"Sir, they're gone."

"You can drop the 'sir', I'm not your boss anymore, remember? I take the ones you're talking about is the one ONI's been keeping an eye on for the last four years, and the other being the one they secretly supplied with resources?"

"Every one of my sources have said their trails have gone cold."

"'Mdama and Atriox you mean."

"Yes. They've confirmed it. Or at least the sources that still take my calls. Without ONI channels to use, the only people talking to me are those who owe me favors."

"They don't need us now, their war's over. Especially since Parangosky was tried for aiding and embedding the Servants, after HIGHCOM and the new President of the UEG ordered a full investigation into ONI and its actions. Forget about it."

"Forget about it? 'Mdama and Atriox have assembled their own armies somewhere out there, and we still don't know what either of them is really after. I've got my own theories, but after hearing from my connections on Doisac & Sanghelios, they've become symbols to some of their people, and not the ones that would be good for all of us. To the Jiralhanae, Atriox has become a leader of sorts to some of them, with only the Master Pack's leader Lydus to contend with. While we were fighting the Covenant all those years, and dealing with rebuilding ourselves and repelling the remnants of the Empire, he's been recruiting, growing and gathering his forces. The last time we heard anything after he took the Enduring Conviction and its fleets was that the Banished had captured a whole host of Huragok; Forerunner Engineers; you know what those things can do, right? And 'Mdama? The one Spartan-010 brought in? The Servants, except for his own son have condemned him as a heretic and anyone who's followed him. He took a lot of the Servant's resources when 'Telcam's attack on the Arbiter failed when the Infinity rolled in to provide reinforcements. Not only that, but he's also absorbed other Covenant remnants into his 'Storm'. The 'High Zealot' Sali 'Nyon is a major figure on their worship of the Forerunners, and he has a large following. General Parg 'Vol took what was left of his brothers forces from Draetheus V and folded in. Major Vata 'Gajat was major technician and had a number of stealth specialists under his command. General Kitun 'Arach was with 'Mdama since the beginning on that large isolated colony he came across. And Supreme Commander Luro 'Taaralum? Him too. They've all joined 'Mdama and threw in their support and resources to their new crusade. Some search for 'The One'. That's all we know on them. Either way, we still don't know everything about their goals, only their forces size. And both are massive, and major threats to all of us."

"Listen, I stopped giving a damn when they cut me out with the investigation. They pull me up on a few shady deals after the disaster with the Spartan-II's controversial bullshit. Goddamn hypocrites. They ask you to get your hands dirty, and then they're too great to shake your hand. The only reason I'm not in a detention cell or dead is the dirt I have on them. Osman's been put in charge of ONI now and reorganizing it, but I don't trust her, she was Parangosky's pet. Me along with some others are safe like Halsey, simply because of what we know. She just got off better than us because she created the Master Chief and her knowledge on all the alien crap is too valuable to throw out the window. If you think the Storm and the Banished are getting to high-level threats, then that's on you to tell HIGHCOM, not me. Let them learn about 'Mdama and Atriox on their own damn free time. Don't call here again, we're done."

-ONI Section Zero Board/Surveillance transcription of internal communications between subject "S" & "D", 03.15.2554 1702 hrs/Full transcript available on request/

Chapter 3 – Downtime

-Normandy SR-2 QEC Room-

After the mission on the academy, the Normandy had regrouped with a cruiser from Hackett's fleet to get the students, Jack and Kahlee to work on the Prothean device and into the sidelines of the battlefield. The squad had gotten de-armed and went back to their own duties, while Jane had a little debrief from Anderson from his own QEC in the resistance.

Anderson had changed into a battle uniform for officers on the ground during ops, "Shepard. Dammed if you aren't a sight for sore eyes."

"Good to see you too, sir."

Anderson just rose an eyebrow, "'Sir'?" He teased, "I may have reinstated you, but that doesn't give you permission to go all formal on me." Jane smirked. Anderson looked at her now just as his protégé, but also like is own daughter in a way, "Then I'm glad you managed to keep your ass alive, Anderson."

Anderson's tone changed, "That's more like it." His admiral/teacher persona taking over, "Looks like you didn't waste any time getting to work." He paused as he looked down for a second before looking back at Jane, "I can only imagine what would've happened if those kids had fallen into Cerberus hands."

"They're definitely eager to help." They had been training for artillery strikes, but the Chief's own input had them sent to the supporting sect of the corps. At first, they were not too pleased with the decision. But the Chief had told them not to feel under-valued, and it did placate them to accept the support roles.

Anderson shook his head in disbelief that this was what they're were resorting to, "These kids are the best humanity has to offer. And we're throwing them into battle! Godammit I hate this war… Hackett didn't mention in his report…" Jane sensed what he was asking from her, "Kahlee Sanders is safe with the recruits."

The admiral sighed in relief, "Thanks, Shepard. When I heard about the attack…well…I've already lost a lot of friends."

"She asked me to tell you to, stay alive." Anderson chuckled, "Did she now? Well…thanks Shepard. That might be the first good news I've heard this week." The Reaper war had already taken its toll on the aging admiral. He knew what he would be in for, but no one else did. And it's cost everyone. "I heard how your newest recruit performed."

She wasn't even aware that Hackett had sent him a report detailing how the Chief performed. "Oh?"

"You got lucky coming across him before Cerberus did. Though given how he acts, he doesn't sound all that different from you. A natural born leader, jumping into fire the first chance to save others." He looked over to his right at something, seeing as the little bit of time they had left to communicate was shortening, Anderson let her go. "I have to go. I'll try to check in with you later. Anderson out." And with that, the QEC cut off as Anderson jogged off away.

The commander paid attention to what Anderson said about the Chief. He did put himself up front at all times, and how he conducted himself under her command. Now she was suddenly reminded of her little chat with the Spartan, she was supposed to have.

-Life Support Room-

Ever since they had retired to the Life Support room after the last mission, the Chief brought up some of the weapons and equipment up to clean and inspect, even going so far as to requisition some of the Alliance weapons. Learning how to adapt whenever necessary was part of his training and combat skills. If one of his own weapons ran dry, then he'd just grab the enemies out of their hands, and kill them with it.

