Guilty Sparks

by General Rage

Fleeing from the glassing of Reach in the belly of the Pillar of the Autumn, the crew of the SR-2 Normandy find themselves stranded with their UNSC allies on a strange Forerunner constructed ring world called Halo with the Covenant hunting them. But Halo holds a secret, one deadlier than both the Covenant and Reapers combined... and it's hungry.

2. Did we Lose them?

Chapter 1: Did we Lose Them?

July, 27th, 2185

Liara wouldn't lie to herself, she felt uneasy about holding a captive alien aboard this ship. It reminded her all too much of what her predecessor did to Feron. At least she wasn't using a torture chair, just an ordinary sealed room. That and the little alien and his friends had gone after her first, not the other way around. At least in that way she could say she was still the better person.

It needed to be done, whether she was comfortable with it or not. The Normandy was missing, her friends were probably in danger and this miniature gas sucking alien was their only hope in finding him. At least the interrogation process had been easy, the creature was less than loyal to his companions and easily frightened. She barely had to even play bad cop, so to speak. Like the taller alien she encountered, this little one was able to speak a language her universal translator could determine. From what she could gather it was the human language. Not perfect of course, he forgot verbs and adverbs and other proper speech patterns. It wasn't a stimulating conversation, but she got what she wanted.

Well, most of what she wanted.

As she looked through the glass window, peering into the room at their caged guest, Feron walked up alongside her. She gave him a quick look, not turning her head to meet him. She simply moved her eyes to him and then back to the little alien.

"Learn anything?" He asked after a good twenty seconds of silence.

"He calls himself an Unggoy," Liara answered simply. "Analysis of his pack suggests he needs methane to breathe. The taller ones he calls Sangheili. He's not very forthcoming beyond that, he says he doesn't even know why they were sent here beyond some vague details, but from the way his friend talked before he blew himself up I can only conclude they're all part of some religious sect or order."

Feron just seemed to shrug at that a bit and exhale deeply. Liara had a similar reaction prior, nothing was worse than religious zealots, especially when you knew next to nothing about them.

"What about how they got here?" Feron continued to ask.

"Their ship dispatched them to Hagalaz because they were the closest in range to our cluster," she answered, moving her hands from behind her back and into a crossed position. "Apparently, they received the order from a ship in the wormhole system near the veil. They must've found one of my probes, back tracked the transmission signal to this cluster or system somehow. Maybe even the planet itself."

Feron looked at her concerned.

"Did you notice any probes missing before they got here?" he asked

"No, I sent out a lot," she expressed, shaking her head in embarrassment at herself. "Lost track, too many variables. It was inevitable something was going to go wrong. I've already scrambled the signals for all the probes, recalled them. With any luck they don't have an exact location on Hagalaz and we'll be okay."

She wasn't entirely sure of that, but it was all they could hope for in the long run.

"So... he say anything about Shepard?" Asked Feron as he continued his prodding.

That was the big question after all. What did the little alien know about the Commander, her friend? The answer was of course little, further frustrating the Asari.

"I don't think he's lying, he's too terrified for that," Liara explained as she fought back her annoyed tone of speech. "But he knows nothing, I thought I'd at least get something about Shepard. All I got is that he refers to him as some kind of false messiah figure. It's ridiculous and certainly doesn't get us answers."

"Well you must've got something from him," said Feron, practically pleading to be told they had a lead on this. If not for his sake than for hers of course, so his blue skinned boss would stop stressing herself over this.

Liara finally turned to the drell, but she didn't have all that much to go on from the sound of it.

"All he's told me is that he was stationed somewhere with a lot of sand and abandoned old buildings," she said, "that doesn't narrow it down exactly."

"Well if the place is really dirty maybe he has some soil samples we can use to pin down a location." Feron suggested.

"My thoughts exactly," Liara concurred. "I'm going to swab his armour and see what it can tell us. If we get enough material to work with I can probably narrow things down a bit, get us a location to start with."

These Unggoy and Sangheili came from somewhere. If this alien couldn't tell her about Shepard she'd find someone who could, one way or another.

September, 19th, 2552

-5 Hours till Slipspace exit

She almost felt at home down here, not just because it was an engine room but because of how big the space was. Back on the Migrant Fleet the engine rooms of their larger ships, particularly the Neema and Rayya, were massive. They had to be to accommodate the giant drive cores that kept the ships moving. Plus they were all so old, newer ships had more compact and narrow engine rooms. They were designed to be more efficient, less crowded, with fewer deck hands needed to keep things running. Not so with Quarian ships which were 300 years out of date or, as it seemed, the Halcyon class of cruisers. Although considering how old the Pillar of Autumn was and that it had been forced out of retirement just before they arrived on Reach, Tali wasn't entirely surprised by the parallels she was making.

Regardless of how bulky the engine core of the Autumn was, how outdated it seemed, Tali was still fascinated by it. New technology, no matter how old, especially when it involved ships, always got her curious. She asked the Chief engineer to take on a tour of the place when she first came aboard the Autumn. The deck consisted of two levels with a large catwalk on top of the core that looked down on the main floor below. Consoles lined the walls here while above little terminals sat in the corners of the walkways. All the equipment in this place was necessary if they wanted to keep the Autumn's engine humming. The fusion drive core of the engine itself had four exhaust couplings, two on either side. These kept lock on the shafts leading to the main reactor. They were only to be opened for important maintenance work or, if need be, to vent the core should it overheat.

Not that anyone was about to do that now. That would mean shutting off the engine and no one wanted to shut off the very thing was currently keeping them alive. Tali and the other engineers could only hope that nothing went wrong that forced them to prematurely shut down. Given how long they had currently been in slipspace, however, that was always a danger. It was something humans called a catch-22. They were safe in slipspace for now, but sooner or later they'd have to leave it. Whether that would be when they reached their destination or if they needed to exit for some kind of emergency no one could really say. Tali was both hoping, and somewhat dreading, that it would be the former.

