Greetings to all those Halo fans out there! This is my first Halo fanfic so I hope you enjoy it! A little background on the universe; after the battle of Installation 00, a uneasy alliance was formed between the UEG and the former Covenant races (except the Jiralhanae, who hated everyone and wanted nothing to do with anything that would get between them and murder). During this time of turmoil, a few groups of humans broke off from the UEG, found new worlds, and declared themselves independent from the UEG. Some of these groups fiercely rejected any aliens from their territory, while others welcomed them. Eventually (and notably after all of those who fought in the human-covenant war had died), the UEG, Sangheili and the most powerful factions of the Unggoy and Kig-Yar decided to merge into one new society: the Central Systems Alliance, or CSA. After exactly 42 years of preparation, the CSA launched a massive campaign to conquer the other factions of humans and ex-covenant. After 49 years of war, the CSA emerged victorious, all of known civilization under their rule. All that is, except the Jiralhanae, who since the destruction of the Covenant had formed the Virapak, an alliance of most Jiralhanae under one goal: attacking the CSA. As for John 117, he was left floating in space of centuries; Halo 4 never happened. He was left frozen, waiting, until one fateful day in what would be the year 2874 if BC/AD time was still being used.
Shipmaster Ryan Harmon gazed lazily at a monitor on the bridge of his ship, the CSA Valiant Stand. He was on patrol for any signs of Jiralhanae ships, should they decide to crash the party that was the construction of the Rampart. The massive space station was to be the glorious new capital of the Central Systems Alliance, constructed mainly out of the remains of the Forerunner Ark that had been destroyed centuries ago. It was the biggest construction project since the construction of the Array by the Forerunners over 100,000 years ago. The Shipmaster was jolted from his thoughts when a beeping noise emanated from the monitor. The display showed an object floating in space a few kilometers from the Valiant Stand. This was curious; he had thought that the construction ships had gathered up all the pieces of the Ark for the construction of the Rampart. However, any suspicions of the object being a piece of the Ark were destroyed when another beep came from the monitor, and a notification appeared of the screen alerting Harmon that a radio signal was coming from the mysterious object. Now, the fact that this object existed at all was curious unto itself, but this signal was a whole other beast. Radios, or any kind of signal, hadn't been used by the CSA since the invention of the Quantum Comm, a device which uses quantum entanglement to communicate with anywhere instantly, by Tipes 'Wattinr (her current occupation being using the rather large amount of money she had acquired from licensing the Comm to fund increasingly complex and expensive experiments). The only reason that CSA ships had radios at all was for hailing Jiralhanae ships (though this rarely accomplished more than allowing the two sides to exchange death threats). According to the monitor, the radio signal was an ancient audio signal, used for ship-to-ship communication. A small part of Harmon's mind gnawed on the question of why a run-of-the-mill CSA cruiser would have definitions on ancient communications standards while the rest of his mind focused on pressing the button on the screen that would play the audio message.
Shipmaster Ryan Harmon, of the CSA Valiant Stand, was in no way prepared for what he heard. This was a man who was prepared to hear the screams of innocent CSA citizens being tortured to death by Jiralhanae, yet he was not prepared for this. The voice was human, a woman, but the words she spoke were a language that he had never heard. In fact, never in his life had he heard any language but the Common Tongue; even the barbarian Jiralhanae's speech was translated for him. This truly was a mystery, and Ryan Harmon loved solving mysteries. He paced over to the central console of the bridge and prepared to give his orders.
-Rec Room, CSA Valiant Stand-
The Rec Room of the cruiser was bustling with activity as the crew enjoyed their time off as the Valiant Stand patrolled the space around the Rampart construction site, an activity which generally required nothing of a ship's Marine outfit. Among the various characters, including a Kig-Yar with over a dozen Jiralhanae thumbs on a necklace and a Unggoy that had gotten into a fight with a Sangheili, and much to the amusement of onlookers, was winning, were 3 CSA Marines sitting around a table. One, Sangheili Urst 'Fulsam, was reminiscing about one time when a Unggoy Marine had betrayed his squad to the mongrels. It had dramatically pulled a plasma carbine on him, much to the amusement of Urst, who was armed with a Particle Cannon. The Unggoy didn't even have time to scream. The next Marine went by Lizzy, and was currently engaged in an argument with the last Marine, who went by Angler, over who was to blame for the Chi Cheti IV incident.
Suddenly the Shipmaster's voice rang out over the intercom. "Fireteam Delta, please report to the Hanger". After a set of groans from the group around the table, the three left for the hanger. What could this be about?
So, what did you think? Please review and stay tuned for the next chapter!