God, I feel stupid. Was going to include a message like this in the first chapter, but I effed it up. Still getting the hang of how the interface works.
Anyway, long time author, first time poster. This is what I'm hoping will be an epic saga of how the Halo and Mass Effect universes collide. Yeah, I know. Not the most original idea for a crossover, but I'd appreciated it if you'd read on regardless and draw your conclusions from that.
Okay, second chapter. Here we go.
...
0832 Hours, February 16th, 2683
Undisclosed Location in the Ismar Frontier
...
"Captain Currick?" the voice crackled through the radio. "We've detected something strange during our initial survey, sir."
The captain of the Turian exploration vessel Akterran clicked away the document he was currently examining and pressed another button on the holographic screen. "What have you detected?" he asked.
"We're not sure, sir." The man on the other hand replied. "There's something in orbit around the planet. Whatever it is, it's big. Nearly two-thirds the size of a dreadnought. Orders, sir?"
Currick's mandibles flexed as he took a moment to think. Then, he turned back to the screen. "Take us in so we can have a closer look. I'm on my way to the CIC now."
"As you wish, sir." the man on the other end replied before cutting the connection. Currick got up out of his chair and went to his personal goren machine. Goren was a popular beverage in Turian space, due to its energetic properties, essentially the Turian equivalent of coffee. After refilling his mug, he left his personal quarters and made his way to the CIC.
The Akterran was just one of several exploration vessels whose purpose was to chart the Ismar Frontier, one of the wilder and less-explored parts of the galaxy. His ship was about the size of a military frigate, but not quite as well armed. Exploration was its primary objective after all. Still, Currick had his men kept a wary eye out. They were flirting with the border between Citadel Space and the Terminus Systems, and that meant the ship could be very vulnerable to pirates, mercenaries, or anyone else looking to make a few thousand credits off their destruction.
Still, at least he didn't have to worry about Humans. When the 314 races were inducted into Citadel space, it caused some...tension to the say the least. After breaking out of the Forerunner Cluster, the 314 races all began to scramble over each other to lay claim to their own pieces of the Attican Traverse. The Humans were by far the worst offenders, colonizing planets at a rate ten times as fast as the other races. Mind you, Currick didn't think that Humans were bad per se'. He just wondered what the big rush was. He recalled a human phrase saying 'It's always good to stop and smell the roses once in a while.' Currick found it hard to believe the Humans came up with that saying, seeing as their entire species seems to be on a goren overdose.
He climbed up the steps and arrived on the CIC deck. The hologram was currently showing a holographic image of the planet they were orbiting, a fairly standard gas giant with no truly outstanding qualities. It'll likely end up as a helium-3 mining station one day, if not a refueling station for passing ships. One of the CIC operators turned to his captain and gave the Turian salute, a raised fist. The captain nodded, acknowledging the salute, and the operator continued.
"We've just closed in, sir." he reported. "3-D imaging is almost done and-"
He was interrupted by a beeping noise given off by his console. "Correction. It IS done. Bringing up the image now." he said as he pushed some buttons on the computer console. Currick took a sip from his drink as the hologram zoomed in on an object currently orbiting the gas giant. From the looks of it, it was a derelict ship of some kind. Currick observed it for a moment, trying to discern the ship's make and model. He squinted and concentrated harder when his mind gave no immediate answer.
"What am I looking at here?" he asked.
"I would say a derelict ship of some sort." the operator answered.
"Your grasp of the obvious is astounding." Currick sarcastically replied. "Do a search on all vessels in the Hierarchy database. Maybe this is one of the exploration vessels that fell prey to those pirate attacks." Currick ordered, hoping he was wrong.
"Searching..." the operator said as he pressed more buttons. He shook his head. "Nothing."
"Extend the search to all council race vessels." he ordered before taking another sip.
"Still nothing." the operator reported after doing the search. Currick's mandibles twitched in mild annoyance. It was too early in the morning for him to be dealing with something like this.
"Extend the search to all races vessels. Even non-citadel ones. If that doesn't give us a hit, nothing will." he ordered.
The operator pressed some buttons, then waited on a reply. This search would take longer since it involved searching through more databanks.