Cortana however, had grown all too interested with this Prothean device that the Commander had found on Mars. From what the Asari a few doors down theorized that it was a weapon that could kill all off the Reapers and spread across the galaxy. Now she wasn't one to put things like that in the back of her head, especially after Halo, she wasn't entirely sure that she could afford to ignore this.

Tapping into the schematics that they had taken from Mars and sent to Hackett, she saw pieces of it strewn out like a jigsaw puzzle. Most likely due to keeping the plans an enigma from the Reapers eyes, though taking a closer look, the pieces were just so…simple.

The amount of power that would be fired would be big, but not Halo array big. Nowhere even close to such a level. It would need something to amplify the energy to spread across the galaxy, she'd have to keep observing it and going through whatever reports, intelligence, emails, vidcalls, etc. to solve that problem, otherwise these people were building a giant metal lightbulb for no reason, when they could just be putting that work to more soldiers & ships. She'd file this away for HIGHCOM as this would be something of great interest to them, and she doubted that they would allow anyone to haphazardly fire this thing like Spark was trying to do during the minor Flood outbreak.

If it came down to it, the UNSC would want it destroyed or risk the end result destroying them all if the Alliance found a way to amplify the device's energy 100,000-fold.

She swam through the systems and data streams of the Normandy, Joker piloting the ship, EDI doing the same thing as she was doing, however she was unable to 'see' the more advanced AI, Traynor flagging and managing systems and Alliance intel. The Turian named Garrus was still calibrating the Thanix Cannons, but he was also helping the Primarch in the War Room coordinate their races forces. Liara was diving into whatever systems she could to get whatever intel and resources she could snatch for the war effort. Although, Cortana had noticed that the Asari was also reviewing footage of the Chief in action, which she could see where her line of thought was going.

Being a scientist, archeologist, xenohistorian and xenobiologist, she was curious of the Chief's origin and where he came from. No doubt she would want to everything about him and the UNSC. As a scientist, she was always hungry for more knowledge for the unknown.

Fat chance of that happening.

Javik was exploring the lower decks, learning about the previous crew, the 'suicide squad' that Shepard lead before, with the Engineers going about their daily routine and chatter. Allers was cutting up articles and interviews together for news segments, which she agreed with the Chief, was a stupid mistake to begin with.

In the shuttle bay, Lieutenant's Vega and Cortez were working through the instructions the Chief had given them to use the fabricator for future use, no doubt already intrigued about the ammunition in the UNSC weapons. The Covenant weapons were another thing entirely, as the materials to fabricate the cartridges for them would be a pain to find.

Cortana was processing the Alliance's history and comparing it with the UNSC's to find similarities between the two Earths, and so far, they both followed the same pattern until about 30 years ago when the Prothean archives were found on Mars, leading to the Alliance's first contact which was schoolyard brawl compared to their own. Looking for genetic abnormalities was difficult given how little access she had to UNSC medical files save for some, but she was able narrow things down. Though she noticed there was a slight abnormality within UNSC humans that made them different from Alliance humans, though they were miniscule; too small for most thing to notice.

As for the Omni-tool that the Chief requisitioned from Cortez, she had been looking into modifying it for the UNSC's usage in the field more for straight up combat, tracking, hacking, etc. coming up with a name for it would be difficult, though she'd let the scientists handle that.

Her sensors drifted back up to the deck with the commander coming down the elevator, "Heads up, Chief, I think the commander's coming down to have that 'chat' with you she mentioned earlier."

The Chief had finished reassembling the MA5C within a few seconds, "Acknowledged." He placed the weapon along with a few clips on the nearby shelves as the door slid open with Shepard in her crewman's uniform. "Hey, Chief."

The Spartan snapped a brief salute, "Commander." Jane just waved it off a bit, "At ease, Chief. You don't have salute me or anything. Technically you're not part of the Alliance, so yeah…I'm just making my rounds on the ship, that's kind of my thing after missions to relax and get stress out." She looked around to see that the Chief had been disassembling weapons and analyzing how they work, and he had brought up some more of those weird things he used back in the academy, "Getting used to things around here?"

"Yes ma'am. I requisitioned weapons for observation. Knowing the full capabilities will allow me to counter them more effectively when dealing with Cerberus." He saw how they were kinetic based, but they didn't run off the same principle as their own or the Covenant's. They were effective to a degree, but they were flimsy, poorly designed and manufactured. A single shot from a UNSC rifle to their weapons would render them useless, forcing the owner to find other means of fighting.

"Nice to know, although I couldn't help but notice the whole time back on the academy you clearly are a master of kicking ass and taking names. You never heard about the Reapers or any of the other races, so who did you fight to learn moves like that?" By this time, Liara had entered the room, no doubt curious about the Chief as well given her legal, and not-so legal occupations.

She wanted to know more about the Chief. His people, their government, their practices, history etc. Coming across a human who had no knowledge of the Alliance or the Citadel was a mystery, an enigma waiting to be solved. Although she was kidding herself if she wasn't nervous to approach the spartan, "Hello, I'm…" She saw Shepard had been inside as she overheard the question, "…oh, I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to interrupt you Shepard, I can leave if it's a bad time."

Jane tilted her head over her shoulder as she looked to the Asari, "Nah, it's alright. You could stay, though I don't know if tall, green and bulky here will talk much." She turned back to the Chief and nodded him to answer.

"A hostile alien species, ma'am. Calling themselves the Covenant."

Jane leaned on the side of the wall as she raised a curious eyebrow, "Sounds like some religious cult, you sure you didn't just come across some extremists from our parts?" Despite how peaceful things seemed before the Reapers arrival, there was still instability across the territories with pirates, mercenaries, expanding governments, and extremists. Liara knew many of the groups that existed, and even the minor one's but she had yet to come across any information called the 'Covenant'.

He frowned at that, "The Covenant did not originate from Citadel space." Cortana knew that Shepard was trying to loosen John's lips a bit. Get him to spill something that could be something considered classified, or close to it. And the Shadow Broker currently standing in the same room, no doubt looking for info.

"The Council would offer compensations for attacking you and your people, if it was one of the client races." Liara spoke up, seeing if she could perhaps make it clear that they would help his people.

"The war against the Covenant was against a coalition of alien species. Reminiscent of the Council, but they do not belong to them."

