This was definitely not what he had expected to see next. To be honest, he hadn't really expected to see anything next, much less a giant lizard leering over his face. The Master Chief had noticed a few things right off the bat. The first, his suit was unlocked. Non-essential power was restored as his life support system relaxed – a sign of breathable atmosphere. His suit had a normal breathing apparatus runtime of 90 minutes, yet when systems were locked down, setting his suit and body into 'Stand-by' mode through a small dose of chemicals released into his blood stream, that limited window could be extended to a period of roughly 175 minutes. The second thing he noticed, was that he was alive. The weariness he felt in his bones could attest to that.

The third, and final thing he noticed, was that they're appeared to be a massive lizard-like creature rapping on his face plate. 'The hell...' was a groggy thought. Then his brain caught up. Aliens. Unidentified. From the raised weapons, presumably hostile as well. His brain still working on waking up, his body exploded into motion. The lizard was the first to go. Big, strong most definitely, but not impervious. Very little was when brought up to a Spartan. His training kept him from outright killing it though, as the murder of an unidentified alien didn't look to good on any first-contact scenario paperwork.

Now, having quelled a few immediate threats - things were a little more clear. His mind was fresh from the groggy thoughts that had caused him to attack. He was holding a large, birdlike alien that had strange fringes covering its head, a hard exterior. He dropped the alien as his brain swam a thousand kilometers an hour and as the figure in black before him spoke. Aliens. A few of the crew here were undeniably human – the only reason he hadn't immediately executed all of them. He was very fresh from the 30 year long war, unconsciousness brought by status was the only respite from his massacre of extraterrestrials. A quick wake up call aboard the derelict Forward Unto Dawn had reminded him that aliens weren't exactly friendly.

He wasn't xenophobic, just caught up in habit. It was hard to shake 30 year habits. The human had spoken to him, mentioned something called the 'Systems Alliance'. In all his war-faring years, the Chief had never heard of it. His first though – an insurrectionist cell. He was severely tempted to rip his MA5D 7.62×39mm Assault Rifle off his back and go to work. The crew of the ship had made a mistake in the fact that they had filled the medium sized airlock with their bodies. Not much wiggle room, they would just get in each other's way. He, however, didn't need to worry about friendly fire. Their curiosity had gotten the better of them, and it was a deadly mistake. The incapacitated dark-skinned human slowly got to his feet, obviously confused, holding his head.

As his brain continued to wake up, he took a longer look at the inhabitants of the room. If this was going to be a shooting war, he wanted to size up his opponents, especially at a stalemate. They were willing to negotiate, and so, for the time being, so was he. If they told him something he didn't like, well, he knew what to do with terrorists. This was also a valuable opportunity to gain intelligence. He did not recognize multiple species in the room as his eyes gazed over the occupants. Perhaps it was worth it to hold off on gunning them down while he learned just exactly what was going on here.

He heard the human that had been addressing him, the one who identified himself as 'Commander Shepard' was speaking again, this time to some of the other crew. "Jacob, Garrus, Thane, take Grunt down to the med-bay, make sure he doesn't rip the ship apart when he wakes up. Miranda, you, Tali and Samara stay here. The rest of you, as you were." He watched warily as most of the ships foreign crew exited the small room, presumably the airlock. He looked at the four that stayed, sizing them up and assessing them in a matter of seconds.

The first, the 'Commander', was on the taller side, wearing slim fitting, if slightly bulky black armor with a red stripe down the arm. He seemed calmed and controlled, his movements betraying any possibly notions to hide his training. The man was military. He held authority on this boat, which the others seemed to respect. The outburst from the shorter tattooed woman earlier had not skimmed his attention, however, and he noticed that the attached side arm on the hip was also plainly not discarded with the rest of the weapons. He was content to let it slide; however, he was confident in his ability to remove the threat if it came to that.

