Disclaimer: I do not own the Halo and Muv-luv franchise as they belong to bungie and age respectively.

Chapter 1: Big Fu*cking Object

The battle was over... Didact was defeated but with high casualties.

The every living being in New Phoenix was composed... there was no way to bring them back, even the Forerunners are not capable of that.

After the Incident, John returned while carrying a piece of his faithful companion, Cortana. The UNSC spent billions just to try repair her, using every scrap of Forerunner, and Covenant technology they can find. For months, there was no success yielded, with the current tools they have, It was not enough. John participated the second battle of Requiem to find any kind Forerunner tech that help repair his AI.

There, John found what he was looking for, the Janus key and Dr. Halsey. After defeating Jul'Mdama, John encountered another one of the Librarian's imprint. There, she gave John the Janus key, a tool that gives the real time location of every piece of Forerunner tech in the Galaxy.

It was then that the Golden age for mankind had started. With Janus key the UNSC and the Covenant Separatist made giant leaps in technology and Cortana was finally repaired and upgraded with Forerunner tech. The ONI helped to repair by reverse engineering various Forerunner tech but their constant saboutage against alien races forced the UNSC to stop their operations. But the ONI attacked pre-emptively by hitting most of the UNSC leaders and the Covenant ambassadors during a meeting. The coup was foiled when a joint Human and Covenant force successfully assassinaed the director of ONI, Serin Osman.

Even after Cortana's repair, John was not in an illusion that the UNSC repaired Cortana from the kindness in their hearts, it was because of the vast amounts of knowledge about Forerunners that made her very important.

A year after the second battle of Requiem, John was made officer, a captain of a ship, to be exact. The Spartans were given a choice to whether become an officer or take a vacation as they weren't really needed anymore, the UNSC concentrated on discovering and researching Forerunner techs and artifacts, they were occasionally deployed to clear traces of the Flood in shield worlds but they were few and far in between.

John is made captain of the UNSC Aide-De-Campe, a 470 meter stealth frigate. The ship is formerly owned by ONI, it fell to UNSCDF after ONI's coup d'etat. The ship is primarily used to scout, survey any signs of Flood and to support larger battlegroups.

The UNSC Aide-De-Campe is now on an uncharted systen on the edge of Orion Arm. John, the captain of the ship, was tasked to investigate the constant disappearance of scout ships sent to survey the Shield World present on the planet.

The higher ups suspected a Flood outbreak, if so it must be contained immidiately. Considering his and Cortana's knowledge and personal experience with the Flood, they were sent to scout and survey their disappearance and report back.

Now, they just exited slipspace in the outskirts of the systems and John, like some of the crew, could not help but be surprised.

The shield world of their objective was wrapped by what seems to be a gigantic, white, thick cloth. The cloth-lookalike in question was wrapped tightly to the shield world.

"Cortana, what is that thing?" John questioned Cortana's hologram.

"...I don't know... scans show that it is a kilometers thick megastructure that is composed of unknown materials and made with unknown method. It doesn't match any Forerunner construct I know of." Cortana answered in slight shame, probably because she could not be of any help or because even with her vast knowledge of the Forerunners, the object isn't something she recognized.

John began comtemplating his options. He is reluctant of approaching the unknown but on the other hand, he needed to investigate the multiple disappearance on this area.

"John... I think I just found our missing ships..." Cortana called out.

"What? Where?" John asked.

In reply, an image appeared in front of him. The image showed pieces of metals orbiting the planet. A few pieces with distinctive grey color managed to garner his attention.

"Titanium A..." John murmured. He finally found what happened to the missing ships, Titanium A plating is generally used as plating on almost all UNSC ships. The cause of their destruction, however, remains unknown.

'Can it be the Covenant remnants? No, the Covenant remnants are on the other side of the galaxy... It can't be the Flood as they are no signs of infestation... Is this structure somehow connected to this... regardless, a survivor might tell us what happened.'

"Set a steady course to the planet and send a signal, scan the surface and search for survivors." John ordered the crew.

"Understood." They chorused as they began to work.

After a few minutes of broadcast and scans, no survivors were detected. The ship is now in orbit, scanning the surface for lifepods and dropships.

"Chief! The structure is moving!" Cortana warned.

The white object was indeed moving, part of it is unwrapping the planet, who shook as a result.

The crew and John could not help but stare with wide eyes in awe.

