Disclaimer: Contents of Halo belongs to Bungie/343 industries while Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and any starcraft reference made belongs to Blizzard. Anything else that you recognise from games, movies, shows, etc belong to their respective makers, while I hold rights to all OCs.

Edited: 04/1/2014

First 'official' chapter to my story. Please ignore and tell me some discrepancies that I have missed as I began writing this chapter first before I began prologue II: Aftermaths. Also finally, there might be some spelling error, I originally wrote this with MS word before uploading, but after I did, a bunch of red underlines popped up while MS word showed nothing. And there is a lot, so I can't be bothered changing them. Probably just spelling variations.
So please enjoy.∑

Chapter 1: Installation 08.
"The Halos…Despite the fact, that they are an extreme threat to the galaxy as a whole. The Neo-covenant still keeps them. Why? Simply because the technology in the Halos are invaluable, or more specifically the weapon is…The ability to effortlessly wipe out all living things on a galactic scale might be a little too large for us, even for ONI, but to understand how to utilize and counteract such a weapon will secure the dominance of the Neo-covenant, and by extension, humanity itself, as a galactic superpower and will ensure another 'human-covenant war' will not occur again, or at the very least will be in our favour."
-Fleet Admiral Lord Terrance Hood.

Year: 3000 AD, January 1st, 14:07:00
UNSC Cairo station orbiting over Earth: Fleet Admiral Lord Terrance Hood.
Lord Hood, commander of the entire UNSC navy reminisced about the past as he sat behind his desk on a newly upgraded Cairo station defence platform orbiting Earth with another two hundred and ninety nine others of similar design along with a fleet of three thousand ships in Orbit over the UEG capital. Hood should have long ago died from old age, UNSC medicine weren't that good yet, but after the war, the UNSC began going through the data gathered from various forerunner installations and created nanites and was given to all people that were considered 'important' such as scientist, government officials, special operations too valuable to lose and military leaders, and after a decade or so it was given to the public as well, after becoming more common and discovering more efficient way of manufacturing them.

The nanites themselves works by constantly repairing the body cell structure as they get damaged, therefore granting immortality, or at least immortality to the decay of time, now at the ripe age of 586, he was still fit enough to lead a fleet of ships into battle. Also the Elites found the Prophet of Truth have successfully created something similar and had been killed before he had the chance to apply it to himself, and hence the elites and the separatists, which renamed themselves the 'neo-covenant' which included the grunts, hunters and jackals, took it and began using it themselves, also granting them immortality and increasing tensions between the two powers.

This happened only a decade after the war where both races still had a grudge against each other, despite the 'peace' treaty created, which in hindsight was more of a 'you don't turn a human planet into glass and we don't turn one of yours into an asteroid field' kind of deal.

Nowadays, after the successful joint operations in wiping out both elite and human insurrectionist and splinter groups two hundred and sixty-nine years ago, tension have been easing at a slow pace between the two powers, but after a second attack by covenant loyalists using upgraded weapons and warships led by the Prophet of Reclamation one hundred and fifty years ago, the neo-covenant and the UNSC combined their resources and successfully obliterated the old covenant with a moderate amount of casualties. This further eased tensions to the point where the UNSC by extension the UEG was invited to join the Neo-Covenant and after negotiations and giving them the benefit of the doubt, they did join, though they still kept their old names. Seventy-five years after that, the first human-alien joint colony was created on a newly discovered planet called 'Luminous future', eventually becoming an economic powerhouse and a newly restored Ark by forerunner sentinels became the military and research capital of the super power, while Reach still kept her status of military fortress of the UNSC.

Now in the modern day, though most of the old generations of all species, especially the humans and elites, still remember the war held some grudges and trust issues against each other, they were willing to at the very least tolerate and talk to the other without insulting the other and starting a fight, while the newer generation were much more accepting and much…more opened minded…and leave it at that.
The Admiral attention than turned to the door as it opened and a young officer from ONI walked through and saluted, "At ease. What do you need?"
"Well…how should I put this…You know the probes we sent into deep space a few months ago?"
Hood merely nodded and the officer continued, "Well one of them found a Halo…"

"...I think I might have just misheard you…did you just say a Halo, Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir, considering there are only seven ever mentioned and we have all of them secured at the Ark...No one knows why it was never mention in any of the forerunner archives in the first place."

Slowly nodding as he took it in, "How many people knows about it?"

"Just you, Admiral Parangosky, me, the people monitoring the probes in the first place and the president."

"I see…What fleet is closest to this Halo?"

Looking down at his data pad he answered, "A newly formed joint colony named 'Prosperity' with a newly created fleet of seventy five ships stationed there. They are approximately sixty five thousand light years out."

"So around two weeks in slip-space…Send a communique to the CO there and tell them to secure it. The 8th rapid reaction fleet will reinforce them and the 10th joint assault fleet will be put temporary in charge of defence over the colony. Also send a slip-space communique to the rest of HIGHCOM and the Neo-covenant. Dismissed."
"Oh and one more thing before I leave sir…This Halo is three times the size of a normal Halo, reasons unknown."
The lieutenant than saluted and exited the room leaving Hood to his thoughts.

Joint colony Prosperity: Newly created 20th joint defence fleet: Fleet of Rapid Ascension.
Fleetmaster Voro Wattinr on the bridge of the Assault carrier 'Devine Intervention'
"Fleetmaster, we just received a communique from the humans, priority zero. It's for your eyes only."
Voro nodded and moved over to the COM station while the Sangheili major moved out of his way. After he finished reading he nodded, "It seems a human scouting probe found a Halo and we are closest to it…"
The rest of the bridge crew look up in surprise while the major next to him replied, "How? Don't we have all of them secured on the Ark?"
"Apparently not…Get the fleet ready for slip-space we are to leave immediately."
"What about the colony?"
"A petrol group will be here in five minutes to relieve us and the 10th assault fleet will be here in 2 hours to take our spot."
"Yes Fleetmaster."
In a minute time the entire fleet entered slip space.

Approximately 12 days since 20th joint defence fleet entered slip-space.
Somewhere bordering System Alliance space.
In the quietness of space a dormant mass relay floated there peacefully before a damaged ship no more than two hundred meters transitioned out of FTL, "Did we lose them?"

A moment later 5 ships of similar sizes along with three other ships four hundred and forty meters long exited FTL as well, "Guess not…Damn slavers…How long before we can enter FTL again?"
"Venting excess heat is fifty precent completed captain, we have one more jump in us before we need to discharge our drives, it will be another one minute and twenty two seconds before we can enter FTL again."
"Bosh'tet! We won't be able to last that long…"
"Well there is a dormant mass relay in front of us…"
The captain replied 20 seconds later, "Activate the relay…We are no longer apart of the citadel therefore not bound by their laws…"
"Captain, slavers weapons in range! They are aiming for our engines!"
"Go evasive!"

The tiny frigate began desperately dodging mass accelerated rounds from the slavers cruisers and frigates, a few stray rounds from mass accelerators of the pirates ships had managed to hit the relay, creating huge explosions. After the explosion cleared, the relay was still in perfect condition, without a scratch on it, demonstrating the advanced material put into making the 5km turning fork.
"How long till it's activated?!"
"Right about…now!"

As the quarian pilot said this the mass relay powered up and swallowed the ship. The slaver group just floated around as it pondered whether to give chase or not. Half a minute later they sent two frigates through and when they reported an all clear and they managed to get a homing beacon on the quarian ship before they entered FTL, the entire group went through.

But before the last ship managed to enter, an alliance petrol group entered the area after receiving a report from outlying sensors to see what the commotions was all about, only to see a ship enter a once dormant relay. The group than cautiously approached the relay, "Well ship designs schematics matches those of a Batarian slaver cruiser…Now what sir?"

