A/N: Hello everyone. Thank you all so much for the relative popularity of this Fic. Thank you Thank you Thank you to everyone who reviewed or private messaged me. I Enjoy all of your guy's and gal's support. So today we will get our first look at some of the Mass Effect universe instead of the Halo universe. I've been focusing on the Halo universe because that's what the story requires at this point. As the chapters go on I will begin to merge the two universes into the actual story! I hope you all are as excited as I am for that! Big shout out to Fanficer73 for being my awesome beta, making this stuff not so cringe worthy. Without further ado, I do not own Mass Effect or Halo or any related franchises. Please enjoy.
January 22, 2577 - Just Outside Influence of Chasm - Forward Unto Dawn & Unknown Turian Vessel - John 117
John ran his way down the corridor, quickly moving past a hologram of the broken ship. He felt a small bit stiff after his long time in cryo but it wasn't anything he wasn't used to. What he wasn't used to was having two A.I. in his head, especially when one of the A.I.s had been the cause of Johnson's death. However, Cortana said that he could be trusted, that he was no longer rampant. The only reason he didn't destroy the Monitor on sight was because Cortana said he shouldn't, and if he couldn't trust Cortana, he couldn't trust anyone.
Suddenly, something came up on his motion tracker, 3 red dots. They weren't in any kind of military formation, and were moving slowly.
"Use caution, Reclaimer." The two windows featuring Cortana and Spark blipped onto his hud. "I am not totally certain of the kinds of weapons these foes possess, or if they will attack on sight." Spark said worriedly. Cortana started to blip slightly.
"I on the other hand can try and translate what they are saying." She said pulling up a screen in front of her. "Spark had access to all the species languages, and with permission I can automatically convert their language to something you understand."
"Why do you need my permission?" John asked as he slowed down his movements and crouched down beside a wall, trying to stay out of the light.
"In order to translate for you, I have to rewire some synapses in your brain. I figured it would only be polite if I asked first." Cortana said cheekily. John's eyes crinkled under his visor, closest thing to a smile John would ever do, and only ever when Cortana said something wity.
"I trust you." He said in his typical stoicism, but Cortana smiled back nonetheless, knowing she had made John 'smile'.
"This might sting a little." She warned before tapping something on the screen in front of her. John felt a small twinge on the sides of his head. Quickly he shook it off and got his bearings back. Soon he heard footsteps coming down the hall. He stepped off to the side behind cover and out of the way of the lights. Then all the lights went off in the section of the hallway. Cortana winked through her place on the HUD.
"I got your back Chief." she said before disappearing again. Chief stood as still as a statue and waited for the footsteps to get closer. As the not so stealthy footfalls got closer and closer to Chief, he began to make out what they were saying. The voices sounded like that of Humans, just a little deeper in some ways. It sounded like normal speech, but with every syllable, a faint humming could be heard.
"I'm just saying, this ship is unlike any other ship made by council races. We could be sitting on a goldmine here." One voice said, sounded slightly higher pitched. The next voice was hardened, deeper somewhat.
"Shut your mouth, this is salvage. Nothing more. We will be lucky to get a thousand credits for the scrap metal." The voice groaned. "Lets just sweep for tech and move out, I don't like being this far out of Citadel Space."
"Split up and do quick scans. I want to be towing this wreck away in 10. Move out." A commanding voice boomed. Deeper than even the last two, but still sounding similar. The three blips split off one went straight, another turned left, the last one went right heading straight for John. John slowed his breathing down, trying to move as little as possible. The footsteps grew closer and closer, then the thing making them walked right past the chief.
It was humanoid in shape but vastly different from anything Human, or Covenant for that matter. Its face was covered by some kind of helmet, a base helmet in the front but had a large outcropping on the back. It had two very large toes and strange outcroppings on the backs of its legs. The aliens waist was spindly and reminiscent of a Grunts but built for running, while its abdomen was extremely thin. Its upper body looked rather Human, just very wide on all fronts. It had two arms that were very thin and 3 fingers, two large fingers and one thumb.
Master Chief studied some more, taking in as much information he could. It appeared to be scanning the area with some sort of orange, glowing, hologram on its arm. It tilted its neck around, looking from side to side. Master Chief looked at it closely, it appeared to get to a certain point on its neck before it couldn't go any further. He checked to make sure his speakers were off before he spoke to Cortana and Spark.
"Cortana, Spark. What info can you give me on this?" He said. The alien made no motion to indicate that he heard Chief, Cortana spoke first
"Turian, major species in the galaxy. Extremely militaristic. Shoot first ask questions later." She said pulling up an anatomical representation of the species. The generic Turian face was rather Human, more Human than an Elite in most ways. It looked like a face with tough plates all over it. Long fringes of the plate like material came off the back of the head. Its nose was flat against its face and its mouth had mandibles on the side of it.
"Quickest way to make a kill?" John asked tensing his body, getting ready to pounce.
"Your knife to the forehead should do the trick." Cortana answered.
"Or snapping of the neck, either would work." Spark added. The Turian was about 5 meters away, the Spartan quickly jumped out from his hiding spot. The alien turned around too late, The Chief was already on top of him. Before the Turian could react, John was pressing down on his throat with his right forearm and driving his knife straight into the thing's skull. John noticed that it took a little bit more to drive in the blade, with thicker skin than he was used to. He quickly picked himself off of the now dead Alien.
"Spartan, I believe I can scan him. Please lift up your left hand." Spark said, the Chief obliged. Suddenly, the Monitor's eye receded into the Master Chiefs hand, sinking in like his armor was made of water. John turned to look at his palm to see the eye surface on the other side. John bent down and held his hand above the body. A soft blue light washed over the alien's body.
