? Hellooo AgAiN PEoPleS!

Contrary to what most of you guys are probably thinking, I LIVE! Or, in lamens terms, I'm not dead.

Now before we go on to the chapter I feel I should let you know what happened. I beat ME3, nuff said. My first reaction was denial, then depression, then infuriating nothingness as I tried to continue writing. But no worries, I DO plan on continuing and FINISHING this story. As I said in the beginning, it will get done. It will just take me a while. But now that I am back to writing again and over my TBFS (The Bioware Failure Syndrome) I hope to get back to getting a couple chapters in a month. But no matter what any of you may be feeling about the ending, remember that the game is still epic awesome, and it deserves an Awesome… No, Awesome is not strong enough… An EPIC ENDING OF EPIC EPICNESS. I have already begun work on such an Epic, and though I may fail, I will attempt with every part of my being to give the loyal lovers of the ME universe an Ending that the trilogy Deserves. So Band With ME My Friends and help me to carve out this ending that we all want.

Without any more wait, let us get on to the NRBEC, also known as "Normal Ranting Before Every Chapter".

Here are some answers, vague and otherwise, to some questions I've gotten through reviews.

1st question; Where Chiefy at? I'm not going to say one way or another who is going to be a character in this story. So whether he is in this story or not is for me to know and you to find out. But… when thinking about it apply these facts to your queries. In the universe I concocted for "Our Legacy" the knowledge of the Spartan II program was lost when Reach was destroyed in 2340 (I will not include Halo 4 right now, it will just make my head hurt) so the Alliance really has no knowledge of exactly what the Spartan II's were capable of. At the end of the Covenant/Human War in 2343, Master Chief, who was about 37 at the time, was labeled MIA. The current date is 2681. The Alliance has yet to create a way to allow humans to live more than three hundred years, 150, sure; 300, No, with extra 'No' on the side.

2nd question; is the Alliance still using slipspace travel; YES! Absolutely yes. According to what I've read in the wiki's, and what I like to imagine (this is my fanfick isn't it?) slipspace travel is many times faster than element zero jumping. For reference; in "Our Legacy", the average Alliance ship can travel from one end of the galaxy to the other inside of 5 months faster ships could make it in four or less. The average Citadel Council ship would take several decades. But do take into account that Ezoo FTL is much safer than slipspace FTL. Sometimes, but not too often, when a ship takes off into slipspace it just vanishes and is never seen again and the Alliance is still not entirely sure why this happens or, for that matter, where they go. They attribute this phenomenon to faulty maintenance. Ezoo has never caused a ship to just disappear.

3rd; about romance. I have not decided as of yet what will happen in that regard, for the most part I'm just winging this. But I do want a romance, I'm just not sure who it will be with. In regard to Ashley though, I find no reason why it can't be her in ME1, but in ME2 and beyond, I can honestly say that it is not very likely. If the woman I loved called me a traitor for working with the only organization that even bothered to notice and do something about the growing problem of the reapers, I'm not sure if said person could ever make it up to me. But we shall see in time.

And as for Zion, (Devious smirking and evil laughs all around) that is for me to know, and you to find out. But you will know what it is before the end of this story. I'm planning on leaving bits and pieces of the experience throughout the story so you can hopefully piece together what happened, but if we don't get to it by the end, I'll write a piece up for it and post it on FF for your enjoyment.

Also, before I forget, I know what happened in the halo universe, I've read up and continue following the wiki, I've read the books, I've played the games, if I write it in here, assume I know how it really happened and take it that way, if I change it, it's because I either didn't like it, or I need it that way to make other things in the story to work. But don't let that discourage you from pointing things out, I am here to improve my writing skills and to have fun, so go on with your bad selves :D, and question away. Cause it may have been put there cause I was being stupid.

Also, important info regarding this story on my profile page, check it out.

Also… Thanks soooo much for the comments. We're at 11 now! YAY! Review "More" please.

I know… I'm ranting again, So Without further a due, on with the chapter. Before I rant some more.

