If one were to ask what Xen was, you would get a multitude of answers.

If you were to ask a member of the religious hegemony known as the Covenant Empire; you would most likely be cut down on the spot for even daring to mention the 'Hells where Demons Lurk'. And for those that were more logical, it would evoke reactions of fear; and you would be ordered to keep your mouth shut, or else you might draw 'their' attention.

If you were to ask a member of the Turian Hierarchy, you would be given an odd look for even mentioning the place where the Spirits lurked.

For Asari, it was the realm of malicious demons, antithetical to the goddess Athame and her gift of biotics.

For the Vortigaunts, it is a place of solace; a safe haven and home to their friends and protectors, the 'Old Ones'.

For Guardians, it was the realm that held one of the most powerful wielders of darkness; and the original bearers of light.

For the more scientifically minded (such as the Salarians), Xen is an anomaly in their perfect and structured little world. Xen, by all scientific accounts, should not exist. It was known as 'The world between dimensions.' It was the crossroads of the multiverse, where the 'junk' of the multiverse was dumped and left to its own devices.

There had been visitors to Xen, besides the Vortigaunts of course, in the past; mainly by the Protheans and the Forerunners. Both had been kicked out of the World between Dimensions with their tails tucked between their legs.

They refused to speak of what they had seen, once they had returned to their respective universes, but there was one thing they did speak of to their respective peoples.

Xen was not uninhabited, many creatures and animals called it home; but this was not a shock to anyone. It was to be expected of course, even if it existed outside the laws of space and time; it was still a place filled with planets, nebulae, and stars.

No… what had truly spooked them, was that a sentient race inhabited this border world.

They called themselves… Humans.

"A race as old and as long lived as humanity, you would think that they would know how they came to be in a place as harsh and as cold as Xen.

"Alas, not even the oldest of humans are old enough to remember how this came to be; all they have are legends passed down to each other through song and epics. After talking and interviewing the various clans; and talking with a number of 'nomads' that do not associate with those clans, I have come up with a theory.

"The most prevalent human legend is the tale of what they call 'Genesis'.

"Human years are quite… skewed, so the dates don't really match up; but they claim that their God, in seven days and seven nights created the universe. Which universe they speak of is not something I am able to determine, but my main source has noted that there are multiple universes where humans evolved like a normal sentient race.

"But she also pointed out that many of these universes are only 7 billion years old.

"But I digress.

"This God then created the sky, the oceans, the ground, and animals to populate all three realms. Then on the seventh day, their God rested, looked upon his creation and saw that it was good.

"Then, their God made the first human; and from that first man, came the first woman. This area of legend is muddled, and differs wildly from tribe to tribe; nomad to nomad, but that starting bit is the same throughout.

"The one theme that remains consistent, is that humanity seemed to constantly fight with their God; have grave misfortune and death befall them, and they would come running back to their God, and then good fortune and love would follow. Many compare the relationship to that of a child disobeying their parents, and then realizing the error of their ways and returning to them.

"But the legends say that eventually, their God tired of humanity's constant disobedience.

"My source has told me that, 'In most tales passed down to us, God could get quite snarky when he wanted to. When he banished us to Xen, he gave us our gifts and connection to the Vortessence; and essentially said, 'You know, I'm really tired of you going and getting into trouble and coming running back to me to bail you out. I'm sending you to the junkyard of the multiverse, sort things out yourself.''

"Now what does this all mean?

"From a scientific and anthropological standpoint, it stands to reason that ancient humanity was forcibly moved from their homeworld into Xen by some ancient Alien race; and they interpreted this move as their God punishing them for their wars and infighting amongst themselves.

"Is it possible for us to make an alliance with humans? I cannot say. But what I will say is that they are a most interesting race."

-Professor Mordin Solus, STG Report.

The bright blues, purples, greens, and reds of the nebula in which the 'Core' of Xen resided was something that never failed to take one's breath away.

For Yehochanan (or Jane for short) of the Hunters Clan, she always wondered what it was like to see what was outside of her people's realm. Jane always found her thoughts roaming like this whenever she was on the hunt; or whenever she was herding the various animals that wandered the border world.

She stalked quietly through a cluster of foliage, watching a bullsquid as it drank up some water; the predator keeping an eye out for any form of danger or potential prey, such as headcrabs.

Jane froze for a moment when the bullsquid's eye rolled over towards where she was sneaking, and she held her breath and prayed that her milky pale skin and red hair did not give her away.

She had forgone her normal loincloth, tooth necklace, wolfs-cloak, and rib-bone chestplate; carrying only a simple spear, and having rolled around in the mud and dirt. She had no animal skin smells, and while her milky pale body was something that could be easily spotted; the mud covering her should be enough to camouflage her.

She had even gone so far as to dampen her vortal connection so that the animal didn't sense her presence.

After a long moment, the bullsquid went back to drinking its water, so Jane struck. Her spear flew through the air, and buried itself in the bullsquids leg; and the animal bellowed in rage and pain as yellow blood spewed from the wound.

It immediately fixed its angered gaze on the direction the spear had been thrown, and spat a wave of acid; the deadly chemicals glowing green in the nebula's light.

But Jane had already moved and hopped out of the woods, having done a quick teleport away from where she had launched her initial attack; and reappeared behind her wounded prey. A wolfish grin crossed her face, and Jane quickly wound up her arms, emerald green lightning sparking and crackling for a moment; before she released the vortal lightning.