"Hmm, Interesting." The Monitor hummed. The orange hologram appeared on the left arm of the Turian again. "This is called an Omni-Tool. Ingenious for a species at this stage in technological evolution." The eye on the Chief's hand glowed blue with energy. The orange hologram on the Turian shuttered slightly before turning off completely. Then a small piece of metal slowly pushed its way out of the skin of the Turians hand, slowly it floated its way towards the glowing blue eye. John turned his hand over and watched as the metal sunk into the eye on his palm. It blipped orange then back to its baby blue color then shifted to the back of his hand.
All of a sudden, the glowing orange hologram appeared on Master Chiefs left forearm, exactly the way it appeared on the arm of the Turian.
"It isn't as advanced as Spark is, but it should allow easier interface with anything we find on their ship." Cortana said to the Chief. John inspected the glowing orange hologram before readying up again.
"Interface?" John asked as he dragged the body out of the middle of the hall and off into the shadows.
"We're not staying here forever Chief." Cortana said chidingly. "These aliens were kind enough to give us a ride."
"Where to next?" John said in stride making his way towards the intersection. Before anyone could answer, two blips popped out on the screen. They had appeared out of thin air, right in front of him. Suddenly two figures appeared out of thin air. Staring right at John, confusion all over their faces. The stunned silence didn't last long however, John was already trying to move out of their line of sight.
He wasn't quick enough however, the Turians were already opening fire. The first bullet ripped right through his shields, making him an easy target. But after the shields were down, he didn't feel pain at all from the bullets. He paused and turned to look at the two Aliens. They were still both unloading on him but nothing was making it past his armor.
"Cortana?" John asked as he stood up straight, watching the projectiles bounce off him like spit balls.
"They appear to be using small pieces of metal moving at very high speeds. This armor is made to withstand twice the amount of force in each bullet. Even the bodysuit is more than enough to withstand it."
"Their weapons are extremely insufficient. A main problem with "The Traps" technology." Spark said appearing on Master Chiefs hud. Without hesitation, The Chief ran full speed into the bullets, ignoring them completely. The two Turians tried to back away from the charging Spartan, but moved too slow.
John crashed the butt of his rifle into the face of one of the Turians and quickly shot the other one right between the eyes. He turned to the first Turian again and grabbed its head with both his hands and broke its neck.
The thing fell to the ground in a pile and Master Chief again scanned the bodies.
"They appear to have some sort of cloaking device installed. Not nearly as advanced as they Covenant tech but still effective, for a short time." Spark said as the blue light washed over the bodies of the soldiers. Cortana spoke up next in alarm.
"I'm picking up some coms coming from the ship, patching it through." She said as a radio signal displayed on the screen. A voice came over the speakers in John's helmet. It sounded similar to the others voice, just a little lighter than the second deepest voice.
"I say again, Carotess, report. . . Kajus? Sidonis? . . . All hands we have a Code 7, suit up and be ready for combat." The voice then cut all communication.
"Looks like they know we're coming." Cortana said cheerfully.
"Set a waypoint to the entrance to the ship. Sooner we get there the less time they have." John said standing up straight. He released the clip from his rifle and let the clip fall from his hand. As soon as it did it was disintegrated and along with some other parts from the Turians armor, flowed into the palm of Chiefs hand. The objects glowed slightly before another perfect clip was in the Master Chiefs hand. He loaded it into his gun and began to sprint down the hallway, following the waypoint.
June 17, 2555 - Scorched Earth Alliance Research Center - New Reach - Henry Glassman
Henry had gotten up early in the morning, the first thing he did was make a cup of coffee for himself. The second thing he did was think about Vimea. Vimea was a particularly bright Sangheili scientist working with Glassman along with many other people on the Vulcan project. The goal of the project was to find a way to make a new and better metal alloy. Stronger than Titanium and Alloy. Alloy was the name for the Covenant metal used on every one of their ships and vehicles. The idea was to combine them together to make a super metal, stronger than both.
Vimea was attractive to Glassman, not in the traditional sense of course, but more in a connection based way. Henry thought Vimea and him just clicked. They laughed at each others jokes, bantered playfully, and they enjoyed each others company. Henry would have asked her out if she wasn't so, alien. Henry had nothing against any of the other species, not at all. He was just worried how she would react, or how everyone else would. As far as Glassman knew, there wasn't a single interspecies relationship in the entirety of Alliance space, how would other people react?
This was all still hypothetical to Henry however. He didn't have the guts to even tell the woman how he felt, no use getting himself all worked up over it now. He had other things to worry about today, like the experiment.
Today was the day that his idea was up for trial. Each of the researchers had come up with their own ideas about the metal synthesis. Most of it consisted of superheating the two metals, or something of the like. These never worked however. The two metals were very stubborn, never fusing correctly. Most of the time the two metals would just come out half and half, like someone had just soldered the two metals together. Glassman's theory was being tested today and if it worked, the implications could be phenomenal.
Henry Glassman briskly walked out of his small apartment like bungalow and out towards the main research building. Scorched earth was built like a small town, a residential section, work section, food section. All the basics. It was early in the morning, most of the other scientists were still sleeping at this point. Henry had to make it in early, to set up his attempt at the metal synthesis. On his way over his mind drifted to Vimea again, he thought about the cute way she twitched her upper mandibles when she became flustered, how her hips swayed slightly as she walked, her finely toned backside and her perky breasts . . .
"Get ahold of yourself Glassman!" He grumbled, cursing himself for not keeping himself under control. He couldn't even think about Vimea without needing a cold shower. He shook away his thoughts on Vimea as he saw a figure jogging his way past him.
"Morning Glassman." The figure said in a slightly higher pitched voice. Only slightly though.
"Goodmorning Yantan, you're up early." Glassman smiled at the Unggoy who stopped to walk with him, though Unggoy no longer seemed to fit him. This creature in front of him was no more Unggoy than Henry was, he was so much more now. Faster, stronger, smarter, better. The official term for him was ex-Unggoy Sapient.
