The Roads of War

by Sierra.BN312

Our galaxy is home to billions of stars, each star could hold new life, and every life holds a new story. Commander Jane Shepard attempts to rally the galaxy against the Reaper threat, but a distress signal leads her to discover more than what she bargained for.

2. Chapter 1 - A New Recruit

"Well, I'll say this. Commander Miranda Keyes is damn lucky to be alive after what she pulled back on the Ark, trying to stop Truth. She took a single shot from a Brute Spiker to her lower back, and severing her spinal cord, rendering her paralyzed from the waist down. Had we not have found Dr. Halsey along with the rest of the Spartan-II's and Spartan-III's at the Shield World, and her new breakthroughs in both Forerunner & nanotechnology, it's likely the Commander would be confined to the wheelchair for the rest of her life, but with the treatment she received, she's able to walk again. With this new way of utilizing nanotechnology, there's almost no limits to what this field can do, improving our own bodies, make augmentations easier to implement and enhance, curing diseases, our own armor systems, even helping us unlock Forerunner technologies lost us. Perhaps even a way for us to create more effective countermeasures and contingency plans to combat the Flood, should that thing ever come back to bite us in the ass."

-Excerpt from Doctor Henry Glassman, on the possible capabilities of nanotechnology after UNSC Naval Commander Miranda Keyes regained her ability to walk

---

Chapter 1 – New Recruit

The Master Chief groggily regained consciousness, as his vision blurring for a bit. At first, he couldn't tell where he was, but his confusion became evident when he slammed his gauntlets into the glass surface in front of him. But just as he was about to break free, a familiar voice echoed through the speakers of the cryo-tube.

"Chief! Easy. You've been out for a while." He turned to the pedestal where he placed Cortana before entering cryo.

"Where are we?"

"Were still adrift on the Dawn," Cortana replied.

"Why did you wake me?" the Chief asked.

She seemed to not hear his question as she said, "Hang on. Bringing your systems online now." At the same time, his Heads-Up-Display appeared on the inside of his visor. It looked different from the HUD he had used before when he was first issued the Mark VI armor. Cortana seemed to notice his confusion. "I rewrote your suit's firmware while you were out, along with giving it an exterior makeover. But that's not all, I was able to do with the all the time I had to myself."

"You've been busy," John chuckled.

"Activating the ship's gravity generators."

As she said that, the debris floating around the cryo bay fell to the deck as the Frigate's gravity was restored. Among the debris, the Chief noted, was an M6D Magnum. He made a mental note to grab the pistol and the Assault Rifle he had stored in the cryo bay before he was put on ice.

"Chief, look up. You need to pull the manual release." Cortana said.

As he looked up, he saw a lever right above his head. He reached up, pulled it down, and with his hands pushed the casket open. The Chief climbed out of the tube, grabbed the MA5C Assault Rifle stored beside him, checked the rifle, and walked up to Cortana's holo-tank.

"Seems like old times." she chuckled.

John smiled behind his visor. "Ready to get back to work?"

Cortana crossed her arms and replied, "I thought you'd never ask." That ever-present smile on her face when it was time for them to do their thing.

Her hologram disappeared as the Chief pulled out the data crystal containing her. He inserted the chip into his neural interface, the familiar cool mercury feeling filling his mind as Cortana integrated herself with the modified MJOLNIR Mk-VI/C MOD armor suit.

He walked over to the Magnum, picked it up, made sure it was loaded. However, he noticed that there was some engraved writing on it; there were two lines on it, one older than the other. 'Jacob Keyes' was the older engraving, while the second one read 'Miranda Keyes'. He remembered now, that this was the very same firearm that the Captain had given to him back when they first discovered Halo. Shortly after his subsequent rescue and return to Alpha Base, the Chief had returned the weapon back to Keyes and lost when the Flood attacked, only to discover it in the containment facility along with the deadly parasite. After returning back to UNSC space and informing Miranda of what occurred, she too had her name engraved on the weapon, carrying it with her all throughout their missions on Delta Halo, retrieving it once again from the armory in High Charity, and then Earth and the Ark. She most likely lost it when she was shot in the back by Truth and crippling her, only to return to the Shadow of Intent for treatment. He would return the weapon back to her, when they were in UNSC space once again, so he holstered the weapon on his right thigh, letting the magnetic clamps do their job of holding it. Deciding to bring up what exactly Cortana had done to his suit, and just how long it had been since he went into cryo, "How long was I out?"

"Four years, one month, seven days."

The Master Chief was astonished. They've been out here for literally four years? "Somebody should have found us by now. What all exactly did you to my armor?"

"Well, let's see, given with four years of doing nothing but modifying this piece of art, quite a bit. I was able to reduce the weight of the armor by about 6.72%. Increased the suit's strength by 14.35%. Increased the Energy Shield capacity by 45.62% and reduced the recharge time by 32.98%. Increased the motion trackers range from 25 to 40 meters. Increased the weapon capacity for an additional primary and secondary weapon. Improved the VISR with multiple additional fields of visions with ultraviolet and thermal vision." She took a digital equivalent of a breath of what you could call a breath.

"I also was able to use some of the old Mark V prototype Armor Mods, which means your Armor Lock now produces an impenetrable Energy Shield around your armor, but you won't be able to move. A Hologram projector that lasts for about ten seconds, and the Dropshield dispenser. And I was even able to adapt the Elite's Type-3 Camouflage units to the armor."

The Chief had to hand it to Cortana, she certainly did a fine job, "Nice work." He complemented.

"Oh, I'm not even done with the last two things on the list of modifications I've done." From the way she talked, it was as if she couldn't be any prouder of herself. "I was able to permanently install a prototype M805X Thruster Pack into the armor itself for all around usage."

"How so?" 'All around usage' sounded too good to be true, as this would make him efficient in maneuvering in the battlefield during firefights.

"Well, they…huh, interesting." She stopped mid-sentence as if something just came up, which it did so.

"Something wrong?"

"Oh, that's cute…" the AI muttered to herself more than anything, "…sorry, someone was trying to get access into what's left of the Dawn's systems, but I managed to keep them out."

"Covenant?" Even though he the war was over, he wasn't too keen on the idea of some of the Covenant species to board the ship. He still had protocol to adhere to and follow, despite Earth's location already known and their technology basically cast aside, seen as being 'inferior' to themselves and their 'Gods'. They weren't wrong of course, but UNSC tech still had some things here and there over Covenant tech.

"Oh, I'd know if it were the Covenant, and whoever it is, they aren't. The Covenant would've put up a better job of getting into our systems."

So, the people who boarded their ship weren't Covenant. That tid bit of knowledge brought the Chief some comfort. "So who is it? The Insurrection?" The enemy he and the rest of his fellow Spartan-II's had been originally trained to handle and deal with, before the outbreak of the Human-Covenant War. Even during it, the Insurrectionists had grown bolder in sabotaging their war efforts to defend Earth and Humanity as a whole, stealing weapons, raiding supply shipments, and hijacking any ships they could get their hands on. While the vast majority of them felt that they weren't involved with the war, some of them wisely aided them in the Outer Colonies, something that wasn't very common, and even then, their support was limited with some begrudging emotions due to the fate of inevitable extinction if they didn't.

"Unknown. An AI for certain, but nothing I can't handle."

An AI of unknown origin? Cortana was a third-generation 'Smart' AI, and there was nothing that she had encountered that was another AI, save for Guilty Spark and the Covenant AI from Ascendant Justice, which the latter was hardly a problem, but he wasn't aware of any other type of AI that existed, otherwise she would know. "Is it advanced?"

"Hardly, it's better than a standard 'Dumb' AI, but it's not even remotely close to me or even first-generation 'Smart' AI's, or the advanced 'Dumb' AI's that run cities and stations. I could just trap it within its own repeating line of coding and erase it, layer by layer as it literally would dig its own grave trying to get out. But it hasn't displayed anything resembling hostile intent, it's…more curious than anything else." She had never encountered an AI like this, it certainly was interesting as it had two separate lines of AI coding was interwoven and put together to make one more efficient, as she noticed one was 'very' primitive, as another was 'extremely' primitive, more so than the other, however, the 'very' primitive coding was rather small as opposed to the other. "From what I've gathered here, it certainly has a few moves, but it leaves itself too open. Almost like how I prefer to go through every backdoor and window people don't see, this AI seems to prefer open warfare like a soldier on the battlefield without any backup, but it does have a few tricks to watch its back. But like I said before, it's no problem for me."

That answered that question for the Chief. He could count on Cortana do eliminate the unknown AI should it turn hostile. "Is there a boarding party?" Knowing what exactly what was coming after them would be nice to know, he could combat whatever it was a lot easier.

Cortana was already patched into the camera feeds; six individuals and judging by the bioscans she got off them, at least one was fully synthetic, three were unknown aliens, and two of them were human, of all the things… "Well~ you see…"

He could already tell where this was going.

---

-The Normandy-

"It's creepy as hell." Joker giving his usual color commentary on their missions, though he wasn't particularly wrong. Some of the crew had gathered near windows on their respective decks while others viewed it through the ship's exterior cameras, were getting the same vibe from the derelict.

As it turned out, the nebula that they were heading into had prevented the signal from getting out. The nebula was a dark purple that slowly began to turn black as it gave the illusion of a black hole. They were already getting closer to the edge of the galaxy, heading into dark space, with the stars disappearing.

Jane looked at the ship from the bridge, and with the damn thing cut in half, she could only wonder if perhaps Sovereign had perhaps come across the ship before he indoctrinated Saren, "Other than the obvious, EDI, what can you tell me about our derelict here?"

EDI had settled into the co-pilot's chair after acquiring Eva's body and overriding her programming, and had grown accustomed to people coming to talk to her new body. She was already outfitted in a uniform that Eva had once used, and grabbed an N7 Hurricane along with an M-5 Phalanx. "The ship appears to have been cut in half, most likely due to a large energy-based weapon of sorts, judging from the micro-trances of radiation from the edge of the ship where it has been cut."

"So that leaves out Sovereign or the Collectors." Jane whispered more or less to herself. EDI looked up to Jane with what would be considered an inquisitive look as far as a learning synthetic could be considered. "Pardon?"

"Oh, nothing, just thinking aloud a bit to myself."

"Very well, I suppose I will to have to do this myself as well." EDI was still learning the quirks on understanding organics, she continued to work on their scans of the derelict. "There appears to be a no traces of Eezo from what appears to be the engines."

Jane and a few other crewmembers were shocked, with Joker voicing their own confusion, "Wait, what?! EDI check your sensors again, that's gotta be a mistake. There's no way that ship can fly without Eezo."

