Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass effect franchise. The story's pure fiction and AU.

Chapter 16: Debriefing part II

Turian military HQ, Palaven.

General Adrien Victus and General Corinthus were standing inside the central command room, where some turian officers were working on their terminals and some moving here and there with a datapad in their hands.

There wasn't much to do as of then. No conflicts, no pirate chase or any other mishap-pens to tend to. They both were discussing something.

"General Victus, did you know that 46 pirate vessels had been ambushed yesterday over the Terminus region? No one! Not even a fleet could take out a pirate fleet of 46 ships, given those scums get their hands on military grade technology often" asked Corinthus perturbed with the information.

"I know, general. Citadel Council got the word from a salarian STG network. Turian high command received only a superficial information that those pirates were assaulted by an unknown ships" replied Victus.

"What I presume is that it might not actually be ships, but a ship" said Corinthus keeping a quizzical face.

"I don't understand, general" said Victus confused.

"What if that's only a single ship? Those spartans, hm?" asked Corinthus. Victus's face turned dead panned but his eyes expressed dread.

According to the Turian hierarchy, these spartans had created a queer yet a positive impression among their race. The technology and the powers they carried were miles away from reach. The spartans had helped many turian patrols dealing with heavy pirate activities in the terminus borders with one of their stealth vessels as the spartans themselves had nothing to do until their reinforcements arrived.

While almost all turians lived with this opinion, Asari on the other hand were terrified with those spartans especially with their technology and that big bad ass ship. They lived in the illusion that there was nothing that could surpass the destiny-ascension, but after seeing their 5km ship, they felt weak. It was good for them as there hadn't been any hostile incidents between them.

Salarians being a race more focused on science and technology, covert recons than open warfare, they cared less about the spartan's origins and more bug eyed on their techs. The salarian union managed to get a jist of their technology and was more eager to get their hands on them.

Because of this, the turians even though were perfect strangers to the spartans developed a sense of respect towards them. A month after their arrival, there hadn't been any bizarre incidents in the galaxy with the spartans which made the turians to believe that they had isolated themselves and not meddle in the affairs they have no knowledge of. But that doesn't mean the galaxy's races stay absent minded about them as signs of their activity has been monitored through out the galaxy at all times. So far so good.

"Why do you get that idea? asked Victus his face slightly turning demented.

"Only their out of proportion ship is capable of doing something like that" said Corinthus. Victus nodded dismissively and was silent for a second.

"Size is not a matter general" said Victus slowly walking towards an unoccupied terminal running his hands over the console to see the fleet status data around palaven. Then continued to talk. Corinthus's face shrunk, but was eager to listen.

"Okay, they got all those never before seen gizmos but that doesn't mean they are meaner" said Victus giving a wry smile or whatever's the turian face equivalent to smile.

"Is that some blunt contention or a fair point?" asked Corinthus folding his hands.

"I don't sound competitive! I'm clearly stating the facts" said Victus with his voice raised.

"Easy general, I didn't say you were...competitive. But I don't get your point. Those spartans showed some evidences of the place they come from and what they are truly capable of to the council. You shouldn't berate them. Besides, I feel sometimes, those people refusing to take any side was best" said Corinthus.

"Say what you will about those...uh...other universe people, Even if what they threw as the evidence is true, It doesn't mean they are almighty. Our turian military were and still the most formidable force in the galaxy and everything pales in comparison. Any day, if those spartans become hostiles, the turians can easily take them out" said Victus with a hint of pride in his voice.

Corinthus was stunned and can't believe Victus, one of the generals of the turian military was insular with his opinions.

"General, You sound like Sparatus. We are already a bad examples at making first contact. You simply underestimate others" said Corinthus.

"I don't. Actually, you do the other way around. Those outsiders have indeed proved that there are a lot of astounding possibilities with technological advancements that can be done, But we need to know our place, general" said Victus. Corinthus was becoming tired of this debate but suddenly let a faint laugh.

"Hah, Simply we shifted our focus. I said that it could those spartans who destroyed those pirate vessels" said Corinthus.

"No. Their ship cannot fight that much force even if it's big. Must be something else" said Victus.

This is when suddenly a turian officer working in a terminal to their front suddenly turned and called on the generals.

"Generals, We have an important incoming transmission, It's councilor Sparatus" said the officer. Both the generals shared a wary look for a couple of seconds and then spoke.

"Put him through" ordered Corinthus. The officer nodded and patched him through.

Then a hologram of Sparatus appeared before them from a holo projector. The two immediately crisped a salute. The sparatus reflected the same.

"Councilor, is there anything we could do for you?" asked Victus.

"General Victus, Corinthus, I have an important information that requires our entire hierarch's full attention" said Sparatus in a momentous tone.

"What it is councilor?" asked Victus. The councilor then kept his hands at the back and spoke.

"You might have heard about the pirate ambush in the terminus" said Sparatus.

"Yes sir. But the details were vague" replied Corinthus.

"Then It's time I gave you the files. I have sent you a couple of files to your terminal that has the infos regarding the incidents in the terminus in the past 12 hours" said Sparatus. Immediately the general Victus's terminal beeped.

Victus and Corinthus immediately went near the terminal. They saw the files sent by the councilor. Being Victus's terminal, it asked for his authentication. After placing his palm for DNA identification, he accessed the files. There were 2 files. He accessed the first file and there were details about the incident like the time, region, who were attacked and who attacked them.

They got to read the complete specifications of 15 unknown ships belonging to 2 groups that destroyed 46 pirate vessels in just about 10 minutes, something that's imaginary. Corinthus and Victus face turned odious. They couldn't believe what they read.

Then Victus accessed the 2nd file and it had video log. He played the video.

The video showed an empty space, but suddenly bright bluish white circular energy vortex formed and out came 15 ships out of which 3 where huge. But just as the first file mentioned, there were 2 different fleet. The biggest ones read more than 5 kms and smallest ones read almost 600 meters still bigger than their military cruiser and close to low end dreadnoughts.

Then in just after few minutes, their ships were attacked by 46 pirate vessels composed of cruisers. But what happened next made the generals to feel the cyclone in their heads. The unknown fleet decimated the pirate ships in just 8 minutes. Their weapons tore through the pirate vessels like a paper and there were those energy projectiles which pulverized the ships one behind the other.

