Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass effect

Chapter 11: One ends, another begin.

The blue team after a devastating fight with the cerberus assassins, they decided to let only Admiral Anderson to know about this. Telling the councilors will cause unnecessary tension among them and also the peace among the innocent people living here will shatter.

The spartans reached the embassy where they saw armed C-Sec guards standing. The guards warily looked at the spartans. When they tried to enter, the guards stopped there.

"I'm sorry sir! but no one's allowed to enter the embassy halls until the situation is resolved" said a guard still slightly nervous at the sight of 4 spartans.

"I know that and that's why i need to talk to the admiral" said chief.

"Did you listened to what I said!? No one's allowed to enter!" said another guard in a pressing tone.

The blue team were exchanging looks. They were irritated but couldn't blame them as they were doing their duty. But they can't tell them that cerberus got under their nose. But to their luck, Anderson already came out of the hall and met the spartans.

"Chief! Glad to see you." greeted the admiral surprised to see the spartans. He too knew of a murder that took place in the embassy wards. He was terrified as to who could have done that.

"Admiral, we need to talk to you and it's urgent" said kelly. Anderson stared at the spartans for a moment and then asked the guards to let them.

"Officers! They are under my jurisdiction, so let them in" said the Admiral in a commanding tone.

The guards looked at them both for a moment and then decided to let them in.

"Alright. You are cleared to go. Huh...word comes comes from the top brass, what else do we need..." said the guard. The spartans nodded and crossed the yellow holo tape that was blocking the embassy pathway.

Fred, kelly and linda walked towards the Admiral followed by chief at last. This is when he heard a turian guard talking to a human officer.

"When did these freaks got support in our place?" asked the turian officer in a low voice not wanting the spartans to here.

"Been here 3 days and they roam our galaxy like it's theirs. I hope the politicians keep them in check" said the human officer.

Chief having acute hearing heard the conversation despite being low voice. He stopped and turned his head to left as if listening to them. He didn't react to that, turned back and walked away.

He followed his friends and the Admiral to the human embassy hall. There, Ambassador Udina was talking to captain bailey over the terminal in raised tone.

"Listen to me captain! Dispose those bodies immediately and I wanna know who the heck were those people!"

"Yes sir! I'm on it" replied Bailey and the terminal was closed. Udina then turned to see the admiral and the 4 spartans. Just then he was notified of a fight between the spartans and a mysterious group in the zakera ward by C-Sec Bailey. He was looking angry at the spartans almost ignoring the admiral's presence though part of his anger is for different reasons.

"Master chief! Just now captain bailey informed me that you 4 ran into a fight with some people in the ward. What the hell are you people thinking? Who gave you outsiders the liberty pick a fight with our people!?" yelled Udina. Anderson looked confused with what Udina said.

"Wha-? What's this about chief?" asked Anderson in doubt.

The spartans took their time to reply. But felt wary to talk in Udina's presence as he's a citadel councilor. But they didn't have much choice in this matter.

"Sir, those mysterious people are cerberus soldiers" said the chief. The two had their eyes widen in shock.

"WHAT!?" yelled Udina and everyone turned to look at him.

"How the heck!?" said Anderson looking down in confusion and then looked up at chief.

"Chief, you need to brief us on that" said Anderson. Then cortana spoke up.

"Chief, get me out". Chief opened his right palm and cortana projected out and jumped off from his hand to grow to normal human size. Anderson and Udina saw her coming out.

"A Sniper took a shot at a turian who was standing near the embassy's information ward. We just found that it came from a greater vantage point near the zakera ward in the opposite side" said cortana followed by linda.

"After our investigation, we learned that it was a little cerberus attempt on us" said linda.

Udina and Anderson were already shocked about the news of cerberus infiltration. But after hearing that cerberus came for the spartans, they were terrified. Citadel is the most heavily fortified space station in the galaxy. There's no way someone could easily bypass the security and enter. But somehow the Cerberus did that easily which they felt though frowned with the information, he doubted the spartans whether if it's true or not.

"Chief, Is it true or...Are you four trying to pull any con?" asked Udina moving towards the spartans slowly keeping his face grim.

Chief respected udina as a politician in dealing with politics which's always tiresome. But he sensed some hate in the manner of speaking.