The Pillar of Autumn had just escaped humanity's last line of defence before Earth. The great fortress world of Reach was now glass, burned to ashes by the relentless alien alliance known as the Covenant. The Normandy had gotten inside the cruiser just in time. It was the second time the little frigate had run from the Covenant, the first being when they were forced to fly the Normandy into a wormhole. That very wormhole was the core reason for their current predicament. It had transplanted them into this new strange universe where humans stood alone against an alliance of zealous alien religious fanatics. Now they were travelling within this floating heap of metal, fleeing an armada of plasma totting warships and towards a destination supposedly unknown due to a random slipspace jump.

That was only half true though and Tali knew it. The slipspace jump had not been as random as some suspected. The completion of a final desperate mission on Reach had seen to that. Weeks prior to the fall of the planet Tali had been taking part in a secret project with Doctor Halsey. It concerned the Autumn's current artificial intelligence, Cortana. It would be more accurate to say though that Tali had been working on only a fragment of the AI's synthetic mind. Cortana's missing piece was re-installed soon after the Normandy took up residence in the Autumn's hanger. Inside was a treasure trove of information concerning the Forerunners, the beings the Covenant believed were gods. Now Cortana's subconscious was loaded with knowledge of a long vanished alien species, the full effects of which she could only speculate for now. Tali knew one thing though, that it had helped Cortana choose their "random" destination.

The Forerunner data contained a starchart. It detailed the potential location of something important to the Forerunners. So important that they hadn't even written down exactly what it was, or they had erased that information prior to dropping off the face of the known universe. Tali wasn't certain which, all she knew was that they were closing on the coordinates. She'd have her answers eventually, so that eased the suspense slightly. She just didn't know whether or not she'd like what they'd find.

It was why she was spending so much time in the engine room of the Autumn when she could these past twenty days. She was doing her best not to think too much about what was going to be on the other side of this jump. Best case scenario, something they could use against the Covenant to fight them. The worst case scenario was all they found was a damn church or religious site. Taking it would just piss the Covenant off more, something they obviously didn't need more of right now.

It was relaxing work at least. Thanks to her tinkering, and a bit of Quarian know how, she had been able to cut down the Autumn's fusion core's energy consumption by a quarter and increase the engine speed by 0.09 percent.

"Eat your heart out, Garrus," she said to herself, thinking of the supposed king of calibration.

She was hoping when they got back to civilization there would be time to find a way to install a similar reactor on the Normandy. It would cut down on fuel consumption for one. Although they'd probably need a smaller one, maybe something like the secondary reactors on the ship.

Being down here so often also gave her more time to study the Autumn's slipspace drive itself. If they were going to get their own working at optimum capacity and at increased speeds they were going toneed figure out where the flaws were in the human design. It wasn't too hard, she was Quarian after all, ships were her thing. More importantly thanks to Halsey's notes and the UNSC database she was able to come up with a number of potential design changes she could incorporate into the drive with ease. They already had a salvaged Covenant slipspace drive to work with, one of their only trophies of the campaign on Reach. She imagined she could get the Normandy's drive working, at long last, given enough time and materials to get the project off the ground. Sadly she currently had none of the former.

"Tali'Zorah vas Normandy," Cortana's voice spoke over the intercom. "Please report to crew quarters on deck 7, section B."

One thing about being a big ship, they had to incredibly specific when they wanted you somewhere on it. Tali had almost forgotten that. She was used to the Normandy and its singular elevator by now. She quickly signed out of the system and made her way out of engineering. She got a few accommodating waves as she left. It wasn't difficult to make friends with fellow mechanics, however only a few had really gotten past her extraterrestrial nature. Still, this universe was a clean slate for her. No one here had any prejudices against quarians specifically. If people didn't like her it was because she was simply not a human and that was considerably better than usual. Even then she wouldn't say the Autumn's crew hated her, just kept a close eye on her more or less. Even so, they were still friendly enough and the few that honestly seemed to like her made her feel welcome enough.

"Hey, Tali," one of the engineers called out as she passed by. She believed his name was Ben, if she was recalling it correctly. "I did that check on the intake valve like you suggested. You were right, needed a new seal. It's working at full capacity now."

"Glad to hear it," she replied "I'll see if I can come back later and readjust the laser for the ion slurry. We don't want them giving out under stress. We lose absolute zero and we could have problems."

She made a mental note that when she got back to her dimension she needed to go over these optical laser specs. The Autumn's method of cooling a slurry of ions to absolute zero temperature was far less problematic than coolant pumps and valves. She had already devised several ways it could be applied to Quarian ships.

Tali now left the engine room, feeling a little less distress over things than usual. It was good to keep busy, especially when you were on the run. She wasn't the only one who had carved out a niche in the short couple of weeks they had been here. For example, Miranda had taken up the habit of juggling XO duties for the Normandy and playing the liaison between the two ships and their wildly different crews. Nothing too major, it wasn't like fights were breaking out every other day. She was essentially keeping tabs on supplies, rotating sleeping quarters, administrative duties, things like that. She didn't stay in one place to long, although Tali had a feeling some of the Marines and troopers aboard wished she did.

Another of the Normandy crew that had settled into the new space nicely was Garrus. Who currently was just outside engineering in one of the many armoury rooms that dotted the Autumn. He was just coming out with one of the UNSC sniper rifles, almost bumping straight into the quarian.

"Tali, getting pulled away from the reactor core I see," he said as he started walking beside her

"Just as well," she shrugged. "Mostly just diagnostic work anyway. Making sure some of the tweaks I made were taking."

She turned to the partially scarred turian, his silverfish armour standing out against the brownish green walls. Her eyebrow was slightly raised towards him.

"Funny seeing you down here though," she told him. "Plenty of other places to pick up a rifle on this ship."

"Well I wanted to see about stopping by and saying hi or something," Garrus remarked with his usual upbeat tone. "Figured you could use the friendly face, make sure everyone's treating you properly."

