Disclaimer: I already said these thrice, so this will be my last.

Please point out any grammatical errors. Constructive criticism and feedback are always welcome in my story.

The first half will be GoT's POV, so please use your imagination and knowledge in history on how the Northmen interpret their views towards Cortana and Chief and the ship.

Thank you, ENJOY! (^v^)

"Talking"

"Cortana and John's private chat" or "Radio communication"

#####Title/Next Scene#####

John = John-117/Spartan (GoT Char thought it was a name)/The Spartan/Master Chief/ Chief

Northman = Northerner

Eddard Stark = Ned Stark

Great War= Human-Covenant War

Milord: Addressed by smallfolks/commoners/peasants

My lord: Addressed by knights, attendants, and nobles

Location

#####The Realm of Stars and Worlds#####

"Not from this world," the surprising and astonishing Northmen repeated and bounced those words around them.

"So you're from the stars," Jon gasped with realization.

Cortana nodded. "Some of you may have watched the nightly skies when you were children. Wondering, what these stars made of? The answer to that question is simple. The stars are suns, big and small. And how many of them are there? Well, as many as sands in the ocean."

Cortana disappeared, and images of suns emerged. More flashed and started to multiply into a spiraling cloud of speckled lights. The Northmen couldn't help but gape and flabbergasted. All this time, they thought the stars were little lights or magical beings floating in the night, but in fact, they were suns, infinite of them, forming clouds in a never-ending void.

"To think, we were nothing but dust in the wind," Eddard muttered in awe.

Cortana's disembodied voice echoed inside the hull, "And some of these stars contained worlds, and one of these worlds is our home."

The next image revealed a sphere containing the oceans and seven landmasses.

"This is the world called, Earth, the birthplace of humankind… our humankind. And our history spanned several hundred thousand years. And during that time, we evolved —"

Images began to appear, and it all started with wild men in furs hunting mammoths and creating fire out of stones. Then, there were scenes of a ring of stones, farmers using stone tools, pyramids, a white city of marbles and columns, and a red army of rectangle shields battling barbarians. Then came to theirs: castles, knights, lords bowing to kings, and wars of horses and steels like their own.

"This era was what we called the Middle Ages. We once had the same level of civilization as yours. We had kingdoms, castles, lords, and knights, but over time, humanity was hungry for knowledge and new things. And so, they built and discovered these wonders —"

Images shown were paintings, pictures, and marble statues and naked people that would make every artist in the world envied. There was a picture of a man used a far- eye to observe the nightly sky. There were sketches of human skeletons and insides. Commerce, trade, ships getting bigger and bigger.

"And with these wonders, great minds brought the Industrial Revolution —"

The next scene showed a furnace of gears and wheels, blasting great smoke. It powered a loom to produce more textiles than a dozen of maidens could weave for an entire year. Next, that same furnace placed into a barrel-shaped iron wagon and began moving on ladder-like tracks faster than a galloping bare horse, blowing a booming whistle.

"And from Industrial Revolution, our society and our technology evolved further."

Men with the look of a maesters appeared. One fellow flew a diamond-shaped sail in the stormy night to catch lightning. Next, a man winding an intricate device with ropes attached to a bulb glass. Inside, there was a spark between the two tiny prongs before emitting a light bright as the sun. Two men stood behind a metal bird with wings of sails. Cities started to grow towers of bricks and metals, and on the paved roads, people rode in horseless carriages.

No words were given out from the Northmen as they stared with awe and sparkles in their eyes. Suddenly, everything began darkened and grim, and an eerie air chilled around them. It was colder than the Northern winter.

"As our society and technology evolved, so was our ways to fight wars."

Scenes of soldiers fighting in trenches filled with iron thorns, they armed not swords or blades, but crossbows and they fired not bolts but thunders. Thunderbows, the Northmen called them. Then they saw the same metal beast with a long pipe, hundreds of them stampeded and unleashed volleys of thundering fire. People crowded in cages, thin and hungered. Evil men in podium addressed before a mighty army, and honorable men urged their people for courage. In the ocean, ships of steel and bellowing smoke unleashed their thunder artilleries. Skies filled metal birds and trails of smoke and fires.

