Author note: Hi everyone long time no see. I have been really busy for a long time now and it looks like it will keep going like that for a while. This is the first part of the original chapter three. I'm working on the other part right now. I don't know when it will be released. So moving on to another topic. While I was surfing through the internet in search for more information on the halo universe I stumbled upon this website called Halofanon. It's a wiki for halo fanfiction where people, like me, can create a wiki page for our story. I ended up making a few pages just for you awesome readers. My wiki has a lot of information about the setting and a lot of background story such as the Prehumans. However there are spoilers here and there, you have been warned. So without more delay here is the link for the wiki and I hope you all enjoy the chapter.

Link: wiki/The_Return_of_Forgotten_Empire

Moving the pieces

The 01/25/2581 ( month, day, year), the Yprikushma system, Pre-human imperial capital system.

Thousands of warships were being prepared to disembark at the many shipyards orbiting one of the planets in the Empires capital star system. Ships from the other systems were constantly exiting slipspace and gathered in large groups near the shipyards before making their way to the edge of the system. It had been like this for a whole week but now the massive fleet was almost complete and ready to leave.

An Armageddon-class Dreadnought, flanked by two Wave-class battleships [1], went through one of the giant gates of New Erde-Tyrenes shield, traveling towards the front of the massive lines of ships. On the bridge stood Siflion and watched the crew do their jobs. The bridge was busy to say the least. It was after all the flagship of this fleet. Fortunately for him this wasn't his ship, he was just a SINNER captain and therefore he didn't have a ship of his own. No the ship belonged to the Lord of Admirals Aldu Tasmor who happened to stand right next to the SINNER captain. Aldu and Siflion had been friends since boot camp in the early years of their lives and now they were standing here side by side both respected and high ranking soldiers, looking at the busy crew members working as hard as if they were running from an enraged Gravemind.

"You should tell them to calm down a little, you know." Siflion said to his friend with a calm voice as he watched a young female communication officer almost tripped over her own feet as she made her way to her station. Aldu just smiled a little at the show before he replied.

"No I don't think so, after all this is the calm before the storm." Aldu clapped his friend on the back and continued.

"We are going to the first real war in over 100.000 years, right? Everyone has dreamed of the day we would return to our rightful home and show those Forerunner scums who rule the galaxy now." He said and took a seat in his command chair, moving around a little to get comfortable.

"Lord of Admirals the last ships have gathered and are joining the standard formation with the rest of the fleet. We are ready for slipspace jump in 40 minutes." A sensor officer yelled over the other hardworking crew members. The noisy and busy bridge finally went down to a more pleasant level, everything was soon in order and the thousands of warships knew their position and task.

"I'll be going now and report to my station, my Lord." Siflion said as he turned around and made his way to the lifts. Aldu just waved a lazy hand as a goodbye and then focused on the crew again.

The walk to the hanger was uneventful. A few of ships personal gave him a short bow before passing by, it never hurt to show some respect to the royals. The hanger was as busy as always. Pilots and technicians checked their ships for any signs of malfunctions or made some repairs here and there. Siflion made his way to a small transport ship which looked a lot like the pelican in terms of form and size but it was smoother and covered in some kind of black metal. The pilot was sitting on the hard metal floor, his back against one of the vessels four engines with his hands folded behind his head. The sounds of snoring came from his sleeping form with each breath he took. The SINNER gave the pilot a light kick, for a SINNER, to his side and the pilot woke up with a small yelp from the pain in his side.

"Get up you lazy bastard, you can sleep when we are back on the Flames of the Moon! You got five minutes to get the ship ready." The pilot quickly went to work while mumbling something Siflion didn't catch. The pilot ran a quick check on the systems and the ship was ready for takeoff. It hovered in the air for a short time before making its way through the pale blue energy field that separated the atmosphere in the hanger of the cold void of space. The small vessel easily penetrated the energy field and hoovered a bit before the pilot started the main engines and headed towards one of the many hanger bays on one of the Wave-class battleships.

The vessel slowly landed on the cold metal floor in the hanger bay of the Flames of the Moon. The ramp lowered and allowed Siflion access to the hanger. He was halfway through the hanger towards the blast doors when someone called out his name. He looked to the right and spotted a group of ten walking up to him. It was all the members of his SINNER team, all of them wearing they armor.

"Hey cap, how did your talk with all mighty Lord of Admirals go?" One of the members asked with a joyful tone as he rested an arm around the captains' shoulders. The rest of the team gathered around their captain before they all went for the doors.