On one end, it was a display of power and on the flip side, it's the most brutal onslaught. The video then ended.

General Victus and Corinthus were stunned and their face turned gruesome. They noticed one thing, the way they appeared was similar to those spartan's ship, slipspace as what they called it. This sowed a lot of doubts in them.

The generals turned and walked near the councilor's hologram.

"Did you see everything? What do you think?" asked Sparatus.

"Never seen ships like these that can do something like...THIS! But they are familiar" said Corinthus.

"Yes, these ships carry technology similar to those spartan's ship, but...how's that possible!?" asked Victus, dull faced.

"Let me explain before you crack your head, generals. Those ships and their owners are definitely associated with the spartans of UNSC. Because, the same UNSC names are present in some of those ships" explained Sparatus.

Victus and Corinthus felt the situation even more execrable.

"Councilor, if I remember correctly, those spartans mentioned that they came to our galaxy from their universe through an accident. Does that mean thos-.." said Corinthus, interrupted by Sparatus.

"If it were one ship, It could have been quite plausible with that logic. But after seeing this much ships, I'm not about to believe their lies" said Sparatus. Both the generals were wondering why did he came to such a conclusion.

...

Citadel, Council room (Sparatus POV)...

Sparatus was conversing with the two turian generals at the palaven central command. Sparatus was currently in the council common room with 2 turian holograms in front of him.

"But sir, what prompted you to come to such a conclusion?" asked Victus confused.

"It's simple general. I neither believe what they said nor the evidences they showed the council" said Sparatus with opprobrium.

"But Councilor, their technology speaks otherwise. They don't have anything like we do" said Corinthus with confusion.

"I have heard enough of that statement, general. It not difficult to fabricate your identity. As for their technology...This galaxy is large generals. You should know that there are still thousands and thousands of uncharted systems left unexplored, let alone the galactic borders like the 'Veil' " said Sparatus.

"You mean to say that they come from someplace like that?" asked Victus.

"Yes. And those spartans were humans, but genetically augmented which itself against the council laws. These alliance people must have sent a group of humans into an uncharted space to secretly develop new technologies and unlawful research to possibly escape the council's influence" said Sparatus with disgust.

"Sorry to say this councilor, but it's an assumption. We cannot draw formal conclusion with this" said Corinthus. Sparatus felt irate for telling he simply assumed, but hid the anger and gave a turian equivalent of smirk.

"Respected generals, Humans were always the most bigotry, self centered bastards! Coupled with the fact that they occupy 61 worlds, the highest ever compared to our roughly 30 worlds. Some of their worlds lie in the regions apart from council jurisdiction, they can do almost anything under our nose" said Sparatus.

Victus and Corinthus couldn't believe Sparatus was so resolved in this matter. They could possibly see where this conversation was heading to.

"So, what has the council decided to do?" asked Victus.

"I don't know about the others, but I have made a decision. Now listen up carefully" said Sparatus. The generals felt as something big was gonna be put on the table.

"Send the word to other worlds and ask them to keep their defense fleet in each planet, refit for engagement. Those spartans have 5 days to explain themselves" said Sparatus.

"Wait, engagement? You mean war! don't you?" asked Corinthus wide eyed in fear.

"Sir, isn't this another first contact situation? Maybe this war idea is not so brilliant" warned Victus.

"That's why it's better those strangers explain themselves in the citadel. I'm gonna send this message through the extranet. The sooner they do, the better, or it's the system's alliance that's gonna face the music" said Sparatus.

Victus and Corinthus feel a certain flaw in his assumptions. Deep inside, they both wanted this not to happen for 2 reasons. First being, they don't trust Sparatus's judgement, mostly Corinthus because of it's irrationality. Second being, they don't know anything about them and charging against an enemy blindly will be fatal.

They will still consider this first by consulting the Primarch as he's the ultimate leader of the turian hierarchy. If he say's no, then no. The current turian Primarch is Fedorian.

"Alright councilor, we'll do what we can. But still it's not too late to revise your decision" said Corinthus. With that, the conversation ended and then the comm was closed, the holograms vanished. Sparatus stood there in silence and then let out a sigh and then left the room.

...

Spartans base planet, Titan nebula, un-named system...

It's been 12 hours and the UNSC and Separatists people from the UNSC Infinity, Sanghelli CAS class assault carriers - Shadow of Intent and Flaming Spirit have settled themselves in the new base, the spartans have built for their mission. The personnel were spread across in the base with the help of fire team Majestic and remaining ODST ghost team, N'tho sraom and U'ze Taham.

The commanding officers are currently being debriefed by the Blue team and Cortana in the base's underground CIC regarding the situation right from the beginning.

Cortana finished explaining how they got here and what prompted them to get to this unknown place. So far, they knew that this galaxy is Milkyway and that they are in another universe. Now the Masterchief John-117 decided to do the remaining explanation about what they had learned so far.

"Cortana explained everything about this place. It's time to tell you what we learned here in the one month time" Chief started to speak and everyone sharpened their attention. Then chief asked cortana to bring the hologram of a mass relay above the table. Everyone got to see rotating image of the tuning fork shaped object with spinning gyroscope at the rear end with a bright core.

When Infinity and Arbiter's fleet engaged the pirates, through the codex retrieved from one of their ships, they managed to get a glimpse of this galaxy's races and the technology these people used.

"Well, I hope you are familiar with this object, if you had read the codex" said Chief.

"We do. This is what the people of this galaxy call 'Mass relay', one that use dark energy to manipulate mass of an object" said Lasky after recalling what he read in the codex.

"Indeed. Isn't those what the people of this galaxy use for FTL?" asked Carter.

"Yes commander. There are mass relays spread across the galaxy in several star systems" said Chief with the hologram shifting to the milky way with several red markers indicating systems with mass relays.

"But the most intriguing part is the need for an element of mass number -0 that is created by solid surfaces exposed to supernova radiation storm. It's something totally unheard of!" said Halsey her face curious.

"It's element zero or eezo as you know it. It can increase or decrease mass with electric current. It's very rare in this galaxy" explained Kelly.

"And it also clearly shows that this galaxy races are very much dependent on them. We learned how they use this element in almost every aspect of their life" voiced Arbiter who too had read the codex.