The next scene would be the start to haunt the Northmen's memories. A metal bird dropped a black gourd above the city of towers. Then, a roaring flash of light and fury emerged from the surface of the earth, and a mushroom cloud rose to the sky. Once it vanished, all that left was ruins, smokes, and ashes.

"There were many sacrifices. Humankind mired in horrific conflicts, meaningless bloodshed, leaving the great earth eternally scarred, but finally, when you looked up from the blood, and from the dirt and from the dying to the stars."

As time passed, cities and earth of ruins and ashes started to rebuild, but it rose taller and bigger than before with more steels, glasses, and colorful lights. In forges, metal contraptions shaped by craftsmen and maesters in some alchemy chambers concocted potions in clear vials. Horseless carriages were larger and colored. There were too many people crowded on the streets with contraptions on their ears and talking. A communication device, perhaps.

The next image showed an old man with his granddaughter stood before a monument filled with inscribed names. The old man straightened up and saluted in the same manner as the Chief when they first met him. The Northmen realized he was an old warrior from an old war, and the monument perhaps inscribed the names of his fallen brothers-in-arms. His granddaughter turned her attention to the sky.

"We had not given up on the idea of reaching out of the stars. Yearning, seeking out a new horizon and finding a new space to grow and prosper, for the first time, all of the humankind united under a shared vision of a common goal."

A colossal spearhead with its bottom burst with flames flew, piercing the clouds until it reached the moon. All the imaginations of what were like up there, but all they saw were rocks, sands, and eternal night. A gold and steel carriage landed on its surface, and man in bulking white suit scaled down from the ladder and said, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

"We realized that this once great planet was now too small for us. There were too many souls and so a little a world, so we sought other worlds."

"By the Gods of Old, New, and the Drowned," Theon gasped as so was everyone, and what they came next, not even the mighty Valyrian Freehold could match its glory.

There was a greater tower of metal, stretching miles and miles, piercing through the sky until it reached the void surrounded by star forts. They could finally see what the vessels of Spartan and Cortana's realm when they were whole, mightier than all the castles of Westeros, flew with no sails, but furnaces, bursting fires from their rear, and they began exploring and sailing through the stars.

Portals appeared in front of these vessels, and they flew inside. When they came out, they were in another realm. One ship landed on a floating rock with the size of a mountain, and men in bulking suits mined for metals. One particular world where ships visited and landed on its surface, and over time, cities began to grow.

"Over the next few centuries, our civilization spanned to over eight hundred worlds."

They heard it right with their jaws nearly came off, and their eyes almost popped out — Eight hundred worlds. Even Theon was awestruck. Ironborns like him were kings and masters of the sea who sailed the known world. Theon felt that their histories of blood and iron were insignificant compared to the Chief and Cortana's realm of stars and world, and their god-like wonders.

Cortana's lovely maiden form reappeared. "I understand everything I said felt like only a mummer could come up these stories. What you see is not the realm of gods and anything fantasy and supernatural, but the evolution of science and technology two thousand years ahead of your time."

"Two thousand years." Ned confounded and bewildered. "So this will be our future."

"If you allow science and new discoveries," she replied, "yes, this will be possible."

The Northmen couldn't help but to awe, yet still couldn't believe that was all not magic and not the realm of gods, but wonders that could be craft by the ingenuity of men. Once again, they were silent by the bewilderment of the images the maiden of light showed them.

Jon was first to spoke, "You both mentioned of a Great War, and it ended recently."

She nodded. "That's how we crashed landed here in the first place. We already send a distress signal." She turned to the Lord of Winterfell. "But we never knew this world was habitable until we met you. We didn't come here to cause trouble. All we wanted is to find our way back to our home."

Eddard began with a solemn face, "If your — UNSC ever found came to our lands and rescued you, would they bring harm to us?"