"The usual, our team and the rest of the SINNER teams are going with the first wave of invasion forces when we get there, so I recommend going straight for the timelock and go to sleep, understood?" The SINNERS yelled their understanding and made their way to the chambers. It was a long trek but the team of SINNERs past the time by telling embarrassing stories about each other, how the coming campaign would go or betting on who would get the most kills the first day on the battlefield. Right now it was even between the squads' female elite sniper, Heloan Jau'en and the captain. To be honest Siflion didn't think he would come out on top. That woman had eyes like a hawk and when equipped with her Cold Wind sniper rifle no enemy would be safe if she had even the slightest moment of a clear shot. Furthermore the team's assassin and close quarter combat specialist No'el Valdema had joined in on the bet and declared he would beat both of them with his Stealth mode and two hardlight blades.

The SINNER squad finally reached their destination. The large hall of timelock chambers resembled what best could be described as rows upon rows of bookshelves in a large library. The chambers themselves were large cylinder tubes made of some kind of hardened glass; a holo-terminal was located on the side to operate them. The hall was full of people getting ready for the long trek before the coming battle or having a last chat with some of the other troopers. The squad made their way to their own champers not far from the entrance.

"Alright ladies. See you all in two months." Siflion called out to his squad before he entered a few commands on the terminal, making the glass tube lower itself into the floor. He stepped onto the platform and the glass tube returned from the floor. The machine activated and started to generate a small energy bubble around him, effectively locking him away from the physics of time. The journey would take two months if not a bit more but for Siflion and the others it would only feel like a second. Outside in space, the massive fleet was finally in formation and one by one all the ships activated their slipspace drives at the same time. All heading for the Forerunners seat of power, The Capital.

_Ω_

Meanwhile on the Infinity-class UNSC New Dawn

"Hurry up folks, the ship will exit slipspace in one and a half hour!" One of the four ODST team leaders yelled.

"Check your gear and pick your weapons, it can't possibly be that hard!" 28 elite ODSTs and 6 SPARTANs were walking around in the rather small armory, most of them wondering what kind of gun they should pick for the coming mission.

Cortana sat alone in all of her dark green with black stripes armor in one of the corners of the room, checking her equipment for what must have been the firth time. Right now she was going over the 99-S5 Anti-Materiel sniper rifle in her hands. Data shown on her HUD said the weapon was is perfect condition and ready for combat.

"Duke how goes the scanning of the armors functions?" a small window opened on the left corner of her HUD, revealing the head and shoulders of the male fisher AI. He looked a bit annoyed at the teenage SPARTAN and signed.

"Like the last 4 times, the armor is in perfect condition. By the way I think there are few talking about you to your right." Cortana turned her head a little to the right and spotted three ODST soldiers chatting among themselves, occasionally looking in her direction. Her HUD displayed their names and ranks, the highest being a corporal. It was obvious that they were talking about her and from the look on their faces it wasn't something nice.

Cortana knew of the tense relationship between the SPARTANs and the ODST. How the ODST claimed that they were the best of the best and not some mutated freaks like the SPARTENs that went in and took all the glory for themselves. Cortana just hope to avoid conflict with the ODST teams and just stay near her newly appointed team. Unfortunately for her that was not gonna happen. The three ODST soldiers decided to walk over to her, the corporal taking point.

"So you're the newest addition to the Reach team [3] hmm? You don't look so tough for a SPARTAN" The corporal and his friends had reached her and trapped her in the corner she was sitting in. They towered over from her position and looked down on her with confident and evil smiles on their faces. They all reminded her of the bullies from her time back in school. Especially that corporal reminded her of a bully from when she attended her third year in school. The bully had been five or six years old than her and was a huge guy, even among other boys at his own age. He had thought the little innocent looking girl an easy victim but was soon proven otherwise. After being picked on for a little over a month she finally had enough and went all out on him. The poor bastard could count himself lucky to be alive after that beating but he would never walk right for the rest of his life. Right now she had a nagging feeling of doing just that to the corporal in front of her but she controlled herself. She didn't want any trouble with her superiors and she wouldn't want to look like a troublemaker in front of her new team. Luckily for her and to some extent the three ODST soldiers Reach 6 had seen it all from behind a weapon rack and had stealthily walked up behind the unaware ODSTs. Without making a sound he slowly placed an armored arm around the shoulders of the corporals' friends, nearly crushing them under the weight, as he leaned his unhelmet head forward, right beside the corporals.

"Don't you three have better things to do than picking on a little girl, especially when my team leader has given me strict orders keeping a close eye on this little bird?" The voice was a deep and had a heavy Swedish accent.

