A/N: The 3 alliance defence councilors seen in mass effect 3's prologue have a role in this chapter. As their names are unknown, I have given them names on my own for easy reference. Also i'm sorry for writing the story of UNSC again as i wanted the spartans to interact more with the alliance.
Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Mass effect
Chapter 7: Home coming
Alliance space, Earth
2185
Admiral Steven hackett was speaking with the alliance council members in vancouver. His ship already in due to return to the Arcturus station. He was discussing about the commander shepard and his alliance with the human centric terrorists, Cerberus. At first, everyone assumed that shepard was dead when the normandy was attacked and torn to pieces. But two years later, he made his presence known ot the galaxy starting from omega, but not in a pleasing way. Hackett couldn't believe he's alive. Antella was the first to spot commander's presence. Hackett denied major's request to bring him into custody for briefing, which proved to be the right decision now. Hackett's denial might be either he should have already known that shepard's covertly taking down collectors or for other reasons. But he always supported shepard and defer to his judgements. Now he's doing the same with the 3 members of the defense comittee. They were sitting over a table in a higher platform. One was a lady in her 50s named Vanessa. The other two were male with one being dark skinned named Michael and the other being a pale brown complexion named Sullivan .
"Admiral! You must realize that shepard is no longer our asset. He lost his position when he decided to join the cerberus" spoke councilor michael
"Goddammit Councilors! First you must realize, shepard didn't join them. He was merely found by cerberus and got revived which in my opinion was good for now!" reasoned Hackett
"Keeping alliance with the terrorists is not good admiral! Commander's actions will have its ramifications. And if circumstances call for drastic actions, should if our security's threatened, it may not end up well for him" spoke councilor vanessa with seriousness. Hackett had his face slightly frowned. He never thought the alliance command would court-martial him even after all he has done everything for humanity.
"With all due respect councilors! Shepard might have joined the wrong faction, but he's still helping us. We all know about the mysterious abductions of humans from 10 colonies. Shepard is investigating it. He found that a race called collectors were responsible including the recent ones on freedom's progress" said hackett pressing hard to help shepard.
"Well, what if it's cerberus is behind all this?" asked the councilor sullivan.
"Cerberus might be a terrorist group, but hitting our own kind is really not their style. I take shepard's word for this." replied hackett. The defence councilors think that admiral hackett is getting fooled with some conspiracy.
"No one has ever seen the collectors. You had just been fed with the conspiracies" said the councilor vanessa.
"Mam, The aliens were conspiracies until the discovery of prothean archives on mars in 2148. Don't ignore shepard just becau-" Suddenly hackett was cut by an officer in the nearby terminal. Hackett and the councilors looked at the officer
"Admiral! We have an incoming transmission from SSV kilimanjaro"
"patch it through" said hackett to which the officer replied and activated the comms.
"This is captain Davis of the SSV kilimanjaro. Admiral, our fleet's sensors have picked up a massive gravitational distortion just outside our defense perimeter. Sending you the visual now" with that, a large video screen in the wall behind hackett turned on and showed the live feed from kilimanjaro.
The defense councilors stood up immediately tensed seeing big portal like thing with blue-white energy in the edges. Hackett saw the feed and was slightly tensed. But what they saw next was even more troubling and had everyone's jaw dropped. A massive ship came out and the portal closed.
"My god! Is that a ship!?...It's BIG! said councilor sullivan, his eyes widened. Everyone in the room saw the feed and were stunned. There were murmuring sound in the hall as everyone's talking about what they are seeing.
"Never seen anything this in my life. We better be ready...Captain! have the fleet to position itself against it with in the defense perimeter!" ordered Hackett.
"Acknowledged admiral, Davis out" with that the line was terminated and hackett decided to stay with the councilors.
"Who could that be!? asked councilor vanessa.
"I would tell you if i know"..."God! hope this doesn't bring anymore trouble!" thought hackett with worry.
"Sir! It's captain davis. Our ship scanners show that big ship doesn't have any eezo in their power source. Also the ship doesn't match any of the ships in this galaxy...Sir! The ship's 5km in length! and whatever's powering it can supply power to the whole planet!" said the captain in flat tone with absolute shock and disbelief.
"That's Impossible! The largest ship known in this galaxy is the destiny ascension"..."Captain! Be ready to engage the ship on my word' said hackett.
"Yes sir!" with that, the comm was terminated.
"Dammit! A ship this big will need unimaginable amounts of Eezo. Even then, this ship doesn't use Eezo! how's that Possible!?" asked councilor michael.
"Above all! How did this ship manage to enter our system with out the mass relays and through some portal!?" asked councilor vanessa.
Hackett thought for a moment. The councilor's asked the right questions. In fact, it's the same running in his mind. He thought it could easily become another first contact scenario.
"A power source that can power a planet!? My god! How could it be!?" thought hackett. This is when the comms officer in the nearby terminal spoke.
"Sir, incoming transmission from the unknown ship"
"Patch it through" said hackett and then the officer turned on the speakers. But what they heard was shocking for everyone. It was a human who spoke in the transmission, but had a military tone.
"This is Master chief petty officer Spartan 117 of the UNSC Imperial Dawn. We have survivors of an alliance fire team from the colony fehl prime aboard our ship. Requesting permission to reach the surface and hand over the survivors"
"What the shit! Alliance marines in THAT ship!?" thought hackett in disbelief.
"And what the hell is this UNSC!? The alliance or any other races in this galaxy doesn't have any faction like this!" said councilor vanessa to which others nodded.
"Did they say fehl prime!? Then i guess i know who did that person refer to" said councilor sullivan and was picked up and finished by Hackett.
"Delta Squad!"
"What shall we do councilors?" asked hackett.