"It's cerberus and the one who led 40 assassin's to take us out was...some name...yeah! Kai leng" said kelly which toppled Anderson's head like someone threw a huge rock over his head.

"LENG! I never thought that vicious bastard would be behind this" said anderson gritting his teeth in anger and frustration. Udina was now convinced after hearing that name.

Of course, Anderson and kai leng have a bitter history in the past.

"Who is he?" asked chief

"Kai leng was once an alliance N7 soldier. He was aggressive enough that he killed an innocent krogan in the citadel. He likes rubbing people in a wrong way, stealing medals from enemy officers, all kinds of shits a soldier should never do. The command discharged him due to bad conduct and was imprisoned for 20 years"

"How did he end up with cerberus?" asked cortana

"Illusive man always got a knack for bad guyz. Leng's cold blooded and stone hearted nature was much of an attraction and recruited him after he was released from the prison. From that day forth, he became the cerberus's bitch!" explained anderson. The spartans shared a look and gave themselves a shrug.

"Don't get me wrong Admiral. But you sound like you got something personal with him" said fred crossing his arms. Anderson sighed at that.

"That was a long time ago. Anderson, I'm going to meet the other councilors regarding this matter. I'll see you afterwards" said udina and left the embassy hall to meet with the other councilors. The spartans turned to see him leave and then turned back to look at anderson. Anderson looked down in frustration and sighed.

"Huh!... He had stuck his nose into everything that's none of his business in this galaxy. He had got in my way a lot of times more than i could remember" said Anderson suddenly drawn upon by his pasts.

"What kind of person was he?" asked cortana

"He is ruthless and never hesitated to take life. He uses people in his vicinity to achieve his goal and end up killing them to protect his hide"

"What can you tell me about cerberus in general?" asked fred.

"Apart from the cerberus's own view about themselves, They truly are a human terrorist organization who achieves their goal by any means even if they end up killing lot of innocents. They claim to uplift humanity but that's all bullshit! I would say that they neither care about the galaxy's welfare nor humanity's. Cerberus seeks its own dominance in this galaxy. Even there are evidences cerberus killing our own people. Usually illusive man uses innocents as baits to take their enemy out" said anderson in disgust.

The spartans felt sick of the cerberus and their way of work.

"What kind of jackasses are they?" asked kelly in anger.

'That's only half of it. In one of my missions, I even learned that cerberus had experimented on one of their agents with salvaged reaper technology and indoctrinated him by placing reaper implants to make him a lot powerful and keep him under their control" said anderson frowned. He was infact talking about an agent named Paul grayson.

This even more furiated the spartans after learning cerberus use the technology of this galaxy's very enemy they were sent to destroy.

"What!? And how could the illusive man even live with that? Cerberus is worse than the reapers" said fred in fury.

"Why weren't they caught for a long time?" asked chief

"Illusive man is best at covering tracks. Their trails go cold before someone could find any lead. Even if they did, running your butt against them is suicide" said Anderson.

He actually didn't know that the spartans already have the cerberus head quarter's location when cortana scanned a dead agent's memory. But decided to slide it for then.

"Anyway, It's good to see you 5 alright, but it ain't over. They will attempt as much as needed until they get their hands on you" said Anderson with a smile.

"They can try and their heads will roll" said fred. Anderson raised his eyebrow at that.

"You know we actually met commander-..." Linda began the conversation and chief started walking away from them to look at the open view of the civilian alley from the compound wall. He leaned over it by placing his both hands. Others were explaining everything to Anderson regarding their journey so far.

"Really! It's good to he-..." replying anderson in surprise. Chief turned his head towards them for a moment and turned his head straight again. He never got time admire environmental beauty in his life as he always had to have a hand in any war. But now he was having his time now...Until...

"Why are you taking much time!...The mantle waits for no one..."

Chief once again felt a cold and void sensation and a deep voice that he felt very familiar just like before. Chief immediately took himself back from the wall, did a fighting stance looking up, down and sideways in tense. Still he couldn't figure out what it is, where's the voice coming. He once again heard kelly's voice in the distance

"Shepard's got a good team an-...". He looked at her and then again turned back.

