(A/N) I do not own Halo or Star Wars except the characters I created. On a further note its Alan writing this, Nicole is my sister; just clearing up any confusion, moving on.

Chapter 3: Introductions

Ehren's eyes swept the group of beings the defenders had brought and resisted a sudden urge to blast them all to hell. Who would have thought that they would be dumb enough to trust a covenant soldier? The elite had only escaped death because the giant had stepped in the way of his blaster. He didn't care what alien species got kicked outta the covenant, simply being in that covenant was condemnation enough. Stop this raving. Ehren chided himself. Genocide never helped a cause. Didn't help the Empire, won't help you. It may even make the situation worse. Calming himself he looked over the rest of the defenders.

The giant was here, obviously uncomfortable being around possible enemies unarmed. A black guy who looked ready for anything, mainly because he had refused to go anywhere without a weapon, was sitting with a shotgun across his lap. Ehren had taken an instant liking to him; the man was a hundred percent ass-kicking soldier. Though he didn't quite understand why he was here—the man was only a sergeant. Next up was the captain. Not a bad looking girl, she wasn't the prettiest woman he had ever met, however she had a definite spark to her, a natural brilliance not only in body but in mind; small wonder that she was the commander of a ship the size of a Star Destroyer.

The Admiral readjusted himself in his armor. To describe it, picture an Imperial Royal Guard that put on a mandalorian helmet, painted themselves black except for a gold inverted triforce over the left breast and bars on their shoulder pads (which are above the robe) to indicate their rank. All those who were in his elite mercenary band, known as the wraiths, wore this armor. Only everyone else's markings were in silver, not gold.

"Let's get this over with," grumbled the sergeant as he played with the safety on the shotgun. They sat around an oblong table with the opposing parties facing each other.

"First, I think introductions are in order," Ehren announced as they sat.

"I agree," replied the defender's captain. "I'm Captain Miranda Keyes."

"Welcome to the Iron Wolf Captain. I am Admiral Ehren Varick, commander of this ship and leader of the mercenary group known as the Wraiths. We'll talk about them later, right now I want to know who your companions are."

"Well, I'm Sergeant Avery Johnson, Sir," the black man said, saluting.

"I'm the Arbiter," the elite said, making the greeting hand gesture.

"Ah, one of the covenants elite elites, glad to meet you," Ehren whispered, returning the gesture. Then he turned his attention to the giant. "And you are?"

"Spartan 117, Master Chief, Sir," said the giant.

"What is your name soldier?"

The Spartan considered this a moment, shrugging he answered the question, "Spartan 117, Sir."

"That's not a name, it's a serial number. I asked for your name."

"And I answered you; it's Spartan 117, Sir."

The Admiral sighed and threw his hands in the air, "Alright, Spartan, I give up. You're worse than a stormtrooper."

Captain Keyes perked up, "Did you say 'stormtrooper'?"

"Yes, why?"

"What type of ship is this, exactly?"

The question caught the Admiral off guard, "It's a modified Kuat Drive Yards Eclipse-Class Super Star Destroyer."

The answer made a visual effect on the captain. Her eyes had flared and she had clenched her fist when he had said 'Super Star Destroyer.' What flint did I strike to make such a flame? Ehren wondered briefly. Then the answer came to him.

"Oh, no. I'm not in any way affiliated with the Imperials, Captain. I assure you that I am acting solely on my own here. I simply managed to… convince, Kuat of Kuat that this was a good investment."

"In other words you allowed him to live a day longer if he made it for you."

"The last Kuat of Kuat got on the bad side of a bounty hunter and died for it; this one didn't want to follow in his predecessor's footsteps."

"What exactly is going on here?" asked Master Chief speculatively. "How come you recognized the style of ship, Captain?"

Miranda turned towards the Spartan. "Haven't you ever watched 'Star Wars'?"

"No."

"It's a classic movie, you should watch it. Anyway apparently that movie has gone and come true," Miranda pointed at Ehren. "This man is from the Star Wars universe, or more accurately, this universe. Either that or it's an elaborate prank. However I doubt that it's a prank, it's too real, the technology is exactly the same. This is going to be huge for all the remaining Stargeeks."

"You know it's rude to point," said Ehren, annoyed. "What are you rambling about anyway? I don't know of any movie, or prank, or 'Stargeeks'. Let's focus on the task at hand, shall we?"

"Of course," mumbled Miranda.

"First off—WHAT DID YOU FUCKING PUT IN MY FUCKING COMPUTER!" raged Ehren. Everyone was taken aback by the sudden outburst, however the defenders soon started to chuckle.

"Oh dear," laughed Avery. "We forgot about Cortana."

And as though summoned by his very words a figure appeared on the holoprojector on the table.

Cortana had found it rather difficult to access the Iron Wolf's computer mainframe. However she was readily equipped with every hacking mode you could possible think of, and she soon was causing havoc on the ship.

She had fun reprogramming the MSE droids to trip whoever walked past them. Orders were being changed for everyone, from the highest ranking officials down to the maintenance droids. Some of the generals found their orders to be scrubbing toilets while others had the more unpleasant job of hand-washing the Admiral's dirty socks. Meanwhile the maintenance droids were being placed on guard duty or were simply commanded to cause as much destruction as possible.

Thanks to common sense the generals continued as they thought best and ignored their orders and some very dedicated tech workers kept damage to a minimum and most of the droids had been returned to their normal routines. However no matter how hard they tried to isolate the annoying A.I. she always managed to slip out of their tightening grasp. They had begun to give up when suddenly the MSE droids began to whistle "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves." Those techs had never worked harder to isolate a virus in their whole life.

While in the nav computer Cortana had made a shocking discovery. She had seen the Star Wars movies with Dr. Halsey, and she was surprised by what she saw in the preprogrammed nav points. 'Coruscant,' 'Endor,' 'Hoth,' 'Naboo,' 'Kashyyyk?' Could these people be from Star Wars? Was a fictional movie based on actual events? Cortana had much to ponder as she dodged the firewalls the techs were trying to net her in.

She stopped a second to look at the personal log of the Admiral. So, he's meeting with Captain Keyes right now, hmm? I'm going to have to drop by and pay them a visit.

"Speaking of the devil," said Master Chief. "There she is."

"Hello, Chief, Captain, Sergeant, Elite," Turning towards the Admiral Cortana smiled and said. "And hello to you as well, ugly!"

Instead of being insulted Ehren was thrilled with this valuable piece of technology. She was like a droid who had been left without memory wipes for a few millennia. He laughed heartily at the A.I.'s comment.

"Hello, virus," he returned, still laughing. "I see now it is you who has been causing all this trouble. Thanks for the order, but I don't think I will be 'sitting around, stewing in my own fecal matter' thank you very much!"

"Cortana, have you been messing around with orders?" asked Miranda.

"You said to cause them the worst headache they've ever had," countered Cortana.

"And you've been doing a hell of a job, by the sound of it," grunted the Arbiter.

"Now that everyone is here it's time to officially start this meeting," Ehren announced.