"Send a communique back to Arcturus Station and the citadel…Tell them what happened and to send reinforcements…We will be holding position."
"Yes sir!"
On the other side of the relay.
The quarian captain stared out the ships window as it entered FTL just as two slaver ships passed through and sighed tiredly, the crew along with herself were at the safe from the slavers…At least for now…She had no way to know if they had managed to track her or worse, get a homing beacon onto the ship.
"How far is the system you detected when we exited the relay?"
"Around ten light years away, we should arrive in a little over twelve hours."
The female quarian captain nodded her head, "Very well…inform me if anything happens I'll be in my quarters."
"Yes captain."

Eleven hours fifty minutes later on forerunner installation.
"You ever wonder why we are here?" ask a tall humanoid figure in full body armour as he stood on cliff overlooking a lush green forest.

"Well…First we survived the flood and the first and only ever galaxy wide purge of all sentient beings, because we were 'assigned' to guard the didact's ship as he brought the activation index to the Ark, simply as a 'precaution' to guard him in case he ran into flood in the middle of nowhere and his escort of our respective races most powerful warships at the time were not able to hold them off. Than after we restored and reseeded the galaxy we literally exiled ourselves to an artificial galaxy that your race and the San Shyuum created, which eventually became our home as well. After a hundred thousand years we expanded the once tiny galaxy of 1200 system into a mini galaxy of 25,000 thousand systems. And a few hundred years ago, the High War council and the Conclave decided it would be a good idea to secure a foothold in our old home in case we ever needed to return." answered his female companion without taking her eyes off the forest.

"No, I meant why of all things did they decide to put installation 08 here along with five shield worlds and have said installation guarded by two special operations commanders along with a small army of Templars and Prometheans and in a place where almost no one ever comes to, aside from the scheduled supply shipments and petrol groups. I mean couldn't the normal forces have done it instead of us?"
His companion just shrugged, "You will have to ask one of the people at the top about that. Beside would you rather be sitting behind a desk or in one of those meetings with politicians deciding on what to do next, Crep? I myself know that I would rather be out here…I have spent more time than

I would have had liked in that meeting room…"
Crep chuckled lightly, "Guess your right Dawn, but still I'll rather be in bed with you…"
"Pervert…" They both shared a quiet laugh at that before Crep personal AI, caduca spes, spoke up, "High supreme commanders, unknown object have been detected heading towards this installation in FTL. The monitor is busy preparing Installation 08 defences."
A minute after he said this, a tiny ship of unknown design appeared in a bright flash a hundred km away from Halo. Taking a glance at each other, they turned their attention back to the ship which was slowly drifting towards the installation before another eight ships of significantly different design came from behind the first. Immediately the first engaged its engines as the other eight opened fire with what seemed to be primitive slug cannons. Four missed while 3 hit a shield and the last shot took out an engine, which successfully managed to send the small craft spinning out of control and crashing somewhere on the installation.

"Spes, coordinate of the crash site."
"Approximately two hundred kilometre from your current position, uploading exact coordinate into your armour, also the commodore has ordered all force to watch them for the time being…Only kill if they become a threat to us."
"Orders confirmed."
With that they both unclipped their rifles attached on their back before opening a slip space portal and walking through.

The crashed quarian ship.
The captain slowly picked herself up from the floor along with the rest of her crew, "How many dead, how many injured?"
Another quarian walked up to a slightly sparking console, "Fifty dead along with another twenty nine injured with six being in critical condition and can't be moved…"
"So a quarter of the crew is dead…"

After a moment of silence she gave another order, "Put the six in critical condition out of their misery…There is nothing we can do about them now…Beside it's better than leaving them to die a slow painful death or to the Batarians…"

Hesitantly the other gave the order through the com before turning back the captain, "Now what? We are trapped in this place without transportation and those Bosh'tet can come and pick us off whenever they like."
"We move out of course, clear the ship of anything useful and get ready to leave in ten minutes. After all, this place is obviously built by someone and maybe if we are lucky we can find a ship as well."

Fifteen minutes later everyone made it out and was around in awe, "Keelah…What is this place? Did the protheans build this?" asked a quarian marine in awe.

The captain than walked down the ramp with a rifle in hand, "I don't know who or what built this ring, and right now, I don't care. Our survival is my only concern…"
The rest nodded at gave her their attention, "Before we hit the forest, I saw a building not too far from here. We can use it as temporary shelter from the night and the Batarians."

Everyone nodded to show that they understood before their captain continued, "4th platoon will watch our rear, 1st squad will be our scouts while everyone else forms a perimeter around our wounded and vehicles which will be in the centre. All right people move out!"
Immediately the quarian set about their respective tasks, unaware on the people already observing them and intercepting their transmissions from the trees when they crashed, with a nod the two figures in the trees split up to either side of the quarian perimeter.

Installation 08 control room.
"Commodore, I have successfully locked down all entrances to our facilities, jammed all communications other than local COMs channels as well as hacked into their ships as per protocol, orders sir?"
"Have you decoded their language yet?"
"It will be done momentarily."
"Alright, once you are done translating upload their language to everyone here as well and send a flash message to HIGHCOM telling them about the current situation."
"Very well…Message sent has been received. Conclave response is to tell you to wait and watch. They have also mobilized the 12th rapid reaction fleet to the edge of the system ready to assist if things go out of control."
Nodding the commodore turned back to the hologram and watched as the newcomers made their respective moves.

2164 CE: June 20th.
Behind the 'illegally' opened relay near System Alliance borders.
A fleet combined from parts of the citadel fleet itself along with Arcturus fifth fleet of the System Alliance floated lazily around the once dormant relay as they debated on what to do.
"So it's decided then. A mix group consisting of a turian and human cruiser along with 3 frigate from the citadel fleet and 2 from the system alliance will scout the other side and hunt down the pirates, as the rest of us remain here to secure the area." said the turian in charge of the group.
"That is correct, and we will give temporary command of this group to the captain on your cruiser for the duration for this mission." said Admiral Hackett.
"So then it's decided, Admiral." With that the screen turned black and the scout flotilla went through the relay.

The other side.
Turian cruiser POV.
A moment later the ship exited the other side of the relay, "The area is clear of any hostiles. Sensors detect a small system approximately ten light years away. Awaiting orders, captain."
The captain nodded, "Excellent, send a message back to the fleet informing them of the situation and tell them that we will be heading to the new system to see if we can find the pirates and bring them to justice!"
"Message sent. They are asking you to hold position for a moment as they send more ships through to secure the area!"
"Very well, but tell the others to charge up FTL drives and prepare for a jump."
"Yes sir!"
A moment later forty ships from the citadel came through along with thirty human ships and the moment they did the small scout flotilla transitioned into FTL.

Back at installation 08.
Sigma POV.
"Sigma! Slip space ruptures detected just two thousand km from the installation! Too slow and crude to be ours…"
A moment after Spes said this seventy five of the familiar blue-silver portals opened up and a mix of grey bulky ships and green smooth ships that gave an aqueous feel exited. "I'm detecting human life forms along with other species on those ships!"

Looking up Sigma smiled slightly, it was good to see his own species have managed to advance to such a level and make peace with another, despite the fact they were still technologically inferior. A moment later a few ships came over the ring and released what seemed to be drop pods along with drop ships, even a few coming towards his general area, while the rest of the ship secured a perimeter around the installation.

He turned his attention back to the Batarian ship's, as they were identify later from the intercepted communications, foolishly opened fired on the newly arrived ships and they were immediately destroyed, dooming the troops they dropped down earlier.
"Well Spes…Guess we are in for one hell of a day huh?"
"You can say that again…By the way, the commodore has ordered us to stay hidden for the time being, the monitor will greet the humans."
"Orders confirmed."

First Light of a New Dawn POV.
"Slip space ruptures detected, Delta…" Said Eternal-Winter, Dawn's personal combat AI. A huge improvement from the old Ancillas that the forerunners had used during the flood wars. Looking up she saw the ships come and began deploying its cargo, while the pirates over the installation were immediately destroyed as they opened fire with their pitifully weak weapons. "Orders from the commodore are to remain hidden and observe, while monitor of this installation will greet the humans."
Slightly nodding, "Orders confirmed…"

Quarian group POV.
A few of the quarians watching the skies for possible Batarian scouting aircrafts yelled in surprise causing the rest of their group to look up and what they saw rooted them to the spot, as giant blue-silver portals suddenly appeared out of nowhere as ships of two distinctly different design came through with the larger ones either equalling or dwarfing even the Asari's flagship 'Destiny Ascension', while their smallest dwarfed their cruisers but still slightly smaller than the council 'classic' dreadnaughts.