"You will stand as a monument to all sins!" the voice finished with an even more devilish tone.

Chief's breathing was quite high. He was tensed and also irritated. He had never gone through anything like this. As the voice stopped, he became calm and decided to talk to his friends about this afterwards. Others didn't notice this so he walked towards them as if nothing happened.

"Cheif, admiring the view?" asked Anderson cheerfully

"Yes. This place's beautiful" said chief.

"Chief, thank you for assisting shepard at haestorm. Also good to hear that his former teammate Tali' Zorah is back. I'm happy that shepard has someone to watch his back. Even though you are new to this place, You risked yourself in helping us and i don't know what we owe you in return" said Anderson.

"You owe us nothing Admiral. We're just doing our duty as soldiers" replied fred. Anderson gave a simple nod to that.

"Though I would say that this cerberus is gonna be a biggest thorn in your side. It's better to keep them at watch" said cortana. Anderson frowned a bit, but then he changed the subject. Kelly asked him a question.

"So? How's everyone taking our presence, especially the councilors?"

"Frankly, Everyone's disappointed, councilors...Even angry at you people" said anderson

"Typical!" replied Linda

"The powers and technology you carry would easily upset the balance of any race you choose to side with"

"That's why we didn't take sides" replied Chief. Anderson nodded as he truly understood the spartans decision and considered a noble one. This is when the holograms of the councilors popped up in the nearby terminal.

"My my...Check it out...It's the spartans" started councilor sparatus in mocking tone. He was starting at cortana.

Everyone turned towards them and no one's pleased to see them.

"Spartans, We heard that you ran into a fight with some unknown party in the zakera ward" said Tevos. Others were confused.

"Looks like Udina didn't utter a word about cerberus. That's good" thought chief. He felt Udina did a right job to save the headache for both himself and Anderson.

"Actually they were..." spoke chief before interrupted by Valern.

"Mercenaries...We got the report. It's strange and annoying that they snuck under our nose in large numbers" said valern.

"Whoever they are...Certainly they were interested in abducting us, from what we heard from one of them" said cortana.

"That's exactly why we asked you to join the council. Or you will have to face this trouble everyday and council can't help 5 unknown individuals regarding this matter while we still got a lot in our heads" said sparatus in slight yelling tone.

"It always comes to this!" thought chief in anger.

"We aren't some rookies to cry and hide from these assholes. We've faced insurmountable circumstances a lot more than we could imagine. Perhaps you should worry about tightening the security a lot after this" said fred with a smirk crossing his arms.

The councilors were disgusted at his reply and at the same time felt they actually meant those words. They shared brief look among them and then spoke.

"Huh...We know our role and you outsiders don't have to remind us" said sparatus and the three cut the terminal.

"Hooh...That went well" said kelly.

"Sir, I'm sending you the coordinates of our base to your omnitool. In future, it may deem necessary for us to talk there. Give the location to Admiral Hackett too" said cortana.

"Thank you. But I dont know what we might have to talk.." said Anderson looking at his omnitool.

"Many. And please don't share it with anyone apart from Admiral Hackett" said chief

"Don't worry. You have my word" said Anderson in a assuring voice.

"Then i think it's time we took off. We should be on our way" said cortana and then vanished into chief's right palm.

"Farewell spartans!" Anderson bid them. The spartans nodded and left the embassy.

...

They reached the docks where they teleported. The 4 stood again side by side and cortana activated the teleportation grid that transported them to the dawn's civilian deck. From there they walked their way to the bridge. Then chief placed the AI chip in the pedestal and cortana popped up. Others were about to take their seats. Then chief decided to speak about what happened to him.

"I need to tell you something" Chief called in a dull tone. They turned to see him.

"What is it chief?" asked Linda. He took a breath and then started talking.

"It happened again" said chief bluntly. Others were confused.

"What happened?" asked Cortana.

"The strange voice"

"What!? When!?" asked Fred in tense.

"In the human embassy while I was leaning to the compound wall looking at the open view"

Others looked among themselves in confusion. This is the first time they had seen something like this. They couldn't figure anything out.

"This is gonna be a big problem" said Kelly in a plain tone.