ME NO OWN ME SERIES, if I did I'd be rolling in much doe and would hire someone else to do this… No I wouldn't…

"Our Legacy"

Part One: A Spartan?

Chapter 5: A New Mission.

Date: January 18, 2681

Time: 0913 hrs.

Location: Ender colony, planet Neylon 5, outer colonies, sector 37,

John knew that he had her this time, Time seemed to slog by as if filtered through a thick jelly as he moved with lightning speed to snatch at the golden blond hair that flew by his peripheral vision. But his massive fist closed over empty air. He only smirked as he realized that he had missed her again. Until he saw her foot come out of nowhere to slam into his unguarded temple.

Quick as a blink he ducked his head to the side as her foot sailed over. He lashed out in counter attack but she was already gone.

Damn she's fast.

That was the understatement of the hour. The "SHE" of whom John was referring was one his closest friends, Nellie-5-3962. The fastest Spartan V since Amelia-5-1332. Nellie was so fast that she could literally dodge a bullet from low caliber Alliance weapons; he'd seen her do it.

The gym filled with the sound of Nellie's breathing as she came in again for another bout of strikes that felt like someone was trying to beat him to death with a foam baseball bat. John laughed out loud at the comparison. To him that is exactly how much damage she was causing. She had managed to bruise him lightly just about everywhere. Two days ago, before his broken ribs had fully healed, her punches had hurt a lot worse. But now that he was back to his good old granite-hard self most of her blows felt like little more than a hard poke.

Their match had been going on for what he was sure was at least seventeen minutes, he wasn't sure exactly how long since Nell wouldn't give him any spare moments to sneak a peek at the clock on the wall behind him. He knew that he could probably keep on going for hours more, but he also knew that Nell was reaching her peak. She would soon get tired and start to lose focus and concentration. That is when she would make a mistake that he could exploit. Till then he would bide his time.

Despite what most men would think if they were in his position, John actually found it elating to have an opponent that he didn't have to hold back in anything but physical strength in order to make the fight fair. Even though he trained with other Spartan frequently, it was difficult to find a match like Nellie, even among the Spartan IIX's and he found it… refreshing.

If only she were stronger…

But alas, only a Brute or a Krogan could match his raw physical power. John had realized this almost ten years ago only a short time after his transformation and there was nothing to do about it now. So he fought on.

For what he guessed was another four minutes Nellie continued to zip into, around, under and over his guard. He had managed to block more of her strikes but she still managed another 27 hits, most of which landed on his legs. she even managed to land a solid kick into his crotch bringing tears and a string of curses directed at her much smaller form running away from his massive bearlike one. But it soon fell back into that same rhythm. She would zip in, he would block and dodge, she would land several strikes, then when he retaliates she would dance, leap, or fly out of his reach before he managed a hit.

But he finally saw an opportunity coming. Nell's movements were getting slower. She was getting tired, but he was still running on a near full tank. And by the look on Nell's face, she knew it too. But that never meant she would give him the win. That was one thing that he absolutely loved about his young friend. No matter how the odds may stack against her she would always fight to win.

This is the longest fight they had in a while and he was certain that he had managed to wear her down enough for him to finish the fight.

It took several more minutes for his opportunity to show itself, but when it did, he took full advantage.

Nellie came again at full speed seeming intent on going for his legs again. But she had slowed down considerably since the beginning of the fight and John was ready. When she was near enough john lashed out with a lightning fast round house that, if it had hit, would have thrown Nell completely across the room and into the far wall. However, it did a good bit more than he had wanted it to. With the grace and poise that a panther would have killed to have she deftly grabbed a hold of his femur with both hands, and in a spring-like motion, flipped both legs into a kick directed straight into his jaw. John was rather impressed with the maneuver and had only enough time to realize that maybe she was not as tired as she had made herself look before he felt the incredible force of the small girls kick land squarely on the underside of his chin. And as he felt his right foot leave the floor he had to admit to himself that maybe the girl had a good bit more strength in her small form than he had given her credit for. If she had done that on anyone but him the full bodied kick would have snapped their neck or broken their jaw… probably both.

