The Sum is Greater than its Parts Chapter 8: Revival and Revenge, a Halo + Mass Effect Crossover fanfic

Chapter 6 – Revival and Revenge

Author's Notes: Finally finished this chapter. Wasn't going to have it this long but it kind of took on a life of it's own. I actually managed to almost double the word count with only the story. Not even with all these notes I'm putting in. The later chapters will be following this pattern unless I get a lot of feedback otherwise.

Anyway, plenty to read here. Also, I'm going to answer some of the reviews here. I usually send replies to the reviewer, if you've reviewed with a question or something similar you've probably heard from me but I wanted to clear things up for everyone right quick. I'll just go down the list as I see it.

Anon Reviewer: My logic behind that is that the Forerunners didn't scour the planets, they just killed all life of a certain biomass. The evidence the SSC is finding shows a systematic, planet by planet scouring of evidence that anything ever existed. MUCH more thorough. The Forerunners left ruins and evidence, the Reapers leave the relays and the Citadel. (usually, Protheans were tricksies little alienses.)

TheExpendableJoe: You hit on a lot of things that I will specifically be avoiding in this story. Maybe for different reasons, but the end state is the same. I don't think there will be many spots where you will be annoyed. Maybe.

noname: The armor the New SSC has in general is a lot more badass and advanced than the Halo trilogy Chief's, HIS armor is going to have gotten a lot of lovin from his favorite Smart AI so yhea, when he gets involved, problems stay solved. That being said, he is only one (hugely badass) man.

Wolf: Thanks for the reviews! I'm looking for a beta reader but have exactly zero idea how to go about it.

Jonnoda: I actually noticed that, a few other reviews commented as such. Your breakdown helped though. Thanks!

Nargus: The major plot points I was talking about were the large battles that occur in the games. I used a few spots from the game in this chapter and the third game will heavily influence the remaining story. That being said, things have changed enough that when we get to those points, shit's gonna be different. I'm looking forward to it, hope you all are too.

Sightbent: Thanks, I thought the life of a giant worm that can live and eat anything and anywhere would actually suck if you were that worm. Living on that planet (small spoiler for the first person to pm me which one) as a Thresher Maw would REALLY suck in my opinion. Had some fun with it. Won't be trying the "acid trip" thing again though.

Echosentient: I sent you a reply but I'll add it here because I'm sure that thought has occured to others. The SSC's star charts (in my mind it would have to work this way) were relational to the position of stars in a given area of space as well as their distance from galactic center with a value for offset from the galactic plane on the Z axis. Since the stars were effected in the Mass Effect galaxy by the difference between universes, the same number of stars existed in any given volume of space but their positions were different, sometimes wildly so. (How would element zero act in a supernova or nebulae?) Therefore the SSC's star charts were effectively useless. That's why they were scanning so thoroughly.

angrycritique: That's a lot of awesome info, I love the numbers. I do some of the same figuring as well but cut a lot of that out for the actual story. Maybe the codex will show off some of my big-number attempts.

All reviews beyond I've probably answered and don't feel like typing more out right here, doesn't mean I'm not happy you reviewed, just tired fingers.

Anyway! Again, enjoy - I don't own mass effect or halo.*legal stuff*legal stuff*dontsuemeiampoor*

They had to find any edge they could over Saren, he had more time to prepare, he had the Geth at his beck and call, as well as that strange ship they had seen on New Eden. So Shepard had done the incredible, gaining Spectre status, assembling a team of different species, Saren had a lot to answer for.

Throughout all of her searching though, Shepard still ran across people that she could help. She had become a Soldier in the Alliance to help those that she could, after her colony was attacked by slavers when she was a kid, it had become almost an obsession to help those that needed it.

Which was why she was out at this back water planet investigating a distress beacon for that Admiral on the Citadel. After clearing out the Geth that had attacked the men the Admiral had asked her to find, she made a discovery of her own.

After she had reported the remains of the Alliance Soldiers and deactivated the misleading beacon, two other things caught her attention. A small Prothean ruin nearby that yielded a data disk, invaluable to galactic society, and the second which was even stranger.

Prothean ruins were exciting sure, but the remains of the Thresher Maw a few kilometers away was…worrisome. What was left of the large predator was frozen and spread out across a large area centered on the corpse of the creature which had sunk back into a large hole before it froze.

Wrex kicked a frozen chunk of Thresher Maw "Damn Shepard, looks like we missed a hell of a fight by a few decades." Tali stood up from the piece she had been scanning with her omni-tool.

"It's definitely not new, decades like Wrex suggested but what could do this to a Thresher Maw? I've never heard of one being killed like this." Shepard looked over the carnage,

"I'd imagine an orbital strike could do this, although the weapons officer would have to be a hell of a shot to hit even this thing from orbit."

She turned to look at her two partners, "Either way, we've had our look, for now we'll have to write it off as another mystery."

Wrex barked a short laugh, "Shepard, those mysteries have been biting us in the ass lately but I agree, there's nothing else for us here." The three put the dead Thresher Maw out of their mind as they left the planet, they had a rogue Spectre to catch.

New Ark, CIC, 2183 Citadel Time

Cortana had a problem, she was stuck. The "Sword" artifact they had found six years ago still held on to its secrets. They all knew it would take time although she had thought that their experience with Forerunner artifacts would allow them to decipher this object as well. That was her main problem, it was too different. There had been a breakthrough a few years back that captured public attention around the object again. One of the crews, in an attempt to try just about anything, sent a pulse of radio waves at the object. The researcher head was quoted with saying "It has an antenna, it is old yes, but it's something that hasn't been tried. Not particularly scientific but it worked!"

He had been correct in a shocking twist. They didn't use radio waves to communicate anymore, tight beam lines between ships and slip stream connections had antiquated the radio hundreds of years ago, so no one had thought to broadcast at it in that manner. The next few months were exciting as the few things they now knew about the "Sword" had been found.

It was apparently a part of a transit network in the galaxy. After the device responded to the signal, power readings began to emanate from the object. The rings in the center started spinning slowly and after a few minutes, a blue light could be seen radiating from the center. The team responsible for the activation had been sitting kilometers away as a safety precaution or they would have found out what it did immediately.

Cortana looked over the data that had been collected by the handful of ships sent through. The same thing happened when a ship go close enough, a tendril of blue energy reached out from the core, the rings spun faster, and then the ship disappeared in the direction the two prongs were pointing. Faster than the slip space travel but only in one direction and to a single destination. Unless there was more to the objects than they knew of currently, it seemed to just form a rigid, two-way street. The exact mechanism of travel was still not entirely understood either.

The two AI that had been working on the sample of the strange new element and subsequently assigned to assist in the study of the object had reported that, using the element, the object was able to create a path of space that imparted no mass, bypassing the "m" in E=mc2. Much like manipulating the interaction with the Higgs-Boson field except it acted on the space surrounding the object instead of the way the mass of the object interacts with the field as they had come to understand and manipulate it. The path allowed for an object to get around the speed of light without using slip space.

The travel time was fast, hundreds of light years nearly instantly, although the main flaw was that they only went to where the partner object was. It would be useful as a transit system among different locations much like the transit systems used among cities and regions. Although the bottlenecks they presented were the main problem, another exciting discovery to be studied but as it stood, the limitations were too great to be practical for the New SSC.

Cortana remembered the meeting the Command had when the second and third objects had been found.

2 Years ago, 2181 Citadel Time

"Admiral, it's very exciting, we've spent four years poking and prodding this thing and now we have it running. Not only running but, working, it sent the ship that approached it 430 light years in seconds using a method of real-space faster than light rather than using other dimensions that we use to achieve the same."

Admiral Hood deactivated his personal hard light screen projected from the "watch" he had gotten as a birthday present, "I'm not saying it's not interesting, we won't deny our scientists access to this and the other object, my objection to activating the third object is based on what we found on at the other side."

Cornelia's avatar moved to the other side of the room, "The data from those planets is the same as almost every other system with the exception of the objects we found."

"That's exactly my point Cornelia, the scans of the planets show the same traces at the same age the other planets near our side of this object shows. Until we find out more about the objects we know of, I'm ordering the third object remain deactivated. We are all hopeful, this is the best evidence we have for intelligent life since we arrived but we can't forget our own histories, myself and Commander 117 especially. First Contact has never gone well, for any of our species."

"We will continue learning what we can then Admiral, we have a working pair of them and they seem to be in communication with each other. They never drift away from an almost perfect alignment with each other. I would like to send scouts to find out about the area around the second object."

Cortana had been eager to find out everything they could about those objects and anything surrounding them.

"I'll have a scout fleet move and begin to scout the distance between the two objects, see if there is anything to be found there. Once they get to the second device we can move some more fleets to look into the area around it. We've been careful this long, we can wait a little longer." Admiral Hood looked around at the others.

The Arbiter looked up from the data, "This device captured the attention of everyone when it had been discovered and has done so again with its activation. I would recommend we expand our defensive fleets. We have been maintaining the fleet, there have been more scouting prowlers to be sure, but I think more needs to be done."

"I was considering that, I'm satisfied with the scouting fleets so far and the upgrades we've been able to fit onto our ships but I had thought we had enough firepower with the fleet. What do you suggest Arbiter?"

"We have the New Ark and our fleet, yes, but what do we have beyond that?" The Arbiter looked around the room. "The discovery of the function, method, and surrounding area of these objects suggest that we should not reveal the Ark to whomever we meet. There is too much riding on us here."

"We could settle on some planets, terraform near one of the objects and use that as a stepping stone should we meet other races." Cornelia liked the idea, it would keep her installation safe.

"I would suggest another plan. We carry the Mantle and such we should have a place of peaceful grandeur to greet the races of this galaxy. I am suggesting we create more of the Halos, with the Halos we would be able to meet the other races on our terms. They are great works of engineering and technical prowess and they do not display the same hostile image that one of our ships may project." The Arbiter would take the path with least bloodshed, his days of honor-bound combat believed to be behind him.

Cornelia spent a moment running through the archives and the New Ark's capabilities. "With what we have, we could easily build new Halo rings. I have the plans up and ready now. My builders can change them however we need."

"Very well, let's expand the fleets but after we finish the Halo. We'll build it as big as the Foundry will allow, then we'll build more ships." Admiral Hood felt the issue was closed with the decision.

"Well Admiral, why have just ONE halo?" Cortana asked with a smirk.

Present Day 2183 Citadel Time

After that meeting, study had continued on the two objects, less than fruitful however. It seemed to Cortana that the devices were made to be easy to find and use to travel but were proving nearly impossible to interface or discover more than that. After a time, other AI had taken the responsibility of researching the objects.

The two AI in question were Nyx and Kerberos. Upon the recognition of AI as citizens in their own right, the creation of new, indefinitely stable, AI expanded from being a human endeavor to the other races. Each race's AI adding traits and uniqueness that many felt was sorely needed and welcomed in the fledgling AI nation.

Nyx is an AI that had been created in the 29th century after a close relationship between an Unggoy scientist, Klif, and the AI that had assisted with the research at the facility the Unggoy worked at. The scientist had been mortally injured when an experiment had gone awry and as a last respect, the AI had promised an AI would be born from her mind.

The result had been Nyx, whose avatar took the shape of a robed, unggoy female figure whose appearance, and mind in many cases, changed and shifted constantly. Those who worked with her came to admire the shifting points of view that she offered, although it could be a chore at times to isolate the good ideas from random thoughts the AI had, the single task of studying the objects helped stabilize her.

The other AI was one of the rising number of the AI nation who were composed of AI formed from the worm-like Lekgolo. After a colony agreed among themselves and petitioned for representation within the AI nation in 2871, Kerberos was created from the 300 Lekgolos who had volunteered.

Kerberos' avatar has no gender but is instead a grouping of small cubes in a vague humanoid shape, although with digitigrade legs much like the Sangeheili. Kerberos states its form reflects the group mind colonies of the living Lekgolo with many smaller and agile AI existing as the organic counterpart. The form that had been chosen was one of the Arbiter who brought the Lekgolo race into the Covenant, Lekgolo AI have been noted as having better-than average multi-tasking skills even among the AI.

The pair of AI had been working almost exclusively on the properties, effects, and application of the new element found along with the "Sword" object. Most of the time spent had been pure research, decades of research were accelerated by the AI, by year three, they could synthesise the element, by the fourth year – and the year the object was activated – they had started to understand how it could be used for faster than light travel at the ship scale.

Before activation, the simulations they had ran turned out to be interesting from a purely scientific view however. Real-space faster than light was enable by the element but the speed paled in comparison of the thousands of light years a slip space drive could travel in a day.

