I should clarify that this is a bit of a multi-crossover so it won't just be Mass Effect and Halo. Anyway, the crossover really starts in this chapter, so I hope everyone enjoys it.

I do not own any of the franchises that appear in this story.

Episode 4

To say Philips was confused would be an understatement. After that earlier flash, he had found himself in the exact same area he had been in when he was younger, right down to the cracks in the seawall.

"What the fuck is going on?"

The ODST felt like he was losing his grip on reality. Or maybe it was the planet. There was clearly something off about this world, but until he found evidence, Philips had no idea what he was going to do.

Pushing his musings aside, Philips made his way towards the ground entrance of the sea wall, only to find that the way had been barricaded off. Retracing his steps, the ODST found the stairwell that took him onto the sea wall and climbed up to the catwalk.

Coming across the path through the cliff, Philips quickly checked it but found that it was also blocked off (though he wasn't too surprised considering it was the same when he was first there). Moving back onto the catwalk, Philips paused when he heard a scuffling behind him.

Spinning around, he saw a body in green armor lying dead in the entrance that he had just passed through. Before the shock of that had worn off, the light fixture above the corpse flickered, leaving the green armored man standing in the doorway for a second before the lights flickered again and he was gone.

Now really disturbed, Philips took off sprinting along the catwalk, not stopping until he had reached the outpost near the windmill. Pausing to catch his breath, the ODST's mind tried to process what he had just seen. Finding no satisfying explanation, Philips tried to forget about it and began searching for a way into the power plant.

Choosing a path that took him through the windmill, Philips strolled through the upper levels of the catwalks, still utterly disturbed by how similar this place was to where he had been before.

Going to the left, the ODST entered the plant, and found the first major difference between this location and the one on Earth. A dark blue alien artifact of some sort sat in the center of the main room, traces of energy writhing around it.

The design looked Covenant at first glance, but Philips quickly realized that the artifact wasn't Covenant due to the red electricity encricling it. Philips walked down the stairs and strolled up to the strange device. A part of him knew that he shouldn't even go near it but something about it was drawing him towards it, and he didn't want to fight it.

When he was less than a foot from the device, Philips reached out and put his hand on the surprisingly smooth surface of the alien metal. Glyphs emerged on the device's surface and a bolt of energy erupted from the top. Philips felt another flash coming but this one was much different from the previous effects. His vision followed the energy beam as everything in his view blurred into white light.

He had a feeling of astral projection similar to the last flash, only this time he felt like he was being hurled across time and space. After a trip that lasted for what felt like an eternity, his vision cleared up and the ODST could finally take a good look at his surroundings.

To say he was shocked at what he saw would be a huge understatement.

Philips had arrived in what appeared to be a break room on a UNSC warship (he'd been in enough to know what their layout was), but what really shocked him was the current occupants. Four people were currently standing around the table; one was human, but the others were 3 alien species he had never seen before. All of whom were staring at him.

One looked exactly like a human female except for the unusual tentacle-like structures on her scalp and the fact that her (Philips assumed it was female) skin was blue. Dark energy was writhing all over her body and yet she still looked like a graceful warrior.

Another one also had blue skin and looked fairly human, but what differentiated this one from the other was the fact that it looked like a male, the skin tone was a slightly darker tinge than the previous creature and its eyes were completely red.

Despite the nightmare-inducing image of that red-eyed alien, the third unknown was by far the most intimidating. Standing at just over 7 feet tall, with smooth, almost reptillian skin, this monster stared at Philips with beady eyes. It's face made the ODST want to take back every nasty thing he had ever uttered about the faces of Covenant Elites. The creature's hair (assuming it was hair) was fashioned into dreadlocks that emerged from the creature's scalp.

All four of them were covered in some sort of armor and weapons (some that resembled the armor of a Spartan, now that Philips thought about it), and were pointing their weapons at him.

The tallest one stalked over to Philips and attempted to tear the battle rifle from his hands, only to find that its claws passed right through it.

"Dread, stand down!" the human ordered his huge colleague. 'Dread' backed off, seemingly bewildered by the ODST's intangibility. A confusion Philips could rightfully understand, for he was just as lost as they were.

The energy emanting off of her dissipating, the blue female started speaking in its own language, presumably asking him questions that he didn't have answers to. After a moment, Philips spoke up, interrupting the female in the process.

"Whoa, whoa! I have no idea what you're saying." He interjected before adding a question of his own, "Who are you people? And where am I?"

The human member of the group was about to answer when Philips felt a painful sensation all over his body, and quickly found himself back in the empty white vortex as he was drawn from where he was.

He came to, right next to the artifact that had sent him away, which now unleashed a wave of energy through the room, sending the ODST flying backwards. As Philips recovered, he noticed that something was emerging from the alien device.

Shadowy humanoid creatures erupted from the artifact, and and took up positions all over the room. Meanwhile a figure in green armor materialized in front of Philips, staring at the ODST.

"You should have left this alone, Jacob." The figure said in a deep tone.

"How do you know my name?" Philips asked, with a hint of fear creeping through his voice.

At that moment, he experienced yet another flash, though this time the world took on more of a reddish tinge. A loud and deep bass tone resonated from the artifact, filling the room and causing the ODST's skin to crawl.

Glowing yellow eyes appeared on the faces of each shadowy creature and on the face of the figure in front of him. "Kill Him." the figure growled in a demonic voice, as the shadows started swarming towards him.

Philips ran past the horde, firing off bursts from his battle rifle, only to find that the rounds had passed right through his opponents. Spying an M12 Warthog down a large hallway, the ODST made a break for it as the shadows pursued him.

Pausing to hurl a grenade at the artifact, Philips was both relieved and astonished to see that a small blue explosion erupted from the side of the artifact. The creatures following him all ground to a halt as if hitting a brick wall.

Taking advantage of the window of opportunity, Philips jumped into the Warthog and hit the gas immediately, shooting out of the facility and emerging into rocky outcroppings. Several shadows pursued him, but they couldn't match the Warthog's speed and were left far behind. Shortly afterwards, the flash ended and everything returned to normal.

Despite all of that, Philips kept driving, wanting to put as much distance between him and those things as possible.

Now, who can name the 3 species that appeared in this episode? I'll give you a hint; one was from Mass Effect but the other two were not. Let me know in a review if you think you've figured out what races are in this chapter and from where.