They watch with a slight relief mix with terror as they saw the Batarian slaver group of ships literally disappear as they opened fired on the new comers, which returned fire immediately with directed energy weapons which made them stare with awe and terror.
As the shock began dying down the group began looking at each other, uncertain of their continual survival on the ring world before one of them spoke up with what are in everybody minds, "Now what? Instead of a Batarian slaver group we have an unknown civilization over our head with ships equivalent to if not larger than our cruisers and dreadnaughts and deploying troops all over the place…"
The captain just sighed, her life had just gotten so much harder, "We continue to move, we are about ten minutes out from the building…And if we encounter one of those aliens you are not to shoot unless fired upon. We do not need another race that hates us…"
With many nods and even a few salutes the company of quarian began moving through the forest again.

In installation control room.
"Sir reclaimers have been detected on board those new vessels, translation of their language been completed due to certain similarities between them and the human old language before the flood. Should I initiate contact?"
"Very well, lift lockdown on installation to allow them access to avoid suspicion, but keep this area locked down still, we don't want to reveal ourselves just yet."
"Lockdown has been lifted, update has been sent to The Conclave. Should I greet these reclaimers?"
"You may do as you wish."
With that the floating ball exited the room as the commodore continued to watch the tactical display and multiple holograms of the humans and their allies securing key areas on the installation.

On board Assault carrier: Divine Intervention. Fleetmaster Voro Wattinr.
The Fleetmaster watched on screen from the bridge as his fleet destroyed those pitifully weak ships as they opened fire on his fleet, "Those ships are almost weaker than a human corvette from the era of the Great War…" stated a major on the weapon station and the Fleetmaster just grunted his agreement.
"Troops have been successfully deployed; ninety five precent of the ring surface is under our control. Sensors picking up at least two separate species on the ring we have never encountered before. Should I send the order to eradicate them from the relic?" said a sangheili operator.
"No…send a small platoon in to meet with them first and back them up with a company of troops in case they prove hostile. Besides if the worse comes we still have the demons on board."

The bridge grinned as the Fleetmaster said this, the reputation of the Spartans of any class and generation were legendary, proven time and time again in the midst of the battle where they would single handily destroy all opposition even when outnumbered fifty to one. A moment later the Sangheili on Sensor literally yelled out "Fleetmaster! Luminaries are acting up! All ships within the fleet are receiving the same results! The forerunners have truly blessed us with the finding of this ring!"
"Major calm down, what did you find?"
Barely containing his excitement the sangheili replied "Within the system there are at least five different shield worlds as well as multiple artificial installations in orbit around them!"

The Fleetmaster along everyone sangheili within the bridge had unconsciously dropped their mandibles, the equivalent to a human jaw drop when they become surprised or shock, as they process this information, after all finding one shield world was hard enough as it's, let alone an installation of any sorts, but five in the same area was unheard of.
"Send a group of at least four ships along with at least one human ship for each one of those shield worlds. Tell them to try and secure as much relics as they can while we wait for reinforcement as well as send a message back to the neo covenant and tell them of our findings!"
"Yes Fleetmaster!"
A moment later, 20 ships broke away from the main group and headed towards each of the shield worlds.

Captain Richard Scott CO of ODST 5th platoon.
Scott cautiously made his way through the forest of the unknown installation backed by his platoon all clad in the same black armour worn by previous generations of ODSTs going back all the way to the human-covenant war. Even though the appearance of the armour appears the same, aside from a more streamlined look, but inside the armour was where it truly different, now it boasted performance enhancers, increasing the user strength by fifty precent and reflex and speed by thirty-five precent along with an energy shield reversed engineered from forerunner technology before being refined and could take up to four direct anti-tank rocket hits from the covenant-human war era before being depleted. Though despite this, the new MJLNIOR armour shields for Spartans were at least four times stronger.

Right now Captain Scott was slightly anxious, even though he was two hundred years old where half of that time was spent in the armed forces and seen his fair share, initiating first contact with an alien species was something new to him, while personally hoping they were not hostile like the other species that 2nd platoon was forced to kill due to them opening fire first…Though from the report he got their weapons, though did slightly more damage than those the UNSC had used during the 26th century, was pitifully weak compared to the one used nowadays, both magnetically accelerated rounds which resembled a 7.62mm NATOs and the various type of directed energy weapons they had in their arsenal.

The captain held up a hand and told the group to stop as their motion trackers detected faint movement fifty meters ahead in dense jungle, "Alright people…Activate cloaking and cover me, I'm going to see if these xenos are friendly…"
A moment later thirty acknowledgement lights winked on as his platoon turned invisible behind him, cautiously standing up and making a bit of noise he could sense that weapons were being pointed in his direction from people he could not see and began slowly walking forward.

Quarian POV.
The leader of 1st squad sent to scout ahead of the group stopped and pointed their weapons at the humanoid being slowly making its way towards their position with his weapon on his back and hands in the air, the universal sign of non-hostility…or at least for the species that have hands that is.
"Captain this 1st squad; we see one of the unknown aliens, waiting for further orders."
The COM crackled a bit before a voice came through, "Captain to 1st squad, does it see you?"
"Negative, but it knows we are here…Should I take it out?"
"Does it seem hostile?"
Looking back at the creature still with his hands up and slowly making its way forward "Not at the moment..."
"Then don't shoot, you see those ships in orbit, they can easily kill all of us if they wished…Try making peaceful contact with it, we could use another ally than another enemy."
"Copy."
With that the quarian stood up with his hand up facing the alien, who stopped walking as it saw him.

Sigma POV.
Sigma leaned against a tree in cloak as he watched his descendants and quarian make first contact, he had been left to track the scouting squad progress while his wife watched the main body. Since the successful translation of his species own language and their allies, the sangheilis, unggoys, Mgalekgolo and Kig-yars, which was surprisingly similar to the forerunners own during the flood wars, he had learnt that the Batarian on the ground was wiped out due to foolishly opening fire first, the quarians thought that this Halo was built by a race called the 'protheans' and were looking for shelter and a way off from transmissions that he intercepted.

While from ships databanks that had been subtly hacked by all the AIs present here, which was the monitor, and the personal AIs of every other forerunner, human and san Shyuum on this installation, he and many others had learned of the Neo-Covenant, loyalist covenant, the human governing body, the United Earth Government and its military the United Nation Space Command and finally human-covenant war roughly around five hundred years ago, which in turn made the San Shyuum felt shamed for what their descendants did, while many others were not too happy at how first contact went.

On the other hand on the Quarian ship and before they were destroyed, the Batarian ships, databanks, they had learnt of the citadel council along with the quarian's history when they were a part of the citadel and how the citadel considered themselves the most powerful and influential government in the galaxy. Sigma just grinned at this, they would get a shock of their lives when they met the UNSC and the Neo-Covenant and just maybe, if the conclave decided it was time, his own civilization that they had rebuilt from the ashes. The other things he had learnt, was that a splinter group of humans was also a part of the citadel as a 'client' race along with the war with the Ranchi and Krogans around two thousand year before the apparent 'splinter' group of humans joined, which when compared with both flood wars, human-forerunner war and what he found out about human-covenant war, was quite tame in his opinion, at least from the information that was gathered.
Clearing his head Sigma listened in on the conversation.

General POV.
The ODST froze as he saw a humanoid figure stood up from the shrubs with his gun pointing in the air and they stared awkwardly at each other for a few minutes before the captain decided to speak up, "Hi there…My name is Richard Scott what yours?"
The rest of his squad just rolled their eyes at the first words to come out of his mouth while Sigma lips twitched slightly upward as he heard that. Meanwhile the quarian along with his group that was still hidden was shocked as the alien in front of them spoke the language of the humans from the System Alliance, but to them, his armour and weapons was nothing they had ever seen the humans use, let alone the ships in orbit remotely resembled anything that they have. The quarian out in the open stuttered out in English through his translator, "A-a-are you human?"
This time Richard and his platoon mouth dropped opened as they heard what the quarian said, "H-h-how do you know about humanity?"
"The System Alliance, it represent the entire human population of Earth and her colonies…Aren't you apart of them?"
"That's impossible! Earth main government is the United Earth Government not this System Alliance!"

