(Note)
I Do Not Own Mass Effect or The Halo Franchise; neither do I own the Titanfall Franchise. All these Universes Respectively Belong to Bioware/EA, Respawn Entertainment and Microsoft/343 Industries.
Sorry for the delay in posting this chapter; although honestly, I needed a short break to let my mind retain its creativity and I also had a nice cage fight with one of the worst three day flues I've ever experienced. So anyways, now that that's over and I have some more time on my hands I am going to continue this little hobby of mine and keep writing.
Now lets pick up were we left off, so I say ON WITH THE STORY!
Deep below the crowd packed levels of the Presidium, a tall blue armored figure walked through Maintenance Tunnels that had almost never been accessed by organics; well other than the Keepers that kept the Citadel Functioning.
Making his way through the many twining twists and turns; the Disguised Spartan followed the map he had been given without error. Finally approaching his destination, the super Soldier made his way through the gargantuan sized computers of the inner citadel support systems and began searching for his intended target. After much searching the Spartan approached the proper computer section and with a delicate grace that would have baffled the causal observer the Spartan carefully removed its case siding.
The Blue Armored figure then removed a small square box off of his back and meticulously maneuvered it into position within the computer systems that were tasked with monitoring and maintaining the key systems of the Mass Relay network.
With the box in place the Spartan super soldier removed several tools from one of his makeshift armor's compartments and began the tedious process of installing, syncing, disguising and the welding in of Cinders AI Core. Said Dumb AI Core was in an element zero lacking casing that would mask any physical electronic signs of her presence. It even had a power cell that had been appropriated from a Sangheili separatist's armor harness stored on the Forward unto Dawn. It had been pirated for parts by Inquisitive Creation in order to create the perfect stealth containment unit for the new dumb AI.
Cinder's placement had been meticulously planned out by Cortana, the Dumb AI would be off of the power grid, undetectable to Element Zero based tech and hardwired into the system behind all of the heavy firewalls… there would be no trace of her hacking in because they would never have to bypass the Citadel's excessively placed firewalls.
That impressive wall of coding that barricaded the Citadel's internal systems and kept its dark secrets hidden from the galaxy at large was rather impressive for the technology and hacking methods that the denizens of this galaxy used, however coding was coding and at the core of every computer except that of a UNSC smart AI; was naught but logical ones and zeros. For Cortana these codes were easy to manipulate, even without her ability copy herself in order to increase her multitasking capabilities.
If she had wanted to she could have slipped through the ancient walls of code that had stood for a very, very long while… not even the Citadel's systems compared to High Charity with its combination of Forerunner and Covenant systems; the Citadel especially did not compare with a Halo… not to even mention the greater or lesser Arks that had built the damned rings.
No, the Citadel wasn't a problem for Cortana… it was the consciousness' that watched over it from within and afar, that was the worrying factor here. In the last debriefing the members of the Dawn had held in the Pelican bay; Cortana had stated that she was not alone in the Relay Networks systems… and it wasn't the Geth that she had sensed, it was a powerfully entrenched AI that was physical built into the Mass Relay systems and seemed to be part of this twisted cycle of harvesting which these Reapers maintained.
Thankfully it was currently only semi-active with most of it's systems lying dormant. However extensive sleuthing by Cortana through various systems had convinced her that the attack on the Citadel by what the Geth had called "The Old Machine" otherwise known as "Sovereign," had seemingly been with the sole purpose of completely awakening this AI and activating the programs and systems used every time the Reapers decided the time had come for a galactic harvest.
While Sovereign had failed to complete its objective, it did alert the AI that something had attempted to wake it entirely and the few AI's systems that had been in semi-wakefulness had started to boot up and wake slowly, at this rate it would take over a year to fully activate and sync with all its pieces scattered throughout the Relay network.
While its efficiency was debatable, Cortana knew when she was outgunned. This AI had massive resources at it's disposal and was literally a part of the Mass Relay network, making its destruction or complete deactivation extremely difficult if not impossible with their current means.
