okay, you know the basics of eezo, so that's going help explain what the Mass Relays are. This Mass Relays are large structures in space that use eezo to move a ship from one point of the galaxy to another. There's several of this thing and their stationed all over the Universe. While it allows almost instant travel, it's not very as versatile as slip space.
"Who built them, Forerunners?" 042 asked
"No, from what we can tell, an extinct race of aliens known as Prothean, built them along with the Citadel, a large space station, which acts as a central hub for diplomatic exchanges between different species.
"What can you tell me about the relations between species?"
"Only three races really run the show. Turians, Salarians, and the Asari. Turians make up the bulk of the Military forces, while Salarians deal with information and Asari act as standing diplomats."
"What about humans?"
"They aren't part of the council. They have only just recently discovered Mass Relays, about 30 years ago. In order to become part of the council, ones race must show they are willing to serve the council by performing a deed that benefits the council."
"Are they the only species?"
"No there are the Volus, Batarians, elcor, and Hannar. But there is another race that exists outside the council. They're called the Quarians, and about 300 years ago, they created a race of virtual intelligence, our equivalent of dumb , called the Geth that gained sentience, The Quarians tried to de-activate them, and the Geth, in defense, forced the Quarians to flee their home world. They were blamed for releasing the Geth and kicked off the council. That's the reason why there so fearful of
042 could never image being feared. He had never met one, but he knew they were all loyal to humans, and some would even put their life on the line in order to save humans.
"What happened to the Quarians?"
"They stuck together and created what is called the Migrant Fleet. It's a collection of several thousand ships that hold the entire population. They rarely leave it, due to the fact that they are viewed as second class citizens by most, and their weak immune systems."
"What does their immune system have to do with it?"
"After living in space for so long, they lost most of their immune systems due to the lack of diseases, so their forced to live in environmental suits. Getting exposed means possibly death for most, even if just for a second."
042 felt, in a way, depressed. Having to live inside a suit, for fear of death seemed almost unimaginable, and was quick to change the subject.
"So what is the mission?"
"We're to recon, this universe, and send our results back to HighCom."
"That simple?"
"The term recon is going to be a little different then what you would normally think. We will be interacting with the natives, and learn their ways."
042 felt a question in the back of his head that had to be answered.
"So why bring a Spartan? I don't know what you've heard but we're not the most diplomatic of individual. Our job is to kill aliens, not play patty cake with them." He asked
Veronica looked almost amused, as if she knew he was going to say that.
"Because 042, humans aren't the strongest species out there, and I needed the best of the best."
"Yes Ma'am."042 said with a hint of irritation in his voice.
"And Spartan." Veronica said "We can't just go around calling you 042, so you will need a name. How does Michael sound?"
So it took me about 2 weeks to come up with this. And FYI as a reminderI had to scrap most of the original story due to after writing 6 different Chapter 2. I couldn't figure out how to get it to work without doing something already tried. So forgive me for blowing off the first Chapter All together. I had to shift things around a bit to get it to work.