Jane was ignorant of the way he said it, but Liara wasn't. She knew that he fired shots at the Citadel Council. Guess he wasn't too keen on how they operated. The Citadel Council, while was ignorant of the Reaper threat, they had to make decisions and choices that decided the fate of billions and it kept the peace for the last 2000 years.

Cortana hadn't known the Chief to take jabs like that, the Council clearly rubbed him the wrong way in all sorts. It reminded him too much of the Covenant, though without the religious zealotry behind it. The Council was clearly a step up from their own individual governments and they were composed of the four main species, though other client species could join, but they had to do something noteworthy to join. Humanity had only recently joined due to sacrificing tens of thousands of their own, and they were practically swept aside when the Council denied any Reaper existence, even when one was about to kill them. Other races that had been around longer were not happy that Humanity had gained a seat, while they had been waiting hundreds to thousands of years to get a seat. Not only that, the Treaty of Farixen had severely limited every other species military power, leaving themselves vulnerable to others, practically at the Council's mercy. It was meant to keep peace, but the Chief saw it as a way to keep fear in others. Even humanity, despite having a seat, were considered second-rate and below other client species, given how the other councilors brushed off their concerns and reports that Earth was attacked before anyone else in Citadel space. And given what Shepard told him beforehand, he held no trust for them at all.

The Alliance should've remained independent and aliens had no right to dictate how Humanity functioned, or acted. They should just keep their noses out of their business and lives.

Jane pressed for further details, "How big was this war?"

"A total war."

Liara was curious as to why the Covenant had declared a war against his people, "What exactly did this 'Covenant' had to gain from going to war with you?"

He looked at the Asari, not believing that she was trying to be genuine, despite the contrary, "Total annihilation of humanity." He wasn't going to talk about the specifics or the numbers involved. He didn't want either of the women to start thinking about making contact with his civilization or trying to establish a dialogue with what was possibly left of the Covenant.

Jane scowled while Liara looked a little skeptical, "Why the hell would hell would they try to exterminate you? That doesn't make any sense." She was no fan of genocide.

"I'm…not quite sure what to make of that. They would've had to of possessed a massive military that would outnumber the Reapers."

Cortana had already run the numbers. If the Covenant had encountered the Citadel instead of the UNSC and went to war with them…well…the Reapers would be dealing with them instead, and she wasn't too sure about their own odds against the Covenant. The fleets that the UNSC had encountered were only just small bits of the full might of their empire, she stopped counting at High Charity when the numbers hit the 1 million mark. Shepard dug for more details, "Who long was this war going on? It's not still being fought…is it?"

Another considered classified answer.

"A long time, ma'am. It's over."

Liara was typing something on her Omni-tool, no doubt what he had been saying, while Shepard looked a little relieved, "Good to hear. Well you're still hear, so I guess the Covenant failed in the grand scheme of things."

The Chief lowered his head, "Partially…"

The casualties before his Earth had been hit were within the 24 billion mark, another possible 9 billion on Earth. All victims of the Covenant's 'Great Journey' as they were declared abominations in the eyes of their gods.

Jane noticed Liara was doing that thing her hands did when Javik had joined them, "Liara here, is probably itching to ask you some questions about your people."

The scientists jumped in, "Yes, I'm curious, what kind of government does your people have. How is it that you're human but you've never heard of the Alliance of the Citadel? When did you achieve—"

"No."

Liara raised an eyebrow, "I'm sorry?"

"You ask for classified information. That is in violation of Cole Protocol. I will not answer any of your questions."

Liara was shot down quickly with her questions. She was hoping for some understanding, maybe even hoping to create a link between the Chief's civilization and the Alliance. Jane saw that Liara was a little miffed even if she didn't fully show it, "Wait, hold on. Liara's just curious about you and where you come from, that's all. Plus, we do kind of need to know where your people are at if I'm gonna get you back home."

"She is not entitled to that information." The Chief decided to end the whole conversation as he turned around to pick up a BR55 to disassemble and clean, Liara just had that same look on her face when she left Javik's quarters, while Shepard just sighed. "You know, Chief. She isn't a bad person, Liara's just curious, that's all. Also, another thing…why did you call Liara an 'alien life form'?"

"Trust is earned, not given." He began to quickly take the rifle apart and lay the pieces out in an orderly fashion as he started to clean it. Jane watched him handle the rifle parts with care and looked engrossed in his work, "Cole Protocol dictates that no alien life form may inadvertently discover the location of the homeworld. Her occupation as the Shadow Broker does not make her trusting."

If he turned to look at the Jane's expression, he would see the wide eyes she had on, "H-How did you learn about that?!" He shifted his helmet over just enough to be considered talking to her, "Your Extranet is vast and vulnerable. UNSC databases are more advanced." A half lie; Cortana had gotten into the Asari's information network easily and slipped out with no one noticing. The UNSC's systems were more secure, but then Covenant systems were even more so. And they hardly even used AI's.

"Ok, I really~ need to make sure you don't go breaking into high-level systems and other people's personal stuff…" It was no secret to Garrus, Tali, EDI and Joker, knew that Liara was the new Shadow Broker after helping her track him down.

'Too late.' He thought. Cortana was bored out of her mind when she sorted through the Commander's personal terminal. Of all the people to be planning a vacation to Disney World on Earth…

Shepard shook her head as she pinched the bridge of her nose, fighting off the headache that this conversation brought. "So, out of curiosity, have you ever failed a mission?"

"Never."

Jane blinked once, then twice as she decided to clean out her ear a bit, "I'm sorry I might've misheard you, but did you say you've never failed a mission in your entire military career?" Cortana giggled at her reaction. It was almost like a deer in headlights.

"Yes, ma'am."

She had a puzzled and curious combo look on her face now, "And have you ever had a superior officer…be alright with the way you fight?"

"Yes."

"That's…weird, but also, kinda cool a bit…I guess…"

He wasn't lying about that. When in the field and he had his orders, he followed through with them even in the most unorthodox ways, never had a superior officer question him about his combat conduct, or his tactics when fighting. Most of the time when with a superior officer in the field, they often let him take point and handle most situations in a firefight. Hardly anyone save for a few individuals would question a Spartan in battle.