EDI looked to Joker with an accusatory glance, not the best thing to say to her as he realized, "My sensors are optimizing at full capacity, Joker. I have already run scans as far as I can get three times now since the initial scan. The signal appeared to have finally broadcasted outside the nebula as the derelict approached it, but then it began to dive deeper into the nebula itself, as if another force pulled on it momentarily. Enough to bring it in closer, however the derelict is moving at an incredibly slow pace."

Jane was trying to make sense of what EDI told her, with how the derelict was drifting through the edge of the nebula, but then suddenly pulled back into it with no rhyme or reason, but then she was confused by EDI's scans comment. "Wait, EDI, what do you mean by 'as far as I can get'?"

"I have attempted to try and delve further via a wireless search system; however, I have been unable to do so. I have been blocked by numerous security firewalls and programs onboard, any of my further attempts have been met with heavy resistance. I can tell you that there is minimal power and there is an opening for the Normandy to land inside."

Jane nodded, "Then that's our point of entry. Joker, set us down there. EDI, see if you can try to get into the systems and give us more info on this ship, or rather what's left of it." EDI got up from her seat as the rest of the squad came to the airlock, ready for their little excursion. Jane already had a plan formulated in her head, "Alright everyone, we've got an unknown derelict with possible survivors onboard. Our first objective is to find any survivors and extract them quickly to the Normandy before the Reapers or Cerberus one come across this wreck, if we can get some data on the ship with how it operates, the method of FTL, etc. that's our secondary. It's pretty big, so I want us in squads of two; Javik, you're with me, if you can do your thing to 'see' who was onboard and give us some light about this thing, that'd be good."

Javik, the last Prothean was the most recent addition to their crew, and he was eager for battle against the Reapers, but he wasn't the best team player, but he knew how to follow orders in the battlefield, and he respected her more so than anyone else on the ship. Plus, his natural sensory abilities were unlike any other species in the galaxy. "Understood, Commander." He had his Particle Rifle on hand, and truth be told, it was the only weapon he ever really needed, given his own Biotic abilities were on par, nay some would say superior to Asari like Samara or Benezia, in some instances.

Jane, nodded in response. She turned to the rest of her squad, "Garrus & James will be the second squad, while Liara and EDI will be squad three." Everyone save for Javik and EDI put their helmets on as the airlock began the depressurization sequence. EDI not needing one for being a synthetic, Javik on the other hand, being an organic with a set of lungs being able to hold air for at least ten hours, so he didn't really need to worry about the lack of breathable air.

The Normandy had set down inside one of the openings of the derelict, and the airlock down opening up for the squads to exit and begin their search with their mag-boots activated. As soon as they set their feet down, they could see numerous cargo crates, and vehicles strapped down to the floor with some debris floating around. Jane looked at each of the vehicle with some resembling old 21st century vehicles of military humvee's with large guns and missile launchers attached on the rear, while others looked to be troop transporters. Some others were four-wheelers with what appeared to be grenade launchers attached to the front of them, and then there were the tanks with the main gun on the rear of the vehicle.

In short, the derelict was a military vessel.

Jane could tell that each of the weapons on the vehicles could easily kill a Reaper Brute with ease, and could keep killing more of them like nothing. She had to wonder who had built them? Why did they build them this big? Who exactly were these people fighting against? Even Krogan would be gunned down faster than a Salarian could think by these weapons. Hopefully she'd get some answers here, as she and the squads began to look for an entrance to the rest of the ship, Specialist Traynor piped up over the comms with some interesting news, "Commander, while EDI was scanning the ship, I found that the signal was being broadcasted widely with an advanced military encryption interwoven throughout the entirety of the message. Not only that, but as we were passing by the derelict, I noticed on one of the cameras that the name of the ship was printed in big white letters on the side of it, just below would I think is the bridge. And you won't believe me on the language, it reads UNSC Forward Unto Dawn in english."

The tell-tell signs of the squad being shocked was obvious. They had never seen a ship that didn't use Eezo with this type of design, and they hadn't seen vehicles of such an archaic, and yet simultaneously advanced design. "So, the people that built this ship spoke English? The Alliance didn't build anything like this, and I doubt Cerberus cooked this up, otherwise we would've seen the obvious signs of their own designs."

"I can only guess at a 'yes' until we know more. I'll send a message to Admiral Hackett once we're finished up here, and so far, there haven't been any signs of Reaper or Cerberus ship entering the nebula. I think we're way out of the way of civilization. We got lucky today, Commander."

"Good to hear Traynor, keep me posted on anything that comes up."

The squads came across an entrance that lead deeper into the derelict, and with arrows showing directions to certain parts of the ship; 'Armory', 'Cryo-bay', 'Engineering' and 'Observation Deck'.

How very, and yet oddly convenient for them.

"Well, sure was nice of them to paint directions on the floor." Jane remarked. Javik shook his head, "Having directions to key areas of a ship is a poor decision; allowing possible enemies to quickly overtake the vessel in the event of boarding action."

James looked at it another way, "Yeah, but this makes our job of sweeping the place easier, and I so wanna look at their guns. I mean, who knows what they've got locked up here." Garrus hummed in thought, "I wonder if they have any snipers onboard, see if they can compare to our own."

Liara patted Garrus on the back, "I'm sure you'll get the chance, but I think there are some people here that may need our help."

"Squad two, I want you two to head up to the cryo-bay; check if the survivors are there. Squad three will head to engineering and up the observation deck; see if you can pull any data from the engines and navigation; maybe we can get an idea who made this ship and where it came from. Squad one will head to the armory; check out the weapon lockers and see if we can use anything for firefights in the future. Keep in radio contact, and inform me if you've found something, we'll meet back up here in an hour, and Specialist Traynor will message Hackett. If you run into trouble pull up everyone on the comms. Let's move, people."

The two-man squads split up and made their way to their objectives, unaware of shimmer in the background following one of the squads…

---

-EDI & Liara-

The Normandy AI and the good doctor were making their way to engineering first for data on the engines and power supply, then they would make their way to the observation deck for navigation data if any were; from there, they would head back to the Normandy. Liara's inner scientist was already cranking the gears in her head with many questions. Who built the ship? Why was it designed this way? What was the classification? How did it get to such a remote part of the galaxy? And how did it get cut in half? "EDI, have you been able to dive any further into the ships systems?"

EDI had been trying to get in further now that she was inside the ship, and her Omni-tool was flaring with life, "I have been attempting to bypass the security systems and firewall protocols, since we have boarded the derelict. However, I have had zero success with all fifteen attempts."

Liara cocked an eyebrow, "Wait, you've already tried it fifteen more times?" She knew that EDI had superior cyberwarfare and infiltration suites tailored to go up against superior systems such as the Collectors and the Reapers, but to hear that she was getting nowhere was bit disconcerting.

"Yes, it is… annoying to say the least." A small look of frustration appeared for a bit before fading away, "I have been actively pinging the systems for some time now, however I have been pushed out with every attempt."

Liara had seen the small look that EDI had on her synthetic body, she had started learning more so on organic emotions and feeling ever since she 'commandeered' Dr. Eva's body, and with Jane's aid, she had begun learning at a rather fast pace. They arrived at the door leading into engineering, as it was wide open, "We may end up getting a look at the ship's engines now. Maybe you'll get a better chance of entering the systems here, even restoring power if it's possible." She pulled Jane up on the comms, "Shepard, we've made our way to engineering, we'll see if we can get the power back up if we can, and download what data we can."

"Good to hear, Javik and I are rounding the corner to the armory. We'll let you know if we've got anything worth using. James, Garrus, how about you guys?"

Garrus came up over the comms first and the with James following the Turian up next, "The elevators were out, so we're having to take the hard way up to cryo."

"Aw come one, Vakarian, you know you love the exercise."

"I'm sure you do, though, will you love it if I happen to fall and I hit you and we both go tumbling down to the bottom of the shaft?"

"…alrighty then. Guess you have no love for getting a gun show, to give the ladies then."

"That's what the scars are for, Vega."

Liara chuckled a bit, "Alright let's see what makes this place tick." Just as Liara was about to step through the doorway, it shut automatically before she could put her foot in the door.

"What?" Her face scrunched up in confusion as she was not expecting to face a door slamming in her face. She pulled up her Omni-tool as she tried to bypass the lock, but it sparked blue and her arm was singed with a bit of pain, "Ow!"

EDI looked over to Liara as she held her hand for bit, before shaking it, "What happened?"

"The door shut on me, just as I was about to walk in. I tried to run a bypass program on the panel, but my Omni-tool shocked me. I don't know how that happened."

EDI held Liara's arm as she was already running through the simulations as to what could have happened. She had been compiling the information that she had gathered so far, and came to one only conclusion. "I believe the only explanation behind the advanced security measures, and your Omni-tool shocking you, would be a—" EDI was suddenly kicked out of Eva's body, and it shut down, making Liara paniced. "EDI, what's—" Then her vision went black as she felt something hit her in the back of her head, effectively knocking her out.

---

-Garrus & James-

"Ugh, finally. I hate ladders. Really wish we had Tali here." Garrus opened up the hatch that lead up to the cryo-bay, with James coming up behind him, "Hey, maybe the girls can get the elevators back up and running."

"That would make life a lot easier. Come on, we shouldn't be too far from the cryo-bay." Garrus was armed with a Phaeston, while he had a Krysae Sniper rifle holstered on his back, knowing that shotguns weren't his forte, while James had an N7 Typhoon and an M-27 Scimitar, which was already in his hands, just for close encounters. They came to a rounded room, with a holographic schematic of the wrecked ship glowing yellow and numerous warning signs flashing across several locations, most likely showing power loss, zero atmosphere pressure, failing systems, etc.

James moved in first with Garrus behind him as they started walking across the walkway littered with snow and ice build-up, growing as they entered the cryo chamber. They took notice of the one pod opened up and footprints leading out to the rest of the ship, Garrus rang up the comms, "Well, it looks like we've only got one survivor here, Shepard. But no sign of them, they may have already gotten to another part of the ship, and we haven't seen them yet."

"Alright, head back to the hangar, Javik and I found a lot of weapons here, we might be able to use them, but they're all locked up tight in the lockers and crates."

"If the weapons still function, then we should take them."

"We'll head down there to help you out, maybe come across our survivor, if we're lucky." Garrus said as he and James made their way back the way they came up. But the emergency hatch suddenly locked itself, with James voicing the obvious, "What the hell?"

Garrus tried to pull Jane back up in the comms, "Jane? Commander, we just got locked up here, you copy?" But static was all that came through.

James readied his Scimitar if things got dicey, "What the hell is going in this ship?"

He could've sworn he heard a small feminine voice laugh a little down the hallway leading back to cryo…

"What the hell indeed."