"Yeah." He chuckled nervously. "Couldn't sleep, had too many ideas. After the combat sim last night, I just got flooded with ideas. I was up working all night on schematics for something. I was actually wondering if you would take a look at them." Yantan said as he grabbed something out of his sweat pants pocket. He was wearing human grey training sweatpants and sweatshirt. Yantan had taken to wearing human clothing ever since his evolution. Most of his clothes were actually Henry's. During his first few weeks on base, Glassman had befriended the Unggoy and taken to spending time with him. Other than his father Yurtur, Yantan didn't have many friends on base, besides Glassman of course.
Glassman gave Yantan a judgemental stare.
"You know you should be getting more sleep, if you don't it might not mix well with your new DNA." Glassman said as he crossed his arms, inadvertently spilling coffee on himself. Yantan held back a giggle as he held out the paper again.
"Come on man, you try going through a species changing experience and not be excited about it. I'll go and take a nap right after my run if you look over these schematics." Yantan pleaded, he even quivered his upper lip, something he had taken a liking two ever since he acquired it, and made his eyes extra wide. Glassman could never resist against Yantan's face. A small smile broke across his lips.
"Only if you go to bed right after." Henry told him taking the folded up paper in his hands. He opened the paper to find an expert drawing of some kind of mechanism on top of what was clearly Yantan's arm. It had some sort of slide and locking mechanism along with gears attached to the top part of the forearm. On the sliding mechanism was a Human Battle rifle, a favorite of Yantan's, just in a smaller proportion. It appeared to be more symmetrical and lying on its side and attached to the sliding mechanism
"Did you come up with this after yesterday's training exercise?" Glassman said, unable to look away from the schematics. Yantan shrugged and blushed a little.
"Yeah, the way Sgt. Reaves showed me to hold the gun inspired me." Yantan said, switching his weight from side to side in anticipation. Glassman had seen Reaves show Yantan a technique for more accurate firing of weapon. He had Yantan place his gun on his elbow to steady it in the joint. Laying his right arm over the left, he could steady his rifle better than just by holding it normally. Yantan even found that by holding it this way, the bone in his arm made a perfect line to the target, all Yantan had to do was aim with his protrusion and fire.
"It's ingenious, Yantan. After I'm done today, I'll help you work on it!" Glassman said as he handed the rough schematic, Yantan was about to jump for joy when another voice chimed in behind the two.
"Good morning Yantan, Henry." A soft, sultry yet commanding voice said behind them. Glassman's heart began to pump furiously, he recognised the voice all too well. Both of the men turned around slowly to see a tall Sangheili woman smiling at both of them. Vimea. She had smooth, slightly grey-white skin and deep beautiful blue eyes. Her slitted pupils were wide and aware. Her head, like all female Sangheili, was slightly shorter length wise, and her top mandible were tucked together around her upper teeth. Sangheili only have both mandibles unclasped in times when they are out of breath, like in battle. She had on normal attire, a grey turtle neck and a white lab coat. She was also wearing a pair of human style pants tailored to Sangheili, normal blue jeans that were a bit longer than usual. She had a datapad clutched in her hands close to her chest. Her horizontal eyelids blinked, waiting for a response.
"Morning Vimea." Yantan said not looking up from his schematic.
"Hey Vimea. You're up early." Glassman said as he tried to keep the nervousness from his voice.
"Yeah, just wanted to get a head start on today. Wanted to help you out with the Metal Synthesis today, if you don't mind that is." She asked him, Glassman thought he heard a little bit of nervousness in her voice, but that might of been his imagination.
"Oh, No of course I want your help! I need all the help I can get today!" Henry said putting the Sangheili at ease. Vimea sighed in relief, her upper mandible twitched slightly.
"Okay good, otherwise you probably would have screwed everything up." Vimea said jokingly and with a wink. Winking had been picked up by every species from the humans. Most of the ex-Covenant had their own cultures suppressed or overtaken by the Covenant and subsequently lost it. The only thing they could do was adopt a new culture, human culture. It wasn't uncommon to see a Kig-yar with a tattoo, a couple of Unggoy playing Ping-Pong, even a Sangheili wearing human clothes was normal.
The sight of Vimea winking at him made Glassman heart skip a beat. He just winked back as best as he could.
"Alright well, I'll see you inside!" Vimea said as she walked by. Glassman couldn't help but follow her swaying hips as she trotted on to the main building. Glassman was brought out of his trance when he noticed Yantan was staring at him strangely.
"Were you . . .?" Yantan started as he looked from Vimea to Glassman again perplexed. "Were you just checking out Vimea?" He asked putting away his blueprint staring at Henry. Glassman fumbled with his words, which was all the confirmation Yantan needed.
"Holy crap. You were checking out Vimea!" Yantan almost yelled.
"Keep your freaking voice down." Glassman said, throwing his hand over Yantan mouth, who quickly tore away the hands.
"Do you like her?" He asked with a quieter voice. Glassman again fumbled with his words.
"Oh my gods!" He said in his same quiet voice but with the same intensity. "Dude ask her out!"
"I can't." Henry complained.
"Why, because you guys work together?" Yantan asked.
"No that's not it." Glassman rubbed his forehead, took off his glasses and cleaned them with his coat.
"Is it because she's Sangheili?" Yantan asked. Glassman paused. "Ahh. You feel weird about it, don't you?" Yantan continued. Glassman gave a telling look.
"Ahh. Dude don't get all worked up about it. Its not that big of a deal." Yantan said patting Glassman on the back.
"Yeah it is, we're not even the same species." Glassman said pointing back and forth from him to the building Vimea was in. He was getting a little distressed.
"Like that matters, you can still admire beauty in other species can't you? Hell, I even find some of your human woman beautiful." Yantan consoled the doctor who looked up in surprise.
"You do?" Glassman asked disbelievingly.