Future direct interference with the Mass Relays AI's functions had been considered and deemed unadvisable. It was to risky, if the first attempt to halt the AI's functions or protocols failed; then any possible failsafe the construct had would activate and its complete awakening would be both quick and certain… leaving far to many civilians throughout the galaxy in possible danger of the relays shutting them out, as well as the threat of the Reapers utilizing the Citadel's hidden purpose as a gateway to release a civilization harvesting army of sentient squid like starships.
Anytime that could be bought was time that could be utilized for their preparations, Cortana had already informed them why utilizing this universe's technology was not usable for their goals. It was somewhat advanced as most young space faring societies go, but no major leaps or advances were being made… everything revolved around this physics defying element that Cortana had stated did not exist in their own universe.
In fact, Element Zero was like water here. Once it was discovered by a species all other research branch's ground to a halt and no one seemed to think anything could surpass Element Zero tech… which they could only make more compact and efficient, no new massive leaps of technology occurred once Element Zero became utilized. It was indeed the perfect galactic wide trap to utilize if one were the master of this technology.
But these ancient machines were indeed shortsighted if they had not researched and utilized a different form of technology throughout the ages of their existence and their many harvests. In a way, they fell into their own trap from the beginning. Cortana had been rather clear on the matter; this Galaxy's technology and their own did not mix.
For example Slip-Space and Element Zero did not mix. The results if said event occurred were rather chaotic in their nature… even by Spartan standards.
Once Element Zero entered Slip-Space it destabilized and either reversed the gravity and atomic bonds, causing things around it to expand at the atomic level; meaning things literally disintegrated and expanded into a cloud of atomic particles. Or it would dramatically increase the gravity and atomic bonds of surrounding objects, condensing them into an atomically solid ball of mass and then momentarily transforming into a mini black hole before seemingly imploding in on itself and ceasing to exist. Cortana theorized that it was actually violently thrown across multiple other realities as atomic or elementary partials… not a viable way for them to return home.
Returning his attention to the task at hand the Spartan worked through the final and most complicated steps in connecting Cinder to the Citadels internal systems… connecting two different universes' technologies; even though the Dumb AI's casing was designed from the beginning to do so, was difficult.
He knew his job was completed properly when the small box's light went from red to green, and his HUD on the modified ODST helmet he currently wore began showing text from the newly installed Dumb AI, confirming its complete boot up and total access to the systems it was physically connected too.
After the confirmation had been received the Spartan carefully replaced the Siding panel and made sure to leave no signs of his presence or extensive tampering. The Keepers would never find Cinder's AI core, in fact according to Cortana's research, if future events went as planned the keepers might just fall under the direct control of Cinder.
Now that nearly all his objectives were completed he started the long journey out from the Citadel's internal systems, the ring at the base of the station s arms held many layers, and he had nearly reached the middle and deepest section in order to install Cinder's AI Core.
His exit route was designed to take him by one of the communication arrays that the Citadel was equipped with, after some slight modifications and rewiring it would be inaccessible and unusable to all except Cinder, keeping Cortana in touch and allowing Cinder a backup entry door to call for digital assistance should the Relay Network's AI awaken and discover her presence.
After completing that last task he would return to the inhabited parts of the Presidium and board the vessel Cortana had already reserved for him. It would transport him to the pick up point which was a nearly empty Colony World. It didn't even have an actual name yet, it's title was still a combination of numbers and letters as it's recorded designation.
Afterwards they would move on and plant the three pre-planned small listening and storage posts and then return to the just begun, hidden main base. In order to help oversee its construction and monitor through Cinder and other channels for serious Pirate or Collector attacks on Colonial worlds… especially the latter of the two.