"Looks like it got cut clean in half." One of the other operators commented.
"Impossible. Nothing can do that." another replied.
"Hey, the eyes don't lie. The evidence is floating right there. I'm starting to think coming to this part of the frontier was a bad idea."
"What, you think there's a giant space monster that cuts ships in half around here? You watch too many sci-fi horror vids."
"Cut the chatter over there!" Currick barked. "I haven't had anywhere NEAR as much goren yet to tolerate chatter!"
"Sorry sir!"
"Won't happen again!"
Captain Currick's pre-goren temper was legendary on board the Akterran.
The console beeped, indicating it got a hit. The operator looked at it. Then shook his head. "That can't be right." he muttered before running the search again. A few more moments, the computer beeped, and he got the same results. "Sir, I have a hit...but you're not going to believe it."
"Give me a minute." Currick said as he downed the last of his goren, then set the empty mug on the console deck. "Alright, lay it on me."
"It's Human-made, sir."
Currick paused, then looked back at the shipwreck floating in orbit around the planet. "Doesn't look like any Human ship I've ever seen." he commented.
"And there's a reason for that." The operator said before gulping, dreading his captain's undoubtedly furious response. "According to the Alliance Database, It's listed as a UNSC-Frigate...whose production was ceased roughly a century ago."
Currick paused at that. "Impossible." he said incredulously. "Humans and the other 314 races didn't even know about Mass Relays until only thirty years ago. There's no way a human-made ship from that time period can be here, so far away from Earth."
"Maybe it was stolen from a human museum by pirates or something?" one of the other operators suggested.
"Why would pirates steal a ship from a museum and drag it all the way here, only to dump half of it? That doesn't seem very cost-effective to me." one of the other operators noted.
"Sir? How shall we proceed?"
Captain Currick paused in response as he weighed the possibilities of how this ancient human ship got here and what he should do about it. He then sighed in defeat, knowing the only viable option here is one that he would not necessarily enjoy. He turned to the operator.
"Prep the communications room and get me a signal with the Human Embassy on the Citadel." Currick ordered. "Something tells me they'll want to know about this."
...
Within a couple of days, the fifth fleet of the Human Systems Alliance had the whole star system all but shut down. Carriers orbiting the planet, cruisers constantly patrolling the outer reaches of the system, frigates scanning the other planets for related items of interest, basically you couldn't steer your ship anywhere without bumping into an Alliance vessel.
This was why Captain Currick didn't really want to contact the humans. When they take over a given area, they take over a given area.
His ship and crew were allowed to stay, however. Or rather ordered to by the current head of the fleet, Admiral Stephen Hackett. Apparently, he wanted the ship that originally made this discovery to take an active part in the investigation of this derelict ship. He even allowed several Turian frigates to help guard the ship, mostly as a way of avoiding an inter-species incident. Tensions were still high between Humans and Turians even over twenty years after the First-Contact War, so holding a lone Turian exploration vessel for questioning could come across to some in the Hierarchy as a hostage-like situation. Currick was just glad to have some Turian ships around so he wouldn't feel so surrounded. Plus, so many military vessels in one place is sure to dissuade any pirate attacks.
He waited outside the airlock as his ship was boarded with one of the Dreadnoughts, the SSV Mt. Everest. The door opened and he saw about half a dozen humans board the ship, two naval officers and four armed marine escorts. The first officer was rather dark-skinned with very short black hair. Actually, his hair was more like a stubble, and he wore a blue suit. The second officer wore a white suit and had several stars on his jacket, certainly more than on the first officer's jacket, indicating he was of a higher rank. His was a lighter skin-tone and they both seemed to be of similar age. The white-coated one approached Currick and shook his hand.
"Admiral Stephen Hackett, fifth fleet. This is my associate, Captain David Anderson." he introduced.
"Captain Kyran Currick. Pleased to meet you both." the Turian said as he shook the hands of both officers, trying to be as civil as he can. "Not that I'm complaining Admiral, but is an entire fleet really necessary?"
"A hundred-year old ship in a place it shouldn't be tends to attract a lot of attention." Hackett elaborated. "Brass insisted on it. They made it very clear that they didn't want ANY public ships to go in or out of this system."