The bullsquid screamed in pain, before falling to the ground dead; twitching and sparking for a few moments, before going still completely.

Jane waited for a moment to make sure it was dead, then she whooped and cheered loudly. "Yes! HAHAHA! I'm gonna be eating good tonight!" She shouted, doing a quick dance before strutting over to the dead bullsquid and grabbing her spear.

She yanked it out and hopped backwards from the spray of blood, and began cheerfully whistling as she grabbed the corpse and hefted it up onto her shoulders.

She started to walk, when she sensed another presence nearby and froze; before she dropped her kill and turned, pointing her spear in the direction of the presence that she had sensed.

"This is my meal! Stay back!" She ordered, winding up a charge in one hand, while cocking back her spear arm in preparation to throw.

A loud chuckle came from the bushes, and Jane nearly dropped her spear in surprise as her friend Kaiden emerged. "I know it's your meal Janey, I was just wondering if you could share?" He asked with an easy going smirk, crossing his arms over his bone chestplate; before he glanced down and raised a brow. "And also wondering why you are not guarding your womanhood?"

Jane blushed heavily and stabbed her spear into the ground, before shifting her hands over her womanhood and breasts. "I couldn't wear any skins or trophies, or it would have smelled me." She mumbled, shifting from foot to foot.

Kaiden rolled his eyes and held out an arm. "You're so easy to fluster. I swear, for all the naked hunting you do, the Hunting clan is made up of prudes." He grumbled, before removing his own loincloth and bone-plate.

Lifting his hands, he telepathically lifted them over to Jane, who had turned as red as blood. She squeaked loudly upon seeing him declothe and turned away, before grabbing his bone-plate and cloth out of the air and pulled them on. "Thanks." She mumbled, still pointedly not looking at Kaidens exposed manhood.

"Relax kid." Kaiden grumbled, walking up and levitating the Bullsquid.

She just gave a loud squeak in response and pulled the shadows around her, disappearing from view. Kaiden rolled his eyes and hauled the bullsquid towards where Jane's cave was and dropped it at the entrance.

His loincloth and bone-chest plate was tossed at him from inside; and he pulled them both back on, even as Jane emerged from the darkness. Still a little red faced, but wearing her own bone-chest plate, wolf's cloak, and loincloth now.

She pushed past him and began cleaning the kill, while Kaiden crossed his arms and leaned against the cave wall.

"So, how're ya doing kid?" He asked, watching as she removed the liver and set it on the ground; probably so she could feed one of the Xenian Wolves that roamed around the archipelago. She always tried to have some food ready for them, mainly because she thought they were cute.

Jane shrugged as she pulled out the intestines, throwing them onto the pile of 'inedible for humans' parts. "I'm okay, I was working with houndeye meat, some onions, and apples." She said.

Kaiden frowned, "And… have you interacted with other tribes? Or members of your own clan for that matter?" He asked, already guessing her response.

The confused expression she gave him told Kaiden all he needed to know.

He sighed, "Look, Ash and I have been thinking; you need to interact with other people more, kid."

She pouted and gave him the puppy wolf eyes that would have brought a lesser man to his knees and gushing about how cute she was; but Kaiden was unmoved, having grown a resistance to it over the years.

Yehochanan of the Hunting clan had no real family to speak of.

She had other clan members that looked after her, but for the most part she had been left to herself. Kaiden and Ash had both come to this particular island fifteen years ago; Ash wanting to have a child, and wanting a new place to live with better hunting grounds. So it was a bit of a surprise to meet little Jane, ten years old and only barely having a grasp on her vortal powers, wandering around in a jungle of Shining Trees all by herself.

Once they had learned that her parents had been lost to the Tower when she was very young, Kaiden and Ash had taken it upon themselves to look after the girl; and even saw her as a younger sibling at times.

Only problem was that little Jane was skittish at best; and she scared easily, especially when it came to interacting with other people.

It had taken months for Kaiden and Ash to build up enough trust with Jane before she had been willing to treat with them; which was helped when Ash had given birth to their son, and the two of them had brought him to meet little Jane.

Jane was far too curious for her own good, in spite of her skittishness.

Kaiden sighed and closed his eyes, shaking himself from his thoughts while Jane continued staring up at him with a hopeful gaze.

"Yehochanan." He said sternly, and Jane cowered at the use of her full name. "You're twenty-five. You're old enough to live in your own cave, but you're still too young to live alone like this without a clan or tribe." And too old to be pulling the wolf pup routine on me… and yet it still nearly worked. He thought, leaving that unsaid. He was nearly 100 years old, and somehow Jane was still able to make him breakdown with those wolf-pup eyes.

Jane just looked down and kicked her heel into the ground, "Can't I live with you and Ash?" She asked.

Kaiden smiled sadly, "Sorry kiddo, food's a little tight right now; especially with how much James is growing." He said gently, before adding. "And you know how the rules go."

He really would have taken her in with Ash and his son, he really wanted to as a matter of fact; but she was too old, and it would be seen as unseemly to do so. Once a child reached 13, they were given their own cave to live in; due to both their developing bodies, and because it taught them self reliance early.

She grumbled loudly and huffed, going back to cleaning her kill.