The corporal almost jumped out of his armor when he heard the deep voice and turned around along with his companions, who had somehow managed to free themselves from the SPARTANs grip, and faced the almost 3 meter tall blond-haired SPARTAN . He was clad in the same kind of armor as Cortana with the same colors. On his back rested a modified M247H Heavy Machine Gun and a giant ammo-package connected to said gun.

To say the three ODST were afraid of the giant would the underestimation of the month. They were speechless with their heads pushed back as far as possible without breaking their necks to the face of the SPARTAN. A few seconds went by in silence before the guy to the left of Cortana spoke.

"W-we were… j-just…talking" The poor soldier was brutally interrupted as the large SPARTAN sent him a death glare and yelled at all three.

"inte verkligen!? Jag visste inte alls!"

(Really!? I didn't know!)

None of the ODST knew what the SPARTAN was yelling in Swedish, they only knew he was very angry and it was probably best to keep quiet for now and avoid eye contact. They felt like a bunch of small boys getting scolded at by their mother. When the giant Swedish SPARTAN didn't get an answer from any of them he let out a heavy sigh.

"Get out of here you idiots. If I catch doing this to her again then a pair of hunters will be the least of your problems, understood?" The SPARTAN commanded in a serious tone that almost would have put his team leaders commanding voice to shame. The ODST gladly obeyed the order and ran away, trying to get as much distance from them and the large, scary SPARTAN.

Cortana stood up and walked up beside her teammate while looking at the three ODST leaving the armory with all their equipment.

"Thank you for the rescue Lieutenant Esbjörnsson. I really appreciate it" Cortana said as she looked up at him with a smile, even though he couldn't see it because of the helmet she wore.

"Yeah, you're welcome sergeant. Next time however, deal with it yourself. You are a SPARTAN after all it shouldn't be much of a problem." The giant looked down at the young SPARTAN who had turned her head down, looking at the floor.

"Sorry" Was all he got as a reply. It was full of sadness, like she had accidentally hurt someone.

"I just didn't want to cause any trouble between us and the other teams." She said as she looked back up at the giant.

Esbjörnsson had to mentally slap himself for being such a fool. "Great job you giant Swedish idiot. Yes she is a SPARTAN but she's also just a kid on her very first mission with the team and you just come around and shoot down her confidence like you would have gunned down a grunt." He thought to himself before he placed a hand on Cortanas shoulder and looked her dead in the eyes.

"Hey, I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I didn't mean it like that. What I meant is that you are a strong girl and you shouldn't let someone like those guys boss you around like that. Heck it should be the other way around; you're a sergeant after all!" He shook her gently give more effect to the point and to let the words sink in faster. Just as he had hoped his words had the desired effect. Cortana took of her helmet and looked at her teammate with determination in her eyes. She was not going to let those three guys boss her around again.

"Thanks."

"No problem at all, little one." Esbjörnsson gave her a friendly clap on her back. The sheer force almost made her fall over. "Now we need to get to the debriefing room so we better hurry up and get there before the others miss us."

They made their way out of the armory. Most of the others had already left for the debriefing room. The room wasn't far from the armory, only a few halls away. The small walk went in silence. They entered the room which bested could be described as a lecture room with a large holotable in the middle of the room and rows of benches all around it. The rest of Reach team, all in the same armor and with the same colors as Cortana, had chosen to sit alone at one of the last row opposite to the door while the other teams were sitting in the front or the middle sections all around the room. The two SPARTANs made their way to their team and sat down next to them.

"What took you so long? The briefing will begin in a few minutes." Reach 1 Asked, the leader of the team, Commander Tay Adams. He didn't look pleased that they had taken so long to get to the debriefing room. He was about to scold more at them but before could do so a colonel of the Marine Corps walked through the door.

"Alright Ladies and gentlemen, let us get this over with." The stood near the holotable and activated it with a console built into it. The table showed a large jungle planet. Large caps could be seen scattered across the planet surface going far into the planet itself. Some of them were easily more than 10 kilometers in diameter. Other Forerunner docking stations like the ones on the Forerunner shield-world only dubbed Shield 0459 could also be spotted from time to time but there was no Forerunner ships to be found at the varies docking stations.

"This ladies and gentlemen is the Forerunner Shipyard world called Growth. According to our intel this is a world where the Forerunners mass-produced their warships… But the shipyards are all damaged beyond repair and there are no forerunner ships located anywhere on or for that matter inside the planet." The Colonel looked up at his spectators for a moment and took in a deep breath before he continued.