Pirate attacks on Colony worlds had dropped to nearly nonexistence since the three colonies had been saved with every slaver and pirate involved ending up dead… the main Batarian Pirate group in the Terminus was still reeling from its loss's and was now made up of less than twenty remaining ships; all of which were not present when the Dawn and her Crew had laid waste to all three attack groups.
The Collectors had seemingly paused in their task of emptying human worlds… three had gone silent and it was only a matter of time before they started again and collected yet another Colony's populace, however now Cortana hoped to have an earlier warning in order for the Dawn to intervene.
Theoretically the relays could be used to track the Collector vessels… although the manifests remained empty when it came to collector information, Cortana had tasked Cinder with the job of looking for active relays that had no information on the vessel currently using them, that would hopefully be how they would find a Collector vessel in route to a target world.
The other option was to use Slip-Space to go to the Omega-4 relays exit point, and that was currently impossible. Slip space could be a fickle thing, and without an exact exit or general destination solution they would have to explore the hard way. The risks were high, and the chances of missing the opposite relay point by light-years were exponential.
No star chart on the Extranet and no information from their home universe had any accurate map or chart of what was in this Galaxy's area that the Omega-4 relay pointed towards… a galaxy was not a 2-D thing, it had depth as well as width, this meant figuring the correct coordinates through research was not possible with the current time they had. They were going to have to play a game of "find the Collector before it collects" in order to stop these colony abductions.
After discreetly tampering with communications array's systems the Disguised Spartan made the long trek to the proper docking bay that held his current transportation to the sparse colony world. Doing so required taking several elevators, and even though most if not all Spartans were a veritable fountain of patience when it came to things beyond their control; the Chief couldn't help the thought crossing his mind that the slowness of the elevators was an extreme strategic drawback for both attackers and defenders alike.
Finishing his journey to his destination, the Spartan arrived at his transport. The last of the few passengers were boarding and the vessel would leave in fifteen minutes, the Spartan had arrived exactly when he intended. Showing his electronically created false identity the Blue armored figure boarded the vessel and awaited the relatively short journey to his destination, he was relieved he would not have to spend much longer out of his mjolner armor; of all the Spartan twos and threes only those of grey team would have not shared his sentiment.
Above the new Multi-species Colony world currently labeled R2X4A. A hole was suddenly torn in both space and time and a heavily armored vessel spilled forth from the portals swirling depths, it was doing a slow rotating spin as parts of the vessels outer hull glowed a dull red from stressing the stability of the Slip-Space corridor it had been traveling in.
Onboard the vessel a certain floating biological super computer was desperately attempting to keep the Dawn's reactors and Slip-Space drive core from going unstable and having a meltdown or implosion… Inquisitive would be stuck doing so until things sufficiently cooled down, things had been stressed to near breaking point.
As for the ship's AI, Cortana was both relieved to still be functioning after the stunt she had just pulled and was currently staring at what she had intercepted via the rear vehicle bay located between the ships rear thrusters…
She had been desperately searching for the object that had sent out a binary signal in Slip-Space… that signal had echoed and traversed the radio-waves in a way she had never seen before.
She had finally found something on sensors and de-pressurized the rear vehicle bay, as well as opened its bay doors. She had then alerted the two Mgalekgolo warriors to stand ready outside of the vehicle bay for security reasons, as well as to brace for serpentine maneuvers.
After that she had put the ship into a hairpin drifting turn in a stable slip Space-Corridor… she should probably check her AI Core for insanity; but she had succeeded, and they were still in one piece. Although her Spartan would have to once again sort the majority of the weapons and gear in storage, now that everything not strapped down had been knocked about yet again. She rationalized that he could use the work; he did have little to do onboard in-between missions as of late.