Kaiden sighed and looked away in thought; and he grimaced as he caught sight of the Nihilanths Tower. It stood on a truly massive island, and it seemed to stare them down even with all the distance that separated them.

"Look… The courting festival is coming up soon." Kaiden said, "So I'll cut you a deal. You go to the tribe today or tomorrow, and sell your animal skins… or you go to the Courting festival."

The horrified look on her face told Kaiden her answer; and he laughed all the way back to his cave.

Captain Jon'Shepard vas Chitikka, Ex-Citadel Council Spectre, sat in the command chair of his cruiser, scowling behind his mask.

He glared down at his pilot, Julius 'Joker' Moreau, and he took a little bit of pleasure on seeing the Turian squirm uncomfortably in his chair. Jon only needed to glare at the other man for a few more seconds before he finally cracked from the pressure.

"Garrus was the one that set up the betting pool!" The Turian squawked, cringing as Garrus shot him a look of betrayal.

"Traitor." Garrus grumbled, before giving Jon the most innocent look he could manage. "I wasn't alone Shepard, Kas also helped out with it."

"Hey!" Kas'Goto vas Tasi exclaimed, popping in out of nowhere, her silvery eyes flashing behind her red mask. "That's more than a little hypocritical, Spike! Calling Joker a traitor when you sell me out not a half a second later!"

Jon sighed and rolled his eyes, leaning back in his seat and wishing he could remove his visor and rub his nose. "And can you all tell me why you all set one of the bets to, 'Shepard sets up a harem'?" He snorted, "For Ancestors sake, I made bets into that damned thing, and you two didn't tell me about that particular bet!?"

"To be fair." Garrus started, shifted in his own seat, "I did tell Kas it was a bad idea."

Kas just blew a raspberry at Garrus. "C'mon Spike, half the women on this ship pine after him." She vanished from sight for a second, then reappeared; poking Jon's chest muscles. "I mean, look at him. He has a perfect six pack, and muscles that you can see through the suit!" She exclaimed, still poking him; even as Jon sighed and shook his head.

"Kas."

"Yes?" She asked, sounding far too innocent for Jons tastes.

"Please stop touching me." He said, trying his best to sound bored. "Not to say I don't like it, but I tend to avoid cockblocking my friends."

He smirked wickedly as Garrus made a choking sound, while Kas squeaked and jumped backwards while vanishing; reappearing on the opposite side of the bridge, practically squishing herself against the bulkhead to get away from Garrus.

Joker laughed and spun his chair around, continuing to pilot the ship forward towards where they had last seen the anomalies.

"So… Who were the crew going for?" Jon asked, smirking now as he leaned back in his seat.

Garrus seemed to deflate, and grumbled something about having to refund all the money in the 'harem pool' before he said, "We had a healthy number on Jak."

Jon winced slightly at the thought.

The violent biotic Quarian was a hot one, but she was also crazy and violent. She wore a 'reverse suit', which was just a regular envirosuit but flipped. A regular envirosuit had the intimate areas transparent, which were then covered with a Raelk and Sehni; while the rest of the body was covered up by the suit itself. It was a way for couples to be intimate when a clean room wasn't available.

A 'reverse suit' was only used by prostitutes; as it flipped the transparency areas, with the nipples and groin being covered up, but the rest was transparent.

Adding to that, Jak had a very hot temper and her biotics were on par with an Asari Battle Matron; not someone he wanted to tangle with. Hell, he wouldn't put it past her to use her hair-quills to do some acupuncture on him in the middle of sex.

Still… she's quite nice under that prickly personality… doesn't look that half bad either. He thought with a dreamy expression, before he shook himself out of it.

"Who else?" Jon asked.

"Miri." Kas replied, no longer hiding herself in embarrassment; and was back to her normal jolly self.

"No thank you." Jon said flatly.

The buxom Asari Ice Queen was not someone he wanted to share a bed with; in any lifetime… granted, it was fun to tease her and tweak that perfect little nose while admiring those giant 'assets'...

No! Bad Jon! He shook his head, "Next."

Garrus winced, "Tali."

The expression of disgust on Jons face was clear, even through his visor; and Kas stepped in before it could get ugly. "Yeah, we thought it was weird too."

"She's like a little sister to me." Jon barked, "Who bet on that one?!"

Garrus held up his talons. "Relax, we'll handle them. Don't want to scare them off, now do we?" He asked.

Jon grumbled something under his breath. "Anyone else."

"Only significant other candidate was… Liara…" He looked away while Jon bowed his head slightly.

"I told her it was over." He said, his voice cold. "After she handed my body over to the QueensWatch; I thought I made it clear to all that it was over between us."

"Jon…" Garrus said slowly, gently, "I know the two of you are trying to remain civil for the team's sake, and I know things were said that cannot be unsaid…" He took a breath. "But she's still our friend, even if she's busy doing Shadow Broker stuff."

Jon looked away. "I know… Garrus… But I can't. She used us… Maybe someday I'll forgive her, but not any time soon." He finally said.

Silence reigned for several seconds, when Kas jumped up from where she had been sitting, "Well that got depressing really fast." She exclaimed, before shooting forward and grabbed Garrus' hand. "C'mon Spike! We got some people to refund."

"But-But-But! My money!" Garrus whined as he was dragged out.

Jon chuckled, his melancholy fading away as he stood, "Alright, Joker I'm out; you good here?" He asked.

