(Note)

I Do Not Own Mass Effect or The Halo Franchise. Both Universes Respectively Belong to Bioware/EA and Microsoft/343 Industries.

Chapter Nine is here! Hope you all enjoy it folks!

(Me and the Grammer Nazi I have recently employed will be going through the previous chapters soon, in order to start editing out the grammar mistakes and other issues. I will update each chapter when we finish editing it.)

Now enough chit-chat because its time for me to say ON WITH THE STORY!

Cortana was currently not a happy AI, two small System Alliance Colonies had been emptied of their occupants and after extensive research throughout all electronic systems belonging to groups that had the capabilities to steal a colony; she had found nothing, not a single piece of evidence pointed towards a guilty party… Scanning the history logs throughout the Extra-net Cortana finally found something that could possibly explain the missing colonists.

It was a considerably recent urban myth… one that was considered false by most of galactic society; one which nearly every Krogan seemed to believe. The files she had found in the STG as well as throughout various Krogan companies dedicated to the cure of the genophage stated that one of the few high level scientists the Krogan had; a warlord known as Okeer, had sold thousands of Krogan into slavery to a mysterious race called the Collectors.

Okeer had alienated the majority of his race when this had occurred… her searching had revealed that he was currently working with the Blue suns in order to create a controllable Krogan army for them. Cortana wasn't buying it, she had researched Okeer's former actions, and he surely had another reason for working for the blue suns… although she couldn't fathom what that could be, simply put; Cortana had not found out much about the Collectors.

The most recent mention of the collectors she could find, was tied with the recent death of the Human Specter Jane Shepard, who wrote the informative reports she had been following. One of Shepard's crew, a Krogan for that matter; had stated that he believed the ship that had destroyed the Normandy SR-1 to be a Collector vessel… his opinion was noted by a System Alliance investigative interrogator but ignored by the higher ups.

Without a way to track the Collectors Cortana put that issue aside for later and sent her report to her Spartan, they had agreed to set up a main base along with several small outposts around the Galaxy. They would be spending the next several months switching between killing Pirates and building bases... Far, far away from any mass relays.

However before that could happen they would need to infiltrate the Citadel to install the now completed Dumb AI Cinder, Cortana had been playing multiple chess matches with her latest creation, and was pleased with the results.

Cortana had won most of the chess matches but Cinder had passed all her trials with flying colors, she wasn't a Smart AI by any standards… but she was more capable than most Dumb AI Programs. Inquisitive Creation had finished creating her Data Chip housing, and Cinder had been brought fully online and was handed its priorities and what its future environment would be.

Now they just had to place Cinder within the Citadel's primary systems… that would require an infiltration mission, one that her Spartan was currently planning with her. She would be unable to go with the Chief physically for this mission; she could no longer make copies of herself to run things while she was not present, and until she created another dumb AI to manage the ship she knew she would have to stay with the Dawn.

As for the upcoming infiltration mission, it was to fulfill two goals…

A small krogan clan that had in recent times mostly been ignored, being only known for its former political power, was now drawing much attention to itself. It had only been several weeks but Clan Urdnot was gaining the attention of a lot of small Krogan clans, it was greatly talked about on the Extranet between various minor Krogan groups.

Cortana's attention was drawn to this when the newest leader of Clan Urdnot, one known as Urdnot Wrex, turned out to also be her only available lead on the Collectors. So it made total sense to kill two birds with one stone.

Her research on the clan had come up with some interesting results, the newly led and fast growing clan Urdnot was going to have a meeting on the Citadel, a meeting that would involve multiple Krogan businesses as well as several weapons manufacturing companies.

It seemed that this Urdnot Wrex knew what he was doing, from what she had learned; he was an old, well experienced, Krogan war veteran… being one of the last few remaining Krogan Battle masters.

Wrex had not been in power for more than two weeks but he was already making headway in his goal of uniting the Krogan… Cortana would have to keep an eye on him in the future, it was way too soon to tell if Wrex had some ulterior motive or if he truly wanted to unite his people under one banner, Cortana could afford to wait and find out.