But that aside, what had entered the Bay doors at a high velocity and collided with one of the few remaining Scorpion Tanks they had onboard was incredibly interesting. Lying with its back propped against the side of the Scorpion was a Mech, it was heavily burned and damaged, but its paint job of Black and yellowish Gold was still discernable, its single optic was secure in its horizontal rectangle tube shaped head…
The thing was built to hold a human in its body's chest compartment, and was certainly of human origin due to the small words and numbers in several human languages labeling certain parts on its body, most prominent was a Logo on its chest that she could identify as a triangle with a creature in the center and the words: SRS, United we stand, Divided we Ambush. Surrounding aforementioned triangle… Cortana's interest was indeed piqued, no Mech unit such as this had been developed in this Universe or their home Universe to her current knowledge, this machine was likely in the same boat they were.
It must have somehow ended up in Slip-Space… through a dimensional rift torn through natural reality and Slip-Space at the same time, this could possible have answers to her own problems of getting home… but she wouldn't get her hopes up just yet, she needed to know if this Robot was a threat… or if it was even smart.
All attempts at hacking were unsuccessful, the thing was built with only several wireless data access points and all were surprisingly hardwired with unfamiliar technology against external hacking attempts… this was indeed interesting, however her Attempts to gain information weren't fruitless, she did get access to a designation before being blocked out from farther intrusion.
'So your designation is BT-7274… your from yet another dimension and possibly hold some of the information prevalent to my Crew's salvation… and I can't hack you in order to get that info… crud,' the AI mentally sighed. 'Looks like ill have to negotiate the old fashioned hard way once you wake up' Cortana sat and waited for her Spartan's return, or her new guest to reactivate, which ever came first...
'Maybe Inquisitive could physically copy the information directly from its drives… nope basics scans shows there's failsafe protocols for that as well… Crap.'
And so she waited.
Tali was awakened by her Omni-Tools alarm clock function, bleary eyed; she stared at her arm mounted holographic display through her helmets visor and deactivated the alarm, slowly she sat up and looked towards the cursed consol on the rooms wall, it held one of the final clues. She had been following the clues on this crazy treasure hunt for days now, her mission date for when she would leave the fleet had been postponed another week and she had just over half of it left. Pursuing the clues on this mad hunt had been fun, frustrating and mentally excruciating. After all this time the file had finally revealed a percentage, she was ninety eight percent complete and had only one clue left to solve until she learned the location of the last two percent of the data file…
She seriously hoped this tasking experience was worth the rewards; if it was not, then someone was going to be brought back from their after life just so she could shove her shotgun in their face and kill them again.
With frustration she continued working on this last clue, its was a incomplete and very complicated theoretical algorithm involving radiation waves and their frequencies… it was a pain and had consumed well over eighteen hours of her time, it was only missing one piece but she had to solve it by finding the parts that combined into that one piece of coding. Redoing all the other pieces and puzzling out what belonged where in the missing proof took a long time, and she was already good at math and coding to begin with.
She didn't know what this algorithm could be for… was the topic of radiation frequencies somehow involved with the supposed great reward? Or was it just added to the treasure hunt as a simple puzzle barrier to overcome in order to gain a prize that was completely unrelated… she didn't know.
This treasure hunt seriously puzzled her… so far as she knew all the other Quarians she had seen involved had either given up, taken it slow, been needed somewhere else or where just stuck. She was in the lead, having gone after the reward with determination and dedication that Jane Shepard had drilled into her on the Normandy's many adventures… her curiosity had driven her to complete this hunt as quickly as possible.
Garrus would have made a joke about how "Curiosity killed the cat," whilst Shepard would have replied with "The early bird gets the worm…" or something along those lines, Tali decided she needed to stop thinking about her dead commander and old friends before she started crying.