"All good Captain." Joker replied, his mandibles buzzing slightly.

Jon nodded and went to walk out when Joker spun in his chair and said, "Oh, and Captain?" Jon paused and turned to face the pilot. "My money's on Jak, don't make me poor."

Jon snorted and kept walking, trying to ignore Joker as the Turian laughed at him. Bah! I'll show him. He thought before he stopped and winced as his most recently added crewmember stepped in front of him.

While Geth may have been sentient, it always caused Jon a healthy amount of discomfort talking to one; mainly because of how Geth always ran on logic, and nothing else.

"Creator Shepard." A feminine sounding voice came from the Geth's head, and Jon gave it a nod.

"EDI." He replied, "I think Joker needs ya up in the cockpit."

"Pilot-Moreau has not requested my assistance." The Geth replied, sounding confused as it tilted its head.

Jon sighed, "Perhaps not, but we're coming up on the anomaly soon, and I'd like you up there in case something happens." He explained, which was mostly true; as the anomaly that the QueensWatch had sent them chasing after was potentially dangerous.

But he also didn't want to deal with EDI and her-It's literal mindedness.

"Of course, Creator Shepard." The Geth replied, before walking past him.

Jon took a breath and released it before continuing on his way to the engineering section. It never ceased to amaze him how Salarians, Turians, Asari, Batarians, and Quarians could all work together under the concept of fighting the Reapers; and it was also surprising how many of them were willing to accept the fact that he just came back from the dead.

Then again, the QueensWatch had probably hand picked all these people for him; so that wasn't a surprise.

"Ah, Jon."

Jon turned and smiled as Tali walked over, bouncing on her toes as she bounded over from her work station. "How are you doing M'łodsza sios'tra?" He asked, rubbing the top of her helmet as if he was doing the same to her hair-quills.

Tali fussed with her Sehni for a moment, and gave him an annoyed glare before deflating somewhat. "Mostly okay, Ken and Gabby are being their usual selves." She sent a glance over his shoulder, and Jon turned around to see what she was looking at.

Ken'Donnelly was clearly flirting with Ghabbika Drabkass; the Batarian women looking both flattered and annoyed by the Quarians banter with her.

Jon chuckled and shook his head. "Has Jak been causing trouble?"

"Beyond asking me if her suit decorations look good? No more than usual." Tali replied, sounding slightly uneasy, bashful, and disgusted all at the same time.

"Wow, high praise. Maybe I should break a few things or run around naked just to shake things up."

Tali visibly tensed, and Jon sighed as his little sister-figure spun around in a purple blur. "Why are you out here instead of in your hidey hole?" Tali demanded.

Jak'Nikt vas Tasi smirked in reply, "Because Mr. Gallant Knight was asking around, that's why."

"Ladies, play nice." Jon warned, even as he looked over Tali's shoulder to make sure Jak wasn't armed or anything.

If one were to look at her, you would think she was covered in tattoos; when in reality it was just painting and stickers that Jak had put onto her suit. Her nipples and groin were the only things covered up, while the rest of her body was visible for all the world to see. Even her helmet and mask were transparent.

She was a beautiful woman, even an idiot could admit that.

Slightly scarred, but otherwise smooth light blue skin; midnight blue hair-quills that trailed down to her chin, bright mercury eyes, a heart shaped face…

Jon shook his head, "Well, since you're here, is there anything you need Jak?" He asked, already knowing that something vulgar was going to come out of her mouth.

Jak just adopted a thoughtful expression for a moment, "Eh, maybe some sex if anyone was willing; but I'm good otherwise."

Tali growled, "I know you installed that nerve-stim pro; just… mute your damned vox-mitter next time you use it."

Jak just laughed, her eyes flashing in amusement. "Maybe next time you can join me; or Mr. Gallant Knight can." She said in a sultry voice, gliding past Tali and running her hand across Jons chest for a moment.

"I'll pass." Jon replied flatly, "Jak, have you not been taking your medication?"

"So what if I haven't?" Jak retorted, frowning and crossing her arms.

"Because you need to take them, and I can tell if the fact that your sex drive is going up." Jon stated simply, crossing his arms in kind and giving her a stern glare.

Even a suit like Jak's had special functions built into it; among others, it had a medication cocktail that dispensed vitamins that Quarians couldn't normally get, along with water. It also had a drug that reduced a Quarians sex drive, not by much; but enough so that they didn't rut like animals whenever they felt the urge.

Jak scoffed, but reluctantly brought up her omnitool and typed in a few commands, followed by a faint clicking sound coming from her suit; then she seemed to visibly tense for a few seconds, then she relaxed. Though if Jon were to guess, he would put money on Jak being quite unhappy with him.

"You always ruin my fun." She grumbled.

Jon just rubbed his visor, "I'm just looking out for ya Jak."

"Captain, you're needed on the bridge. We're approaching the anomaly now." Joker's voice sounded over the comms.

"Right then." Jon sighed, "Duty calls. See you girls later."

He turned and started walking back to the bridge, but he saw Jak following him out of the corner of his eye.

He shot her a look, and the biotic just shrugged. "Eh, could be exciting; may as well take a look."

Jon shook his head, "You sure you're not stalking me?" He asked, smirking slightly.