---

-Jane & Javik-

The commander and Javik walked into the armory, and saw that everything was locked up tighter than the Citadel archives. Javik kept his Particle Rifle out, but eased up a bit, while Jane holstered her N7 Valkyrie with the N7 Crusader and Valiant, her more preferred class of weapon.

She looked at the weapons through the metallic grates barring access to the weapons. They looked similar to the old 21st century weapons like the M4, or the AK-47, but they looked far more durable, as if she could beat several Krogan to death and it would still keep working, while her own weapon could beat one to a pulp, but then it would break up and be nothing but a bunch of scrap.

"Commander, these lockers are different from the architecture from rest of the ship." She looked to see Javik was over in another area of the armory with a completely different look. Purple, mixed with pink, blue, silver and green, the containers looked more like Asari style architecture, more so than anything else here. "Now why the hell do they have a completely different set of weapons on here? What they've got here already would be enough to kill a whole platoon of Reapers ground troops."

"An interesting question…" Javik kneeled down, and started to feel the room and 'see' the past of the ship and its crew. "There were humans…but their biology is slightly different than your own commander."

Whatever notion that said humans didn't build this ship, was all but forgotten. She let Javik continue as he concentrated on the ship's marker, "There was another species here as well, one I do not know."

Jane arched an eyebrow, "A species you don't know? You sure the human parts aren't muddying up things for you?"

"I know what humans are…" The Prothean deadpanned, "…but this species is new to me. They are…massive, larger than a Krogan, and very proud like Turians, but they are all gone…wait!" His face was now a mix of fear and confusion, "There was something else here, a…creature, its marker is ancient, unstable and violent, it is a confusing and terrifying, it attempted to escape its death, consuming untold numbers it-AGGH!" Jane grabbed Javik and brought him back up from the floor, his breath was a little labored and he looked fatigued from the ordeal.

"Commander, we should leave, now."

"Alright…" She brought a hand to her earpiece, "…alright everyone, we're leaving, Traynor, see if you can broadcast a message throughout the ship for survivors to hear and let's get out of here if they come our way. Squad two, head back to the Normandy, same for you squad three."

"Copy that, Sheaprd." Garrus came up over the comms, however, there was no response from either EDI or Liara, until EDI came up over static, "Com—nder, -iara and – were -ushed, surv-vors are poss—ly hostile."

That last part she understood, they were about to head back out to head to engineering, but she and her Prothean partner stopped when they heard the familiar sound of an assault rifle cocked and ready to unload behind them, and a deep, gravelly voice that held a no nonsense and emotionless manner, "Drop your weapons, turn around and identify yourselves, now."

At first, she wanted to swing around and point her own weapon at the voice's source, but she thought twice when she felt the barrel of the gun right on her skull, and then came the second warning, "Now."

Javik threw in his own two cents worth, "Commander. I think it is best if we comply with the survivor." He dropped the Particle Rifle on the ground and kicked it away. Having been born in a time when your kind was being hunted to extinction taught one how to survive should the occasion call for it, and this certainly called for it.

She begrudgingly agreed with him, she disarmed herself and kicked the weapons away. If worst came to worst, they could always use their biotics, but then again, she had no idea what their new friend was capable of. As they turned around, they were met with the barrel of a grey gun that was long as one of their own, but it was much bigger, at least the size of an M-99 Saber. But the real show was the one holding the weapon.

He was huge, at least seven feet tall in large, bulky, olive green power armor. It appeared to give him maximum coverage and mobility and it looked like he could ram a Brute head on and throw it over his shoulder like a football player. The suit that he wore was pitch black, and held other smaller pieces of armor where he needed to be flexible, and his visor was a hexagonal pattern in gold. Judging from how bulky he looked, the armor must have weighed a lot, and he should have made footsteps as he entered the armory and circled around them to force them to discard their own weapons. And yet, he didn't make a sound, nor was he even seen. Either he was part cat and part whatever, or he knew how to maneuver around, and he had to have had something like a Tactical Cloak like what her old friend Kasumi used.

She was leaning towards the latter.

But what really intrigue her was how he, it, was standing. He wasn't moving an inch, he didn't even look like they were breathing. The way he held the rifle was almost mechanical like a Geth would hold it, and he had his sights trained her, guessing or knowing that she was the one in charge of the squads. Now she probably had an idea what happened to EDI & Liara over at the door to engineering.

He spoke again, most likely giving the third and last warning, "Identify yourselves." The sound of what was most likely the safety taken off was a giveaway.

Well, might as well get it over with Jane though, "I'm Commander Jane Shepard, Alliance military." She gestured over to her partner, "This is Javik. So~ who are you if you don't mind me asking?" The old Shepard charm would work if anything else, considering she talked Saren to death and he ended up shooting his own head off years ago.

But that didn't have the intended effect she hoped, "What is the Alliance military?" Jane frowned that her natural charm had zero effect, well, guess she would have to play along with him.

"The Systems Alliance, the Human military…we—"

"What happened to the UNSC? Are you with the Insurrection…?" He looked over to Javik, "The Covenant…?" The last set of words seemed to make the air around him become 'trigger-happy' if one could say, he was on edge, and he looked like he was more than willing to pull the trigger and end their lives if they gave the wrong answer.

Shepard and Javik looked at each other with confusion. Neither of them had ever heard of what he just said, prompting Jane to ask her own set of questions in response, "We've never heard of the UNSC or the Insurrection. And what's the Covenant? You don't sound like you're a big fan of…whoever they are."

The big green metal 'dude' was silent for what seemed like several minutes, but it was just a few seconds though, "What year is it?"

Now that really put them off, Javik opted to answer next, "The year is 2187…" He could tell from the green armored beings stance and given how tense he looked, he was not a fan of him. The commander was better at talking with people, as he was told he was 'blunter than a Geth' and 'brutal' as this cycle called him.

This answer seemed to satisfy him, as he lowered his weapon a couple of inches, which Jane took as a sign of relaxing, "We…caught your distress signal, and we're here to help." Jane just huffed in a bit of annoyance, though she knew she shouldn't. Guess her old habits from being in charge of a suicide squad were hard to die, "Look, can we get a name, race, etc. and what was with asking the year?"

Now, sometimes Jane could tell how people were looking at her, even with a mask on, but she could tell that behind that golden visor, he was peering right into her soul. Well, if she were the more religious type per say. He was studying her, seeing if he could throw her a bone, perhaps tempting fate maybe or something?

"Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117; Human; UNSC Navy." He lowered his weapon thinking that they weren't a threat anymore, but he still looked tense and ready to defend himself if necessary.

"That sounds more like a rank than a name." A little annoyed, "You do have a name, right?"

"That's classified." He said it as if that was all she was going to get. If she were an anime character, she'd have a tick mark growing on her head. She opened her mouth to say something else, but he pretty much shut her up with his next sentence, "Clandestine information will remain classified."

Well, she had feeling he wouldn't be one to talk so easily. But, "You wouldn't happen to have 'engaged' a certain human-like mech and an Asari?" Considering that EDI warned her that they were ambushed.

"The synthetic android, and alien lifeform attempted to gain access to engineering. It is in violation of UNSC protocol. They weren't a threat, so I disabled them temporarily. The synthetic was powered down, and the alien knocked unconscious." So he managed to take both Liara and EDI down without killing them? That was pretty good of him, but then again, she had no idea what he was capable of. But his wording was what caught her attention, calling Liara an 'alien lifeform'.

"Thanks, for not killing them." A bit of sarcasm laced, "But as much as I would love to continue this conversation, is there any chance, that oh… I don't know… do it on my working ship? You know, with food, comfy military beds, oxygen, and people to socialize with?" She might have been pushing it a bit with big green, but she wanted to make sure the rest of her squad was alright after getting static from Garrus & James, not knowing if they were alright.

The 'Master Chief' as he called himself, was still and devoid of emotion, and he stared them down, seeing if she would try to do something, making plans, from 'A' to 'B' all the way to fucking 'Z'.

"I could use a soldier like you, against the Reapers."

Javik could see that despite how still the human appeared to be, he wasn't familiar with the Reapers, more confused if one could say. "What are the Reapers?" His highly-controlled pheromones told him.

"Ok, should've seen that one coming." Shepard murmured to herself, though Javik picked it up, "Obviously given how he has more than likely been stuck in a refrigerator for four years, he is unaware of the Reapers, Commander."

"Thank you, Javik." She annunciated with annoyance, "Anyways, the Reapers are—"

"You fight for humanity?"

That was an odd question, to say the least. Why wouldn't anyone fight for their own race? What moral code did he follow? Were they any different from her own? "I do, I'm currently running around the galaxy uniting everyone to fight them. We—"

"After the Reaper threat has been dealt with, can you bring me to UNSC space?"

The response was sudden, and she already had a good feeling about this guy. He didn't expect him to join her so suddenly, but then again…with a working ship practically right next to him, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. "If you can point out the direction to us, then yeah, I'll fly you there myself if I have to, you have my word."

"Commander Shepard, there are weapons, munitions and equipment that we can use. I would advise taking them with us." He obviously wasn't comfortable with using their weapons, and he was more trusting in his own equipment.

Jane sighed, "Well alrighty then I'll get the horn on the Normandy and have Cortez help clear some pace around for your stuff. You got a manifest of what you need?"

The armored man just nodded, "Affirmative, ma'am. Your communications should be restored now. Other parts of the ship will be locked down, as per UNSC protocol. No one is to enter them." He walked back further into the armory, getting things ready for the move, while Shepard was miffed what sounded like an order/threat if she had to put it in some way. Either way, she got a new crewmember who was going to help her kill the Reapers, and a new enigma that surrounded him.

Over the next hour, after getting EDI settled back into Eva's body, and Liara nursing her sore head which luckily didn't have a concussion, just a little disoriented when she woke up, the crew began helping the Chief move crates of weapons, ammo and equipment to the Normandy's shuttle bay next to their own armory.

---

-The Chief-

"I know that you aren't a fan of getting attention, but you could just ignore them and head to the ship." The AI chimed, the Chief overlooked the crew bringing the cargo onto the ship, and every so often some of them would glance at him, not-so-subtly.

"These are UNSC assets, and Covenant weapons technology that we cannot be allowed into potential enemy hands." If anyone knew better on following protocol, it was Cortana, given she was programmed with every dirty trick ONI taught her, and every protocol and rule put into her digital head. And given how these people seemed so buddy-buddy with aliens, and they were an unknown faction with the only known motive being killing Reapers, he wasn't going to give anything away, nor did he really trust them all that much.

But their commander, Shepard, she didn't seem like the deceiving type, and thus a little trust could be done, but he would be the judge of that, no doubt already preparing for the conversation she was going to have with him later.

"True, and this isn't the UNSC. You know…given how you've offered to help fight these 'Reapers', which by the way are probably their version of the Covenant…have you given any afterthought to what might happen if we do return to UNSC space and HIGHCOM is informed of what's happening?"