His eyes shifted to the woman standing next to him. She was tall, not quite as tall as the Commander, some of the height thanks to the medium sized heels attached to the woman's feet. She was wearing a skin tight white suit with black trim. Unusual attire, especially for what he considered to be a military vessel - it seemed almost more civilian in nature. Her movements were more fluid and open than the man's, yet slightly less reserved, signs of formal training, but nervous habits, such as the tick of a finger, the shifting of weight, and wide eyes were signs of surprise, normally well hidden, but not to him.

His gaze moved to the other two in the room, obviously aliens. Needless to say, he looked a little longer at them. The first, a slender figure with seemingly feminine proportions in a slim, figure hugging suit, with little signs of protection. It nervously shifted from foot to foot, head glancing at the others, and a slight shake in the hands gave him what he needed to know. A non-combatant. This didn't make much sense to him, as he would've expected the room to be filled with the most experienced soldiers in the squad. That was worth investigating. He logged it in his memory to look deeper into the reason that the Commander had asked it to stay behind with him while the other, seemingly more capable, and certainly more-armed and armored crew members were directed to leave.

He looked at it's head, a purple visor, with the very faint outlines of eyes darting back and forth from within. He increased his suits visual detectors, looking for a face. His suit easily penetrated the tinted headpiece, and he was surprised at what he saw. The face, like the attached body, were alien indeed, the three fingers and leg structure attested to that, but the face was… surprisingly feminine, just as the body structure. Hmm... Coincidence?

The last figure in the room really caught his attention. Another feminine shaped figure, this one with blue skin, and tentacle-looking protrusions replacing hair. A red crest was on her head, seemingly embedded in her skin, and she looked at him warily, as if sizing him up. It was more than he got from the rest of the crew. Her eyes, narrowed in her assessment, were closely scrutinizing the details of his own figure, the marks and scars of his armor, as well as the attached weaponry, was clearly drawing her attention. She would be the threat, he decided, from the look of her, she was very experienced, and she radiated a calm, dangerous feel.

His assessments had taken a matter of heartbeats, and his gaze moved back to the Commander, the apparent leader, as said figure started to speak.

"Look… we don't know who you are, and it seems like you don't know who we are…. I think we got off on the wrong foot. I don't want anybody getting hurt here, so lets just take this calm and relaxed, okay?"

Slow speech, no heavy intonation changes, effort to maintain eye contact - the Master Chief recognized the signs. He was very clearly trying to assess the situation and come to the most non-violent resolution possible. For now, the Chief would agree. Intel was his first priority. He nodded in acknowledgment.

"First of all – what's your name? Are you a mech, a Geth maybe? If you don't mind me asking, what species are you?"

The Chief was very not used to having that question asked of him. Of course, even he admitted that he was probably a lot less human than the typical average, but he realized that the situation was as foreign to him as it was to them.

He pause, thinking before answering. "Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117. UNSC NavSpecWar Division." Short, concise, to the point.

The officer opposite him stared. "Is… is that a name? Or….?"

"Master Chief." He said, in an attempt to cut off that route. The least amount of information shared, the better.

"Okay… Master Chief it is. This is Miranda, she's my executive officer," the Commander ventured, gesturing to the white-suited woman. "Tali, an engineering expert," Ah. That would explain it. He did look an awfully lot like a robot, it made sense to send someone with robotics experience, in case there was a, well, malfunction. He continued, "This is Samara, one of our biotic crew members." The Chief's eyes narrowed slightly, 'biotic?' He had no idea what that meant, but he did recall at the outset of his little wake-up call, he had caught a slight blue glow emanating from the woman's position. That would definitely warrant further investigation. If these… biotics were a threat, he would need to know what he was dealing with.

His attention refocused on the Commander as he spoke. "We were sent here to investigate a deep space anomaly we thought might be connected to the Reapers… we found you instead. If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing out here? We're a long way from a Mass Relay..."

A couple questions popped into the Chiefs head. 'Reapers? Mass Relay? Deep Space?' So he answered as simply as he could, as truthfully as he could. "Classified."