"Also every single race in this galaxy seems to revere a 50,000 year old race they call the 'Protheans' and base their technology by reverse engineering their techs" said Palmer.

"Not just that, but some races even based their religion around them" said Linda. For a moment, everyone felt irate and disgusted, even the Arbiter and R'tas on hearing this and there is a reason to it.

This very much reminded everyone about how the covenant formed their religion around the worshiping of forerunners. The San-Shayuum or the prophets as called by humans fabricated false preaching and inducted the other races to form the covenant faction and believe that they were the inheritors of forerunners. This misguided belief was what triggered the 30 year human covenant war that not only caused military or economic downfall but also loss of morale. But when the Sanghelli learned the truth, soon some other races followed suit and allied with humanity and banished the covenant. 5 years after then, the relation ship had quite reconciled.

Seeing the races of this galaxy doing the same raised some concerns, but surprisingly there had not been any war on large scale in the name of religion. Humans only had a first contact war with the race called the turians and that too was settled by this citadel council before it could escalate.

"This citadel council we read about seems to be extremists in my opinion. They had carefully fabricated laws to secure their primacy in the galaxy, like fleet strength, ship size even they had banished AI's!?" asked Lasky in a dismissive tone.

"Huh, most of the races are naive, that's the truth. If you had read the Quarian-geth war in the codex, you know what I mean. The Quarians attacked their creations just because their dumb AI's turned smart" said Fred with a chuckle.

"The more things they seem different, the more they appear same. This galaxy may have humans, our own! But the evolutionary divergence is completely digressive from ours. One other proof that we are in alternate universe. Hence, me and my colleague, Dr. Brown's theory are right" said Halsey which brought everyone's attention. They were brooding at her.

"What theories doctor?" asked Lasky.

"Myself and Dr. Howard brown from Institute of advanced research in theoretical physics at Draco III, postulated the existence of alternate and parallel realities and even published in journals 33 years back. Even amidst tons of criticism, it was well received in the scientific community" said Halsey recalling her old memories with a smile.

"So, it's not even a great surprise to you, that we are in a same yet unknown place?" asked SSgt. Marcus.

"No. My theories have been proven true. It's that simple" replied Halsey in calm and cool tone.

"Back to the topic at hand...Chief, what exactly have you found here?" asked Lasky getting to the point.

"To answer that, I need to ask you this. Did you people read about the 'Battle of citadel' which occurred in 2183? Where the citadel was attacked by these geth army and one big mysterious ship?" asked Linda.

"Yes, we came across those information. Even there was an image of that ship" said Arbiter whose face turned confused and intrigued, " It was deep blue and looked very...Different, almost the color and texture of our ships" said Arbiter.

"To be precise, It had the appearance of the earth based cuttle fish. They classified it as a dreadnought belonging to those geth, even named it...uh...yeah...'Sovereign'" said Palmer. Others nodded in acknowledgment.

"That's not a geth dreadnought as what this whole galaxy believes. It's a 'Reaper' " said Chief in a serious tone as he had reached the crux of this whole conversation. Others blinked in confusion and glanced at one another.

"Reaper!?" asked Jorge

"Yes. It's a sentient AI star ship" said Chief which stunned everyone other than the blue team. It was confounding. This was the moment they felt something cardinal, yet to come, the subtle feeling that they had hit upon a reason to be here.

"I don't get it. You mean an alien race called the 'Reapers' who designed that ship, right?" asked Lasky.

"No, That ship IS the Reaper, a sentient AI vessel of enormous power" said Chief in a pressing tone.

They couldn't believe what they just heard. An artificially living ship!...they had never heard anything weird like this apart from the forerunners. Halsey was the most stupefied in the CIC. She was both astounded and bewildered.

"An artificial construct vessel? If it's a construct, then who actually built it!?" exclaimed R'tas.

"No one knows. The Reapers are nothing but a myth to this galaxy. But there is one man who quite know the mysteries surrounding the reapers to a degree" said Fred.

"Who is that?" eagerly asked Lasky. Then chief used his left arm mini holo-computer to access the files on shepard and bring his image above the table. Everyone's eyes turned to that image of a person whose face was in his 30's. He wore an armor that had a silver-aluminium finish in the torso part and full black clad in the hands and lower body (Cerberus Ajax armor).

"This is commander Shepard, a soldier of the N7 division of the human systems alliance. I hope you know of the human government in this milky way" said Chief.

"We do. I should say so, though not on our level, still humanity here has achieved a lot in a short time. But from what we learned of the technological growth of each and every race in this galaxy, Humans and others had evolved in a same path. They all had made same level of achievements, though some did early on in the history like these Asari and Salarians" said Halsey. That grabbed everyone's attention. The blue team and Cortana knew she made a correct statement.

"You are right doctor and there is a reason to it" said Chief. Everyone then listened to what he had to say. Chief then spoke,

"In the one month time, we had our introduction with the citadel council. First we met an alliance officer at the citadel, Admiral David Anderson. He was the one who told us about commander Shepard and the peripheral information on the reapers" said Chief.

He then went on to explain Shepard's mission to hunt down a rogue turian spectre named Saren and then his interaction with a prothean beacon. The realization of the nature of Saren's ship, 'Sovereign' as a reaper followed by the truth about the reapers after conversing with Sovereign, finally defeating it with the help of the human fleet at the citadel.

Chief stopped for a moment to allow others to absorb the information. Those who were seated in the CIC felt like they listening to a horror sci-fi movie. There was a moment of silence and everyone's face frowned.

"So, this ship 'Sovereign' is a reaper, one of the millions of similar AI ships that destroyed all lives in the galaxy in the last 50,000 years" said Jorge unnervingly. Of course it was something alarming, learning of the existence of machine race that kills everything is truly a disconcerting knowledge.

"These beacons created by the Protheans, allowed this human commander Shepard to learn the true nature of the reapers?" said the Arbiter.

"Yes, but the council denied his claim stating, he was simply hallucinating and that the ship was nothing more than a geth dreadnought" said Kelly. This really made them feel disgusted about the council of their ignorance. If the reapers are a greater threat, then the council should have listened to him.

"The protheans faced the reapers 50,000 years ago. Did he know why the reapers do this?" asked Carter.