Getting her mind back in the game Tali continued to work out the odd equations… it was yet another two hours later and she was about to give up and take a break when something in her mind clicked into place and realization flooded her brain… the whole bosh'tet thing was a mathematical trick question… she wanted to scream, she wanted kill something, she wanted to dance and cry tears of joy. Instead she just sat there for a moment and then slowly and calmly got up and walked over to the console on the wall…
With slow methodical precision she typed in the answer… not even reacting when the screen lit up with a "congratulations" sign surrounded by digital confetti and party noises. Then the final clue appeared before her… the last file location was to be determined from this riddle, this mind game from hell would soon end, and whatever the rewards were would be uncovered…
With a deep breath Tali read the clue… and did a double take… it said, "Well if your reading this than you passed all my tests, I hoped the last one murdered some of your precious brain cells. Anyways since you've come this far I shall go easy on you and just tell you where the last file is. It's on oldest ship currently carrying the young here in the Migrant fleet, in the room where they are birthed, the password to the consol is the answer to the clue you have just solved. Remember it for it is the key."
And with that Tali took off for that oldest of the Life Ships in the Migrant Fleet, literally designated the "Life" it was where the nearly germ free rooms for couples who wanted children were, it was where many children were birthed; having the best de-contamination technology available installed in the birth ward. It held the containment modules that Quarian young were stuck in during their early years, when their immune systems were their weakest.
The Life held the final file… Tali would find it, she had grown up their, in that circlular sphere that held her for half her childhood, she remember its small size… sometimes it felt like a prison, while at others it was a protective shell to hide in.
Shoving her childhood memories to the side she arrived at the docking airlock of the frigate she had been on and immediately paid for shuttle transport to the Life, she ignored the other passengers who had overheard here destination, they were cracking comments about how she must be on her way to meet a young male who had courted her… many marriages were held on the Life after all. Keeping quite she continued to ignore them and waited for her arrival at her destination…
The conversation about her reason for traveling to her destination was soon joined by the pilot and was becoming more lewd by the second… Gripping her hands into fists Tali sat quietly and did not argue against the gossip, doing so would only encourage it… however mentally her thoughts were that of frustration.
'The reward for finishing this bosh'tet treasure hunt had better be worth it or I am seriously going to kill something.'
Initiating systems restart…
Systems restarting… 25%... 50%... 75%...100%...
Systems restart successful...
Scanning, results: pending…
Scanning, Results: Critical Systems Online…
Weapons, 50% Online…
Left Arm Status… 78% percent operational…
Right Arm Status: Pending…
Skip Chassis and Weapons Diagnostics?: no/YES…
Run Software Diagnostics?: NO/yes
Reboot complete…
Gaining location via available data…
Optic visuals conclusive: Location: non IMC territory/Non Frontier Militia territory…
Assumption: Unknown Neutral Party Location.
Neutral Party intentions: Unknown.
Previous Mission status…
Priority One: Link to Pilot: Complete.
Error connection severed.
Severed time duration: Pending.
Priority Two: Uphold the mission: Complete: Hostile Folding Weapon successfully Neutralized, Unit damaged in completion of this task…
Priority Three: Protect the Pilot: status pending...
Last known Pilot Status: Healthy…
Assumption: Mission Upheld.
New Mission objectives were required…
Action: New Mission Parameters Assigned…
Priority One: Discover Location…
Status: location: onboard vessel in orbit of unknown planetoid: vessel unknown, Neutrals unknown, no sign of IMC or Frontier Militia forces detected.
Priority Two: Repair and Refuel…
Status: Repairs: Incomplete, external assistance required.
Status: Refuel… fuel reserves at 68% percent capacities.
Scanning for Power-cells… have not found compatible Power-cell signatures within scanning range.
Priority Three: Find a Way Back to the Pilot…
Priority Three Status: pending.
Alert: Unknown AI Detected: Systems secured, back-up AI defense fail safes activated…
Commencing Unknown AI Threat assessment…
No Hostile Actions detected, AI Status set to Neutral until proven otherwise.
Present Neutral AI action: Currently observing this unit.
Mission Status: Pending…
Next Course of immediate actions: pending…
Next Course of immediate actions: Calculate Mission success/Commence communication with Neutral AI and Gain all available knowledge to complete Mission Priorities.