"They are very much unknown, And also they mentioned the delta squad with them. Let them come. Also it would be an opportunity to study this new faction and also to keep ourselves on guard should they pose a threat" said the lady councilor to which others nodded in acceptance.
"As your wish councilors...Comm! tell them their request has been accepted and prepare a homing beacon and ask them to follow it" said hackett to which the comm nodded and did exactly as he told.
"Hope this might not cause any more trouble councilors" said hackett turning towards the 3 councilors.
UNSC Imperial Dawn
"Chief, they are sending a homing beacon from vancouver" said kelly from her terminal.
"Fine. Cortana! prep a pelican. We'll get to vancouver" said chief. Cortana nodded but before leaving, she found john staring at the holo image of earth in front of him. Chief, after seeing earth, reminded him of his reality's earth and all that she went through including her colonies. Chief's team mates also had a feeling in their heart. Then cortana spoke up.
"She's same" then with a sigh "Though not ours. We dont know how much of suffering, this earth has gone through"
"Yeah. Grew up in ballast, but...seeing earth makes me feel more human" said fred
"This is the birth place of humanity. This is the place we started our venture in to the distant stars!" said linda.
"Reminds me of our past battles with the covenants...earth...reach...harvest...it all goes on!" said kelly.
"Our earth or not, they are humans after all. Let's get this over with" said chief. The three alliance marines were watching their conversation. They didn't had any idea of what they were talking. Mention of covenants, reach totally confused them.
"Chief? what's that you people were talking?" asked vega.
"You will learn once we get to vancouver" said chief "Now let's get to the surface" to which everyone nodded. Chief asked cortana to maintain a copy of herself and keep the ship in lock down once they leave the ship. She did as he asked and chief took her in the data chip and inserted in his helmet. Everyone went to the hanger-2 from they will board a pelican. Chief piloted the gunship and the other six were seated in the crew seats.
"Sierra 117 to alliance command, we are approaching your location in a drop ship"
"Roger that. Land your ship in the platform marked as 'A', 3 clicks northeast of your position"
"Affirmative. 117 out!"
The three alliance marines had lot of questions in their mind. They were repeatedly looking at the 3 massive figures in front of them wondering who they really are. Though from the asari, they learned about but are still wary. They hoped they would get a clear explanation in the alliance command. Then the pelican touched the ground to where they were guided. Then everyone exited the pelican. Then everyone saw the beauty of vancouver city. The view pleased the blue team.
"Looks like our people of this reality have really progressed so much. We must give them credits" said cortana in to chief's head.
Chief mentally agreed with cortana. She referred humans of this reality as 'our people' since humanity is same. Then a man in a high ranking military attire with a cap came out of the building door with 2 marines with their guns loaded backing him. He came to greet his guests. The spartans after seeing him recognized him as a high ranking officer. The spartans saluted him and the officer returned the salute. Also he was happy to see three of the delta squad members but not at this time.
"I am admiral Steven hackett of the systems alliance" hackett was stunned to see those towering figures as they dont bear anything that belong to this galaxy even their height. He saw everyone stood 6'11" except the one in a strange and different looking armor from the other three. He stood 7'3". But he had a feeling that these might be humans from the way they looked.
"It would be good to know what race you represent" asked hackett keeping his face calm not wanting to cause an incident. .
"Humans. I am Master chief petty officer spartan 117. You can call me chief, admiral, and this is my team" said the chief introducing him and as well as his friends to which the admiral nodded in acknowledgement. The reply was quite shocking to him and as well as his guards. The 2 marines were looking at each other before turning their gaze back at the spartans He still couldn't believe they are humans especially this chief.
"My goodness! they are humans!?" thought hackett. Then he turned toward the delta squad.
"And now you three! If i remember correctly, Aren't you people on a mission in fehl prime. You were supposed to defend the colony against any threats!?" said the admiral in a commanding tone. Vega came front to speak.
"Yes sir! But we were attacked by an unexpected enemy not so long before. The enemy whom everyone believed are just myths". This made hackett to keep his face serious.
"Is it the reapers!?...no..no..it cant be!" thought hackett with tense. The blue team could see a glimpse of fear in his face.
"Who?" asked admiral
"The Collectors" replied milque. This shocked the admiral and even his 2 marine security.
"SHIT! Then shepard was damn right!" said hackett in a yelling tone. This made chief and the blue team to become suspicious.
"Chief! It's better if you all come inside and talk with the defense commitee members. Also it would be good to explain yourselves to let them know the depth of the situation" said hackett to which they nodded and then everyone went inside.
In the commitee hall, Admiral hackett, the blue team and the 3 alliance marines were standing in front of the 3 defense councilors. The councilors were silent for quite sometime staring at the 4 massive figures in awe. They had never seen any one like them even the armors and weapons they were looking strange to them. Other than councilors and hackett, there was no one in the hall. They decided to have this meeting in discretion.
"Admiral! would you care to explain what's going on here? And who are these...people?" asked councilor michael pointing to the spartans especially the one looking stranger than the others. There was a pause for a moment. Then hackett spoke to chief.
"Chief, it's better if you explain to them" said hackett to which he nodded in acceptance.
"I am Master chief petty officer spartan 117 of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare. This is my team kelly, linda and fred"
"So..you are navy?" asked vanessa to which he nodded.
"But still! This galaxy doesn't have any thing called UNSC and why do you call yourself spartan!?" asked Sullivan. There was a moment of silence.
"UNSC stands for United Nations Space Command, a naval body for scientific, military and exploratory missions of earth and its colonies" replied chief which stunned everyone in the room. They were amazed that these people represented earth.