The commander breathed in and held it for a bit before exhaling heavily, "Well you know your limits better than I do. So, I guess I'll let this slide a bit, but…" She put an emphasis on the word, "…I want you to make sure to stick with the team. You can handle a lot of things on your own, and you're a damn walking tank that's on speed, but going off runnin' & gunnin' without letting me know isn't something I like in the field. So just be sure to keep in contact with me, and let us know if anything comes up for us to use. If you can handle it better on your own, then go right ahead, but let me know beforehand."

The Chief listened to the Commander talk, and once again it was more in his favor. Shepard would let him off the leash in combat, provided he keep her informed of any intel he came across and stay in contact with her team. "Also, that stuff you used on Seanne, what was that exactly?"

"Medical Biofoam. Self-sealing, space-filling coagulant and antibacterial, tissue regenerative foam polymer." He didn't think there was any harm in telling her that, it was pretty much an over-the-counter product available to the general public.

"That's a mouthful…we don't have anything quite like that. Any chance maybe you could pass some of it along…?" She was trying her best to use words that could get her somewhere, "Maybe see if we can improve it with our own Medi-gel, and vice versa?" She really did her best, but she sounded skeptical all the way. She silently facepalmed thinking she failed, but to her surprise…

"So long as the UNSC will be able to utilize the development, then yes."

She was not expecting that, "Well I don't see why your people can't use it too." The Chief wasn't really looking at her, and concentrating on cleaning the rifle on the table. Seeing she had a chance to do something, she turned around and did her hands like a kid got their favorite toy for Christmas and silently whispering yes at the same time. She made some progress with the hulking man, however… "The development will not leave this ship."

And there was that. Well beggars can't be choosers. She turned around to see that he had turned to her, although she had no idea if he saw her do that little victory min-jig, "Well… I guess I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, or sniper down the barrel, er… whatever saying that applies to this." She clapped her face a bit which perplexed the Spartan before speaking again, "We're heading to the Citadel for a quick resupply. Then to the diplomatic ships for the War Summit, it shouldn't be too long now actually, come on up to the bridge for a view, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it." And with that the Commander headed back up to the bridge whilst waving her hand to follow her up. "Just go with her, besides I want to see what the Citadel looks like on the inside from the suit."

Cortana wasn't really impressed with the station, but she was intrigued on how they were keeping logistics going, given the vast intake of war refugees.

-The Bridge-

"So, what do you think of Hardcore Henry down in Life Support?" Joker's new nickname for the Master Chief after seeing footage of him in action from EDI's own visual logs.

"He is highly efficient in combat; however, he displays what one would consider mild sociopathic tendencies." His AI co-pilot had deduced from her own observations and codex on human behavior.

"So, we should worry about him snapping, and killing everyone on board in case someone just, oh I dunno know… looks at him the wrong way or starts pointing fingers as to who stole his munchies?"

"No. That would be partially a psychopath. Sociopaths are of a different mindset. They do not engage in social activities."

Joker was having his usual conversations with people around the ship, and the Chief was apparently the major talk after the academy mission, "So then he's as emotional as an Elcor playing in Hamlet."

"I cannot say as I have had little interaction with him. However, I wish to inquire more on his skill in cyberwarfare as I find it difficult to believe that a human was able to force me from this mobile platform and force a Cerberus cruiser systems to shut down, killing the crew and accessing data from his armor. No system is as advanced as that."

If Joker was a little jealous that his…friend…was outdone he didn't show it all that much. "There's gotta be some sort of trick for him to do all that."

"The Master Chief will more than likely respond with a 'classified' answer as opposed to giving a direct response."

"Right on the money EDI." Shepard's voice coming up from behind them. Joker turned his chair around like he usually does while talking with the Commander, "So is he—WHOAH!" Turns out he was a little afraid of their newest crewmate. The Chief stood over Jane like a tower, one could say he looked like he could crush her head with his hands. "Sheesh, put a bell on or something man." He looked down to see that the Chief was still in his armor, and he figured that he had to have made some major sounds while he walked, a lot more than Grunt at the least. And yet, he didn't even hear him come up behind them to the bridge.

"So~ you're the Chief…" An awkward silence loomed through the cockpit, "…how do you go to the bathroom in that thing? Is it like Tali's or something…?" The Chief just stared at Joker, who got the subtle message for him to shut up now and get back to piloting the ship, "…I'll just be flying the ship. So we don't crash…shutting up now." Joker swiveled the chair right back around to the controls as they started to exit FTL speeds and the Serpent Nebula came into view.

Jane looked up the Chief's polarized visor, "I figured you'd like having a good view of the Citadel when we come in. The cockpit gets the best view of it while we pull into the docking bays."

As they flew closer to the nebula, the five arms of the wards came into view, with hundreds of ships flying around the station. The millions of lights showing the vast urban metropolis branching across the station from the petals to the hollow ring, where the tower laid in the center of the station. Joker saw this as a chance to boast to the Chief, "Impressive, isn't it?" Everyone that saw the Citadel for the first time was always amazed when they saw it. Ashley and Kaiden's expressions were priceless when they saw the fleet then and now guarding it, with the station working to full functionality.

"No." He wasn't impressed by this. High Charity was gargantuan compared to this thing.

"I know I still get excited when I see it." He hadn't even registered what the Spartan just said, although the Commander arched a curious eyebrow. "The largest artificial station in the galaxy, made possible by 45 kilometers of cooperation and—what, did you just say no?"

"He did." EDI said.

"Yes."

"Ok, care to elaborate? What could be bigger than the Citadel?" Joker sounding pretty skeptical of what he was saying, and implying.

"10,000-kilometer diameter station, equaling to over 30,000-kilometer circumference." If he wasn't wearing the helmet, they could've seen the ever so small smirk at their reactions.

Joker started cough as some of his own saliva went down the wrong way, while Shepard's eyes were wide as can be with her jaw dropped.

"I think you broke them." Cortana saw their reactions while EDI's processors started working overtime trying to run simulations of such a station, to so far, no success given her knowledge of other stations in their society. If they saw the Ark, then she had no doubt that they would faint or drop from the sight of it in shock.

"What the hell…how can a station be that big?"

"Th-that's a joke, right?"

"No."

Now Shepard had a swarm of questions swarming around in her head, "Why the hell would someone build something so big? They didn't happen to leave some sort of instructions or a map of the place, did they?"