However if a discreet meeting on one of the Citadel's arms was happening, then it would be the perfect cover to place Cinder within its systems. That and the Chief could gain valuable Intel on the Collectors from the Krogan Battle master…

After the plan was settled and all was agreed upon, Cortana set about digitally creating the Chief's new alias as a former N7 now a privately hirable body guard, specialized in various forms of VIP protection. She would then forward a resume to several of the minor Weapons traders who would be attending the meeting and were currently hiring body guards for said event.

As for a disguise the Chief and Inquisitive Creation were currently overhauling an ODST uniform, by the time they finished it, it would contain no traces of ever belonging to the UNSC. Anyone who analyzed it would think it was some custom, one of a kind, experimental, shield-less body armor made for important events.

While the Chief would be attending the business meetings as a body guard, speaking to a Krogan Clan leader about the collectors, placing Cinder within the Citadel's Systems and exploring the easily accessible sections of the self proclaimed largest Station in the Galaxy. Cortana would take the Dawn and begin the long term construction of their first and largest base… ironically only several hours journey through slip-space away from the Citadel itself, it would be hidden within a system that was surrounded by a constantly fluctuating nebulae.

Any ship not using Slip-space would be unable to access the resource loaded solar system hidden within the dangerous space cloud; it was the perfect place to make a manufacturing facility and Cradle repair station. Cortana had found it by examining Forerunner star charts… it was literally one of the few hundred only places in the Galaxy that stayed exactly the same in this universe as it was in their own.

Cortana had a theory about that… but she could research it later once they were done settling into their current surroundings.

Inquisitive Creation was tasked with creating another Huragok… not an easy feat to achieve with the current resources available, although the Floating Biological Super Computer stated that it was not a problem and would only take several days longer to complete the task. The new Huragok would be placed in charge of building the construction drone factories in order to eventually complete the base after the Dawn left to do other things.

They would remain in contact with a deep space communications suite installed via scraping it off the Dawns hull and retrofitting it to a transmitter dish groundside. It was calculated that the base would be completed within two to three years; its builders working non-stop to increase their own numbers and build the facilities at the same time…

Cortana figured they were stuck with the long wait… unless they were to find more stuff from they're own universe drifting in this weird Galaxy… preferably forerunner stuff, now that was something she sincerely hoped would happen; even though the chances were incredibly unlikely.

On the Colony world of Prexemia clean up operations were currently underway, the surviving leaders of the Colony had contracted the future construction of four defense cannons; along with standard training drills that would be done every two months by the colonists.

All in all things were looking up for Prexemia, the majority of the Population were living on the Fairgrounds in tents and within the now completely stripped and disabled Batarian Frigates, they would be allowed to return to their homes within the week, the clean up of the bodies, wrecked vehicles and structural repairs would be mostly completed by then.

The mystery of the Green Armored Warrior was the talk of the makeshift refugee camp; those who had seen him up-close were sought out and asked to tell their stories to those who hadn't seen him… or those who had been chipped before his arrival.

The few that had gotten a good look at the Green Armored Warrior had drawn him from memory as best as was possible, but without solid evidence of his existence many of those who were visiting Prexemia after the recent attack stated their doubt, believing the story to be blown out of proportion… a tall tale to draw in tourists.

The Majority of the scoffers were ignored by the city's populace; they now had a legend to call their own it was something to differentiate them from everyone else, something they could tell their children about. The newer generation of the Colony world held onto this new differentiator that gave them a sense of Individuality from the other Colonies with a stubborn grip, the scoffers could scoff all they wanted, they weren't there when it happened… after all.

Seeing is believing is it not?

To say the vendor vultures weren't circling the poor refugee's and tourists wallets would be bold faced lie. All around the refugee camp vendors and tent shops had opened up, selling their wares and services to whoever was willing to pay for them.

Sitting among all the different Vendors and outdoor shops was a Purple colored tent with a banner over its doorway, many people went in… and all of them walked out with a surprising lack of memory as to what they had done within.