"Always the protective gentlemen," Tali snickered. "You almost sound like Shepard. The Autumn's crew is treating me fine all things considered. No need to bust any heads over me."

Tali's eyes moved over to the rifle in Garrus' arms. The turian had always had an affinity for firearms, but it just seemed a bit weird that he was picking out a UNSC rifle. Didn't he have at least two of those by now? Then she remembered why he had two.

"Let me guess," she began inquisitively. "New project?"

"Last couple of integrations went well," he said, "scope and extra damage multipliers snapped on just fine. Now I wanna see if I can go the full nine yards and do to this what they did for the Mattock. A full thermal clip integration upgrade, it's something me and Jacob have been discussing it for awhile now."

Actually the idea had been thrown around before. If they could somehow get the UNSC weapons modified to use thermal clips it could help a great deal with their ammunition concerns. Worrying about how many clips and bullets you were carrying consecutively in addition to precise bullet calibre and the like was frustrating. The more they simplified things before they ran into the Covenant again, the better.

"You'll figure it out," Tali told him as they came to a service lift. "You two are the gun nuts."

"Well we got a few Marines helping us too, so there's that," Garrus added. "Also, Sergeant Buck is going to stop by and give us his own take. The extra hands are always appreciated and they know the weapons better anyway."

Tali had almost forgotten about Garrus' new friend, Sergeant Buck of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. He and his squad weren't supposed to be on the Autumn but they ended up getting stuck there anyway when circumstances forced got them stuck on the Normandy. They had integrated into the Autumn's resident ODSTs currently stationed on-board, led by a Major Antonio Silva. Tali had never seen the man for she lacked the time for a visit to the ODST quarters themselves. Everything she knew came from others and they said he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder. One that was aimed squarely at four select people currently aboard the Autumn. Buck at least seemed alright though, Tali knew him and he was relatively polite person as well as exceedingly charming. Bit of a wise cracker though. No wonder he and Garrus got along.

They eventually came to an elevator lift leading up into the ship from engineering. Garrus was headed the same way so they both headed inside. Usually the prospect of getting in any elevator with Garrus wasn't something Tali looked forward to. The turian once had a tendency to be a bit of a jerk, but he had stopped... a little.

"So, is most of your time spent in the engine room or is the scuttlebutt true?" He asked out of the blue.

As stated, only a little. Tali instantly knew what he was talking about, she had overheard things from the Normandy crew when she went back to the ship. Suffice to say it was a bit annoying to have him bring it up again.

"Someone has to keep up maintenance on Cortana and Halsey isn't here," she responded flatly, her posture becoming more defensive. "If you're thinking what I believe you are maybe you should just come out and say it."

Garrus was quick to back off a bit at Tali's snap.

"Hey, there's no need to get all defensive on me Tali, I wasn't going to say anything," Garrus replied, trying to reassure her. "It's just, you know, I never pegged you to be fussing over an AI."

"Is it really that surprising to you and everyone?" Tali asked, still sounding a bit angry. "I've been getting along with Legion just fine for Walled Garden's sake! Can't a girl change her outlook? I mean come on Garrus, I try to get past my people's issues with synthetics and still people find a way to..."

She stopped herself before she went further, placing her fingers to her forehead. She was getting into some rather touchy territory. More importantly she hated snapping at her friends, especially Garrus.

"I'm sorry, I guess I'm just being oversensitive again," she admitted, finally calming down. "I just wish they wouldn't talk about this stuff behind my back."

"They don't mean anything by it, Tali," Garrus assured her. "No one thinks you're a hypocrite, least of all me. It's just... well even with Legion and EDI you never seemed to be so involved with an AI. I know you worked on a fragment of her and everything for over two weeks, but I'm just wondering exactly what you're doing with her and why? Everyone is."

She supposed some kind of explanation was in order. She just wasn't sure what to say. She barely understood it herself. She could just write it off as an assignment of sorts given by Halsey before they parted. It was partly, but not entirely. There was more to this, she just wasn't comfortable talking about it.

"It's nothing really," she partially lied. "She's... just really important to Halsey and I figure I need to keep her running properly and all."

Garrus seemed to accept that, but he wasn't oblivious it seemed.

"Well, when you wanna give me the full details feel free to share," he informed her kindly. "You know me, always willing to listen."

"Yeah, you're good with that," Tali admitted, her good natured attitude returning. "And sorry for snapping at you."

"Given all the times I've been an ass I guess I had it coming," The turian replied.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Tali's stop, Garrus had a ways to go.

"See you later, Tali," He waved goodbye.

"Same, good luck with the gun," she told him.

The doors closed and Tali continued on her way. It felt good to talk with Garrus, despite how the discussion almost got pretty heated quickly. She hadn't realised how little she had been interacting with most of her old friends in the past few weeks. She'd been so busy in the engine rooms of both ships and Cortana, she really only had time for one other person in the end.

As she walked through the crew quarters area of the deck though she saw other people with more active social lives than her at the moment. She passed an impromptu break room, set up to deal with the overabundance of jarhead Marines and their hot blooded Army trooper counterparts. More people got onto the Autumn than originally expected, mostly Army personnel. Even though they were all in the same boat, old rivalries still lingered and the stress caused by the traumatic loss of Reach wasn't helping. So they decided to use some side rooms on the ship that used to be storage space and converted it into a place for soldiers to unwind. That meant a lot of canisters and crates had been moved out into the halls by now, but the corridors were big enough not to cause too much congestion. Besides, the troops got a space to play some hologames and watch vids if they wanted. No one was complaining.

This break room had a higher amount of soldiers than usual, plus one extra. Grunt, the ever violent and yet lovable tank bred Krogan was sitting at the very back of the room. The krogan had got on better with the UNSC crew than most, his stories about how he killed elites by the bushel and beat down a hunter somewhat helped. They still kept him at arm's length though. Tali didn't blame the Marines, after all Grunt was intimidating even for a younger Krogan. Didn't mean they couldn't watch vids together. This one appeared to be some kind of propaganda film involving an attack on Covenant forces. She couldn't make out much more than that, mostly just explosions, a quick cut of an Elite (obviously a human in costume) getting shot in the head, banshees getting blown out of the sky as UNSC air support flew in.