She had a temper, but it was always fun to watch it. She never hurt anyone, being more bark than bite; and he had to admit that she was cute when she tried to be intimidating, especially when she tried staring down Samara that one time.

Jak just glared at him, though he could see her cheeks turn a little blue for a moment before she turned her gaze forward, muttering to herself the whole way.

Jon just smiled, Today is a good day.

The Young Wolf, Iron Lady Whisper-11, the next Hunter Vanguard; there were many ways that people referred to the young Guardian Hunter.

But chief among them was that she was the next Cayde-6.

She was just like her mentor in many ways; sarcastic, irreverent, joking… and above all else, really good at her job. However much one may have disliked her class clown personality, you could not deny that she was probably one of the best Guardians that had been created. The only problem was that Cayde-6 was her mentor.

Cayde and Whisper didn't see this as a problem, and in fact many joked to Cayde whenever he bragged about something Whisper had accomplished; that he was bragging about his 'kid' to anyone that would listen.

Not that Cayde or Whisper really denied how they saw each other; as the young kinderguardian always seemed to follow in her mentor's footsteps whenever she could.

And at the moment, she was doing something that would have Cayde doubled over laughing and clapping; and having Ikora Rey and Commander Zavala shaking their heads in disappointment. 'What was she doing?' you might be asking; well she was dancing in the middle of a warzone while singing of course, and having her Ghost provide the music to sing to (against his will of course).

"Boom boom, boom boom."

Whisper kicked her feet and drew her Sunshot Handcannon, and quickly blasted a number of Scorn running at her; the explosion of solar energy cooking the group of them as their leader fell dead from a hole in his head.

"Gonna shoot you right down."

Whisper grinned as much as an Exo could grin as she fired several more shots at a few more Scorn; her light blue eyes and yellow mouth shining brightly, while her white and gray head bobbed to the beat, even as she continued to sing.

"Take you in my arms."

A Scorn launched itself at her, and she did a perfect pirouette; causing the Scorn to overshoot her and crash into a cluster of his comrades, all of whom she promptly cooked by shooting one in the head.

"I'm in love with you."

She holstered Sunshot into her Lucky Pants (a revival-day gift from Cayde), and then drew her auto rifle Arc Logic; and began spraying into the Scorn while pirouetting again, taking a large number down with only one magazine.

While to an outsider, it looked like she was just spraying bullets; to someone who could actually process it fast enough, one could see that she was actually one tapping each individual Scorn as they approached.

She was just aiming and firing so quickly, it looked and sounded like she was just spraying bullets.

"Love that is true."

She saw a Scorn Baron at the rear of the pack, and she quickly formed a Golden Gun and lined up a shot to take out the enemy boss.

"Boom boom, boom bo-OOOF!"

Whisper was sent flying off to one side as a Scorn mace smashed into her side.

She slammed into the wall of the cave, her Golden Gun disappearing, while she dropped Sunshot to the ground. Ghost quickly returned the weapon to Whisper's backpack, before he appeared and chirped angrily at her. "This is why you don't screw around in combat."

"Ah, I'm fine." She grumbled, pushing herself to her feet and drawing her broadsword; Young Wolf's Howl, and she settled into a proper mordhau fighting stance even as a dozen Scorn gathered around her. "But now I'm pissed, they interrupted my singing."

"Your skewed priorities never cease to amaze me." Ghost remarked, disappearing back into her backpack.

Whisper ignored him as she began tearing through the Scorn, grumbling the whole while that they had interrupted her flow. As her broadsword decapitated one Scorn, her comms channel lit up, and she smiled slightly as the familiar voice of her mentor filled her ears.

"Hey kid, how're things going?" Cayde-6 asked, sounding bored, which meant that he was probably in the tower somewhere.

Whisper ducked under a swing from a mace, and stabbed into the Scorn raiders heart. "I'm a little busy at the moment."

"So I see." Cayde replied, sounding amused now as he doubtlessly tapped into her helmet feed. "Look, once you're no longer busy; I need you to do me a favor."

"That being?" Whisper asked as she kicked a Scorn Raider back, drew Sunshot; and blew his head off with a single round, causing an explosion of solar energy that took out a cluster of enemies.

"Well, Ikora found some kind of portal near your position. The Vex seem to be very interested in getting it up and running."

Whisper groaned, even as she spun and bisected a cluster of Scorn. "Please tell me that I'm not gonna have to deal with that nutbag Asher again?" She begged.

"Don't worry, I'll be your handler for this." Cayde assured her. "And hey! I actually got a full briefing prepared and everything, and Zavala can't interrupt me."

"What is there to say, Cayde?" Ghost said, speaking up while Whisper was occupied in mopping up the last of the Scorn. "There's a Vex portal that needs to be shut down. Briefing done."

"Awwww… You guys ruined my briefing again." Cayde whined.

"If Ghost could sum it up in one sentence and ruin it, it wasn't much of a briefing Cayde." Whisper retorted, drawing Sunshot and blasting the last three Scorn. "Alright, I'll get moving towards this portal."

"Good, I'll stay on the line and make sure you don't need backup or anything." Cayde confirmed.

Whisper smirked, "You just want an excuse to get out of the tower, don't you?"

"...Maybe?"

"Ha! Good luck with that Old Man. Ghost! Give me some good traveling music, this is gonna be a long ride."