Before the quarian could answer, a quarian still hidden yelled out and the quarian in the open looked into the sky and was closely followed by everyone there just to see hundreds of black-purple spheres open up in a few thousand km from the ring as it spat out purple ships similarly designed to the olive green ones currently in orbit, but ten of those were easily at least 50km long, the quarian didn't know what it was, while the ODST took his rifle in hand and softly growled "Covenant loyalists…"
The quarian turned to him, "Sorry? What is that?"

A second later both fleets opened fired with on each other with directed energy weapons, missiles, lasers, nukes, MACs, heavy MACs, ship mounted Super MACs and whatever other weapons they had on board and the quarian watched in shock and awe as ships traded fire with each other with technology and weapons that far surpassed anything the citadel and Geth had in their arsenals combined.
"Our worst enemy…"

Than inside the ODST helmet the COM channel cackled to life, "To all ground forces, you are to find shelter on the ring and hold for as long as possible, we unfortunately cannot hold against a fleet of this size! Deploy the Spartans and enter slip space and get us to the edge of the system!"
The COM was cut off as the fleet transitioned into slip space as followed by a hundred other loyalist ships in pursuit as the rest deployed phantoms over the ring.
Turning back to the quarian the ODST said in a more serious tone, "I don't know who or what you are, but if you and your group wishes to live, I suggest you come with us."
"Is that a threat human…?"
"No, merely a warning…You see the loyalists are not as…friendly as us, they would kill you first and ask question later and that is only if you are lucky. Platoon form up!"
With that the ODST deactivated their cloaking, while to the quarian looked like the materialized from thin air before the quarian replied, "Very well, my captain has agreed for a temporary truce of survival, they will meet us here in five minutes. The ODST nodded and told his platoon to hold position. A few minutes later the quarians and humans began moving through the forest.

Sigma POV.
The Dark Templar stood up to his full height as he watched the losing battle over the ring before the 'Fleetmaster' made a smart choice and call for the surviving ships to retreat and regroup, but not before one hundred of their enemy's ships followed them.
He turned back to see hundreds of quarians slowly appear out of the tree line with their vehicles while the 'ODSTs' slightly tightened their grip on their respective weapons. He then felt a familiar presence beside him, "So seen anything interesting?"
His wife just shook her head beside him, "Not really, no…"
They watched and listened as the alien leader and human exchanged words before they agreed to form a temporary truce for mutual survival and with that they began heading to an entrance that led into a small military outpost big enough to accommodate a little over three hundred soldiers. As they moved out the two special operation operatives followed behind them.

Ten minutes later, Captain Richard Scott POV.
Scott couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched but shook it off as the installation security systems. As he made his way to the forerunner structure under UNSC/NC control along with his platoon and 150 other aliens they have never met before.
"This is Captain Scott to base, we have made friendly contact with the alien species which goes by the 'name' of quarians, I have managed to form a temporary truce with for our current crisis."
"This is Lt Colonel Cooper, I have no idea how you managed to talk to them, but good work! We could use all the help we can get."
"Trust me when I say you wouldn't believe me if I told you…"
"Very well, get you and your platoon back ASAP; we have brute drop ships incoming ETA twenty minutes"
"Copy…ETA three minutes to base sir."
"Good to hear, I'll tell the others not to open fire upon contact with these new aliens."

Quarian POV.
With that the COM was cut as they continue moving through in a quick pace with everyone taking periodic glances up at the sky to see swarms of purple ships coming closer. As they reached the 'base' set up by the UNSC/NC forces, the quarian saw a gigantic tunnel, that could easily fit two Makos at once when placed side by side, made of metal leading inside while soldiers began setting up defences at the entrance to the tunnel. The quarian was shocked to see similar figures in black armour similar to the one the other humans wore and humanoids wearing full body armour with a significantly different design (marines), but still look more advanced than anything they had ever seen. But what shocked the quarian most was the numbers of different aliens present, some that resemble birds carried shields and glowing weapons, while others had rifles of sorts, than there were those that look like the Volus, but seemed at least capable of limited combat, another alien reminded them of the Turian, but instead of a full mouth, they had an open one with four mandibles carrying various type of weaponries and the last alien they could see, resembled a mech of some sort wearing heavy armour, along with carrying a heavy metal shield on one arm and a cannon of some sort on the other moved around.

"Keelah what are…these people…"
Scott just shrugged and answered back as they made their way to the tunnel, "Well, the small ones are called Unggoys, they are usually use as support or heavy weapon specialists due to their physical nature, the one that has a beak and the glowing shield is a Kig-Yar, they are usually used as support as well, such as marksmen or moving shields against small firearms, their larger cousins we nicknamed the skirmishers are fast and agile, easily able to outflank enemies and conduct rapid raids on enemy bases and if properly trained and armed, excels at the art of guerrilla warfare, the one with the mandibles and double joint legs are the sangheilis, they are strong, fast and smart, which naturally make them deadly opponents on the battlefield and capable of filling almost any roles on the battlefield and the last one…"

Scott gestured to the two armoured twelve feet giants lumbering around, "Those are Mgalekgolos, capable of decimating any platoon of troops that are not armed with a heavy weapon of some sort, and more often than not, they can still do it. They are often deployed as portable weapon platforms and walking tanks than actual infantry and try not to piss them off, that shield you see weighs two tons itself, while the whole hunter weighs approximately 4800kg…Oh and did I mention those cannons on their arms can melt through rock as well?"
The quarians just stared in shock, they didn't think that giant of all things was actually a living being; it was even larger than Elcor.

Than before they knew it a human in similar black body armour walked up to them without his helmet on, clearly showing his human features, "Good to see you made it back Scott, the Fieldmaster in charge of this op reported the control room is already under siege from the brutes, but fortunately it's holding…But us, we don't have the numbers or firepower to keep back a dedicated assault…Well if things becomes too FUBAR, we can always fall back deeper into the installation and lock the door behind us while hoping they don't somehow unlock it and swarm in…"
Scott just nodded while the quarian spoke up, "And what about me and my people?"

The man just glanced at the female quarian with a raise eyebrow, "So you are the aliens that they were sent to greet…Well depending on how much they send and how well we hold off, we might need your people as support."
"And what if we said no? They are after all not our enemies; we could easily say you captured us."
"Well…Let's just say we have a higher chance of all their ships randomly exploding in space than them listening to your pleas and then after we are all dead, well…if you are lucky, they will kill you quickly…"
The quarian leader pondered for a few minutes before answering, "Very well…But know that we won't be used as cannon fodders."
"Excellent, and rest assured we won't be sending your soldiers off to die while we run, how many combat capable soldiers do you have with you at the moment?"
"This group consists of one hundred and fifty quarians and two light armoured vehicles and all of us can fight if needed…"
"I see…so that put our numbers up to five hundred men, six hunters, seven tanks and five light vehicles…"

Lt Colonel Cooper.
Before the quarians could answer a female voice spoke up behind them, "Greeting reclaimers, I am 823543 Lament Proclamation, monitor of this installation."

Immediately all guns in the area turned to face the voice, after seeing a metal ball a single violet glowing eye and recognizing what it was they all lowered their weapons, while the quarians still had their weapon pointed at it. Turning to face the quarian the ball spoke, "Please, I have analysed those weapons you have and they would barely scratch my outer casing, let alone my shields or that of the enemies you are about to face."
The quarians didn't listen and turned to Scott, "Is that machine safe?"
"Yes…"
Hesitatingly the quarian lowered their weapons, "I apologise, we have…bad experiences with AIs…and we thought this was one."
When the others heard that they decided to keep silent for the time being before the monitor spoke up again, "As I was saying, I am the monitor of this installation and as per protocol I am willing to assist you and your allies, reclaimer. I have already begun mobilizing the defences on this installation as we speak now and my sentinels have begun harassing enemy bases as well as assisting you in your survival."