The very next instant his massive body hit the metal floor with a dull but loud WHOOM! And the fight was over. Nellie won again. His back had hit the ground first. And apparently she had followed him through the air as he felt something light and soft land on his stomach, but it still knocked what little air was left in his lung out.

"HA! You fell for it! I knew you would!" Nellie's light and sing-song soprano cried in victory as she danced a sort of victory jig with her upper body. If John had the energy or the air to do so, he would have burst out laughing.

Although John was definitely the stronger of the two, by several times even. Nellie still managed to beat him handily about every other match. As it turns out, being that much faster than your opponent actually did make up for your lack in strength. As long as your opponent didn't have any weapons.

Though he had just suffered such an incredible blow, his head remained entirely clear, one of the curses/blessings of what he was. He opened his eyes and just looked at her for a second, gathering energy and air, then he smirked at her deviously. She read the look on his face like it were a neon billboard standing over the highway at midnight. She tried to leap away with a slight squeak, but was far too close to him to escape the massive hand reaching out at lightning speed to grab her across her uncovered stomach, and in a movement faster than the human eye could follow their positions were reversed and John looked down on Nell with a predatory satisfaction.

"You thought you had me." he declared smiling.

Before Nellie could gather her wits enough to respond someone interrupted with clapping.

"I will admit." A deep mechanical bass voice began. "That was a really good hit."

John and Nell both turned their heads to the only door to the gym that they had previously been the only ones inhabiting. The strange voice belonged to one of the colonies defense Mechs, apparently being controlled by Troll, the Ai responsible for the settlements defense. The Mech was identical with the millions of others that the Alliance Military owned. It stood exactly six foot tall and was proportioned almost identically to a human with the exception of thicker more powerful limbs and no head.

It stood facing both Spartans. The black plate that extended from where the neck would have been to just below the pectorals stared at them a moment longer before stepping forward.

"What's wrong? Another Covenant fleet already?" Nellie asked more exasperated than anything else as both Spartans came to their feet.

"I thought for sure it would take them at least a month to forget the lesson we just taught them up there." John laughed as he pointed above them indicating the fleet they just decimated then caught a towel that Nell threw to him from the racks on the nearest wall and began toweling himself off.

"Nothing so exciting, Spartans. We've just finished repairs on the Communications relay and it seems that someone has been trying desperately to get in touch with you." The Mech pointed a long metallic digit at John.

"Me?"

The Mech bowed slightly in its form of a nod. It didn't really have a 'head' to nod.

"We're on vacation." Nellie retorted, which was true. They were on vacation up until they had that little run in with that Covenant fleet they had been having a great time of relaxing. If your definition of relaxing was running around a backwater planet doing relay races, shooting matches, and beating each other to a pulp in the name of recreation then that was exactly what they were doing. Vacationing.

Nellie was in a nearby system with a fellow Spartan, Kiever-4-20976. They had just finished dealing with investigating a sighting of Covenant forces just in the next system and had come to Neylon because of a distress signal requesting assistance with a pirate assault. That was the same pirate assault that knocked out their comm. Relays, john was already there hunting said pirates. Nell and Kiever arrived just in time to assist John in stopping a Covenant invasion. How lucky they are!

"Not anymore you're not. The Alliance brass sent a dozen top priority messages to you over the last seven days. The latest is to direct you to get to Jump Station Seven ASAP." They already have a ship, the Taurus, en route to pick you up. We've already made contact with the ship and have explained the situation. They expect to arrive within the next three hours.

John grunted and threw his towel over his shoulder. "Was there anything else in the messages?"

"Negative."

John frowned at that. Normally there would be a contact or two for him get information from, but he could probably get the intel from his outside sources. He usually does so whether they give him contacts or not.

"Well then," He stated as he started for the door. "better pack up." Nellie was right behind him. Once they had made it down the hall and could talk in relative secrecy she commented. "what do you think that's all about?" her long blonde hair billowed behind her in a wave.

"Don't know. But if they flagged it top priority then it must be important."

"Aw. How come I never get any of those?" Nell pouted,

"You did."