"On his conversation with the Sovereign during his mission 2 years back, it told that the reapers had been harvesting intelligent life once in every 50,000 years. This had been happening for a long long time. To speed up the process of harvest, they constructed these mass relays and Citadel by which the intelligent species would base their technology" said Cortana who wished to explain that part.

"You say, as if these reapers wanted the civilizations to evolve in that way" said Palmer with doubt

"Like a trap. Wait! So these Protheans were not the engineers of these mass relays or the citadel like what's given in the codex!?" asked Lasky confused, who also understood the logic behind reapers move.

"Exactly. Before we made our way to the citadel, Cortana managed to use our ship's hardware interface module to access the relay's deep hidden computer which is normally inaccessible" said Chief from where Cortana picked up.

"The moment I interacted with the computer, I was able to instantly connect to the entire mass relay network in the galaxy. The relays have their unique way of communication at super luminal speeds and are connected to one another in a sequence and that sequence finally ends at this place" finished Cortana who brought up the image of a large space station with 5 arms like a flower's petals and also a circular ring at the end from where the arms branch. As the others had seen this in the codex, they identified it as the citadel station.

"The Citadel? If the network ends there, you mean to say that the citadel itself is-.." asked Halsey immediately cut by Cortana.

"Yes doc, The Citadel itself is a mass relay and no one knows it. Unfortunately, no one in this galaxy knew anything about the mass relays or the citadel's origins except Commander Shepard" replied Cortana.

After explaining about Shepard, everyone including the Arbiter and R'tas began to respect him and gave him credit to his tenacity and bravery for fighting an unmatched enemy while all others dwell in delusion.

Then Chief continued where Cortana left.

"The Asari race were the first to discover Prothean ruins, mass relays and the citadel several thousand years ago. Based on just those studies, they assumed that the mass relays and citadel were prothean tech" said Chief.

That was quite a wrap up for everyone. One thing was that everyone found these prothean race similar to the forerunners having a galaxy spanning empire. But what they found concerning was that, unlike them in their universe, this universe milky way races had blindly followed the prothean's footsteps. Everything, every single race developed were simply reverse engineered prothean technology and most odd thing of all was that all the races had advanced the same way and that too in same short span of time, even if the age of revolution was never in the same date for all the races.

"But if you look closely at the galactic civilization's sphere of influence..." spoke Kelly bringing back the hologram of the milky way with the highlighted systems occupied, "There are thousands and thousands of star systems that can support life, still left uncharted" said Kelly. Others can see the uncharted systems highlighted with blue markers.

"What's the approximate average number of worlds occupied by each race?" asked Arbiter.

"Around 35 to 45. Humans occupy the highest, 61" said Cortana. Others were intrigued but still unimpressed because UNSC itself colonized 800 worlds in the Orion arm.

"Hah, that's no where near us! But...You are right, lot of systems are unexplored" said Marcus.

"Only the clusters that possess a mass relay are colonized by any race, that's why their numbers dwindle" said Chief.

"Even if they don't have mass relays, they have developed conventional FTL based on their principles. Why can't they send ships to uncharted worlds?" asked Carter. Others acknowledged his query.

"Now commander, that's a question!" said Fred with a chuckle which earned a smirk form Carter.

"It's simple commander. Their use of FTL needs extensive amounts of element zero which is quite rare here, this will bring the colonization costs to astronomical levels if they use conventional FTL above a certain limit" said Chief.

"That's logical" said Halsey, to which other looked at her.

"Even their weapons need this element zero combined with it's need for FTL? They had limited the size of their ships according to their treaty of 'Farixen'. Even their dreadnought is just a kilometer long, a little less than our light cruisers" said Halsey.

"Except this Asari made 2km long ship called 'Destiny Ascention' "

"Why do they depend themselves totally on this element zero? Didn't they discover some other means of FTL, like we did with slipspace? Because our ships were able to jump into slipspace even in this...another universe" asked Palmer with acute logical sense.

"Yes! Being an extra dimension, it's accessible anywhere. Then why do they limit themselves to this extent" asked Lasky, his face muddled.

"If they hadn't discovered the mass effect technology, maybe in at least 2 century time span, they might have discovered any other way of FTL. But just after entering the space age, they eventually discovered the mass effect, so why waste time make cheese from milk when you already have one made ready" said Cortana raising her eyebrow folding her hands. Others were silent for a moment. They were trying to decipher this whole puzzle.

"The way I see it, The people here simply assumed that there's nothing beyond what the protheans had in store. They assumed that by claiming those, they are the most advanced. A state of -..." said Jorge

"Technological stagnation. No significant advancements made after becoming space faring. It is quite trouble some" finished Arbiter. Jorge acknowledged him.

"Well, that makes sense of every thing we read in the codex" said Lasky. With that they had a clarity of how things play out here.

"But what's the reaper's role here? Why would they construct these relays, citadel and purge the galaxy of all life? Why did they kill the protheans?" asked Marcus who was bewildered with these reapers just like the others.

"I am sorry Marcus, but this is as far as we learned until your arrival. Still these reapers are an enigma. there's more to it than meets the eye" said Chief which frowned Marcus as there were no answers to that.

"We also forgot to tell you something" said Linda, which brought everyone's attention.

"What is it?" asked Lasky.

"In the one month time, This whole galaxy knows of our presence. Our first visit was with the citadel council and then to Earth...This universe's Earth. We even met Commander Shepard" said Linda.

This news was like a rock thrown on their head. Meeting the unknown people has a lot of unpredictable consequences. First, the hostile treatment, second being the technology. Classified information and potential knowledge that can turn the tables to a disadvantage and also the harms that can come if it ever fall in to the wrong hands.

Lasky was taken back by this revelation and felt slightly distressed but he knew blue team and Cortana would never be rash. After all, they are legendary soldiers.

"Well, I hope-..." stumbled Lasky

"Don't worry Captain. We didn't give out classified Information, just what is enough to make them believe that we don't belong to this place. Though, I gotta tell you. The whole galaxy is wary of our presence. They don't even know that we have a base here" said Chief. Everyone felt relieved on hearing that.

"Spartan, I think we know enough of this place. But you previously mentioned that this human, Shepard said the reapers had been slaughtering all the races every 50,000 years for a long time. Is this the mass extinction event the librarian saw as a vision?" asked Arbiter, hitting the crux.