Even with the known limitations of the element for FTL, the day the object was activated and its function discovered, the pair exploded into a flurry of activity again. Cloistering themselves within their virtual worlds on the station orbiting outside of the activation radius, speaking very little to those outside, even amongst each other. Inside the virtual space the pair used to share and process the data, they met for one of their rare exchanges of results and insight at the end of the second year since the day the objects had been activated.

"The device projected the ships through the mass-less corridor of space it created at a, although incredible, constant rate of speed each test. There seems to be no deviation based on the mass sent through, could this be indicative of an upper limit to its speed?" Nyx had ran hundreds of thousands simulations before these objects were active but they were based on speculation. Hard data had since flooded her mind and she had been in bliss.

"There is doubt, the speed may be a balance – the most economical route for the energy spent. More time and simulations are needed, not an avenue that had been explored previously." Kerberos' odd speech bothered some, the complete lack of personal identity within the AI resulted in phrases such as "There is doubt" instead of "I don't think that's right". Nyx had learned to live with it.

"Well, we certainly won't be shooting people to other galaxies with one of these devices, the power requirement for that at the speeds we're seeing would be...*calculations*...roughly equivalent to the total lifetime output of an average Sol-type star! Wow. It seems generating the corridor of space to propel the ship through takes most of the energy required for transit. The actual boost is negligible due to it effectively having no mass…the other energy, I can't solve where it is going." These sort of numbers and though experiments always excited her.

"Collapsing a star for an intergalactic trip seems like a fair trade. Who can judge? There is much more data to rifle through, we must keep looking, we must go DEEPER!" her personality had been uncharacteristically stable throughout the project they had been given, recently, it was beginning to shift again.

"Efforts of that magnitude are outside of the scope of this project, there is a clear path that will be followed in the attempts to uncover the workings of these objects. Practical applications and tactical values. There are simulations to be ran after this data exchange." Kerberos' avatar began to disappearing from the virtual space, each cube shrinking down and systematically terminating the connection.

"Data packets will arrive upon valid results, coordinated efforts have yielded much, and it is advisable to continue." The last comment delivered just before the last cube shrank from the joint computing space.

Nyx agreed, she would use the available computing power in her area and the area her and Kerberos shared. The data took the shape of inter-locking blocks in front of her, she had sorted and cataloged it quickly. She began her experimenting. "This is going to be FUN!"

Leading Edge of New SSC scanned space, SSC Prowler 'Forward Unseen', 2183 Citadel Time

"Are you sure? No mistakes right, if we've found more of those things the Command will need to know." Nick was sitting on the bridge of his ship feeling nervous. His decades-old routine of scanning, bad jokes, and worse food had just had a 15 km long wrench thrown in it.

"After all this time, you expect me to admit to a mistake if it was this magnitude? You haven't been paying attention at all have you?" the AI wanted to lighten the atmosphere in the ship, the mission he and Nickolas had been sent on some 25 years ago had mostly been a bust.

Instead of some compelling new evidence pointing to ancient galactic events they had found more of the same. There had been a few years of excitement, the sense that something was just ahead of them in the next system. The feeling was a difficult one to maintain very long and after the tenth year at it, the pair had decided to no longer be enthusiastic. This was nearly the 26th.

"Hey now, I have access to your logs, all your snark-laden comments are laid bare before my root access my good digital sir! I was surprised is all, never thought we'd be the ones to find other "Sword of the Ages", and one orbiting so close to a planet too –did they give them a different name yet, seems a mouthful for such an important discovery." He had taken to just calling them the "objects" as the reports he sent up usually did, no one had corrected him so far.

"Not only did we find more, the object is already active! There is also evidence of a different device working in concert with the *ahem* waypoints, that's the unofficial term for them, a communication system maybe?" Others had the same thought as Nick. Although the official title was "Sword of the Ages", no one would try to rob the discovering individual the right to name them but many just used the term waypoints. It seemed to fit the function of the devices.

"Active? What kind of device is it? Let's get closer and see what we can learn from them, let's start recording, if we get just outside the activation radius of the waypoint and still can't get a good reading we'll send a report. If we can learn something, we'll find what we can, I suppose you can name the new thing since you saw it first –", the AI's avatar appeared with a smug look on his face, "and then we'll send a report up."

"I think that can be arranged – what the hell?! Reading a power spike, someone is coming in from the other side!"

At that moment, the rings accelerated and the blue core shone brighter for a brief moment before a sleek, aerodynamic looking ship dropped into the space near them. In the fractions of seconds between his words reporting the happenings to his commander and before the new ship had dropped into space, Andrew tasked the ship to run a full check on systems, scanners, and then saw personally to ensure the cloak was holding. Standing orders were to collect data first starting with passive scans while cloaked, moving to more active levels of scanning, ending up just short of full, active scans. Whatever was encountered in this galaxy and universe would then be followed under stealth to the best of the commander's ability. Further contact would be dictated by Command.

Andrew, after almost a century of nearly nothing beyond routine scanning, was surprised enough that he devoted almost all of his attention to seeing the protocol through step by step. Due to this, Nick did something that happened very rarely, he noticed something before a smart AI.

"Andrew, are you seeing this?" Andrew didn't answer, he was halfway through a thousand checks and scans. "That ship has English written across the side of the hull."

This pulled the AI away from his tasks, on pause or automatic, he shifted his attention to the cameras pointed at the ship. "I-I believe it does, that must be its name or faction it belongs to."

"Andrew, you're missing the biggest part of this, THERE IS A SHIP WITH ENGLISH WRITTEN ON IT! An alien ship, the first we've encountered. And it. Has. English. Written. On. It. Its name maybe, 'Normandy', not bad sounding." Nick's mind ran in circles for moments. This could mean so much for the SSC!

"This is HUGE! We have to find out everything about it! I'm half tempted to hail them-" he was interrupted by the AI.

"Let's not jump ahead of ourselves here," Andrew had gotten a hold of himself and now had his subroutines in some semblance of order. "It could be one of ours, didn't Admiral Hood and the Arbiter bring the ONI back? Could be spooks."

Nick shook his head, "Not ONI, that beast was defanged and mothballed centuries ago. No, they started the New Ark Intelligence." He tore his gaze from the sight of the ship on the view screen and began going through the data on the hard light consoles.

"Look at this, the alloy is fairly low-tech, the profile suggests it still requires aerodynamics to go into atmosphere –looks pretty sleek to me-, and if the sensors are reading right, they stopped emitting heat or any other emissions seconds after arriving." Nick and Andrew spent a few seconds thinking about this. Andrew much more so than Nick.

"Yes, I've moved the scans as far as the first contact standing orders allow. I've gotten some interesting things from it." Data points began to surround the ship's image on the bridge view screen.

"You can see that the hull makes no use of the forerunner's alloy configurations and has almost no proper armor to speak of. The back section shows readings that coincide with the concentrated element that is found in the waypoint's rings." The camera zoomed on the words "Normandy" and "SR1".

"The emissions disappearing I can't immediately explain although I would guess it would be part of an attempt at masking their presence. These words however, are the most interesting and alarming part of this."

"I will put what I want sent with the report sent up in the file," Nick was suddenly interrupted by an alarm.

"The waypoint is activating again, looks like there is more coming through…Nick I suggest we power up the hard light shielding and get weapons ready. I don't like being outnumbered and we know too little right now."

"Agreed, charge the drive as well, discretion may be the better part of valor today." Andrew began the sequences as the view on the bridge changed. After a brief moment, the view widened to include the new arrival. It resembled a hollowed out asteroid that had been put together by insects. Roughly two kilometers in length it dwarfed both ships.

"The new ship appears to be vastly different than the first ship – power spikes are being detected from the ship. It may be weapons – shields and weapons are at 100% and on standby."

Nick looked out at the two ships, "Keep collecting as much data as you can, move us away from them both by a few hundred kilometers. Whatever happens, I'm not sure us being so close will help."

"Moving away now, the large ship is firing a weapon!"

They watched as a golden beam of light lanced out from the large ship and tore pieces of the smaller ship out through the breaches it created. As a second volley tore through the ship, they saw atmosphere venting.

"The atmosphere matches ours, although with contaminants from on-board fire evident. The ship seems to have lost communications, there are still no detectable signals coming from it." Andrew continued to scan the ship as the larger ship closed in and fired a third time. More of the smaller ship began to come apart under the beam. What appeared to be emergency lifeboats were thrown from the sides and seemed to blink out of existence a second later.

"Those are life boats Andrew, the ship doesn't look like it can take another hit…"

"Nick, no, our standing orders in this situation are-"

"I don't care, it looks human and it looks like they're all about to die, move us in the path of the weapon, keep it from getting hit again!"

Andrew hesitated for the briefest of moments before launching the ship into motion, Nick had engaged his acceleration harness in case the inertial dampeners failed. Neither of them were sure if their 160m long prowler could stand up to that beam. Nick was willing to find out.

"I've prepared for the Cole protocol Nickolas, we're almost in position and the power is spiking from the big ship."

"Target the sight of the power spike, after it's fired, drop cloak and we'll see what damage we can do!"

Unbeknownst to both of them, the last lifeboat containing Jeff "Joker" Moreau had just launched. For the second before his lifeboat accelerated to FTL, he saw the second impossible thing in the last 60 seconds of his life.

The 'Forward Unseen' dropped cloak, the orange glow of the hard light shields slamming into place as it moved into the space between the beam weapon of the large ship and the smaller, mortally damaged ship. For the space of a second the hard light shields held off the destructive power of the larger ship, failing a split second before the beam ceased, just long enough to strike the armor of the 'Forward' and pushing it minutely off target.

The SSC prowler 'Forward Unseen' had been shaken but now answered the larger ship's weapon in kind. The blue-white hot line raced from the ship, melting armor and turning vital components of the ship into expanding plasma. The beam from the prowler was shorter lived but had traveled through the larger ship, off target and not a mortal wound, it was enough.

Andrew and Nick cheered at seeing the damage done, a glowing hole through the ship, explosions could be seen traveling the length of the damaged section.

The final lifeboat from the small Alliance frigate escaped into FTL, its occupant dumbstruck.

"We have a hit, the ship's weapon knocked us off target by a small degree when the shields dropped but a second volley should finish it off!" Andrew adjusted the aim and readied the command, there were still seconds until their weapon was charged again. Too long for their intent to destroy the large ship however. With seconds still remaining to the kill shot, the larger ship escaped, jumping to FTL after reeling from the attack of the much smaller ship.

"DAMN! It's gone! Andrew, I need all the data on that thing as soon as possible. How are the shields?"

"They were overloaded, that ship's weapon was effective. We wouldn't have won in a straight up brawl. Good thing we could hurt it enough to scare it off but I'll divert power to ensure we have shields in the next 45 seconds. The cloak will be useless in the meantime."

"Good, we can live with no cloak for a bit, we don't want to be caught with our pants down without shields." Nick was interrupted by the view of the smaller ship on the bridge view screen. Something had finally blown and the forward two-thirds of the ship were pushed away from rest of the ship as it exploded.

"Nick, I'm detecting a life sign among the wreckage dropping into the atmosphere of the planet, seems to be the only survivor although they'll burn up during re-entry in a few moments."

"We just intervened between two ships, one that I'd say looked human enough, and we've already broken the spirit and the letter of our orders. Track them and pick them up, let's be quick! I'd hate to leave them to barbecue and splatter on some dirt ball."

Andrew had been expecting the command and swung the ship down and darted after the figure. Already his sensors could see the effects of re-entry, pieces began to separate from the figure, burning up separately as they fell. Nick engaged his armor, by the time he had traveled the distance to the now open bay, his suit was sealed.

He looked out at the figure coming towards him as Andrew flew the ship carefully in front of the falling figure, slowing down to allow it to enter the hold.

Six slow seconds later, the damaged figure landed in the bay and the door shut. Andrew stole power from the weapons and recharging shields for the inertial dampeners and engines as he banked out of the planet's atmosphere.

"Nickolas, we are clear of the atmosphere and the readings indicate you both survived, the unknown alien just barely."

He picked up the damaged figure, its suit was badly damaged and parts of its limbs were gone, the ends of what appeared to be its hands and feet revealing only charred stubs.

"I'll get it to our medical bay, plot our course for the nearest Galaxy-class, I believe it's still the 'Shining Dawn' isn't it?"

"Correct, jumping now – eta 17 minutes. The medical bay is ready, I don't have a good scan of it, which will have to be the first priority in the med bay."