"I know. We'll cross that bridge when we make our way there." He realized that he may have ended up bending, or even breaking some protocols by temporarily joining with Shepard, but he didn't have much of a choice. Either to stay and wait another possible four years in cryo, or take her helping hand.

"We don't have any choice." If push came to shove, he'd eliminate the crew and have Cortana interface with the ship starting with disabling the other AI.

He woke up to see that they were being boarded by not just humans, but aliens as well. Humanoid in form. Not Covenant. And too many variables. Then there was commander Jane Shepard. She spoke his language, and the alien's as well. She looked a lot like Linda, on the outside, but she carried herself with an authoritive command and purpose.

"What can you tell me about the Systems Alliance? Have you heard of it before?"

"Diving straight in then, huh? Well I can tell you I haven't heard of it, and neither has the UNSC or ONI. Which would also mean the Covenant never came across them either. They sound like a prominent organization given how they're composed of humans, and they're working with aliens. Either they're lying about not knowing the UNSC or anything concerning our neck of the woods, or…" Was that curiosity? Or anticipation for his own reaction? "…or they somehow evolved outside our evolutionary trees."

"You don't think that…"

"That the Forerunners had something to do with it? The truth is, I honestly have no idea." She had already begun compiling info for comparing their own humanity against Shepard's humanity. The odds of two human races evolving simultaneously, but ending up with different dates and technologies, were so small that a number couldn't represent it. Unless they came across some piece of info that explained it, she would keep her theories to herself until she could come to a conclusion.

The Chief was frustrated a bit with the lack of answers, but he knew he shouldn't be. Whatever answers he was looking for, he would just have to wait until he found them. He turned his attention to something else, "What all exactly did we have aboard the Dawn?"

"Ah, well, before we left Earth with the Elites, Johnson and the Arbiter made sure to take a heavy inventory stock on weapons, ammo, equipment, even so much as procuring a printer fabricator unit for the ammo on our weapons and some Covenant weapons, and the Arbiter brought a mobile recharging station for some of the battery powered weapons and equipment." Cortana pulled up the manifest of what all was brought to the ship before the Battle of the Ark, as it showed up on his HUD.

UNSC Weapons –

MA5C Assault Rifles

BR55HB Battle Rifles

M6G Magnums

M7 Submachine Guns

M392 DMR's

SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifles

M90 Shotguns

M6 Spartan Lasers

M41 SPNKr Rocket Launchers

AIE-486H Chainguns

M247H Machine Guns

M7057 Flamethrowers

M319 Grenade Launchers

LAU-65D/SGM Missile Pods

M9 Frag Grenades

M8 Flashbang Grenades

M12 Smoke Grenades

Overall, a good arsenal of what they had left over, given the Dawn was the UNSC command ship during the battle. There were also numerous weapon attachments that he could use for some of them, laser sights, extended clips, interchangeable barrels, underslung shotguns and grenade launchers, etc. As for the Covenant weapons, the Arbiter had procured everything he could get his hands on, even stealing some of the Brutes weapons.

Covenant Separatist Weapons –

Type-25 Plasma Pistols

Type-52 Maulers

Type-25 Plasma Rifles

Type-25 Brute Plasma Rifles

Type-50 Beam Rifles

Type-51 Plasma Repeaters

Type-52 Focus Rifles

Type-25 Spikers

Type-31 Needle Rifles

Type-33 Needlers

Type-51 Carbines

Type-1 Energy Swords

Type-2 Gravity Hammers

Type-1 Plasma Grenades

Type-2 Spike Grenades

Type-3 Firebombs

Type-25 Brute Shot

Type-33 Fuel Rod Guns

Type-50 Concussion Rifles

Type-52 Plasma Launchers

Type-52 Plasma Cannons

The Arbiter didn't really know the meaning of overkill, as it seemed. But then again, he really hated Truth and the Covenant after what happened to his race, their alliance was more circumstantial, less than a true one. The Chief at first hated him, and wanted nothing to do with the Elite, but as he fought side-by-side with him, he came to respect him and trusted him to watch his back, as well as the other two Elites that accompanied them in the final days of the war on Earth and the Ark. He supposed he could call them a friend, he guessed, but he wasn't interested in making anymore. Three was enough for him to last a lifetime.

There was also the equipment that they procured, even a few things a cross the Ark that they took for themselves. But they weren't able to get any Sentinel Beams, given how they turned on them when he killed Guilty Spark on Halo.

Equipment –

Z-4190 Bubble Shield Units

Power Drain Units

Portable Gravity Lift Units

TR/9 Trip Mine Units

Regenerator Units

Flare Units

Deployable Cover Units

Radar Jammer Units

Forerunner Automated Turrets

Invincibility Units

Overshield Units

Cloaking Units

They saved his life, and the life of many Marines and UNSC troops on many close calls on Earth and the Ark. They would undoubtedly save his life again if he found himself in future similar reasons, adding this with his new armor modifications, he doubted he would have trouble as much as before. Though one of the last things he saw on the list worried him, "Cortana, the automated turrets, will they…?"

"Turn on us, like they did on Halo? No, I'm currently running up a program to target anything that isn't us or our new friends, but it will take some time implement it into all of them, while scrubbing away Spark's programming." As the Chief and the Arbiter worked their way up to the Control Room, they came across several of the auto turrets in 'rest' mode, and set them up for a perimeter to deal with the Flood. After destroying Spark and hauling ass back to the Dawn, the turrets fired on them as they exited the Control Room and almost got them killed with the Sentinels overlaying their fire with the turrets.

The Chief had procured a few other things, such as weapons cleaning kit and combat-grade medical kits, as he doubted they had the same thing for what the UNSC used. As the last of the crates were loaded onto the Normandy, he saw a blip on his motion tracker moving towards him and he looked up to see the commander walking towards him, oddly enough, "Hey, Chief. You don't mind if I call you that right?"

"Ma'am." He gave a curt and respectable nod.

"Just wanted to show you your quarters aboard the Normandy."

He frowned at that, a simple bunk in the barracks would be enough for him, having his own quarters was something he didn't need, nor care for. "Was your crew able to salvage the equipment?"

Shepard did the 'iffy' hand gesture, "We got most of it on board, though we couldn't find any room for the vehicles. Damn shame, we could really use them." She shook her head, "Anyways, are you going to need anything concerning the ammo?"

"I have fabrication and recharging units. Raw materials will be needed to replenish ammunition."

"We can always stop by the Citadel to grab some things if you need it, or you can talk to Cortez down in the shuttle bay. He's our procurement specialist, he'd know more than I would on getting weapons and materials."

"Thank you."

"Good to hear, well at any rate, I've got some questions that I'll need answering." She waved a hand up as if she was trying to stop him from opening his mouth, "And yes, I know there are some things that you have to keep classified, just as so long as they don't endanger the crew." Shepard turned around and walked back up the ramp into the ship. After a brief second of hesitation, he walked up the ramp himself, but just as he was all the way in, his motion tracker brought a grey blip up at the edge of it, towards his 12 o'clock. He spun around looking over where numerous ventilation duct grates were situated leading into the air shafts circulated air, but he saw nothing.

"Hey, you coming or what?" He turned back to see the commander was waiting for him, and while he knew for a fact that something popped up on the tracker, he had a feeling that Shepard was getting a tad impatient. He would ask Cortana later about testing out the armor in combat in a real firefight and work out any bugs that may exist, either way he was leaving the Dawn, and odds are he wouldn't be returning. Cortana had the Dawn's reactor set to go off within an hour and anyone around it in a mile radius was going with it.

He walked the rest of the ramp up with the commander ahead of him, "Joker let's get out of here."

"Finally, let's get the hell away from this creepy-ass wreck. I'm getting the chills just from sitting the Normandy in it."

The Chief frowned at the unprofessional manner the pilot talked. If this were the UNSC, he'd be reprimanded heavily for his mouth, taken off the pilot's seat and put on what most navy men called 'bitch duty'. Or even discharged, depending on who was standing around as his mouth went off.

The Normandy started up its engines and slowly backed out of the hangar as it left the nebula.

Deep inside the Dawn's wreckage, a few slithering sounds reverberated through the halls of the ship, as the danger left, and it was given another chance, but first that reactor needed to be taken care of…and then there was an orange energy field suddenly passed through the corridors, screeching the metal literally as it moved through the ship.

---

-The Normandy Shuttle Bay-

Once the ship had left the wreck and the nebula, making its way back to civilization, Jane put her weapons up and finished taking off her armor with just her undersuit on. She looked to see the Chief making sure everything was organized and kept under lock & key, most likely as a security measure due to 'protocol' and he wasn't about to let someone whom he just met handle them. The rest of the crew had already returned to their own stations, with Steve and James making sure things in the shuttle bay were good with their newly acquired gear. Shepard walked over to the Chief as he stood next to the UNSC crates.

"You, know Chief, you could probably take your armor off and keep it here." He just shook his head, "I think I'll pass, ma'am." He opened up one of the crates to place the rifle he pointed at her along with a few others that were of the same model, but he kept the sidearm with him. A personally preferred weapon she wondered?

She leaned against their own set of cargo crates next to his own, "Well, I've got a few questions that hopefully aren't considered 'classified'…" She quoted with a gesture, "…so how is it that you're able to understand and speak the English language?"

Cortana had been tapping into the Normandy's systems and getting into the Extranet to see what she could find out behind this, but so far… "I'd advise to keep your answers short and sweet concerning our neck of the woods, at least until I find out more as to why there are two humanities."

"Copy that." The Chief's external speakers shut off temporarily for private conversation with Cortana. He wasn't about to reveal her existence to Shepard, just yet. Even though she rescued him, he wasn't about to trust her so much, so suddenly.

"Unclear ma'am."

"Well…I guess that's what I'll get a far as that goes…so, anyways, you probably aren't familiar with the Reapers, but then again no one was until about a week ago. So, have you heard of the Citadel community?"

"The Citadel?"

"A~nd there's that answer." She took a small breath before speaking again, "Just how far exactly has your civilization come in the galaxy?"

Cortana had downloaded a few star charts and was overlapping them with the UNSC's own as well as the Covenant's territorial maps she stole from High Charity, even going so far as to use the high-speed pictures they had taken of the galaxy from the Ark. "It's interesting how they've mapped out what they've explored of the Milky Way. Though given what I've compiled, it seems we, and the Covenant are around and in the borders of what they call the Terminus Systems and the Attican Traverse if I'm interpretating this correctly. I can narrow down UNSC space further with more time."

The UNSC did have 800 colonies, outposts, mining installation and stations in the Orion Arm, and ONI put the Covenant's own worlds in the thousands, possibly tens of thousands. During the loading of the supplies to the Normandy Cortana did shoot down the crazy notion that they were no longer in their own galaxy, but just in another part of it. "Not very far."