"Yes! I was wondering the same. Chief, was that the librarian saw?" asked Lasky hastily. Chief glanced at them for a moment.

"Yes" replied Chief. It was then everyone truly understood, what was going on. There was silence for few seconds and then Lasky spoke.

"Now I think it's clear what's really going on" said Lasky who then stood up and walked out of the chair.

"This galaxy suffers a mass extinction once in every 50,000 years. But by unknown means, a signal was sent to our universe through a portal we found in the lagoon nebula. Now with cross reference to what the blue team and Cortana had learned here, Its the reapers who were causing this and for unknown reasons. Am I right?" asked Lasky turning to look at everyone looking for a response. Nobody said anything, but looked at him as if they all understood and he acknowledged it.

"Still, One more question. What's our role here?" asked Palmer. This drew a glance from the others. In fact, that was the question on everyone's mind as of then. The blue team exchanged a brief look with everyone.

When Iridescent's monitor asked the blue team and Cortana to look into this as a favor to the librarian, They hesitated for a bit as this would prompt the UNSC to speculate that the blue team had gone AWOL.

But the spartans knew their role, being the 'Sword and Shield' for humanity. When they were trained as kids, CPO Mendez taught them not only about team work to win, but something even more important, something that basically differentiates a soldier and a killer, 'The value of Life'. Soldiers know the value of life, that's the reason a soldier dies to save millions of that precious life. As Lasky once said to Chief at Infinity, 'Soldiers are not machines, we are just people'.

Even though Soldier's duty is to follow orders, Mendez himself once told that 'A soldier is not someone who always blindly follows orders. Sometimes, he can make decisions that can out smart the orders given'. Chief did it once to save humanity from the Didact. The blue team never forgot his teachings.

It was based on those instincts, Chief and by extension, his team agreed to look into this even without informing the UNSC HIGHCOM, because they had their doubts if the UNSC would consider this at least with a pinch of salt or be shelved by ONI's interference, but they can't be blamed as the UNSC is busy in repelling the Covenant remnants, Insurrectionists and also restoration of New phoenix city after Didact composed the entire city population including several other glassed colonies. Because of those reason, the blue team and Cortana decided to take the matter at hand, but still not before informing the UNSC.

Now blue team and Cortana were thinking how to respond to this question. Chief took his time to speak while other were looking at him for a response. He then decided to handle the question at best.

"Captain Lasky, You are our commanding officer. It's not our place to decide what to do. But still the reason me and my team chose to investigate this was purely out of our instincts as soldiers. We couldn't let it slide after the knowledge of a mass extinction was bestowed upon us" said Chief dragging words to convince the others. He knew this could go sideways, but he wanted to help.

Lasky and Arbiter were able to instantly grasp the spartan's implication having known him for long time. And both knew that chief's words are of pure honesty, not some flattery attempt.

"Well, I don't quite understand what do mean by that, Chief" said Carter raising his eyebrow.

"We could help this galaxy, help them fight the reapers" said Chief bluntly. Apart from Lasky and Arbiter, other were stunned at his proposition.

Though they respect the spartan II soldiers in general for their service in the wars, still they felt helping an unknown people against a mass extinction by these reapers as madness and there are plausible reasons for that.

"Chief, while I appreciate your propensity to help, you are missing the facts" said Lasky whose face was vacillating in dilemma.

"First, Lord hood sent us to search and rescue your team and report our findings to the HIGHCOM. Second, even if we want to help this galaxy against the reapers, we don't know how much they are in force, besides we don't have enough numbers. Third, What's is the probability that the reaper's are gonna show? You know we can't stay here for a long time" said Lasky, though he hated to raise objection to the very spartan who saved his life years back.

The blue team knew the captain was stating facts and was totally acceptable.

"Not to mention that we are not obligated to help them. Perhaps, this is not even our place, why should we even meddle? Why don't we find a way out of this place?" said Palmer who too raised her concerns.

"Also, we are already in a fight with insurrectionists and the covenant remnants. If we lose Infinity and her fleet along with Arbiters fleet, that would be a crippling loss for us" said Halsey. While Halsey was truly fascinated with the findings, she too need to be practical at this stage.

The blue team had took their time to listen to everyone's qualms. They knew that they were reasonable concerns. But Chief and his team came here at their own risk and discretion. And Chief never puts anyone at the knife edge, preferring himself to take the risk willingly.

"While I understand the facts being stated, You should be aware of this" said Chief, changing his posture.

"Sooner or later, we would have definitely found the portal anyway and trace the signal here even if we had chosen to ignore this for now. Also this is a significant discovery for us. Like it or not, Our universe, the place we come from is involved. It was a portal from 'Our' galaxy that led us to this alternate reality" said Chief in a serious tone.

"Or else, one day surely we would have learned of the forerunner's involvement in this matter and finally do the same what we did now" said Fred.

"Someone, some ancient race older than the forerunner's had built that portal and definitely those who did must be here. Besides, imagine what would happen, if any hostile force from this galaxy managed to find a portal to our universe and bring a war along with them?" said Kelly.

"We suspect that those who built the portal and traveled to this universe sent a signal from here. They wanted us to know of the mass extinction event. And it wasn't the first time. The signal had been recorded 3 times. The forerunners wanted to do something about it but they couldn't because of the flood. We have come where no one had before" said Linda.

This was when, they analyzed the strength of their arguments. They saw the weight in those points made by the blue team. Slowly they started to realize the inevitable truth.

"Those are undeniable points you made, blue team. What you say is true, while we made our assessment, your's carry more weight to it" said Lasky, then turning to the others, "Surely the place we come from is involved in this matter like it or not" said Lasky who face now expressed clarity and resolution.

"Thank you sir. Even if helping the galaxy is not a priority, we need to find who sent the signal to our galaxy and definitely learn their motives and make sure they are not a threat to our place"

"Myself and R'tas agree with the spartans. We need to find the missing link between this place and ours" said Arbiter who voiced his support.

"Me too" said Marcus.

"Count me in. I agree with the blue team" said Jorge.

"It may be hard to be far from our place, but this is really important. John is right, this may be a significant discovery for humanity, but we need to make sure, whatever lies here is not a threat to us in our place" said Halsey and Commander Carter acknowledged the same.