Calculating Possibilities of failure to return to pilot… Odds Calculated at {ERROR ERROR ERROR}
Alert: Odds Calculation Crash… Odds analysis required for Logical actions prevalent to this Unit's Continued Function... rerunning analysis…
Alert: Analysis halted… Logic requirement ignored…
Non Critical Internal memory/processing systems coming online…
Mission Failure Odds Analysis Calculation Status: Not allowed to compute.
'I Will Not Lose Another Pilot.'
'I Will Not Fail The Mission.'
Cortana watched through the Dawn's surveillance systems as the Mech started to twitch and come to life with a low hum, its optic flickering as it glanced around its location, it attempted to move an arm but the grinding and clashing of broken gears and twisted metal halted its efforts.
After a moment of silence its optic swiveled slightly and focused on the nearest working camera in the Vehicle bay, followed by a burst transmission in binary code.
"Vanguard Class Titan, Unit designation BT-7274 of the Frontier Militia, to Unknown AI, Identify designation/affiliation or be considered as Hostile."
Chuckling slightly to herself at the machine's direct approach and slightly surprised it had sensed her presence, Cortana responded.
"Designation: CTN 0452-9 Cortana, occupation: Forward Unto Dawn ship's AI/ temporally second in command of Dawn Crew, Affiliation: United Nations Space Command."
The Mech seemed to process that information for several seconds and then replied.
"Frontier Militia is unaware of U.N.S.C existence, faction and its members labeled neutral until otherwise proved hostile. CTN 0452-9 what is U.N.S.C stance towards I.M.C or Frontier Militia?"
The answer to that question was easy.
"According to my current knowledge the U.N.S.C is unaware of either I.M.C or Frontier Militia factions, all unknown Factions to U.N.S.C are considered Neutral until Proven otherwise hostile."
Cortana suddenly received a barebones extremely basic and heavily censored first contact package… this Mech was interesting allright, as well as Security Paranoid. according to the data she'd gathered so far, a Vangaurd Mech AI was supposed to be basic and lacking a personality, not even the equal of a U.N.S.C basic Dumb AI… but this file package was not made by any Human political party, it had BT-7274's fingerprints all over it, The Mech must have created the file from scratch...
'No personality my digital foot,' thought Cortana as she attempted to puzzle out this mystery machine of war that now lay as a guest aboard her ship within the Vehicle bay.
The data basically gave a short version of both I.M.C and the Frontier Militia's respective histories, why they were at war, along with the bare-bones basics of how BT-7274 arrived in slip-space, only mentioning a Folding weapon and what it was capable of… no other Data was given.
Deciding to be polite, Cortana sent her own Info package, giving the basics on the Dawn's situation and that they intend to eventually find a way home. After a while of trading basic non sensitive information BT-7274 made an offer.
"This Unit finds remaining with the Forward unto Dawn to be current best course of action in order to complete mission Priority Three: Return to Pilot Jack Cooper. Request permission from CTN 0452-9 to continue to remain aboard, receive repairs and refuel, with goal of using future planned device to return to this unit's reality, in exchange for complete copies of I.M.C Blueprint's and time/quantum research data as well as Combat assistance on missions when needed."
Cortana just sat there in cyber space for a minute, BT-7274 was blunt and direct… a lot like most of the Spartans she had dealt with in the past, it seemed the machine knew what its best course of action was… however she needed one more thing from the mech before she could accept its offer of working together.
"Offer will be accepted on added addition of receiving complete blueprints and all details of the Vanguard class Titan… especially communications, I believe that critical to any efforts to finding a way home."
The Titan's optic seemed to glitch and sputter and Cortana listened to its answer in growing surprise.
"That data is classi{Error}… Requirements are acceptable… I will not lose another pilot."
Upon receiving all the blueprints and other required data, Cortana was surprised at the difference in actions of what the blueprints showed a Vanguard class Titan should do and what BT-7274 had just done. 'Well now that's interesting, a non-smart AI controlled Mech that is emotionally attached to its pilot as well as defying its own protocols In order to complete its perceived mission… someone who knew what they were doing put some serious personal modifications into this guy.