"But -" started councilor michael but soon cut off by chief
"You're right. There is no UNSC here...not in this galaxy" said chief. Others found this troubling. The use of 'not in this galaxy' was alarming for everyone.
"What do you mean 'not in this gala-'...!?...are you humans from another galaxy!?" asked admiral hackett terrorized.
"Not like that...We belong to milky way...'SIGH'...but from another reality" said chief. The councilors, hackett and the 3 alliance marines faces changed from confusion to disbelief. This is when essex whistled in. Of course, they were the ones who saved their asses from the collectors. But this...This is totally stupid and insane.
"You know...it looks like even these people watch a lot of sci-fi movies to blabber something like this!" said essex raising his eyebrow and crossing his arms. But hackett felt like he needed some psychiatric evaluation. Councilors were simply looking at them eyes widened in confusion. Some part of them tells that they were lying, but some part of them tells that they are telling the truth.
"And the comment comes from a person who got his ass kicked by the collectors!" said linda turning to essex which brought a chuckle from vega, deep down vega knew they were actually telling the truth.
"But look at them! They possess technology which we have never seen before. These soldiers calling themselves spartans were in fact striking fear into the collectors themselves. 4 soldiers took out a ship full of collector soldiers, while our planetary defenses barely touched the ship's hull" finished vega lending his support to the spartans. This news sent shock to the councilor's and hackett's face.
"Their armors, weapons..hell! even their size are very much of an evidence that they are not from this place Lt. Vega. But it doesn't answer the question...WHO ARE THEY...ACTUALLY!?..." asked councilor michael pressing his tone very hard to make sure everyone heard it clear.
"Perhaps, I can give you answers" Unexpectedly, to everyone's surprise came a female voice from nowhere which confused everyone in the room. Chief then raised his right hand and opened his palm to reveal a holographic avatar of a girl, but with lots of digital circuit lines running through her. Then she suddenly jumped out chief's hand and grew to an average human size. Hackett and the councilor's mind got flared up at the sight. Even the alliance marines were awe strucked with that as they only saw cortana's projection in a projector, but not this big.
"What the hell is that thing!? yelled councilor sullivan
"Thing!?...I'm UNSC AI CTN 0452-9, but you can call me cortana" introduced herself after giving confusing stare at the councilors.
"An AI!?...Listen Strangers! Having an AI is offensive enough to ground you and sieze your possessions!" shouted councilor vanessa. Hackett though wary, was surprised with the AI's human behavior. The only AI's they knew in this galaxy was the geth that showed more hostile intentions. They were dangerous enough to force the citadel council to ban production of AIs.
"You can try and regret!" said kelly plainly but in a threatening way. The councilors were taken back by that lady's response. They realized not to mess with them especially with the technology they possessed.
"Listen, we know you got problems with the AI race you call 'geth'. But that doesn't have anything to do with us. I dont belong to this reality. In our place, there are a lot like me and we are an integral part of the UNSC." explained the AI. Hackett was convinced that this AI dont mean any harm and so do the spartans. But its frustrating to him that they know next to nothing about them. The councilors couldn't speak as they started doubt whether their 'other reality' stuffs were indeed true.
"Then explain everything about yourselves. How did you get here? who are you people?" asked councilor sullivan. Cortana looked back at chief. Chief gave a nod to which cortana gave a smile and started speaking to the councilors. They were eagerly waiting to hear what they got to say.
"First you must know that we come from another reality and also of different timeline. Your current year is 2185 where as our timeline is 2557"
"What!? you people are from the future!?" asked hackett, his eyes widened.
"No. Like i said, our reality is different from this one. We have lots of videos regarding our evolution in our place. Let me present it to you." said cortana suddenly she accessed the big screen behind them up on the wall. Everyone turned towards the screen. Then cortana proceeded to show the history of UNSC.
The councilors, hackett and the 3 alliance marines were paralysed with what they saw. The video showed how united nations was formed after world war II to oversee the global economic, political and military operations. The creation of 'International society of Civil Engineers' in 2021 as a first step to initiate outer space colonization. The United Nation's control over global military forces and their first outer planetary colonization of Mars. This very much reminded the alliance personnel of their discovery of prothean archives on mars which revolutionized humanity's evolution. Then conquering the jupiter's 63 natural satellites called the 'jovian moons' then other planets beyond jupiter. Earth based capitalism was changed to space capitalism setting new economic standards. With that the video was paused with hackett's interruption.
"UNSC might have conquered lot of outer planetary bodies, but i dont think the individual nations of earth would have liked UNSC's prolonged centralization"
"You are right. And it came in the form of 2 rebel factions. The Russian communist group 'Koslovics' and the German republic faction 'Friden'. They both thought that jovian moons should be under the control of individual nations instead of this UNSC. This caused political conflict between the UNSC and these rebel groups" explained cortana and continued the video. Then it showed the Friden group training the jovian moon colonists in the art of warfare to prepare and fight the UN leading to a fight between the Friden and UN forces called the 'Jovian moon campaign'. UN lost the fight. Following this in 2162, the Friden and the koslovics fought each other with UN forces struggling in the middle in south america which at that time was economically fertile and had lots of industrial resources. This eventually became what is called as the 'Rain forest wars'. Again the videos paused.
"This war must have caused both severe casualties and economic downfall" said the councilor vanessa.
"Yes. There was planet wide starvation and famine with losses for both the UN and the rebel groups" replied linda. Then the video continued.
Then to finally put an end to the rebels, the UN utilized the german 'blitzkreig' lightning attack to crush both koslovics and the friden by a surprise ambush in both ground and space. Both the groups were captured and finally, soldiers from all the countries grouped under UN forces to form the first space based marine corps and the capture of argyre planitia region of the mars. With that, the United Nations Space Command was formed inviting people from all over the world to join the marine groups under the banner. The UNSC's popularity was boosted by media propanganda. In between time of 2164-2170, The UNSC marines placed strongholds in all the colonies in SOL system. Finally the friden and the koslovics were defeated in the same jovian moons ending with the signing of 'Treaty of callisto'.
