A/N: I don't own Halo 3, Mass Effect 2 or any canon characters hereby mentioned from those series. Note, this fic has spoilers from Halo 3, Mass Effect 2, and Halo Wars. So, what did you guys think of the plot twist? In your review for this chapter, could you please state what ending of ME2 do you guys want me to follow. I won't necessarily take the majority vote, BUT I will consider it in making my final decision. For the love of God, please state WHY, and not just "Cerberus is evil.". Actually put some thought into why I should make this monumental decision.
Apparently I forgot to finish the description of firewalling, or as it's more commonly known, redlining, they both mean the same thing, I've just heard it used as firewalling before I heard of it being said like redlining. I also forgot to finish off why Tali ran to the Engine Room, and here's the complete sentence: "However, she kicked herself for leaving Chief hanging like that."
On a side note, shame on you guys for immediately jumping to conclusions about a Chief/Tali romance. I was considering setting the stage for a Chief/Tali/? love triangle , but now I've decided that I'll go with the Chief/? after all. Let's just say, it's a surprise.
QUOTE FOR THE CHAPTER: "There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men." Starship Troopers
UNSC Vessel CFV-88 "Spirit of Fire"
"Serina, where exactly are we?" Captain Cutter was not in a good mood. Firstly, his ship had been forced to ditch its Shaw-Fujikawa reactor, losing many a good soldier in the process. Then he had been hurriedly awakened from cryogenic slumber, and hustled to the bridge, without even time to change into much more than his uniform jacket and some pants. He didn't even have time to properly grab a cup of coffee to wake up quickly, so he wasn't exactly a happy man at the moment.
On the plus side, the Spirit of Fire was now in some sort of junkyard, where he could hopefully find a vessel with a Slipspace drive, or alternatively some new alien FTL, which he could use to get back to UNSC occupied space. However, Serina had discovered a ship that had apparently just dropped in system, and he wasn't sure if it was a Covenant vessel, or something else. Right now, the 16,000 strong crew was being thawed out as quickly as possible, but he knew it would take at least 30 minutes to safely thaw out all his crew, and another 20 minutes for them to get to their action stations, properly dressed and equipped, so he knew that if he was attacked, he had to stall for time.
However, he would try and contact the alien vessel peacefully, and following the UNSC's First Contact protocols, which hadn't proven to be too useful against the Covenant, but the point was moot. He looked at Serina's electronic avatar, and said "Open a COM channel to the unknown vessel. At the same time, deploy a Clarion Spy Drone, and try to get a visual on it. I want to see what we're going to be talking to, before we give ourselves away."
A cloud of white vapor erupted from one of the forward launch pods as a Clarion Spy Drone's small body was launched from the pod. It orientated itself, and then turned towards the unknown vessel. The built-in camera lens zoomed in on the ship, sending the image of the ship back to its mother vessel, and then it moved, hoping for a side view of the ship.
Cutter examined a holographic display of the unknown vessel carefully. It measured at about 200 meters long, and consisted of an envelope shaped body, with 4 oversized engines hanging off the stern of the ship, and was coated in a silver and black paint job, with an orange symbol painted near the port airlock. Along the body, was written in English "SR-2 Normandy", and right below that was a red stripe that ran the length of the name, as if it had specifically been installed to highlight the name.
SR-2 Normandy, Conference Room, at the same time
"So, what do you know about the Spirit of Fire, Chief?" The comment was spoken in the sort of tone that often was uttered by teachers, looking to see if a pupil was paying attention during class. Chief stood in the conference room, looking at the holographic view of the lost UNSC vessel. He said "Not much, sir. She vanished in 2534, under the command of Captain Cutter, back when we thought we had a shot of surviving the war, and this is the first that anyone's ever heard from her. Some people thought that they had deserted, but it was never verified. It was originally a colony vessel, but was converted into a warship, so it is armed with a MAC cannon, plus numerous other secondary weaponry. Sir, I request permission to lead any detachments that we send over to the vessel."
The request raised an eyebrow from Shepard, and a question "How come?"
Chief paused at this moment and decided that disclosure was key at this point, and said" Two reasons sir. The first is that I'm currently the only one onboard the Normandy who's actually been on the ship and the second is that there were 3 Spartans assigned to the vessel. We could use their help, sir."
Shepard didn't even think about it, and said "Permission granted, Chief. Now, seeing how the Spirit of Fire measures about 2.8 KM long, we either send the majority of our team to secure the Fire, and escort it back to a repair facility, or we deal with the Collectors first, and then we secure the wreck."
Joker's voice cut in over the Com Room's loudspeakers, as he said "Commander! The unknown vessel is sending us a signal. It seems that they want me to open a com channel to my commander. Do you want me to open the channel?"
Shepard nodded, and said "Open the channel, Joker. I want to speak with the commanding officer."
Grissom System
The battle for the mysterious wreckage wasn't going quite as expected. The Alliance forces had jumped into the system, and were almost immediately set upon by a Geth task force. Currently, the Elbrus was busily involved in a slugging match with the Geth dreadnought, while the fighters from the DaVinci were busy engaging the unclassified Geth vessel. The frigates and cruisers were engaging their Geth counterparts, while the Iwo Jima, the Pendleton class marine assault vessel was busy affixing itself to the wreck.
Apparently, the unknown Geth ship was some kind of salvage vessel, and it hadn't been intended for frontline usage, as a lucky disrupter torpedo from one of the fighters managed to penetrate through the kinetic barriers, and detonate near the engines. The ship exploded, sending debris and shrapnel everywhere, some of the larger pieces pinging off the kinetic barriers of the cruisers and frigates. The barriers weakened, as their power was siphoned off to deal with the shrapnel, leaving the barriers facing the enemy combatants weakened. Both sides immediately opened up, firing all weapons with the intent of overwhelming their opponents GARDIAN systems. The salvos began actually penetrating the barriers, and 2 Alliance frigates, and a Geth cruiser exploded, clouds of atmosphere and debris appearing where they had been fighting.
Needless to say, it was a draw at the moment, but the Alliance had caught a break. The Marine teams that had been sent off to search the derelict frigate, had managed to get the reactor up to about 20% power of its total capacity. While it was missing its main gun, and most of its weapons, the engines still worked, and the little frigate began turning sharply towards the relay, the Iwo Jima still connected to it. They were uncertain of how they were going to evac the ship out to an Alliance facility, but they figured the ship's drive core could handle transferring the vessel out of the Grissom system.
Unfortunately, they didn't get the chance to figure whether or not they would be correct, as the Geth dreadnought, seeing that their prize was getting away, immediately launched itself on an intercept course, and blew right by the Elbrus as it did so. It barreled through the dogfights between the Alliance and Geth forces, its target clearly visible: The Iwo Jima, which was frantically trying to evade the dreadnought.
The dreadnought lined up a firing solution, and fired a single slug. The high caliber slug, weighing in at about 22 kilograms, was designed to combat dreadnought-class kinetic barriers. The Iwo Jima had only the kinetic barriers of a carrier, which barely slowed down the projectile, as it ripped through the barriers, like a knife through butter, and then right through the ship's hull. The ship exploded, and the Dawn went up with it.(1) The Geth forces began withdrawing immediately towards the Relay, however, the Alliance wasn't about to let them just withdraw without making them pay for the destruction of the Dawn. The Geth dreadnought and 3 cruisers barely managed to escape the Alliance's rage, jumping through the Relay, and from there, back to Geth space.
Yeah, the Geth are of the belief that if they can't have it, then no one should have it.