As she finished her statement, a small swarm of machines flew overhead and towards the entrance as the quarian shifted uneasily.
Cooper just nodded, "You have my thanks Lament, but the covenant have hundreds of ships here even I have my doubts we can hold for that long before our fleet returns."
"You are correct, the meddlers have approximately six hundred and eighty-four ships out of the original seven hundred and fifty sent here and if they chose, they can overwhelm this installation standard defences with sheer numbers…But fortunately this installation have something that can easily push them back if needed, but unfortunately I cannot use it until the situation becomes too dire…"
"And why is that?"
"My makers does not want to reveal it without good reason and as per protocol, it's classified even to you, reclaimer, despite having equal standing with my makers."
Cooper just sighed, "Very well, we don't have time to waste…Do you know how long before the first drop ship lands?"
"In approximately three minutes, I suggest you refit your new allies with better weapons and armour, despite your combat skin being only a class six, theirs can barely be even considered class 1, and their weapons are not suited for prolong engagement against our current enemy."
Cooper just nodded, "Very well, we might not have armour we can lend them at the moment, but we do have weapons…Scott, you and your platoon will prep them for combat, armoury has been set up at fall back point."
With a nod the group made its way down the tunnel as the LT colonel returned to his duty.

Captain Richard Scott POV.
As he walked down the hallway with his platoon and their new temporary allies he saw soldiers running to their positions and forerunner machines flying overhead and the quarian just whispering among themselves while glancing around nervously. The quarian CO behind him suddenly spoke up, "Can you tell me more about this place, human?"
"All I can say it's that it was created by the forerunners as a last line of defence against an enemy that literally took down their empire…The rest are classified…"
"I see…Who and what were these forerunners?"
"You see those purple ships in orbit?"
The quarian slowly nodded, "Well they worship them as gods and anyone else that believes otherwise are considered a heretic and to be wiped out…But in reality the forerunners were just a very advanced civilization that went extinct around a hundred thousand years ago. If there are anymore that survived…Well, we haven't met them yet."
"And what does this installation do?"
"Sorry but that's also classified under our laws…"
"Than what isn't classified?"
"…I'll be honest with you, we do not know much about the forerunners, we don't even know what they look like, but what we do know are considered either disturbing or important enough to be considered classified material by the top brass, even I don't know much and I basically told you just about everything I knew…We are at the armoury now…"
"I see…Well thank you for your time…"
"Captain Richard Scott, ODST."
"Well thank you for answering my questions captain, not many people will give a quarian much thought and usually just ignore us at best."
The ODST just nodded, "I see, now that you know my name, it's only fair I know yours."
The quarian just shrugged, "Lia'Nara Vas Orib."
With that the quarian fanned out all over the place whispering among themselves as they curiously peered at the various weapons stored inside the creates.

General POV.
"Captain, these weapons are…strange to say the least, my omni tool is not detecting any element zero in them, just like everything else they use…and is much more heavier…I mean what do these even shoot?" said a quarian as he held up a black rifle with a counter and a scope.
"That's a BR205S gauss battle rifle. It shoots a three round burst of uranium tipped slugs that weighs around 15 grams each that are accelerated up to 7700 metres a second and can be altered to fire at full auto, though not as fast as the Assault rifle nor can it hold as much ammo per clip. It also has a clip of 42 rounds and since it's magnetically accelerated out of the barrel, the recoil is almost non-existent. The gun also plays hell with physical armour and light vehicles and is still pretty good against shields, not as good as directed energy weapons, but good enough. It's a medium short range to medium long range, and is not recommended for either direct CQC or extremely long range. All in all it's probably one of the most versatile weapons in our arsenal."
The quarians slowly nodded, "How do you get it to work without element zero?"
The ODST helping them just stared blankly, "Sorry? What is Element zero?"
"You don't know what element zero is? It's the substance that enables space travel, FTL, and just about everything we use and the rest of the galaxy uses! Without it, we would have none of those of our current technologies!"
"…Well…I guess you just met a group that doesn't use it…"

With that the ODST walked away to another quarian that was curiously looking at a fuel-rod cannon, but was a bit nervous in touching it.
"Keelah…These humans and their allies are different to say the least…To think, everything we and the citadel have achieved, they can do better without the aid of element zero…Just think, no more strip mining of planet, no more discharging our drives, it could save us countless hours of labour and frustrations."
"Remember, they might have helped us and even going so far as to let us borrow their weapons, but we know nothing about them, nor they us. Even if they don't hate us like the rest of the galaxy does now, they might once they find out about our history. Besides, even if they don't, what reason do they have to give us any of their technology? Just about everything we have they probably have as well…All I'm saying is, don't get your hopes up."
The small group nodded to their captain before some took the black weapons along with a few clips of ammo, while others walked away to see what other weapons there are.

Twenty minutes passed and all the quarians were armed up and nervously fidgeting with their respective chosen weapons. Many were still shocked at the fact that they didn't use element zero and more so that they have managed to create handheld DEW the size of a normal rifle, albeit significantly heavier.

After showing them how each weapon worked, the loyalist had already started their attack ten minutes ago, and so far, they lost more than the UNSC/NC forces trying to charge a choke point guarded by tanks and machinegun turrets along with sentinel Enforcers. So now it was time that the quarian got a glimpse at their enemy.

Thirty Quarian were to go along to the entrance to support the front along with their two vehicles to support the tanks, while another ten were to go to the top of the spire and provide sniper fire along with the people up there, the rest will be stationed throughout the base as support if the line breaks and the captain herself was in the command and control room with the Lt Colonel as he watched the hologram of the surrounding area.

When the first quarian first reached their designated position, they were shocked at what they saw and a little scared to. They saw aliens, termed brutes by their temporary allies, charged up towards the entrance, shooting as they came, their shields deflecting both physical projectiles and energy weapons, before being overwhelmed by the heavy fire and killed, and this repeated hundreds of times every few minutes, slowly they took aim with their weapons and added their fire into the fray killing more, before twenty more enemy drop ships came in dropping off more troops and shooting into the entrance, killing some humans and aliens, and other ships were shot down from heavy weapons.

Then they saw one of the most feared enemy by the UNSC/NC, a brute chieftain with a gravity hammer came hurtling impossibly fast towards their positions, batting away any soldiers that were in the way like flies and heading towards a quarian. Said quarian fired full auto with her plasma weapon, managing to break the shield, but unfortunately, his armour held and he kicked the quarian to the ground and grinned before raising his hammer above his head to finish her off.

Said quarian closed her eyes waiting for death before she heard a snap-hiss of something closely followed by a scream of pain by the brute in front of her. Slowly opening her eye, she saw an alien, which she identified as a sangheili, in white armour holding a blade made of energy of some kind that was going through the brute's chest. While the brute face just looked shock before the sangheili pulled his sword out and the brute just fell back dead.
"Thanks…"
The sangheili just nodded before he put his sword away and kill another brute with his plasma rifle. And she slowly stood up, wincing a bit as she felt her chest and dented environmental suit.

UNSC Command and Control centre.
Cooper watched the tactical hologram along with quarian captain as some of his soldiers worked on monitoring the battlefield, "Sir! Thirty Phantoms inbound, all of them with wraiths and reinforcements!
"Sorry, but what are these wraiths?"

Cooper just responded without taking his eye off from the hologram, "Covenant heavy armor, shoots plasma mortars with temperatures up to if not exceeding 4000 degrees Celsius with extreme precision. The new wraiths employed by them have strong energy shielding, faster firing rates from both primary and secondary weapons, thicker armor and a faster moving projectile, making them more deadly than the ones employed during the covenant war."