John quietly placed Linda into the cryo tube, a slight tremor in his hands from grief and bitterness as he did so. She was clinically dead, but the cryopod would preserve her brain functions long enough until her heart could be restarted and her body healed.

Which was more than could be said for James, since he was floating helplessly out there in space.

Swallowing heavily, the Chief walked out of the cryobay and towards the bridge, hoping to receive at least some good news from the Captain. He was instead greeted by controlled chaos and a sight which he had seen many times; but one that he had never gotten used to. The sight of a planet being glassed.

Only this time, it wasn't some colony that had been found; it was his home.

And his family was still on the surface. Dr. Halsey, Fred, Kelly, William, and all the rest were still trapped down there; and there was not a thing he could do to help them. All he could do was hope that they would find a way to survive the onslaught of plasma from orbit.

"Cortana, how long till we jump to slipspace?" Captain Keyes asked, his cool voice breaking John out of his thoughts; then the Pillar of Autumn jerked to the side somewhat.

"Sorry Captain, avoiding some Pulse Laser fire." Cortana replied, "Thirty minutes to slipspace jump."

Keyes nodded, and turned to the Chief; blinking as he took in the Spartans battle damaged armor. "Chief, I trust the mission was a success?" He asked.

The Chief nodded in response. "Yes sir, I wouldn't have left otherwise."

Keyes sighed, a relieved smile crossing his face for a moment. "The Earth is safe for another day." He breathed out.

John glanced over at Cortana, then back at the Captain, and he said hesitantly; "Sir… One of my men, when we were boarding the station his thruster pack was punctured; and he went sailing off into the black. Could you see if he's still alive?"

Keyes blinked, then nodded, "Aye Chief, the least I can do." He turned to one of the officers; and she gave a few sensor pings, before turning and giving a sad head shake. Keyes nodded and turned back to John and said, "I'm sorry Chief. Nothing."

"Acknowledged." John replied, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

It was a terrible way to die, drifting alone in space and slowly running out of oxygen. It was not an end that befitted a Spartan like James. Reluctantly, the chief brought up the list of Spartans under his command; and marked them all as MIA, pausing on Kelly, Fred, and Linda's in particular.

He looked down at the deck, even as the ship jerked again to avoid more pulse laser fire; simply choosing to stand there as the minutes ticked by.

"Are you alright?" Cortana whispered in his helmet as they began activating the slipspace drive, and John sighed.

"I'll adapt." He replied, even as the slipspace portal opened in front of them.

"That wasn't an answer." Cortana noted.

"It wasn't." And he had nothing more to say as they began to enter the portal.

"Alright Gordon, your suit should keep you comfortable through all this. Now, if you would be so good as to climb up and start the rotors; we can bring the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to 80%, and hold it there until the Carrier arrives."

This would be an interesting test, Gordon would admit that.

He walked over to the ladder leading up to his work station, and started climbing; taking care to not hit his helmet on the rungs as he climbed upwards to the platform. Once he got to the top and walked over to his work console, quickly logging in and typing his password; his fingers being literal blurs as they began activating the different programs and routines.

He had to be careful as he typed.

The Hazardous Environment Vehicle Mark IV, mostly just called the HEV Suit, had originally been developed for the military; but it had been deemed to be too expensive to produce. Indeed, only 150 had been built; at least, of the Mark IV, since he didn't know what had been done with the Mark III, II, and I's once the IV had been developed.

It used microscopic nanites controlled by the suits AI to enhance the users strength, speed, endurance, reaction time, and their healing factor. And that wasn't even mentioning the high impact reactive armor that could tank a number of .50 BMG rounds.

It was safe to assume the HEV turned its user into a walking tank.

Finally, after a minute of typing, Dr. Hood got back onto the mic, "All good Gordon?" He asked.

Gordon brought up the text box, and typed, "Yes, all good, staring now." Then he hit the red button activating the rotors. He grimaced behind his helmet as he caught the broken emergency shutdown button; and he saw the sticky note that he had written.

"Must be fixed before next test. -Dr. F"

I hope they actually followed through on that in case something goes wrong. He thought to himself, even as the Anti-Mass Spectrometer booted up, slowly lowering the energy rotors, and starting its spin.

"Very good. We'll take it from here." Dr. Hood stated, and Gordon turned his attention back to the readouts he was getting from the massive machine.

"Power to stage one Emitters activating… now." Dr. Stern relayed over the mic, and the central beam activated with a flash of yellow light; the energy crackled as the room began to shake from the sheer power being exuded by the AMS.

Gordon glanced over to make sure the beam was properly discharging, before turning his attention back to the energy readouts. Hm… The discharge seems to be a little high, but it's within tolerance. Gordon noted, quickly writing it down in his notebook.

"Power to stage two Emitters activating."

Doctor Hood came on then, sounding slightly uneasy. "Uh, Gordon, we cannot predict how long the system can operate at these levels; nor how long the readings will take. So please work as quickly as you can."

Gordon gave a quick nod, and typed back, "Understood."

The rotors began discharging more energy, and immediately the power began jumping upwards. Gordons eyes widened as he saw the energy spike, and his heart skipped a beat when Dr. Stern relayed, "Overhead capacitors to 105%."

He quickly typed out, "Guys, isn't that dangerous?!"

He knew they saw his message, as Stern cleared his throat, "Um… It's probably not a problem, Gordon, probably… But I'm showing a small discrepancy in… Well, no, it's well within acceptable bounds again. Sustaining sequence."