They did, even a caretaker to walk them through on eradicating all life in the galaxy. After their report to HIGHCOM and before Earth was hit, the existence of the Forerunners had been labeled a secret to the public, with only bits and pieces leaking to the media of an ancient and long-dead race in the galaxy. But as the war drew closer, the evidence was undeniable and they came forth with the Forerunners existence. However, the Halo Array and the Flood was kept above top-secret, only known to high ranking officers in the military, and anyone who tried to inform the public was threatened with treason as all in the military were sworn to secrecy. If the civilian populace found out, then there would be mass riots and panics ensuing, and endless chaos would allow the Covenant the victory they so desired.

"Classified."

"Right~…classified, again."

As Joker brought the Normandy into the crowded docking bays, Garrus and Liara were talking with each other in the elevator, "So what do you think of our new cremate, Liara?"

Her expression wasn't what one would say excited or positive, more along the lines of annoyed, mixed with some discomfort, "He's not what I expected to be honest. I tried to ask him about his people, since Shepard intends to take him back to them once this is all over, he said I wasn't entitled to that information and it was a violation of some 'Cole Protocol'." She rubbed the side of her arm like she always did when she grew uncomfortable with someone or something, "I get the feeling that he doesn't have any interest in trying to be friendly with the rest of the crew."

"Hey…" Garrus put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "…just give him some time. Try not to be so forceful when asking questions. Just show that you're on his side, throw a few jokes out there, take some shots in the dark. He'll come around I'm sure of it." He knew during his time on the suicide crew that even bullheaded people like Miranda eventually became more friendly and open to things and people as time went by.

Oh, if only he knew…

Liara turned to Garrus, "You mean like a psychotic biotic or tank-bred Krogan?" A smirk growing in her face, since she knew 'things' nowadays. "Pretty much."

The elevator chimed as they walked out to the CIC, and made their way over to the airlock where the Chief stood over Shepard, even missing the Chief's comment about the Citadel. As the ship came through docking procedure and the crew started to get ready to disembark save for a few, Garrus decided to take the opportunity to introduce himself to the Spartan.

The Chief sensed someone coming up behind him and turned to see the Turian casually walking up to him with an outstretched hand, "Hey, Chief. We never got the chance to get introduced to one another." His voice filled with a bit of enthusiasm, "Garrus Vakarian, Shepard and I go way back when things started, same with Liara here." He gestured with his shoulder next to him.

Liara looked up at the polarized for a second before turning her attention back at the still outstretched hand that Garrus put out there. The Chief just stared at it in uncertainty, on one hand, he didn't want to offend his future ally, and on the other, he refused to shake the hand of an alien species that attacked humanity when it wasn't even aware of laws that didn't even apply to them.

Garrus got the subtle message and lowered his hand before scratching the side of his face where the old scars were at, "So yeah, that was meant to be an introduction like Jane puts it, or so she says."

"I have observed that some organics do not need such a gesture to introduce themselves." EDI brought up some information in a slight defense to the Master Chief not taking Vakarians hand.

Jane tapped the Chief's shoulder, "Well, now that we've gotten some intro's out of the way, I believe that we each some sort of business on the Citadel and we need to resupply. Chief, you'll be with me since you aren't obviously going to hand over your sidearm to C-Sec." She saw that he had the pistol along with a few clips attached to his armor.

"Affirmative."

With the Normandy now docked and ready for the crew to disembark, the made their outside with Garrus and Liara the last ones out, "Still think you can get him to come around?" The skepticism present in her tone.

"It was just one little intro…" He took mock offense to her question, "…besides it's not like he's just going to get friendly with everyone just like that. There'll be plenty other times to crack a joke and get him all campfire songy." And with that, they entered the Citadel.

-The Chief-

"Wow, now this is an interesting sight."

Cortana looked at the sight of the docking bay populated with various different species as well as humans, going about their daily lives in wartime. Humans, Turians, Asari, Salarians, some Batarians here and there, even a few Hanar and their Drell bodyguards were going about their business, it was the polar opposite of what he saw in High Charity. He had to suppress the urge to pull his magnum out and gun the aliens down as he did in the war when he encountered Covenant, but they weren't actively hostile towards him…at the moment…

It was a sight he never would have thought he would see. An impossibility of humans and aliens just living together without a care in the world, and not staring at each like they would stab the other in the back. He looked out to the docking bays flooding in with refugees and ships, arrests being made for illegal products and fights over rations, shelter and clothing. These people weren't even ready to face an enemy that wanted to see them dead as opposed to being conquered. Case in point: the UNSC would have been better prepared and equipped to go to war with the Reapers if they had the time to rebuild from the pyrrhic victory against the Covenant.

"It's not every day that you don't see a place like this with humans not getting shot at by aliens."

"Hm."

"You know, you could've come here without your armor on, caveman."

"The primary HUB for political, economic and now military power in this part of the galaxy, where it was attacked by a single Reaper and almost captured, and then followed by a biological attack by the Batarian Hegemony?" He asked with a raised brow.

"…"

"…"

"…so~ I'm going to see what can sate my curiosity for the time being." Well he did catch her there, no denying it. "I'll just be seeing if I can put any 'suspicious' credits to a new shadow account for us to use."

"Cortana…" He had a condescending tone. He didn't want her to get him or the commander into any trouble from officials and draw any unwanted attention to him. "Oh please, don't worry, I know every little dirty trick and their systems are so…primitive compared to our own for the most part. I won't go starting an investigation or crash their stock market if that's what you're implying what might happen. They won't even know I was there."

Well he did trust her as much as any Spartan, Halsey, Mendez or anyone else he considered to be a close friend, "…okay."

His attention was brought back to the commander as she called out to him, "Come on, Chief. I need to get C-Sec to clear you through security checkpoints, and so they don't accidentally sign their death warrants for holding you up." Jane waved over to her direction, as an insectoid-like alien walked by her and began working on a console. He followed her over to the C-Sec booth as people, both human and alien glanced over to him and looked at him with a bit of fear, awe and amazement.

Looks that he was all too familiar with beforehand.