Then overpopulation led the UNSC more desperate to colonize lots of exoplanets. In 2310, two scientists, Tobias Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa discovered a means of faster than light travel method called the 'Slipspace'. This made UNSC's job to conquer exoplanets a lot easier. Then a vast line of ships were installed with slipspace drive leading to speedy conquer of planets enough to form inner earth colonies and outer colonies. By 2490, humanity conquered 800 exo-planets in the orion arm of the video again paused.
"Astounding! This slipspace seems to be more efficient than our mass relay systems. Your people must really be praised for making such a remarkable discovery on your own and above all...colonizing 800 worlds is no easy task!. We could learn a lot from you!" said councilor sullivan amazed with the humanity's progression. Other's too felt respect for this UNSC as they struggled a lot to achieve this.
"There's even lot to it" said cortana continuing the video feed.
Then the video showed of planet 'Reach' being made as the primary naval yard of the UNSC fleet and training facility for ground units and special forces. The inner colonies became political and economic strongholds and outer colonies became the suppliers of raw materials.
"Even with that much progress, These colonies should have called for independent government to live on their own given the fact that there are so many planets colonized." said hackett.
"How right you are! This is where the insurrectionists rose from the outer colonies, especially from the 'Eridani system' to rebel against the UNSC's centralized rule" said cortana and the video continued.
The insurrection threat grew alarmingly. The Office of Naval Intelligence or ONI, an intelligence branch of the UNSC decided to bring the insurrectionists by force through specialized soldiers and advanced equipments. They started project ORION in 2491 as a means to create bio-augmented soldiers and giving them advanced weaponries to fight them. The civil unrest grew to a significant point in 2494. But the results of ORION were disappointing, so the project was cancelled in 2506. But the reports of the insurrectionists were troublng for ONI. If the situation continued to escalate, it would become too late for UNSC to stop the rebels.
"The Eridani rebels look strong enough that given few more time, they would have over thrown the UNSC government!" said councilor Vanessa shocked with the rebel group's strength.
"You are right. But they didn't know what was coming for them. Doctor Catherine elizabeth halsey, ONI's greatest mind jump started the ORION project but this time, with careful planning and selection of recruits based their unique gene pool. They would eventually become the finest super soldiers called the SPARTAN IIs" explained cortana now turning to see the blue team.
The video proceeded to show the spartan II training. The kids at age six from different worlds who had the traits of previous subjects passed on to their children were specifically selected and kidnapped from their homes by ONI agents and replaced with their flash clones. These clones would die of natural causes over time. This threw shock in everyone's faces.
"They used children to fight the war!?..." asked hackett in awe. No species in the galaxy used children to fight.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures" was the reply from master chief. Everyone turned to see him. Cortana was looking sad at chief and his team who were the subjects of spartan II. She became over protective of john from the day when she learned of what he went through as a child. She never liked halsey for what she did to the 75 children.
"But how can you justify forcing the kids in the war without giving them the choice!?" asked councilor michael.
"The 4 people standing in front of you are the subjects of spartan II program. Its too late for those questions to be asked" said cortana refering to the blue team that stunned others in the room. Then they went on to see the video.
75 in total were selected for the project and was the most highly guarded secret in ONI. The children were taught the art of war, values of team work, education in all the fields by the one who the spartan II candidates see as a father figure, Senior chief petty officer franklin mendez. His training methods might be harsh, but it was very much helpful in becoming what they were destined to become. At the age of 14 they received their augmentations. But that itself was a hiccup. 30 died of intolerance to pain, 12 were crippled with side effects and only 33 survived the procedure successfully. The augmentations gave them superior strength, nearly unbreakable bones with enhanced sight, reflex, stamina. The blue team were among those survived. Then everyone received their first MJOLNIR battle armor designed by none other than dr. halsey to become the spartans they wanted to be.
The councilors, hackett and the alliance marines now understood the meaning of spartans. They are elite supersoldiers bred purely for combat. But still it was hard for them to digest the fact that they were nothing but kids even with all the powers.
Then they also watched different spartan fire teams lead by the respective team leaders including this spartan 117 transported to different outer colony worlds with 117 on Eridanus II to stall the insurrectionists. But little did they knew about the spartan II's purpose.
"Something doesn't add up! Your people spent so much to create super soldiers only to fight rogue humans!?" asked councilor vanessa in suspicion. Even others had the same doubt.
"Everyone thought the same until humanity as a whole met their nightmare" said fred in a sad tone.
The video showed footage from 2525. It was then humanity discovered that they were not alone in the universe. Dark age for humanity began with their first contact with the theocratic alien alliance called the 'Covenant' which is composed of several alien factions. Before proceeding, the alliance people were shown images of different factions, Sanghelli, Mgalekgolo, Kig-yar, Unggoy, Jiralhanae and the San'shyuum. Some were intimidating for them. First contact was on a frigate Minor Transgression when it's kig-yar crew raided a just then arrived UNSC ship because of the malfunctioned slipspace drive. At first, it was assumed as rebels and the UNSC AI set a trap that skirmished them. Also the images of Avery johnson with sgt nolan byrne were shown. Then the covenant arrived at planet harvest in search for relics shown by their artifact called 'Luminary'. But soon found that the relics mentioned were infact humanity. This is when the covenant prophets decided to totally annihilate humanity viewing them as a disgrace to their gods, the fore-runners. And before their invasion, they left a message.