Lasky was looking at everyone who voiced their opinion and found everyone supporting the blue team. Palmer simply shrugged her shoulder in uncertainty looking at the captain. Lasky finally made his decision. Of course, he trusts the chief's judgement as it helped him save the human race once again from a rogue forerunner. Lasky holds a special place of respect to the Master chief, so he decided to help the blue team. He sighed a bit and spoke.

"Alright, I have made my decision. Let's carry on with the proposition. Also most importantly, we'll unravel the mysteries surrounding the portal and who ever sent the signal. This could even be a turning point for all the races in our galaxy" said Lasky which brought quite a cheer among those present.

"So blue team, how much do we know about the enemy?" asked Lasky.

"At present we have no assessment, captain. But Commander Shepard is currently on a mission to fight the collectors, a slave race to the reapers who had been abducting humans from their colonies" said Cortana who spoke after quite a long time.

"Why would the reapers show interest in humans?" asked Halsey confused.

"At present, we have no idea. We expect Shepard, to give intel on the reapers once he's done with the collectors. Also we didn't tell anyone of our purpose. We told them that we came here by a accident" replied Fred.

"Though I must warn you. There's a splinter human organization called 'Cerberus'. They are alien extremists. Everything they do in the name of humanity's greater good are nothing but atrocities" said Cortana.

This very much reminded them of the Insurrectionists, who formed a rebel organization called the Unified Rebel Front who are vehemently against the UEG and UNSC.

"Like the Insurrectionists?" asked Marcus.

"While they are against the humans themselves, Cerberus is against the alien races, especially the council. They hold a view of themselves as humanity's perfection" said Cortana.

"In other words, traitors. They are more dangerous than the enemies. They must be eradicated" said R'tas.

"Maybe, but right now we cannot do anything. Because Shepard is using Cerberus's resources to hunt down the collectors" said Chief. This caused quite a stir.

"Shepard's working with the splinter group!? Then how can we trust him?" asked Palmer. Others had the same concern.

"Shepard hates cerberus to the core and has all reasons to. But he doesn't have a choice as Cerberus is the only party who had pooled their resources in fighting the collectors. Shepard is merely using their resources to help humanity" said Cortana.

"What about the Council? Won't they help?" asked Halsey.

"The council denies the existence of collectors and calls them myths just like they do with the reapers. They are not willing to spend resources on that" said Chief. Now they all felt disgusted and even more irritated with the council's narrow minded attitude.

"This council starts to make me sick. They say they are the overseers but don't care about anyone" detested Marcus.

"So Shepard's practically fighting alone in this war?" asked Jorge.

"No, he had formed an impressive team composed of different races, those who believe only Shepard and his judgements" said Kelly.

"If the reaper's come unannounced, the council must accept the fact that they had been ignorant and should stand together with the rest of the galaxy in the fight" said Arbiter.

"Chief, your team had been to the earth here. What's it like?" asked Carter. Now matter where, Humans always looked earth as their birthplace, cradle of human civilization.

"No different from ours. Even we met with human officers there and told the same what we shared with the council. In fact, it was not our intention to go to earth, but we had to save a few human colonists from an attack after receiving their distress call. Then we had to transport the security force to earth for their debriefing. That's how we saw earth" said Fred.

"Alright, So now that we have planned what to do, What's the next step?" asked Palmer.

"We have to wait until Shepard finish his mission with the collectors. Then we can get all the necessary information on the reapers" said Chief. Others acknowledged it.

"Another thing, Apart from Shepard, no one knows the true nature of our mission and let it be that way. Let the galaxy assume that we are here by an accident and we can also trust Shepard on his discretion" said Kelly.

"I too agree with Kelly. This galaxy doesn't need to know why we are here" said Jorge.

"Alright, until then we will stay here, resume our normal activities. We can decide our next move after commander Shepard and his team arrive. Mean while, We can circulate everything we talked about to every single personnel in all of our ships and in the base. They need to know what's going on" said Lasky.

"I'll see to it captain" said Cortana, to which he nodded and once again spoke,

"Fine, then this council is over. Let's leave this place" said Lasky.

"Spartan-087, 058 and 104 will escort you to your quarters" said Chief to the others and waved his team to escort them.

They nodded and helped them get off the CIC. First it was Fred, Kelly and Linda followed by Lasky and the others with Halsey being the last.

"Doctor Halsey" called on Chief. She turned back to look at him.

"Yes John?" asked Halsey. Before saying anything, he went near the pedestal to retrieve the AI chip and place it in the helmet and her successful interface was shown with a blink in his helmet.

Then he went near the doctor.

"Me and Cortana would like to converse with you privately" said Chief. As others had left the CIC, Halsey drew a relaxed smile in her face to see the spartan 117 after a very long time. Even after their first meeting here, it had been a tense situation, so she couldn't find time even to smile at her spartans, but now she does.

"Of course. Actually, even I too wanted to talk to you about a lot of things. Things I have missed in the mean time. Also you definitely need to tell me how you got that strange ship and your new armor, including how Cortana got cured of rampancy. Everything from the scratch. Its been a long time since I last saw your face" said Halsey. Chief let out a faint smirk inside.

"Oh! Isn't she the curious one?" chuckled Cortana.

"And the one I personally trust like I trust my closest allies" Chief mentally responded to which Cortana acknowledged with a green light.

"Sure, but we'll talk in your personal quarters. I will escort you myself" said Chief to which she nodded with a faint smile.

Then Chief and Halsey walked their way to the elevator to go to Halsey's quarters.

While walking, John once again felt strange, a preceding echo rides his mind...then,

There was chaos everywhere, alternating energy streaks flying in the sky without a break.

He saw horrid creatures running at him. He was shooting them with a particle rifle, "My lord, They are everywhere!" someone yelling at Him.

He was standing at a place what appeared as a starship's bridge, "Send the fighters to the surface. Finally we clogged their defenses after 53 years" He said looking at someone standing before him.

And everything went blank and returned to the present.

Chief grunted suddenly which alarmed both Cortana and Halsey who were worried after he let out a grunt that expressed pain. He saw and even felt incidents as if he was there just for 5 seconds. He bent his body down slightly instantly gripping the wall besides him and the other hand gripping his right knee for balance. His breathing was quite erratic.