The commander was talking with a C-Sec guard, a Turian to be exact as he seemed to be the one in charge of the checkpoint, "So is there any chance you can get my big friend here a pass on carrying a sidearm? He won't leave without it, practically attached to the damn thing like a Krogan and his shotgun." She gestured to the Chief behind her as the Turian did a once over look with some wide eyes, but he kept his surprise under control with an admiring whistle.

"Well, so long as you like babysitting him, he's free to keep it. Just make sure he doesn't accidentally shoot someone, he looks a little antsy." He glanced over at the towering Spartan again, "Can't see any reason why though, they'd be pretty stupid to get in a fight with someone built like a tank." The C-Sec officer punched up for the Chief to have clearance as Jane brought her Omni-tool up to view his 'papers' per say.

Having that Spectre authority came in handy when getting through customs. She could get just about anyone or anything through.

The usual Alliance data was made up for him for anyone that asked questions, granted he wouldn't consider answering any question, and giving them the silent-but-deadly-don't-fuck-with-me stare instead. Or… he would just shrug his shoulders…

Cortana had been diving through the so called 'most secured database in the galaxy', and she was looking at the state of the galactic market which was in a constant flux of rising and falling, war profiteering off the meekly people, which she would be fixing right now with the digital transactions of rip-offs. Their security was a joke, combing through files, putting out firewalls when they weren't looking, etc.

If someone wanted to take this station they wouldn't need to be very skilled, or rather an AI wouldn't need to be very skilled to crash their comms, hijack control over the major systems and depressurize high population zones. Well, she'd fix that right up now. "Let's see here…a few firewalls here, some malware there, a dash of EMP backup system coding everywhere, Oh!" She strode over to the communication lines and wrote up a whole new set of E-comm lines, built up from the digital ground and made only accessible from their clean-cut Commander, "Aaaaand…there! All done. He'll thank me later."

But then there was a certain VI being passed around the Citadel for moral boosting, "Hi! I'm Commander Shepard!" Cortana just looked at the VI programs with a devious smile, "Mua, ha, ha…" Oh the joy she would take in this.

-The Chief & the Commander-

Meanwhile with the duo currently walking around the Citadel, Jane was trying to show the Chief the Citadel's sights, major places to go and the places to avoid. Mainly Chora's Den and other less than savory areas of the station. But she decided to bring him up to Huerta Memorial, "Alright, Chief, time for you to meet my XO and friend."

"Lieutenant Commander Williams?"

"Yeah, Ash and I go way back when I first became a Spectre." He had read up on the files that had been compiled on her first few missions when the Reaper threat began to emerge. Then her rank was Gunnery Chief and part of the Alliance platoon stationed on Eden Prime who joined up with Shepard's mission and hunt for Saren. Although she didn't aide the Commander in her mission to stop the Collectors, she did stay true to the Alliance and moved up the ranks breaking the so called 'Williams Curse' which plagued her family since her grandfather was forced to surrender to the Turians in the First Contact War, which was incredibly tame in comparison to the First Battle of Harvest, and that was only a single Covenant warship manned by a skeleton crew of Brutes accompanied by Grunts & Drones, up against the entire Colonial Militia of the planet, all of which were seasoned and fresh boots, co-led by his old friend Sgt. Johnson, and half of them were wiped out along with civilian casualties in the 23,000 mark.

They rode an elevator up to the Presidium ring where the more high-class civilians resided at, along with dignitaries, politicians, ambassadors, etc. including people who held military connections and were able to get a step up to better places, even medical facilities.

As they stepped out of the elevator, he looked around the place and felt a bit of dark nostalgia of the structure: Halo. Its appearance was very similar not just on the outside, but metaphorically on the inside as well in a way. Where both had beautiful and lush gardens with crystal clean water, and fresh smelling botanical life, they were just facades to cover up the ugly truths. With Halo, it hid the fact that it was a weapon just waiting to go off and kill everything in the galaxy. With the Citadel, it was more of a show of political power to convince and persuade others to give into their demands and get access to one's technology for the 'betterment' of the galactic community.

More like enslavement and disaster in the Chief's mind. Just with a bow tie instead of a whip.

They walked through the doors into the patient lounge where several soldiers and civilians were being treated for wounds, missing limbs and others with illness. There wasn't a large influx of people so far, but it was still early in the war, and a single battle could change the amount of room available in this hospital. As he followed Jane through the lounge, he noticed a few scanners coming from the ceiling and a minor alarm went off as he came under scan. A few of the hospital staff looked up and took one look at the Chief with bit of fear and surprise in the faces, most likely worried that he was a gunman about to kill someone in their care, until Jane rose her hands up in a calming manner, "It's ok, it's ok, he's with me. Don't worry he's a friend of mine."

She glanced over to the Chief who didn't seem tense at all, but he did have his hand right on the Magnum ready to pull it off and pop someone's head off, although he pulled it away as she diffused a rising situation.

The Chief kept his Magnum ready to unlock should someone get the wrong idea as he followed Jane through the hallways to the ICU wing where he saw the Lt Cmdr, still bruised up from their encounter with Cerberus on Mars.

She turned to door knowing that it was Jane walking through, since her doctor had just gone over her status with her a few minutes ago, "Hey, Commander, I was—woah…" Then she saw the tall as hell armored suit next to Jane who was just grinning like the Cheshire Cat from Wonderland, "Ash, I'd like you to meet our newest crewmember for whole war, the Chief." She was slowly getting kicks from people who looked at him for the first time. He gave a curt salute to her XO, "Ma'am."

Ashely just looked back and forth between the two for a bit, "Ok, spill."

-The Dawn-

The ship was silent ever since the fusion core was taken off the timer, however that all changed as a ship docked with the wreckage. The inhabitants began their process of setting up, and it looked at them with hunger for their flesh and knowledge.

From the way they talked and acted, they were both scientists and military. They were ignorant of the danger as it intended for them to become relaxed and off guard when the time came for consumption and assimilation. These other species would be itchy, tasty snacks before the full course of their homeworlds would be in its maw. But the enemy would return to see if its protocol was fulfilled, or if word got back to them that their ship did not self-destruct as it should have.

For now, it would observe and see if the ancient enemy would do anything, watching the ship just as it did. Most likely he would not act as they were still primitives that were preserved, that he did not care much for, but neither hated them. Though there was no doubt that the enemy would return to destroy the ship themselves.