If one were to approach it for the first time they would feel an inexplicable pull towards the purple tent's door… a whisper in their minds encouraging them to investigate, as they approached the door they would look up and see what was written on the Banner in bold letters…

"Mistress Zujenia! A Teller of Fortunes!"

On a distant water world the Watcher stared across the vastness of the Galaxy, focusing its attention on the Fragment that it's willingly enthralled carried with her; soon it would have answers… For the Seer had begun her work.

Jade was walking with her brother through-out the many shops and vendors catering to the displaced populace… she and her brother had begged their mother to go see the shops until their mother had caved and handed them some credits to buy candy and food with.

They had been walking around staring at the many shops and exhibits that had made a temporary home at the edge of the refugee camp, many of the stalls were selling paintings and drawings of the many different depictions of the Green Armored Warrior…

Jade thought it completely stupid, none of the drawings looked right and he was the Green Knight not the Green armored Warrior! But none of the merchants peddling their wares would listen to her rants on the subject; she was after all a child.

She had just finished complaining to an artist for painting her Green Knight with green painted Systems Alliance armor, saying that he didn't look like that at all, then groaning in frustration when the artist ignored her and started making a new painting that looked just like all the others she had been complaining about, when her big brother who had been standing nearby laughing stepped over and told it was time to head back to their mother.

As they were walking back they passed by a purple tent… and her big brother suddenly turned toward it and started walking as if he was sleep-walking. Wondering what was up with her big brother Jade followed him until he entered the tent… after a moment she followed him in… but the creepy feeling crawling up her spine told her to be wary.

What she saw inside was a interior decorated with beautiful hand woven rugs… and a table at the center, her brother was just sitting down at it… across from him sat a lady who was very old and very, very pretty.

The lady smiled at them both and began to speak "I am Mistress Zujenia dear children and have traveled the stars to give others their fortune… I have seen many world on my travels young ones and I have told the fortunes to many different Humans. Asari, Krogan, Quarians and many others, my family has been seers of the future for many generations… our heirloom rests before you on this table, look deep into its depths if you wish to see your future."

With that she remained silent sitting there in a meditating pose… seemingly uncaring as to what occurred in her presence. The large pearl like glass orb she had gestured to was breathtakingly beautiful; filled with streaks of dark grey and black with swirls of darkest blue throughout its smooth spherical surface that seemed to move and shift about in the light, Jade thought that it looked like a window into an endless depth of deep dark water… it did not make her feel safe.

She walked over to her big brothers side noticing him stare deeply into the stone, she asked him when they would go back to mother and he ignored her. At that, Jades alarms started going off in her head; asking a second time she leaned over to where she could see his face… she felt utter terror at what she saw there.

His eyes were lifeless looking staring ahead at the large ball of weird glass on the table… her brother wasn't there anymore… he was an IT! Again! Jade jumped back and looked over to the old and very pretty woman sitting at the other side of the table… empty eyes also stared at the glass stone on the table… she was in IT Also! Jade was going to hyperventilate at this point… then she noticed the lights.

The large black glass ball was swirling with a dull glowing light and making a low humming noise… Jade realized that both her Brother and the lady were staring at it… if she didn't want to be an IT than she shouldn't stare at, so she tore her gaze away.

Thinking desperately on how to get her brother back she looked over to the tents sidewall… only to find a hammer used for tent stakes, running over and grabbing it, she turned round and ran straight at the swirling glass ball with the full intent to smash it.

She never reached her target, the ball suddenly got much brighter and the humming louder and Jade suddenly found herself in a cold and dark place… alone. Getting to her feet she screamed bloody murder to the vast cold emptiness around her… she would not be an IT! She would not!

As if it had heard her cry the Darkness brightened into a dark blue, like deep under an ocean… and then it spoke to her in a deep and awe inspiring voice. "Fear not of future enslavement little one… you should have pride, you resist our enthrallment more than most who walk this galaxy."

Jade was not comforted by any means, "I will not be an IT! No I WILL NOT! You hear me mister darkness!" turning around to look about at the emptiness she nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight of her Green Knight… he stood there still and unmoving… lifeless.