"Lord Stark, I assure you —"

"Cortana," Chief cut her off, which everyone got his attention. "It's best that they would hear out from a military perspective like me. I admit that with little of our military power, we could take over this world with ease." The Northmen shuddered to hear that. "But what strategic and economic importance offer this world?"

The Lord of Winterfell and his men didn't have that answer.

He continued, "If you are afraid that we come to take your valuable resources, you have nothing to worry. There are plenty of them floating in outer space. We can terraform uninhabitable worlds to build agricultural and mining sectors. And slavery is appalled in our society."

Cortana added, "Coupled we survived the Great War, we don't want history to remember us conquering less advanced than ours." Everyone felt relieved at the otherworldly travelers' words. "You shouldn't be afraid of us, especially the Chief. Believe me or not, he's a hero of our people. He was the one who ended the Great War and saved a lot of lives. He even saved my life as well."

"So he's a knight?" Robb surprised.

"Chief here is not just a soldier and a warrior and a knight. He is a Spartan — the sword and shield of humanity."

Him, a hero who rescued the blue fairy, and ended a war, that surprised the Northmen as they glanced at the tall warrior. "The sword and shield of humanity," they whispered in waves. Such deeds could only match the tales from the Heroic Age of Westeros.

"Tell me, Master Chief," Robett asked curiously, "what kind of this Great War that made you such a hero."

Now they wanted to hear the tales of their Great War, but Chief was quiet for a moment. He then looked at the Northmen and spoke, "— a war for the survival of our human race from extinction."

#####John-117's POV#####

"…A war for the survival of our human race from extinction," Cortana repeated. "You really scared the crap out of them, Chief." Because of that, the Northmen were frightened to learn more about the Great War. Even though they were hardened warriors, they couldn't comprehend what horrors awaited them glimpsing the war that shook the known galaxy.

"And your gamble to reveal yourself really paid off," the Chief said.

It was morning, and both of them were currently on the ship's bridge, studying samples and records they collected while observing the Northmen having breakfast in the cafeteria through the surveillance cameras.

She explained, "I wouldn't want to expose myself until we fully earn their trust if Lord Stark hadn't mentioned the guest rights. Now that they ate bread and salt on our tables, they won't be hurting us without violating their sacred laws."

"First contact protocol seems complete with success, so you'll be handling the rest, right?"

She chuckled. "That means you don't have to be my sock puppet for a while, and I go playing Miss UEG Ambassador. You can go back to being a silent caveman."

"It was — strenuous." John-117 never was a social person, and it was the longest conversation he ever made to regular humans, outside his fellow Spartans and Cortana. Before the A.I. revealed herself, she was the one giving info and influencing the silent supersoldier with his diplomacy and tour with the Northmen. She never actually intended to show herself to the locals without raising their superstitious paranoia.

Since this world was not related to Earth and outside of their sphere of influence, the natives were considered as aliens under their owned sovereignty, even though they were humans. Both of them knew that they needed to established relations with the natives so they could access to their natural resources, especially the titanium deposits the AI found. That was the reason why they landed in the North in the first place. Now that the Northmen aware of her presence, Cortana's vast galactic knowledge and nonmenacing, tiny figure were well suited for that task over the intimidating supersoldier with no experience in politics and relations.

Cortana had made a hundred thousand simulations if the UNSC assimilated, uplifted, and introduced democracy to this world, all resulted in bloodshed. The humankind of Earth had histories of advanced nations took advantages over inferior to them: the European colonial imperialism, the Trail of Tears, corporations encroaching Amazon natives, and much more, which all resulted in bloodshed as well. These stain marks in the annals of Earth's history still remembered even to this day. Plus the technologically advanced Covenant dominating in most parts of the Great War, the humankind of Earth would never allow themselves to be aggressors and imperialists to those who were inferior to them.

The Master Chief pulled out Cortana's data crystal from the back of his head and inserted into the computer. She then appeared from the holo-projector, and Chief turned to look at the monitors, showing images of the bear and the dead stag, they encountered, plus the snapshots of birds and trees. It was two days ago after repairing most of the damages on Dawn, they went out and sent the surviving aerial drones to collect samples to search for raw materials and good farming spots, and cataloging local lifeforms. What they found were the lifeforms were exact the same as Earth, and they understand that there were no two worlds that had the same biosphere.