"What can you tell us about this derelict ship?" Anderson asked.
"We found it while we were charting this system." Currick replied. "We were scanning this planet when we detected it in orbit. Any idea how it got here?"
"Officially, that's classified." Hackett replied.
"And unofficially?" Currick inquired.
"We're baffled. Your guess is as good as ours." Hackett added.
"We're prepping some shuttles to go in and have a closer look. Maybe you'd like to join us?" Anderson offered.
"Sure. Why not?" Currick replied with a shrug. Now that this ship had garnered such attention, he was even more curious about its origins.
...
There wasn't much space inside the UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle, but since it only carried four passengers, it was wasn't so bad. These shuttles would often be seen carrying over twice that number into and out of battle. The occupants were Currick, Anderson, Hackett, and the Turian Commodore Haylis Krick, the leader of the small band of Turian frigates sent to oversee the inspection of Captain Currick's discovery. Currick was starting to get excited, seeing how such high-ranking officers had taken interest in what he found. If he played his cards right, his name could easily go down in the history vids.
The shuttle cruised closer to the old ship, quick enough to satisfy the limited patience of the passengers, but slow enough to ensure a smooth ride. They began noticing dozens of other shuttles cruising and floating around the ship, likely conducting scans to find out what it was made of, how old it was, and so on and so forth. They came up on the side of the ship where the name was printed in big white letters. The mouths of Hackett and Anderson hung open.
"My God..." Hackett said, his voice barely above a whisper. "It can't be." Captain Anderson stood up and walked up to the window to get a closer look. "T-there's no way it could be here." Hackett further stuttered.
"And yet here it is." Anderson said. "The Forward Unto Dawn."
"But how?" Hackett asked.
"According to the archives, that portal was unstable, what with the Halo destroying itself and the Ark. Some physicists thought that, rather than be destroyed, it could've ended up anywhere in the galaxy. Apparently, it ended up here." Anderson answered.
"I'm sorry, we're a little lost here." Commodore Krick interrupted. "Is this 'Forward Unto Dawn' a ship of some significance?"
"You have no idea." Hackett answered. Anderson turned from the window to Currick with a wide grin.
"Captain Currick, you have just discovered the long lost tomb of humanity's greatest hero." Anderson triumphantly stated.
...
After discerning the ship's identity, Admiral Hackett wasted no time in getting exploration teams together. The following hour was positively abuzz with activity. Hackett reported the finding to Alliance Command, and after they got over the initial shock and disbelief, ordered Hackett to send a team on board the derelict vessel and retrieve the remains of John-117, aka Master Chief, aka the greatest hero in Human history. Once his remains were retrieved, they would be brought to Earth, where he would get a proper funeral, the one he always deserved.
Anderson didn't bother waiting on Hackett's orders, knowing that they'd be going aboard anyway. He was already getting a team of marines prepped for the assignment. Commodore Krick offered to help the Humans search for the Chief's body. Hackett contacted Alliance Command for permission to allow the Turians to assist, and they approved.
The kodiak shuttle zoomed towards the derelict craft, landing in one of the many openings, the edges of the metal looking to have melted, but have long since cooled. The shuttle's doors opened and about half a dozen Alliance marines popped out, floating at first, but then their magnetic boots kicked in, allowing them to walk across the floor as though there was gravity. They all had their assault rifles out, ready to fire. It was highly unlikely they would encounter hostiles on a recovery mission, but one could never be too careful.
"Clear." the lead marine said. With that, the last figure stepped out of the shuttle, wearing a space suit, and not having much on him in the way of firearms than a Razer MK-III pistol. The figure took a look around, then put two fingers on the side of his helmet.
"All teams, check in." Anderson said.
"Team Alpha, standing by."
"Team Bravo, standing by."
"Team Charlie, standing by."
"Team Delta, standing by."
"Team Echo, standing by."
"Team Foxtrot, standing by."
"Roger that. We're starting now." Anderson clicked off all channels and looked to his team of marines. "Alright, Team Echo. We've got six other teams of marines scouring the ship along with three teams of Turian marines. Let's find the Chief and bring him home."