The end of the object exited the atmosphere, to the orbit.

John felt dread inside, his instinct is screaming for him to run away.

"It's heading towards us, Chief, collision is imminent!" Cortana warned.

"Activate the thrusters and lets get out of here!" John commanded the crew, who were happy to obey.

Suddenly, an electric pulse ran through the ship. The engines powered down as a result.

"Situation report!" John barked out.

"Main power core is down."

"Engine and thrusters are offline."

"Active Optical Camouflage, shield and weapon systems is also offline."

"Comms are down."

"Technicians report that multiple wires and circuits were fried, but nothing major." The crew reported.

A holographic image of the ship then showed the damages to John. All, except some burnt wires and circuits, damages are electrical rather than physical.

'EMP? No, we have systems to counter EMP installed. Is this like what happened to Infinity on Requiem?' John thought.

"Switch to emergency power and get us out of here." John ordered.

The UNSC Aide-De-Campe then activated the thrusters. But it showed little progress as the planet's gravitational pull is strong.

"Chief, the planet's gravity well is too strong! We'll get crushed at this rate!" Cortana informed.

John looked at the fast approaching white object and then the image of the ship. The ship cannot evade, the structure is too large and too fast.

"Is the Slipspace drive good?" He asked Cortana.

"It was hit but nothing major, it is still operational. It needs time to recharge though."

"Enough time to make a jump before that thing hits us?"

"Negative, we won't jump in time."

The Spartan gritted his teeth in frustation as he planned on how to avoid the object.

"Turn the ship around, and set a course to the planet." He ordered.

The crew were surprised and some wondered if he is crazy.

"To the planet, sir?" An officer sceptically asked.

"To the planet." The supersoldier confirmed.

The crew reluctantly did so. The ship then used the planets gravity to accelerate itself but the structure is still following them.

"Approaching the planet's atmosphere." An officer reported.

With the shields down, the only thing that protects them from the extreme heat is the hull plating made of the Hephaestus Alloy.

"Do not decelerate, maintain current speed and avoid crashing." John ordered.

"With the current direction and velocity, a crash would be inevitable and unescapable! Are you sure about this?"

"Trust me, Cortana, I have a plan."

"Drop the Shiva but do not detonate it yet." The Spartan commanded.

The Shiva is a type of a nuclear bomb commonly used by the UNSC during the Great War. It is used to deactivate energy shields and to use the EMP generated from the blast to disrupt Covenant comms and electrical devices.

The crew obeyed and dropped the nuke.

The white object was still looming behind them, the damages to the surface cause by the structure was within sight.

By this time, most of the crew began to pray to whatever God they worshipped.

Then the shadow of the object was now covering the ship. Clouds were splitted apart and threw aside.

"Detonate the bomb." John ordered.

"Sir? We are still within the blast radius and that thing will be barely touched if we detonate it now." An officer objected.

"We are not doing this to destroy that thing." Seeing the questioning looks given to him, he continued. "Just activate it, now." John spoke in a low and intimidating tone.

The officer just gulped and pressed the virtual button.

*Boooooommmmm!*

The nuke then exploded, destroying the terrain and incinerating the trees. The blast radius consumed a lot of space but the structure was unaffected.

John was not surprised that the object was undamaged, Forerunner structures are very resilient and a mere nuke would not destroy them.

The force from the blast propelled the ship to greater speed but it deviated slightly from its course.

"Is the Slipspace ready?" John asked.

"Not yet, a little bit more." Cortana replied.

John narrowed his eyes as he thought. The nuke only served to delay their collision. At this rate, the Aide-De-Campe will crash and be crushed in a few seconds.

"Set the Syura nukes to detonate on impact and drop them immidiately." He told the officers.

This time no-one objected his decisions, either because the Spartan's choices served to prolong their existance or because if they did nothing, they will die either way.

The Syura is a low yield nuclear bomb, generally used by UNSC for clearing enemy bases from orbit.

After dropping the nukes, they detonated after surface contact. It singed the lower part of the ship but did not fatally damage anything vital. The force of the nuke did not send them upward as John thought but it did slow their descent.

The object once again overshadowed them.

"Cortana, are we clear for a jump?" The Spartan inquired.

"A few seconds."

"Initiate a jump immidiately when finished recharging."

"Aye, aye, Skipper."