"Of course, you'd have to be stupid not to. You're not strange Henry, you're just sentient." Yantan said to him patting him on the back once more. "Now I want you to promise me you will at least try to ask Vimea out today, take her out for drinks." Yantan suggested.
"But I can't just. . ." Glassman started.
"Promise." Yantan repeated with emphasis and a bit of scolding.
"Fine, I promise." Glassman lifted his right hand in an oathing manner. "Now get to bed Yantan." It was Glassman's turn to scold. Yantan laughed and began to walk away, before he could take his first step, Glassman spoke up.
"Yantan." He said. "Thanks."
"Go get em' tiger." Yantan said with a wink, a phrase and gesture he learned from old human vids. With that, the ex-Unggoy Sapient turned and left.. Glassman took a deep breath and a sip of his coffee, then he started to walk towards to the research building.
He made his way through many security checkpoints and off into the R&D labs. Only a couple people were in this part of the building at this time. One of which was the great Doctor Halsey. She was currently looking down at one of her pet projects right now.
"Good morning Doctor Halsey." Henry awkwardly waved at her. She didn't even look up at him, just gave him a single hand shake that could be interpreted as a wave. Glassman was surprised, he usually just got the cold shoulder from Halsey, a wave was extraordinary.
Glassman quickly made his way over to the Vulcan program's area. It was situated at the far back end of the lab. He rushed past Yantan's Evo-Pod and past what appeared to be a MJOLNIR Spartan armor tailored for a Sangheili.
He set down his coffee and immediately met up with Vimea, they exchanged greetings but immediately began to work on Glassman's project. They worked for hours, people trickled in as the sun rose. Over the hours, Glassman tried to bring up to Vimea the idea of going out tonight, but he kept losing his nerve. Finally they had finished all that was needed to make Glassman's idea work. What they had made, appeared to be some sort of super strength plexiglass sectioned off into three parts. Two parts on top were pointed downward with a large tube going down to a small sphere at the bottom. Around all of the sphere were multiple tesla coil like structures.
"Is this your experiment, Glassman?" The head of the Vulcan project asked. The head was a tall Kig-Yar, T'vaoan with crimson red feathers. His name was Jit-Nee. Strangely calm for a Kig-Yar, and one of the best and brightest of all the Kig-Yar.
"Yes, Vimea helped me in putting it together." Henry said gesturing over to the Sangheili who was standing off to the side.
"Well then, lets get this thing moving." Jit said as everyone gathered around the machine.
"Hey Glassman, where are your metal heaters?" One of his colleagues asked him.
"Don't need them." Glassman said simply. Most were confused, others were nodding their heads in agreement, though they had no idea what was happening. The ones who truly knew what was going on were face palming and cursing themselves for not being smarter.
Glassman set the Alloy into one of the sectioned off parts of the glass box, then a hunk of titanium into the other. He closed both sides with a hiss, then locked them. Two tubes were attached to the sides of the box, also hissing in response
"Starting pressurization now."Glassman said hitting a button on a nearby control panel. Oxygen rushed into the box from both sides, somehow the plexiglass held after 5 minutes of oxygen being poured in. At first nothing happened. Than the two metals began to melt away. Turning into their liquid forms at such a high pressure. The melted pieces flowed down the tubes and into the sphere below.
"Using pressure instead of heaters, impressive but inefficient." One of the scientists said.
"Just wait." Glassman said with a knowing smile. The last drop of Alloy fell into the sphere which promptly was covered by another piece of plexiglass. One of the Tesla coils moved into place above it.
"Firing now." Glassman said as he pushed another button. The coils sparked for a second before they started to shine with huge amounts of energy. Then with a loud zapping noise, they all shot their payload into the metal liquid. The whole thing glowed so bright, everyone had to look away to shield their eyes.
The light finally died down and everyone looked down to see Glassman opening the sphere, when he came up he had something in his hands, lifting it with exertion. He hefted it onto the table and let it fall with a large bang. As he stepped away, everyone could see what it was. A sphere the size of a bocce ball that looked like it was pure silver, except for the purple pearlescence that shone off it.
"My gods he did it, he actually did it." Somebody said. Everyone was so enamored with the sphere they barely noticed a small woman walk in behind them.
"What's the meaning of this?" Halsey asked. Everyone quickly stepped out of her way, no one wanted to feel the wrath of the Mother of Demons. "I hear a large explosion and it disrupts my work, explain yourselves."
"Ma'am, we did it." Jit said stepping out of the way so Halsey could see the sphere. Halsey's anger diminished quickly as she walked right up to the table and bent down to look at the sphere.
"Who finally did it?" She asked not looking away from the sphere.
"I did, Doctor Halsey." Henry said from the other side of the table. He tried to make himself look presentable, but did not succeed. He had done a lot of work today, he had stripped off his over shirt and was only in a white-t and black khakis. His hair was ruffled and his glasses were askew.
Halsey looked up, her face was almost surprised. She stared at Glassman for a moment before she nodded her head.
"It's going to need a name." Halsey said tapping some things into her data pad.
"I already gave it one Ma'am. Adamantium." Glassman said, trying to hold back his glee. Halsey paused for a moment.
"Adamantium. Fictional metal from 21st century fiction." She thought for a moment. "It fits. Good job Dr. Glassman." She said before tapping some things out on her datapad and turning to leave. For Doctor Halsey, that was as close to the highest of praise you could get. Everyone came up to Henry and congratulated him, even Jit came up and shook his hand. The last person to come up to him was Vimea.
"Good job Hen-" She was cut off by a very nervous looking Henry.
"Wanna go out for drinks tonight?" He asked quickly and with his voice almost cracking. Vimea looked taken by surprise, but then her features softened a bit and she smiled.
"I would love too."