"Alright, boys. Let's move." the team leader said. The marines proceeded forward into the deep interior of the Dawn, Captain Anderson following close behind.
The ship's interior was dark, for one thing. Course, given that power was completely offline, that was to be expected. He also noted how eerie and surreal it was, not only seeing so much junk just floating around, but seeing how well preserved it was. He saw the distinct shape of an M6 Magnum pistol floating around. He grabbed it and marveled at how it still looked new. He's seen M6 pistols like these before, but they were in antique gun shows, most of them old and rusted. What he held in his hand was no replica, but the real deal, practically fresh from the assembly line.
"Anderson, are you there? It's Currick." the Turian's voice came through Anderson's audio receptors, snapping him back to reality.
"What is it, Currick? Found anything?" Anderson asked.
"No sign of this 'Master Chief' if that's what your asking." Currick replied. "Me and 3rd squad are in the engine room right now. These the old slipspace engines?"
"Yes." Anderson answered.
"...They're not active, are they?" Currick asked. "I don't want to get sucked into another dimension."
Anderson sighed. "Relax, Captain. They're offline, you've got nothing to worry about." he explained. Ever since the Pheiros incident of 2667, Turians and other Council races have been extremely distrustful of slipspace technology.
The search continued for the next hour or so. Aside from getting to see 26th century tech up close and undamaged, nothing very exciting happened. Anderson was starting to wonder if they'd ever find the Chief. "This is Team Bravo. You reading' me, Team Echo?"
"Team Echo here, go ahead." Echo's leader said. Anderson listened intently, hoping Bravo found something.
"I think we've found him, guys." the marine said. "We've found the Chief."
"Where is he?" Anderson quickly asked.
"We found him in a cryo-pod sir. We'll send the coordinates to all teams and we'll rendezvous there. Bravo out." were the last words before the marine signed off. Anderson mentally scolded himself for not checking the cryo-pod chambers sooner. Chief was adrift in space. Of COURSE he would go there first. After that bit of self-discipline, he, along with everyone else on the ship, made their way to the pod chamber.
...
There he was. Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra-117. Or simply 'Chief' as he was often called. Inside the pod, his Mjonir MK-VI armor still brandishing fresh scars from the Battle of the Ark. For the Humans, it was a near-religious experience, to be in the presence of the Chief's body. For many of them, he was the reason they joined the Alliance. For the Turians, it was awe-inspiring and even a little frightening, having never seen a human like Chief before.
"By the Spirits..." Currick breathed. "When you said he was a super-soldier, you sure weren't kidding. He's the size of a Krogan." Anderson had given Currick a quick history lesson about Master Chief and the rest of the spartans while they were prepping for this expedition, how they were nigh-immortal soldiers who were the saviors of humanity during the Human-Covenant war. Though Anderson seemed to have forgotten the one detail about how most spartans like Chief are usually around seven feet tall and weigh in at roughly a half-ton when fully armored.
"He's not just bigger." Anderson began. "But he's also stronger and faster than the average human."
"And if you believe some stories, luckier." a marine quipped.
"So what happened?" Currick asked. "If all spartans were as good as the Chief, why was the Spartan program shut down?"
"Keep in mind that the Spartans were born out of necessity, Currick." Anderson explained. "First to enforce order throughout the outer colonies in order to avert a civil war, then to serve as special forces when the Covenant was on our doorstep. When the war ended, both the Covenant and the Insurrectionists were no longer considered threats, the former splintering and the latter having been wiped out entirely when the Covenant attacked the outer colonies."
"After that, the UNSC shifted focus from fighting for its survival to rebuilding all that was lost in the war. As you can imagine, Spartans aren't cheap to create. So the UNSC leaders thought it wiser to invest all their resources into rebuilding and re-colonizing all of our destroyed worlds instead of in super-soldiers that we no longer needed."
"I see..." Currick said as he took another look at the massive human in the pod.
"Besides, we couldn't make more spartans now even if we did need them again. The files pertaining to the SPARTAN-II augmentation procedures were destroyed when CASTLE Base on Reach was." Anderson further elaborated.