Emotions were but a feeling those it consumed felt. The only thing that it felt was hunger and rage.

Ragee would do just fine. And Rage was all it would have for now for the enemies that would come its way,

-Cortana-

The little AI was watching the funny conversation in Williams' room at the hospital, but she was looking more at some old security vids and local news reports circulating the extranet, concerning the Quarians.

"Quarian pilgrim Jen'Volan nar Neema on the Citadel received a large credit transfer from the Migrant Fleet. Jen'Volan purchase tech, including high-end weapon mounts and Kinetic Barrier emitters, from several ship service centers. On Illium, another Quarian pilgrim, unidentified, was observed searching for a ship traveling: 'close to the Perseus Veil'. The pilgrim was later heard saying that his pilgrimage was recalled. Data suggests that the Quarian fleet is withdrawing its pilgrims and upgrading ships for combat somewhere near the Perseus Veil. This could be a reaction to the Reaper invasion, but no formal offer or request has come. Intel suggests the Quarians may instead be preparing conflict with the Geth."

This was proving to be interesting and yet very stupid all at the same time. From what she gathered on the Geth and the Quarians it would prove to be a disaster in the making soon. Looking at the history of the two she wouldn't be surprised either, the Quarians created the Geth as to be a cheap labor source of VI's, and after doing some tweaking here and there with their coding and processing units which were pretty impressive if she said so herself. Their connections became more complex and interwoven with the units and became borderline Dumb AI level of status but started gaining sentience and began asking questions about their existence.

The Quarians got jumpy without doing any lengthy research, thinking they just created a slave race as opposed to machines that held a single function and tried to exterminate them. The Geth rose up and drove them from their homeworld and colonies beyond the Perseus Veil, forcing them to become vagrants moving from cluster to cluster for resources to survive since the 'ever-so-gracious' Citadel Council refused to help them with their situation, going so far as to revoke the embassy on the Citadel and further isolating them and enforcing AI laws concerning their research ban and signing a treaty into not provoking the Geth. Their weak immune systems were also something that made them more vulnerable and being forced to live in suits their entire lives was rather sad. And that gave her a new little side project to work on

They were idiots to think that the Geth were true AI's like herself and the Dumb AI's, and the benefits of having AI's outweighed the supposed risks that came with it. "They really need to do some actual research into this field, they might've been able to get a lot of things done faster and advanced their tech by decades to even centuries…what a shame."

The only company that was licensed to do any research concerning synthetics was Synthetic Insights, and they barely made any progress in the field for the last 80 years, and even after Saren attacked the Citadel, the company's rep didn't go all too well with no one being hired, well except when the commander managed to 'convince' a manager on Illium to hire a Quarian girl needing a job.

Cortana had been spending so much time compiling the data, sorting through it and organizing through whatever that would be delivered back to the UNSC, she noticed a few small runtime glitches in her own system that were popping up every now and then. They weren't too major but she would be watching and fixing it the next time they came around. She had been holding it together for quite some time now, and she knew that it was only a matter of time before John started seeing the tell-tell signs of her degeneration and erratic behavior, she no doubt would be developing in the coming months. She could keep it together long enough to get him back home and end the Reaper threat. After that, she would be content with her fate in the end. She had done quite a bit in her lifespan, and she had no regrets…she was glad she picked the right one.

She put her attention back with the Chief as they were now finishing up with the restock and trip to the Citadel and making their way to the war summit.

-The Chief-

After heading back to the Normandy and getting resupplied, Shepard wanted to talk with him on the upcoming war summit in his quarters after everyone was back aboard and their destination set. He was cleaning up the room after putting the weapons and equipment in proper order as the commander came through the door, "Hey, Chief." She leaned up against the wall

"Ma'am." He finished cleaning up the M6D as he placed it on the desk next to a few ammo clips, "Alright Chief, we're heading to the war summit over in the Annos Basin, with Primarch Fedorian. The rest of the Citadel governments will already be there, and Admiral Hackett and I will be there to represent the Alliance. Even though Hackett'll be in the meeting through a QEC, I'll need you to help out with security. Especially with the Krogan now in the summit."

The Chief knew that the Council races and the client races would be in attendance, but he didn't know about the Krogan since they were demilitarized and their embassy revoked. The Genophage was something that was no different from the Covenant's genocide against the UNSC, and while he was no fan of aliens, he could sympathize with the Krogan to certain a degree, "Will the summit be in danger from a blood rage attack from the Krogan delegation?"

Jane gave an exasperated sigh, as she gave the 'so-so' handle signal, "Maybe, maybe not. Honestly…I'm just hoping things go well since a lot of people still aren't fans of the Krogan, namely the Salarians. The Dalatrass doesn't think to fondly of them, and I'm hoping Tevos can keep her calm when the talking gets tough. And it will get tough right down to the boney core of the meaty goodness of political bullshit, so fingers crossed that things will go smoothly." So, she was worried that the Salarians and the Krogan would get into a shootout and then the war effort will fall apart, more or less. He read up on the Krogan's biology and anatomy, and with the way they were in combat, he would put them somewhere within the Elite-class of enemy. He would've gone with Brute-class, although after seeing the simulations that Cortana showed him of Krogan's against Brute's, the Brute's were still winning against them, with Elite's above them most of the time and some of the time they won.

However, Cortana also brought something up, "Guess the Quarians didn't get an invite, or they got one but didn't respond."

"What of the Quarians? Will they be attending the summit?" Another race he could somewhat sympathize with. He was curious since they possessed the largest fleet in this Mass Effect side of the galaxy, and more ships never hurt in large engagements, thinking back to the Covenant war and how lop-sided things went when they didn't have the numerical advantage against a technological advanced enemy, and he saw the parallels with the Reapers against these people. The Commander shook her head, "Unfortunately, the Quarians won't be at the summit. I've been trying to see what's been going on with them, and so far, only a few things with Quarians heading back to the Migrant Fleet, nothing much else. But I've got a bad feeling, things are about to get a lot more complicated than they should with them and the Geth."