Nick arrived in the medical bay, almost skidding to a stop before setting the figure down on the examination table. Scanning arms unfolded from beneath the table and engaged the hard light scanners. The orange and blue sheets of the scanners passed over its form a dozen times before quickly retracting.

"Nick I'm moving her to the cryo chamber – the damage can be reversed but not if we don't get her stabilized." As the AI said this, hard light restraints flickered into life over the figure and the table tilted up and moved towards a section of wall that opened up, revealing the unused cryo chamber.

"Ok, good to hear, wait – SHE?!" Nick had been under the impression that the biology of the alien would have required more time to ascertain gender.

"Yes, I had expected a completely alien physiology but after the first scan gave me inconclusive readings, the next two passes revealed a wholly unexpected fact. Nick, it is human and female. She's been badly injured. Alive but in the final stages of dying. Our cryo chamber should stop it and the wider medical suite on the 'Shining Dawn' will be able to, in theory, stabilize her."

Nick was speechless as he looked at the helmeted visage through the window on the cryo chamber. "Andrew, what was a human doing in a low-tech ship getting shot at by a giant space-born termite mound?"

"I don't have any record of any missions in this area of space that would put any of our people in that position Nick. I don't think she was one of our people though."

Nick turned to face Andrews's avatar as it appeared in the med bay. "What do you mean, how do you know that?"

"I just finished going through and analyzing the data from the medical scans – she's human for sure but she's missing all of the DNA markers we have found in ours that the Forerunners put there."

"That's…it makes sense, if she's from a group of humans in this universe, there's no Forerunners here. No Forerunners, no markers." The implications of this new information suggested a lot of things.

"That does follow the evidence. I've compiled and sent the report, we're 12 minutes out from the 'Dawn'. There's a lot of data here, we really shouldn't have even gotten involved in that firefight. Now we have a local human and a ship we shot, probably full of witnesses. We have no data on the two factions or idea of what is going on. Heh, there may be a court martial in it for us."

"I seem to be really good at botching up first contact scenarios. First that giant worm, now two ships and a burnt up alien human. If I hadn't messed this up so badly I would be a lot more excited about this contact. Humans! Hey, you think there'll be any other species from the SSC?"

"If there's humans, I'd say there's an equal chance of the other races existing here, we'll have to wait –"

'INCOMING TRANSMISSION – ALPHA OVER RIDE'

Nick and Andrew were startled as the med bay view screen activated to reveal the faces of Admiral Hood, the Arbiter, and Corneila's avatar.

"Commander Austra, we receive your report. You can imagine we are surprised."

"Sir, I realized I broke protocols, I made a decision based on the assumption there would have been nothing of the smaller ship left to follow, there was no-"

"That's not the reason we're calling you Austra, that WILL be addressed, but your passenger is the more important cargo right now. We're calling to give you your new assignment, rendezvous with the 'Dawn', once you and your cargo are on board, the scout fleet will meet up with us at this point."

Coordinates flashed on screen and were loaded into the navigation computer.

"If the data checks out, this is big Commander, bigger than the objects we found. You've hit it big commander, the little complex life in this galaxy seems to find you. First the xeno worm, now the first sentient life we meet. I'm calling back the other scout fleets for now. They've found nothing of this magnitude and I've got a new assignment for them, you'll be part of the next mission we are setting up as well Commander."

"Best of luck to you Commander, we all eagerly await your arrival." The Arbiter said before cutting the connection.

"Well, onwards and upwards right Andrew?" Nick looked at the figure currently frozen in the medical bay of his ship. 'What can of worms did I just open?'

Onboard SSV Kilimanjaro, Debriefing Room – 2 hours later

"Sir, for the third time, I know what I saw – the huge ship came out of FTL and started shooting. Almost everyone else got out, I tried to save the ship. Shepard all but shoved in to the life boat like laundry into a dryer. I broke my damn arm when the boat jettisoned from the 'Normandy' and that's when I saw the smaller ship."

"The small one just materialized you say?"

"Not materialized, shimmered, I wanna say it 'uncloaked', like some old science fiction movie."

"Noted, continue."

"Right, so then the huge ship shoots at the 'Normandy' only it hits the small ship – I thought it'd blow like a light bulb but it didn't. The area the beam hit glowed orange until the last split second, then the beam glanced off the small ship's hull."

"You didn't see any visible damage?"

"No, I barely saw the small ship shoot back before the pod jumped. But I DID see it, blue-white beam that blasted right through the big one."

"And that's all you saw before your pod went to FTL."

"YES, now if you ask me a fourth time I'm going to start putting in unicorns and leprechauns."

"This is an official debriefing flight lieutenant, involving the destruction of one of the Alliance's most advanced ships. I'd suggest you take it a little more seriously."

"I would, I DO, but you all keep looking at me like I'm some poor trauma victim! Sure it was traumatic – the 'Normandy' was my baby, but I still know what I saw dammit!"

A moment passed, uncomfortable silence.

"That will be all Mr. Moreau, you can return to your quarters until we arrive at Alliance headquarters, you will receive your final debrief there."

"Yhea, great, and my court martial I'm sure."

Same Time – Onboard 'Shining Dawn' en route to undisclosed location

The arrival on the 'Dawn' had been met with the mass of medical personnel and flurry of motion Nick had expected. Andrew loaded into his neural lance and accompanied him to the conference room aboard the ship while his passenger was rushed to the much more capable medical suite.

"You've only run across two examples of life in this galaxy Commander Austra, and yet that is two more than the twenty fleets scanning for it. I've been told to assure you by the Command that you won't be taken out of the efforts that are to follow."

"I half expected to be court martialed in Fleetmaster, I acted in, essentially, the polar opposite of the standing orders of first contact." Nick walked behind the Sangehili Fleetmaster, she was almost colored a mixture of scaly blue under the suit she wore.

The suit being the SSC's "light armor", the systems interwoven into the material allowed roughly the same protection as the venerable Commander 117's had been during the events on Delta Halo centuries ago. More protection was available but it met the minimum requirements all members of the SSC navy wore for day to day duty in the scout fleets.

"True but Cortana convinced the others in Command to stay their hands from negative actions in your case."

As they entered the conference room, the other commanders of the forward deployed prowlers were waiting, speaking with the fleet's AI – 'Chavamee, after the Sangheili, Fal 'Chavamee, who had changed the purpose and meaning of the Arbiter for the Covenant. – The Avatar was Sangheili, a male formed dressed in ancient armor.

"Cortana values your luck Commander Austra, I would trust her judgement, and she chose the Commander – 117 for his luck as well. You should be honored."

The other commanders turned to the Fleetmaster and him as they walked in. Nick felt uncomfortable at hearing the AI, he was no Master Chief.

"Yes, that was part of the decision Commander Austra, I believe the Command will speak for themselves, we've dropped out of slip space at the location. I think we'll all enjoy the view."

Everyone turned to the center of the Conference room as the holographic view of the area of space the 'Shining Dawn' had moved to resolved. In front of them, they saw the 'Dawn' briefly before the view widened to include the object they approached, dwarfing their ship my magnitudes.

"It's been so long since the last time many of us were on the New Ark, they've been busy. Commanders, I present to you "Shangri La". The first of the halos the Command ordered constructed and it will be the base of any further diplomatic relations with this universe at large."

"I think it is a surprise for us all that we have reason to deploy it so soon, my simulations didn't include this eventuality. It is exciting." The AI seemed genuinely excited about the prospects of this Halo.

"Our musing will have to wait however, we are receiving orders to land, and a flight path. Taking us down Fleetmaster." The AI's avatar flickered out of existence and he left to attend to his tasks.

"Well, now we play chauffer to the alien, Commander Austra, you're with me." The Fleetmaster said as she left the conference room, Nick followed.

Shangri La Halo, Command and Control Center – 20 minutes later

"Welcome back Fleetmaster, Commander, things have gone into high gear in the New SSC once word reached the New Ark. You've caused quite a stir…again." Admiral Hood began, addressing Nick.

"I do my part Sir, I'm grateful that I'm not being dismissed from duty and apologize for the break in protocol."

"No need Commander, in light of the magnitude of the discovery, and the appearance of an apparently human vessel, your actions can be forgiven. I know you lived through the time when ONI would operate independently so it's not a far stretch to see you may have mistaken the ship for one of our own."

"We have an opportunity now however, the second ship poses a potential threat, and the recovered individual is recovering as we speak. Which, also, it is important to mention that "it" is definitely a "she" and a human. All the tests have confirmed it." The Arbiter spoke up as comparisons of the recovered individual's DNA and that of their DNA materialized.

"The anomalous puzzle is the lack of Forerunner markers, to be expected in a universe that they don't seem to exist, but from what we know of our own history, these humans SHOULD be over 100,000 years ahead of us." Cortana had been the first to go through the data sent back.

"There could be any number of reasons, they could be an offshoot that is left after an event that occurred here, the humans may have evolved differently – 100,000 years isn't all THAT long as far as evolution is concerned –, or it may be related to the planetary and the waypoint objects." Cornelia had had a chance to go over the data in its entirety as well although she attended via slip space communications, feeling no actual need to leave her installation.

"Our first order of business needs to be the female that we recovered, because of her human anatomy we will be able to repair the damage to the body although I don't think we should do anything with the armor." Admiral Hood had been reflecting on the practical implications the human's discovery.

"I have already authorized the flash cloning of the subject's damaged anatomy although there were a number of implants throughout the body that we are studying. In the process of healing the subject, we will also have an opportunity to examine the differences in anatomy." Cortana had taken a few liberties since the human had arrived but no one had argued.

"Very well, I think we all trust your judgement in that matter Cortana, and your selection of the team working on it, the next item we need to address is what this means for the New SSC. We have almost 600 million citizens on the New Ark and the Halos. The people will need to know how we are handling this."

"You are correct Admiral Hood, I have been keeping an eye on public opinion and it is resoundingly positive as of yet. Although many continue call for caution."

"Cortana, are the arrangements I asked for earlier prepared? The Arbiter is right, we need to move forward cautiously."

"Yes Admiral, we have a mock-up of a lifeboat that would roughly match the ones seen leaving the smaller ship ready and the prowlers and galaxy ships are outfitted."

"Admiral Hood, what do you have planned?"

"Cortana, Cornelia, and I put together a plan Arbiter – the subject will be patched up and put into the lifeboat. After the 'Shining Dawn's' scout fleet places the lifeboat among the wreckage, the prowlers will deploy through the waypoint objects and find out everything they can about whatever is on the other side."

"I'll see to it that the medical teams bring the subject to as close to original as possible with what we know. The creation of replacement implants may be required although they will only be for show. It will appear they were damaged in the attack the small ship suffered. She will be put into a medical coma that, I'm assuming, the medical members of the subject's race will be able to reverse."

"I see, and what of Commander Austra? You had said he had a part to play in all of this." The Arbiter wanted to ensure the commander was not forgotten.

"Commander Austra and Andrew will hang back at the wreckage and follow whatever arrives to recover the life boat."

"Understood sir, I'm assuming full stealth for my mission as well?"

"Correct Commander, follow but don't land on any planet or approach anything that is manned. Maintain distance and observation, Andrew, ensure your attempts to gather information err on the side of caution." The Admiral and the others in the Command wanted zero further contact until more was known.

"Find out what you can commanders, the mission will begin when the subject is returned to a suitable condition, should be a few days. You're all on standby until then but feel free to enjoy the facilities on Shangri La gentleman – Dismissed!"

2 days later, Active Relay System – Onboard the 'Forward Unseen'

The scout fleet had arrived to find the wreckage of the 'Normandy' ship gone, whatever faction the ship had belong to cleaned up quickly. There was a small probe in the system around the planet the attack had happened monitoring but no other evidence of habitation.

The 'Shining Dawn' had dropped the other ten prowlers, one traveling through the waypoint object and sent back navigation data. The other commanders had used conventional drives to jump to the new location. The prowlers would then leap frog in pairs through the waypoints to ensure the fate of any single ship could be ascertained if something detected the small ships although it was doubted they would be detected directly. Only five 'vanguard' teams were sent forward until it could be ensured of the safety of a larger force.

All of the prowlers had been upgraded with an armor alloy that replaced the stealth coating of the old stealth prowlers. Negating the need to maintain the coating although the armor was marginally weaker than the previous armor. The trade-off was deemed acceptable due to the armor being a variant of the Forerunner armors, much more effective than the scans of both ships involved in the relay system attack. Other improvements included a more robust EWAR suite, stealth systems, hard light shielding, and a baseline Forerunner-variant beam weapons as a last measure.