The voice spoke again from all round her, "Tell me of this Warrior… this Knight, and I shall free you and the others from my control young one, I must learn of him and his kind… what they have done, what they continue to do… I must understand why?" With that offer laid before her, Jade figured she didn't have much choice in the matter.

So she told the voice of her encounter, how the Green Knight had saved her and her big brother, how he had broken all the four-eyes and stopped them from making more people into ITS'

She felt the voice in her head… looking at her memories… and then it hummed a deep satisfied hum and everything faded away.

Jade found herself walking next to her brother on the way home… with a big gap in her memory as to the last ten minutes… Jade always noticed stuff like this and freaked out about it while her big brother just shrugged it off as a side effect of being control chipped for a short period of time and continued on home.

When they got to their temporary home and as they helped their mother prepare supper, Jade couldn't shake the feeling of wrongness that surrounded the missing ten minutes of her memory… she would do what her dad always told her to do.

She would sleep on it.

The next morning brought Jade no answers, she had woken early before everyone else. Frustrated at the lack of answers to her feeling of something wrong having happened yesterday, she simple stood up and rammed her head into the nearest tent post… and like a tidal wave all ten missing minutes of her life came flooding back.

Rushing out of the tent that her family was using Jade sprinted to where the Purple tent had been… it had been located relatively near to her current residence. When she got to were it had been she found an empty plot… the old and very pretty lady was gone, along with her glass ball that made people into ITS and spoke with a strange voice.

Jade just hoped they were gone for good…

She would never be an IT. She was Jade… and nobody, nobody would ever make her into an IT. She wouldn't let them.

She would rather die first.

Of this she was utterly sure.

Mistress Zujenia sat quietly on her seat within the cruiser sized trading vessel… it was outbound to the Colonies within the Skyllian Verge… the voice had spoken to her again and told her to go there and run her business on some of the stable settlements in the region.

Unknown to lady Zujenia the watcher was only using her to gather the last bits of information it could gain on this unknown threat to the Pirates of the galaxy…

The government officials it had "interviewed" had given information on the whereabouts of the first set of witnesses these creatures had saved… most had been examined…. But there was an anomaly that garnered investigating; the first set of witness's memories had mentioned a strange girl who seemingly knew more than she should…

She would have to be "interrogated."

Tali was trying to understand what she was looking at… the room number was that of a small storage room for cleaning supplies; that had a data terminal in it. She had arrived to find others that had received the strange message on their own omni-tools.

The terminal had a partial file and a coded message in it, the message once decoded simply said "Let the Treasure hunt begin!" and the partial file was unreadable.

She and the others had deduced that this was a scavenger hunt a certain dead scientist had set up to occur after his death… now the question was what the end reward was and what the next clue could be.

They had mostly agreed the partial File held the clue… but Tali wasn't so sure, she felt there was something else that they were missing. While the other Quarians worked on finding a way to read the incomplete file, Tali took a closer look at the Terminal. Examining the terminal with a critical eye she noticed a set of numbers stating its serial and creation date numbers… as if from nowhere an idea occurred to her.

if she flipped those numbers around she had a ship number and a room number respectively… 'What if this hunt was on more than one ship?' with that thought she went with her gut and took off for the shuttle bay, she had a Treasure hunt to win.

The other Quarians who had investigated the weird message looked on curiously… it could be she was late for a meeting or some other event; most just continued to try to break the partial file's encryption, without success. Some of the smarter ones went and examined the Terminal like Tali had… it would be ten minutes before another Quarian took off for the shuttle bay, that got the others attention and every one started to examine the Terminal.

The clue wouldn't be realized until one of those that figured it out had mercy on the others and told them his guess… by then, four other Quarians were ahead of the group, with Tali at the lead.

The Illusive Man was sitting in his favorite chair staring out at the vastness of space from his viewing deck. He was pleased with the attaining of Shepard's Corpse; the beginning of Project Lazarus was an all out success. The Project would be completed within the next year and nine months, unless there were setbacks of some sort.