"When?"

John smiled, "When we got here."

To that she punched him in the arm. "That one doesn't count."

John only laughed as they walked.

After John was packed and he'd said his farewells to Nell and Kiever he walked himself to the spaceport, or at least what served as one on this backwater world out on the fringes of Alliance space. The port was built right outside the large settlement and was composed of a couple small warehouses and a half dozen midsized landing pads for dropships hanging over a chasm whose bottom was over a mile deep. He busied himself with disassembling and reassembling his sidearm until it got boring, which lasted about fifteen minutes after he had assembled his pistol 37 times. After that he played with his combat knife till his ride showed up.

It took the ship three hours and nineteen minutes to get a dropship to the pads, but he was there waiting for it. After they made contact with the command staff of the settlement, they boarded ship and headed off surface into space and onto the Taurus, a 100 meter long SR3 model that had been refitted as a stealth personnel transport. It was as high a class of ship as John had ever seen. And it had individual rooms, which on Alliance Ships, were a luxury. The captain of the Taurus had no information, just instructions to deliver John to Jump Station 7 where he was to await further orders.

This information did nothing but make John nervous and a little angry. He was the Spartan 9, through no one but him and a handful of other individuals knew that. But that, other handful of individuals, were the ones that were responsible for every mission he had ever been sent on. They knew what he would be doing, they just wouldn't tell him.

So with his mind on edge and his thoughts in turmoil he decided to check out what had happened in the galaxy during the last week. He might be able to pick out a bit of information that would set of his inner radar.

Most of the news was exactly what it always is; some scientist just made some new breakthrough with medical technology, another promotion of a war hero, recent activities of the covenant, an experimental ship was on its way to jump 7… the moment he heard it he searched it out. after he read a little about it he was intrigued. The newest model ship in the Alliance the SR7, named the Normandy started it's test flight about three days ago, and so far, it's shown amazing speed. It set off from Talana Space Station in sector 23 and in three days it had passed clear into the middle of Sector 20. That is a five day flight by any Alliance standard. But the Normandy had managed to cut that time down by half and it was flying stop and go to constantly check their energy readings to ensure they were in optimal working parameters. At this rate, the Normandy would make it to Jump Station 7 inside of two weeks. That put the last record of 27 days to shame. It would arrive at Jump 7 only a day after he would.

Interesting.

He was just going to move on, but he got a funny feeling that this was important so he dug a little bit, turns out, his gut was right, as usual. The Normandy SR7 was captained by a man named David Anderson. John was sure he had heard the name before and in moments his implant retrieved the memory. He had met Anderson During the assault of the pirate base world of Torfan almost ten years ago. It had been John's test operation after he woke up from the experiment. He had fought with the captain and his platoon in the assault.

His job may not have been in intelligence, but he had experience in gathering intel while serving the first half of his military career as an Infiltrator. He decided he would call in a few favors and get all the information he could on Anderson and his current mission. The rest of the day he spent on Anderson and the Normandy. He discovered that he was a war hero with a ridiculously high success rate, he served in three wars including The First Contact War and the Fourth Covenant Incursion and over a hundred other classified operations, and he had more medals than any man really had any right to need.

The next bit he researched was Anderson's current assignment, which was a cover if he ever saw one, and he had seen a lot. It turns out that the decorated war hero, captain David Anderson was needed to test drive the Alliance's newest design of cruiser, the Normandy SR7. You do not send a hero to test drive a ship. It does not matter how nice the ship is, It's just not done. But try as he might, John could not manage to dig his way to the real reason why Anderson was there. Whatever the real reason was it must have been important otherwise Anderson wouldn't have been involved.

With his clearance John could get past almost any military red tape that stood in his way so when he keyed into the Alliance Military Database he had access to nearly any information that he wanted to know. Nearly. Turns out, this was one of those "Nearly" cases.

John grunted in derision as his attempts to access the information were blocked then moved on.