"Wait...Chief, Last time I checked it out, I found no anomalies in your brain. It looks like something has caused you to have hallucinations" said cortana

"May be, but hallucinations don't happen just like that and it can't be coincidental. The voice was very much familiar like i have heard it similar in...Requiem"

"Requiem!?" asked fred in confusion. John nodded in response.

Cortana was analyzing the possible solutions to this dilemma. But couldn't find one as even she couldn't predict what could it be, but that's for a good reason.

"Well there's only one possible explanation. Something's been triggered in your sub-conscious mind. Because even a smart AI like me cannot enter a person sub-conscious memory layers through their CNI. Maybe those voices must have arised from there for only you to hear those" explained cortana, her arms crossed. Others couldn't help but simply listened to that.

"Well it's quite relieving we atleast got an answer, but why is it happening!? This is not the first time. What's really causing those voices in his head?" asked Kelly. Chief stared at everyone in confusion. He couldn't figure it out.

"From the day when I became a promethean, I always felt strange. I saw things...differently at times that I normally dont" chief said which made Cortana widen her eyes.

"Maybe you shouldn't have undergone that mutation. Looks like it had simply caused a new trouble" said linda.

"It's no longer a factor Linda. But i hope you all heard what radiance said on iridescent regarding my genetics. I was specifically engineered to become the promethean while no human can. Brevet mutations works only on forerunner genes. But i being a human were able to become one. I wanna know, why?"

"May be it's-..."

"Genetic memories" Cortana interrupted Fred. Chief and the others instantly looked at Cortana to get an explanation. she remained silent for a moment and then started talking.

"While I was getting cured of rampancy at iridescent, Radiance gave me full access to forerunner archives. There i came across the concept of genetic memories what the life workers call it as 'Geas'. They are long term genetic memories of an individual placed on another individual's DNA. These memories take their form in the sub-conscious mind subtly influencing their activities. When the geas are fully unlocked, the individual could even lose control of their own body and directly hear its voices like what you had John" explained Cortana.

"How far these geas are common among the forerunners?" asked Kelly

"Like our breakfast. Usually, a well experienced and age forerunner's memories and personality will be imprinted on the younger amateurs. This is done usually to serve the young ones as a guide to lead their lives" said Cortana

The blue team was absolutely stunned with the information cortana gave. The concept of genetic memories had helped the forerunners a lot of times. Cortana also mentioned that only highly skilled life workers like the librarian can create the geas.

"You mean to say that chief has been imprinted?" asked fred.

"I dont wanna jump into conclusions fred, but there's no logical explanation to this. If chief had the ability to become a promethean, then he must carry the respective geas in his DNA. Whatever the imprints, it must have awaken in him" said Cortana which not only shocked the others but chief himself.

"It looks like we hadn't been told everything about Chief in iridescent. I think only you can find the answers to your problem, over time" said Kelly. Chief looked down frowned but he knew Kelly was right. Only he can find solution to his problem.

"You said memories will be placed in one's DNA. Whose memories do you think my genes would be carrying?" asked chief

"It could be anyone. Like Kelly said, only you can find the answers. If my understanding of the geas are right, in time you will start seeing visions of the imprints and maybe there lies the solution you seek" said Cortana.

Cortana started to wonder about John's ancestry. She was trying to figure out why his genetics carry forerunner markers. She was wondering if there is any specific significance to that. But decided to let that slide for then.

"Well, whatever it is, if you need help, we'll always be there" said Fred. Chief nodded and thanked them.

"So, where do we go now?" asked Chief. He took the captain's seat, others took their respective terminals in the bridge.

"At present, there's no bigger activity in the galaxy" said Cortana

"Cortana, have you managed to find a way to monitor the whole galaxy from our base?" asked Kelly

"I already made the arrangements. A long range VHF tower will be installed to connect the commbouy present near a mass relay in the nearby system. Through that, we'll able to connect to every relay commbouys in the galaxy thus having our eyes and ears everywhere"

They were relieved after hearing that.

"Did you had any luck to find another portal to get to our place?" asked chief.

"I'll be working on it once the base is finished. Only there i can do that. Meanwhile, Shepard's busy with the collectors. Once he's done with that, we have to take care of the reapers" said cortana.