If only it was that easy, but who was she to deny these soldiers their fantasy? There were a few home grown quarian films that were very similar in tone. The enemy of course was less organic. She remembered enjoying them, whether for their content or because it was one of the few times her father spent time with her when she was young she couldn't say. She still felt a bit guilty for liking them now though. It was another reason for her to not linger too long.

Tali continued her way through the long corridor, Marines and troopers passing her by. She took a partial glance at one of the electronic information boards on the walls. Mostly it contained instructional information in the form of posters or news about what the mess hall was serving. There was one poster out of place on the board, mainly because it was so new. Tali had seen it once before. It depicted most of her fellow non-human crewmates along with herself in small portraits on a grid. The text beneath the pictures read "Remember! These ones are on our side!" She honestly wondered if it was really that necessary, if anyone would mistake her for say an elite or any other Covenant foot-soldier. But perhaps they were all so hardwired to be wary of aliens it didn't hurt to remind them of how things had changed slightly.

Despite that, she believed at least one person didn't need to be on that warning list, at least not for the concerns stated. Samara the Asari Justicar, among the most human looking of the xenos aboard the Autumn and admittedly the most attractive. That just came with being an Asari though, no matter how old they got they always appeared to be in their prime. Everyone gave her looks, not that she paid them any mind. Justicars weren't big on relationships, according to what she read about them. That made them act rather isolated from others. Tali recalled how little she saw of Samara outside her room on the ship. It was with good reason, Justicars would bound by their code to kill those who defiled justice and committed evil. Not every instance was a death sentence, but depending on the nature of your crimes you'd probably get killed for a lot of things according to what Tali knew of the code.

However, now it seemed like that habit was getting nipped in the bud as Tali saw a lot more of Samara. In fact she wasn't too far ahead. She heard the distinctive noise of biotics being powered up and fired. She turned to the doorway and saw the Justicar herself inside this level's firing range. Of course she had co-opted it for less bullet oriented purposes. Tali watched as a cardboard cut-out of an elite was flung all the way to the back of the room.

"Nice one, Samara," congratulated the marine next to her.

"Hitting motionless targets out in the open isn't that impressive, Kowalski," Samara countered. "Behind cover or moving is more of a strain."

"I can set that up for ya," Kowalski assured. "Give me a minute."

Kowalski was a marine that the Normandy crew kept running into, along with the rest of his unit. What little remained of it now at least. Tali recalled that the Private had built a rapport with the asari, not an easy task with a Justicar. It helped that he was a generally nice person from what Tali had seen of him. Were he a bosh'tet or killed innocents in any way Samara would probably have pulped his head. Tali just couldn't help but wonder though why he hung around Samara so much. Other than the obvious reasons of course, but he seemed like a well-meaning guy. From what she heard his rush to get to the Autumn wasn't a very heroic story, more bittersweet than anything as it was the reason so few in his company were left. Maybe he was just looking for a friend right now to keep his mind off it all. Tali could relate.

She left without saying a word or piping up, she had some place to be right now after all. She kept on walking rounding the corner ahead and turning left. The doorway to the mess hall was now on her right and she quickly marched through it. There weren't many Marines in there at the moment, chow time had just about ended and if Tali could hazard a guess most of the troops on this deck were with Grunt watching the movie. The lack of people made it easy to locate the one person she knew she had been called here for. As suspected, sitting at one of the tables in the center of the room, wearing a Normandy Crewman's outfit, now lacking the Cerberus symbol he had personally removed awhile back was Commander Wade Shepard. He had two bottles and two glasses beside him. Tali just hoped neither were alcohol, especially since the last time this came up. She quickly rushed over to him at a brisk pace.

"Don't worry beautiful," he assured her as she approached. "They're not hard liquor and one of them I can't even drink anyway."

He grabbed one of the bottles and poured an orange liquid into a glass.

"Mine is root beer," he promised. "Yours is dextro-based grasellia, a turian fruit drink. I pulled it up from storage."

Tali let out a little giggle and sat across from her Commander. She pulled the glass towards her, keeping her eyes on him all the while.

"So you called me all the way up here for a date in the mess hall?" She asked slyly "My Wade, how romantic of you."

"Well I figured you'd prefer getting out of the loft for once on one of these," He shrugged. "It does get a bit boring looking at my fish and model ship collection constantly."

"I like playing with the weird prothean ball artefact," she quickly countered.

They both had a laugh at that, but before long Tali was looking over at the few Marines still in the mess hall with them.

"You sure you're not worried about the scuttlebutt from our new friends?" She asked sheepishly.

Shepard waved at her dismissively.

"Relax Tali," he told her warmly. "These people may not be big alien fans but they respect us, all of us. Besides, as far as they're concerned we're just two shipmates having a drink together."

It wasn't like they could just start kissing after all, Shepard had a point there. Tali always wondered, however, if the Marines would pick up on the subtle body language or other possible affectionate gestures. It was not that she wanted to hide their relationship, it was just she was thinking about how they'd start seeing Shepard. Respected or not, the UNSC probably didn't think highly of fraternization with aliens.

"Well, if you say so Wade." Tali replied at last, letting go a sigh. "But I know you wouldn't have asked Cortana to send me up here if you didn't have other things on your mind besides this."

Shepard bobbed his head a bit, she had it right, there was more to this. He couldn't hide anything from her it seemed.

"I was thinking a bit about what's ahead for us," He began seriously. "We're going to be leaving slipspace soon according to Keyes. Meaning whatever is at the coordinates Cortana subconsciously jumped to is going to become very clear once we arrive. I'm a bit worried I guess about what we'll find."

"Not even Halsey knew that." Tali reminded him "Like I said, we just have the most basic information. All we know is that it's Forerunner and it's important."