The Normandy, which he checked next, was very difficult to find solid facts on. Some thought it was a stealth bomber, some a heavy destroyer, and yet others thought it could be a high tech recon ship. As it turned out, it was all three, and then some. The SR7 was the most advanced ship in the Alliance navy (that the Alliance would admit to) and while the exact design and tech was classified, the numbers provided to alliance news cast throughout the systems showed that it was definitely a top of the line vessel. It had a new design of slip space drive incorporating the discovery of Element Zero which gave it unparallel speed and maneuverability even among vessels half its size as well as weapons systems that made it capable of taking on ships several times its own size. It was a technological marvel of human engineering.

Or so he thought until he saw a picture of it. The Normandy SR7, simply put, did not "LOOK" like a Human ship. Heck, it didn't even look Alliance built.

The first thing he noticed wrong with the Normandy's design was its wings. Humans never built war ships with wings. They saw it as a significant waste of valuable resources and building materials yet this ship had two sets of wings on both sides that stretched at least three quarters of is length and were just as wide as the vessels body. The next thing John noticed was the Normandy's shape. Although the ships body looked to be almost identical in design to the UNSC destroyers of the 2300's it was also far too sleek to be a human vessel, but far too rough and rugged to be anything but.

John could only shake his head and snort. The Normandy looked like a billionaire's space yacht not a war ship. As a matter of fact, he would sooner believe that the Turian Hierarchy had built it than the Systems Alliance.

Wait. He stopped reading for a moment and just studied the pictures. The sleek, long, aerodynamic design looked very similar to the avian bird-of-prey look affixed to all of the Turians vessels. This sparked John curiosity; he quickly ran a search and pulled up a picture of a Turian destroyer. And just as he thought it would be, the resemblance was uncanny. The Normandy was smoother, sleeker, and its wings weren't quite as wide, but apart from those differences they looked remarkably similar.

"Hmmm", interesting. Why would the Alliance build a ship after a Turians design? He filed that little tid-bit into the back of his mind for later consideration and moved on to his next target.

For hours he stayed hunched over the PC in his room searching over anything that was attached to Anderson and the Normandy. There was precious little. John realized that he didn't have the necessary equipment to gather the intel he wanted. So, after he had scrounged up every little bit of useful information he could find on Anderson and the Normandy he gave up the search, turned away from the desk, stood and stretched. He would leave the rest of this battle to his informants. It was at that moment that his stomach rumbled.

time for some food. With that thought and images of Lasagna and coffee floating around his thoughts he stalked out of his room and down the hall to the mess., it was empty of everyone but the cook. He ordered a plate of lasagna lightly burnt, his comfort food, and took a seat to order his thoughts.

Although it had only just started and he still didn't really know much other than the fact that he would probably be shooting people, he had a bad feeling. The very same feeling that had saved his life more often than not and he did not like what it was telling him. But he couldn't do anything about that. He was a Spartan, and was his job to follow the orders given by his officers, and he was really god at his job. He would keep on his toes for the time being and would he would remain aware so as not to be caught unawares but apart from that, there was not a lot he could do. His gut told him that the Normandy was important and that it was no coincidence that he would be arriving only a day before it and it's crew did. Something interesting was going to happen, and John would need to be ready. Once his lasagna was ready he grabbed it then sat down by himself and ate in silence.

Galactic Codex: Technology, Slip-Space-Drive

The Slip-Space-Drive is an engine core capable of propelling a vessel at speeds that are much faster than standard FTL and is the primary form of FTL used by the Alliance. This method of FTL incorporates the opening of a wormhole into a parallel dimension humans call Slip-Space, simply because they understand it as a plane where everything is very close together. By moving into the other dimension, they can travel great distances in very short lengths of time. Though the slip space drive make faster FTL possible it is also the more dangerous form of FTL, with the technology required to operate it and the maintenance required to keep it operational it is much more likely that something will go amiss and cause spontaneous combustion or worse, Slip-Space-Misplacement, a phenomenon where a ship sets off into FTL but does not return to Normal Space and is never seen again.

Wow... that was 3,700 words, that's a lot…

We all deserve a round of applause for that one.

Till next time, Rock On!