A/N; Once again I'm here apologizing for another long delay. The aftermath of my collage life has been troubling, and there were some family issues I have to adjust into. I'm currently begin studying Journalism in an university, hopefully I will retain enough time to work on this story. The problem is I'm also a 3d artist and a game lore writer (Anyone who was curious enough to Google my username would know), and I'm currently working on a modification of the game called "Star wars: Empire At War: Forces of Curruption" titiled "The Second Clone War". I have to split my time between that and this story and that is quite frankly a difficult thing to do.

Anyway enough excuses, lets get on with the chapter.:

Disclaimer:

I do not own Halo or Mass Effect.

This is AU so do not complain about the storyline being "Non-cannon" or something like that.

My English is HORRIBLE so please forgive my grammatical mistakes.

Act 1: Shooting gallery

January/11/2662

Milky Way/Minos Wasteland/ Caestus system

Near planet Temerarus

Onboard the Batarian slavers frigate Torment.

"Even UNSC training drones posed a greater threat than these." Chief commented in a bemused voice as he blew a Loki's head off with his shotgun.

"Well they were designed for security details not for war" Cortana defended her distanced cousins as Chief smashed another Loki's head with the butt of his shotgun.

"Still, people who built them could at least teach them how to take proper cover." Chief countered as he took cover from a group of six Loki and a defense turret that were literally raining bullets on him.

"Apparently there is a ban about doing that." Cortana replied as Chief threw a frag grenade in the midst of the group. "Citadel council imposed a ban about researching AI's and there are severe restrictions about how smart you can make a computer program."

"A bit paranoid, aren't they?" Chief commented as the grenade exploded, sending the drones flying in multiple pieces.

"They have their reasons," Cortana replied as Chief resumed his advance. "Almost three centuries ago, a race name the Quarians created a machine race called Geth. They were meant as cheap labor and had limited intelligence but were able to communicate with each other. However some time after their creations, they apparently became self-aware."

"And turned against their masters?" Chief asked as he mowed down another group of mechs with his plasma rifles.

"Not exactly" Cortana replied. "When the Quarians realized this they panicked and tried to shut them down, and the Geth fought back and drove the Quarians away from their planets."

"So they fought back in self –defense." Chief commented as he climbed out from the ships engine room to the crew quarters. He saw a pair of slavers commanding a dozen of Loki's from their cover. "What happened next? I'm guessing the Citadel races joined up with the Quarians and wiped out the Geth?"

"Actually," Cortana replied as Chief opened fire from both of his plasma rifles. "They closed down the Quarians embassies and kicked them out from the Citadel space."

"What?" Chief was so surprised that he briefly stopped firing.

"Officially, this was the 'Punishment' the Quarians race received for creating AI's." Cortana said as Chief resumed fire. "Unofficially, I think they were simply covering their asses as retaking the Quarians homeworld or rehabilitating them would have been very costly."

"So what happened to them and the Geth? " Chief asked as the burnt bodies of both slavers and their mech entourage hit the ground.

"The Quarians put together what ships they had left and created what later became known as the 'Migrant Fleet'. Think of it as a massive mobile City consisting of approximately 5,000 ships. They travel from system to system gathering resources and doing dirty jobs. Barely surviving. The Geth on the other hand never left the former Quarian territories. Every attempt to find out about their current status had an explosive ending. "

"Why didn't the Quarians simply move to another planet and start over?" Chief asked as he headed for the service shaft that would take him to the Command deck.

"Something about their Immune system. They simply can't adapt to other environments aside from their home planets. Besides, after being kicked from the Council space they practically lost access to all known Mass relays. And from what I understand, these people rely on the relays a lot more that they should. "

"Couldn't they simply build their own?" Chief asked as he blasted two more mechs that were guarding the shafts.

"Apparently, the relays are ancient relics. They were made by a race called Protheans. Cortana replied as Chief began to climb the ladder. "They are five-kilometer long structures that use barely understandable methods to propel one ship from one relay to another instantaneously. It would take an enormous amount of resources to just to understand how it works and not to mention there is ban by the Citadel council against that."

"Now why would they do…" Chief briefly paused as he struggled to crawl through the cramped corridor "…that." He finished.

"It's risky and apparently unnecessary." Cortana replied. "The risk is that the relays contain an enormous amount of the elements zero or ezzo. If by any chance that ezzo gets out of containment, the resulting explosion would theoretically be powerful enough to wipe out an entire star system. Unnecessary because there's still lots of dormant Mass relays throughout the Citadel space. Each would provide access to a star cluster filled with dozens of star systems."

"Why didn't the Quarians simply begin to recon the relay that was outside or by the edge of Citadel space?" Chief asked as he begun to climb another ladder. "Or is there a ban on that even?"