"I still can't believe this world is similar to Earth," she said incredulously. "The flora and fauna, its human race, the culture, and their language, they're all the same."

"But their religion was different, and that white tree isn't Earth native."

Cortana pulled out some screens about their findings on the weirwood trees. Although they couldn't study it without the samples, they managed to collect data on the trees with their scanners.

"What am I looking at here?" Chief stared at the results on the weirwood tree. What they found was surprising.

"Energy and radiation readings, the trees are living batteries. Enough to charge a cell phone, though. The emissions are harmless and small, but not like that we've seen or encountered. Too bad, we can't study them."

The Spartan kept staring at the alien plants' results. A planet's biosphere that was similar to Earth, but the weirwood was one of a kind, which he found strange. He turned to Cortana. "Are you sure we're not in another dimension?"

She shook her head. "I'm skipping the scientific jargons. That blast sent us twenty-five thousand light years from the Ark's location, and I'm still picking up radiation burst after it self-destructed. If it weren't for that suit and enhancement, you would be mush already."

The Spartan glanced at the Northmen through the monitors. Although many of them stayed in the cafeteria, they were allowed to roam around the Dawn, but they couldn't enter most of the rooms, especially the armories. Chief never showed them the arsenals and firearms that could arm an entire battalion, hoping it wouldn't hinder their diplomatic relation they initially established.

"I thought we were the only human race in this universe," John-117 began.

"Right, and there's only one Earth too."

"Do you think…" Chief paused with sudden realization, "the Forerunners?"

Cortana interjected, "I bet those guys have something to do with this world. It would be best we withhold this information until the right moment comes. We wouldn't want the locals to crap their souls out after all the things we showed them."

John-117 nodded. "It's for the best."

"Right, so we have two missions to keep ourselves busy."

"Establishing relations with the natives and investigate this planet's origins," he said in a professional manner.

"Huh…."

"What is it?"

"Those lords are having a meeting in sector forty-seven."

They paid attention to the monitor that surveyed the highborn gathering in a corridor. Chief turned on the radio communication to hear their meeting.

"Could you repeat that, father?" Robb asked to repeat his father's proposal.

"We will bring Chief Spartan and Lady Cortana to Winterfell as our guests," the Lord of Winterfell decreed, "and we will show them the Northern hospitality."

"But that would have them leaving the comfort of their ship, Lord Stark," Jon remarked.

"I beg your pardon, my lord," Robett said. "Do you think it's a good idea?

"We are still not sure we trust these star travelers," Medger said.

"We ate his food under his roof and lodged us from the cold," Eddard explained. "The fact that we woke up still breathing is proof that our visitors still valued guest rights in their realm. After all that I have witnessed, having them away from this godly weapon would be good for us. They will not harm House Stark once we offered them food under the roof of my keep."

His words sunk into their minds, and they eventually agreed. After all, guest rights were sacred to Westeros.

"I-I suppose," Robett reconsidered.

"So how are we going to convince them, Father?" Robb asked.

"It'll take a lot of words to honey them out of this giant thing," Medger added.

"Let me worry about that," Eddard replied. "Once you all arrive at your homes, I want you to tell everyone and send ravens to the other lords not to spread the rumors about the falling star. And have your men keep quiet about our two visitors.

The highborn exchanged glances with a perplexed look on their faces, and Theon was first to ask, "Why, my lord?"

"Do you want those pesky Southrons to come up here and go snooping for the fallen star?"

"Oh, hells no!" they snapped in response. Later, they changed their subject regarding the ship's beds was the most comfortable they ever slept.

"What do you think, Chief?" Cortana asked.