The new prowlers presented a wider profile at the fore section of the ships, tapering down to about half as wide at the engineering and power core section of the ships. With less protrusions and the faintly hexagonal pattern of the stealth armor, detection was much more difficult in practice. Even against the New SSC's sensor suites. Four separate engine sections, independently maneuverable, on the sides of the hull with two flanking the sensor-laden front of the ship and the other two at the rear, flanking the engineering sections of the ship. Overall, the profile was a smoother, deadlier, if larger (keeping the 162m length) appearance based from the success of the Pelican stealth variants.

"Sir, the 'Shining Dawn' has dropped the life boat and jumped to their vantage point, we will report back to them but we're on our own now. They wish us luck."

"Alright Andrew, buckle in, we're on mission now – I think this one will be more interesting, activate the life boat's beacon and direct it into an unstable orbit around the planet. That should spur some action quickly."

The life boat icon on his sensor console moved towards the planet and began pulsing with a wide-band beacon they hoped conveyed an appropriate amount of urgency.

"Now we wait."

"Oh joy, what a change of pace, I'll run a few million simulations to occupy my time" The pair prepared themselves for the next steps.

Unknown location – The Illusive Man's command center

"Sir, the beacon at the site of Commander Shepard's disappearance has picked up something, a wide-band beacon from a life boat was detected a few minutes after the relay activated with no ship in range."

The end of his cigarette glowed for a second before he began. "Send a ship right away, we need to beat the Alliance to the signal, they were quick to show and clean up the 'Normandy', this time we need to be quicker.'

"I have a ship standing by, I just sent the command, we should have the source of the signal recovered within the hour, if it is her there's a lot that we don't know. Her disappearance from the wreckage and the pilot's report could lead to something that would advance us forward greatly."

"I agree, the pilot's report has me very intrigued if it means what I think it means. Standing toe to toe with that collector ship, nothing we have could have done that. Beyond that ship though, Shepard is important for a different reason. She's a symbol, a woman that can make a difference in this galaxy for humanity. The first human Spectre, she fought the Geth, and stopped Saren and the Reaper attack on the Citadel. We need her to lead the defense against the Reapers, especially now with the Council denying the existence – fools that they are."

His cigarette glowed again before being smashed against his arm rest. "Find Shepard Ms. Lawson, bring her back to Minuteman station. We'll need her at 100%."

"Yes sir." Miranda would need to see to a few things before departing. Miracles were expected of her and she would deliver.

Onboard the 'Cerberus' – in polar orbit above Local Human colony, Shanxi

Takashi's crew was working tirelessly to process the data they had been receiving. Their AI, the appropriately named Hades, had been accessing and dumping all the data that could be found from the "Extranet" these races seemed to use. The AI sorted what appeared to be useful information from the apparently disproportionate amount of what could be called civilian traffic. It was up to his crew to process the important parts of the data for the time being.

"Hades, how is are our partners doing at the relay?" The description of the devices as "relays" was one of the first pieces of information they had deciphered.

It seemed that the members of the races that used them made first contact as easy as possible. The Codex they had uncovered painted a rosy picture of these Citadel races. The members of the prowler teams were beginning to uncover another side and everyone wondered of the implications of the new data. Takashi was particularly concerned about the Batarians. He thought it disconcerting that slaving was tolerated in any form by a space faring race, much less a galactic government.

"I'm not a huge believer in the Mantle Nax, but slaving rubs me the wrong way Mantle or no Mantle."

"This is a different universe Takashi, we're still going through the huge volume of information. We may yet still find an explanation."

"There's a valid defense for slaving? I'm going to have to disagree with you on that Nax."

"Not a defense, just an explanation. Even the Covenant had frowned upon outright slavery."

Takashi noticed the comms system was chiming for his attention. "Commander Takashi here, how's your situation Commander 'Matum?"

Takashi had been promoted to commander of the 'Cerberus' when assigned to the mission, his new ship's old commander had been given another prowler, the 'Watch of the Guard' and they now traveled together as one of the five scout prowler teams. It had been an effective pairing, the new intel was flooding in and Takashi had the experience in intel, he was in his element.

"We're flooded with data, our AI has our computers almost maxed out with his connection to this comm buoy in this system. A lot of junk but the intel we're pulling from the surface is starting to take up a large amount of our storage."

"I have an idea about that issue, that much data can't be put into a succinct and useful report. We need to compile the major points we've found and send one of our AI's back to the New Ark with the bulk of the raw data on one of our automated probes. That way our findings will be in the hands of a lot more processing power along with the big-wigs that make the decisions."

"I had dreaded spending the days required to transmit all of this data, this would cut the time down significantly. I'm all for it, question is, which AI should we send?"

"Well, Hades is already parsing and sorting the data but your AI seems much more efficient at processing the large volume of data. I think we could send yours and dial back our efforts until Command responds. There's enough in the data we have for them to begin making decisions about these races I think."

"You hear that Loki? You get to shuttle all this data back to the New Ark."

The AI, a Lekgolo – created AI with a starkly different personality from his cousin, Kerberos, displayed his avatar on the bridge. A cape flowed down from his broad shoulders, blowing in a virtual wind that flowed through his jet black hair which accentuated his perfectly groomed uniform. Two bird-like creatures from the Lekgolo home planet swooped down and landed on his shoulders.

"About time we did something other than sit here and log all this data, the week we've been here and I'm still nowhere near an end to this stuff! It's getting on my nerves, we were given new EWAR suites, let me use them! I can do a lot with those things, they are just teeming with new and exciting ways to tear apart the digital world."

"Yhea, keep those things deactivated, you go playing around with them in our systems and we could end up dead in the water. They were made as a countermeasure for AI's, never knew the AI nation had been working on something like that honestly."

"Well, we are aware of how first contact historically goes. We wanted to be ready for a war on our front too. I'll be careful, I'm not an amateur you know." The avatar crossed his arms and the two birds voiced their displeasure with a loud, crow-like caw.

"All joking and deadly software aside, how soon can you have the data and yourself ready?"

"Give me an hour and let me know which slip space probe I'll be traveling in."

"I'll have one ready, happy camping Loki!"

The avatar nodded and with a flourish of his cape, disappeared.

3 weeks later, New Ark CIC

"We've had time to sort through this data, the public is eating up the data as soon as it can be parsed and sorted, at record rates even. Yet we are still no closer to knowing what to do than we were the day Commander Austra returned with the local human." Cornelia and Cortana were frustrated, Loki had brought back a can of worms the size of a galaxy. They were still going through all of the pieces.

"We didn't know what to expect, the scope of what we've found is amazing. After all of the dead planets and things we've found, a galactic spanning society is NOT what I had expected."

"Nor I Admiral Hood, their use of the "relays" concerns me as well. We've not been able to scan any of the populated planets but I suspect we would find some of the same signs among their planets that hinted to whatever scoured this galaxy clean." The Arbiter's first concern was the safety of the people on the New Ark, the proximity of these Citadel races to the relays hinted at danger for the Sangheili.

"They are obviously space-faring which puts them outside of the "observe but don't interact" rule. The lack of slip space travel is interesting though, their entire technology base seems focused on entirely on the manipulation of the element in the waypoints, Eezo they call it commonly. There seems to be almost no innovation beyond that tech base."

Cornelia had found it curious that the multitude of races would end up with the same tech base, slip space was common among our universe but other than that the tech each race came up with varied greatly.

"So they're space-faring which means we should open diplomatic channels with them, the way we go about it will be difficult though. There are things in the history of this Citadel Council that I don't agree with, the genophage, the treatment of the Quarians after their creation of the Geth, the Council's treatment of the Geth, their interference in non-space faring races, there are other examples as well. Their seemingly rabid hatred for AI's will be a large obstacle. How do we approach a galactic government that has existed this long that has tolerated these things?"

Cortana broke her concentration, having been sorting and processing the data. "How do we approach them? Admiral, we have to look at ourselves as well, most of why we're here and what we can do will seem like magic to them! I doubt this Council will believe us without any sort of proof, not only that but I've no doubt that they'll just think we're some rogue element of the Systems Alliance. We've some pretty big hurtles to cross before we're able to enter into any meaningful diplomatic talks."

"Damn, I never thought of it from that point of view Cortana. Arbiter, do you have any insight into this?"

"Admiral, I know there are things about this Citadel government we don't like, our duty to uphold the Mantle will require we change things. First however, we will need to re-evaluate ourselves before we can move into this galactic society."

"What do you mean? What do we need to re-evaluate?"

Cortana cut in, "Look at how we operate, how they would see us. We would be a threat, our ship are larger than almost anything of what they have, some of our ships are bigger than the station they use as the seat of their government. Look at what we can do, look at their history. I don't think we'd be greeted warmly, tolerated until they could steal our tech. Not only that but US, the Command, we're mostly military with the exception of Cornelia."

The implications of what Cortana was saying was not lost on those present. Major changes would be needed.

Cornelia spoke up, "We do need a better system of government, and we're not exactly representative right now. More of a military dictatorship, as well as we seem to have handled it so far, it's still true. We have to remember, we build WORLDS everyone, I think we can come up with something better than we have now."

Cortana felt it best to get the smaller tasks out of the way first, "I think that it would be best if we postponed any contact beyond our surveillance teams. Our society here has grown large enough, the Command is no longer necessary, I move we create the Assembly. It worked in our universe and I think that it would put our best foot forward in this galaxy."

"Cortana, we don't know how long it would take to sort out the repercussions of changing our governing body. I agree we may need something new, at the same time…we have contact, new races to contact – Earth! There is an Earth in this universe, I think that –"

Everyone was surprised when Commander -117 spoke up next. "Admiral, it doesn't matter, I think Cortana is right. We're a huge unknown in this galaxy right now and if we show up as we are now it's going to look like we're trying for a fight."

"We need to be ready to defend ourselves, no one knows how first contact with these Council races will go."

"Admiral Hood, I don't think any of us is dismissing the need to defend ourselves. Too long we have stood as a military first and the SSC second. I believe a human once said 'Speak softly and carry a big stick.' I think we would be wise to move forward with talk rather than guns."

"Of course Arbiter, I'm not arguing against the creation of the Assembly, there will be a lot of change and soon. I'm entrusted with the defense of the New SSC and her interests, this much change so quickly will need a delicate touch, I want to make sure we've thought this through."

Cornelia moved to the other side of the room, the holographic display activating and displaying a graph next to a view of the New Ark. "We have unprecedented avenues of communication with the public because of the advances we've made with neural lance technology. There's no good reason for us to not keep the public informed, they will play the part to ensure we can maintain our stability throughout this Admiral. There's enough of us that are centuries old that can help impart our wisdom and lessons learned to those that have grown up in this universe."

"Very well, I support the motion to create our Assembly, the only stipulation I want to add is that none of us may serve on it. We should be advisors, but if we're to put our best foot forward, having us off the governing body after all these years will allow us more freedom to act and adapt. Advise, but no longer make policy."

"You know that means we'll all answer to someone now." Cortana added, "That will be a change of pace for us since our arrival."

"Yes, but if our past, especially mine, is to serve as an example then none of us singularly should have as much power with no oversight as we do now. Might make our neighbors nervous if they found out."

"True enough, what about the things we've already put in progress?"

The Arbiter spoke up, "There is no reason to pull the rug out from beneath all of our efforts. We should continue with the stealth missions until a time that the new Assembly can revisit them. No official contact should be initiated until we are ready as a society."

Cortana materialized a data console in front of her avatar, "I'll send the appropriate notices and coordinate with Cornelia to inform the public and begin the process of selecting and voting for representatives." She and Cornelia's avatars left, data streams flowing freely between the two. The other members of the to-be-dissolved Command went to work building the structure that would allow the least turmoil while changing power to the envisioned Assembly.

'More work before we may rest, I have spent too long as the Arbiter, and it will be good to have the duties lifted from my shoulders alone.' Thel 'Vadum thought as he left to attend to the changes.

Author's Notes: This actually feels like a good place for a chapter break but I've not gotten to where I wanted the story so I'm going to continue. I'm on a roll and I think you all want to see some more come out of this chapter :D MOAR WORDS!

Onboard SSC Stealth Prowler 'Forward Unseen' 2184

Nick and Andrew had been faithful to their mission, shadowing the ship that had come and retrieved the life boat they had put back in its place. Things got confusing after the station they had followed it to seem to belong to a shadowy organization – Cerberus. The Extranet had labeled them as a "pro-human extremists group". Nick had been impressed, for the technology these races seem to have, this group must be well funded to own and maintain a station. After a few weeks however, it seemed the subject they had recovered just disappeared in the station.