September 13, 2556 - Scorched Earth Alliance Research Center - New Reach - Doctor Catherine Halsey
She couldn't believe the ungrateful swines! How could they do this to her? Catherine Halsey, The Catherine Halsey. The Mother of Demons as she had began to be known as. After all she had done for them, they turn on her. The Alliance had issued a warrant for her arrest, she had been branded a simple war criminal, how insulting. Now they would take her away from her work, something they were absolutely not allowed to do. This would force her hand. She would have to undergo the process sooner than she thought. It would be regrettable, but she had to.
As quickly as Halsey could, she moved through her lab into a sectioned off part of her office. She went through multiple identity checks before a door opened up for her, blended seamlessly into the wall. She walked through it following a long sloped corridor leading down into a cold sub basement. All it led to was one lone room with a chair that wouldn't look out of place in a dentists office positioned in the middle of the room. This chair however was not used for teeth, it was used for a brain. She strapped herself in and let the machine do its work. She watched the world with her own eyes for the last time.
September 13, 2556 - Scorched Earth Alliance Research Center - New Reach - Spartan IV Locke
Locke had been assigned another hunter job. His mission was to find and bring in Doctor Catherine Halsey. He was not happy about this. Doctor Halsey was a brilliant woman, very much the reason that humanity had made it this far. Her Spartans had saved the Earth many a time, and now he was being sent to bring her into custody. With him was the rest of squad. A Kig-Yar sniper by the name of Ket-Rin, a female Ruutian. Two Lekgolo hunter forms. Ketumo Telu Oran and Lomali Telu Deri. Both of them skilled in battle. The last was a Sangheili named Ltan M'namee. The double ee had been re-adapted when the Alliance had been formed.
"Area clear sir." Ket-Rin said in a fast and sharp voice. Locke stepped forward, adjusting his Hunter helmet. He tapped something on his wrist and activated the ARTEMIS tracking system. Before he could move however. Something appeared on a nearby pedestal. Locke turned to see a holographic representation of Halsey. Locke straightened up, as did everyone else on his squad.
"Ma'am, I've been ordered to take you in." Locke said stoically. "And you should know better than to use a Pedestal, these aren't made for communication ma'am."
"I believe you will have some trouble with that, as for the Pedestal, well. follow the waypoint." She said before disappearing. As soon as she did, a waypoint appeared on the Spartans HUD. He turned to see the rest of the squad shrug their shoulders, a human gesture adopted by all species, similar to the wink.
The team followed the waypoint to a wall in a very sparse office, before they could question it, a wall opened up to reveal a pathway.
Being as careful as they could, Locke's fireteam made their way down the tunnel and into a dimly lit room with something in the center. The team walked up and examined it, Ket was making a dry heaving noise at the sight of it.
The body of Halsey lay motionless on the operating table, the top of her head was sawed off. Her brain was missing
Then, much to most of the teams confusion, Halsey appeared on another pedestal in the room, smiling smugly. Locke understood only to well.
"Grab the body for transport, we're leaving." Locke said as he began to walk out of the room. Ltan immediately became confused.
"Sir, I'm sorry I don't understand. We still need to find Halsey. Somehow she is still alive, she is using a Pedestal to communicate from." He said gesturing to the hologram of Halsey.
"Ltan, think. What are Pedestals supposed to be used by?" Locke said to the Sangheili. "We were ordered to find and recover the Human Woman Catherine Halsey." Locke paused as he looked over to the hologram of Halsey who looked rather pleased with herself.
"We weren't told anything about the A.I. Halsey." Locke said walking past his squadmate and back up the ramp. The A.I. known as Halsey nodded to the rest of the squad before disappearing away.
August 27, 2557 - Wake of Starlight - In orbit of unnamed planet 98 - Spartan IV Edward Buck
Buck was just getting ready to follow the rest of Blue Team into cryo when a proximity alert came on over the speakers. He reacted within seconds, getting ready to head back to the armor bay when EDI popped up on the closest terminal.
"Buck, we have a situation." She said almost monotone
"Yeah I noticed EDI." he said irritated, he was about to keep moving when she stopped him.
"You don't understand. The ship we are in proximity with is larger than this vessel, it has already begun its magnetic tractor beam. This ship is not allowed to fall into enemy hands. Cole Protocol Lockdown will be initiated."
"What?" Buck said confused out of his mind. "I thought Cole Protocol was just for A.I." Buck stated.
"It was, but due to upgrades of an Alliance Vessel, an entire ship lost is unacceptable. I need you to bring me into cryo with you." EDI said with certainty.
"What why?" Buck said getting more confused by the minute. "Why am I going into cryo?"
"Cryo sleep will be the safest place for you, if the lockdown is achieved, you will be cut off from food and water, you will die Buck. Cryo is shielded during lockdown. We will both be safe." She said again. Without more hesitation, Buck placed his hand onto the Pedestal and EDI hard transferred into his Bio Suit.
"You should still be able to hear me Buck." EDI's voice said in Bucks head.
"What ship is it do we know?" Buck asked as he started towards the Cryo bay again.
"Records peg it as a Forerunner ship." EDI said calmly.
"FORERUNNER?!" He yelled out almost tripping. "Will the ship be ok? Will it be able to stop anything from getting in?" Buck fired off.
"Yes, the metal we use on our ships is actually more advanced than anything ever created by the forerunners, we will be fine. Please hurry Buck." EDI said, for the first time she showed worry. This did not help out Bucks mindset.
Buck finally reached cryo bay and jumped into a pod. Not caring to set a timer he slammed down on the self seal button.
"Lockdown in effect in 10, 9, 8." EDI counted down in Bucks head. The ice began to freeze over his body. Just before he lost consciousness he saw multiple shutters closing down in front of him, all with a familiar purple pearlessence. He closed his eyes before EDI could even reach one.
2587 - Council Chamber - Citadel - Asari Councilor
Today would certainly be a strange day for the Asari Councilor. She received word this morning that a Quarian had requested a meeting with the Council on behalf of the Quarian Admiralty Board . Something about a strange and urgent finding while they drifted. The Asari Councilor had her doubts about the whole thing but was interested to say the least.