The Spartan thought it very hard about Eddard's offer. They could leave Dawn any time they wanted. The ship was sitting on a forested hill with mountains blocking them one side and the river on the other, serving as a natural barrier. The portable folding bridge they crossed was the only path to their ship, and they already set up the weapon systems and other defensive measures around the hill, making Dawn as an impregnable castle-base.

Before long, Master Chief and Cortana met with the highborn lords in the hangar. Cortana's hologram form appeared on the holo-projector.

Eddard came forward and asked them to be their guests in Winterfell, which Cortana replied, "Sure, sounded like a good idea. We can't establish relations while we're in the middle of nowhere. The ship's fine by itself while we're away." They had to keep the surveillance cameras in secret, so she and Chief pretended they accepted their offer, which the Northmen pleased to hear that. "Besides, we could use some shore leave."

"Shore leave?" The words were unfamiliar to the Lord of Winterfell.

"Navy men like Chief here need some rest and relaxation on dry land," the AI explained. "And I always wanted a little sightseeing in your place." The Spartan started gesturing her on something she needed to tell the Northmen. "Oh, you don't mind if you could sell us some raw materials for repairing our ship."

Eddard blinked. "I'm sure the North has plenty of iron."

Cortana and Master Chief shared glances each other. The AI nodded to the Spartan before turning to the Lord of Winterfell. "Um, we're not exactly looking for iron. To tell you the truth, we didn't crash here by chance. We chose your land because of a large deposit of a very special metal that our ship's scanners found."

Eddard cocked an eyebrow, and asked curiously, "What sort of a special metal?"

"Titanium."

"Titan-um?"

She nodded. "It's a metal lighter and stronger than steel, and it never rusts. Much of the ship's made of that stuff."

Hearing that, the Northmen quickly dropped their jaws like falling stars.

Robett flabbergasted that he started to speak. "You mean to say that there is this fable metal stronger and lighter than steel right under our noses the whole time, and we didn't know about it."

"Chief and I agreed to give you its location and how to extract and forge them base on your technological capacity. We can also give you the locations of other metals you all familiar. Consider it as payment for using the land and for the stay in your place, and we could use some for repairing our ship."

"My lady, I don't know what to say," Eddard stunned.

The AI's holo-form vanished, replaced with a geographical map of the North. Dots in various size with names of metals appeared all over the region. The largest that the North held was iron. Next was tin, copper, lead, and some metals were unfamiliar to the Northmen. However, there was one metal that the highborn glared with their eyes widened and glittered.

"Gold," Robb gasped. "There's gold in the North!"

"And it's located in the old forest of the Broken Branch." Theon pointed out.

The highborn jittered and smiled with the joy of their newly discovered wealth, but their liege lord was staring at the gold's location.

"Lady Cortana," Eddard began, "as much I love to enrich my land and my people, but I couldn't accept them."

His statement shocked everyone, including both Chief and Cortana as her holo-form reappeared.

"But my lord," Robett pleaded. "It's gold."

His liege lord countered, "And it's resting under the dwellings of some of the wild weirwoods. For thousands of years, we Northmen have been honoring the vows to protect the Old Gods' home. If you still believe the Old Tales of the Dawn Age that our ancestors committed a grave sin, I will not allow ourselves to do the same just to satisfy our greed."

The highborn and his sons glanced down in shame. On the other hand, Chief and Cortana were impressed.

"Lord Stark, is it alright that I remove the gold's whereabouts?" Cortana suggested. "You can tell me which locations you wanted me to remove."

The Lord of Winterfell smiled. "All located in forests will do. The remainder will be enough for us."

The AI replaced herself with the geographical map of the North once again. With all the deposits located in forested areas removed, only about forty-eight percent remained.

"It's a good thing the titanium deposit situated outside these woods," she said, which the Northmen were pleased to hear that.

"Very well, we'll leave by the morrow," Eddard stated. "We'll have a good start traveling in the morning."

"That means tomorrow, right?"John-117 asked. Still unfamiliar with the archaic English words they spoke.

"Yeah." She answered. Then she opened her communication. "I'll be on the ship's quarter to make a map for those metals."I'll have caveman here pack our stuff for the journey." She was referring to the Master Chief. "See ya." Her holo-form disappeared, leaving Chief alone with the Northern highborn.