"Which is why I doubt Halsey would leave so much to chance," Shepard added. "Was there anything in that journal of hers that gave any details about this venture of hers?"

Tali reached into one of her back pockets and slowly pulled out a small brown booklet. This was Halsey's journal, given to her first and only Quarian student just moments before they parted ways on Reach. It detailed decades of research, statistics, schematics, equations, personal thoughts, scraps of newspapers and drawings. It's accumulation of notes and pages stretched back further than even the start of the Covenant-Human war. Needless to say it was a lengthy read.

Tali had been pouring over the thing for weeks since they left Reach. Whenever she had time, Tali spent the night going over everything in careful detail. She was happy that her visor's "text translator" function managed to properly interpret the words on the page for her. It felt so weird to read something that wasn't digitized. Despite the unfamiliarity she persevered, continuing her pursuit in acquiring a better sense of Halsey's inner workings and thoughts. Not an easy task considering the subject.

The good doctor had had a long career, a lot of it doing some rather questionable things. The Spartan II project was chief among them. Kidnapping children to raise them as super-soldiers was a huge sticking point and had coloured her in the eyes of many of the Normandy crew. The journal revealed how deeply ashamed and at the same time proud of the program Halsey was. Well, maybe not proud of the program but 'her' Spartans at least, as she constantly called them. She had nothing but the highest praises for the Spartan IIs, especially one that seemed to stand out the most. Tali knew who he was, she and Shepard had met him once before.

But as to Shepard's question, Tali had no answer.

"I've read it cover to cover, Shepard," Tali assured him. "I don't think she had time to cover all the details about what she was hoping to get out of this. Or she was afraid of her own work falling into the hands of the Covenant at that stage."

"I suppose we can't begrudge her for trying to retain a form of security on her diary," Shepard reluctantly relented. "I just wish she gave us a floor plan of some kind to follow. As is we won't know what to do until we leave slipspace and once we do we're vulnerable again."

Tali perched an eyebrow at the comment.

"Thinking the Covenant will jump us?" She asked.

"I think the Inquisitor wouldn't want us getting away so easily," Shepard replied.

The Inquisitor, how easy it was to forget about him. The lone Reaper in this universe who had sworn to continue its brethren's cycle of extinction as well as make it more efficient by finding new warriors for their upcoming harvest. The Covenant were its choice for job. No one had seen the thing in person just yet, at least not among the Normandy crew. But Shepard had talked to it and from what Tali had heard the monster was just as indifferent and conceited as any Reaper. It saw them as pests, barely even that. If their hunch was right, Reach had been all about finding the very data they now had. It wouldn't be far behind.

It didn't make the coming fight any less unnerving, but Tali didn't think they were going into it wholly unprepared.

"Halsey may not have given us a plan, but I do think she gave us something," Tali sincerely told Shepard. "Or more accurately someone she had a lot of faith in."

Shepard seemed to instantly realise who she was talking about.

"The Spartan that Cortana was meant for according to what Halsey told you," he said knowingly. "I remember. I have to say Tali, I still don't get why she trained you for so long with Cortana if she's meant for this guy."

"I'm Cortana's..." Tali hesitated a moment before finishing her train of thought, her fingers scrambling over one another as she did. "Well, mechanic I guess if you want to get technical. The Master Chief is supposed to work in tandem with her. She was created to aid him specifically. Plus she was already training with him at the time I was working on her fragment. Suddenly changing her assigned partner at this stage would be unnerving and suspicious."

That still left the question of what Tali's role in all this was supposed to be, other than the cryptic "guiding of Cortana's evolution" that Halsey kept bringing up. Only the quarian mechanic herself knew the full extent of what that ultimately meant and Shepard wasn't trying too hard to find out. Tali was thankful for that, she didn't really want to express it right now. Not until she had more time with the AI to sort things out.

"It sounds to me like we'll be working with him quite a bit," Shepard surmised. "I feel a bit like a babysitter now."

Tali immediately shook her head.

"We're back-up at most, here to assist if anything," Tali assured. "Even a super soldier needs an army backing him up and our crew alone makes up a small army. Halsey may be concerned about him, but not in the way you're thinking."

Shepard, his curiosity peeked, leaned back a bit and crossed his arms.

"She say anything about him?" He asked, sounding intrigued. "To you or in the book?"

Tali opened the journal and began flipping pages.

"There's a lot of blanks to fill in but from what I can gather the Master Chief was something of a star pupil of hers in the Spartan II program," she tried her best to explain. "All the candidates were picked for specific reasons that she laid out, genetic and personality wise, but when she speaks of him it's almost as if she can't praise him enough."

Tali stopped on one of the pages deep within the journal itself.

"He was a born leader to her, special," she stated, her voice low and full of resonance "Out of all the people that were turned into Spartans he was always her pick to lead them from the beginning. He stood out, someone who could take a bunch of scared kids and turn them into soldiers. He led them to take on impossible odds and more often than not he was the one who got them home in the end."

Tali looked up and slid the journal over to Shepard.

"He kinda reminds me a bit of you actually, now that I think about it," she said affectionately.

Shepard picked up the journal and looked into detailed sketch of the Master Chief himself on the page. His face visor and huge armoured suit stared back at him. The text on the sides of the page talked about a conversation Halsey had with him recently, probably just before Reach fell. She didn't call him Chief though. She called him John, his no doubt real name. To Shepard it was kinda funny, his mom once told him that before they settled on Wade they thought of calling him John. It was trivial, but to him just a bit interesting. He handed the journal back to Tali.

"Well, if our favourite ONI Doctor has this much faith in him maybe it's the other way around then," he thought aloud. "Maybe he's here to make sure we get out of this alive. It'll be interesting working with him."

"Just try to save a few of the Covenant for us when you two get to work on them," Tali giggled a bit.