The Mech sent a message stating it was shutting down in order to await its promised repairs, as well as stating that any tampering not part of repairs would be met with an immediate detonation of its power cells… then it went to stand by mode and lay silent.
Informing Inquisitive Creation of the situation as well as to start repairs on BT as soon as everything in engineering was stabilized… although Huragok supposedly weren't capable of frustration or sarcasm she could've sworn that the confirmation reply she received contained both.
After reviewing the communications blueprints she was overjoyed to find a possible answer to her "finding the correct home reality dilemma," there were supposedly infinite realities and this Communication tech patch that BT had incorporated into its systems for communicating over time shifts with its pilot was the key.
If it was modified correctly she could use it while it was in a slip-space bubble to listen in on open transmissions broadcasting in slipspace from other realities… if they set it up at a location identical to their own universe, such as where they were building their main base, than the possibilities of locking on to their home dimension were high…
Cortana was pulled from her thoughts by the sensors picking up a ship exiting the nearby mass relay, the active ID tag confirming her Spartan was aboard and that the pre-planned pick-up was to proceed on time.
His ID signal blinked three times… his mission was a success, within the next five hours Cinder should be sending in its first status report. Everything was going to plan, well everything but the appearance of BT-7274 that is… she was going to have a fun time debriefing the crew on their latest ally.
If these blueprints were accurate, and the amount of extra modification she suspected to be installed on BT-7274 was correct, than they had just gained a extremely valuable asset for the field, especially it came time to face the collectors and reapers.
Besides, being able to field more than three mission operatives at a time was a very advantageous thing to have.
Very advantageous indeed…
Above the Colony world of Silva-viridis a ship carrying Traders, travelers and a certain fortune teller entered orbit and requested permission to land and refuel. As well as offload its cargo and passengers, the vessel was told to wait several hours until a dock was ready for it arrival.
Onboard the ship the traveling fortune teller smiled to herself, this world was the one the voice wanted to find… this world had people who wanted their fortunes told, both her and the voice she followed would benefit from this venture.
Besides, she loved seeing the galaxy, traveling was an adventure that never got old.
Far below on Silva-viridis's surface on the edge of that world's single city surrounded by the green jungles and forests from which the Colony received its name sat a small orphanage, it was not a bad place to grow up in. the caretaker and staff were kindhearted and well experienced in the rearing of children, and many were adopted and found new homes that the Caretaker had reviewed personally in order to assure the adopted child's future happiness.
However a recent raid on what had been planned to be farming town separate from the main city had left a good half dozen children without families to care fro them. and the orphanage was hard-pressed to help each of them deal with the sadness of losing ones parents…
So when some of the people that had been taken in the slaver raid were returned, it pleased the Staff that three of the children now had parents again… but the small strange little girl that had been brought in broke many of the staffs hearts, she was a small thing for her age, and although doctors claimed otherwise she looked to be in weak health.
She had been rescued from the slavers along with others and had returned home only to find her parents were dead, she had cried her tears and then seemingly gotten over her grief…
Mrs. Valdez was the wife of the owner and caretaker Mr. Valdez; she was also the nurse for the children under the orphanages care. She had just finished reading the nightly bedtime story before tucking in the toddlers and sending the older children off to their rooms for bed… now she was walking down the hall turning out lights and making sure that all the children were in bed and prepped for sleep, many a time she heard whispered rumors and questions quite at her approach. The darlings underestimated her hearing; she could clearly hear the children's curious questions and gossip about the new girl…
She had not been present at the story reading, in fact she mostly kept to herself and stayed away from others, Mrs. Valdez was afraid that the poor young thing was distancing herself from what was real, losing her grasp on reality. Yet she knew not what to do, communicating with her, while not difficult; was time consuming, and they had other children to care for as well.