"Actually, there is." Cortana replied with a tone of amusement in her voice.

"So what was the reason this time, alien invasion?" Chief said with a slight sarcastic tone, but there was a trace of seriousness in it as well.

"As a matter of fact yes" Cortana replied. "More than two thousand years ago, while exploring a relay, a Salarian exploration team found a race called Rachni. They were an insect-like species native to the world Suen who apparently were very technologically advanced and highly aggressive. They captured the exploration team and reverse engineered their ships FTL drive and created an armada that they unleashed on the Citadel space. The council tried to put up a defense but they begun to overwhelm Council forces with sheer weight of numbers. Things were looking very bad for them."

"So, what happened?" Chief asked as he begun to crawl through another corridor.

"Korgan happened." Cortana replied. "They are a bipedal reptilian species native to the world Tuchanka, a planet where everything tries to kill you. As a result, the Korgun are extremely tough and capable of surviving in almost any environment. That combined with the fact that one female Korgun can pop out a thousand eggs per month, made them the perfect counter against the Rachni in the end.

"Why didn't the Korgan join the war from the start?" Chief asked as he begun to climb the ladder.

"Apparently the Korgans were suffering from a nuclear winter. They were still a pre-spaceflight society when the Salarians found them. Halfway around the war they 'uplifted' the Korgans into galactic level. " Cortana replied. "Chief we're only two compartments away from the bridge." Cortana said as Chief entered the command deck.

"Understood." Chief replied as he discarded his nearly depleted plasma rifles and pulled out Jonson's MA5C. Doing a quick check he asked Cortana, "So what happened next?"

"Well the Korgans' pushed the Rachni all the way back to their home world. When their queen refused to surrender, they…" Cortana continued as Chief threw a flashbang at the bridge.

Although some would describe Captain Nola to be tense and worried, the term "panicking in a controlled manner" would be a much accurate description. Less than half an hour ago, Gadha contacted the ship and claimed that he found something in the derelict alien ship. Everyone except the bridge crew and him went to see what their first officer found. But before they could understand what was happening, someone opened fire from the shuttle and the guns in the bay went berserk. Within seconds, everyone in the bay were killed.

Then, that "thing" came out of the shuttle.

Nola didn't know what species that creature belonged to. It looked like an Asari, but was as bulky and threatening as a Korgan. It was clad in heavy armor that showed numerous scars of battle. Overall, it reminded him of the Kopasamsu, the Batarian avatar of death.

Nola reacted quickly, he activated all three YMIR he had in the cargo bay, hoping the sheer weight and numbers would take care of this menace. I seemed to work at first as the thing was pinned down by the heavy fire from the mechs, but then it bolted out and destroyed the three mechs in seconds, using weapons that he had only seen in science fiction vids. He then tried to disable the hangar force field, but that thing somehow figured it out and took out the circuit junction right before it carried out the command.

Then, it began to climb up.

Nola threw everything he had, along with his entire arsenal of LOKI mechs, but that thing mowed them down like they were hordes of Pyzacks. He sent two of his men to co-ordinates the mechs but they lasted only a little longer. Now that thing is right in front of the bridge.

Suddenly, the door on the starboard side opened up, and before they could understand what was going on an object was thrown onto the bridge. Everyone immediately took cover, but when the thing didn't go off in a bang like everyone expected, even after two long minutes, curiosity took over some of the unfortunate Batarians. One gathered enough courage to slowly get close and pick up the strange object while the others stared. As soon the poor fella picked up the grenade, the three minute time-delay fuse of the grenade expired.

The blinding white flash accompanied by the deafening sound of the flashbang incapacitated everyone, sending them screaming to the ground. While they struggled to regain their ability to see and hear, Chief decided to make his entrance.

Walking in, he casually snapped the Batarian's neck who was holding the Grenade. Moving on he smashed another ones head with the Titanium clad hilt of his rifle followed by a swift kick to another's stomach, breaking his spine. He then proceeded to two slavers who were only just beginning to recover from the flash effect. Chief used the weight of his foot to simply crush one of their necks while blowing up the others head with a point blank shot that bypassed the barriers. Only after this did he begin to come under fire from the remaining two survivors. Quickly moving in, he disarmed both of them and buried his combat knife deep inside ones chest. The he focused on the sole remaining slaver who Cortana indentified as the Captain of the ship. Holding him by his throat, he pulled up the alien to his level.

"Captain Nola," Chief stated "By the authority invested in me by the United Nations Space Command, I will here by be commanding this ship for UNSC. You are here by relieved of your command."

With that chief shoved a barrel of MA5C under Nola's head and pulled the trigger.