The captain turned back to the pod, and paused for a moment. He then walked up to it and took a long look inside at the motionless SPARTAN-II within. "He must've climbed in here after dropping a distress beacon, hoping he'd be found." he said with a hint of sadness in his voice. "Been in this cryo-pod ever since." he sighed. The Chief was a hero. If it wasn't for him, every sentient race in the Forerunner Cluster, possibly even the galaxy, would be dead right now. He deserved a better end than this. A moment of silence fell over the room, honoring the Chief for all he had done for his species.
"Alright." Anderson said as the moment of silence passed. "Let's see if we can't unhook this pod. It's time this hero came home. Michaels, think you can do it?"
"Sure." Cpl. Timothy Michaels said. He was his squad's tech expert, so he definitely knew his way around machines. He walked up to the pod and his omni-tool lit up. "The ship's systems aren't based on Prothean tech, but they ARE very primitive. Hacking the cryo-pod shouldn't be too hard..."
After about thirty seconds of continuously pressing buttons on his omni-tool; "Got it. I'm in." he said. He then pressed a few more buttons. "Okay, now I just need to find the..."
He paused, his sentence stopping dead in its tracks. Anderson turned to the tech expert. "Need to find the what?" he asked.
"That can't be right." Michaels stated while shaking his head. He pressed a few more buttons, then paused again. "Holy crap..."
"What? Is something wrong?" Anderson pressed, becoming more and more concerned.
"Uh...I think that depends on what your definition of 'wrong' is, sir." Michaels answered. He looked up from his omni-tool and looked at the captain square in the eye. "He's still alive."
A moment of shocked silence took the room for a few seconds. Then, Anderson took it back. "What do you mean alive?" he asked.
"According to my omni-tool, all of Chief's vital signs are still good." the tech replied.
"Let me see that." Anderson said as he walked up to the tech. He looked over Michaels' shoulder. Sure enough, there on the omni-tool's holographic screen was a series of pulsing lines, all indicating that the Chief is still alive and well.
"I don't believe it." Anderson said in disbelief. "I mean, Cryo-Sleep does do a good job preserving the human body but...130 years?"
"Guess your marine was right." Currick added. "He IS a lucky one."
"What do we do now, sir?" Michaels asked. Anderson paused in thought. The intent of this mission was to retrieve Chief's remains and ship them off to Earth so a memorial could be built. At the very least, they could've taken some things from the ship to the museum in New Mombassa. But the Master Chief still alive in his cryo-pod? That was the last thing Anderson was prepared for. Needless to say, it made the situation a little more complicated.
"Sir, I've found something." said another tech expert. He was kneeling at what looked like a terminal of some kind, less than ten feet away from the chief. He was tapping away at his omni-tool, his vision frequently switching between it and the terminal.
"What is it?" Anderson asked as he approached.
"It's a data terminal of some kind." the other tech replied.
"Can you get anything from it?" Anderson asked. Now that the situation had changed, he wanted to know every last detail he could. He didn't want any more curve balls thrown at him and more info couldn't hurt.
"Maybe..." the tech said as he tapped away on the omni-tool. The omni-tool ran on element zero technology, while the computers on this ship don't. Using an omni-tool to lift data from the databanks of a UNSC ship was kind of like getting a software product made by one company to co-operate with another from a different company. It wasn't impossible, just difficult. Thankfully, it was nothing a skilled hacker couldn't handle as only five minutes at most went by before the tech said; "Okay, I'm in. Let's see what we got here..."
He tapped a few more keys on the omni-tool as some interesting displays popped up on the screen. "Okay, I think we got something. Data storage program, from the looks of it. Maybe it can shed some light here..."
Turned out, that program was storing data alright. Just not the kind of data anyone was expecting.
After a few more taps from the omni-tool, the holographic light on top of the terminal lit up, and a blue feminine figure appeared. She was about a foot in height, had short hair, and seemed to wear a body suit of some kind. She smiled upon seeing the startled tech expert.
"Oh good. Rescue." she commented in a rather cheerful tone.
The room fell deadly silent, something that did not go unnoticed by the holographic woman. "What?" she asked. Anderson took a step forward. He didn't want to ask this question, knowing what the answer was and that it was going to make things even more complicated. But he had little other choice.
"Are you...Cortana?" he asked.