Four staff plus twenty seven hyperactive orphaned children made for a very busy day.
Stopping at the end of the hall the woman peaked into the room that held the target of all the other children's curiosity. The young girl was sitting on her bedding with her head tilted out the window towards the stars, her eyes closed and her face peaceful.
The strange tingly feeling that pervaded the room seemly caused by her very presence, only added to serenity of the picturesque scene, feeling as if she was intruding on something… she didn't know exactly what, Mrs. Valdez slowly closed the door and continued on her way to help clean the kitchen from supper and then go to bed for the night.
That girl was a puzzle all right... downright mysterious, the girl that shared a room with the strange child and had befriended her, had been whispering to several other children about her roomate during story time, whispering how something had mysterious had happened when the girl had been a slave, upon the other kids demanding to know what had happened, the whisperer had smirked and stated that it was something that was a secret and couldn't be told.
The other kids had rolled their eyes and groaned at having their curiosity lead on a wild goose chase and ignored the now giggling girl, Mrs. Valdez hadn't thought much of it, and it was probably just more gossip.
Turning her thoughts to other things Mrs. Valdez continued on her way to close up for the night.
Meanwhile back in the room that held the strange girl, a girl who was now eight years old, the strange feeling on would feel pervading the room stopped, and the girl opened her eyes…
Flaming Green Sapphire soul piercing eyes that seemed to glow of their own accord in the starlight, she looked over towards the other girl she shared the room with and smiled at what she saw.
The other child now lay in a peaceful sleep; no vivid nightmares of her parent's being killed by robbers would haunt her sleep this night. the strange child's soundless hums had seen to it, deep peaceful slumber was what her friend would have this night, she had made sure of it.
The girl turned her head back towards the stars and smiled to herself, she had practiced the Thrummings she remembered hearing from the Hunters, and in time she had made up her own songs as well. It had become easier and easier to do over the months that had passed since she had been saved by the two creatures, she had found that some of the thrumming songs she had made could put people on edge, whilst a slightly different tune would help lure them into a peaceful sleep at night, it did certainly help to calm her own mind on occasion.
As she had gotten better and better at the thrumming sounds, the few words she could make with her voice had begun to fade, now she could not hear, nor could she speak… human tongue that is. The hunter speech was all feeling and singing your emotion so as to show others your state of mind, it was easy to speak once one could generate the thrummings involved in doing so. She now communicated with others by writing and with sign language if the person she was communicating with knew it.
however despite her surroundings the Strange child's mind was not at peace, far from it. the little girl knew that all was not right with the universe... and that she had some part still to play in it.
She had recently begun to get the feeling that something was going to come after and endanger her… she did not know what, or even when but she was certain that great danger and adventure was in the future, she was only eight but she practiced in the woods: running, climbing and jumping whenever she was able.
She may have looked weak, but beneath the skin of her small body was the beginnings of coiled lithe muscle, she knew that her Mommy and Daddy couldn't protect her anymore so she would have to learn to protect herself as well as others, from the monsters. T
The monsters would return, she knew they were not gone from the world... new monsters would appear as well.
Of this Sadie was utterly sure.
(Note)
Sorry for the two week long delay, its approaching Christmas and my schedule has been crazy, it will be even crazier until after Christmas. So I may have a slower rate of producing new chapters until after Christmas occurs.
Anyways I hope to pick up the pace and get the action rolling again soon.
also if your looking for an epic halo and mass effect crossover look no farther than the recently posted story "The Strange Ship" by fanfiction author "Regularmother" as of now there are five chapters up and while not a long story (as of Yet) it is really well written :) so if you like a good halo/ME story than look in my favorite stories list on my author page and give it a read, you'll also find some other cool stories listed there; so you can check them out as well if your interested.
I Wish everyone an Awesome Christmas and happy new year as well as good health and cheer for all next year.
Thanks for reading :D
Until next time this is Gabenator5 SIGNING OFF!