"You just had to be all professional, didn't you?" Cortana said in a slightly sarcastic tone.

"Well we are taking his ship, he at least deserved that." Chief replied as he put down the lifeless body. "You were saying…"

"Oh yes, after the Turians unleashed the genophage, the Korguns lost their main advantage…" Cortana continued with the history lesson while Chief began walking towards what looked like the main command table.

Act 2: Unwanted Attention

January/11/2662

Milky Way / Hades Gamma Cluster / Antaeus System

Near Planet Hunidor

Onboard the ITSS Prometheus.

Commander Katyusha braced herself in her chair. The voyage through the relay was quite shaky, the turbulence was a lot more then what was expected. "Kika, report." She ordered.

KiKa's cobalt coloured avatar appeared on Katyusha's chairs holoprojector "The ships went though some turbulence while traveling through the relay, no damage to the ship or its' system, the engineering crews are trying to understand the cause of the turbulence". Kika replied.

"Theories." Katyusha said.

"It seems the ships mass effect core is somehow connected to the relay." Kika replied, "It somehow uses the ezzo inside the core to propel the ship into FTL speeds. The bigger the core is, the smoother the ride would be."

"I see." Katyusha said. "Keep me posted."

"Yes Commander." With that reply, Kika disappeared.

Katyusha turned towards Boris "I need a full scan of this system "

"Understood, Commander." With that reply Boris turned to the Felix and nodded. Being a minor military ship in the IBSF, the Prometheus lacked its' own dedicated officer for monitoring the sensors and such. The communication officer takes on the role in non-combat situation while the AI handles it during combat.

"It's a fairly big system Commander". Felix reported. "There are six planets orbiting that star. The planet closest to the star is a standard terrestrial planet of which has a relatively thin atmosphere. The second one is a gas giant, so is the third one. The fourth one is also a terrestrial world however unlike the first one, it's… " Felix's voice froze in shock and terror as something popped up on his screen. "MULTIPLE CONTACS!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Heading straight for us!"

"Kika, report." Swallowing her own shock, Katyusha issued the order.

"Approximately sixty-eight vessels of various sizes are heading at us at lightspeed." Kika reported.

"Lightspeed! In real space?" Katyusha eyes went narrow. "How?"

"Judging by their out of the chart element zero signature, I can only speculate that they are using them to reduce their ships mass to such level that it became possible to propel the ship at lightspeed using conventional engines." Kika said.

"Are they.." Katyusha was about to ask a series of question but Kika decided to save her commander the trouble.

"Alien? Yes, their ships are nothing like we have ever seen. Kika interrupted Katyusha and started to reply to the obvious questions. "Military? Their ships' design and formations suggest so. Also I'm detecting some sort of MAC on many of the larger ones. Hostile? From what I can tell they seem to be spinning up their MAC's so that is unfortunately a yes. "

While various thoughts went through the minds of the bridge crew after hearing this, most of them filled with anxiety and fear, Katyusha's thoughts were short and filled with frustration:

"Damm you sis!"

Coming back to reality, Katyusha ordered "Boris, order action station."

Nodding, Boris quickly issued the standard order through the ships comm-channel:

"Action station, action station. All hands report to their combat stations. This is not a drill. Evacuate and seal off all non-combat sections, power down all non-essential systems and await further orders. "

Throughout the ship, klaxons rang out and the well trained and regularly drilled crew went to work. Places like the cafeteria, cargo bay and crew compartments were hastily evacuated and sealed off. The power from those sections were redirected towards more essential and combat oriented systems. Damage control teams geared up and reported to their designated positions along with auxiliary gunners and engineers. The infirmary was hastily prepared for possible incoming wounded while the ships small marine contingent quickly took defensive positions around the critical sections including the hatches to repel boarders. Within three minutes, the ship was ready for combat.

"All stations reported in commander." Boris relayed the message to Katyusha after receiving the confirmations.

Nodding, Katyusha turned to Kika, whose avatar's kimono was now replaced by a UNSC uniform to show her transition to "action station", and issued orders:

"Kika, send the standard first contact message to the closest ship as soon as they get in communication range. The shields are your priority for now and will be until I say otherwise. Keep the primary weapon systems along with the main reactor power in standby mode, I want you create a small power signature." She said. "Also create an ECM field around our ships to mask most of our weapon systems from their scans. Overall, make us look as less threatening as possible. They may just be doing a routine interception."

"With sixty-eight ships, Sir?" Felix voice expressed obvious doubts.