But behind the laugh was a bit of unease. As good as they all were at their jobs they were flying into the unknown here. Reach was at least semi-familiar to them all. Whenever they were heading was born of Forerunner, something they had little experience with. Tali just hoped that they were all up to the challenge, whatever it was.

---

July, 27th, 2185

Waiting for results was always the worst part. Liara remembered that's what she hated about archaeology back when she was still active in it, the waiting. Always anticipating what age would come back after carbon dating tests. Patiently expecting a reply from the publisher to see if your findings were accepted or if your funding was renewed for your dig site. They always warned you the hours were long in the business of digging up lost civilizations, even for an asari. For Liara, she always enjoyed the act of discovery more than the procedure that went into verifying it, even if she knew how vital it was. Maybe that was why she felt she fit in so well with Shepard aboard the first Normandy. The Commander always got immediate results.

Now as she waited for the tests on the little gas breathing alien to properly verify where he had been it felt like she was back in her old job. She needed to do something, anything to keep her mind off the suspense. She looked at the little alien, the Unggoy as it called itself. Well, it wouldn't hurt to question it again she supposed. She entered the room once more, the doors opening wide as the two guards looked at her.

"You're relieved," she informed them.

"Sure ma'am, getting tired of looking at the little spud's ugly mug," replied one of the guards

"Think ya can handle him?" The other asked cheekily, barely containing a laugh

Liara looked at the quivering little alien, shaking in it's chair. It probably still remembered what she had done to his friends.

"I'll be fine," Liara assured

The guards piled out and Liara approached the Uggnoy proper.

"What is your name?" She asked

It took awhile for the alien to speak up.

"Kayap," it squeaked.

Liara nodded once, it was a start.

"Where do you come from?" She asked, soon realising she needed to clarify. "Your home planet, what's it called?"

Again the little methane breather took awhile to answer, perhaps trying to guage why Liara was asking these questions.

"Balaho," He said nervously. "We from Balaho."

She had never heard of such planet. It was possibly undiscovered, in some unknown region of space. It was a big galaxy, who was to say they had mapped it all?

"Where is Balaho?" She asked inquisitively. "What system? What cluster?"

That was to assume Kayap even knew what she was talking about. He seemed intelligent enough though, perhaps she just wasn't giving him enough credit.

"Not here," He told her. "Nowhere here."

Liara looked at him confused.

"Where then?" She asked once more. "Where is your home?"

For once Kayap stopped jittering about in fear and looked at her straight in the eye.

"Through hole," he said in a far off distant voice.

Liara's eyes widened slightly at that, but she didn't have much time to think about the ramifications. The doors swished open and Kayap jumped back in his chair. Liara pulled herself back and watched as Feron rushed through the doorway carrying a datapad.

"The tests came back, Liara," he said as he handed the pad off to her. "The dirt on our friend's armour here was verified as containing trace amounts of radiation. Nothing substantial, but it was enough for us to find it. The colouring and chemical makeup also narrowed down the search. We came up with one positive match, Tuchanka."

The krogan home world, an unexpected place for Kayap and his fellows to choose to make their home given the krogan dislike of aliens on their planet. Not that they were there by choice obviously, the Uggnoy obviously weren't running this show. Liara still had to wonder why they were there and were the krogan aware of them?

"Then it seems we have a destination," Liara told Feron commandingly. "Get the ship ready."

Feron nodded at once.

"You think the Commander is there then?" he asked

Liara looked away from Feron for a moment.

"No, I don't think he is," She admitted, not wanting to look completely crazy by telling Feron what she really thought just yet. She looked back up at the drell. "Listen, I need you to stay here and keep an eye on things while I'm gone. I'll contact you when I need you."

"I'm not so sure I should just let you run off into Krogan territory alone," Feron told her crossing his arms disapprovingly.

"I won't be," she assured. "I'll bring a wet work squad along. And I have a friend on Tuchanka. He should be able to help me."

If he wasn't too busy running his clan of course.

"What about him?" Feron asked pointing behind Liara

Feron had a point. As Liara turned to Kayap she pondered to herself. What to do with him? He looked up at her, his eyes full of dread and face quivering relentlessly. She could keep him here, as he was, but she could use the extra intelligence on these new aliens when she next encountered them. She barely knew where to start looking when she got there and as much as her friend planet-side would probably want to help there was no guarantee that he could. Then again there was the risk Kayap would look to get away and warn his companions at the nearest opportunity.

Then again, would he even be brave enough to try that? Especially with a giant shotgun totting lizard was involved?

"I guess he's my bloodhound then," Liara reasoned.

---

September, 19th, 2552

-2 Hours till Slipspace Exit

It had been good clearing the air with Shepard again. He had been a lot more open with her in the past few weeks than before. It felt like the relationship was getting back to normal, as normal as it could be given the situation at hand.

Tali was making her way back down to engineering. She wanted to see if she could assist in the slipspace exit procedures, by now they were probably just about to get underway. As Tali made her way back to the elevator, however, she ran into a familiar face along the way. It was a friend from Reach, one of their first when they arrived in this universe. She was just coming out of one of the bunk rooms, shaking her head.

"Kat," Tali said waving as she approached. "What are you doing here? I thought your sleeping quarters were a deck or two up from here?"

"They are, but I didn't feel like walking all the way back up to be honest," Kat admitted. "Haven't been getting much sleep lately and, well, just kinda stole someone's bunk for a few hours."

Kat wasn't in her regular light blue Spartan armour. It felt strange looking at her without it. You almost forgot she was actually a Spartan III, one of the best soldiers in the UNSC. In fact she was probably one of the few Spartans left. Tali remembered when she first met Kat's squad, Noble Team. There were six members then, now there were only two. She and Jun were all that was left of the once great Special Ops squad. Between them, Master Chief and his only surviving squadmate Linda, there were only four Spartans on board the Autumn. More than likely they were probably the last Spartans in existence to boot. No one was sure.