"Your destruction is the will of the gods and we are it's instruments!" This terrified the alliance personnel.
"With the way they viewed your people, and the technology they possessed, it must have not ended well" said councilor michael keeping his face expressionless and a concern in his voice.
"Yes. What started as a war, turned into a mass genocide!" said cortana sadly. This ddn't go unnoticed by the others. They were wondered with the way the AI expressed it's sadness for the humanity's fate. Even they felt genocide in the name of religion, an atrocity. Hackett thought that their first contact was not this severe. But soon the video showed nothing but horrors. The first battle with the covenant at planet harvest and its apparent glassing by the covenant. Admiral Preston cole's last stand to turn the tide of the assault. And last but not the least, the entry of spartan IIs into the war. Their first battle at Chi Ceti IV which became the turning tide in humanity's favor. The covenants were ambushed by the spartans in ground assault. The covenant feared the spartans and started referring them as 'demons'.
"So the covenants who were superior in aerial assault couldn't work their magic on the ground?" asked vega speaking for the first time since the video feed. Cortana simply nodded to it.
"So these spartans?..initially thought as a means to quell rebellion soon became humanity's warfare against the covenant" said hackett confirming what he saw. The blue team nodded in response.
The video proceeded to show Masterchief leading his blue team in several wars after the chi ceti like the harvest campaign, battle of circinius IV in the corbulo academy, Jericho VII, Raid on 3rd fleet of glorious consequence, Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. From the sigma octanus IV, humanity learned of covenant's true intentions. In that planet, covenant found an artifact called fore-runner crystal that can warp space, time and slipspace, but soon they were forced to fight heavy UNSC reinforcements suffering many casualties. In all the battle, John lost atleast one fellow spartans and few soldiers under his command. This really broke him down but vowed to become strong and protect them. Especially loss of spartan Sam 034, Solomon 069, Arthur 079. After that, Spartan III program was initiated under the supervision of Colonel James Ackerson. The most notable of them were the Noble team, consisted of 6 spartans. Then the covenant invaded the humanity's fortress, Reach. They found an artifact similar to the ones in sigma octanus IV in the SWORD base. They ambused the planet with several fleet including the covenant super carriers which made their jaws drop in shock seeing its size. Masterchief knew the covenant's were onto something and they were sent to reach station gamma. Meanwhile, noble team was dispatched on reach to clear covenant forces from the docks.
"If planet reach being your fortress was under attack, what happened to earth?" asked councilor vanessa.
"At that time they didn't knew about earth. But reach's fall was a major concern to us" said cortana.
"We were sent to destroy the NAV database to prevent the covenant from learning the locations of every human world." said chief.
Then the video shows john 117 entering the UNSC pillar of autumn. Cortana was secured by halsey in CASTLE base where she learned everything from the fore-runner crystal. Then noble team was sent to retrieve halsey where she asked the team to deliver the AI cortana to captain Jacob keyes of UNSC pillar of autumn. But the noble team was severely ambushed by covenant fleet and a scarab. Spartan Jorge 052 used a makeshift slipspace bomb to destroy covenant carrier 'Long night of solace' with him. Noble commander Carter A259 used a pelican to ram into the scarab and destroy it but not before he jumped off at a high altitude and escaped death in the verge. This actions bought others time to deliver cortana to captain keyes. Cortana used the coordinates derived from the artifact and the pillar of autumn made a random slipspace jump out of reach. The remaining were killed by covenant ground troops. The other survivor of the noble was Jun A266. The covenant fleet followed them to where ever they are headed to.
Then the real show began, Battle of installation 04. Everyone saw a big artificial ring near a gas giant.
"Holy hell! what is that!?" asked milque.
"That is a artificial construct called 'Halo' built by the forerunners" said cortana
"Forerunner!? They sound like an ancient race" said councilor sullivan.
"Exactly. There are totally 7 like this spread across our milky way. They had constructed a lot of similar constructs like this" said cortana. Others were stunned with these forerunner's technological marvel. This very much reminded them of protheans and their construction of mass relays and citadel.
The videos of UNSC fighting the covenants on the ring's surface. They were amazed to see the ring's inner region look like a planetary atmosphere. Then the release of the flood parasite, the galaxy's worst nightmare. The alliance people were terrified with the flood's nature for they had never seen horrors like this. The flood targeted both the covenant and the UNSC and master chief was forced to fight everyone all alone with his only company, cortana. The alliance people amazed and felt great respect for the chief and the spartans overall. Then video of a floating ball with a light is shown which linda explained as the monitor of halo 04, an AI created by forerunners to oversee the ring systems. The alliance people were stunned to see that their reality play with AIs like toys. Finally the rings true nature was revealed.
"So the ring...Halo!? It is a weapon and not to kill the flood, but to kill its food which's all the other life it can mutate?" asked hackett on awe.
"Yes. The forerunners created the halo as a weapon of last resort after failing every strategy to combat the flood"
"But your weapons are capable of killing it. Then why not use bigger ones to directly kill them!?" asked councilor michael.
"That's were you are wrong. Flood parasite do not simply assimilate the bodies of dead and living, but also their intelligence." said chief
"Which means!?" asked hackett in suspicion.
"Which means they can fight us using their own strategy like perfect soldiers and the worst thing is they can even pilot a ship, use guns like us" explained cortana. The alliance people also saw the flood foot soldiers using weapons.
"Not just that, they are capable of expanding at an exponential rate in a short time, such that give them a day, they will overrun atleast 100 planets in the meantime". This really shocked everyone and realized why flood is the worst threat in their reality.