Katyusha examined the ships shown in the holographic tactical display in front of her. "There are only three ships in the formation that have the size and tonnage to be considered as light cruisers. The rest look like frigates, corvettes and prowlers." She said. "Not exactly what one would call a war fleet, looks more like a task force for planetary defense flotilla, a big one." She added. "We may have stumbled upon one of their important trade routes that need to be routinely defended from pirates, or they simply may have a military installation in this system." She shrugged. "In either case, we would've probably done the same thing if an unknown and possibly alien ship jumped in."

"True." Boris admitted. "So do you think they are going to attack, Sir?" He asked with a cautious tone.

"I'm saying there's a possibility that these aliens aren't just another branch of murdering overzealous fanatics." Katyusha replied with a bit of frustration. "But we should keep up our guard, just in case."

Boris nodded "Understood, Sir." He replied with a far more confident tone than before.

"The ships are slowing down to real time speed." Kika reported. "They should be within two hundred miles of us in less than fifteen minutes. The message has been sent."

"Alright," Katyusha replied with a bit of concern. "Now we wait."

Everybody in the bridge held their breath and waited for the alien's response. Everyone was wondering the same question: what will happen?

Act 3: Deadly Misunderstanding.

January/11/2662

Milky Way / Hades Gamma Cluster / Antaeus System

Near Planet Hunidor

Onboard the Turian Dreadnought Pride of Palaven.

Captain Mankanaze looked at the newly arrived ships with amazement. The ship was bigger than the one that came before, and looked much more fit for combat. It had a somewhat sleek dart-like body, with two pods on the sides containing the engines. It was painted in a light grey color with two large symbols on the pods. Mankanaze assumed that it was either the insignia of their navy or the flag of their civilization. What he found really interesting about this ship was its' power to size ratio. The ship was no bigger than a standard frigate but had a power output similar to that of a heavy cruiser. But the most surprising thing about this ship was however its ezzo core. According to the emission reports, it had a smaller output than a civilian freighter. What was puzzling in all this however, was the ships unusual weapon set. It seemed to have a MAC and some defensive weapons. It is quite unusual for a frigate to have MAC, although this ships power output indicates that is should be able to pack an even bigger punch. Mankanaze guessed the extra power was being redirected to the shields as their ratings are roughly comparable to that of a small Batarian dreadnought. Overall, he concluded, a formidable ship.

"It seems you were right about them being aggressive, Sir." Mankanaze said to General Desolas "This ship was not built with peaceful intentions."

"She's a predator, Captain." Desolas said. "Clearly the ship is fitted with a gigantic non ezzo power source, possibly nuclear to power its weapons and shields, leaving very little room for anything else. It's a prime example of their primitive way of thinking. However," He added "This also confirms that their homeworld is either on the other side of this relay or at least in the same system. I strongly doubt this ship can carry enough rations to feed its' crew for even a month. Let's not think about the living conditions either, they probably don't even have bunk beds."

"Indeed." Mankanaze with a bit of regret in his voice. "Sir, I…"

"Don't apologize, Captain." Desolas interrupted him. "You were concerned about the wellbeing of the men and women that were trusted under your command like any good commander would. But regardless of your personal opinion, you followed your superior officer's order like any good Turian would. That is not something to be frowned upon, but rather something to be commended."

"I…" Mankanaze paused briefly. "Thank you, sir." He finally said.

"No kind of gratitude required, Captain," Desolas said with a smile on his face. "Come, let us put this barbaric species in the path of enlightment."

"Captain, we have received a transmission from the alien ship." Before Mankanaze could reply, they were interrupted by the ships communications officer.

Nodding in response, Mankanaze turned to Desolas, "What should be done, Sir?" He asked.

Desolas shrugged. "It's probably a First contact massage they created just in case they face an adversary they can't handle," He said. "Regardless, I doubt the Turian Hierarchy or any major Citadel race would be interested in establishing diplomatic relations with a civilization as small and as primitive as this one. Best we ignore it and proceeded with our mission. "

"We should disable and capture this ship, Sir." A junior officer, who was listening to the entire conversation, spoke up. "We may gain some valuable information from the ship's crew and computer."

"Good thinking, Lieutenant." Despite the fact that what the junior officer stated was obvious, Mankanaze chose to complement him to maintain moral.

He opened up the fleetwide channel that his commutations officers kept on standby and spoke up:

"Attention all ships, you are to engage and disable the enemy ship." He stated. "The ship is likely to be slow due to the massive power core it's carrying, so frigates move in rapidly and try to quickly knock out the ship's barriers. Cruisers take your time and aim for the ships vital components. The ship is equipped with a MAC, so disabling it should be your main priority. However, under no circumstances are you allowed to destroy the ship, which means the dreadnaughts are to hold their fire. The information contained within their databanks would be valuable for us to finish this campaign swiftly. May the spirits be in your favor. "

With that, Mankanaze ended the transmission.