Kat was never one to let herself fall into disarray, especially with that kind of knowledge at the forefront of her mind. But losing so many people close to you had an effect on you. Tali knew that better than anyone. She had tried to help Kat best she could, even set up meetings with the Normandy's resident psychologist Kelly Chambers. They had somewhat worked, at least Tali had thought they had.

"Still having a few nightmares?" She asked Kat.

Kat shook her head.

"No, got over those quickly," Kat admitted. "I guess I just figure I need to put in the extra long hours for... well Carter and the others."

At least she was getting some sleep now, Tali thought, they'd need everyone on deck when the Covenant made their move. That meant everyone had to be at a hundred percent.

"How's the arm?" Tali asked her, pointing at the appendage in question.

Kat raised a three fingered metallic hand, bristling with metal mesh and wires. Kat opened and closed her artificial fist a few times before stretching it out in front of her and turning it upside down. Full functionality, that was good to see. Tali had been worried at first how Kat's nervous system would treat the synthetic arm. Luckily there was enough of the old one left to simply attach the new model on, but it still required a little extra surgery to completely secure it.

"It's a bit weird, only having three fingers on one hand and all." Kat admitted, looking towards Tali in the next instant. "No offence."

"None taken," Tali assured. "I'd find it weird to have three extra fingers... and ears to be honest."

Kat lowered her arm to her side.

"So long as I can still shoot I'm good," she replied. "Thanks again for the tech exchange. Never thought I'd be sporting an arm that looks like I pulled it off your robot pal but it's a welcome fix."

Tali was just happy she had helped a shipmate more or less, she was just happy for that alone. She bid her farewell began to leave when Kat stopped her.

"Speaking of your robot friend," she called out. "I spotted Legion last night going through some of the ship's data files. I think him and his friend are doing some late night research."

Tali looked back with a disappointed look.

"Ugh, would it really hurt that geth to listen to me for once?" She asked annoyed.

"I talked to him, uh, it I guess." Kat added, trying to be reassuring. "I think they were just trying to get some added data for your slipspace drive project."

"I don't need them to do that," Tali replied, still a bit angry. "I need them to not corrupt each other or something. The problem is already as bad as it is now!"

Tali quickly stomped off and tapped on her comlink, contacting the Normandy's AI.

"EDI put me through to Legion," she demanded.

"Legion is busy overseeing data collection-"

"With DOT, I know, put me through," Tali grumbled through gritted teeth.

What almost sounded like an audible sigh ushered in a comlink channel transfer and in moments a new voice was heard over the line.

"Creator Tali'Zorah," Legion began. "We were preparing an exchange of data."

If that was a geth's way of saying 'I was gonna tell you just now' then good. At least it wasn't going to try and keep this a secret then.

"Legion, what did I tell you about you and DOT sharing the same hardware?" She said, cutting straight to the point.

"You advised it was not a wise decision given our current system glitch," Legion responded.

"And you did it anyway, even when I told you why you shouldn't," Tali informed it. "Just because we saved her doesn't mean she is going to move in with you. I made her a nice stable hub to reside in aboard the Normandy. It's even portable, why do you need to carry her around in your platform every other day?"

Legion didn't seem to answer for a good while. Instead another voice filled the void.

"Legion suggested it would help increase data point reference count and search time functionality."

DOT, Noble Team's former AI information liaison, a bridge between them and command, now just an AI without much of a squad to relay orders to. She had no satellites to hook into, no cameras to peer through, no eyes of her own beyond the few Tali had built for her. She had certainly downgraded a lot from her glory days.

Not that she had a choice. Before Reach fell she found herself installed in a small transmission satellite orbiting Reach. She had limited transmission capability and satellite itself had been damaged. She was able to contact the Autumn just moments it met up with the Normandy in space. She pleaded her case, they either let her download herself into the ship's computers or she would have to delete herself as per the Cole Protocol and deny the Covenant the chance to capture her.

Legion was quick to stand up and argue on her behalf. An AI based on intelligence gathering and information relaying could prove useful. It seemed like a logical train of thought, but after she heard of it Tali wasn't so sure. It sounded more like Legion had an ulterior motive.

"Let us save someone," It had said, at least according to Garrus who was with Legion at the time. "Just let us save someone."

If Tali had been there she'd have done the same thing, she'd had let Legion save DOT. After all, who could deny Legion the chance? For only moments before Legion had watched as another companion sacrificed himself. This time it had been a being of flesh and blood, one of Kat's squadmates, Noble Six. He had stayed behind so the Autumn could escape. Without him they'd be debris floating in low orbit.

But even so, Tali was concerned. DOT and Legion had connected before, sharing the same hardware within Legion's platform. The experience had left a glitch within Legion's systems, as DOT's digital structure and programming was so vastly different Legion need subconsciously adapt. Legion knew this, and it was still letting DOT connect.

"I understand why you two did it, DOT." Tali assured the AI. "I'm grateful you're trying to help me with the slipspace project but I don't need you putting yourselves at risk. I don't know how sharing Legion's platform more frequently could affect either of you in the long run!"

"We are grateful for your concern Creator Tali'Zorah." Legion replied. "But it is not necessary. I feel fully operational."

Tali stopped dead in her track and groaned.

"You just said 'I' Legion." She told the Geth, slapping her palm into her visor. "That does not mean you're fine."

This was how the glitch manifested itself currently, as a burgeoning sense of individuality, one that Legion continued to not recognize. Everyone else could hear it plain as day though.

"This is true, Legion." DOT added "You did speak in the singular vernacular instead of a collective one."

Legion remained silent for a moment.

"To lessen further potential corruption we will halt present collective exchange with program DOT at this time." It relented. "We shall return her to the appropriate hub."

"Thank you Legion." Tali told it, breathing a sigh of relief. "And just know I'm not doing this to punish you. I'm trying to make sure you don't get hurt or anything, okay?"

"We understand," The machine replied. "We await further correspondence. Farewell."

Legion said it understood, but sometimes Tali wondered if under that calm exterior it somewhat resented her. Like it was a child being told not to play with a friend because of an overprotective parent, that the old quarian master was once again trying to stifle it, control it, master it. It was a thought Tali didn't like thinking, especially now. Were her old prejudices popping up again?