"However, according to what we got out of Janus Key [5] before its destruction was that there is something of great power waiting for us on this planet. However, the loyalists somehow got the scent of this to and are already on the planet." The colonel taped on the console again. Two covenant fleets facing each other showed up not far from the planet. One of the two fleets was significantly smaller than the other and it lacked many larger ship types.

"Luckily for us, our separatist allies were in the neighborhood system and have engaged the loyalist as soon as they could. And they have given them one hell of a fight both in space and on the ground. Our role for now this is to back up the separatist fleet and ground forces. You, ladies and gentlemen, will be dropped far into enemy territory meet up with some elites and whatever they have behind enemy line and attack their supply lines, weakening their frontline while our main force, consisting or our own troops and separatist forces alike, shot the crap out of them." lines showed up on the planet surface indicating where the frontlines were at the moment.

"You will be land around here" a dot appeared at least a 100 kilometer from the nearest frontline. "There you will be picked up by the separatist and moved to their base of operation. That is all; see you all when all this is over, dismiss." The ODSTs and SPARTANs got up from their seats and headed for the lifts to take them to the drop pods.

The journey to the drop pods quick and uneventful. They did come by a few crew members on their way, but they were all in a hurry getting thing ready for exiting slipspace and giving the loyalists one hell of a day to remember.

They soon entered the drop pod hall. It looked a lot like any other drop pod room, only this one was way bigger and… was that massive drop pods getting loaded to the brim with weapon and ammo crates?

"Alright boys that's the last one." A female technician said after walking out of the massive weapon and ammo drop pod. "Seal it and get it ready of drop like the others."

"What the hell are those things?" asked Cortana loud enough for the female technician to hear her.

"Oh they're just some experimental heavy drop pods; they're designed to drop an entire tank. Right now we just filled them with as much firepower and supplies as possible for you guys." They technician gave her cocky smile.

"Anyway are you all ready for the big jump?" A collected "HOOAR!" could be heard from all the ODST as they entered their drop pods, the door sealing itself tight behind them. The six SPARTANs did the same in complete silence.

The door closed itself like all the other. On the screens in front of Cortana showed Tay and a few others from her team. She could feel the massive warship coming out of slipspace and colliding with something as the entire ship shook. Her pod took a 180 degree turn. Below her she could see a large hatch opening. On the other side of the hatch between the ship and the Forerunner planet were a large number of covenant ships along with pieces of what was left of the unlucky covenant destroyer which had been right in front of the UNSC New Dawn as it exited the slipspace.

The brute shipmaster onboard the destroyer only had time to think one sentence after he spotted the massive human warship coming towards his own at breakneck speed "Oh by the holy ones, why me?" Before his and his entire crews lives ended as they were either consumed by explosions, suddenly exposed to vacuum, torn apart by flying metal pieces or all three at the same time.

Back on the New Dawn the drop pods were in position and ready to dropped. Cortana could feel her pod shake a little as it was released and fell toward the planet.

When her pod made it out of the large hatch along with many others she got a good view over the entire battle raging all around her. She could see the ships engaging in combat, fighters entering dog fights with each other and dropships and pods making planet fall. She could tell that the sudden appearance of the UNSC had tipped the battle to the separatists favor. The loyalists' frontline was in complete disarray and the allied forces took great advantage of this by hitting their hated foe as hard as possible. The loyalists tried to fall back and reorganize their front to a more defensive formation but the humans and separatists pushed forward with great speed and powerful blows. Sometimes surrounding and isolating small groups of loyalist ship before tearing them apart one by one. But before long the loyalists had organized and were able to hold the line for the time being.

While all of this happened, Cortana and the others had now entered the atmosphere of the Forerunner planet. The heat generated from their entrance was deflected by the hardened materials the pods were made of. Not long after they entered the atmosphere they hit the treetops of the jungle, branches breaking under the momentum of the pods drop. They didn't land far from each other.

Cortana opened the pods hatch and stepped outside into the jungle. The jungle itself reminded her a lot of the African jungle and South American rainforests only there wasn't any sounds of animals in any size or forms.

"Damn, it feels weird with no animals in this god forsaken jungle. It just gives me the creeps." She drew her sniper rifle, ready to shot down anything that would look out of the ordinary, before she moved slowly and making as little noise as possible towards the weapon and ammo pods. Duke had been so kind to make a waypoint for her.

It didn't take long before she reached a small clearing where the large experimental drop pods had landed. All the others from her team were already there along with most of the ODSTs. A few of them sat down and rested while others patrolled not too far from the clearing, making sure nothing would suddenly take them off guard.