Four pairs of eyes blinked at him. The Commander nodded, clearly not wanting to antagonize the giant. "Um… okay, could you at least tell me how you got here? We might be able to get you back… provided we can come to an agreement." The Chief nodded. Fair enough, he could see a deal when it was offered.

"I was engaging a hostile alien element in orbit of earth. After neutralizing the threat, I was left here."

He watched as the Commander's eyes narrowed deeply in confusion.

"Earth? Pardon me for not believing you, but I don't buy that. We're about as far from Earth as you can get!" Came the response from the human woman.

This time the Chief's brow narrowed in confusion.

"You say Earth… I'm not aware of any recent engagements in Earth's orbit..." The Commander said assertively, yet calmly, still the negotiator. They clearly didn't believe him.

Behind his visor, his deep blue eyes darted from one to the other. That didn't add up. They had to be lying. His mission timer logged him at approximately 123 minutes since the nuclear detonation above earth's orbit, the one that sent him tumbling through space.

"What is your affiliation with the UNSC." He asked again, slowly, more of a statement than a question with its heavy intonation. He watched the Commander exhale briefly before he responded.

"I promise you, we don't know what you are talking about... You said Earth, are you a part of the Systems Alliance? Do you need to return to Earth?"

He frowned. He might have been out for a while, and he was uncertain if the Cole Protocol still applied, since Earth's discovery by the Covenant and the Didact, but he would follow the protocol to the letter until it was confirmed otherwise. Time to make a decision.

"I request transport to an intermediate destination. Do you have a star chart?"

The four occupants looked at each other, a few shrugging. "I suppose that's possible… As long as you don't cause any trouble. We were sent to investigate the signal sent off, I guess by you… And seeing how we're done some investigating, I could say that the mission objective has been completed. Wouldn't you, Miranda?" The woman, Miranda, nodded in acknowledgment, if but hesitantly. She obviously didn't like leaving the job seemingly half done, there was much more to be learned. "Come this way, we have a star chart in our navigations room."

That set the Chief back. He, a hostile unknown element who had boarded their ship not more than 5 minutes ago, was being invited to the Navigation Room? He couldn't imagine a more severe breach of protocol. It would work to his advantage, but it still surprised him. They obviously operated much differently than the UNSC.

"If you would, could you leave your weapons in the armory? The crew might not feel comfortable with another heavily armed stranger walking around the ship."

That was a loaded statement, and the Chief mulled it over in his head. 'Another?' It seemed that the ship was used to the odd straggler. It made sense, seeing the odd variety of species aboard, but still. He nodded. It was only fair. His brief engagement with the crew had led him to be confident in his abilities to defend himself, if it came to that. Sure, they may have been surprised initially, but they had still moved like jello when his adrenaline had flooded him.

He looked around in the room they gestured to, strange weapons lined the walls, reminiscent of Covenant Plasma technology, but not quite.

He disarmed, setting his Assault Rifle down on the table after ejecting the magazine and cycling back the bolt to remove the readied bullet.

Next came his M6D pistol, the same process used to eject the magazine and bullet. He proceeded to remove the other weaponry he had collected in his fight with the Prometheans, including a Plasma Rifle magnetically attached to his left hip, several plasma and frag grenades from his belt along with an energy sword, and, last but not least, the weapon properly dubbed by Marine forces as the 'Spartan Laser'. He had used a significant amount of ammunition from each in his fight aboard the Didact's ship, but he had gone and replaced them as he went. He had saved the M6 Galilean Nonlinear Rifle for a rainy day, intended for the Didact himself, but that had never come, thanks to Cortana.

The watched out of the corner of his eye as the small quartet of crew gazed at the weaponry he had brought along. He was more heavily armed than usual, but perhaps it was for the best.