Jane nodded as she filed it away for later questions, that hopefully she could get out of the Chief and getting him to lighten up. "Well, the Citadel Council is a cooperative conglomerate of multiple alien species across the galaxy. Though the leading species are the Asari -one of whom you knocked out- the Salarians, the Turians -our tall buddy Garrus- and us, Humanity, well at least three years ago. There are other races, but they haven't done anything really 'significant' to earn a seat on the council."

The Chief was perplexed at that. Humans were allowed to be at the top of an alien government? The way the Citadel acted, sounded more like the Covenant's own High Council, albeit no religious fervor fueling them.

"So, to continue with the little history lesson, even if your own grades sucked in that department…" She said more to herself, getting the Chief to look at her with a raised eyebrow behind his visor, "…around 50,000 years ago, an earlier and endangered, advanced race called the Protheans, whom you just met with me in the armory, were wiped out by the Reapers. You'll see them soon." She never thought she would hear those words coming out of her mouth, for the life of her.

"A little note: Protheans equal Forerunners in these parts of the galaxy. No doubt there are already religious alien extremists."

Fantastic…

"The Citadel was a massive Mass Relay that linked the galaxy directly to Dark Space outside the galaxy, and about three years ago we were able to stop them from activating it…"

Now that was interesting to the Chief. If these Reapers were out in Dark Space, the place where the Ark was, wouldn't they have noticed and intervened there? Or did they simply just not care enough to get involved with the Human-Covenant War's final battle? Either way, this was intel that he kept in the back of his head to give to HIGHCOM back at Earth. They needed to know about a threat like this. "…it's the center for galactic society and the seat of government. It's pretty much the political, cultural and financial capital of the community. Other species like the Elcor, Volus, Drell and Hanar have embassies there." She saw the Chief tilt his head slightly, in a manner that pretty much yelled 'What the hell kind of crap are you smoking'. Which she didn't blame him.

To the Chief, that was the single, most idiotic idea he had ever heard in his life. If an enemy of the Citadel Council were to stage an attack on the station; the Covenant for example if they were still together, then they would obliterate the leadership and economy in one single attack. Then their intel, home world & colony locations, battle strategies, ship schematics, etc. would be in their hands, and they would be taken over and absorbed one-by-one in almost no time at all.

Whoever decided to make it the supreme capital was both strategically & tactically inept.

If the UNSC found this Citadel, they would have quarantined the station for study, dismantling it or anything else that came across their curious/suspicious minds.

Now, if the Flood had found it…no. He discarded that though immediately. It was gone now. And he had Cortana back with him, safe and sound. He didn't want to think more of the insidious parasite.

"What exactly are the Reapers commander?" He needed to know what he was up against, and what the UNSC would more than likely be forced to deal with in the future, if-and-when they began to encroach on their territory.

She took on a grim expression, "They're a race of synthetic and partly organic race of hyper-advanced machines, that come back to the galaxy every 50,000 years, and they harvest advanced organic life, turning them into new Reapers. We stopped them from coming three years ago, like I said, but we also stopped them from an early harvest about six months ago after taking their vanguard, the Collectors out. Now with their extinction clock in overtime, they've arrived in force. They've already broken the Batarians down with almost no leadership, and Earth was assaulted over all other worlds in their sights, with millions already dead."

The Chief was stumped with that last bit of info. These Reapers had taken Earth, and they hit them in force more than likely when the Covenant invaded Reach. It wasn't his Earth, but all the same, he felt…helpless in a sense. He looked down in what appeared to be sadness, something the commander didn't really expect of him, but she guessed being told one's home planet being taken by an unrelenting enemy, with millions dead would bring anyone to sadness. But he was curious as to why Earth's location was compromised. If the Alliance followed similar rules and protocols that the UNSC had, then Earth would, or rather should have been the last human world hit by the Reapers. Not the first.

For Cortana however, that made scrunch her brows in confusion. If what Shepard said was true, then the Reapers would undoubtedly have encountered the Forerunners. But they killed themselves off along with the rest of the galaxy to starve the Flood to death after activating the Halo array, and then reseeding the galaxy with the lifeforms they could preserve. She knew what they were capable of after combing through the info she had with the Index she had taken from the first Halo ring, and it was a massive treasure trove of information. But there was no mentioning of these Reapers at all in the databanks. Perhaps they weren't a significant enough threat to the Forerunners, more like an annoyance? Like a mosquito buzzing around your ear, and trying to kill it as it flew away. Getting a look at the Reapers themselves would provide her more intel.

Either way, she had so many questions now that needed answering.

This didn't make any sense, "Why do they do this?" He knew that the Covenant wanted to exterminate those that were considered 'heretics' and 'affronts to their gods'. The Flood wanted to consume all life in existence. Spark simply wanted his head, and the Index to set off Halo to stop the Flood, when they first encountered him. There had to be a reason why the Reapers were trying to harvest them.

Shepard looked to the floor with a hard expression, thinking back to all the times she talked to Saren, Sovereign and Harbinger, "Honestly, Chief… I have no idea why. To get kicks? Just to show that they can? No one knows why they do this. All we know is that they just drop from the sky, and start murdering innocent people, regardless of race, age or gender. Each time, we try to get close to answer…" She started shaking her head in disappointment, mostly to herself since she failed to get an answer each time, "…it just slips away in the form of them telling 'We can't comprehend their existence and purpose' bullshit. But right now, we're just concerned with surviving the onslaught and beating them back." She looked back to the Chief, "So, now you know a bit more about what we're dealing with here."

The Chief was silently mulling over what Jane told her, but he wanted to know more on how it started. "How exactly did this all begin? Did the Citadel prepare for war with the Reapers?" Shepard's response was…interesting. She chuckled humorlessly, "Why bother preparing for war with a race that leaves so little evidence that it exists, and can steamroll over civilizations, when you can just deny it all, and keep your head in between your legs while blaming it on paranoia and vivid dreams."

"Wait what…?" Cortana puller herself away from her own work to place her full attention on the commander. Both she and the Chief were in disbelief. Just how in the hell did they ignore the evidence, miniscule or not, revealing the Reapers to the galaxy? Their humanity would've taken any bit of evidence as proof enough of an incoming threat to their existence, and would prepare accordingly. ONI would do whatever it took to gather as much intel and install precautions in dealing with the threat, and the UNSC would prep the military for war immediately and begin a draft in all of the colonies, and arming their branches and militia.

She looked back at the Chief's golden visor with a sad smile that held no happiness, "They felt that it was too much to accept and chose not to do anything about it. Now that they know they exist, and with Earth burning and millions dying there before any others were hit, they're sitting on their hands with thumbs up their asses. Well, maybe the Salarians and the Asari, the Turians are at least pitching in, but we have to scratch their backs before they can scratch ours."

That settled it for him. The Human-Covenant War was over, and the threat of the Flood and the Halos were eliminated for the time being. The Reapers were now a threat to humanity, not the UNSC, 'his' humanity for now, but they would eventually.

"What is our next mission, commander?"

The wonderful smirk of hers adorned her face, "I like your enthusiasm, Chief. But before we hit the Reapers next time, I want you to get used to living on the ship. I can show you around the place if need be, introduce you to the rest of the crew, show you were the food's at…oh~ yeah, will food be a problem? I mean you said you were human and all, but do you eat the same food type we do? Or, do you guys eat dextro-based food? Since if you do…" She paused putting a hand to her chin in thought, "…you would have like an allergic reaction, around the risk of dying, right?"

"Now hold on a second…" Cortana interrupted, and giving her own science lecture, one of the things she inherited from her donor, "…that doesn't make any sense. The only difference between dextro and levo is their chirality, and that wouldn't cause death. I mean if you were to eat a meal meant for Spartans that was dextro, you'd just break it down into levo proteins. Whoever told her this must have gotten their degree from an online school, they really need to do their research again on the matter in an actual lab, at a real university."

"Basic sustenance will do, ma'am."

Jane shrugged, "Well alrighty then, I mean we do have the upscaled military rations but we also have some supplies for more, 'exotic' food that you get in a restaurant and keep you warm."

"The rations will do fine." Throughout the Human-Covenant War, and even before in the Spartan-II Program, he had grown accustomed to eating nothing but military MRE's. It kept him energized. It kept him plugged up. And that was all he cared about.

Jane just put her hands up in a manner that showed she wasn't going to press the subject, "Ok, I won't go any further on things. Though you may want to chat with the crew, get to know them better."

The Chief just shrugged his shoulders, meaning 'Maybe I will, but I doubt it' or something along those lines.

This would be the first of many shrugs, Jane suspected. Guess she'll see if actually keeps count. It'd be kind of weird if she did that, but hey, she had her quirks. She rolled her eyes, "Well come on, I'll show you where you'll be staying, you can bring some of your things with you if you want. Hope you don't mind not having a window, but you do get a nice desk and shelf."

He didn't say anything, but neither did he shrug his shoulders this time. So, she chalked it up with just whatever. She walked over to the elevator, with the Chief falling in behind as they took it to the third deck: Crew Deck.

Jane brought up her Omni-tool up and a few pictures cycled through the view-screen. "Deck three is the crew deck, down here we've got the medical bay where Dr. Chakwas, or Chief Medical Officer is at, the crew's sleeping quarters, the kitchen, the observation decks, which both have great views and the portside room has a poker table and a decent bar, which you can help to yourself if you want, and we have some play nights there, so you can join us any time and score some creds." She used her trademark grin to see if he'd get giddy, but she got no such reaction from him.

In his mind, a warship had no reason to have either of those things. There was hardly any time to play cards, and bars would only serve to make the crew drunk, whether in sadness or they got pissed off. Both of which only hindered their fighting capabilities against the Covenant.

Jane cleared her throat after the failed attempt to humor him, "Yeah, so moving on. EDI's AI core is located here, just through the med bay, bathrooms for genders. Liara converted the XO's quarters into her own office, well given her occupation I don't really blame her, and the main gun battery down the main hallway, Garrus has his stuff set up there, he just loves doing calibrations. He says it more often than most other Turians."