"Chief! Your vitals-...What happened!?" asked Cortana in a brief tense.

"John! What is it?" asked Halsey placing her left hand to his right shoulder trying to ease him. Chief was still in the same stance trying to hold himself together.

After a brief 8 seconds later, he regained his stiff composure, back to normal.

"Shit, not again!" thought Chief. Cortana managed to intercept his thoughts and she instantly understood his reference.

"Chief, was that-..."

"We'll talk about this in Halsey's quarters" interrupted Chief. But he could mentally picture Cortana's worry. Cortana reluctantly agreed to what he said.

"John, what happened?" asked Halsey again with a worry. He sighed a bit and replied after calming his breath.

"A head ache" said Chief which made Halsey to narrow her eyes in suspicion.

"Head ache? Well, that's totally unusual. How long have you been experiencing this?" asked Halsey. John took a moment to respond.

"It would be better to talk in your quarters" said Chief like he meant it. Halsey was staring at him in confusion but decided to let him have his way.

"Alright, we'll go our quarters then figure it out" said Halsey. Chief nodded in approval. Halsey couldn't see John's face expression. If so, John felt exhausted. Maybe he needed doctor Halsey's expertise in helping him. He knew Halsey had the ability to adapt to any knowledge, so he had his hopes.

Then both Chief and Halsey walked slowly to the small stairs, turned left which led to the elevator.

...

Asari prison chambers, City of Athame, Thessia...

Captain Nylis T' halyt, commander of infamous Asari 4th fleet, was seated in a couch in a 12ft x 12ft metal room with just one entrance which was sealed with a powerful mass effect field containment barrier, transparent in violet color.

"By the goddess! Why the fu**! I never thought even our own people could be ignorant bit****!...They don't believe me!...They think I'm mad!...They think I'm a-...!" those were the thoughts in her mind while her face expressed extreme anger and fear.

When an Asari turn angry, automatically a biotic aura surround them uncontrollably. But Nylis was fitted with biotic inhibitor. So she's nothing more than a ordinary individual. She was wearing a simple black dress completely covered, contrary to the officer dress.

Her thoughts were abruptly halted by an asari officer appearing before her room.

"Nylis T' halyt?" the officer called on. She turned to look at her with utmost disgust.

"The captain wanted you to come" said the officer and deactivated the barrier. Nylis didn't say anything but was escorted by the officer to the captain.

Finally Nylis met with the new captain of the 4th fleet, captain Rillian pratora.

"Captain Nylis T' halyt" greeted Rillian.

"What do you want?" asked Nylis gritting her teeth. Rillian sighed a bit for her bad mannerism but decided to never mind.

"You know why you are here, rotting in prison" asked Rillian in a scornful tone.

"You people are fools! I presented you an evidence to help everyone and this is how the Matriarch returns the favor" said Nylis pressing her voice in anger.

"Don't take that tone with me. Coz you are not an officer anymore. You have been stripped of your military authority" said Rillian.

"That's why you came here? To mock me?" asked Nylis.

"You were on an illegal mission with those newcomers to fight a mythical enemy and you didn't stop with that" said Rillain now turning to see her.

"You used the meld to show the evidence to the people of your home world, Cyone and in turn causing a massive civil unrest" said Rillian.

"I didn't spread lies. It's the truth. The collectors, the Reapers...Commander Shepard was right all the time" said Nylis rushing up to her in anger only to be restrained by the officer.

"Because of your actions, Cyone became a mess. It took us a month to set things right. You were a pain in the ass! You were supposed to share sensitive intel with the highest authority, instead you took matters in your hand" said Rillian, now her voice turned frustrated.

"Like I said, You people are fools. You will never understand the truth and because of your stupidity, you are gonna get everyone killed when the reapers show at our doorstep" said Nylis. Now Rillian lost her cool.

"Listen, I am not here to listen to your lunatic blabber. The top brass decided what to do with you. You single handedly caused a political and civil unrest in a colony world. And for your actions and to prevent your further approach on this issue, You will have to spend the rest of your days in this prison" Nylis was stunned in disbelief. Rillian turned to look at Nylis.

"You were in fact lucky, Or else, you would have been sentenced to death for you actions, thanks to your military background and reputation" said Rillain giving a smirk. She then prepared to leave the prison facility. Nylis flew in anger while the other officer dragged her away to her prison.

"YOU BIGOTED, SELF CENTERED-..."yelled Nylis being dragged to her prison.

Rillian Pratora, the newly appointed commander of the fourth fleet left the facility.

...

Thorne system, Lethe (Mnemosyne's satellite)...

A cerberus cruiser approached Lethe, a moon that orbits the brown dwarf Mnemosyne.

"Lt. Leng, We are in position above the moon" said the helmsman of the cruiser.

Kai leng, a cerberus agent was sent by the Illusive man to retrieve the contaminant samples from the crashed reaper. He was not sent alone, but along with several cerberus heavy infantry loaded with explosives and heavy guns.

"Get a rough map of the terrain in these coordinates and send it to my omni-tool" said Leng.

"Yes sir" replied the Helm and did exactly as ordered. Then Leng's omni-tool beeped and he accessed the file. An image was projected from it and Leng got to see the terrain map of the specific region.

"Good" thought Leng and went to the crew quarters to talk with his soldiers.

The soldiers were already with armor, but unarmed. After Leng came to see them, they stood and looked at him in silence awaiting orders.

"We have arrived at the location Illusive man sent us to. Lock and load yourself and wait at the hanger" said Leng.

"Yes sir" said the soldiers in unison.

He then went to the armory to load with the required weapons including his biotic katana. Leng, after few minutes went to the hanger to see 15 soldiers ready for combat.

Leng then called the helm,

"Helm, bring the cruiser to the upper atmosphere We'll reach the surface with the troop shuttle" said Leng.

"Yes Lieutenant. Bringing the ship into the atmosphere" said the helm as the cruiser slowly entered Lethe's atmosphere.

"Alright people! This is an extremely sensitive mission and the orders come directly from the king fish. So it's our job not to screw this. So keep your eyes and ears sharp and watch your 360" said Leng to which the soldiers barked in unison.

Then Leng and 15 other soldiers boarded 2 shuttles and prepared to leave.