However the Illusive Man was not pleased with the reports he was receiving from his agents investigating the unknown interfering group that had been halting Pirates on Various Colonies throughout the Terminus systems, Attican Traverse and Skyllian Verge.

They had found no physical solid evidence what so ever, only several eyewitness accounts and rumors run rampant. There wasn't even any electronic evidence other than what Shepard had found.

This greatly annoyed the Illusive Man; the problem was that there wasn't just one group. Two colonies and a mining outpost had gone dark. No bodies, no signs of struggle, no electronic or physical evidences and no warning.

Not knowing about a threat and knowing that you don't know anything about it; is incredibly stressful and frustrating. Times that by two and you have what the Illusive Man was currently experiencing.

He needed something, anything! Some form of new information on these unknown quantities he could use to make assessments on threat or capability. Sadly he had received none; he would have to wait for his agents in the field to report at their next check-in.

His theorists and analysts had theorized that one group could be the Collectors… something he had already had suspicions of being the case. However that left the other group, which Shepard had thought were using highly experimental Mechs of some sort.

Suspicions aside, both factions were undoubtedly well equipped and very powerful. One had been kidnapping whole Colonies without leaving any evidence. The other had detonated a nuke (A NUKE!) in the middle of a Pirate fleet hiding behind a Colony's moon, leaving no survivors; whilst also simultaneously mounting an effective offensive in two other Star systems against the different Slaver strike groups.

The Illusive man poured a glass of brandy to help clear his head of wondering thoughts. Both factions obviously had multiple ships and thus probably had large caches of resources.

The implications of all these possibilities if proven true were two much to think on without receiving a massive headache for ones efforts. The Illusive man decided to wait until more evidence came in before thinking through any other possible scenarios.

Having moved his mind away from that topic the Illusive Man pulled up the final drafts for the building of the Normandy-SR2, it would be rushed to completion its hull was already being fabricated in Cerberus's best manufacturing facilities.

She would need a Pilot when the time for testing came; the Illusive Man concluded that Jeff Moreau would be the only qualified pilot for a vessel such as this, he would be recruited in time when the days for the simulations tests that came before the trial runs arrived.

Despite his attempt to distract his mind the Illusive Man knew that he would never get the mystery of the two factions out of his head, until it was resolved. His field agents had no info, his contacts within the Shadow Broker's organization had no Info, negotiations with the Shadow Broker gave no results either.

It seemed the Broker was just as frustrated as Cerberus was… that thought was not comforting to the Illusive Man at all.

The Geth Platform was lying on the ground deactivated, with a hole ripped and blasted through the right side of its chest and shoulder. It had been attempting to retrieve Old Machine Technology from a group of Heretic Geth on this planet, it had failed.

Slowly the experimental self repair systems it fielded began to bring its core functions back online… its single optic blinked rapidly before it flared to life. Slowly over the next few hours it made its way as best it could back to its small ship, it had reached consensus… it would not allow itself to deactivate this solar cycle.

Upon reaching It's vessel it headed into orbit and began the examination of the damage the heretic Juggernaut platform had inflicted on it, it was repairable. But it concluded that the damaged area would be obvious to any external examiner that saw it. Setting to work it removed the totaled pieces of its upper right shoulder and began to rewire its internals in order to maximize efficiency and minimize the damages in its chest.

After several hours time the Platform came to a dilemma, its shoulder armor was exposed and the joint there had no sturdy metal material to strengthen it, it was out of repair parts, all of which it had spent on the gaping cavity in its chest.

The answer was simple, consensus was reached and a decision made; It would have to improvise. Searching throughout the small ship it was using the Platform found a few things it could scavenge from the vessels small armory, after utilizing those parts it looked for anything else it could utilize.

It still required a proper armor covering and hard material for its right shoulder joint… glancing around the vessel the Platforms solitary eye landed with an analyzing gaze on the evidence it had collected on Shepard Commander.

It was the armor parts for Shepard Commander's right side… it could be utilized for the purpose of armoring something yet again could it not? Consensus was reached, it would be utilized as armor again, it calculated that including this to its repairs would improve performance and allow it to keep a continued presence in Galactic events, this would allow the platform to postpone a return trip for repairs.