The rocks are now scratching the bottom ship and the object was getting closer and closer. Parts of the ship are now deformed and decolored, mainly the bottom.

"Impact imminent in 7 seconds!" An officer informed.

"Cortana, how long are those seconds!"

"Impact in 5 seconds!"

"A little more." Cortana answered.

"3 seconds!"

"Cortana."

"Recharge complete, initiating Slipspace jump... now!"

As if on cue a huge two dimensional disc appeared. The slipspace portal scarred the earth and destroyed a lot of trees. This ship slid on the surface and entered the portal.

*Slammm!*

After entering the portal, it closed just before the white structure slammed the ground they were previously on.

~Slipspace~

Inside slipspace, the ship was resounded from the crew's celebration on their survival, even the Spartan can't help but smile at the close encounter.

But in the midst of their celebration, John noticed something strange.

"Cortana, is it supposed to be like this?" John asked.

"No... something is wrong."

It was the slipspace dimension, it is now colored black and purple, different from the normal pitch black. John may lack the technical knowledge of Slipspace but even he knew that something is wrong, very wrong.

*Vrrhheeeeeeeeeennnnnnn* a horrible sound echoed in the CIC, it sounded like a metal is being stretched and twisted.

The sudden and odd sound stopped the crew's celebrations. Everyone looked left and right for the source of the damage.

"Cortana, what was that?"

"Multiple damages in the hull platings but no breaches..."

*Scrreeeettttchhttt*

"Cortana, what is happening?"

"I don't know... detecting multiple anomalies in slipspace." She answered as she furiously tap and swiped various holographic panels and interfaces.

"Is there a problem with the drive?"

"No, not the drive but the dimension... it's as if it is rejecting our drive, the dimension feels different yet the same, it is somehow transformed, mutated." Cortana continued. "Hold on, now exiting slipspace." She announced.

A portal then appeared and the ship entered it.

~Unknown Location~

The UNSC Aide-De-Campe exited slipspace and arrived in front of a red planet.

"Sir, all systems are now online." An officer reported.

"Where are we?" The Spartan asked. But before he was answered...

"Chief, we got a problem." Cortana interrupted.

"What is it?"

"The planet." Chief looked at the oddly familiar red planet. "Geographical and topological scans match, I am certain that is Mars."

Everyone's eyes widened at the reveletion. Chief just stared at the red planet. He cannot see any sign of battle or a colonial city only vast deserts of martian sands.

"Try to contact Mars Command or the colony." He told Cortana.

"Already did but there was no reply, only static." She continued. "But what is more weird is Earth."

A holographic image then appeared, showing humanity's homeworld. Everyone just stared blankly, there is a lot of things wrong with the image, the partial glassing on africa is not seen and the tall skyscrapers, structure, satellites... all wrong.

"I scanned thousand of times, the bodies of water, landmass, every is the same with a few difference, It is Earth."

"Impossible, then where are the UNSC, the home fleet and the orbital platforms?!" One of the crew exclaimed.

Cortana turned to the officer.

"It is Earth or should I say it is an Earth, according to my data, this is not our Earth, everything is almost the same 5 centuries in the past."

John thought about the situation, if Earth was like the one 500 years ago then did they travel through time? There were a few temporal accidents during slipspace transitions but he never thought that he would experience it. There was still the anomaly in the slipspace to consider, did that object somehow, inavertently sent them back through time?

"Cortana, are you saying that we traveled through time?" The Spartan asked.

"Well not exactly, we did not travel vertically, rather, we travelled diagonally through spacetime."

"...what?" Was everyone's confused response.

"Congratulations! Chief, we just travelled to an alternate dimension!" She stated cheerfully.

Author's note: if you read the books, Forerunner trilogy to be exact, then you would know that the white structure is a star road and slipspace anomaly is caused by the star road.

But to those who didnt know, star roads are megastructures built by the precursors, the maker of Forerunner and Humans. They are used by the Flood to defeat the Forerunner's fleet. They can disable Forerunner technology and make their slipspace drives incompatible with slipspace by mutating space-time itself. They, like other neural physic constructs, were destroyed during the firing of halo array.

For more information about star roads, please search in the wiki.

before you ask as to how they survived, they used the shield worlds, which are made to shield Forerunner from the halo array's pulse, to protect itself.

Please review and tell me about your opinions, no flames though. Recommendations are welcomed.