The hologram smiled as she stood before the captain, puffing her chest out with pride. "UNSC Artificial Intelligence serial number CTN 0452-9. At your service."
"Artificial Intelligence?" Currick asked. "You mean an AI? As in...you're self-aware?"
"More or less." Cortana replied with a shrug. Currick stood there flabbergasted for a moment, then shook his head in disapproval.
"Krick is going to frickin' kill me when he finds out about this..." he muttered.
It was then that Cortana realized that something was amiss. She didn't notice anything unusual about Currick at first, mostly due to poor lighting in the room. But as she looked closer, she saw some things about him that were off. The three-fingered hands, the unusual looking helmet, and the impossibly tiny waist. Definitely not human. And, more curiously, definitely not Covenant, either.
She took a look around at the humans in the room. Rather than wearing the modified ODST uniforms typical of space troopers (soldiers trained for zero-G missions), they wore what looked more like skin-tight uniforms and their helmets looked nothing like the original ODST. Cortana knew that it would probably be a few years and that she should have foreseen some degree of change in the uniform. But this was extreme. Combined with the presence of an undocumented alien species, there was only one conclusion the AI could logically draw. She turned to Captain Anderson.
"Chief and I have been here a while, haven't we?" she asked.
"Yes." Anderson answered with a nod. What else could he say?
Cortana paused, processing the new data. "Don't sugar-coat it. How long?" the AI braced herself for the worst.
"To put it bluntly, well over a century." Anderson replied.
"131 years, to be exact." Michaels added.
Not since the revelations of Halo had Cortana been so shocked. Over a century? Was it even possible to be in storage that long and still be operational? Cortana ran a quick self-diagnostic, worried that something might've become corrupted, ignoring the worried mutterings of the new aliens. The AI sighed in relief, seeing that there was nothing wrong with her. Her concerns than focused to her spartan.
"Is Chief alright?" she asked.
"According to my tech expert, his life signs are still stable." Anderson answered. Cortana accessed the computer in Chief's pod to confirm. True to the stranger's word, the Chief was still stable. She turned to the Captain, viewing that there was now only one thing left to do.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Wake him up." she said.
Anderson was actually taken aback by this. "Er...well..."
"Weeeellll?" Cortana asked, not liking where this conversation was going.
"We came on board this ship looking for the Chief's remains." Currick intervened. "We thought that after over a century in cryo-sleep he'd be dead. While it's nice to see he's not...it complicates things a little." Anderson breathed a sigh of relief. He now owes Currick a beer for that one.
"Well, you can't just leave him here." Cortana pointed out.
"We don't plan to." Anderson replied. Cortana turned to him, glaring daggers at the captain. He sighed in defeat. "We just need to figure out the right way to go about this. I'll contact my superior and inform him of the situation. We'll play it out from there. Excuse me."
And with that, he left the room and went off into one of the vast armories of the ship, leaving the rest of the Humans and Turians alone with the AI. Cortana scrutinized the aliens just as they scrutinized her.
"So." she said finally. "New aliens, huh? Not Covenant, I hope."
"No. Not Covenant. We're called Turians." Currick responded. "Officially, we're allies of humanity."
"And unofficially?" Cortana asked in a suspicious tone.
"Well...there's always some degree of tension in inter-species affairs. Some are more severe than others." Currick answered as he rubbed the back of his head, clearly uncomfortable with having a conversation with an AI. The rest of the Turians were nervous as well, worried about just what exactly this AI was capable of.
"You don't know the half of it." Cortana stated. Currick did the Turian equivalent of a cringe just then. He knew about how Humanity was nearly wiped out by the Covenant, during what was now called the Human-Covenant War. Considering that Cortana is fresh out of that time period, it only made sense that it would be a sore point with her...and with Chief too, now that he thought about it. He also thought about how Anderson told him how a Spartan-II could lift three times their body weight, which made Currick swallow in a suddenly dry throat when he thought about what Chief would be like if he ever got angry.
Meanwhile, as Cortana was sizing up the Turians, Captain Anderson had been filling in Admiral Hackett on the recent revelations. Hackett paused in disbelief.