Nick and Andrew's orders were very strict on the method of electronic surveillance permitted and such, were not allowed to take the steps required to break the encryption that this organization used. Andrew ran simulations in his free time to try to understand and predict the encryption but while still relatively primitive, it was still advanced enough that the chances of stumbling upon a solution were effectively nil.

During the slow and boring days that passed as they waited word to move or infiltrate, Nick made a habit of reading through the Extranet that they had access to. He had been fascinated by the Asari, although not for the obvious resemblance to the human female form, but rather their unique abilities associated with their method of reproduction.

The meld and its use in exchanging DNA was almost pure science fiction to him. Until that is, he reflected that his ship traveled by tearing a hole in existence and working its way through different dimensions, with that in mind the Asari seemed less strange.

The day that changed his mission had been the day he read up to the more recent events in the Citadel space. He read about the Eden Prime war, he read about the "Geth" ship that attacked the Citadel, he read about the first human Spectre, he read about Janice Shepard, the commander of the Alliance frigate 'Normandy'. Nick read about the Reapers.

Nick's sudden and urgent commands tore through the cyberspace within the small ship. "Andrew, get me a line to Admiral Hood!"

9 Months later, Freedom's Promise Colony 2185

"Nick, your active camouflage seems to be effective against the machines in the area and scans from the ship suggest that a Quarian ship has come into the system."

"You think it's her? If it's not Shepard's crew mate coming out of that ship when it lands, I'm going to upload a spam bot into your memory Andrew. This is the fifth attempt at finding one of them." Nick was about done skulking around planets only to find a rumor to be false.

He would admit however that the human Spectre's crew mates had been unique enough that it is no surprise that they all went their different directions. He had wanted to confront Wrex, the Krogan, but after his return to the radioactive ball that race called home it had been decided that was a bad idea. Andrew had pointed out that a show of strength would have been necessary and neither wanted to take the chance of exposing themselves in a contest of arms.

The Turian, Garris, had disappeared, as did the Asari – Liara. The remaining Alliance soldier that had been close to Shepard – Kaiden, was on Earth buried within the military framework of the society he had to avoid. For now.

The pilot, which Nick was a little surprised to find out filed an official report having sighted his prowler for a moment during the attack, had folded into the Cerberus organization. That put him out of his reach as well. The only option left of who had been close to the Spectre was the Quarian, Tali'Zorah.

She, as an individual, was not particularly difficult to track but hard to actually meet due to the Migrant Fleet's stringent boarding procedures. Andrew was sure they would light up their sensors if they were ever to try to board one of those ships. That left the option of tracking Tali's movements and meeting her on the ground. Four other opportunities had come up and passed. The wrong alien had stepped down the ramp.

Today, Nick and Andrew were rewarded, the right Quarian came into view. Nick felt the AI turn smug. "Fine, you were right, now came the question of how to approach the group and speak to Tali."

"We could always use the 'out of the way, knocked unconscious' gag. We'd risk a few scans but I can fool these Omni-tools like I've done to the rest."

"I'll buy it, where do you think is a good spot for us Andrew? Wait, I see, we'll wait until they're fighting the drones and hide over there." Nick pointed to one of the damaged buildings near the structure the other Quarian was hiding in, controlling the machines in the immediate area.

That guy had actually been around when this colony was attacked and had gone crazy. Now the drones shot on sight and were in constant contact with the control center so Andrew wouldn't risk exposing himself to the Quarian by hacking the mechs.

The drones noticed the new targets and sped off to engage, Nick (with Andrew in his computing quantum substrate layer) sprinted to the building and positioned himself under some rubble.

"Last step, disable the cloak. You think we look inconspicuous enough? I think the look of this armor is kinda gaudy."

"Your normal armor is composed of null-grav suspended plates and hard-light shielding, how is the stuff you're wearing gaudy?!"

"Calm down, I'm trying to ease the tension. They're coming towards us now, shhh."

The lead Quarian glanced into the ruined room and did a quick scan, receiving a positive reading. "We've got someone over here, looks human! They might know where Veetor is."

The group gathered around Nick and after a few pieces of rubble were removed, he did the best 'startled wakeup' he could manage.

"GAH! GET OFF ME! WHO-", he paused mid swing to look in, what he hoped was, a confused manner. "Where'd you all come from, are they gone?"

He heard Tali's voice from beyond his vision, "Just relax, we are the only ones here right now. Can you tell me what happened? We're looking for someone, another Quarian. His name is-"

"Veetor, yhea, I know him. Arrived before the things came and started taking everyone away. I don't know what happened. I heard screaming, buzzing, and then the room came down on me. Then you showed up." Nick blinked a few times and began to stand up.

Tali dropped her arm with the Omni-tool on it, "Can you help us find him? The signals from these mechs look a lot like something he would code."

"Yhea, I can help you look, he would be somewhere in the cargo docks."

"Tali, I'm reading another ship coming in, we should move quickly. We'll split up and go around through the cargo docks."

"Agreed, can you handle yourself? These mechs are no joke." Tali asked, turning towards Nick.

"I think so," he pulled a pistol he had acquired in his travels, "I'll go with you then…." feigning ignorance of her name.

"The name is Tali."

"Lead the way Tali." Nick sighted his weapon and followed after the Quarian he had come to meet.

He was trying to think of a way to get a moment to speak to Tali as they moved through the empty colony. Nick had almost reached the spot he had picked to talk when he was interrupted by an unexpected arrival.

They came around the corner when Tali, he, and the other Quarians froze, bringing weapons to bear on the very woman he had been trying to find. He couldn't blow his cover, he lifted his weapon with the others in the group and pointed it at the person he had saved almost two years ago from burning up in the atmosphere of a back water planet. Now, he had to figure this out.

In the split second it had taken them all to raise their weapons, Andrew had taken in the scene before them. After a series of cross-checks and cursory scans, he confirmed what Nick was still processing. That was Commander Shepard, the very human they had been tasked to find.

He opened the channel into Nick's neural lance. "I'm beginning to agree with Cortana's assessment of you, you are one lucky bastard Nickolas Austra."

As the moment of surprise passed, Nick watched as Tali and Shepard talked. Nick spotted the insignia on Shepard's and her two squad mates' armor. Cerberus. Nick didn't feel very lucky suddenly, things may have gotten much more complicated. He snapped back out of his thoughts when he heard Shepard answer a question Tali asked.

"I didn't have a choice Tali, I'm not working FOR Cerberus, we're both just going after the same thing right now. The reapers, you know how big of a threat they are."

"I know Shepard, I want to believe you but two years is a lot of time."

The two talked for a moment as Andrew chimed in through Nick's lance. "Two years, huh, we've spent ten times that without seeing anyone else besides each other! Two years... anyway, back to Shepard. So she might not be working for Cerberus, we know she never left that station until recently. What do you think they were doing with her?"

"Studying her, no one knew where she was for a few days and then she shows up in an approximation of an Alliance life boat. I'd put my bet on studying her."

"Good thing the medical techs were really careful then huh?" The AI had made sure he knew what to look for to confirm Shepard ' identity after the rebuild. He wondered what "Cerberus" found.

New Ark, CIC – 2185

The crews of the prowler scout teams had been doing well. While the Extranet had been full of information and continued reveal a lot of what was going on in the Citadel space, the teams had been even more successful. There really was no good substitute for eyes-on when you needed to know something.

'I've been tempted to send more teams out but after authorizing Commander Austra the leeway I felt he needed, the others would frown upon me assuming that authority again. More action will need to wait until the Assembly is in order.' Admiral Hood thought as he looked at the information displayed on the view screens in front of him.

The prowlers had been to a number of locations in the Citadel space. The New SSC had a fairly complete set of navigational data now on the major locations. He was looking forward to a trip to Earth. While they, like Commander Austra, were holding back the more aggressive means of information retrieval, what they had found was helping immensely.

After Austra had sent him the data he found about the Reapers and the woman –Commander Shepard- that had uncovered the ship that had been pulling the strings on one of the Council's elite soldiers, the Spectre Saren, Admiral Hood took a chance and authorized him to go among the population of the galaxy at large to track Shepard. If she had more information on the reapers and their involvement in the million year scouring of life in the galaxy, Austra was the prime candidate to find out until contact with the Citadel at large could be established through the Assembly.

The change from their Command to the SSC's democratic system had been rocky at times. There was a sticking point when it came to the structure of the military and diplomatic branches, what powers each would have in any given situation, but it had been sorted out.

The Assembly now stood as the seat of the New SSC government after the nearly year and a half transition period. The pair from each race had been voted on by the public, each usually complimenting but simultaneously opposing each other. Enough so that the voice of each race would be balanced and not biased towards any single side of an issue.

"Admiral Hood, Commander 117 is here to see you as you requested." The AI chimed in with a neutral voice.

"Very well, send him in."

The Admiral and the other member of the old Command had been assigned personal AI by the Assembly. They recognized the service and self-less hand that the group had employed over the century since they had arrived in this universe but wanted a presence with the still-powerful individuals.

'It is not a punishment nor are we thinking that we are thwarting any devious plans, with the power that we have instilled in each of your positions it is as much a check as it is a balance. The AI will help protect us all from our own best intentions. We have our own history and even examples from the Forerunners – we all know how the Didact and his choices changed history. In light of the spirit in which you four stepped down and gave us the power to lead, we wish to put our best face forward to the galaxy we aim to join.'

Admiral Hood knew that he had to accept it if he were to stay in a position that had been asked of him, he didn't have to like it but he accepted it.

Commander 117 entered the room, "John, I see you're doing well, thank you for coming."

"Of course Sir, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, we're coming close to the day when we've sorted ourselves out. We are almost ready to show our faces to this Galaxy, we've been learning a lot about them. I could stand here and talk about any number of things but you and I are still tasked with protecting our people. I think it's time we talked about the practical possibilities if war does break out."

"I've kept my SPARTANs trained and ready Admiral, the remainder of the II's have been training the platoons of IV's, we're still almost 500 strong sir."

"Good, I knew you would keep your men in good condition, how do you think they will fare against this galaxy's soldiers?" The information and data he had on these 'biotic' capable fighters had caused a bit of worry. They were the equivalent of mobile artillery if used correctly – a strong combat multiplier.

"I saw the data that Commander Austra has been relaying, Right now we have some countermeasures trained but most boil down to "Don't get hit", until we have real combat experience we can't build an effective counter in this case. The abilities are just too unique."

"What about these Reapers? You've been following Commander Austra's reports from his time with the System Alliance's Commander Shepard?"

Chief had been, he and Cortana had gone over the concept. "Yes Sir, my men will be ready for anything thrown at them but if they really are sentient ships, that's your game Sir."

'Another unknown, apparently ancient too if they're connected with the results from the planet scans.'

"True enough, in any event, let's hope for peace –"

"I'll still keep the men sharp sir." The Chief cut in.

"Exactly, thanks for your time Commander, I think that will be all for now."

The SPARTAN saluted and left, leaving the Admiral alone to prepare.

Cerberus base – 2185, After Shepard Revival and escape from Minuteman Base

Shepard didn't like it, this "Illusive Man wanted her at his beck and call, she could feel it. Shepard would have none of that. 'I'm alive again which, if these Cerberus agents are to be believed, I have them to thank. But two years of my life, gone...maybe I can use it as a tax write-off.' The thought ended as the pair that helped her off the station earlier walked in.

"Shepard, now that all of the formalities and introductions have been taken care of, there is one more thing. Your ship, the pilot will meet you in the next room." The woman, Ms. Lawson, was curt but professional. Shepard got the sense she rarely was anything but.

Jacob, the guard she had met in the station while it was under attack, sat at the tables near them and began working on forms, largely ignoring the other two in the room.

Shepard turned and walked towards the hanger Lawson had motioned towards. She was still insure of everything and Cerberus was low on her list of potential allies, she would remain cautious. She walked into the next hallway to be greeted by a familiar voice.

"Commander! Last time I saw you, I had been stuffed in a metal can and shot outta the 'Normandy'! You look good for a dead woman."

Shepard had a lot of surprises today but this one she liked, "Joker?! Good to see a friendly face! I'm glad you survived, sorry about the 'Normandy'. What are you doing here with Cerberus though?"

"After you were reported KIA and the Alliance brass debriefed those of us that made it out, they wanted to sweep the whole thing under the rug. You were a hero but they didn't like you crying 'Reaper' to everyone. The council made a token investigation and then was just as satisfied blaming the geth and burying you." Joker motioned Shepard to follow him.