The Councilor walked out onto her podium next to her were the Turian and Salarian councilors, both of them were staring curiously at the Quarian Man in front of them.
"Thank you for seeing me, My name is Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Rayya. I am the captain of the ship that discovered the artifact, so to speak." He said with a heavily accented voice. He began to tap away at his Omni-tool
"When you say artifact, what do you mean exactly." The Salarian Councilor said putting his hand up to his Councilors, I was hoping you could tell me." He said as he lifted his Omni-tool up. A picture was displayed of a huge ring. Just a snapshot of it though, very bad quality, but seeable. It was next to a gas giant that it dwarfed my a considerable size, which means that even if the gas giant was as small as it could possibly be, the ring would still make the Citadel look like a children's toy.
"What is this, and where did you find it?" The Turian councilor said zooming in on the ring
"We have no idea, and we never actually found it." Rael said wringing his hands together.
"What do you mean you never found it, this thing is massive. How could you not find it?" The Salarian Councilor said still enamored by the picture.
"That's just it. It appeared on our scanners for a moment, then it just disappeared, along with the entire space around it. The system it appeared to be in does not exist. We even went to the place where it was supposed to be and there was nothing but empty space." Rael told them, still wringing his fingers.
A moment passed as the Asari Councilor thought this over in her head. To her, this all seemed like a lie, some scheme to get money for the dying Quarians. Did this Quarian think she was born last year? Fortunately she wasn't the only one who felt this way.
"This is obviously just a lie." The Turian councilor said with authority.
"Wha- What?" Rael said taken aback.
"I concur, the odds of this being fact are far below the norm. If you are lying you are doing a very poor job, if you aren't get your scanners checked, they are obviously faulty." The Salarian Councilor said sliding away his holographic representation of the picture.
"But listen to me, these rings are an ancient artifact, the last time we found something like this it propelled the galaxy forward thousands of years, and we are currently sitting on it!" Rael said, anger starting to seep into his voice
"We?" The Asari Councilor laughed. "We did not find anything." She said gesturing to the council and the Quarian. "We did." She said gesturing to only the council.
"You just happened to be around at the time." She continued to say. Raell again stepped backward in shock of the Councilors words.
"This 'Ring'" The Turian councilor said making quotations in the air, "Is nothing but a trick of light or a trick of Quarian make, I do not care which. All I know is that it is a waste of my time." The Turian said as he shook his head.
"And Mine." The Salarian said. The Asari councilor nodded her head in agreement. The Quarian was obviously angry now.
"How dare you question the integrity of the Quarian people!" He yelled at them.
"Is this the same integrity that led to the creation of the Geth?" The Turian Councilor asked getting angrier by the moment. This shut the Quarian up for a moment before he started again.
"We will continue our search for the ring, with or without your help. I pray that the Quarian people will be as generous to you Bosh'tets when we find it." He finished and walked away in anger, muttering curses. The three councilors shook their heads at eachother.
"This meeting is adjourned." The Asari councilor said as she quickly slinked away. She hoped the Quarians didn't do anything rash, that would be a headache that she didn't need. The Councilor didn't want to think about that right now. She had an appointment with Sha'ira the Asari Consort and she didn't want anything to ruin it for her.
2587 - Creators Cradle - Rannoch - Geth Intelligence
The Creator known as Rael'Zorah had been denied by the council. That was expected. The Council has always been slow to process information, or to ignore it entirely. The Geth however were different. Their sensors had picked up the Ring as well. They knew what they saw. They knew that it had disappeared. They had figured out within minutes how many explanations there were for it. Too many for numbers. They cut down to plausible ones. Still many. Plausible based on existing data. 100. Each program would spend hours researching and prodding each possible and plausible explanation based on the data they had received. It didn't take long, the Geth are not burdened by slow thoughts. Soon the Geth came up with one conclusion. Another civilization has cloaked the Ring and the space around it, possibly other places too. They had also found a way to make it impossible to travel to. This is reasoned by the fact that the Quarians had tried to get there but found only empty space. No civilization could cloak multiple star systems, unless they were extremely powerful, but the more possible solution was somehow moving something around the area rather than hiding the area from sight. The Geth would have to find a way to bypass the counter measure. But that would take time. Months maybe. For now, the Geth would compile a consensus. They would wait as they have before.
2588 - Alliance Search and Rescue - Deep Space - Agent Carolina
It didn't take long for the UNSC to pick us up, though now it was The Systems Alliance. A lot had happened since we had left from Valhalla . The techs tried to explain the reason for the lapse in time, something about being caught by a black hole. Didn't really matter to Carolina. All that mattered to her was that it was over, the project, her father the director. It was finished, now she could actually do something other than fumble around in the dark with the Reds and Blues.
"Hey hey hey hey. Careful there Carolina, I was a Blue remember?" A slightly arrogant voice said in her head. A small hologram of a Spartan carrying a sniper rifle appeared floating in mid air just next to her.
"You know Church, some thoughts are private." Carolina said to the small floating A.I.
"Yeah, but most aren't. How are you holding up?" Church asked looking up at the aqua colored spartan.
"Fine, more than fine. I'm just glad its all over." She said leaning back in her chair.
"Ooh, ooh ooh ooh ooh. Look," Church said as he pointed over to the other side of the transport. "Tucker is finally finding out that he didn't give birth to a alien."
"You never told him?" Carolina said with humor in her voice.
"Hell no. It was so much better for him to believe that he got pregnant then it was to tell him that his armor just had a baby alien in it." Church said as he watched in amusement.
"Why did the Director do that?" Carolina asked the floating A.I. "That seems a little . . ."
"Intense? Your father wanted to know how the troops would react if something like that ever did happen." The A.I. said, watching the group of reds and blues figure out what had really been going on.