Then they saw the footage of chief combating both the flood and covenant remnants on halo and finally destroying the whole ring by overloading the fusion reactors of the pillar of autumn after they realized that the monitor is determined to wipe the galaxy. The three alliance marines were dumbstruck with chief and cortana's heroic acts. Their actions saved the galaxy which very much reminded them of commander shepard's struggle in the citadel.
Then the videos of battle of earth, battle of installation-05, second battle of earth, revelation of the ark, gathering unexpected allies from covenant especially the one called 'Arbiter'. Rise of the flood grave mind, chief's decision to wipe the flood within the ark, the 343 monitor's betrayal and its apparent death, chief losing his friend, and commander miranda keyes, finally escaping the ark using a frigate but getting crushed by the collapsed slipspace portal, The end of the 30 year human-covenant war and humanity's progression towards building all they lost. Finally becoming allies with sanghelli and covenant seperatists. With that the feed was over.
One thing is for sure. The alliance people realized that the 4 spartans standing before them are infact heroes and especially the masterchief is a legend in his own right. With the hell they gone through for 30 years pushed to the brink of extinction, humanity never gave up and rose even more powerful and finally with the help of heroes like the spartans, they won the war.
"So, this is our story." finished cortana. The councilors, 3 marines, hackett felt like they were standing before gods.
"What can you tell us about the forerunners?" asked vanessa eagerly. Chief spoke up this time.
"They were once a peaceful race that came into existence 15 millions years before, technologically superior in the milky way. They believed in the 'Mantle of Responsibility' by which they based themselves as the caretakers of life in the galaxy" said chief explaining about the different classes in forerunners like warrior servant called prometheans, builders and life workers, miners.
"In fact they were the children of their ancestors, The Precursors" said cortana. This brought confusion in everyone's faces as to who are these precursors.
"Who are they!?" asked hackett raising his eyebrow
"Not much is known about them. But they were more powerful. After 5 million years, the forerunners became technologically superior. But what happened next was a mass slaughter. The forerunners rebelled against their creators and they almost mythologized their existence." said cortana. The blue team knew about these history from the archives in Iridescent. The alliance couldn't believe the forerunners wiped their own creators.
"Why did they do that!?" asked councilor sullivan
"Because the precursors favored humanity and handed over the mantle of responsibility to them." said cortana. This totally shocked everyone as they heard there was an ancient human species during that time.
"What!? There were humans at that time?" asked hackett with his jaw dropped.
"Not only that, but also they technologically matched the forerunners". Everyone remained silent processing what they learned.
"Humanity at that time, evolved into space faring beings and excavated precursor artifacts to study them and develop their own technology based on that. This was noticed by the precursors and felt that they were worthy to uphold the mantle since they had the potential to evolve on their own."
"Let me guess! These forerunners didn't like this and waged war against precursors out of jealousy." finished Essex.
"Yes. The precursors vanished. But during 110,000 BCE, humanity made first contact with the forerunners...but it didn't end well." said cortana.
"No first contact went without incidents" thought hackett. Then chief spoke.
"Humanity started destroying forerunner planets one after the other leading to the forerunner casualties in billions. The forerunners thought they were simply expanding over their territories in violence...But humanity was infact running and trying to save themselves and forerunners from a deadly surprise." said chief
"Running from what!?" asked councilor vanessa.
"The flood parasite" answered kelly. They were stunned with the reply.
"Humanity was the first to come into contact with the flood. After learning its true nature and the fact that they already overran many of their planets and even started to move towards the forerunner regions, They didnt had time to warn the forerunners of the threat. So they simply glassed all the infected planets" said cortana
"Didnt the forerunners fight back?" asked hackett.
"Yes. Forerunners and humanity fought a war with severe blood shed. Humanity on the other hand found a non-conventional way to defeat the flood. They studied the flood spore and genetically engineered it to counter it's effects and then assimilating that with their own people's DNA" said cortana. The alliance people were astounded with their tech marvel.
"So, did they become immune to the flood?" asked hackett eagerly.
"No. Instead the humans were transmutated into a different flood combat form. But in a way they succeeded to an extent"
"What!? You said that they were transformed to flood. How could it be a success?" asked councilor sullivan.
"These new combat form became a bio-weapon against the original flood targeting their own kind, killing each other out, neutralizing themselves. Seeing it as a success, The humans used a third of their own population to turn them against the parasite. The flood was defeated and retreated from the human territories ."
This was really a disgusting move according to the alliance people, but gave credit to their bravery of risking themselves to save everyone.
"Already weakened by the flood conflict, humans lost the war with the forerunners and got pushed back to their home world and finally defeated."
"What happened then? did they went extinct? how did the forerunners defeat the flood?" asked councilor michael terrified with their reality's horror.
"Before humanity was defeated, the forerunners had the human research datas regarding the flood cure. But in the war's closing time humans with a vengeance destroyed all their flood research datas and left them unprepared for the upcoming threat. Then forerunners devolved the humans to tribes and exiled them to earth. With the flood gone, They de-militarized themselves which proved wrong for them"
"Why?" asked hackett
"The flood returned and they were unprepared. Some forerunners went to one of the human colony to meet the flood intelligence called the gravemind. The intelligence revealed that humans never found a cure instead they simply decided to leave the humans alone" said cortana
"Isn't that already a defeat to them?" asked vega.
"Yes. This is when forerunners realized their blunder mistake. They came to know that humanity was already combating the flood before their eventual contact and that they were trying to help the forerunners from getting infested. Finally they decided that Halo arrays are their only solution to kill the flood, by starving them to death. Many opposed this but accepted seeing they have already failed. Before their death, they declared humanity as their successors and inheritors of their technologies as a reward. Halo arrays were fired and then all the sentient lives in the milky way including the forerunners died. Before that, the lifeworkers made sure that life would be reseeded in the galaxy after the halo's are fired. The flood starved to death and life flourished once again." finally finished cortana.