Doctor Freeman grimaced, and would have questioned it further, but then Hood came back and said, "We've just been informed that the sample is ready Gordon, look to the delivery system for your specimen." Gordon looked over and saw the cart rise up out of the floor, and grimaced.

Work fast then. He reminded himself, even as he scrambled down the ladder.

Hopefully this won't be too bad.

Jon crossed his arms as he observed the wormhole in front of them.

"So what have we got on it?" He asked to no one in particular.

"It's a wormhole." Jak remarked next to him, stretching and sounding bored, "You need to have your eyes checked Sir Knight?" She asked sarcastically.

Jon rolled his eyes and looked back at the rest of the ground team that had assembled on the bridge to look at the scientific anomaly that the QueensWatch suspected was being used by the Reapers. It didn't look like much, but as Jon had learned the hard way, looks could be deceiving.

Zaid snorted loudly, and simply began drinking from his favorite flask; the old Turian looking more bored than anything else.

Thane seemed to be memorizing everything he could about the portal, the Drell no doubt wanting to commit it to memory while he still could.

Grunt also looked bored, but then anything that didn't involve fighting or eating seemed to bore the baby Krogan.

Miri was sitting in the co-pilot's seat and was absently filing a report to be forwarded to the QueensWatch director; though Jon could tell the Asari was keenly interested in the portal, mainly because of how it had just popped in from nowhere so far as anyone could tell.

Samara stood serenely watching with no comment, while Mordin babbled away at a kilometer a minute; recording everything he could find.

Jakob stood next to Garrus, the Turian and the Batarian quietly conversing with each other; while Kas leaned on Garrus' shoulder, quietly counting the credits the two had to refund to the participants of the betting pool for the Captains 'relationship' choice.

Tali was still in the engine room, while EDI sat at the navigation console; the Geth was still typing away as she (It, it is not a person. Jon reminded himself.) helped Joker bring the Chitikka around to get a closer look at the Wormhole.

"Not too close." Jon warned the two of them, "I don't want to get sucked inside because we got too close."

Jak giggled, "That's what your Ex said."

Jon winced as snickers emerged from the less mature crew members, "I may have walked into that one." He admitted, then he turned to Joker, "How close do you think we should get."

Joker grimaced, and he buzzed with unease. "Hard to say, honestly."

"Give me an estimate at least." Jon ordered.

Joker opened his mouth to speak, when his console started beeping and flashing. "The hell?" He asked, quickly typing in several inputs. Or at least, attempting to, but none of his inputs seemed to be working. "Shit. Shit! My commands aren't being accepted!"

"EDI! Hard about! Get us away!" Jon snapped, all levity vanishing in an instant.

Green sparks began to burst out of the consoles and through the various electronics; while EDI shuddered and buzzed. "Warning! UnknOWn ENerGy sURge dETEcteD!" The Geth warbled, her voice modulating uncontrollably.

"Shit! Bosh'tet! Mother-! Tali!" Jon roared into the comms channel as the crew scrambled about. "What in the Ancestors is going on!"

He never got an answer, because a bolt of green lighting struck him squarely in the face

"Captain! Something's wrong!"

Keyes and the Chief both looked at the AI pedestal, where Cortana now stood with a panicked expression on her face.

Before either of the men could ask her what was happening, the Slipspace portal in front of them started sparking with green energy; while all the electronics in the room started sparking with the same energy. Cortana yowled in pain, her avatar changing from purple to green while she held her head; and the Chief felt his neural link with his suit start to itch.

"Yank me-yank me-yank me!" Cortana screamed, while the crew jumped away from their own consoles; many of them shouting in pain as they were shocked by the green energy.

The Chief stepped forward and pulled Cortana's chip out of the pedestal; but the sparks did not abate, and the Pillar of Autumn entered the slipspace portal. Then a bolt of the green energy lashed out from Cortana's AI pedestal and struck him in the chest.

John felt as if he was being pulled in multiple directions at once, then darkness consumed him.

The Young Wolf whistled merrily as she blasted the last Vex Goblin in its chest.

"And that should be the last of them." Whisper stated cheerfully.

"Damn kid, you don't waste time; do ya?" Cayde asked, sounding impressed. "You're almost as good as me… Not quite, but almost."

"Careful Cayde, you're going to inflate her already large ego." Ghost grumbled as he emerged from her backpack, moving towards the structure that seemed to control the Vex portal. It was off at the moment, so neither the Ghost nor the Guardian were all that concerned. "Now… what do we have here?"

He began to scan the portal, wondering where it led; perhaps if they were lucky it led to the Vex homeworld, and they could find a way to destroy it.

"This is Zavala. Status." The stern and unyielding voice of Commander Zavala, Titan Vanguard and Field Commander of all Operations, came over the radio.

"Aw c'mon Zavala, I got this on lock and key." Cayde grumbled.

"You couldn't even remember to lock up your loot stashes properly. How else was the Fallen able to steal from it?" Ikora Rey, Warlock Vanguard and Spymaster of the Hidden, interrupted. "What do you have, Guardian?"

"Not particularly sure." Whisper admitted, "We got that it's a portal and… not much else."