The elevator stopped and they stepped out facing the memorial wall, with all of the crew members that were killed when the Collectors destroyed the first Normandy, and Kaiden. "So, to continue with our little tour, the top deck is my cabin. If you have anything you want to discuss with me, I have my door open to everyone. Up on deck two is the CIC, up there is the bridge where our mouthy pilot, Joker is 99% of the time, and his new co-pilot EDI, whom you kicked out of her synthetic body back on your turf. The galaxy map is there for navigation, so once you've found your neck of the woods you can punch it up there, Comms Specialist Traynor can help you out with that. Through the security checkpoint is the conference room and then the War Room, where Primarch Victus is at, coordinating the Turian forces, and we do have a few Quantum Entanglement Communicators, holographic comm devices I guess you could call them." She took a left down the walkway towards the life support room, "Deck four is engineering where our Chief Engineer Greg Adams is at, along with Gabriella Daniels, our Propulsion Engineer and Kenneth Donnelly our Power Engineer, both of which always have some amusing conversations. The port side cargo hold is where Javik is at, he has a tendency to wash his hands a lot, but that may be due to just how he can 'read' people and places and he has to scrub the residue off. Over in the starboard cargo hold is where our War Correspondent, Diana Allers has made her remote broadcast station."

The Chief looked away from the Omni-tool and stared at the commander incredulously. The UNSC never had war correspondents on their ships. It was deemed too dangerous for civilians to be onboard active war ships, and anything news related to the war was handled by ONI to keep the civilian population stable and ensure that mass panic riots didn't ensue, and they kept the peace. He had heard from Haverson that he disagreed with some of what ONI did, primarily at Reach when they invaded the continent of Eposz, but didn't inform the rest of the planet to prepare for invasion.

Jane looked up to see the Chief was staring at her, not the Omni-tool, and she could tell what he was thinking, "I know, I know, having a civilian aboard a military ship seems unorthodox, but so far she's been helping keep moral support up over the Extranet, and giving people a bit of relief, and she knows how to pull her own weight onboard with a single footlocker." She knew it was a weak as hell justification, and she didn't want to continue on the subject, so she went back to the Omni-tool, "And back down in the shuttle bay is James Vega and Steve Cortez, our armory chief's. Cortez is also our shuttle pilot, so he'll be dropping us into missions if need be." She dropped her Omni-tool and opened up the door to the Life Support room, the room was an overall dark shade of grey, with lights keeping it bright just enough to see things. There were shelves brightly lit up, with a desk and what would be considered a laptop setup, and a heavy-duty bead behind it.

Guess he knew now why she gave him his own room.

"I hope it's enough for your time on here."

He looked around to see that while he would have preferred a bunk in the crew's quarters, it would be alright until he returned to the UNSC, "It will do, ma'am. Thank you."

Jane smiled, "Good to hear, I'll make sure pass on the files we've got on the Reapers, and some other unsavory people we may end up engaging."

"Unsavory?"

"You'll see. I'll talk to ya later, Chief."

And with that, Jane left the Chief to his own devices. The Chief took the M6D off his thigh and placed it on the table, "Are we safe to talk?"

"If you're referring to having me show myself outside the armor, us having a rational conversation and you not looking like a crazy person? Then yes. Their AI does have sensors throughout the ship, but I've put in a nice little block that prevents her from seeing me. When she reuploaded herself back into her synthetic body, I wiped away whatever data she thought she had at revealing me, same with the block." Good, he was worried that the AI would reveal Cortana's existence to the commander, and he could not allow that to happen, unless he was given no other choice.

The holographic laptop pinged with signal. No doubt the commander sending him the files they had on the Reapers and the other people they would be engaging in future operations. He took Cortana's chip and placed it in what looked like a slot that was the right size for her to enter, and he took his helmet off. The chair looked like it might've taken his weight, but he didn't want to risk it, so he opted to use the reinforced bed instead. As he sat down, the frame creaked a bit as it took his weight, satisfied with this, he let Cortana open up the files and brought them to the screen.

Over the next two hours, he combed through the files of the Reapers; their foot soldiers, ships, strengths, weakness, strategies, tactics, etc. Overall, he noticed that while the Reapers themselves were either a Sovereign-class capital ship spanning two kilomters, the size of a Covenant RCS-class armored cruiser, or a Destroyer-class ship that was 160 meters, about half the size of CRS-class light cruiser.

At first, they sounded pretty tough, but once he saw what exactly they were armed with, he quickly pushed 'major threat' out of his head. A UNSC Charon-class light frigate could gut a single Sovereign-class in 1-2 shots; one to overwhelm the Reaper's Kinetic Barriers, and the second to gut it entirely. Maybe one entirely, depending on the barrier strength. A Destroyer would hardly be a threat at all to a UNSC ship. The Covenant ships would obliterate them with their plasma-based weapons, a single torpedo melting their armor to slag and ensuring their non-functionality completely. Cortana was making notes on weaknesses on the ships where they could be brought down quicker.

Their ground forces, were strangely a lot like the Covenant's own troops as he and Cortana made the comparisons. The Husk, a Human-turned: melee-type only, barely a threat alone, but can be overwhelming in numbers, like the Drones. The Cannibal, a Batarian-turned: arm-turned weapon capable of semi-auto firing mode, and a grenade launcher, lacking leadership but can inflict casualties should it be given the chance, like Grunts, Jackals and Skirmishers. The Marauder, a Turian-turned: armed with a rifle called the Phaeston, an automated assault rifle, possess Kinetic Barriers unlike the other units, can rally other nearby Reaper ground units and augment them with armor, like the Elites and Brutes. And then there was the Brute, a Krogan-turned, but Turian intelligence-enhanced: heavy armor, shrugging off small-arms fire like nothing, can charge barricades to break open for other troopers and possesses only a large melee-like claw that can crush most others with ease, but can become berserk should other Reaper forces be killed off near it, like the Hunters. Applying what he had learned to kill the Covenant with, would serve him well in his fight against the Reapers.

As for the Harvester, an animal turned into troop carrier for the smaller ones, or for a couple of Brutes, possessed heavy guns on its 'mouth' and wings to carry its weight as it flew; in essence, a Reaper-equivalent to the Covenant's own Spirit and Phantom dropships, but these could be killed faster and were less armored than the former two.

As for the more 'unsavory people' Shepard mentioned…

Cerberus.

To him, it was the Insurrection all over again. The enemy he was initially trained to fight against. The rumor was that Cerberus started off as an Alliance black ops sect that became radical, and more pro-human. They had killed Alliance officers that asked too many questions, abducted dozens of children for experiments, etc.

"You know, comparing the Insurrection to Cerberus, is like comparing saints to terrorists."

"Hm."

In some way, he agreed. Cerberus was worse than the Insurrection, maybe just as bad, but they were clearly better funded. During the Human-Covenant War, several of Insurrectionist cells were wiped out by the Covenant; some had survived and continued their guerilla hit-and-runs against the UNSC, raiding them of their much-needed supplies, while others had gotten smart and helped them against the alien onslaught.

Cerberus had a sleeper agent, that turned out to be an android that the Normandy AI now had control over, and had killed many of the people stationed at their Mars research facility. Their own troops were able to fight a little bit better than the standard Alliance soldier and were equipped with heavy armor and decent Kinetic Barriers. The Assault Trooper was their frontline soldier, armed with whatever they could use, and their Centurion commanders possessed smoke grenades that eliminated the infrared scans that most people used in this part of the galaxy. Although Cortana had informed him of his improved VISR's IFF system. It would outline his allies and enemies, along with weapons, equipment and anything else he could use. If the enemy was camouflaged or obscured by something visually like a wall or a solid object, then they wouldn't show up, but the motion tracker would be there to inform him otherwise. This something that would take away their advantage.

Next up were the Guardians, as they possessed heavily armored riot shields that had a slot big enough for a sniper round to go through. His SRS would be more than enough to punch through it with ease. The Combat Engineer was lightly armored, and carried heavy pistols but they could drop automated turrets and shield generators as they took cover; a support-class unit that needed to be taken out first before they could reinforce their allies with suppressing fire and recharging barriers.

What he learned from Mendez and their first operation to take out an Insurrectionist cell would be the way to go. Cortana informed him that the Kinetic Barriers that everyone seemed to use could be easily overwhelmed with his UNSC weapons, as their rounds could bring them down quickly and using his fists would bypass their defenses. The Covenant's weapons, well as far as the energy-based ones, would bypass the shields entirely and melt the armor that protected them.

"Overall, I think we stand a good chance here after what we just learned."

"I take it you're still going through their own databases?"

"Oh, I'm done with all of that, now I'm just browsing the Extranet. You wouldn't b-believe what they have on here." That was odd, he had never heard her stutter a single word since working together with her on Reach. "Are you alright, Cortana?"

"What do you mean?" She raised an eyebrow at him, thinking he had said something wrong. He knew he wasn't hearing things when she talked, "You stuttered while you were talking." Now she looked like he was talking crazy, but then again what she was slowly feeling right now…

No. She wouldn't worry him right now. They had other problems now. She had delayed it for this long, she could do it a little longer.

"Oh, sorry about that. It's just interfacing with the new hardware is making my projection a little laggy. It shouldn't be a problem anymore, though. So, new subject. What do you think?"

"The Citadel and the Alliance are incompetent governments, by denying an enemy's existence, and not preparing their military accordingly."

"Well, that much is obvious. I was meaning more on Shepard and her ship and crew."

"The commander should not allow nonmembers of her military onboard the ship. The CIC is too far removed from the bridge, having a journalist aboard does more harm than good. Aliens should not have any business on a human war vessel as valuable intel could be stolen and distributed to future potential enemies."

"More things you aren't wrong, but you shouldn't let that get to you. We aren't in the UNSC anymore, so the Alliance would work differently than our military. But can you take a bit to think more on the commander instead? You know, who she really looks like?" She brought up some old mission debriefing videos and pictures. Primarily of Linda-058. The Chief had to admit, they looked very similar, almost identical twins in a way. He simply chalked it up to coincidence, but with Cortana bringing it up, he supposed there was more to it now, "What is the commander's background and service history?"

"Commander Jane Shepard's parents were both Alliance military, her father was KIA in a Batarian ambush in the Traverse with her mother left alive to take care of her and her younger brother, John; whom had died of leukemia at the age of 10, and she was left traumatized because of this incident. She likes to use humor as coping mechanism and isn't one to open up with personal things, so she's a little closed off when it comes to her own life. At the age of eighteen, she enlisted in the military and rose through the ranks quickly with her hard work and effort. She displayed an aptitude for leadership, and she developed biotics during her time in the military and was labelled as Vanguard-class soldier. They're a specialized type of soldier that deals with high-risk close quarters combat, however her more preferred weapon class is the Sniper Rifle. The N7 Valiant rifle to be more specific. As for her other weapons of choice, the M-15 Vindicator, the M-96 Mattock and the N7 Valkyrie; their equivalent to our M392 DMR and BR55 Battle Rifle" So she preferred using a sniper more so than most other weapons along with precision-based rifles, like Linda.

"Anything else?"

"Lots. She's a pretty big war hero, after 'single-handedly' repelling an attack on her own, while waiting for reinforcements to arrive. A morale booster for the troops, and something exaggerate to give her more status as 'Legendary' like yourself. The truth of what happened was she rallied the colonists together in a resistance against the invaders, and having their support she plugged up a hole in the defense."