After the alliance people heard their history, they were totally dumstrucked. For millions of years, their milky way had been into lot of conflicts. These forerunners though sometimes reckless were infact noble and had sense of justice. Humanity on the other hand always struggled for its survival for millions of years. But if there's one thing the alliance admire of them, it's their motto of 'Never Back Down'. They thought they could learn a lot from them. Hackett suddenly had his face down as he felt that the spartans could have been a greater help to shepard in taking down the collectors. The 3 alliance marines felt great respect for these spartans. The video feed and the spartans, an AI standing before them were more enough evidence to learn who they are. But the next question lingers.
"That's fine. But how you people entered our reality?" asked hackett finding himself wierd asking this question to which the councilors nodded. Chief spoke up.
"In our reality, we were investigating an artifact of unknown origins. But when came near, we learned that the artifact is infact a portal, but an artificially created one. We couldn't do anything but got pulled by it's powerful gravity. Then we ended up here. Until we find a way out, we're stuck in this place" finished chief. The alliance people found the answer to be blunt as they felt the spartans were hiding something. The spartans though trusted the alliance didn't want to be more specific about themselves at that time.
"Then how did you meet the delta squad and brought 3 of them here" asked hackett straight to the point.
"We received their distress call from one of your commbouys in a near by mass relay. We went on to investigate and found that collectors were abducting the fehl prime colonists. We disabled their ship, infiltrated it and saved the colonists and your squad survivors" said fred. The councilors were taken back at themention of collectors. They didn't believe shepard when he told that. But as they heard the same from these strangers, they started to give some thoughts on that.
"Also we heard that commander shepard is investigating it" said linda which shocked everyone.
"How the hell do you know about shepard!?" asked councilors in confusion which can also be seen in hackett and the marine's faces.
"Our first ride was to the space station named citadel. An asari captain was our escort. We met the councilors and also your alliance admiral david anderson. He told us everything"
After learning the spartans had visited the citadel and council, they started to tense as they knew the council will do anything to get their hands on them. On the other hand, the 3 defence councilors were wondering if they could get those spartans to join the alliance and have them share their technology with the alliance. They were astounded with the future possibilities of being a powerful race while in possession of their technology. The councilors stared at the spartans like they would do anything to get the spartans to their side. Hackett was wondering if they would ever consider joining the alliance. As an admiral, he knew the logic that these spartans would still be loyal to their UNSC. Now hackett turned to the alliance marines and talked.
"But how did you end up with these people? where are the others? and what of the colonists!?" asked hackett in a raised tone. Then vega went on to explain what happened in the mean time. The arrival of collector ship, abduction of colonists, presence of a covert cerberus operative, death of brood, arrival of the spartans and their heroic acts, saving the colonists and the marine survivors and finally, the destruction of the collector ship by this big vessel.
After hearing this, the councilors were dumbstruck by the fact that 4 spartans managed to take down the entire collector soldiers in the collector vessel. As a proof, cortana provided them of the recorded battle from their suit's video recorder. Hackett was stunned with their powers. They weren't actually fighting, instead they were slaughtering the collectors. Also this video was enough of the evidence that the collectors are real.
"My god! We were so ignorant! The collectors are real and shepard was right after all!" said Vanessa with a frown in her face.
"Council was so ignorant. But i never thought even you would abandon shepard in this situation. He's the second person to get screwed up like this" said kelly which brought the other's attention.
"Indeed! We realize it now and it's too late for us to help which is again our fault. But what does shepard being the 2nd person means?" asked michael in confusion.
"I heard how the citadel council treated the quarians with their problem" replied chief.
"The quarians deserved what was coming for them when they created the geth. They brought this upon themselves! Even we would agree with council's decision for not helping them" said sullivan in a raising tone.
"I dont blame you for the quarians, but let me ask you something. When children make mistakes, does their parents abandon them forever out of hate?...NO!...The council claims themselves to be the overseer of the galactic civilizations. If so, then they must see the other races as their children and help them when needed even if they commit mistakes. But your citadel council is something else. They use their power to rule and forgot to be 'just'. Do you know why our forerunners chose us to be their true successors even after all those fight, its because humanity tried to help the others even after learning that they wouldn't last long..." finished cortana giving an emotional speech.
Even chief and the blue team was surprised. Hackett, Councilors and the three marines were awestrucked with the AI reasoning the value of lives. They were totally left speechless. This is when they realized their mistakes, their wrong mentality. Hackett thought for a moment that the spartans and the AI had clearly shown them that humanity could become much more than what they were. The councilors learned that respect isnt about being powerful, but using the power to be useful to others as much as possible.
"Maybe...you are right!...I dont know how to put it..." staggered vanessa in sadness.
"It's all right. It's just my point of view. If i were harsh, I'm sorry for that" said cortana calmly.
"You dont have to be" said hackett in clear tone and clear mind.
"So..hooh!...I think it's time we left" said fred.
"But have you people given any thought on joining the alliance. With you spartans on our side, we could be more powe-.." talked councilor sullivan immediately got cut off by chief.
"No! We had already decided not to interfere with this galaxy's affairs as we're still bound to the laws and protocols of UNSC. But as soldiers, we sworn to protect humanity and all the innocent lives no matter where. We will continue that here until we find a way home" said chief in a tone that others couldn't refuse it. The councilors were disappointed but they respected their reasons. Though different, they are humans after all. Hackett was not surprised with their decision but was worried if someone would get their hands on their technology.