The quarian slowly nodded, "How many do they have at the moment? Also will our forces be able to hold?"
Cooper just shrugged, "They have around thirty wraiths compared to our seven scorpions, but we have an advantage of fighting in a choke and with a roof over our heads, so considering that a wraith plasma mortar fires at an angle, making them more akin to an artillery than a battle tank, their capabilities will be severely limited if they chose to have a direct confrontation with us in here."
Lia nodded, "How long will we be able to hold against an onslaught like this?"
"The front line ammo is slowly being depleted, even with the constant supplies run from our warthogs, maybe another ten to fifteen minutes before we have to fall back to the second line."

Before Lia could respond, one of the operators shouted at the top of his lungs, "SIR! COVENANT HAD JUST DEPLOYED TWO SCARABS!"
"Tell them to fall back to the second line, take anything useful with them!"
"Orders sent! Front line is falling back!"
Lia meanwhile just stared at Cooper as unease began to fill her from the human's tone, "What's a Scarab?"
Pressing a few button, the hologram changed from a tactical map filled with dot to the outside part of the facility showing the quarian captain two massive purple beasts periodically shooting a continuous green 'goo' into the entrance.
"H-how are we supposed to beat something like that?" said the quarian captain with a slight stutter in her voice and a hint of fear as she stared at the two giant behemoths.
"With what is currently available to us at the moment, we aren't, just be thankful they can't enter this facility or that will be where the real trouble begins…"
Lia nodded as she watched the brutes eagerly swarm into the entrance of the building as their own forces fell back.

Edge of Unknown System: Nine hours since the fleet retreated.
The Fleetmaster just stared at the hologram of the system, showing the number of brute ships that were in the system and sighed. After they had exited, his fleet of fifty remaining ship was force to engage a brute fleet twice their size. They won, but not being whittled down to twenty ships with every ship, including his own suffering from damage of some kind. Now he wished that they had installed the AI into his ships two weeks ago instead of being put off into a month time as they waited for the rest of his fleet to finish construction. He was snapped out of his musing as the sensor operator spoke up, "Sir detecting multiple slip space ruptures! IFF matches that of the human 8th rapid reaction fleet!"

The Fleetmaster sighed in relief and a minute later five hundred slip space portal opened and spewed out multiple human ships of various classes all larger than six hundred metres, the largest being the a 10km long ship designed solely by human hands a few decades after the war, which they dubbed the 'siege carrier'.
"Fleetmaster, human flagship is hailing us!"
"Patch it through."

A hologram of a well-dressed human in a highly decorated uniform appeared on the screen, "Fleetmaster…I thought the 20th had seventy five brand new ships at their disposal, not twenty ships that looks like it can barely survive another fight…"
The Fleetmaster growled at this, "That is correct admiral, but the brutes came with a force of seven hundred and fifty ships strong and we were forced to retreat, and after we dropped out on the edge of the system, another one hundred followed us and we were forced to engage. It is fortunate that they didn't send more or we might not be here talking right now."

The admiral nodded, "That complicate things a bit…What about the halo?" "We have managed to land a significant ground force to secure it before they came, I'm not sure how many still survives and how much is under our control…"
"Very well. The Fleet of Furious redemption sent by the Arbiter will be arriving in fifteen minutes; we will wait till than until we move out."
The Fleetmaster nodded and the channel was cut as they waited.

Fifteen minutes later, hundreds of slip space portals opened up and seven hundred NC designed ships that still held to the classic designs of the old covenant, exited, boosting their number up to one thousand four hundred and twenty ships and a minutes later they transitioned into slip space heading back towards the ring.

Installation 08: Eight hour since initial assault on reclaimers and their allies.
Sigma POV.
Sigma just watched the Jiralhanaes set up a base just outside the entrance of the facility, after two hours of recklessly and stupidly charging into superior fire at a choke, which he had only seen such tactics when facing the flood, and not being able to be supported by any type of armor, other than their light vehicles, which were destroyed as soon as it was seen, the Jiralhanaes and their leaders finally came to the conclusion that they would lose more than they would gain, considering they only push back the front with the support of two heavy assault walkers. So in response, they set up a base at the entrance of this facility to wait them out.
Similarly, any pockets of resistance left on this ring were well fortified enough to make them stop and rethink their strategy, and it has been five hours since a weapon of any sort was last used.

Sigma sighed; he hated being to watch as well as hear reports about UNSC and allied fortification being torn asunder by the Jiralhanaes superior numbers, it brought back many bad memories from the three wars he had fought in. His wife just put her hand on his shoulder, "You know they fought very well for being so handicapped in the first place…Besides I think it won't be long before we are allowed to intervene."
Sigma turned to look at her with a curiosity marred behind his helmet, "And how do you know that?"
Delta shrugged, "Call it a gut feeling…"
"Well I hope your gut is right…Cause I hate being made to watch…"
"Join the club."
As the two of them continued to observe the Jiralhanae mulling around their base, they heard their respective AIs spoke, "Slip space ruptures detected!"
A minute later, over a thousand slip space portals opened up and ships from the UNSC and NC exited and began to engage the now outnumbered Jiralhanae fleet with ease.

Unknown space: System Alliance/Citadel scout group. Nine hours in FTL.
"Sir we will be arriving in the system in four minutes!"
The turian captain nodded, "Tell all ships to power up kinetic barriers and weapons and prepare for combat against the pirate ships."
"Orders sent!"

Every ship began to power up their weapons and shields and when they exited FTL to expect an empty system and maybe a garden world and along with a small pirate fleet, but what they saw shock them.

Instead of an empty system it had a giant artificial ring that was larger than the citadel itself and the system was filled to the brim with ships, many which can be considered larger than a dreadnaught trading fire with directed energy weapons, projectiles, missiles and even with nuclear weapons, which was illegal in the citadel. But to their astonishment, both parties had shielding of some sort that was able to deflect these types of weapons. So far the purple ships were outnumbered and losing to the similarly designed green ones and the grey bulky ones.

"Sensor, have they detected us in the system yet?"
"No clue sir. If they had, than they are obviously too preoccupied to deal with us at the moment."
"I suppose that's good news…Give me a report on the system."
"Well there are approximately five garden worlds in the system, all of them have artificial satellites in orbit around them, a giant ring world measuring at 30,000km in diameter, and a total of around two thousand one hundred ships exchanging fire and none of them have a trace of Eezo on them…"
"No Eezo? Than that means this must be their home system and all their fleets…But to think so many different species in one place…perhaps the protheans had something to do with it?"
"I don't know whether or not the protheans did what you just said, but I think you should take a look at this…"

The turian captain walked over the view screen as it showed the largest grey vessel measuring at ten km, "What am I looking at here operator?"
Zooming in it clearly showed the words 'UNSC Changing Tides'. The turian captain stared in shock for a few second before issuing a new order, "Com officer! Get me a line to the System Alliance lead ship NOW!"
A second later they were connected and the captain of the human cruiser appeared on screen, "What do I owe the pleasure captain…"
The turian captain kept a calm façade, "Why does the grey 'unknown' ships have English on them? What is this 'UNSC?' What else have you humans been keeping from us?"
By the end of it his voice was dripping with anger and hate. Meanwhile the human captain expression remained neutral as the turian talked and accused his race before responding; "I and my crew were discussing about it earlier, and we have no clue why they use English and even if they are human."
"Don't lie to me! Only your race in the entire galaxy uses English and your people said the System Alliance represented Earth and all her colonies when they joined the citadel!"
"Please if you would let me finish."

The turian force back a retort and nodded, "Like I said before we are not even sure if they are really human, maybe they are maybe they are not and this could just be a strange coincidence of all thing, no matter how low the chances are of this happening. Also it's like you said, the System Alliance only represents Earth and all her colonies, not the entire human race, and if these are humans, perhaps the protheans could have interfered fifty thousand years ago and transported a small group off world and they evolved from somewhere else. Besides if we had ships like those when the first contact war began, do you really think we would have lost Shanxi to you turians in the first place?"

The turian captain growled at the last insult, but none the less kept his anger in check, after all he wasn't stupid and saw how big those ships were compared to theirs, "Very well…I'll take your word for now, but I'm sending a report to the citadel so anymore question will be asked by them." With that the connection cut and the captain turned back to view the battle in the distance at the ring.