Setting to work, the Platform meticulously cleaned and then combined its right shoulder with the high quality armor components. When it finished, It had concluded that its right arm would perform better due to the materials now making up its right shoulder joint.

Standing up from its work station the platform walked to It's ships physical interface and plugged in, it would need the ships computer systems so it could vacate its Geth programs from its mobile platform in order to re-arrange the operating software used for the platforms movements.

All was quite on the Geth vessel as its conglomerate of occupants rewrote its platforms operating codes in order to maximize movement efficiency. The Mobile platform sat motionless at its plug-in port, visible in the dim light the vessel was internally lit with.

Its right shoulder now painted with the Red, White and Black of the N7 Special Forces; the N7 logo was visible though slightly obscured by damage on its new partial chest plate.

It had reached consensus, it would continue its objective. It would complete its priorities; it would search for more technology belonging to the old machines.

The Geth make they're own future, it would strive to enable them to do so…

It would not allow itself to fail.

On the Colony of Prexemia a certain museum Curator was running around frantically instructing volunteers on what they could, how they could, how they should and what they shouldn't do to certain historical objects.

Captain Jackson Kirkwell was a retired Coast guard officer who had become rather well off financially by a lucky break in the stock market. He had moved to Prexemia in order to teach the newer generations born away from earth about Humanities roots. His museum was his pride and joy and it had hurt him dearly upon his return from a historical auction on earth to find his beloved establishment trashed by the Batarians.

Many of his priceless historical artifacts were damaged, some beyond any repair. Upon first seeing what had occurred while he was away Kirkwell had burst into tears, now he was striving to repair what had been done to his beloved museum.

It had pained him even more to learn that the LG paper 4k TV from the early twenty first century along with half of his Amazon Kindle Fire tablets from the same time period; were total losses. He had just explained which gaming console was which to a group of young teens who had been volunteered by their parents for the day to help clean up the museum, as well as assured a young girl that the I-phone seven she had accidentally dropped was perfectly fine, claiming it had the survivability of a cockroach.

Upon entering the camera section of his large historical electronics wing, Kirkwell set to work on reviewing each exhibition for damages. He prided himself in that every camera he had still worked… he hoped after the clean up he could still say the same.

He found all the film cameras to be just as he left them, with only a few scratches from being knocked out of their showcase which had been shoved unto its side. Finding some comfort in that the old film consuming dinosaurs were all still in working order; he moved on to the early digital models.

These ones were the ones that would break if knocked around. Thankfully most of their display cases were undisturbed, with only few having their glass broken. The few Cameras that had found the floor were still in working condition although they had some cosmetic damages he would have to attend too later.

Approaching the end of the Camera exhibit hall he started checking the cameras that had been utilized just before element zero based technology had taken over.

One had signs of being shot at but upon closer examination only the SSD was destroyed. That was something he could replace, although it would take some searching to find an original drive and not a remake.

Approaching the final set of cameras he found only one case with glass busted containing a high quality camera lying on its side with the lens facing the rest of the room. Picking it up Kirkwell noticed a small sliver of glass had jammed the recording button, upon closer examination he found the camera would start up and give the drained battery sign and then turn off.

Kirkwell stared at the camera in disbelief, he had been told that the clean up crew tasked with collectig the slavers' bodies had found a couple dead ones and a destroyed heavy mech in this room, it would explain the knocked over displays. The lack of destroyed cameras was a Freaking miracle that Kirkwell was not going to question. But if this camera had been recording until its battery died… 'Could it have seen what many now claimed was un-seeable by cameras?'

Hoping it would still work and had no internal damages; Kirkwell took it to the basement of the building where he and his comrades worked on keeping the Museum's items in their best condition. Upon arrival he set up a projector he and his electronics specialist Maxwell had gotten working only the week before and layed out a portable charging mat for the camera to lay on, then he plugged the camera up to the projector and set it on the mobile charging pad.