"Whatever chief! It's good to hear that. And good luck! But be careful, there are a lot of pirate activities in the terminus systems" sadi hackett
"Don't worry admiral. We have studied everything we need to know from the 'Codex' and thorough with your star charts. If anyone so much try to get in our way to cause trouble, they will simply regret it even in their eternity" said cortana which caused a stir in everyone's faces. The spartans finally shaked hands with the admiral and the 3 alliance soldiers and after that, the spartans took off to their ship using the pelican they arrived.
Unknown system, Unknown base
A man in a professional suit was seated in his chair with a cigar in his hands in a large dark room with the only sight of a big star in front of him. An officer came to see him with an urgent message.
"Sir! We have a footage of an unknown ship in a fight against another vessel in the space near fehl prime" the officer said giving him the datapad.
"Why haven't i heard from my source there for a long time?" asked the man in a calm yet commanding tone.
"I...don't know sir!" said the officer slightly tensed. There was a pause.
"You may go" said the man and the officer exited the room.
The dim light of star falls on his face by which barely his face can be seen. He has a 'granpa' style hair patches in the sides with a pair of blue bionic lens in his eyes. The Illusive man, is the leader of the human pro-centric group called the 'Cerberus'. He just viewed the datapad and saw full details of a giant unknown ship in battle with another ship smaller than this vessel. He was staring at the details wondering what it is. Also he learnt that it has no eezo core. Illusive man is usually not a person who shows expressions or emotions in his face. He does that in his mind. In his mind, he was wondering what it was and who its owners were and also amazed with its fire power. A form of mass accelerator but highly powerful to just use a single round to tear the ship apart. Then suddenly his terminal beeped up. He set the datapad aside and sat in his chair started smoking his cigar and turned on the terminal. Then a man who infact is an alliance officer showed up.
"What is it gilbert?" asked illusive man expressionless.
"Sir! you wont believe this! I've got a serious footage about some new people that showed in the vancouver command. I dont know how to explain. I managed to record their full encounter. I'm sending you the footage now. I hope you will know when you see it!" said the alliance officer sending the full recording.
Officer gilbert is infact a covert cerberus operative in the vancouver alliance command. He sends reports directly to illusive man regarding the alliance's plans. So far he managed to keep his cover intact. After the recording was sent, the officer cut the comms immediately. Then the illusive man saw everything. The spartan's arrival from another reality, explanation about their history, their origins, their wars, UNSC, outline of their technology, their complete conversation with the admiral hackett and defence councilors and their departure.
The most intriguing was that blue girl hologram which he learned was an AI and the spartans, their technology, their gigantic vessel and it's arsenal, it's unknown form of FTL they call 'Slipspace' which itself raise a lot of conventional questions in his minds. Illusive man is a kind of person who doesn't set aside matters what others feel as fictional or crazy or unimportant. That is the reason why he's the sole leader and proprietor of the galaxy's most powerful covert organization. He didn't take these spartans lightly. He's now very much interested to learn more about them and also their AI which he felt life-like. The first thing that got into his mind was to capture them for study and replicate their technology and even their bio-enhancements. Also to get atleast a piece of their technology to reproduce. He felt that, with that much power, cerberus could advance humanity to a whole new level and even overthrow the citadel government thus focusing on bigger problems. But he knew that's not easy. He saw the way spartans fought the entire collector army. It was a mass slaughter. Also the one called 'Masterchief' is even more unique among the spartans. His armor was very different and looked more deadly even in sight. He then decided to capture him specifically, if not the others. But that would need careful timing and planning which he knew that and illusive man is a man of patience after all. Also he was interested in these forerunners and from the footage, he learned that they were powerful enough to rule the whole galaxy with an iron fist. Though these UNSC soldiers are not native to this reality, Illusive man thought that these spartans represent the best humanity could offer and that they could set an example that humanity can indeed become a dominating force. With that, he switched off the terminal and had a sip of an expensive wine and a smoke.
UNSC Imperial Dawn
The crew went to the bridge and had their respective seats.
"So, That went well!" said cortana crossing her arms
"I never expected you to melt their hearts with that speech!" said chief in a chuckling manner.
"Not everyone is a caveman like you always swinging the club!" replied cortana with a smirk to which he simply stared and then talked. Others were simply chuckling at that.
"I do care about oth-..."
"I know! i was just kidd-..." suddenly cortana's face turned serious. Chief and the blue team noticed it. After a pause they asked her,
"What is it cortana!?" asked linda.
"Oh NO!" was the reply from her with a frown. Chief repeatedly asked her what is it.
"Chief, Through the charon mass relay, i used a slipspace comm to connect with the other relay commbouys for any information and i found this" said cortana bringing up the galactic map and then highlighting a point in the far rim. Then it zoomed to reveal a star system.
"This star is acting strange. If my datas are correct, It will turn into a red giant in 5 more days and consumes all the planets" said cortana seriously.
"Where is it?"
"It's a system this galaxy call 'Dholen' in the far rim"
"Isn't that normal for a star?" asked chief.
"Yes! but not this soon and also I'm seeing signal broadcasting from one of the system's planet. There must be someone. We gotta warn them chief, before it's too late". Chief and the blue team accepted this and became ready for this next mission.
"Cortana! Set the coordinates and enter slipspace when ready! What's the ETA?" ordered chief.
"On it chief and the ETA at full drive ouput will be 30 hours but we wont be able to use the drive for quite sometime after that."
"Ship's sensors are online" said kelly
"Weapon systems are online. In ship defence protocols are initiated" said fred.
"Huragoks are reading the reactors and thrusters good" said linda
"Alright team! Let's vanish" said chief. Then the ship left earth in the slipspace to their destination.
A/N: Finally the spartans are gonna meet Shepard and co. and the quarians at the same time in haestorm in a troubling situation. For someone who asked me will the spartans help quarians?...The answer is Yes and in a way no one expected.
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