The Commander - Shepard, swallowed, blinking at the assortment of weapons. They were obviously as unfamiliar with his weapons as he was with theirs. He focused his audio receptors and tuned out ambient noise. Three quickly beating hearts, along with one slower one, greeted his silence, before he attuned them to normal volume. Good. They were alone. He was content with that, as long as they locked the room behind them. His gaze shifted over to the alien known as 'Samara' - the slower beating heart. He was impressed, she was keeping her cool around the Spartan – not many could do that, even fellow Marines. But not totally cool. He could tell even she was wary, maybe even slightly nervous, about the giant newcomer. As was to be expected.

Nodding a 'ready' at the Commander, which seemed to spur him into motion from his stare at the assortment of destruction laid on the armories table, he was led into a large room with a railing surrounding a holographic map of the system they were in. The crew members were staring long and hard in his direction, which was no surpise. What was a surprise, was the degree of freedom to which he was granted on what seemed like the ships bridge. 'Strange.'

"EDI, have the galaxy map ready to go for… for Master Chief here. You have coordinates right?" A nod. EDI, he supposed was an Artificial Intelligence, which did not surprise him in the slightest. What did, was the seeming monotone voice that it – she- responded with. He was expecting a Smart AI, not this.

"How may I assist you?"

Early in their training, the Spartans were taught the basics, and not so basics, of intergalactic navigation. Much like the earth itself, the galaxy was split into a coordinate grid, the galactic core being the center of said grid, with an X,Y, and Z axis. Technically more, if you counted Slipspace and the Dyson Sphere known as Trevelyan, but that was besides the point. "Pull up grid 3156.45445 by 8799.49989 by 231.0903." Reach. He had used it in the past to get to earth. Maybe the same trick would work twice.

He watched as the map blurred through space, before finally settling on…. Nothing. His lips pursed. He was sure, no confident 100% that was the correct coordinates.

"EDI, bring me the same coordinates with the central navigation reference point as the Galactic Core, axis oriented at universal basic."

"Already done, this is Standard Measurement in the Systems Alliance."

Okay… another coordinate then. Harvest. "Pull up gird 3157.56744 by 8789.06332 by 231.0101." Stars whizzed by, as the hologram was dominated by… nothing. What? That was confusing. A broken AI maybe?

"Decrease magnification by 10000x." The hologram once more rapidly shifted, bringing into view a massive field of stars of what was the Orion Arm. Or, rather, what should have been. He didn't recognize a single constellation. 'The hell…?' He noticed the others shifting beside him, clearly confused. They didn't seem to see the problem. "Continue magnification decrease, factor of 500x."

Another whirl, this time, bringing the whole of the galaxy into view. The most disconcerting thing, the Chief didn't recognize a single thing. His eyes narrowed. If they were trying to feed him false intelligence, he would not be swayed. He tried one more time.

"Show me Earths approximate location, but keep magnification." If they were from earth, and already knew its location, than he was fine for them to show him, just not the other way around. A red square appeared near the top of the map. Not where it should be. He looked at Commander Shepard, who was looking back, but with confusion. Not at the apparently wrong coordinates, but at the Chief. That look probably saved his life, as he had been contemplating neutralizing the bridge crew for the apparent deception. Something was wrong. Terribly so. A thought occurred, just then.

"Decrease magnification by a factor of 10000." He said, one more time. A field of multiple galaxies lit the screen, as the Commander looked even more confused. The Chief looked through their number, until something caught his eye. Something familiar. A sense of dread filled him. He pointed at a distant cluster, "EDI, change point of focus, using same parameters, search for first coordinates."

The AI did so, taking a moment to readjust. When she did, the view, obscured with blurry view of stars apparently hundreds of millions of light-years away, changed focus. A small bright orb, obviously distorted from such an in depth magnification from so far, had him catch his breath in his throat. The planet, the other shapes that followed elliptical orbits around the system's star, were instantly recognized. This… This was Reach. But how?

"Search second coordinates." The same thing. A small bright orb, reflecting the nearby star's light, loomed into view, familiar celestial objects accompanying it. The Chief took a deep breath. Damn. This was worse than he thought. A lot worse.