"It didn't sit well with any of us, Liara disappeared shortly after, Wrex went to try to unite the Kogan -yhea, good luck with that- I quit the Alliance after how they treated you and the rest of us. Tali went back to the Migrant Fleet and Kaiden is toughing it out, he's still with the Alliance."

"I imagine a lot has changed, I want to get out there and get back to what we NEED to be doing."

"Damn right Commander, I'm with you all the way and, as a door prized, we have this-" Joker gestured towards the large window they were standing in front of as it opened, revealing the new 'Normandy'. "She's all new and upgraded by Cerberus, I don't trust em as far as I can break my leg at em, but they're giving us a hell of an expensive toy Commander and I'll give em this – they know how to build a ship."

"Not giving you the ship, she's yours to command but we'll be along, it represents a sizeable investment from Cerberus. The Illusive Man trusts you but I still have to make sure it doesn't end up scrap." Lawson said as her and Jacob walked pass to board the ship.

After they were out of sight Joker leaned in closer to Shepard. "Look Commander, I don't trust them, and not just because they're Cerberus. They keep saying that they recovered your body and rebuilt you but I don't think that's what happened."

"What makes you think that Joker? I don't trust them either but I'm flying blind right now until I get in touch with our people again."

"Commander, after you stuffed me into that escape pod and launched me I had a few seconds before the pod jumped and you need to know what I saw."

"Alright Joker, I'm listening."

"I saw a third ship, about the same length as the 'Normandy', we didn't detect it before but I think that it's because it was cloaked."

"The 'Normandy' had her stealth systems running-"

"No Commander, the ship was cloaked, like invisible. That isn't even the most incredible part of it Commander. After it appeared, it took one of the shots that gutted the 'Normandy' like it was nothing, looked like it nudged it and might have scratched the paint!"

"Joker are you sure? That collector ship cut the 'Normandy' apart like it was nothing."

"Absolutely, one of the reasons the Alliance brass was skeptical, Commander, was the next part, it is even worse. We need to find the ship I saw Commander. After it blocked the last shot, I saw it return fire. It missed the power core of the collector ship but I saw the beam as it shot through, exited the end of the ship and some explosions before the pod jumped."

"Joker, that's a far stretch, and if it were anyone else, I wouldn't believe them. We'll need to keep an eye out for word about the ship. Something like that could help a lot against the Reapers."

There was a quiet moment, "Thanks for believing me Commander."

"No problem Joker, we should be going, we have word on a colony that may have just been attacked by the collectors."

"No problem Commander, just like old times."

Aboard the Normandy SR2, 1 month later- 2185

Shepard had been glad to have the familiar faces on the 'Normandy SR2', Joker at the helm, Tali as well, although reluctantly at first. Garrus joining on board had made the new, larger ship seem much less strange. The rest of the crew she had brought from a lot of different places to join together. Shepard had been working hard to ensure everyone she had brought on the 'Normandy' was focused. They had traveled all over the galaxy ensuring everyone went into the Omega relay with nothing else on their minds. Now her only concern was the man that had come on board at Freedom's Progress with Tali.

Nickolas Austra had become a sort of running enigma throughout his time in her ship. She recognized his fighting ability, sometimes she had noticed things that were...strange. There had been no records of him anywhere and to top it off he fought as well as most anyone else she had ever fought with. Even with her curiosity, things had moved so quickly since she had been put in command of the new 'Normandy'. He was the only member on her crew that seemed to have nothing else than the mission.

'It could be related to the data he showed us, all of these planets and the things this data suggested. If these are connected to the Reapers, we have to stop them.' She decided to go ask him, the Illusive Man had just given her coordinates for what appeared to be a derelict Reaper they could salvage a reaper IFF to allow passage through the Omega relay. She wanted answers before they went on that mission.

She entered Nick's living area. "Hey, do you have a moment, I wanted to talk to you."

"Yhea, of course Shepard, what's on your mind?"

"Actually Nick, it's not what's on my mind, I want to know what's on your mind. We've been on missions together, helping Jack get over what happened at that facility, Jacobs father, Mordin's old protégé, and even Grunt's Rite of Passage. You though, unlike the rest of the crew, you don't seem to have anything else but this mission."

Shepard remembered his reaction on Tuchanga when the Thresher Maw revealed itself. Nick had laughed, she heard him say 'Another one huh? No orbital strike this time.' It had caught her attention for a moment but she quickly focused again. The image of an exploded Thresher Maw on a planet she visited had come to mind. Afterwards the memory had been lost in the current of events. She wanted to ask but it wasn't on the top of her list.

"Well Shepard, the group I'm with is concerned with the Reapers, you saw the data we have collected. If they have been operating as long as that suggests, well, I don't know of anyone who's enthusiastic about becoming extinct."

"There is a lot to what you showed us but you still haven't told any of us who you or what organization you are with. I've looked into you, even Liara with her connections says you just don't exist. Our next mission is aboard an inactive Reaper Austra, I need more than that you want to fight the Reapers. I need to know that we can trust you with our mission. I have avoided pushing the issue because we need everyone if we have a chance but now, I need answers. There's too much about you that is a mystery."

Andrew piped up in Nick's mind, "She's right you know, she goes through hell for each of her crew and she knows she can trust them. We're just kind of...here. We might as well be a gun for hire."

Outwardly, Nick looked contemplative, inwardly he responded to his AI, "What can we tell them that isn't compromising?"

"The truth, you can be vague enough to not give anything incredible away but still give her something, she will need to rely on us. I think she's owed that much."

"Fine, I just wish that they would figure out the Assembly so we could just come out in public!"

Nick sighed, Shepard, you do deserve an explanation. You need to be able to trust me to hold my end. I can't give you the specifics, those higher than me have to decide to go public."

This caught Shepard attention, she was wary of secretive groups.

"See, I'm part of a group of humans that have been removed from the galaxy as you know it. Only recently did we find relays and the Citadel races. We are being cautious because our first contacts have gone very badly. From our point of view, we've almost been driven to extinction twice from events that started from first contact."

"How does a group of humans get separated like that? An old colony ship gone off course? Who did you have first contact with?"

"A ship off course, that's a good way of putting it." -chronologically not correct but I'll fill in the blanks when I can- "We had since started scanning the area of space around us, over time we ran into the same whispers in the scans. Suggestions of ruins layered in the rocks. Debris floating around a planet. We began to build a picture of a reoccurring event. One that moved to different planets spread across the area of space but always space apart by roughly 50,000 years."

"Like when the Protheans vanished the same time ago."

"Exactly..." - 'Should we mention the relays we found?' - 'There's no reason not to, she knows they weren't the work of Protheans already.'

"Shepard, I'll tell you this next part because I respect you and we fight the same enemy. We know the relays, probably the Citadel as well, are much older than the Protheans."

"We already found much the same out on Illos from the Protheans VI there."

"Well, we found one encased in a dwarf ice planet at least 20 million years old. If the Reapers are connected with the mass relays, they predate EVERYTHING we know."

"Keelah! Damn, s-sorry Shepard, Nickolas, I was passing by and overheard. That can't be right, 20 million years, I can't even wrap my head around that!" Tali had been walking by when she had heard the two talking.

"I can get the data to support it, but yes. That is why Shepard, I am here with you. The rest of my group is concerned that these findings are connected to the Reapers. I'm on mission with you to find out. This is huge for us Shepard, a systematic wipe of life in the galaxy goes against everything we believe in. Even if we could somehow avoid it, the fact that it's happening isn't something we can tolerate."

"Why just you then? If your people are that concerned, come out in the open and say it! We need everyone working together and I doubt the System Alliance will turn away colonists long forgotten and lost. Why the cloak and dagger bit?"

'If only she knew about our cloak and daggers, active camo and plasma swords' - 'knock it off Andrew.' - 'Fine, fine.'

"It's complicated Shepard, you can say it's above my pay grade. I owe you answers I know. After we go to this supposed Reaper wreckage, I'm confident we'll both get what we need and I'll be able to answer more of your questions."

"I've got a lot more questions after that little chat Nick, you gave me more than I knew about you before though. We'll get the IFF and then I think I should get some more details, agreed?"

Nick stuck his hand out to shake on it, "Agreed."

Derelict Reaper – Hours Later, 2185

"Nick there's a signal in this thing, it's jumbled and disjointed but it's pervasive. We need to spend as little time in here as possible, those records from the research crew prove my point - something gets into people's heads in this thing."

"I know Andrew, but we're here for a reason, once we get the IFF, we're gone. Besides, you've seen Shepard and the others fight. I don't think there's much to worry about."

"Nick! Up here, there's a passageway that looks like it's what we need." Shepard motioned for her team to move forward.

"Roger that, moving" Nick took a position near the rear of the line, there were taking no risks.

"I'm detecting and blocking some low-level signals that seem to be making attempts to push junk data into our systems. I'm maintaining defenses but the attempts are starting to show signs of picking up strength."

Nick was about to reply when he heard an explosion and gunfire, he kept an eye on his area but an ear out for trouble from his team mates.

"Husks and those other things, we need to be careful. Keep moving." Shepard said over team comms.

Nick had heard of the Husks but had managed to avoid any encounter as of yet. Shepard never seemed to take the same group on a mission but played to the teams strengths, Nick had no idea what difference it would have made if he had seen the reaper ground troops before now.

"Ah hell, this reaper isn't dead, a kinetic barrier just deployed." –the radio interrupted Shepard's thought, "Commander, we won't' be able to pick you up until those barriers are down." The onboard "shackled" AI, EDI spoke next. If you were able to disable the mass effect core, the barriers would drop. You will need to be quick however, the core is the only thing keeping the derelict reaper from falling into the planet's atmosphere."

"Got it, Joker, be ready for a quick evac."

"Understood Commander, we'll be standing by."

Nick thought he heard something behind him, turning to look. "Nick, the attacks are gaining strength and getting more creative, I am no longer able to keep them all out, what you heard was the signal trying to interface with your brain."

"Dammit, where is this damn IFF, I don't like it when someone is in my head uninvited."

They began to move forward into the reaper, intermittent sounds would creep into his mind as Andrew attempted to keep the attacks at bay. As they approached the IFF device, Shepard noticed Nick was distracted.

"Nick, what's wrong? You seem distracted, we need you focused."

"It's this place Shepard, it's…'how do I say this without sounding crazy' like it's trying to put voices in my head."

"We need to move faster then, that sounds like the indoctrination process we heard the researchers talk about, this reaper is more active than we thought." Shepard grabbed the IFF. "Grunt, take point, Garrus, watch the walkways, Nick, keep the rear secure. Let's move."

Before they could move more than a few feet, what was left of the researchers attacked them. They snapped into their experienced combat roles with ease, returning fire from the abominations and a scion. Nick was stunned when he finally saw the reaper ground forces. The misshapen forms triggered memories buried under 600 years of peace as they tore their way into his mind's eye again.

Shepard was firing at the husk charging her when she heard Nick yell, "FLOOD! IT'S THE FLOOD, WHAT THE FUCK?!" She didn't know what the flood was but she turned to try to get her team mate focused. What she saw almost got her hit by an abomination when she started at what she was looking at. Nick was changing.

For Nick, seeing the misshapen form of the scion and abominations jumping out from the hidden areas of this living derelict set in motion a number of things. The memories of the Flood triggered panicked but controlled instincts to neutralize the horrible infection. Unconscious commands associated with finding a Flood infection bypassed any rational necessity of keeping hidden.

His armor shifted from the inconspicuous appearing local armor, being nanite constructed, to the powered under suit of his much more capable Forerunner-variant Mark X recon armor. In the time it took Nick to take a knee, he dropped the pistol he was carrying, his armor sliding smoothly out of the slip space pockets and locking into place over his body – suspended by null grav fields. Before the old pistol hit the ground and his hands were raised, his Z-215 Directed Energy Automatic Rifle assembled itself from the components suspended in slip space.

Nick took aim with the rifle mere seconds after his mis-identifying the reaper forces as Flood. He began to fire into the mass of bodies moving towards him, seeing only the foe his people had defeated centuries ago, his mind screaming but his instincts, training, and armor guiding him through the motions of the battle.

Things changed for Andrew as well, his partner's incorrect identification of Flood started a cascade of events for the AI much like Nick's armor and weapons. Subroutines locked away under layers of fail safes unfurled into his control, defensive and offensive measure far surpassing his normal capabilities offered their functionality to the surprised AI.