As the cruiser's bay door opened, the shuttles flew of the ship and made its way to the surface.

The shuttle reached the visible region past the clouds and managed to barely see the surface.

"Sir, you need to look at this" said the shuttle pilot. Leng went to see what the pilot had to show him. At the cockpit, he managed to see through the shuttle window at the surface and turned bug eyed.

At the surface, at the given coordinates, there was a large area covered with sage colored haze beyond the reaper's crash radius.

"What the hell?" murmured Leng.

"Bring the shuttle just outside the cloud" said Leng. The pilot acknowledged and brought the shuttle to the surface just outside the haze .

After touching the ground, the shuttle doors opened. Kai leng and the 15 soldiers came out with a single portable container carried by a soldier. The shuttle stayed there and everyone began to load themselves with the weapons.

"What the hell is this?" asked one soldier.

"My scanners are reading a lot of biological microbes in the air coming out of this" said the other soldier. Everyone wore completely covered armor with high grade toxin filters including Leng. Everyone were standing just before the haze.

"Alright people, We collect the samples and get off here. Is that clear?" asked Leng. Everyone acknowledged.

"Let's go" said Leng. Then everyone proceeded to walk inside the haze.

After entering the haze, an atypical, ominous feeling surged through everyone. They didn't know if it was their hallucinations or real, but they were hearing distant screaming far away and lot of unpleasant noise started to appear.

"Crap! What the hell are those noise? Is it just me?" asked one soldier in a low voice.

"No, I hear that too" said another soldier.

"The first samples retrieved by Chandana's team were sent to Horizon facility. But the facility failed to respond for more than a week. Those who went to check it out also went dark" said Leng.

Soon the hostility grew and everyone started to feel uneasy as they progressed deep inside.

"I have a bad feeling about this. I have never seen anything like this. This thing just scares me in" said one soldier.

"No one had seen this before. Let's hurry, the samples must be pure and intact near the crash" said Leng. Then everyone proceeded to move further with no disturbance.

Finally everyone got to see the crashed reaper which doesn't look too good, but was surprised to find it almost intact surviving the fall.

"This is it. The contaminants are highly concentrated here. Go and fill up the container" said Leng pointing up to the soldier carrying the container.

He then proceeded to walk slowly towards a rubble to collect the sample. He placed the container on the ground and slowly turned the vacuum generator in the container, it slowly sucked the contaminant in the air and started filling up the container.

But just above the rubble, a sage colored ugly quadped creature suddenly jumped above and roared at him.

"SHIT!" yelled the soldier who fell back to the ground, jerked in fear. It was roaring at him and he was hurrying to get the weapon and shoot. But before he could fire, the creatue leapt at him and killed him by biting him violently.

Soon many creatures of bipeds, quadpeds, arthropods and small tentacled bulbuous things started to show up roaring and screeching obnoxiously.

"Holy F***! What the hell are those things!?" yelled one solder as he pulled up his rifle and other followed suit. The creatures started running towards them.

"Quick! Open fire!" yelled Leng. They all started to shoot at those creatures and were slowly backing away from the place.

Instantly, 3 biped creatures leapt at another soldier and killed him despite being shot followed by an arthropod killing two more by gutting their abdomen.

"Shit! They are tearing us apart, fall back, fall back!" yelled Leng. The soldiers were shooting at those creatures and at the same time sprinted away from there.

But the creatures were faster. Leng used his biotics in killing small bulbuous creatures and bipeds but their numbers were replenishing more than they fall.

The remaining soldiers and Leng were running and at the same time managed to turn and shoot at those creatures. But they couldn't do much.

A soldier stopped and started to unload his grenade launcher and shot multiple rounds of grenade at the creatures. The blast managed to make more body count. But it was only enough to buy time for the others to escape and that soldier was instantly killed by the following horde.

"Shuttle, get to our position, now!" yelled Leng but unfortunately, the signal failed to reach and he cursed inward.

"Shit, my comm is down" said Leng

"Mine too" said one soldier.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, 3 quadpeds leapt several feet high and landed directly above the running soldiers and instantly killing 3 more soldiers and one of the creature shot spikes from it's mouth and killed 2 more soldiers.

"Shit Shit! these things don't stop!" yelled a soldier out of fear and he lost his sanity. He stopped running and roared at the creatures and shot his rifle blindly. That didn't stop those horrendous creatures as he became a feast to them.

There were only 4 more soldiers and Leng. Seeing their dwindling numbers, they stopped shooting and kept running instead. Leng's biotics barely killed 2 or 3 creatures.

But unfortunately, a big pod like thing flew over the air and fell just near them and it exploded with the contaminant gas knocking the 5 down as they grunted in pain.

There was nothing, wave after wave of noise and blind images moving, vision so blured. After a few minutes, Leng who was grunting in pain slowly opened his eyes and the first horrific sight was the knocked out soldiers were being enveloped by the sage colored biomass looking like a tentacle.

Leng tried to move but he couldn't feel his legs. But slowly managed to turn his front torso facing the sky using his hands. There was blood wounds in his face.

"*SPIT*...I..uh..never thought...*COUGH*...anything like this would happen! What the hell are these things?" said Leng spitting out blood.

Suddenly a creature came stood just in front of him. It then slowly turned its head down to look at him. Then it wide opened its mouth and slowly let out a scream. Leng was simply staring at it knowing that it's gonna finish him off, he let out his last words giving a laugh,

"Huh...Go to hell!" said Leng in a mild tone and then it was nothing. His world turned black. The creature bite him in his neck and that's the end of cerberus agent Kai leng.

But the other creatures already were sprinting towards the shuttle. It could be that they are dead. As the comms were scrambled, the cerberus cruiser dont know what was really happening as they couldn't see or hear anything beyond the haze.

Amidst the sage mist and the hordes of creatures, an infrasonic voice came,

"Paaaiinnnn...Anndd...Deeaath..."

...

A/N: That's it. I hope you like it.

An important note, next one or atleast 2 chapters will feature more lengthy conversations and character development as the UNSC and Arbiter's fleet are here. The spartans will have a long conversation with everyone, most importantly with Jorge and Arbiter.

Shepard's collector base mission will not be so brief as that time will be spent more for setting the stage for mass effect 3 where Shepard and his crew becomes important.

Well, Leng's not dead.