"Your right. Since we dont have much to do, we'll better go to our base and await its completion" said chief. Others agreed to that.

"Cortana, engage the drives" said chief. She gave a nod and the dawn moved away from the citadel and jumped into slipspace.

"Cortana, about cerberus..." asked linda

"Dont worry, i have the exact location of their base. But we take care of them later." said cortana. She simply nodded.

Cerberus base...

The illusive man was in his usual dark room. He just then finished watching the footage of the citadel fight. On one end, he was impressed with the spartans fighting prowess, but on the other end, he's infuriated at the loss of 40 good soldiers.

He realized that kicking the front door and stabbing at the back is not gonna work against these spartans. So he decided to sneak under their nose and at the same time use brute force to de-stabilize them

"Sir, sorry about the loss. We've underestimated them" said kai leng in a sad tone. Although he didn't like the fact, he kept his head cool.

"It's alright leng. They are expendable. While they were fighting in the mean time, i've made better plans, but we've to wait for that"

"Sir, why should we wait? Why dont w send fleet after fleet to ambush them?" asked leng in a raised tone.

"That only helps them making a greater kill count" he started walking slowly with a glass of wine..."I've seen what their ship's capable off. A weapon that can burn down a whole planet. At this point, conventional warfare means suicide and that is why we're gonna have to wait for the right time to execute my plans that would even shake them to the core" explained the Illusive man.

Leng thought for a moment and felt that he was right. He then left the room. Illusive man took a sip of wine staring simply at nothing.

...

Meanwhile Shepard and his crew...

Commander Shepard had been on a personal mission as a favor to admiral hackett. He was to rescue an alliance scientist Dr. Amanda kenson from the batarian space who was captured while analyzing a reaper artifact.

After infiltrating the facility, he rescued the scientist and escaped the planet with the doctor to another alliance facility in an asteroid near the alpha relay.

Kenson told that they had uncovered a reaper artifact and also warned him of an imminent reaper invasion in the next two days based the signal pattern from the artifact. Shepard expressed interest to investigate it. She also told that the reapers plan to use the nearby alpha relay to begin the invasion. When shepard asked about the purpose of the asteroid, she mentioned that this asteroid will be used as a weapon of last reort to destroy the alpha relay to prevent the reaper invasion which was the only solution.

He wished that it doesn't happen as it will cost the life of 300,000 batarians on the planet aratoht.

He entered the asteroid facility and saw the artifact with his own eyes which stunned him. But the artifact burned shepard's mind with visions of reaper invasion only to find that the reaper signal had indoctrinated everyone in the asteroid. He went down unconscious for the next two days and only woke up an hour before the reaper invasion.

Meanwhile aboard the normandy, the crew started to worry about shepard.

"It's been 2 days man!..and what the hell is shepard doin there on that rock?" asked joker tensed.

"Mr. Moreau, We have a problem" said EDI

"Oh yeah? what's that?"

"The thrusters on the asteroid has been activated. It is accelerating and the trajectories show that it's heading towards the relay"

"WHAT!?..We gotta get shepard outta there" said joker and brought the normandy towards the asteroid.

In the meantime, shepard killed dr. kenson who was indoctrinated ad tried to stop the asteroid. He managed to bring the core online and asteroid paced up. Then he found a way outside of the facility. Only 20 minutes was left. He ran towards the comm tower blasting his way through and tried contacting the normandy.

"Joker...you here me?...bring the normandy here!" yelled shepard.

"Aye aye commander" replied joker.

Then suddenly the hologram of the collector general projected in front of him.

"Shepard!...You have become an annoyance. You may destroy this relay, but remember that you are only delaying the inevitable" in a deep growling voice.

"Then listen to me carefully. Take your time and I'll be waiting for you. I dont care even if we lose half of the galaxy or even more, we'll never sleep and we'll never stop until every one of you is dead" replied shepard in a challenging tone.

"Being naive only makes you a fool. You will see to that. Prepare for the arrival" said the harbinger possessed general and the display went off.

Normandy touched down and shepard immediately jumped into it and asked joker to get the hell outta that place. Normandy escaped through the really and shepard watched the asteroid crashing into the alpha really and causing a supernova that wipes the entire star system. Shepard see the destruction in the CIC display and get to medical bay only to find Admiral hackett.