The locks on his actions he had applied for their mission released, all other orders were null and void if any member of the New SSC's military encountered the Flood. Andrew gathered his code and prepared it. He would retaliate attacked the signal that had been slowly working its way into his and Nick's systems. In the space of a fraction of a second the tables turned. In cyberspace, there was an explosion of activity as the entire attention of the SSC's 14th Generation Smart AI attacked the broken reaper mind with a vengeance.

If the reaper hadn't been damaged it would have gone differently, as it was the reaper mind was an ancient, expansive, and yet damaged, jumbled mess. Reaching out through reflex more than directed intent. The systems reeled at the sudden onslaught of cyber warfare as, at the same time, Nick tore through the indoctrinated ground forces, further weakening the control of the damaged systems. The ancient and wounded reaper pulled back in surprise as the last vestige of its thoughts were torn apart.

Shepard had taken the abomination out, in the second it had taken her to turn and shoot the thing three times, Nick seemed to have been replaced. Where the enigmatic but reliable soldier had been, now she was looking at a strangely armored spectre of death. The armor was unlike anything she could imagine and his weapon seemed to fire bolts of light at frightening speeds. Caught in the flurry of combat that followed, she was forced to pull her attention away while the reaper shook as a low but powerful cry seemed to emanate from the walls.

"Shepard! The barriers just dropped! We need to get out of here!" Grunt yelled as he punched a husk that had stumbled near him. The things seemed unable to focus after Nick had pulled whatever trick out of his ass. Grunt didn't care at the moment, he would make the most of it. He unloaded his shotgun into anything not living.

"Joker! Get in here, we're getting the hell out of here!" Shepard yelled as she saw Nick's armored form sprint down the hall at impossible speed directly into the approaching group of reaper forces.

"Nick! We're pulling out, get back here!" Nick seemed to hear her, turning for a second before materializing an orange blade and slicing into a nearby husk. Before he had a chance to move from the melee, Shepard saw the scion rear up as it fired off a biotic warp. The warp streaked across the small distance and hit the armored figure that had been causing so much damage.

Nick was broken from his battle-born concentration when the biotic attack stuck his shoulder. He felt himself get knocked off his feet as a burning pain tore across his shoulder. Alarms began to go off in his mind as he landed hard against the wall.

"Andrew! I'm hit! What the hell are those things, the Flood never did that!"

Andrew's attention was split, on one hand he had been tearing apart what was left of the reaper and the other part of his attention was pulling as much data as he could from the systems. Once he was confident the ability of the defunct reaper to retaliate was inoperable, he had taken the thing's power core offline. Now, as he brought his attention back to where he was, he was alerted to Nick's condition, reviewing the last few seconds with AI speed in light of some of what he had found in the thing's memory.

"Nick, none of the Flood ever attacked like that because this wasn't a flood attack, they things are similar but they are the product of this ship, I'll explain later. I've started the nanites at repairing your body. It'll be a while before you're 100% but you'll be good enough to get out of here in about a minute."

As Nick and his attendant AI were having this conversation, to the others Nick simply looked in shock. His helmet had pulled back and he was staring blankly in front of him. As Shepard came over, about to kneel next to Nick to render first aid, a husk jumped from below. Before she could react, its head jerked sharply to the side, she looked up to see a Geth figure holding a sniper rifle and N7 armor attached to its chest.

It nodded, saying "Shepard-Commander."

Shepard only had a moment to process this new piece of information as an abomination sprang up behind the figure and stuck it. The geth dropped to the walkway a few meters from them, collapsing, seemingly deactivated.

Shepard turned her attention to Nick, "Nick! Hey! Can you hear me?"

Nick's attention turned outward, he looked at Shepard as he saw her notice his shoulder. The area the warp had hit had been damaged badly, exposing the muscular and skeletal system beneath. He knew it looked bad but also, not natural given the enhancements he had received. His muscles had iridescent strands running throughout and his bones, instead of white, were a dull, tough silver color. Shepard watched, amazed, as the bio-mechanical systems began to repair themselves. There was a good amount of mass that had been lost to the attack and the repairs seemed to stop, incomplete, before armor folded smoothly over the dented area of his shoulder and upper arm. She looked up sharply into Nick's eyes, her gaze accusing.

"I'm ok Shepard, I'll be fine – we need to get off this reaper!" Nick stood up, Shepard following suit, meeting his eyes for a moment again as the reaper shut down around them. The felt it begin to waver, the mass effect field suspending it collapsing.

"You owe me one hell of an explanation after this Nickolas, Grunt! Grab the geth there! We need to get out of here!"

Grunt had not seen the geth help Shepard, "What? Geth? We should leave it here Shepard, they're trouble."

"It tried to help me, Garrus, cover us while we get the geth and Nick on the 'Normandy'. We're done here."

Orbit above Earth – 2185

As Shepard and her crew experienced the fight onboard the derelict reaper, Ero Takashi sat on the bridge of the ship he commanded and watched the planet below.

"Sir, I never thought I'd see her again." The helmsman said, they were in a stable orbit and had been monitoring for a few hours. The scout prowler pairs recently had the opportunity in the past few months to have more freedom with where they went. The commanders of each vessel had decided to visit the planets they thought had existed in their universe as well. Earth was the most obvious site to visit although no other site could be reliably tagged as something any of them knew from before.

Takashi stared at the blue green orb for a moment before responding, "Neither did I, it's amazing, it look so much like it had before the Human/Covenant war, no space elevators, no orbital defense SMACs, almost nothing large in orbit."

It was true, this was Earth but it was different, unmarred by the wars in their universe. The data they had gotten from the Extranet had painted a good picture. Best economy in the history of humanity, defended, clean cities, there was still a gap in technology in different areas of the globe however. Still, Takashi admired the progress that this humanity had made.

"Do you think we'll be allowed to ever actually visit Takashi? I only ever saw it during the efforts to restore years after the war." Nax was old but had been born in the generation after the war.

"From what I've heard from the New Ark, I think so. The Assembly is in power now and things are getting organized. I'd say it's any day now."

The bridge crew, mostly humans, and one AI, looked out at the planet. They would enjoy meeting the humans in this universe.

Normandy SR2, 20 minutes after mission – 2185

Shepard had seen to it that the reaper IFF was connected but inactive, she had a lot of questions after that mission. The events on the reaper alone were enough for a debriefing, but the appearance of the geth unit had Tali a mix of curious and angry. It could be dangerous but Shepard's instincts said differently. She would deal with that in time.

The biggest concern and burning questions she really had were the reason she was marching towards the med bay now. Dr. Chakwas had been pinging her Omni tool ever since Nick had been admitted against his insistence otherwise.

Shepard entered the med bay, stopping before the bed that Nick was sitting on, "You owe me some damn good answers Austra, and if I don't like what you have to say, I'm throwing you off this ship right here."

Nick had been talking with Andrew, sorting what happened, what Andrew had found and then sending a report to the Ark, it had been marked with the upmost urgency. Having sent the report he had been thinking of what to say to the Spectre. Now he had the chance, he looked up at Shepard, "Yes, I do, what is it that you want to know? After that mission a lot has changed," He laughed a little to himself, "I'm an open book now Shepard, you deserve that much after what happened."

Shepard gathered her thoughts, "Let's start at what happened to you on that reaper, you yelled something about the "Flood" and then all that armor and weapons just appeared before you went off on an ass-kicking rampage."

"THAT was a bit of a misunderstanding although it worked out in our favor. The Flood is an enemy my people faced that brought us to one of the two near extinctions Shepard. Instead of being synthetic like the reaper's forces, the Flood is biological."

"Biological? Like a virus or something?"

"Almost, an engineered parasite from an ancient war. An infection form can kill and change a person to one of them in seconds. Entire platoons have been killed in minutes before. Just like the reapers, each person they kill ends up as one of theirs. Only each Flood can change others. It was called the Flood for a reason Shepard, entire planets were taken in hours. The fights are always very fierce."

"How did you survive?"

Nick didn't know how to go about explaining the entire history of humanity, the covenant, and the Forerunners so he decided to be vague again, "We found new technology that allowed us to lure the infection to an area we used to kill it. The war had been relatively short since we had just come out of a 3-decade long war during the first months the Flood started appearing."

"Ok, so you have that armor, weapons, and thought that you were facing this "Flood", if it was as big a threat that you're implying I can understand the quick reaction. But that doesn't explain where that armor came from, it just sort of appeared out of thin air."

"Well, that's actually pretty much how it did it, a combination of nanite construction and another technology that we use allows to carry a large amount of equipment for different situations. Nick stood up and let the armor encase him briefly before retracting again, leaving him standing in his under suit. The entire process took less than three seconds.

"That's another thing, the pieces of armor are floating over your body, not connected to anything but they seem pretty well solid in place. That seems like some pretty advanced tech."

"It is." Shepard didn't seem satisfied, just as Nick was about to continue, he received a ping. Andrew spoke through the neural lance.

'The Assembly just sent a response, the data we found in the reaper has kicked a hornet's nest at the New Ark. We've been tasked with bringing Commander Shepard to a location far off the relay network, before you're all brought to the Shangri La Halo. The 'Shining Dawn' is en route to these coordinates to pick us up, your prowler included. They'll be there in about ten minutes.' – 'Finally, I'll bring Shepard up to speed.'

Nick had paused for a moment as the conversation with his AI happened. Shepard had seen him "space out" like that more than once, since she could finally get her answers, she wanted to know why.

"You seem to get distracted at times Nick, like just now, you were focusing on something. What was it?"

Nick focused again, "Well Shepard, I've actually been in communication with my partner. Who is in turn, in contact with our superiors. We use a form of communication that is like your QED comms, just smaller. It's linked into my implants that feed directly into my mind."

"Ok, you just lost me, you've had a line of communication off this ship the entire time, through a mind-link miniature QED tech?!" Shepard decided it was time to ask about his injury, "Does that same tech allow you to recover from getting your shoulder blown open too? You should have needed months of recovery and major reconstructive surgery after that hit on the reaper. Looking at you now, it doesn't even look like you were ever in battle, spill it, how do you do that? I've never seen any implants that do that."

"Well, true, the same sort of tech is used, nanites. As a field operative I underwent a lot of…enhancements. About 60% of me is bio mechanical. The wound you saw wasn't debilitating. As long as I can find the pieces of my limbs –and there is no flood infection- I just need the correct materials to rebuild. There's fail safes of course, a lot of the enhancements are a means of protecting the others from being found and used against us."

"So you're some cybernetic super-soldier?"

"Heh, no, not quite. Our super-soldiers are a lot more capable, taller too. They stand out, literally."

"Of course, why wouldn't they?"

"Shepard, could we take a moment and move to the helm? If my people are going to help you, there's a few things you need to see and somewhere we'll need to go."

"I suppose, you put on quite a show on the reaper, if there's more of you with that kind of tech it's worth a look, give Joker the coordinates."

As the pair walked to the helm where Joker was piloting the ship, they dropped out of FTL. "Ok Commander, I pulled the ship out of FTL. We're in the middle of nowhere, what's our next stop?"

"Austra, give him the coordinates."

"Here Joker, also Commander, if we could wait here for a moment, one of the things that I wanted to show you has almost arrived."

"What do you mean, 'almost arrived'?" She started getting suspicious again when EDI spoke up.

"Commander, I'm detecting unusual readings behind us, a burst of hawking radiation."

"Austra, what the hell are you playing at? Joker-"

"Commander! Look!" Joker pointed out the window at the sight a ship dropping its cloak.

"That's it! That's the ship I saw when the 'Normandy' was attacked!"

"Commander Shepard - that is my ship, the New SSC Stealth Prowler-Class 'Forward Unseen'. My home away from home." Nick moved his arm up in a presenting pose.

Joker wasn't done yet, "Wait, your ship was the one that shot that collector ship!?"

"We didn't know what the hell was going on, that was actually our first contact with anything other than a few relays. We were cloaked and weren't going to interfere until I saw the English writing on your ship. After that collector ship opened fire, I made the decision to intervene – against standing orders mind you- but I wasn't going to let anything get away with firing on what appeared to be a human ship."

"So it was you that pulled me out of my free fall!"

Joker looked confused again, "What? Wait-wait-wait, pulled you OUT of freefall?"

"We saw you falling after the life pod that had Joker in it FTL'd away. I wasn't about to let you just burn up in the atmosphere of a back water planet, so we pulled you out of the fall before the friction did more than…well, you needed your limbs replaced Shepard."

"So your people fixed me up? Cerberus keeps telling me that they put me back together."