"He really was creative, wasn't he." Carolina said sitting back in her chair on the transport.
"A little too creative if you ask me. I'm still trying to find out how he made up an entire religion for an alien race then have a bunch of Sangheili go along with it.
"He had his ways." Carolina commented. A soldier came in with new armor, stretching out like he had just put it on. He was wearing the basic armor with a mostly grey color with spots of yellow
"Wash, new clothes I see?" Carolina said as she stood up to greet her fellow freelancer.
"Yeah, they got an armoring system onboard. Really high tech. We missed a lot since we were gone Carolina." Wash said as he looked around the ship. The small A.I. appeared again, leaning against Carolina's helmet.
"You got that right, I've datamined this transports systems, you wouldn't believe half of the stuff they've done since we left. This Alliance that replaced the UNSC is doing a great job actually. I didn't think they had it in them." Church finished blipping back to floating in mid air.
"Well, whatever happened, I'd like to think it was for the better." Washington said as he started walking over to the reds and blues.
"I believe that when I see it." Carolina said as she was about to sit back down.
"Hey wait a sec, there is another armor set. Made for you actually. Looks pretty cool Carolina. And cool it with the cynicism, that's my thing." He said as he walked along with Carolina in mid air. They both headed over to where wash had come out.
"Well, like father like daughter." Carolina said teasingly.
"Ughgh." Church shuddered. "Don't talk about that. Makes me feel all weird and gross . . . and old too."
"I'm glad the fact that you are basically my dad appeals to you so much." Carolina said hiding a smile.
"Hey, hey, hey. I'm like your dad three times removed. I'm literally a memory of a copy of a cloned brain of your father. Thats a lot of removals."
"Whatever you say Church." Carolina said as she stepped into the armor bay. A circular apparatus with multiple tools on it awaited her. Before she could step forward, a hologram of someone appeared in front of her.
"Hello Agent Carolina." A man said. He was shorter than her, but not by much. He had salt and pepper hair with a round face. "My name his Captain Lasky, of the Infinity." He said pulling up a schematic of the ship. Carolina and a newly appeared church both saluted the captain.
"At ease." He said kindly. "I see you've been paired with an A.I., intelligence says your name is Epsilon." He said turning to the floating A.I.
"I go by Church now." He said respectfully.
"Ahh, my mistake. Well I have a proposition for the two of you." Lasky said as he tapped something on his end. The Apparatus began to spin and add things to itself, aqua colored power armor. "Same one I gave Agent Washington. He accepted. Before I give you your new armor I need you both to accept as well." Lasky said with his hands behind his back.
"From what we can tell, you two work very well together. The Alliance is not one to break apart a good team, but we also don't want to see a team get lost either." He said ominously.
"Sir, I'm feeling we are not getting the full story." Carolina said her hand at her side and another on her hip.
"A while back we lost a ship, The Wake of Starlight. Onboard were many valuable personal and hardware, among being Blue Team. I believe you are familiar." Lasky asked staying fairly stationary.
"Yes, we use to watch their vids during training." Carolina replied.
"We need them back, and were going to need a good team for it." Lasky said as the Apparatus finally stopped moving, like it was beckoning her. "We would like you to be on that team."
"We?" Carolina and Church said at the same time. Lasky smiled and looked down at something in his hand. The ship around them rumbled.
"It appears you have docked with the Infinity. The ones who asked for you to be on their team will be onboard shortly. Do you accept our offer?" Lasky said staring at both of them. Carolina and Church looked at eachother.
"Just a moment please." Carolina said as Church blipped into her suit and shut off the speakers.
"What do you think Church?" Carolina said, her yellow-green eyes looking over to the A.I. window on her hud. Church thought for a moment before speaking.
"When I thought I was still a Human, I remember joining the army because I thought it was a good cause, fighting Aliens, protecting the earth yada yada. When I was put through the red vs blue stuff, I began to think thats all that war was. Just mindless battling between people that should be fighting. But I see what's been going recently with the Alliance, and I'm getting that sense of responsibility again, of fighting the good fight. To fight for a cause." Church paused for a little bit and waited for Carolina to respond.
"Plus, what else would we do with our lives. Relax? Not exactly our style." Church said laughing a small bit.
"Oh I don't know." Carolina joked back. "I was just thinking about going out for a beach day."
"Somehow I can't see you in a bikini out working on your tan." Church said, they both laughed.
"Do we have our answer than?" Church asked. When Carolina nodded, Church switched back on the speakers.
"We accept." They both said at the same time.
"Then suit up Spartan. Your team will be with you shortly." Lasky said as he disappeared.
"Why did he call me Spartan? I'm a Freelancer." Carolina said as she stepped into the armor bay.
"Same thing, technically anyway." Church said as Carolina transferred him into a nearby Pedestal. "The Freelancer program was sub section of the Spartan III program. The Director commandeered some of the Spartan serum, Mark IV power armor along with some equipment. You actually have better training though, more augmentation to be precise." Church said as he watched his partners armor be taken off.
"So, better than Spartan III's in a way." Carolina asked curiously.
"Well here's where it gets interesting. THe freelancers never had shields, like the Spartans nowadays do, so in order to compensate, you had more augmentation. Higher reflexes, strength, eyesight, the works." Church told her as she had new armor put on her. She finally got undocked by the armor bay and stepped off, she was wearing full recon armor, with her standard aqua blue. She tested out the feel of it and grabbed Church from his pedestal.
"Could probably even give the Master Chief a run for his money." Church told her as they turned around.
"I wouldn't say that." a gruff voice sounded as they turned around. Carolina turned around to see a group of people that were even more mismatched than the Reds and Blues. At the back of the group were two Spartans wearing dark grey and armor, armor that came up on the hud as "N7 standard." (Basically standard Spartan IV armor but with the Alliance Navy Helmet from Mass Effect, except the visor is standard spartan visor, not clear.) The next person was a huge Sangheili warrior, wearing shiny and ceremonial armor. The Hud read it simply as "Arbiter". The person next person was Washington who gave a friendly wave, which looked very out of place in this group.