Almost half an hour went by before the last ODST arrived. He had landed in a river and had been taken far by the stream before he got out of the water. Cortana had been scouting but was called back by commander Tay when the ODST had arrived.

"Hmm isn't it odd?" asked Duke. He had been quiet for a long time and hadn't spoken much since they dropped.

"What do you mean Duke? What should be odd?" Cortana entered the clearing; an ODST was sitting not far from her right.

"Wasn't there supposed to been a separatist unit to pick us up and move us to their hideout?" Cortana was about to answer but never go the chance when she spotted a bush shook a little as something invisible rose form it. The only thing that gave it away were leafs from the bush falling off it. She could see how it extended an arm towards the unknowing ODST, its hand ready to grab the man by his neck.

Cortana reacted fast and charged the unknown being before it could grab her follow soldier. The being noticed her just in time to dodge the jaw breaking punch from Cortana. It quickly followed up with grabbing her by the throat with its left arm and lifting her of the ground, her feet now dangling in the air.

Cortana tried to free herself from the death grip but stopped when she heard the familiar hiss of an energy sword activating. Small sparks of lighting traveled all over the body of her assailant and revealed a pitch black armored Sangheili special operations officer. The elite raised its energy sword to the point where its two pointy ends were on the same level as her eyes. At the same time more than 40 other Sangheilies special operatives came out of hiding and uncloaked along with two pairs of hunters, all of them ready to make a giant human BBQ party with their fuel rod, plasma and energy weapons. "How the bloody hell did we miss all of them!?" The same thought was going through all of the gathered humans in the clearing.

"It was far too easy it sneak up on you without any of you knowing we were here." The officer holding Cortana spat aggressively along with a clear hint of disappointment. "And you were supposed to be our reinforcements? Ha what a joke." The officer pulled Cortana closer to his face, making sure she could see the rage in his eyes beneath the helmet. He felt superior before this little demon; her life was in his hands and there was nothing she could do about it except for a sudden sharp sting in his left armpit. Confused he glanced down at his armpit without removing to much of his focus away from her.

What appeared to be the cause of the sharp stinging was in fact a small double-edged blade attached to her wrist being pressed up in a small gap in his armor to allow him to move his arm.

"How? How did she get that small blade through my shield? And how didn't I hear her pull out the blade?"Many other thoughts flew around in his head as he tried to explain how this little demon had pressed its blade against his naked skin.

"What's the matter big boy? Did this little joke suddenly scare you?" If it hadn't been for the helmet Cortana was wearing and the fact that she was being choked the officer would have seen a rather scary smile creeping up on her lips.

"If my knowledge of Sangheili anatomy is correct there should be a large artery not far from there the tip of my blade is heading. That is if I choose to push the blade a bit further." To add more effect to her statement she pressed the tip of the blade into the officers hard skin. Dark blue blood began leaking out of the small wound.

"You would have time to kill me with that sword of yours but I will definitely take you with me in the grave." The officer hesitated for a moment. He could feel the confidence radiating from her; she would do it if she had to.

Then something the humans had not foreseen happened, the officer started to laugh uncontrollably. He even seem unfazed by his laughing making the blade in his armpit go deeper and widening his wound, making it bleed even far more than before.

"Oh that was good. You have a bit of my respect for that one little demon." The officer made what look like a smile before he let go of Cortanas throat. She fell to her keens coughing violently from suddenly being able to breath normally again. She soon got back on her legs and saw that the separatist forces had lowered their weapons by orders of the officer in front of her.

"I am Rak Vadam, son of Thel vadam the head of the Separatist and ruler of Sanghelios. And who might you be little demon?" The officer now known as Rak took a closer look at the young SPARTAN. On the outside she looked just like the other demons but he couldn't shake off the feeling that there was far more to her than what meets the eye. She was somehow… different from the others. Could it be some kind of aura of something unknown around her? Maybe but one thing was sure, he was not the only one who could feel this presents. The other Sangheilies watching her could feel the same thing as he could.

"I'm Cortana Griffin, daughter of John Griffin also known as the Master Chief back when he was in service." Just as Rak she too took a closer look at the young Sangheili. She couldn't say how old he was, probably around the age as her. He was one and a half head higher than her, well trained from the intense combat training since he was a small kid and had the air of a natural leader.

"A p-pleasure to meet you." The disgust was clear in his voice, even though he tried to hide it. He had to play just a little nice in front of these dirty humans.

"Our fathers matched to great battles with each other. Let us hope the same will happen to us. Now let us get back to camp before the night sky rises." With that said he turned around and led the newly arrived humans to their new home for the many months ahead of them.