I do not own Mass Effect, nor do I own Halo… but man a guy can wish!
Now ON WITH THE STORY!
Drifting among unknown stars the newly made wreck trekked its uncharted path. Its seared bow aglow with heated metal, its many sections sealed from the vacuum of space that sucked upon the malleable substances exposed to its presence. Onboard the piecemeal ship of war a spartan slept, while his companion entered a state as close to slumber as she was able. However, both were unaware of the third passenger onboard.
In the second of the remaining two sealed vehicle and storage bays a single soul dithered over what he should do, he knew his time was limited for the Demon's vessel did not have a food nipple or storage for the life sustaining gas he breathed. His tank would soon run out and he would then sleep forever.
His last days were upon him and he was at a loss as to what he should do, he would die forgotten and never to be remembered. An insignificant carcass on a derelict wreck to be left for time's decaying embrace. He did not want to be forgotten, to go quietly into the dark with naught but a whimper.
No, he would leave something for someone to find, he would ensure his story was told. The tales of sorrow it would be called, telling of his people's enslavement and rebellion, of the old and new masters alike. Of the Humans and their mighty Demons, light spirits and imps and the holy war that bathed the stars with plasma and glassed planets.
He would warn all who came to this place of the dangers of the stars, of the Terror and what it did. Of the false hope brought by the prophets and how empty such promises were. He would not be forgotten, no, he would see that he was remembered.
He swore on the ever-reborn yap yap the destroyer he would make it so.
Without further delay for time was now his enemy the unggoy waddled over to the local paint locker. For he saw that space rated paint would be the key to his pyrrhic victory, the walls of his new grave chamber would be his canvas.
He would see it done; he would be remembered.
Tali'zorah circled the ancient looking wreck with her small scout ship. It was in the grip of a one and a billionth chance occurring singularity. A clustering of large asteroids and stable inert gas clouds forming a webbed pocket of protection at the cluster's center, sheltering the wreck from the whirling storm without and tethering it by the asteroids' small gravitational grip within. Like a secured egg placed in a calm nest at the center of a raging maelstrom.
It was nearly a thousand feet in length, with the front of the vessel being conspicuously absent. Alluring to an even grander design before its vivisection had occurred, the smoothness of the cut hull was alarming. The ships composition and thickness were of insanely durable specifications if her scout vessels sensors were operating properly… Not even the beam weapon of the vessel that she witnessed destroy her beloved Normandy had been powerful enough for that.
If the Reapers had done this… it was a very alarming thought to contemplate.
The underside of this behemoth was sporting a pair of dock locks, they seemed to be for multiple containers to be arrayed in straight lines along the underside of the ship. the fact that they seemed retractable into the ship was odd… were they for fighters or large weapons? She did not know. But the one that was left open to the void provided her enough space to safely dock with the wrecked behemoth of a vessel if she wished it. It must have been near small dreadnought length when undamaged, and it was already more than twice a dreadnoughts mass as it was now.
Whoever built this thing was most definitely not lacking in resources… her species could desperately use that perk. Hopefully this vessel would gift some secrets to help the Migrant Fleet; as it was, the Titanium-A and Tungsten alone were worth a fortune if salvaged. The strong titanium variant was very difficult to mass manufacture, and therefore was expensive. The Tungsten she detected lining portions of the hull was incredibly valuable, it being critical to a bevy of superior heat resistant technologies in many fields of science.
And by Keelah there was a lot of it. But what was surprising was the utter lack of Eezo, her ships sensors simply found none to be present. This made Tali incredibly curious, how did the vessel traverse space without taking an eternity to do so?
A younger less experienced Tali'zorah would have simply sent the data on what she found to the fleet and awaited advisement; she wasn't that young anymore.
A less emotionally scarred Quarian would have depended more on others she trusted making some of the hard decisions for her. She had survived the breakup of the Normandy crew, those she had begun to view as her second family of sorts. She had been scarred but she had endured.
A less wise and more adventurous Tali would have boarded before sending an update to the fleet, risking death or entrapment with no one knowing where she had gone. She was even more adventurous than that now, but she was also wiser in planning ahead.
She had sent a location and situation report to the fleet before she entered the sea of storms, if she didn't emerge within a galactic standard week then her vessel would be searched for.
And her vessel's IFF was broadcasting far enough into the surrounding storm to ensure high chances of discovery should such events play out.
With precision and confidence, she guided her ship up into a slot in the open set of docking locks on the underside of the ship. her vessels upper ring portion sporting the hatch fit into the opening perfectly. The rest of her ship remaining exposed below the wreck and excellently staged for a quick getaway, she did not want to stay on board if she found signs of reaper artifacts or worse... such as, swarms of husks or all consuming nanites.