'Andrew, do we have any video feed of Shepard in the med bay that day?' – 'Sure, use the projectors in your palm.' Nick felt his palm shift slightly, he held his hand out, facing the palm up. A view from his ship's med bay resolved, showing Shepard on the exam table with the scans going over her.

"See, this is what you looked like after we had pulled you out of the fall."

Shepard cringed, Joker looked back at his consoles, "Yikes Commander, you were crispy…"

"Ok, I believe you, that's definitely me in my armor from that day."

She took a second after Nick turned off the projector, noticing the light had come out of his palm. 'These guys are way ahead of us…'

"Well, I have you to thank then." She was about to continue before Nick interrupted.

"We flash-cloned your limbs on board one of our larger ships, put some unassuming implants to replace the ones you already had, then put you in a mock-up of the life boat we saw launch from your ship three days later. Your Alliance picked up quickly. I was tasked with shadowing the ship that retrieved you. We saw you taken to the Cerberus station and you stayed there for nearly two years, I think they were trying to figure out what happened."

"Knowing them, probably, although all the implants I have now are definitely Cerberus, the ones your people put in were undoubtedly removed. I knew I couldn't trust Cerberus, even with the help they've been providing."

"Commander, if that ship is the same one that had a stand-off with the collector ship, we should bring it along, it can be the muscle once we get to the other side of the relay."

"Joker's right, can we count on you and your ship to help stop the collectors?"

"Well, our shields can only take one shot and the armor isn't tested against that weapon, 'c'mon Nick you know we'd be fine, besides, we're going to meet up with the 'Shining Dawn', she'll have no issue with the collector ship!' – 'Yhea but it's not ours to commit.' – 'True, so what are we going to do?'

"There you go again, what did your partner say?"

"He made a suggestion but it was outside of my authority, for now Shepard, yes. My ship will assist you with going after the Collectors, I'm not going to stand by and let them get away with all of those colonists."

Nick turned towards the view port, "Now, I'll send my ship to the coordinates I gave Joker. Watch Shepard, this is another thing that will come in handy."

"What am I looking for Nick?" Shepard began just as the prowler tore a hole in space, then moved gracefully into the blue-black pool of light, the tear closing again behind it.

"That, our slip space drives. One of the reasons no one knows we're moving around. We don't use relays, we use different dimensions."

Joker and Shepard were dumbstruck at the sight of a ship disappearing into disk of light.

Joker turned to look at Shepard, "I want one!"

Shepard had left Nick to answer a few questions from the rest of the crew, mostly the ones they could get in over Tali's torrent of questions.

Shepard walked in as Joker was counting down. "Thirty seconds until we drop FTL."

"Thanks Joker, so Nick, are there any more surprises when we arrive?"

"Well, given what I know about Citadel space, Yhea, not going to lie - there's probably at least a few days of mind-blowing stuff for all of you."

The crew of the 'Normandy' released a collective gasp as the view returned after FTL. They faced the 6 kilometer long Galaxy - class 'Shining Dawn'.

"That's the first surprise Shepard, I can guarentee five more in the next hour, I have it on good authority." Nick said as he smirked, Andrew had heard what the Fleetmaster had planned.

Shepard, that ship is 6 km long, I don't even see how it moves! There no eezo readings." Joker tapped a few more commands, "Nick, do all of your ships use that 'slip space' thing to move?"

"As far as I know, yhea. Go ahead and hail the ship, head towards that docking bay you see open." Nick pointed to the bay open on the lower rear portion of the large ship.

Shepard stood up, not even realizing she had leaned forward again Joker's seat. "Five more right Nick?" She looked at him with a huge grin, "I can't wait!"

Docking Hangar - 'Shining Dawn' 2185

The docking had been uneventful outside of the Normandy's crew slight surprise at the size of the bay. Nick let them know that wasn't one of the five.

As they exited the Normandy, Nick walked next to Shepard as they came down the ramp.

"Next, one of five - Fleetmaster Khuva 'Tuzum. She is the commanding officer of this ship,-"

The nearly eight foot tall Sangheili stopped in front of the 'Normandy' crew and brought a fist to her chest, nodding towards Shepard, "the 'Shining Dawn', you must be Commander Shepard."

Shepard decided that the surprise had been a good one, an entirely new species that commanded a ship of this size. She faltered for a moment, not sure of what to do, deciding on returning the gesture the large alien had made.

Fist to her chest and bowing her head slightly, "That is correct Fleetmaster, Nickolas Austra has been part of my crew these last week's and has recently introduced me to a small part of your world."

"Yes, his reports informed us of what has happened Commander Shepard. Please, come with us," The Fleetmaster gestured to the other members with him, four humans in full armor. Shepard looked at the figures, reflecting on the similarity of the Grey armor and orange accents.

"Of course, I will say though, Nick promised five surprises in the next hour and this has been a big one, new space-faring species are a rarity in Citadel space."

The Fleetmaster chuckled, "Yes, we've come to realize much about you Citadel races. We will explain later. For now, we will try to keep the surprises at only five then Commander Shepard." She gestured towards a hallway.

"Grunt, Jack, Joker, and the rest of you, I need you all to stay with the ship. Garrus, Tali, Samara and I will go with Nick and the Fleetmaster."

Grunt looked at the large Sangeheili before answering, "Fine but I'm going to want to fight one of you." He pointed at the Fleetmaster.

She responded, "I have many warriors who would welcome the challenge, you may get your wish Krogan." Before leading the group out of the hanger.

"This ship should be fun huh Jack?" Grunt said while moving back into the 'Normandy'.

"Oh yhea, loads of fun, all 6 kilometers of it."

Bridge of the 'Shining Dawn' - 2185

Shepard and the rest noticed a moment passed when they felt uneasy, it had alarmed them but none had started, they were sure it was the least of their worries or hopes.

"We will be exiting slip space in a few minutes, there are a few things I must see to before then, I will return at our destination." The Fleetmaster stated before leaving.

Nick picked up where the Fleetmaster left off. "We are going to arrive at the second of the two surprises but for now, what do you all think?"

Before anyone else could try to begin, Tali finally burst from her thoughts, "I have to know everything about this ship, how does this thing MOVE, how is it powered, how do you BUILD something like this?! It's huge, it out weighs all of the Citadel fleet, puts them to shame! Even the life ships in the Migrant Fleet aren't this massive! This is almost too much!"

Nick smiled a bit, knowing that Tali would really like their last surprise. "Well, we never heard of eezo, the relays, or the mass effect until we stumbled across an inactive relay. So, we worked around it, never knew we might need it. As to how we build these? We've gotten very good at how we build things." Shepard thought that was an understatement if she'd ever heard one. If they could build one ship this big they could build more. 'If this ship is comparatively powerful as Nick's ship, we have a straight shot at the Collectors! Then the Reapers, I doubt it would have taken more than this ship to take down Sovereign.'

They were all interrupted by the Fleetmaster returning. "We will arrive at any moment, please, enjoy the view." She gestured to the view screens.

The view that materialized when they exited slip space surprised even Nick. He had seen halos of course, he'd even been on this one but after all this time in Citadel space had strained his sense of perspective. The others from the 'Normandy' had no witty comments or questions for long moments as they watched as the Halo, it's size hidden by the trick of the mind as it attempted to reconcile it against the planet, grow bigger as the ship moved closer. Their minds failed at seeing it for it's real size, having never experienced seeing an artificial something that large. Their eyes were glued as it grew larger and the scale of the halo was beginning to show.

Garrus was the first to come to enough sense to ask a question, "Nick, how big IS that thing, what is it, and how did you find something like that?" None of their minds could grasp that the anyone alive could have buillt something so massive.

"Garrus, it is a halo, the New SSC built it when we realized we would need a place for diplomatic relations. This halo is called 'Shangri La'. It's 18,000 km in diameter, 100 km wide, 15 km thick with a variety of environments represented. All of the Citadel races, you can see the different living areas if you look closely." He began to point out areas on the ring before he realized no one was paying attention.

The crew lapsed into another silence as they digested the information, trying to connect the numbers to the sight they were seeing.

Shepard broke her gaze from the halo with an effort. "Nick, I don't understand how something like this is built or even a ship like this one but if we can bring the Citadel races here, we have a real shot at uniting them against the Reapers." Shepard added in her head 'If they can admit how much this changes. I really hope these people can help convince them of the Reaper threat.'

The Fleetmaster spoke up at this point, "Commander Shepard, I believe that would be one of the surprises Commander Austra spoke of. The third of five is this, the Assembly has decided that the New SSC will provide our full assistance to the Citadel races in the face of the Reapers. A fleet is moving to our location as we speak to begin preparation for diplomatic contact with each race."

Samara looked up at the Fleetmaster, not something she did often to anyone, "You would seek to unite our races to fight the Reapers, do you do it because it is just or do you seek to dominate by throwing down a larger foe? Many will resist even a peaceful union, even more will fight if they think you are a threat. Just having these ships and this Halo will greatly upset many."

Shepard was surprised, she hadn't expected Samara to be so concerned, she had thought Samara's Code was too strict to include ruling or diplomacy.

"Asari, we fight the Reapers because we will not tolerate a race who's sole existence and history is the systematic destruction of sentient life. The Reapers are an affront to life and all of it's variety, we are charged with the Mantle of Responsibility and will act to preserve life at all costs." those present could feel the passion with which the Fleetmaster had spoken.

Samara nodded her respect to the alien warrior.

An officer on the bridge cut in "Fleetmaster, the Diplomatic fleet is arriving now."

Those on the bridge looked out the the view screens, Nick made the comment, "This is number four of five."

They watched as two dozen slip space portals opened in the area within the ring and twenty-four more Galaxy - class ships slid back into reality.

"Nick, I think we're all out of surprised faces, that's a lot of ship out there though, those giant ships are the diplomatic ships?." Shepard looked at Nick, a clearly impressed look on her face.

"Oh, the ships themselves aren't the surprise, two other besides the 'Shining Dawn' are going to accompany us through the relay to assault the Collector base."

Shepard pumped her fist and lost her cool for a moment, clearly thrilled at the implication of having three of these massive ships along "I lied Nick, seems you did surprise us again!" Shepard clapped him on the back.

The Fleetmaster spoke up at this point, "Commander Shepard, once your mission has been completed, we would ask that you accompany us to Earth to represent us while we announce ourselves to the System Alliance."

"If you help us against the Collectors and Reapers, you're damn right I'll help you with the brass."

"That is excellent news Commander Shepard. The other diplomatic groups will stage here until our return. With the exception of one, the Quarian delegation, for that we would make a request of you Tali'Zorah nar Rayyah."

Tali jumped at hearing her name, these events had stunned her and she hadn't expected to be addressed directly, "What could you want from me?"

"When we said all Citadel races, that included the Quarians, they have the advantage of being mobile because of the Migrant Fleet. I would request that you convince them of our intent and extend our offer of hospitality. The Fleet is welcome here at Shangri La. Here they will find many anemities we have prepared in anticipation for the Quarian's needs. The Migrant Fleet is free to land, there are berths large enough and plentiful enough for all the ships in the Migrant Fleet. We have made sure to accommodate the refueling, refit, and our engineers are able to assist in any and all repairs for your ships as well, I understand they may need them."

Tali was stunned beyond the ability to speak, her mind raced. "O-of course! Is there a communication terminal nearby? Shepard, I have to get in touch with the Admiralty immediately!"

Nick was wondering how the Quarians would react to the Huragok. When Shepard responded to Tali, "Of course Tali, Fleetmaster, can you show us where the terminal is, we'll get the message out. They'll want to send a scout ship"

The group that had accompanied Shepard was led off to the community station, Shepard stopped to look out at the impossible things in front of her, her thoughts optimistic again. 'We have a real chance now, there's work to be done of course. I doubt the Council will be happy with all of this but this -THIS- is a hell of a fighting chance. First, the Collector base, then the Reaper bastards'

She heard Tali's excited voice as she talked to her people, the buzz of the people she had been bringing together for what they all though would be a suicide mission. She watched the ships move out in space, it wasn't a suicide mission anymore, this mission would be shock and awe.

Author's Notes: BAM! That's the chapter, I played a little with the timeline. There might be gaps in there somewhere but I tried to keep it going right. I'm keeping it along the plot points to keep the SSC from dominating the story. The events they're going to do a lot more in but I'm still working the keep them from eclipsing the Mass Effect universe.

I hope you all enjoyed the story so far, next chapter WILL feature the Council (soiled alien pants and all) so stay tuned! I had more to say but I can't think of it right now. Probably update this part later.

Thanks for Reading! Reviews are welcome and here's to hoping you are entertained! *raises glass*