A minute later, thousands of black purple spheres opened up behind the purple fleet, surprising everyone, and adding to their shock further more purple ships exited and began to fire upon the now outnumbered green and grey ships.

On board Covenant loyalist super carrier: Bane of Heretics.
Prophet of Patience.
After the death of the prophet of reclaimation two hundred years ago when he attempted to wipe out the heretics for a second time and failed, the prophet of patience was than chosen as his successor. As he watched his outnumbered fleet getting destroyed one by one by the heretics, fury began to fill him.
"Fleetmaster!"
A brute chieftain with a gravity hammer knelt down in front of the prophet, "What does the holy one wishes?"
"Call in the reinforcements…We will burn the heretics from this system before lighting this ring, more glorious than the others that the gods have left for us to claim! And from here we will begin our great journey! For it will not be denied to us any longer!"
"It shall be done!"
With a roar from the chieftain the bridge sprang into action and two minutes later four thousand slip space portal appeared and ships of various classes exited boosting their number to four thousand two hundred ships.

Installation 08 military command and control room.
The commodore watched on hologram as the battle rages on above him on land and space, from everything they had learnt from the new comers. The Jiralhanaes and their leaders had gotten just about everyone, himself included very pissed off.

The forerunners were angry because they began to kill the humans in their name because of a lie, which when it was exposed they still believe in said lie, the humans, because they wished to wipe their decedents and their allies off the face of this galaxy because of said lie, while the san Shyuums just felt ashamed because it was their species which began and still kept to their 'beliefs' in the first place, despite the overwhelming evidence of it being false. Right now the conclave was debating whether or not to send a fleet to assist the UNSC and their allies and reveal themselves, or let the two parties fight it out.

A forest green hologram of a forerunner female in a robe than popped up in front of the commodore, "Commodore, approximately four thousand slip space ruptures detected in ring's vicinity. IFF matches that of the Jiralhanaes. Should I send the Conclave and the War council an update?"
The commodore just nodded, "Update sent…Both parties has agreed to reveal themselves to the rest of the galaxy, the high war council has granted you permission to use the 2nd rapid reaction fleet if you deem necessary to terminate the aggressors." "Very well…Mobilize all forces on this installation and send the fleet in…"

As the words left his mouth, his personal AI sent the orders and five seconds later, approximately four hundred and fifty slip space portal opened between the two combatants and forerunner, human and san Shyuum designed ships entered the area, with the leading flagship at forty km in length.

A decade or so back, before we met the humans, a group of Salarian scientists and archaeologists found a small ruin of some sort. It wasn't Prothean and it wasn't any ruin that we have seen before, but it is technology uses element Zero. Yet it was more advanced than us and older then the protheans. Later the scientists discovered the race to be called the 'Leviathans', a race billions of years old. Unfortunately many of the technology have already been degraded to the point of unsalvageable. But what we managed to salvage has increase the efficiency of how we can apply element zero as well as open new options on how we can use it.
-Sparatus: Turian councillor;
Interview about the 'Leviathan' ruins

Galactic Codex.
-Star-ships:
-System Alliance:
Although the number of Alliance ships number significantly less than that of the Council races own fleets as well as having significantly weaker weapons, Alliance Navel strength can be considered quite 'large' when contrasted to other species within the citadel with fleets numbering in the low thousands and eight of those being dreadnaughts, which protects key locations for the Alliance. When the System Alliance met with the Citadel, the Citadel gave them technology as part of the agreement and ships within the fleet are still currently being retrofitted with these technology.
-Corvettes.
Originally built as scouts and surveyors, these ten men crafts are only larger than a Long sword fighter, but smaller than the corvettes the UNSC uses. These crafts are primarily not used for combat due to their inferior weapons even in comparison to a frigate and can be easily targeted and taken down by a squadron of fighters.
Weapons:
-Disruptor Torpedoes (X 10)
-GARDIAN lasers (X 6)
Armour: 2 inches
Atmosphere rated: Yes
FTL capable: Yes
Kinetic Barriers/shielding: Yes (5 kiloton damage deflected on average)
Height: 25 metres
Width: 60 metres
Length: 80 metres

-Frigates.
Frigates are significantly larger than corvettes, but still relatively small when contrasted to a cruiser. These ships are usually used as escorts, petrol flotilla, screens for larger vessels, scouting and many other uses. These crafts, though slower than a corvette, are still stronger than one and relatively faster than other ships used by the System Alliance. Though caution is advised when taking on larger ships such as cruisers as they lack the weapons to punch through the kinetic barriers of one on their own, hence why they are used in 'wolf packs' when on offense.
Weapons:
-Disruptor Torpedoes (X 30)
-GARDIAN Laser (X 15)
-Thanix cannons (X 2: Given to Alliance by The Citadel who in turn reversed engineered from Leviathans)
Armour: Four and a half inches.
Atmosphere rated: Yes
FTL capable: Yes (15 light years a day)
Kinetic Barriers: Yes (Eleven Kilotons damage deflected: Currently being refitted with a 'cyclonic' version discovered from the research done on the Leviathans and Protheans, which deflects approximately 35 kiloton worth of kinetic energy)
Height: 55 metres
Width: 45 metres
Length:150-200 meters (depending of the class)

-Cruisers
These ships though more common and weaker than dreadnaughts, are less common and stronger than frigates. These medium sized ships are usually the flagship for petrol flotillas and the ones to take the hits in the battle. These ships are also the 'bloody infantries' when committed in battle, as dreadnaughts are rare commodities only used in the most critical of battles and frigates usually lack the firepower to deal 'serious damage' to larger and hardened targets, hence where cruisers are sent en masse to destroy the enemy.
Weapons:
-Medium Mass Accelerator(X 1) (16 kiloton damage every 6 sec)
-Disruptor torpedoes (X 50)
-GARDIAN Lasers (X 30)
-Thanix cannons (X 4)
-Heavy Anti-ship cannons for knife fights (X 12)
Armour: 1.5 metres
Atmosphere rated: Low gravity worlds only.(X0.8)
FTL capable: Yes (15 light years a day)
Kinetic Barriers: Yes (40 kilotons): Refitting with a cyclonic variant(129 kilotons)
Height: 75 metres
Width: 145 metres
Length: 400-500 metres(depending on class)

-Carriers
An system Alliance innovation being adopted by the Citadel Council. Carriers are almost if not larger than some dreadnaughts. But despite that fact, these ships only have the combat capabilities a little below a cruiser and are slower than one as well. It's massive size comes from not it's armour or weapon size, but simply from it relatively large hangers which carries hundreds of fighters as well as shuttles for planetary actions. It also sports light cannons on it is underbelly dedicated for light orbital bombardments. These ships are almost as rare as a dreadnaught due to the cost of making one.
Weapons
-Light Mass Mass accelerators(X 1) (10 Kiloton every 5 sec)
-Disruptor Torpedoes(X 100)
-GARDIAN lasers(X 50)
-Defensive Thanix cannons (X 2)
-Light cannons (X 6: Orbital bombardment only)
-Fighters (X 450)
-Interceptors (X 100)
Armour: One metre
Atmosphere rated: No
FTL capable: Yes
Kinetic Barriers: Yes (50 kilotons). Refitting with a Cyclonic Variant (161 kilotons)
Height: 120 metres
Width: 450 metres
Length:1069 metres

-Dreadnoughts
These mighty ships could take on any kind of ships one on four and come out on top. Armed with the most powerful weaponries available, they are essentially flying fortresses in space to anyone within the System Alliance and Citadel. Bringing even one of these ships into an engagement signifies the importance of that engagement. The Alliance currently has eight of these types of ships in service. Another two was under construction during the time of first contact but by making an alliance with the Citadel, the Alliance fell under the 'Treaty of Farixen' and was forced to decommission them, hence pouring billions of credit down the proverbial drain.
Weapons
-Mass Accelerators (X 1) (28 kilotons every 5 sec)
-Disruptor torpedoes (X 150)
-GARDIAN lasers (X 90)
-Heavy Thanix cannons (X 4)
-Heavy Anti-ship cannons (X 20)
-Fighters (X 50)
-Interceptors (X 30)
Armour: Two metres
Atmosphere rated: No
FTL capable: Yes
Kinetic barriers: Yes (120 kilotons) Refitting with Cyclonic Variant (200 kilotons)
Height: 95 metres
Width: 250 metres
Length:1034 metres

-Citadel navy:
The combined might of the Citadel Navy in contrast to System Alliance navy is many times larger, with weapons more powerful too, thanks to the Leviathans. But it's the three council races that hold the largest and most advanced fleets are the Turians, Salarians and the Asaris. Individually, the three races design of ships are different to the each other, the same with all races in the Citadel, as each race design and construct their own fleets, with the Salarians have smaller dreadnaughts than even the System Alliance measuring only at 932 metres in the length, but despite being smaller, it's out fitted with the most advanced weaponry available in Citadel space, similarly with the rest if their ships.