She shook her head back when she first met the admirals of the fleet. Gerrel was pretty anti-Geth and was all for war against them, Xen was all too eager to get the Geth back under their control seeing how the weird as hell admiral/scientist did surgery on a stuffed animal when she was younger, Korris was a Geth sympathizer and didn't want war with them, and Ran didn't really have the best spine, despite how kind she was. If it came down to a vote, Korris would lose along with the rest of the pro-Geth minority, and it wouldn't be long before shit hit the fan with the Reapers bearing down on them both while being crippled from their own fighting.

She wondered just how Tali would be dealing with things…

She just shook her head, "Well anyways, we'll be there in a few hours and then we get down to the political politicking of bullshit and then actual action against the Reapers…" She propped back up and started walking back to the elevator, "…until then, just get some rest. I'll be sure to get you the VIP list and study up on it. I'll leave you to it then."

"Yes, ma'am."

He turned the laptop on as he delved more into the recent news broadcasts and some of the tapped military channels and reports Cortana had gotten into to further, "You know, I got to say, she's a bit more relaxed than most other military commanders with how nonchalant she is with her crew and squadmates."

"She's…unusual."

"Which isn't a bad thing. I mean come on, you didn't notice how much fun she was having with her XO? She couldn't stop smiling so mischievously." He did admit that she was certainly more carefree in downtime, while in the field she was just as professional as any UNSC soldier, and it was an interesting change of pace for him to have such a commander, "Oh! And I can't wait to see how she'll react to that VI of herself now after I did some work on it."

"Cortana, what did you do?" He was not liking what she was implying in annoying their temporary commander. "Nothing so bad, just a few new added catch phrases and lines to make people's lives a bit more enjoyable with humor and stupid one liners."

"…"

"…"

"Ok." He just went back to cleaning the weapons as the VIP list came up for him to study, while the commander up in her cabin was now being introduced to a few new lines from the VI, "Hi, I'm Commander Shepard, and I want you to help imprint my boot on the ass of each and every Reaper and indoctrinated dumbass in the galaxy. And yes, I'm also talking to you Timmy and you flunkeys in Cerberus, you're getting your imprints soon."

The commander just stared at the VI that was circulating the extra that got a massive boost suddenly with 200 new lines on it, "…" She just smirked a bit at the genius who did this, "Let's see what else you've got."

"Remember kids, don't go down shady as hell alleyways, without a battle-buddy, and be sure to pack some of those amazing devices like the Predator. Just point, shoot and then they'll be talking to whatever god they worship in an instant."

Now she frowned, "Ok, I gotta get this altered." She tried to see if she could do it to the one she currently had with her Omni-tool, then got a smartass response as the VI just waged its finger at her with a smartassey smirk plastered on its digital face, "Ah, ah, ah…you didn't say the magic word."

"…screw you too."

NEXT: SUR'KESH

CODEX ENTRY – GHOST SHIPS: Ghost ships have been a myth among the galactic community for centuries, however in the past 35 years, more sightings of Ghost Ships have been sighted within isolated areas of the Terminus Systems, the Attican Traverse and Inner Council Space, all primarily near the Great Maw. Many ships that have reportedly seen these Ghost Ships have been destroyed leaving only their black boxes for retrieval and have been barely recoverable due to large amounts of what the Alliance calls 'Cherenkov Radiation'.

The only information recovered most of the time has given exaggerated ship sizes ranging from twice the size of a Turian dreadnought to five-kilometer monster sized ships. Such ship sizes are practically impossible to design and create due to cost efficiency and Eezo quantities that are comparable to the Citadel's Mass Effect engine.

This chapter was shorter than the others as we've all seen just how the Chief sees and goes about with the Citadel in other stories, and I didn't feel like we needed to do too much with this chapter as it's more of an interlude than part of the main story.

Now I've gotten each of the previous OC's that I requested from my previous AN, and they have been finalized, although if you still have some I'd like to hear about them. And now I'm looking for some new OC's for a future title that will be with the other OC's I requested and I'll be needing these specific ones –

N7 Fury

N7 Demolisher

N7 Shadow

N7 Paladin

N7 Destroyer

N7 Slayer

Same thing with these OC's, what are their names, gender, age, backstory and personalities. Don't hesitate to either put them in a review or a PM, preferably a PM as it's just better that way IMO. Anyways, is anyone psyched for the new Halo Wars 2 expansion, Awakening the Nightmare? Because I am, I mean I want to know just how in the hell survived the firing of Installation 04B at the end of Halo 3, and not do anything when the more hosts came back afterwards during the novel Hunters in the Dark and afterwards with the research outposts established before Atriox attacked.

Also, if you guys ever have the time to spare, head over to my YouTube channel The League of Gaming Nerds as I'll be doing some more vids soon, and hopefully I'll have the expansion for when I have both Halo Wars games recorded and uploaded, though I'll be playing through Spartan Assault and getting the hang of that game.

Now even more sad news (somewhat) on Bioware and Mass Effect. The Bioware Montreal studio is shutting down and merging with another studio, and there will be no DLC for Andromeda…what utter crap, and now many people, including myself are now believing that the Mass Effect franchise was sacrificed to make way for Bioware's new IP Anthem.

Honestly, I'll just wait for the reviews to come out, as while it looks good, I kinda of feel that it's a Destiny clone in a way, but I could very well be wrong.

Also on the subject of Andromeda, I'll be having some their characters make cameos and some mentions here and there, maybe even write some of the N7 side missions of ME3 with them in it, although that would mean taking a detour from the main story, though if someone would like to help me out with that, I wouldn't mind. Though the main characters such as the Ryder family, Cora and Liam are the ones that I'd like to try and focus on.

If anyone's up for some Xbox Live, just hit me up online and look for my gamertag Kry Daddy 117, I do have all of the Halo and Mass Effect games as well as Battlefield, Gears of War and other numerous major titles, except for Call of Duty. I hate it with a fiery passion, and while WWII sounds cool and all, I'm nervous as wot whether or not it will succeed since it's come under fire for many of their decisions of removing the swastika, adding in black female playable characters to the Nazi's, basically keeping the multiplayer coding the same since previous CoD games, as well as other numerous things that are being changed for the sake of "diversity" and other bullshit things.

I'm just going to stop otherwise this rant will be very long, and I'd rather not do that.

Now I have some story challenges that if anyone is up for doing I can send you what they are, and what the details are as well. And be sure to check out my other stories on my profile, so continue to read, review, favorite and follow :)