Hackett came to personally debrief the commander. Hackett warned him that even if commander did the right thing, most would not see it that way and also asked him to be prepared to face the music on earth when the time comes. Shepard said that if needed he would turn himself to the alliance which made hackett to smile seeing that shepard hadn't forgot his place.

By then shepard's got only 2 more mission. Tali's trial and reaper IFF.

...

The spartans in the meantime reached their planet to see through the base's work. Still 18 days were left. The spartans and cortana decided to spend time in the nearby relay systems to use the commbouy and listen to distress calls to see if anyone needs help. Unfortunately they have nothing to do until the base's complete.

Luckily, they intercepted numerous distress calls like terrorist attack, pirates attack, rescue mission etc which weren't a big deal. So they only used two SAHARA prowlers to take part in those missions.

Those missions includes rescuing alliance captives, assisting turian patrol in clearing out pirates, assisting asari commandos in the ground, helping salarian science teams in exploration. They all thanked the spartans for their assistance though they couldn't earn money with that. Again, the UNSC doesn't exist here so they didn't care about that. Apart form doing missions. They spend their time sleeping, eating, exercise and live fire training and CQC training in the dawn. This continues for 18 days and they had almost done around 49 missions in total.

After 18 days...

After 18 days, They landed again in the relay system located next to their base system as they decided to visit their base for it should be completed by then.

"Cortana, time to visit the base. You guyz ready?" asked chief

"Always" said kelly. "I was born ready" said fred. "Hell yeah" said linda. Chief then asks cortana to take them to the planet. The ancient human warship accelerated out of the system and in few minutes reached the planet.

"Behold our new base of operations." said cortana. Even from the space, a large tower was almost visible from the dawn.

"That tower is gonna be the anchor for our ship. Once in position, a ship wide constraint field will be generated to anchor the vessel in the air. Then we can drop to the ground by teleportation or pelicans" explained cortana.

The dawn descended into the atmosphere slowly and got anchored in the tower by the constraint field. Then the spartans used the pelican to leave the dawn and reach the ground.

Everyone saw the base from the sky and It was a pleasant and stunning view. The region covered was 120 miles.

"Cortana? Isn't the base too big for us?" asked fred

"When our reinforcements arrive, it will be just enough"

The base from the sky looked like 2 cliffs seperated by a water fall. The right cliff was for drop ships, and prowlers to land and also construction and maintenance facilities are present in that side for refit and repair. This cliff is protected by forerunner heavy sentries that use high power sentinel beam and forerunner missiles. It also had a long range VHF tower.

The constructors, retrievers, builders and assemblers have terraformed the 120 mile square perimeter. The two corners of the right cliffs are protected by two Z-8060 high impact particle canons.

The left cliff is the main base for all the military personnels. There, it has highly sophisticated military camps with all rations and supplies they need until they their time in this universe. Also possess an underground base for mission planning and briefing. It can be reached through gravity lifts deep with in the cliff. Like wise, this cliff too is protected by two more Z-8060 particle canons in the 2 corners. Also there is mini forerunner manufacturing facility for R&D.

On both the cliffs, there are road like surfaces all along the 120 mile length for ground vehicles like scorpions, warthogs etc..

The 2 cliffs are seperated by a distance of 550 metres and connected by 8 anti-gravity gondolas along the 120 mile span. In the gap is the river flow and water fall. The view was a sight for sore eyes.

The spartans touched the ground and came out of the pelican. Everyone saw the vast view of the base. They also brought a huragok with them from the dawn. On cortana's request, chief showed some signs to the huragok to carry on its work in the base. It slowly went near a terminal to work.

"Anywhere we go, we rule the place...Ha!" said fred with a smirk. Everyone nodded in approval. The pelican then automatically entered the ground hanger to preserve the drop ships and prowlers.

They all walked toward their left side to reach the gondolas. On their way, they saw the constructors, assemblers and builders move here and there. Also they saw forerunner sentries armed ready.

Finally they reached the gondola station. from there, chief activated a holo console that moved the gondola to the other side. Then on the other cliff, the spartans moved in to the military camp. They were really impressed as it very much reminded them of the boot camp they trained as children on reach.