"Caveman?" Jon perplexed, which the Master Chief answered with a shrug.

On the next day, everyone was geared up for home. The Spartan built three makeshift wagons from parts out of damaged vehicles and had them pulled by the Warthog, and he loaded them with foodstuffs, equipment, supplies, and some firearms. The Chief also gave the foodstuffs with short shelf lives to the Northmen so they wouldn't be a waste. The natives were happy to receive them.

As they crossed the river, the bridge was automatically folded itself, closing the only path to Dawn. Once they arrived in the weirwood grove and prayed to the Mother Heart Tree, the four Houses went their separate ways back to their homes.

On their journey to Winterfell, the Stark men sang lively songs to pass the time. Theon rode beside the Master Chief. The cocky ward of Eddard Stark was the only one who outgrew his wariness towards the Spartan.

"Master Chief," Theon called, which he got his attention. "I'm sure you have plenty of songs in your realm."

The silent supersoldier stared at him and was about to ignore him. "Oh!" Cortana's voice popped out from his helmet. "I think I know a perfect riding song." She started playing a Western song on the Warthog's radio.

Rollin, rollin, rollin,

Rollin, rollin, rollin,

Chief deadpanned and without a word to say.

Rollin, rollin, rollin,

Rollin, rollin, rollin,

Rawhide!

RAWHIDE!

Author's Notes

The next chapter "The Cubs and Eagle" would be the start of the Winterfell Arc.

I'm curious to know which is the best and efficient type of wind turbine: Horizontal-axis wind turbines or Vertical axis wind turbines? This is for the story. I can Google this, but I want to hear to those who really experienced using this tech.

Please note that in this story, Westerland was still richer than the North even they have the titanium and a forever buried gold deposits while Westerland has many gold mines.

I understand some readers concern about Chief was out of character. I was intended to have Cortana influencing Chief to pulled him out from his comfort zone during his diplomacy with the Northmen. If not, I apologize for the mistakes. I will do my best revising the characters especially Chief back to their personalities based on their respective sources.

BTW, some of Cortana's dialogue came from Halo Legends: Origins 2. In Halo 3, Cortana referred herself "I am your sword, I am your shield to Master Chief.

Read and Response

FireKing500, mad thought, lilnudger82, ArtimuosJackson, Jebest4781, edboy4926, Indominus, artark, senpen banka, The Sithspawn, thunder18, Dracconnis, DalysanneSnow, Machcia, Indominus, atchoum35, and guests: Thank you for your wonderful feedback and some of your criticism. I look forward continuing this story.

Reader: I made some mistakes, so thank you for pointing that out. I'll try to improve it.

Pop: Cortana had a lot of explaining to the Starks why Sean Bean look like Ned.

Sceonn: That was Jon Snow who was blushing. From now on, I'll write John-117 instead of John. I realize this is out of character than I intended when Cortana was involved. My mistake in that part.

Fedguy: Never knew Arianne Martell is 22-23, but the show left her out. It's a shame, but I'll try to come up her appearance in this story.

darkfinder: I'll save the war story and changes in the North in the near future. Sooner than you expect.

toreblacken18: I do enjoy that story recently, wish the author continued it.

Reven207: John-117 was born in 2511, so he's 42 in 2553 when the Great War ended and in this story. Yes, all Spartans are physically younger than their age because of enhancement and cryosleep.

Nicogen: I never thought of that, so kudos to you.

Fallen-Ryu: I'd love your suggestions. Although, some of them already planned before I posted this story, some of your ideas are new to me. They're very useful. Please keep it up if you can.

darkromdemon: By the Gods of Old, New, and Drowned, they did.

Blaze1992: I had part of that reaction written, but I had to save it another time because I don't want each chapter filled with more comedy. I do plan for omakes, which I will reveal their reaction.

Lord-Krun: Thank you for sharing and feedback. I had an I eye for ChiefxCortana, but I'll see where this story's goes.