The closest person to them, the one that spoke was the one that made Carolina freeze. He had on deep green armor and standard Mark VI set up. A scrape had come off over the right part of his chest. In his hands he held his signature MA5D Battle Rifle. Over his left shoulder was a floating silver ball with a bright blue eye. On his right shoulder was a beautiful blue woman, obviously an A.I., her hands behind her back.
Before she could react, Church sprung out as a hologram. He was wearing new armor now too, not reminiscent of Washington's armor, just blue. He appeared to be lost for words as he stared at the floating blue woman above the green spartans shoulder.
"Cortana?" He asked, obviously lost for words. The blue woman giggled.
"Yes. It's nice to see you again Alpha."
January 22, 2577 - Just Outside Influence of Chasm - Forward Unto Dawn & Unknown Turian Vessel - Cortana
Cortana did scans of the Turian Ship as John ran through the broken Dawn. Spark was briefing John on some of the information he had learned on the Ark. Mostly about how to kill turians, and the abilities of their technology. Needless to say, John was unimpressed.
They had all made it to the place the Alien ship had docked, it was around the same size of the aft section of the Dawn. Cortana scanned the boarding tube for any lifeforms. She found none.
"Should be clear, but they may be cloaked, stay sharp." Cortana told the Master Chief worriedly. John took a quick look around the edge of the wall and was promptly met with small bullet to the face. Unfortunately for the turian, it only pissed the Spartan off.
Chief whirled around the corner of the tube and unloaded on anything that moved. The cloaking system that the aliens had was very advanced at hiding them, but was also rather useless after a while, only cloaking the individual for a short time. John got headshots on all the Turians whilst wading through their bullets.
"What is this thing?!" One of the turians yelled before he ate one of the Master Chiefs bullets. John quickly unloaded a clip and had a new one appear in his hands without a moment's pause. He kept showering the enemy with bullets, but they just kept on coming.
Dozens of Turians were piling out of the ship and out into the tube. It didn't matter that his armor was invulnerable from their weapons. The sheer force of them was enough to put him at a standstill, he was literally being pushed backward by the force of the bullets. John let out a huge breath as he slammed down hard on the blue button at the back of his hand. Sparks angry voice could be heard by all as the button glowed orange.
The Monitor screamed as the silver color vanished from Chiefs arm. John lifted his arm up towards the horde of Turians and his hand began to glow. Suddenly, like the fresh clips for his rifle, a silver ball began to form in his hand. Within a millisecond, Sparks body was clutched in the Chief's hand.
"I said TAP!" he cried as his eye turned a vibrant orange. A energy beam blasted out of the Monitors eye, all but melting everything in its path. The Chief guided the beam with his hand, washing away the life of every Turian in front of him.
Soon, all that was left of the forces was a smoldering pile of bodies.
"Glad you're on our side again Spark." John said as he let go of the floating robot. "Thanks." He finished as he stepped over a few bodies.
"My pleasure, Spartan. My scans show no more life forms on this vessel, though there may be some cloaked, I highly doubt it however." Spark said as he followed closely over the Chiefs left shoulder.
"I doubt they would come out, after seeing what just happened." Cortana said as she scanned the Chief's armor for any damage. Surprisingly none.
"I don't know how these people got so far with such ineffective weapons." Cortana said as the Chief walked through the strange vessel.
Eventually they found their way to the control room of the ship.
"What's the status of the ship?" Chief asked as he found a place for Cortana to hop into. She appeared in a hologram area, replacing a galaxy map.
"Everything is good to go . . . except for the FTL drives." Cortana said looking over to the Chief and Spark. "They purged them along with the local information core after you unleashed Spark over there. Engines still working, they could get us to almost the speed of light. We should be able to make it back to earth in about-" Cortana paused mid sentence.
"9 Years." She continued. Looking sadly over to John, he showed no emotion, he simply looked over to Spark.
"How long will it take you to make a cryochamber in here." He asked. Spark let out a small laugh and turned over to a wall. His eye began to glow as a massive stream of light poured out of it. In a matter of seconds, a cryo chamber rose right out of the floor.
"Fast enough?" Spark said with humor, John looked at him curiously. "Cortana's personality appears to have rubbed off on me a small bit." He explained shyly. "I hope the Cryo Chamber is to your liking, Spartan." He finished.
John turned over to Cortana who gave him a small smile and a head nod.
"Sweet dreams, John." Cortana told him. John only nodded his head.
"Wake me when you need me." He told her for the second time as he walked over to the cryo chamber. He leaned back into it and watched Cortana. Before the door closed all the way, he tossed out a small ball which cortana jumped to seamlessly.
Cortana watched in her full Human size as her Spartan fell asleep for the second time. His visor never turned away from her as the ice overtook the glass. The final his let Cortana know that the process was complete.
The blue Synthetic Organism took a place just opposite where the monitor was floating, she herself took up the same floating stance as before.
"As I was saying, The Asari were actually a failed interaction of the Humans by the Precu . . ." Spark continued to tell Cortana as she made the Turian ship detach from the ruin formerly known as Forward Unto Dawn. She plotted a course for Earth and hit the engines, propelling the ship at close to lightspeed back home.
A/N: So there is Chapter 3. I hope you all liked it. Now I will be trying to explain some of the stuff from previous episodes in future episodes that don't exactly make sense. I don't want to retcon anything anymore, just trying to go with the flow. As allways, your constructive criticism is very much appreciated. If anyone has any ideas about what to add to the fiction, I would be very happy to hear them. I love hearing your guys ideas and some of them have actually made an impact on the story already! So please Review and Rate away! If you have any more questions that might not fit in a review or might be to personal, feel free to PM me!
Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you all catch the next chapter of JoW!