A publicity message to keep the troops up in moral, much like ONI Directive 930 with labelling all Spartans as either MIA or WIA, to give them the appearance that they couldn't be killed. Cortana continued over her further actions after receiving the Star of Terra; the Alliance equivalent to the UNSC Colonial Cross. Becoming the commanding officer of the SSV Normandy, becoming the first human Spectre, hunting down the rogue Saren Arterius, taking on a Geth army, her supposed 'death' and reappearance and association with Cerberus, which was something the Chief would question her on later. Finally, her actions in the Bahak system that lead to her tribunal that was interrupted with the arrival of Reapers. "What does her psychological profile say about her?"

"Her psych eval says that she's honest most of the time, and she cares deeply for those under her command. While she makes decisions that are more selfless, she certainly has quite the…dislike, which is putting in mildly by the way, for slavers and pirates, but she has her own sense of justice. She encountered three people she deemed too dangerous, as they were already given a second chance at being a 'contributor' to society, and she gunned them down without a second's hesitation. But, she does have a soft spot for kids and people with dark & troubled pasts. She made a trip to the Huerta Memorial Hospital on the Citadel and spent time with children who were diagnosed with terminal illnesses."

"Hm." His signal for her to continue onwards.

"And, ooh~ how juicy."

"What?"

"You know that Asari friend of Shepard's? Well, she has a lot of very interesting information. Personal records, interrogation logs, private emails, suspicious funding, etc. she could very start a war with the single push of a button."

"Will this become a problem?" He wanted to make sure that she wouldn't be too distracted with this new-found database. Not only that, he wanted to make sure she absolutely did not, gain any information on the UNSC, if she had that kind of information on this community, and could start a war, she would end up at the top of ONI's hitlist should she choose to dig around UNSC intel.

She had look of mock surprise and insult, "What? Me have a problem with digging into the most private of accounts in the newly found galactic community? Naaah." She crossed her arms, and she was grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Just keep focused…if there is anything important, will you be able to compile and save the data for when we return to the UNSC? It could be valuable."

"Already done. There are a lot of planets we could use to mine resources and minerals for our own tech back home. Even some we could terraform and expand into other parts of the galaxy, some of which the Reapers have already taken. Though we may end up butting heads with the Council and the Alliance, should we make any move outside our own parts."

"Hm." The UNSC would more than likely like to expand, nor would they care about what the Citadel or the Alliance had to say on the matter. If anything, they would see it as chance the rebuild their lost colonies the Covenant had glassed and destroyed, something the latter two governments may or may not understand. Either way, it wasn't his concern. The Reapers were right now.

Shepard's voice came over an intercom, from the ceiling, "Chief, we've got a new mission. Head down to the shuttle bay and get prepped."

"Copy that, ma'am." The intercom cut off as he responded. The Chief took the M6D and placed it on his right thigh as he grabbed Cortana's chip, and walking out of life support to the elevator.

---

-Jane-

Being the commander had its perks, but also some downsides. Many of those downsides being paperwork, but that's why she had other people to do it, or having VI's instead. After leaving the derelict with a new temporary crewmate and his equipment in hand, Specialist Traynor had sent a report to Admiral Hackett, whom was now waiting for her to get in contact with him in the QEC room.

Why she had to go through the security checkpoint on her own damn ship was a mystery to her.

Heading into the QEC room, Hackett was already waiting for her, "Commander, I read your report on what you found, I'll be sending a science team plus added security to the derelict to do some research on it. Maybe get us something that will help our own ships. Now, who is this Master Chief?"

Jane knew this part of the conversation was going to be the irritating part. She scratched the back of her head, "Well he says he's human, but he's never heard of the Citadel, the Alliance or the Reapers. He says he's with the UNSC, whatever that means, but he isn't a Cerberus project. That's a fact. To be honest, he's a mystery to me as much as we are to him. I asked him a few questions, but he wasn't very helpful, if I went any further, I would've been stonewalled with a big fat 'classified'. He asked us what year it was, for some reason, but I'm not sure why he asked that. He did however offer his help in taking down the Reapers, in exchange for getting back to his people, and I did give him my word. He brought a lot of equipment onboard the Normandy, though he's keeping it locked up, he doesn't seem to trust us too much despite the helping hand."

Hackett held his hand to his chin in thought, "It sounds like you've got your hands full. But, are you sure you'll be able to keep your word? Wherever he's from, it sounds likely he's from a very remote part of the galaxy. Something isn't right commander, there has to be some explanation behind his appearance."

Jane knew that much, but her own usual self was all but lost on the giant soldier, "What do you recommend, sir? He proved to be immune to my natural charm, unfortunately."

Hackett had seen similar type of soldiers; the strong & silent type, those who would not divulge information unless they were ordered to, or if they had no choice, or if they were talked into doing it, after becoming comfortable with whomever it is they're talking to, "Talk with him. Get him out of his shell, get him to come clean. It sounds like he's been trained heavily in high-risk operations, and being confronted with a great many unknowns makes him feel very vulnerable and alone. Cut off from his chain of command, he may not know how to react to what we're dealing with, and sharing intel won't be something he'll be doing anytime soon. Now I'm not saying it'll happen in a few days, this will take time, and it may end up being weeks before he says something. If we get lucky, then we could very well talk with his government into aiding us against the Reapers."

Well, now she had another reason, although it rubbed a bit more towards the 'use & abuse' sort of vibe, "I'll talk to him, though I'm hoping he doesn't take it the wrong way."

"Keep, me posted. Hackett out." And with that, the Alliance admiral left to work on their war, and the Crucible.

Jane herself wasn't all too optimistic about her chances on finding a way to the UNSC, but Hackett was right. The Chief was a closed off individual who didn't trust what the future would bring, hence keeping many things classified, including his name. She what Spartans where due to that cheesy 21st century movie, which was a cool popcorn flick, but she had a feeling he wouldn't be called one without earning it. And then there was the number 117, where were the other 116? Or were there more, and he was just the only one left? She had cracked tougher nuts before, sans Jack who only joined her suicide mission simply because she bailed the con out of prison, but she slowly started to peel away the layers that Jack had built up around herself, and slowly began to caller friend in her own 'special fucking way'. Though the Chief was more like Legion, giving only enough to be considered an answer, and restricting info in regard to adherence of protocol.

She'd just take the Chief on with baby steps. One at a time.

Now she'd just make her rounds around the ship and talk with her crew. Making her way back through the security checkpoint, uggh…

Her first rounds were up in the CIC and she'd work her way down, starting with Traynor, "I really wish I could've gone aboard that derelict with you, even taking just a few glances around the interior of the ship would've been a sight to see. Who knows what we'll get from the science team, once they start getting set up with taking it apart, even if it's just half a ship."

"Oh, it wasn't anything special really, I mean at least this time we didn't get shot at or someone tried to kill us."

Samantha's interest peeked a bit, "Something happen the last few times?"

"Well~, the first time was on board a 'supposedly' disabled Collector ship, which lured us in with a fake Turian distress signal, and the second time was on a 'supposedly' dead Reaper corpse, which all had turned the Cerberus science team into Husks and tried to kill us." She talked as if were like a sunny day on a planet.

"Guess third time's the charm. Only we ended up not getting shot at, and well we now have a… new crew member?" She left on with Jane shaking her hand doing the 50/50, "Though I would like to see how his equipment performs. That armor of his looks like it's streamlined for combat efficiency, although I think it may have other uses also. And then there are the conflicting storage crates we brought onboard, the other more organic looking containers don't coincide with his own"

"I'm not sure if he'd just let anyone look at his things. He probably has a 'you look and I shoot' kind of policy. Something that I'm hoping I can talk with him about."

Samantha frowned at that, "Well, if anyone can do it, you can from what I've heard from Joker. I mean you were able to talk Saren into eating his own gun from what he told me…" Traynor shook her head to get back on track for what she came across, "…oh, never mind about that. While I was scanning Allaince channels, I found something you might find interesting, even more so when you mentioned the Collector ship. Grissom Academy is requesting help, the Reaper invasion front will hit them soon."

Jane arched her eyebrows, "I thought the war would close most schools." This was something that was common throughout not just Alliance, but also Citadel space, though she wasn't sure about the Terminus Systems. Traynor decided that an explanation was in order, "Grissom Academy is more specialized than a normal school. It's home to some of the smartest student's humanity has to offer, their Ascension program is the best training facility in the galaxy for human Biotics."

The commander nodded her head, as she remembered who she sent there, "I remember, I sent a young man named David Archer there. I'm just surprised it's still open." She remembered the horrors of what she saw on Aite, in the Overlord stations. People were gunned down by Geth, as they were controlled by David whom had become a rogue Human-VI hybrid program, and was almost unleashed on the galaxy. When she found out what had really happened there, she was so goddamn close to pulling the trigger on David's older borther, Gavin…but she couldn't, she couldn't bring herself to shoot him, even giving him a flesh wound.

It was almost the same as if a puppy was about to be kicked.

Despite what he had done to try to avert a possible future war with the Geth, he was genuinely sorry for what he had done to his brother, and wanted to make amends by taking him away from Cerberus. But she knew he couldn't do it alone, the Illusive Man would hunt him down, and force him to continue Overlord.

Traynor continued detailing the academy to Jane and why it was still open, "Some of their work has Alliance support. That might be why they stayed."

"What can we do?"

"Well, at first I figured nothing needed to be done, but when you brought up that Collector ship incident, well I figured there was something wrong with it. You see, a Turian evac transport had arrived on site, but they used the same ship signal that the Collectors used to lure you in. Which we have EDI to thank for analyzing that, and she believes that it was Cerberus that responded to their call."

"Good catch…" Shepard giving a bit of praise to the Specialist, "…maybe you belong here after all." Samantha had made the comment that she felt as if she didn't belong on the Normandy, as riding with legends such as herself, Liara and Garrus weren't something that happened to just anyone.

Sensing the appraisal, she smiled, "If this really is Cerberus, then this is something worth investigating." Though then it could be a screw up of intel, as Cerberus was well known for that, "Although this could be a simple as a mishandling of information."

"Traynor…" A bit more authority and force this time with addressing her.

"Yes, ma'am?" Tension there…

"Good catch." A reassuring look across Jane's face.

"Thank you, commander." And the tension gone…

Jane knew that Traynor was being a little too hard on herself, so ensuring she was comfortable and that she belonged here would her goal with the comms specialist. Heading to her private terminal adjacent from Samantha, she brought up the Chief's intercom, "Chief, we got a new mission. Head down to the shuttle bay and get prepped."

"Copy that, ma'am."