After waiting a few seconds for the battery to gain enough energy to run the camera Kirkwell powered it on and had the projector display its options menu on the white sheet he and Maxwell had used to test the projector on only the week before.

Scrolling through the menu items Kirkwell selected the 'view saved videos' option and was shocked to find over twenty-three hours of video had been recorded. Feeling rather excited, Kirkwell played the video.

It began with a close up of a Batarians waist, apparently he was examining the cameras… having found no use for them the Batarian had left but not before kicking over a display cases spilling the older Film cameras onto the floor between the display case and the wall.

After that Kirkwell sped up the video and found the first quarter of it to be mostly that of random Batarians walking through the room and breaking the glass of a case or two; examining cameras to see if they were worth stealing and then (Much to Kirkwell's relief) leaving them be.

It was near the videos halfway point that any changes started happening, a group of Batarians ran into the room and were followed by a Heavy Mech, that took up position in the middle of the room its guns pointed towards the entry way. The Batarians had dragged a display case from outside the room in front of the entry way and were nervously fidgeting about looking scared while pointing their guns to the doorway as if expecting something to come charging through at any moment.

The Camera audio caught bits and pieces of terrified dialogue from the Batarians, while what sounded like an all out war could be heard in the background. Kirkwell heard something about a Demon of Vengeance along with several other phrases referencing terrifying characters from Batarian folklore.

And then the background noise of what had to be a fierce battle started to fade and then became silent… the Batarians the camera was recording tensed up and had every weapon pointed at the door, several of them were shaking with nerves.

Then it appeared, seemingly fading into existence in their very midst was a massive brown cloaked figure wearing green armored boots and gauntlets, Kirkwell watched in astonishment as the figure moved about with grace and dexterity, while most of its features were hidden by the cloak it wore.

It wielded a odd weapon in each hand that spat fire and had dispatched three of the seven Batarians in the blink of an eye, then it dropped its weapons and engaged in close combat… killing yet another two Batarians.

That was when the heavy Mech opened fire, the rounds impacted on a shimmering golden field of light that seemed to warp about the cloaked figure. With speed that defied belief the cloaked fighter charged the Mech head on and slammed into it knocking it onto its back, where the cloaked figure was now facing towards the camera.

The Mech attempted to swipe the cloaked person off itself with its mechanical arms, but found them both pinned by the large person on its chest. Then to Kirkwell's utter shock the Green Gauntleted One began to squeeze, the sounds of grinding gears and warping metal could be heard and the mech lost the ability to use either of its arms as the Cloaked Fighter slowly stood up and took both arms with it.

Raising one green armored boot, it slammed it down and caved the Heavy Mech's armored chest in… ending its operational status permanently.

The last two Batarians made a final rush on the Cloaked Figure firing their shotguns at close range, the golden shimmering light protected the figure just as before and one of the Batarians found its head brutally torn from its shoulders by a gauntlet armored hand, the last Batarian had charged from behind and leaped up to wrap an arm around the Cloaked Figures neck in a strangle hold.

The Figure stood unmoving for a full three seconds as the Batarian did its best to choke it to no avail, reaching an arm behind its head the Cloaked Titan grabbed the Batarian by the neck and wrenched him over its head and into the ground snapping its spinal cord with a loud crack in the process… turning slowly the figure made its way over to its two weapons and retrieved them… then it left the room, effortlessly pushing the barricade at the door aside.

Kirkwell stared at the dead bodies of the Batarians and the Mech for a full five minutes before getting over his shock and rewinding the video to watch the gruesome one sided battle over again, and again, and again.

On his sixth or seventh time through, he paused and played the video at a slower frame rate at the part where the last living Batarian attempted to choke the cloaked figure, he caught hint of green and gold when the cloaks hood almost slipped off due to the Batarian yanking from behind.

Making a Digital copy of the Video and putting it on his omni-tool Kirkwell immediately called his friend David Samson who managed the Prexemia Inquire, the Inquirer was the local news distributor on the colony and Kirkwell new they would want to publish this story first… this was going to make his Museum famous!

'Actually scratch that thought, this was going to make the whole darn Colony famous!'