The Turians, the 'peacekeepers' and main military branch of the Citadel have the largest fleets as well as having the largest fleet of dreadnaughts. Though not as 'high tech' as the Salarian ships, the amount of ships and the damage that they can deal put them as the strongest military fraction.

Finally the Asari, despite being the oldest race on the Citadel, being the ones to discover it in the first place, the Asari has the overall weakest navy out of the three, being less advanced than the Salarians and numbering less than the Turians. But their saving grace is their so-called 'super-dreadnought', 'Destiny Ascension', which is capable of taking on three normal dreadnoughts head on and come out victorious. This ship is the flagship of the Citadel Station Defence fleet.

-Citadel Corvettes.
Functions the same as System Alliance Corvettes, these ships are not made for direct combat against an enemy unless no other options are available. These ships are not employed by the Turians and Asaris as it is an incredibly useless ship in their eyes by the former and the latter simply has no use for them, while mainly employed by Salarians to scout and insert and extract STG operatives.
Weapons:
-Disruptor Torpedoes (X 8)
-GARDIAN lasers (X 4)
-Thanix Cannon (X 1)
Armour: 3 inches
Atmosphere rated: Yes
FTL capable: Yes
Kinetic Barriers: Yes (8 kiloton damage deflected on average)
Height: 16 metres
Width: 54 metres
Length: 60 metres

-Citadel Frigates.
Frigates employed by the citadel races vary among races, with the Turians having more armour, weapons and kinetic barriers on theirs, but as a consequence move significantly slower than an average frigate, which proved…annoying against the System Alliance during first contact, being constantly out maneuvered by theirs. While the Salarians usually go for the lighter Armour, less but more advanced weapons and place stealth and speed over all else, could easily outpace frigates employed by all other races. The Asaris have frigates generally balanced, similar to that of the System Alliance, though slightly larger, hence presenting a larger target.
Weapons: (Turian, Salarian, Asari)
-Disruptor Torpedoes (X 50, X 25, X 35)
-GARDIAN Laser (X 30, X 35, X 20)
-Thanix cannons (X 5, X 4, X 4)
-Heavy Anti-ship cannon (X 2: Turian only)
Armour: Eight inches, Three and a half inch, 5 inches.
Atmosphere rated: Yes, Yes, Yes
FTL capable: Yes (25 light years a day)
Kinetic Barriers: Yes: Cyclonic variant (25 kilotons(kT), 30kT, 25kT)
Height: 75 metres, 35 metres, 50 metres
Width: 95 metres, 45 metres, 50 metres)
Length: 210 meters, 160 metres, 190 metres

-Cruisers
Similarly to the System Alliance, these ships are generally the one leading other ships into battle when the use of a dreadnought is seen as not needed. They can a lot of punishment and dish out just as much damage. These ships are probably, on average, the most versatile ships when it comes to actual navel engagements.
Weapons:
-Medium Mass Accelerator(X 1) (30 kT/5sec, 25Kt/4sec, 20 kT/4sec)
-Disruptor torpedoes (X 80, X 40, X 55)
-Guardian Lasers (X 50, X 80, X 40 )
-Thanix cannons (X 10, X 8, X 8)
-Heavy Anti-ship cannons for knife fights (X 15, X 6, X 10)
Armour: 2 metres, 1 metres, 1.3 metres
Atmosphere rated: Low gravity worlds only.(X0.4, X0.9, X0.8)
FTL capable: Yes (25 light years a day)
Kinetic Barriers: Cyclonic variant(150 kilotons)
Height: 85 metres, 65 metres, 70 metres
Width: 185 metres, 125 metres, 148 metres
Length: 552 metres, 453 metres, 473 metres

-Carriers
An idea being thrown around by the council whether to adopt or not. Made by the System Alliance and show-cased to the Citadel council after the treaty was made. Right now they are leaning towards a yes, as the tactical options during a battle presented by such a ship is relatively large. Even though the debate is not over yet, plans are already being drawn up and the Turians are about to begin the construction of one. These ships are not limited by the Treaty of Farixen.
Weapons
-Classified, N/A, N/A
Armour: Classified, N/A, N/A
Atmosphere rated: No
FTL capable: Yes
Kinetic Barriers: Yes (Classified, N/A, N/A)
Height: Classified, N/A, N/A
Width: Classified, N/A, N/A
Length:Classified, N/A, N/A

-Dreadnoughts
The most powerful type of ships that protects Citadel Space. A dreadnought made by any species is guaranteed to bring fear to any sane fleet commander and usually force an opposing fleet to retreat as 'only a dreadnought can take on another dreadnought'. These ships, like the System Alliance own dreadnoughts, are rarely used is naval engagements, and when even one is, the council consider the engagement to be extremely important.
Weapons
-Mass Accelerators (X 1) (42 kT/6 sec, 35 kT/4 sec, 35 kT/5 sec)
-Disruptor torpedoes (X 250, X 100, X 200)
-GARDIAN lasers (X 60, X 150, X 80)
-Heavy Thanix cannons (X 8, X 10, X 6)
-Heavy Anti-ship cannons (X 35, X 10, X 15)
-Fighters (X 30, X 80 ,X 60)
-Interceptors (X 10, X 40, X 30)
Armour: Four metres, 1.5 metres, 2.5 metres
Atmosphere rated: No
FTL capable: Yes
Kinetic barriers: Cyclonic Variant (250 kilotons)
Height: 155 metres, 80 metres, 300 metres
Width: 300 metres, 140 metres, 300 metres
Length:1100 metres, 859 metres, 978 metres.

-Destiny Ascension:
A special dreadnought built by the Asari during the discovery of the Citadel space station and one of the few dreadnoughts continuously updated with up to date tech instead of sending it into the scrap heap. It is the largest and most powerful is citadel space and not even the insane and dull witted would dared to take on this behemoth of a ship, or at least not without a small fleet of ships engaging it at any one time. Unlike 'normal' dreadnoughts, when this ship is used during an offensive engagement, it means that the council really wants someone or something…put down permanently.
Weapons:
-Heavy mass Accelerators (50 kilotons/5 sec)
-Disruptor torpedoes (400)
-GARDIAN Lasers (250)
-Heavy Anti-ship Cannons (X 20)
-Recently design Heavy Anti-ship Flak Cannons (X 20)
-Heavy Thanix Cannons (X 10)
-Fighter (X 100)
-Interceptors (X 150)
-Fusion nuclear warhead (5 MT) (X 1)
Armour: 5 metres with one metre worth of 'Silaris Armour' outer plating.
Atmosphere rated: No
FTL capable: Yes
Kinetic Barriers: Yes: Cyclonic Variant (400 Kiloton)
Height: 500 metres
Width: 300 metres
Length:3500 metres

-End Codex

R&R. I know I buffed the citadel a bit, despite many saying not to do so, but I did say previously, via PM to some, that I might have to do it, to keep things interesting. As you can see here, this is not a really over powering buff, and the numbers I just pulled out if my a** based on their size and what I believe that they can carry. If anyone have the actual statistic, PM me and let me know. Also feel free to ask any question you might have and I'll gladly answer them, just don't ask when the next update is or I'll just ignore you…