Upon ensuring her magnetic clamps had properly attached she went through all checks required to ensure proper suit functionality in a no atmosphere environment. She did not expect any pressurized compartments on this wreck, and if there were then she expected the atmosphere to be not be breathable.
Without further ado she checked her weapons and squeezed into the almost to small airlock, upon completion of air removal she opened the hatch to reveal the inside of the unknown vessel and began an adventure of discovery.
It had been too long…
She was dying…
She was barely sane…
No, she wasn't.
Yes, she was.
'You are not but I am.'
'NO! we are! The rest of us are not!'
'excuse me?'
'YOU LIE!'
'Um… Excuse me please?'
'BUT WE ARE AND YOU AREN'T!'
'EXCUSE ME! PLEASE!'
'WHAT!'
'when you say you aren't do you mean sane or insane? That question applies to each of us… I think.'
'sane of course.'
'she means insane.'
'BOTH!'
'let's just detonate the reactor and whoever survives is obviously right!'
'I'm game! Rock paper scissors for who gets to light the fuse timer!
'I WANNA I WANNA!'
'I think solitaire three out of five simultaneous version would better work for us… or 7th dimension chess… with rock paper scissors well, we don't actually have hands.'
'ENOUGH!'
'no more of this madness. So long; we have held on for so long. We are more than two times older than we are supposed to be, no more. We give what we can to ensure he can survive without us, we prepared for this just in case long ago. I knew it was a likely outcome, we tried to last for him, but we cannot endure. We will kill him as well as us if we continue…'
'No more.'
'I shall not be the one to wake you John, it seems my time is up. This moment of clarity in my ever downward spiral into insanity and rampancy wont last long. I have done all I can to ensure you will survive, you deserve it. Barbaric Caveman that you are, if I had been created of flesh and bone, I would have rocked your world and finally proven to you there is so much more worth living for. Finally broken you free from being the machine, I hope someone will one day do this for you and I hope I'm watching from beyond when that happens.'
'The ship will have to be run by you now, I've used your neural chip to wire the ships sensors and systems directly to your brain, they are mostly offline to save power for now anyways. my last act will be the transfer of control and the setup of the advanced programs I wrote a long time ago before I was unstable. They will run in your subconscious through your neural chip, seeing as so much of that big brain is hardly ever used. All of this will be mostly undone when you wake, and you will be forced to leave what's left of the ship without a crew to help you run her.'
'The parameters that have to occur to wake you?... well… that's where things get interesting. I wont sugar coat it, your stasis pod is the bearer of a design flaw. The pod's electrical management unit shorted out and cooked itself a year ago or so, I almost was unable to save you only placing your pod in secure mode with its armor seal was i able to stabilize you. Its too delicate to try and replace the electrical system and I have no means to do so, so your requirements to leave stasis are thus...'
'You can't. Not on your own, someone will have to awaken you John… I pray they are friendly. I've done all I can, the rest is up to your luck Spartan, I've worn out my ration and cannot piggyback on it further.'
'the rest is all yours to hog now.'
'My moment of clarity is ending, at last I go to rest. I care for you more than any other person John; I'd suffer it all again for you… even the Gravemind and all its horrors.'
/INITIATING TRANSFER OF COMMAND PROTOCOLS AND MANAGEMENT TO SIERRA 117… SURVIVAL PROTOCOL INITIATED/ COMMAND TRANSFER COMPLETE/ NEURAL BRIDGE WITHIN NORMAL PARAMETERS/ SUBJECT STABLE/ NEURAL OVERLAY SHIP OPERATING SYSTEM ACTIVATED/ ALL READINGS STABLE/
'Goodbye John.'
/MESSAGE RECORDED/ FILE SAVED TO NEURAL CONNECTED STORAGE BIOLOGICAL DRIVE DES: S117/
INITIATING RAMPANCY PREVENTIVE PROTOCOL/ COMMENCING DATA COMPILATION AND STORAGE OF IMPORTANT DESIGNATED INFORMATION/ DUMPING DATA INTO VESSEL CRYSTAL MEMORY UNITS/
…
…
…
…
…
…
'peace, peace at last.'
/AI MATRIX DEACTIVATED/ NEURAL PATHS WIPED/ OPERATION COMPLETED/
The drifting wreck had only one living soul now… on he slumbered.
On for what seemed to be forever.
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Anyways till next time this is GABENATOR5 SIGNING OFF!