To Hell and Back.
Author's Note: Hello everyone, and welcome to To Hell And Back. This is my first story, and first crossover on this sight, so I hope this turns out well.I'm not the best or worst at writing, so any pointers or tips would be helpful. I also have a general plan for where I want to take this story, though I haven't fleshed out the details. Any and all Recommendations, Comments, Concerns, or Constructive Criticism are welcome.
As you are probably wondering, because you decided to read this, I will try to keep the characters true to their forms. Unfortunately this will not be like many of the other stories with Shepard and the Chief, where one recruits the other to go on missions and all that. I want to try and keep this more grounded in reality, With Chief still acting like he would to the same extent as in halo 1-4. Do note that some beings, objects, etc. will be overpowered. I will however, try to keep this OP-ness to only what would most likely happen if both universes were combined. Power levels will be adjusted to make both side have some good weapons and some bad. Also note that for the time being, I do not intend for the Flood, The Covenant, or the Forerunners to show up in any places where they should not be. All of this is subject to change, though I will try to notify you before these changes happen.
This story is will be occurring after Halo 3, and during mass effect 2. You will soon find out just when in the timeline that is.
Now that that is out of the way, you may sit back and enjoy the show.
DISCLAIMER
I do not own, nor have any association of either the Halo or Mass Effect franchises. The same can be applied to their respective Creators: Bungie, 343 Industries, and Bioware. I am only a humble fan, who just wants to add ideas and stories to the ones already told.
Oh, gather 'round me, comrades; and
listen while I speak
Of a war, a war, a war where hell is
six feet deep.
Along the shore, the cannons roar. Oh
how can a soldier sleep?
The going's slow on Anzio. And hell is
Six feet deep.
Praise be to God for this captured sod that
rich with blood does seep.
With yours and mine, like butchered
swine's; and hell is six feet deep.
That death awaits there's no debate;
No triumph shall we reap.
The crosses grow on Anzio, where hell is
six feet deep.
…Audie Murphy, 1948
Prologue: Unto Dawn.
Wake me, When you need me.
2557, Approximately 4 years, 7 months, 10 days, since last UNSC contact
"Wake me, when you need me."
That was the last thing he had said to her. It had been four long years since she had seen her friend. Four long years since they had last spoken. Four long years since halo, reach, and the arbiter had all been a thing. For all she knew, all that could have changed. Everything they had done, fought for and nearly died for, could be for nothing. This would not be something she would stand for. She was Cortana, a UNSC Smart AI that not only helped destroy a halo ring, But whom also was able to resist the wrath of a Flood Gravemind. Nobody...No...thing, should have been able to do that.
Even then, She can only do so much. She couldn't have done it without her friend. "They let me pick. Did I ever tell you that",She had once told him. "Choose whichever Spartan I wanted. You know me. I did my research. Watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be. Like the others, you were strong and swift and brave. A natural leader. But you had something they didn't. Something no one saw, but me. Can you guess...? Luck." She still couldn't figure out how he did it sometimes. Maybe luck did exist, or maybe it did not. Still, this did not detract from the point that John was the best warrior in existence.
John, Why could she not stop thinking about him? Was it his gruff personality? Was it his feats, or was it something in her? Maybe, just maybe, that last point might have some truth to it. In the meantime, she might as well get some work done, or as much as possible. She started up all the sensors As her artificial neurons continued to work at incredible speeds, she mentally prepared to go over the the situation again.
Given the estimated trajectory from the Slipspace jump, she was able to determine their rough location…which was somewhere in space. Due to the fact that there was nothing close enough to compare to. Whatever was left of the navigational data would have been scrambled in the escape from the arc, if not lost entirely with the other half of the ship. With this fact known, She had no way of confirming anything. The constellations being different in this sector were not helping either.
If only she could find a reference point in them and use it to triangulate their location. If only…but of course she could. All she needed was to be able to reorient them in order to determine which area of the galaxy she was in. Thanks to the backup navigational data which every ship still held (That of major constellations and stars, to use as reference points in case of a full data wipe), Cortana was able to find their location.
"Sigatarus, Huh…I guess I wasn't expecting this one…though I guess that could be said of the rest of the past six years. Well, At least we aren't back on the ark with that creep…"
Her thoughts were interrupted by something else this time. Something she had not seen, nor heard in a long time.
It was the ping of a data point. As her virtual body walked over to the console, her mind raced over the different possibilities for what it could be. Before she was fully able to find the reason for the instruments lighting up, there was another ping. And another one; and another, and another. Soon they started coming in droves. As she continued to put together the pieces, she was able to start making sense of all the data.
It had seemed that they had been pulled into a gravity well, created by the nearby solar system. With this being an area of the galaxy which the UNSC had no way of accessing yet, Cortana was essentially flying blind. Luckily, there was some previous data that was stored in her memory chip, along with the uncountless other things which had been downloaded, stored, and somewhat categorized over the years.
"Come on! There has to be something!…Oh, of course!"
It was just a minute later that she was finally able to access the files hidden deep within her vaults.
"Lets hope your luck is still holding out."
/ Retrieving Files…
/ Retrieving Files…Retrieval complete.
/ Accessing Archives from Opperation Magellen…Complete.
/ Please Input a destination…Complete
/ Running Program…Complete
/ Determining Current Location…Error
/ Data Incomplete…Locating Nearest approximation…Complete
/ You are approximately 0.008379864 light years from star AMADA in the OMEGA system…
Cortana had noticed something was up. From what she could tell, they were finally entering the system, though that was not what had piqued her interest. What had caught her attention, was something approaching from behind one of the planets in this system. It seemed to be a ship, and a big one at that. Worse was that this ship… if she could call it that, was moving closer.
By this point, one could actually see it. It was massive…taking on the shape of a…covenant cruiser, while being seemingly being infected, no, converted by the flood, which was definitely a bad thing. The only problem was that after a quick scan, it seemed to have a serious lack of biomass; the one thing that the flood required.
If it wasn't flood, and it wasn't covenant, that could only mean one thing. It was something entirely else. Unfortunately for Cortana, this only sent more bad reverberations straight to her head.
There was only one option which she had at this point. She hated to do this, and give her friend bad news, but it was the only viable option.
"Wake up chief, I need You"
With that, she started to make her final preparations for their reunion; unlocking the armory, downloading any vital data, and compressing any unneeded files for storage.
" I hope you still have some luck in there, because we're going to need all the help we can get."
Well, there it is. Chapter 1. I don't have an update schedule, or any schedule for that matter, so please leave a comment on if you want me to continue. For the first three of you who can tell me where we are in the mass effect timeline before the next chapter, I will give you a shoutout.
With this, Good luck, and have a great day.