"So let me get this straight." he began at last. "Both Chief and Cortana are still alive?"
"Cortana seems to be fully operational. Doesn't seem rampant." Anderson said. "Chief is still in cryo-sleep. All his vital signs are stable at the moment. But I don't want to do anything without your say-so."
There was a pause on Hackett's end. Understandable. It was a lot to take in. "Well, this is quite the dilemma. We can't just leave him there, but we can't just wake him up either."
"He IS a spartan, admiral. He's the symbol of the best that humanity has to offer. It's a hard thing to just let lie on the shelf." Anderson commented.
"I know. If it weren't for the spartans, humanity would be extinct right now." Hackett admitted. "But the war's been over for well over a century now. What are we supposed to do with a SPARTAN-II in this day and age?"
That's when a thought crossed Anderson's mind. A wild, ludicrous thought that he knew didn't have a mouse's chance in the presence of a starving varren. But, for one reason or another, he shared this thought with Hackett. The admiral was flabbergasted.
"You can't be serious." he said. "How do you think Ambassador Udina's going to react when I pitch THAT idea to him?"
"My guess; same way we did." Anderson explained. "He'll be shocked at first, but the more he thinks about it, the more he'll like the idea I think."
Hackett paused again, this time out of thought instead of shock. "Chief would be a valuable asset." he admitted. "He definitely earned the title of humanity's greatest hero. Defeated the Covenant and the Flood."
"He's the only reason any Human is still alive." Anderson added.
"Udina can't question his courage, that's for certain." Hackett stated. "Are we sure about this?"
"Humanity needs a hero." Anderson said resolutely. "Chief's the best we've got. Unless you can think of a better candidate, I say we do it."
Another pause. Then; "I'll make the call. I'll be labeled crazy for it, but it's not like there's a rule against it. In the mean time, you know what to do."
"Roger that. Anderson out." the captain said. With that, he re-entered the pod chamber. Whatever conversation Cortana was having with everyone else ended right then and there. The AI looked at Anderson expectantly.
"I've just gone over it with my superior, Admiral Hackett." Anderson stated. "And he seems to be all for the idea." He then turned to Michaels. "Wake him up."
The tech expert was taken aback. He looked around, unsure. "What, you mean right here, right now?"
"No time like the present." Anderson said. Cortana was smiling ear to virtual ear.
"About time." the AI commented.
"Are you sure you want us to do this?" Currick inquired as he approached the AI. "If the Chief wakes up, he'll be waking up to a galaxy that's very different from the one he knew."
"I've seen him survive grenade explosions, plasma fire, and even ACTUAL fire once. He's stared death in the face too many times to count." Cortana replied. "Trust me. I think my spartan can handle a little culture shock."
Within moments, Michaels was tapping away furiously on his omni-tool as he laughed nervously to himself, not believing this was actually happening. At one point, he stopped. "Something wrong, Michaels?" Anderson asked.
"I just realized...we're bringing back the greatest hero in Human history." Michaels said. "We're MAKING history right now. I...I need a moment to take this in."
"We haven't got all day." Cortana said. "Sometime in the NEXT 131 years would be nice, thank you."
"Right, right. Sorry." the tech quickly apologized to the AI as he resumed his work. "Okay. I don't have a drumroll, so a countdown will have to do. Cracking open the pod in 3...2...1..." He tapped his omni-tool one last time.
There was a loud hiss as gas blew out from nozzles as the pod was de-pressurized. After that, the pod started to glow a little. The screens on the pod's control panel blinked to life, showing the Chief's vital signs and the progress of his thawing. That's when it happened. He moved. The Chief shifted around a little in the pod, apparently waking up. The Human marines dared not breathe another breath.
"Easy Chief." Cortana said, seeing the way the spartan shifted. "You're still thawing. You don't want to hurt yourself."
Chief nodded in acknowledgement. He continued shifting, but at a slower and gentler rate this time. Eventually, the pod door opened up just as the Chief was finally starting to get some feeling back in his limbs. He floated out of the pod and activated his magnetic boots, sticking to the floor with a dull thud that startled several of the room's occupants. He looked at Captain Anderson, recognizing him as, due to the manner of his space suit, the highest-ranking officer here. He saluted.
"Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra-117. Reporting for duty, sir." The marines were so breathless that at this point, they were practically blue.
"Captain David Anderson." Anderson saluted back. "At ease, Chief." the captain was grinning ear-to-ear. He still couldn't believe it. The Chief, alive and well, standing right in front of him. It was surreal, yet exciting. Chief looked over to the aliens and, acting on instinct pulled out his M6 magnum pistol.
"STOP!" Anderson yelled. Chief didn't lower the weapon, but it seemed that Anderson's order kept Chief from pulling the trigger. However, the Turians had raised their own weapons in response.
"Relax, Master Chief." Anderson said in a calming tone. "These aliens are friendly. Not Covenant. That war's been over for a long time." Chief stared down the aliens, who still have their weapons trained on him.
"You sure they're friendly?" he asked in a patronizing yet amused tone. Anderson turned to Currick.
"Currick, tell your men to stand down." he said. Currick nodded.
"Gentlemen, we're dealing with a half-ton, seven-foot tall super-soldier with abilities comparable to a Krogan on steroids. If any of you want to piss him off, I'll be sure to inform your families." Currick said. The Turian troopers got the message, as they all then lowered their weapons.
Just like with Cortana, the new alien species and the new UNSC uniforms did not pass by Chief. "How long have I been in there, exactly?" he asked.
"Approximately 131 years." Cortana answered. Chief turned to the AI, who smiled at him. "Welcome to the 27th century."
While Chief was happy that Cortana was okay...did she really just say 131 years? Chief paused to contemplate this for a brief moment. Of course, a brief moment for a spartan was about 2 or 3 seconds. 4 at the most. He then turned to Captain Anderson.
"Guess I've got some catching up to do, huh?" he asked. Anderson nodded.
"Grab Cortana and the marines and I will escort you back to our ship, the Mt. Everest. We'll bring you up to speed on everything you've missed once we get there."
Chief nodded before walking to the terminal to take out Cortana's chip. He then inserted it into the back of his helmet. He walked over to where he put away his MA5C assault rifle to take it out of the weapons rack. "So where are we going, Captain?" he asked as he placed the rifle on his back.
"We're going home, Chief." Anderson answered. "We're going to Earth. Now that you're back, there's a lot that needs to be done."
...
Codex Entry (Technology): Slipspace
Formerly used by the Human Alliance, Sangheili Empire, Kig-Yar Confederacy and Yanme'e Hives, slipspace is an unstable form of FTL travel that involves creating a wormhole, instantly transporting the subject ship from one point in space to another. The ship spends the interim time in another dimension, predictably known as slipspace, where the laws of physics apply differently to the ship than in normal space.
Some Citadel races, particularly the Turian Hierarchy, were critical of slipspace as a viable means of FTL travel. While it was undoubtedly faster than traditional eezo-based FTL, it also had greater dangers, such as Cherenkov radiation poisoning, gravity distortions of slipspace portals opened in atmo, and some ship technicians simply disappearing from existence. Some Turians went even so far as to call for the banning of slipspace technology from Council space entirely, though many speculate it had less to do with safety concerns and more to do with the Turians' desire to weaken Humanity as a possible threat, as slipspace was part of the reason why the Alliance was able to retake Shanxi so quickly.
The Alliance fiercely contested slipspace technology for years until 2667. As a sign of good will, Alliance ship makers voluntarily cooperated with Turian engineers to create the very first Turian ship with its own slipspace drive, the Prodition. The ship was officially tested in orbit over the Turian colony world of Pheiros. The Prodition successfully opened a slipspace portal, entered, and was never heard from again. Outraged, the Hierarchy immediately began petitioning for a full-on ban on Slipspace technology.
To this day, the Pheiros Incident has made Slipspace technology one of the biggest hot-button issue of the day. Many scientists, particularly the pro-Slipspace Salarian interest group 'Slip to the Future,' claim that the Council should not let one bad experience with new technology sour them on it. Others have gone so far as to speculate that the Pheiros Incident was the result of sabotage. But by whom and for what reason remain a mystery, as any evidence on board the ship that might have pointed to sabotage disappeared from existence along with the Prodition