"It… It makes no sense if I'll be honest." Ghost added, still scanning it. "It… it's like a door that leads to more doors; if that makes sense. At least, that's what the Vex are calling it at the moment."

"Interesting." Ikora muttered, sounding intrigued. "From the sounds of it, you might have found the entrance to the Vex Portal Network Hub."

"Yeah… step away from that portal, Kid. I can tell you getting trapped in a Vex portal network is not fun." Cayde warned.

For once, Whisper didn't try to act contrarian. She remembered the nightmare of trying to free Cayde from that network on Nessus; and she did not want to relive those experiences from the other side.

"Wait…" Ghost muttered.

"Is something the matter, Ghost." Zavala asked bluntly.

"Something… there's a buildup of… Light?!" He exclaimed. "Light energy is flaring on the other side of this portal!"

"Ghost, back off from it!" Whisper ordered, taking a step forward and grabbing Ghost to yank him back; knowing how stubborn he could be when it came to examining something. That proved to be a mistake, as emerald green sparks began arcing out of the portal; and one struck Ghost at the exact same time she grabbed him.

The Young Wolf screamed in pain, unable to hear the shouts of concern from the Vanguard, even as she stumbled forwards and fell into the portal; taking her Ghost with her.

Gordon pushed the crystal into the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, and immediately the device began throwing off green sparks; and immediately, the sensor arms closed around the sample while alarms started blaring.

Dr. Stern screamed into the microphone, while Hood bellowed, "Gordon! Get away from the beam!"

Gordon hopped backwards, wide eyed as the vibrations from the Anti-Mass Spectrometer increased to the point that it felt like the entire underground complex would collapse in on itself.

"Oh dear!"

"Oh my God… Oh dear God!"

"Shut it down!"

"Someone get him out of there! And shut it down!"

"Shutting down!"

The overlapping voices made it hard to concentrate, but Gordon took off in a sprint towards his own control console on the balcony. Scrambling up the ladder three rungs at a time, trying to get to the emergency shutdown button. He had no idea if it was fixed or not, but he had to try.

"It's-! It's not shutting down!" Dr. Stern screamed.

BOOM!

The explosion startled Gordon as he reached the top of the ladder, and he saw that the control room had exploded. Beams of emerald green energy were being thrown off the Anti-Mass Spectrometer; smashing into walls and pieces were being blasted away.

Gordon sprinted over to his control panel, and smashed the Emergency Shutdown Button.

The console sparked, and smoke started rising from it, confirming to Gordon that it had not, in fact, been fixed between this experiment and the last one.

Had he been able to speak, Gordon would have been cursing and raving at the Black Mesa managements incompetence; but as it stood, he contented himself to punching the now useless button once, before stepping back and watching the disaster unfold.

He closed his eyes and accepted death as a beam of green energy smashed into his chest; and darkness took him.

A/N: Finally! After nearly a year of agonizing over this, I introduce to you "Xen Effect."

A Mass Effect-Halo-Half Life-Destiny Crossover. I've wanted to do a mass crossover like this for quite some time; but I finally figured out how to do it… And I know it probably won't get many views or reviews, but you know what? I don't care, I want this story out there for other people to enjoy.

Now just a word of warning, do not expect chapters of this length again. This was the prologue where I needed to introduce all the characters and universes and bring them together.

-As it stands, we won't be seeing Gordon Freeman again for quite some time beyond a brief scene next chapter; as the effects this story has on him won't be seen until he reaches Xen.

-In case some of you are confused, the Mass Effect universe Jon'Shepard and the crew of the Chitikka come from, is a universe where humanity never existed.

Instead, there's two groups of Quarians; the Migrant Fleet that fled the Quarian homeworld and is made up of 19 million people. Then there are the Quarian Royalist holdouts that still work with the Geth and sided with them during the Mourning War; and are made up of about 3 million people.

-The QueensWatch is sort of like Cerberus, but… less evil and not racist.

-I hope you guys liked the Xen humans, because I love them; and I can't wait for more shenanigans involving them. As for their culture, think of it like a combination of bronze age Sumerian and Hebrew cultures mixed with Native American hunter gatherer societies. Their powers in the Vortessence (which is pretty much space magic in the Half Life universe) are something used canonically only by Vortigaunts and other Xenian races.

-The song that Whisper is singing is "Boom Boom" by The Animals; made most popular by the James Bond film "Skyfall", as the main villain blasts the song through helicopter loudspeakers during the climax of the fim.

-This story will have three paths (though we will only follow two for the majority of it). One is Gordon Freeman, who is on his canon path of becoming a messianic figure; and his path will remain close to canon (for those wondering, his path is the Black Mesa path as opposed to the OG Half Life) until he gets to Xen.

The Second will be following The Young Wolf, the Master Chief, and the Pillar of Autumn as they deal with the Covenant ships that followed the Autumn and got sucked through; along with some of the Nihilanth and Xenian forces that get caught in crossfire.

And the Third will follow Jon'Shepard and Yehochanan of the Hunters Clan; as they try and figure out how to get the Chitikka working again, and dealing with the Nihilanths forces as the Eldritch Alien Elder God tries to escape to one of the three universes he's opened portals into.

With a lot of culture shock, pain, and suffering to go along with it.

-Let me know what you guys think, please leave a review as the feedback helps a lot and keeps me going.

A TV Tropes page would be loved and appreciated.

And I will see ya when I see ya.