Jade sat in the Museum looking through the books that lay scattered around the gaming section. Her Mother had volunteered her big brother to help clean up the place full of cool stuff, and after sufficient begging she had gotten to go with him.

He had told her that she couldn't help with the other stuff because it might break, so he had left her to look at all the cool books he had found piled next to a knocked over bookshelf. Digging through the books she found one that had lots of cool pictures in it.

Looking through she saw cool vehicles, robots and creatures, every few pages there were drawings of amazing things that took her breath away. Flying cities, massive armies, beautiful and scary castles, horses with wings, epic Battleships, massive Space ships, people with jet packs… so many amazing things were drawn here.

One was of a blue creature with green eyes and a big smile giving a thumbs up while standing next to a pink creature with a big red and yellow hammer, a yellow fox with two tails was flying above their heads… Jade thought they were all cool looking.

Scrolling through the book she finally reaching the end when she saw him, Her Green Knight leading men in a fight against strange scary creatures. The next photo showed Her Green Knight, the Men and Creatures working together to fight monsters whose pictures scared Jade so bad she screamed and threw the book away from herself.

Slowly walking over and picking it back up she searched for anymore drawings of the Green Knight, but was disappointed to only find one more drawing; it showed two armies charging each other with her knight in the middle holding a weapon.

Closing the book, she went looking for the man who her brother had pointed at when he was telling her who owned the building. Jade shouldn't have bothered, the man nearly ran her over when he came walking hurriedly around a corner.

"I'm so sorry little one I wasn't quite watching where I was headed; are you quite alright?" he asked as he checked her over for any bodily harm that may have accidentally been inflicted.

"I'm Ok" Jade said with a big smile, "I was looking for you mister."

"You were looking for me?" asked the man, "Why would you have been looking for me dear child?" he said with a smile. "Are you sure you haven't confused me with someone else?"

"Nope it was you I was looking for," Jade stated. "My brother said you own this building and all of this cool stuff, and I was wondering…" she paused.

"Wondering what, my dear girl? Go on, you can tell me, don't be afraid now." He said when he noticed she had stopped and was nervously clutching the book she was holding to her chest.

"I was wondering... ifIcanhavethisbookplease," she spoke rapidly. Raising an eyebrow the man held out his hand and Jade nervously handed him the book, examining it he began to speak out loud.

"The spine is damaged, some of the pages have tears… its not a terribly important piece of history, it mostly covers the subject of art and I bet you want this book due to its many pretty pictures held within it, now don't you?" he said as he smiled at her with a knowing gleam in his eye.

"Yes sir, they're very, very pretty and it has my favorite Green Knight in it," Jade answered.

Seemingly thinking the question over by running a hand through his beard, the man came to decision. "Well ill tell you what, you can have it… but you have to ask your parents to take you to the Museum more often." He said as he handed back the book with a twinkle of amusement in his blue eyes.

"Thank you mister! I wont forget!" Jade said as she started to run off to find her big brother and show him what she had found and what the nice man had let her keep.

"The names Kirkwell little lady and I hope you enjoy the book." The man said with a laugh. "Now I need to hurry up and go, or I'm going to be late to the lunch meeting with Samson." And with that he too took off running in order to go show someone what he had found that day.

Jade ran through the museum looking for her big brother, the book clutched to her chest; if one were to read the title it would say this…

"Epic Concept Art for Games that were never made."

(Note)

Chapter nine complete! (Except grammar… ill update that later.)

Sorry for the week long delay, AC died (thank god we have a cold front), siblings had a car wreck (they're both ok) the election happened… all in all a very eventful week.

Anyways I hope to have chapter ten done faster than this one.

to all those wondering about the ending of this chapter... well, mass effects Earth rotates the opposite way of our own; its surface is a mirror image with the continents flipped... the history is slightly different as well, many minor things that have happened in our universe were probably never finished or even occurred in the Mass effect timeline.

Hope you all have enjoyed the story so far, next chapter we infiltrate the citadel! Now won't that be fun…

So until next time this is Gabenator5 SIGNING OFF!