She'd bring the Chief with her, along with EDI and Javik as she wanted to see a few things. One, if Cerberus really was there at Grissom Academy, then EDI's knowledge of their inner workings and strategies would be valuable. Javik due to his own combat experience against the Reapers, but to also show him what other enemies they would be facing in this war. And the Chief, she wanted to see him in combat, she wanted to do a field assessment as she always preferred those over a dossier debrief. She wanted to see his weapons, armor and equipment in battle. How he handled fighting other humans, what type of fighter he was. She needed to know when to use him to his best and fullest capacity. If she got lucky, then she could use him for all around missions. Rescue ops, assault ops, infiltration ops, etc.

Now to prepare for a rescue mission.

NEXT: GRISSOM ACADEMY

---

CODEX ENTRY – THE GREAT MAW

Due to Citadel Council law, the opening of dormant Mass Relays is forbidden in due to the sparking of the Rachni Wars, however it is also to ensure the safety of travelers throughout the galaxy. One such Relay that has been dormant is Relay 049; the Great Maw Relay. A Mass Relay that leads into a deep part of uncharted space that is not truly part of the Terminus Systems, but neither is it part of Council space. To the observer from the Relay, millions of stars are barely visible and their number is still in flux. However, one STG satellite observed what appeared to be a large flash of light, most likely due to a star going Supernova, or planet dying from a cataclysmic event about four years ago, and not another event has been witnessed.

Multiple scans have been made over this rather large section of the galaxy, however, due to a vast amount of radiation flares across the sector have made scans all but impossible. Only one scan has shown that there is no receiving Relay that allows travel to and from the rest of Council space into the Great Maw.

It is rightfully named as 20 years ago, a joint-venture between Asari and Salarian scientists with Turian security on board an advanced scientific exploration vessel attempted a venture into the Great Maw, without the use of activating the Mass Relay to test new VI-controlled stasis technology and to verify if there were any habitable worlds on the other side. They were expected to contact the Citadel within three years of launching, however after the fourth year, there was no contact made, no attempts were made to rescue the crew, and it was declared "Lost with All Hands".

As such, the Great Maw has been quarantined until safe and proper methods of FTL travel can be established to and from Council and Alliance space. Not even privately owned corporations, slavers, pirates, colonies of the Terminus Systems or the Batarian Hegemony have made attempts to explore this dark region of space with untold amounts of potential colonies and resources.

To this day, no one knows what lies within the Great Maw.

---

The SSV Normandy SR-2's Armory -

Elkoss Combine M-8 Avenger Assault Rifle

Elanus Risk Control Services M-15 Vindicator Assault Rifle

M-76 Revenant Assault Rifle

M-96 Mattock Assault Rifle

Collector Assault Rifle

Geth Pulse Rifle

Cerberus Harrier Assault Rifle

Systems Alliance M-37 Falcon Assault Rifle

Systems Alliance M-99 Saber Assault Rifle

Systems Alliance N7 Typhoon Assault Rifle

Systems Alliance N7 Valkyrie Assault Rifle

Prothean Particle Rifle

Turian Phaeston Assault Rifle

Elanus Risk Control Serrvices M-3 Predator Heavy Pistol

Systems Allaince M-5 Phalanx Heavy Pistol

M-6 Carnifex Heavy Pistol

Systems Allaince N7 Eagle Heavy Pistol

Armax Arsenal ML-77 Missile Launcher

Elanus Risk Control Services M-100 Grenade Launcher

Systems Alliance M-451 Firestorm

Wegner Arms M-490 Blackstorm

M-622 Avalanche

M-920 Cain

Cerberus Arc Projector

Collector Particle Beam

Reaper Blackstar

Cerberus M-22 Eviscerator Shotgun

Ariake Technologies M-23 Katana Shotgun

Ariake Technologies M-27 Scimitar Shotgun

Krogan M-300 Claymore Shotgun

Geth Plasma Shotgun

Systems Alliance N7 Crusader Shotgun

Systems Alliance N7 Piranha Shotgun

M-29 Incisor Sniper Rifle

Devlon Industries M-92 Mantis Sniper Rifle

Rosenkov Materials M-97 Viper Sniper Rifle

M-98 Widow Sniper Rifle

Systems Alliance Black Widow Sniper Rifle

Turian Krysae Sniper Rifle

Cerberus M-13 Raptor Sniper Rifle

Systems Alliance N7 Valiant Sniper Rifle

Elkoss Combine M-4 Shuriken SMG

Elanus Risk Control Services M-9 Tempest SMG

Kassa Fabrication M-12 Locust SMG

Systems Allaince N7 Hurricane SMG

---

Done, this chapter was obviously going to be the Chief's introduction to Shepard and we know a bit more about her. Now I know what some of you are thinking already and I will tell you this, I am working on something, but I'd like it to be a surprise. Now I need your help guys with something.

I need at least 7 OC's for this story, as they will appear later in this story, but they will have a connection to a certain group that I will not mention. They should be Mercs that are willing to cross Aria, Shepard and Nyreen in favor of someone that offers more power, and appeals to their own lust for power, these OC's will be leaders for their Merc gangs that will be talking to a recruiter for a much larger group that has a shitload of resources at their disposal. There needs to be at least one –

1) Batarian

2) Krogan

3) Vorcha

4) Turian

5) Asari

6) Salarian

7) Human

Give me some backstory to them, their genders, their personalities, their class of fighter etc. Now as to why Cortana was able to do what she did to EDI. Mass Effect AI's are dumb, dumber than a dumb AI for sure, but smarter than your typical organic. But just because Mass Effect AI's have a Blue Box doesn't make them superior. In fact, the Mass Effect wiki form AI states "An AI cannot be transmitted across a communication channel or computer network. Without its blue box, an AI is no more than data files. Loading these files into a new blue box will create a new personality, as variations in the quantum hardware and runtime results create unpredictable variations." this already highlights a lot of weaknesses of Mass Effect AI, mainly that they require a corporeal body to have a sense of Individualism, where if that body is destroyed, that AI itself dies and when it returns, it's a different AI. I should also mention that since they have a corporeal metal body, it can face a lot of issues such as damage in fighting or even just over time, so they would die eventually.

Now while Blue Boxes hold a lot of data, the Matrix is perfectly capable of doing the same, and since it's based - the Smart AI and the Matrix - off of a human brain, it could store between 10-100 terabytes of information. However, UNSC scientists have increased this amount for AIs, but for Forerunner AIs which live for around 100,000 years, they are far superior than both and hold much more data. But back to the blue box, while ME AIs can hold a lot of data, they lack the processing power to go through all of it at once, while Halo AIs have such powerful processing power that if they don't do anything for a second, it's like a day of them doing nothing has passed. This is also, technically, thanks to their shortened lifespan that their processing power has increased. So in short, Halo AI's are superior in nearly every way, besides from Lifespan. However, some Halo AI's such as Offensive Bias or 343 Guilty Spark were far superior in every aspect than both by a thousandfold, and for Forerunner AI's such as Mendicant Bias, he attained Meta Stability, whee the AI beats rampancy and attains immortality unless they are wiped from their systems. However, there is one AI that surpasses all of them - Abaddon - also known as the Domain to the Humans and Forerunners. It was a Precursor AI that could store an infinite amount of information, even holding data from 100 billion years ago. Even the Iso-Didact himself was shocked at it, as it's wiki page states "He now realized that it was a Precursor's version of an ancilla-one as far beyond those of the Forerunners as a keyship was to a wooden raft." This thing was capable of vaporizing organics and synthetics at will, turning them to ash and interfacing with the most complex Forerunner technology with such ease that it was able to kill the Forerunners in their suits.

So to conclude on that briefly, Halo Dumb AIs are smarter and are more capable than Mass Effects AIs, Halos Smart AI's are about 10 times more effective than Halos Dumb AI's and since Mass Effect ships don't have any protection against AI, especially one such as Cortana, only VI, Halo AI's could easily disable or self destruct Mass Effect ships before they could even ready their weapons. I'm not even going to mention Forerunner or Precursor AI since they're just insanely powerful. And as for the Gravemind, all AI's lose to him and since the Reapers are both Organic and Synthetic - both things the Gravemind consumes - he could easily take over them.

Anyways, up next, we see the Chief in action with Shepard's squad against Cerberus. Boy, they won't know what the hell hit 'em.

Also, big terrible fucking news that I'm sure some of you guys have heard already-

Bioware Montreal, the lead developer for Mass Effect: Andromeda has been downsized, working on other multiple projects, and a whole new IP.

And, the Mass Effect franchise has been put on the shelf. On ice. Like WTF?!

I mean seriously! While Andromeda had its flaws and bugs, I personally enjoyed it, and I was looking forward to future post story DLC! Where exactly did the Kett come from? What happened to the Remnant species? How did the Scourge begin? What's happening on the Quarian ark with the other Milky Way species hitching rides with them? Who was the mysterious Benefactor that helped Jien Garson fund the Initiative? What would our choices in this game bring in the sequel?

This game had potential to answer those questions in future DLC and sequels, and now the franchise is being put on ice, for who knows? A decade at the least? Who the hell knows?

The chance to explore the Andromeda galaxy, these new characters, species, and questions are now practically down the toilet, due to such a massive mixed, mostly negative reaction to Andromeda, and I feel that so much of this reaction is due to people still bitching about how these Andromeda characters aren't the Trilogy characters. There isn't a dark and dangerous threat to come and kill them all like the Reapers. People (including myself) STILL want to know what the hell happened in the Milky Way after ME3. BUT I have opted to accept that we will never find out.

So many things that could have been explored in this new era of Mass Effect. When I first heard about Andromeda, I was intrigued by this move, and I stuck with it for a bit, as I heard more and more, I was pretty sold on the idea. Being Pathfinders (Pioneers) to explore the Andromeda galaxy and find a new home for the Milky Way species, meeting new races, discovering old ruins, and having a fresh new start with the choices we make could adversely affect the sequel in a very big way, possibly.

And now because of people sitting back in chairs at EA, looking at the sales, and the critics who ridicule this game, and not those supporting it. It saddens me that things have come to this, I honestly wished that fans could just move on from the Trilogy and give the Andromeda era the chance it deserves, but I think I'm asking too much, and I know there is someone will say I'm an idiot for believing so, but you know what? I don't really care honestly.

Well here's hoping that EA doesn't screw with Dragon Age and leave us with only one or two good RPG IP's out on the market, and they actually do a ME Trilogy remaster for Xbox One and PS4 to try and get some of that money, the only thing they seem to give two shits about…

So be sure to read, review, favorite and follow this story more, and please guys, leave me REVIEWS! I appreciate that I'm told "nice chapter" but that doesn't help me improve my writing like it should, so please do so! Also, I have a Mass effect/Underworld crossover challenge should anyone be interested in tackling it.