"Reminds me old days" said kelly. "You can say that again. This is where our life started" said linda.

"Back to the place we belonged to" said chief. They all walked into the camp. The oly difference is it's a lot more sophisticated. They had access to everything in the vicinity.

"Thank you very much cortana" said fred

"You guyz dont have to thank me. I'm glad i could help" replied cortana. She pointed the blue team to their quarters. It was a big hall both having a civilian and military aesthetics.

"Time we kept this armor out for a while" said kelly.

"Your right and have some shut eyes after we eat something" said linda. Chief and fred nodded at that. In their quarters, each had their own armor removal/fitting robotic drones. Fred, Kelly and Linda used their drones to remove their armor. Chief's armor being a MJOLNIR VI/Forerunner 12 combat skin, The armor parts simply unlocked itself and slightly came out of chief's body. the drones simply took the parts and locked them safely. Now everyone were simply with their black inner bodysuit which itself had a military attire so they needn't have to change clothes.

In earth's time, its already 7:00 PM there and was near dark. The lights were turned ON in the whole base which had an effect like christmas tree. Chief put cortana's chip in a terminal and then she can easily connect with the whole base. The spartans decided to have their dinner and sleep for they have to tour the whole base thoroughly and also the ground vehicles and drop ships must be loaded here.

...

Somewhere outside the Milky way...

In the dark space outside the milkyway, multiple slipspace ruptures occurred and out came 8 human made vessels and 6 alien made vessels. It was none other than the UNSC and the seperatists fleet. UNSC Infinity, 3 Autumn cruisers, 5 strident frigates and 2 CAS assault carriers and 4 CCS battle cruisers.

"Roland, I need status report!" commanded Captain Lasky.

"Sir, Engines and energy cores are reading good. No casualties reported. All ships in the fleet are reporting good. Our travel time was 12 minutes" replied the Infinity's AI.

"Comm! open a ship wide channel"

"Aye aye sir" said the comm officer and opened a ship wide channel.

"Attention all personnel! We have reached our destination. Await further orders until the situation is briefed" said lasky in the comm.

Doctor Halsey came to the bridge to see what happened after listening to the lasky's announcement.

Meanwhile in the shadow of intent, Arbiter opened up the holo display for status report

"R'tas? how are we?" asked the Arbiter

"All of our ships are reporting good including our UNSC allies"

"Arbiter, we are receiving transmission form Infinity" said another sanghelli officer

"Put them up" said the Arbiter. Then the holo display projected captain Lasky.

"Captain Lasky, It's good to hear from you" said the Arbiter

"Like wise Arbiter. Our crew's fine. How's yours?"

"We are good. What do we know about the current situation?"

"We are analyzing it and we only know as much as you do at this point. We'll contact you soon enough"

"Thank you captain" said the Arbiter and the terminal was cut.

At the Infinity's bridge, doctor halsey stood nearby captain.

"Captain, so what's the situation?" asked Halsey

"Well, we rode for 12 minutes in the portal. Everyone's fine and i hope you too doctor" said lasky

"I'm fine, so what's this new gala-...?" asked halsey before being cut off by roland.

"Sir! You need to see this" urged the AI with a holo display of the galaxy. Everyone took a brief look at the display. But then were shocked after realizing what they truly saw.

"Is that...that can't be right?" started Halsey. Lasky and halsey shared a confusing look and then he replied

"Milky way"

"Roland run scanner diagnostics and double check the data"

"I triple checked sir!...It is Milky way" replied Roland wit ha confusion in it's voice. Lasky frowned at this. They thought they had travelled to a new galaxy but seems like they failed.

"Cortana said it's a new galaxy. How come it's our own?" asked Lasky.

Halsey was running calculations on her mind regarding the situation. She stumbled upon something that even she felt crazy.

"could it be...?" she started thinking.

to be continued...

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A/N: In this story, Mass effect 3 story line will take place 14 months after mass effect 2 for my convenience. Also in the forth coming chapters, chief will explore his ancestry and inheritance. Also during the reaper war, the real culprit of this entire story line will be revealed as to who lured the Halo characters in to this universe.