No, no, she was protecting Legion, that was all. There was nothing more to it, nothing. She told herself this as she continued her walk to the engine room. The thoughts hung in her head nonetheless, her fears still resonating. Quarians were long taught the dangers of repeating past mistakes. She didn't want to repeat hers. Not when she had Cortana to look after, not now.

---

-5 minutes till Slipspace Exit

Shepard had seen the bridge of the Autumn a few times now and to be completely honest he wasn't exactly keen on the design. Keyes shared his criticism from what their conversations told him. The giant window was a nice view and all but it didn't exactly scream structurally sound. Now he knew why Geth didn't use windows. It wasn't entirely defenceless, even without any real shields the Autumn's bridge was still located in the underbelly of the ship tucked beneath the long protruding bow of the cruiser. They weren't entirely exposed thankfully, but it was pretty apparent now why the Halcyon class had been decommissioned.

But they were stuck with her anyway and she was holding up regardless of her age. The rest of the bridge looked more proper, although infinitely more busy. There was also no proper Captain's chair among the various terminals, work stations and screens. As he walked through the room, crewmen in different coloured jumpsuits were all milling about and giving a salute to Shepard when he passed by. The Normandy's Commander had changed back into his N7 armour in preparation for exiting slipspace. He had also informed the rest of the crew to be ready for anything. He didn't want to risk arriving at their destination unprepared. It was well founded sense of caution considering the possibility of the Covenant being close by upon their exit from subspace. Soon Shepard found himself in front of the view window and the Captain's console at the end of the bridge. Now in front of him were his current commanding officers.

The first was Captain Jacob Keyes, the Pillar of Autumn's boss, although apparently only by order. He hadn't liked the idea of being put in charge of a relic from what he heard. He hadn't known him for long but Shepard liked him, he reminded him somewhat of Captain Anderson back home. Just as smart, just as cool and perhaps even just as bold if his record was any indication.

The second was Colonel Urban Holland, the now defacto leader of every single Army Trooper taking refuge aboard the Autumn. Shepard had known him longer and was grateful to have him along. The Colonel had pulled his butt out of the fire before, and not just with military bureaucracy. He was a lot like Keyes, except maybe he was a bit gruffer than the Naval Captain. Shepard didn't want to assume, but he surmised it probably came with being in a different military branch.

It felt weird having two people running this ship's occupants. Technically because this was Keyes' ship, and Holland a guest, the Colonel had to play by the Navy's rules but that didn't mean he was completely powerless. He was the one who had to levee the troopers' concerns to Keyes in the end, which made him essential for keeping the relationship between the Marines and Army boys running smoothly. And if they hit the ground he was in charge of them, not Keyes. Of course, that was always subject to change. In the grand scheme of things they shared the same equivalent rank within the military. If something happened to one the other would step in and take charge. Hopefully that wouldn't be necessary.

"Glad to have you join us, Commander," Keyes greeted Shepard.

The two shook each other's hands and quickly returned to the open view of the window.

"Wouldn't want to miss seeing firsthand what's out there," Shepard told Keyes. "Been nothing but vacant subspace for weeks now."

"Don't get your hopes up too much," Holland advised. "We'll probably end up seeing nothing when all is said and done."

Shepard highly doubted that, but no sense in voicing that opinion considering they were about to see for themselves anyway. Keyes then turned to Shepard, a slight worried look on his face.

"Are you still concerned our collective friends may be waiting for us?" He asked.

"That depends on how quick they were sent out after us I guess," Shepard answered, largely unsure of what to think himself. "If I know Reapers they're very patient, but also very unpredictable."

"Let's just hope he didn't tag along," Holland added. "We're not equipped to take on a Covenant armada as it is. Let alone an armada plus one flying space crab squid thing."

It was nice for once having people who took the threat of Reapers seriously. Sure it was still pretty grim to hear how bad the odds were, but at least no one was kidding themselves pretending everything was fine.

It was then that one of the side doors opened up on the bridge. Hobbling inside was another member of the Normandy crew, one that really shouldn't have been all the way up here.

"Hey, Commander!" Joker greeted as he slowly walked up to the group of officers. "We almost ready to leave hyperspace yet or are we gonna go to ludicrous speed instead?"

"Joker, what are you doing here?" Shepard asked concerned.

"I can't see anything from the Normandy anymore, just the hanger walls," he complained. "I mean I'm used to watching stars zing past us and everything when we're travelling and we can't even get that in slipspace. I just want to see us jumping into a system again, like we used to do you know?"

Shepard understood Joker's displeasure at being grounded for so long. He loved flying the Normandy, it was his passion and he was the best at it. He could imagine how tough it was now for him, being carted around in a giant ship while someone else did all the flying. But as much as he needed to exorcise his cabin fever, Shepard needed him down in the Normandy.

"I need you back at our ship, Joker," Shepard informed him. "You'll be more useful-"

"Oh come on, Commander!" Joker practically pleaded. "I feel like I'm being driven around in a damn wheelchair here! I made it up here just fine. No bones broken at all, honest. Just let me stay long enough to actually see real space again. Please."

Shepard looked to Keyes and Holland, but they offered no advice at all. He was in charge of the Normandy crew only he could make a call like this. Against his better judgement he sighed and shook his head.

"Alright, Joker," he relented. "you can stay and watch but the second I say so I want you escorted back to the Normandy yesterday."

Joker did a little fist pump and joined the Commander at his side.

"Thanks, now let's get this party rolling already."

Keyes obliged the pilot's request and contacted Cortana on the dashboard.

"Cortana, are we ready to initiate exit procedures?" He asked.

"More than ready, Captain," the ever confident voice of the familiar AI answered. "I'm simply waiting for your signal."

"Then let's see what's out there," Keyes declared. "Pull out of slipspace on my mark."

Keyes rolled up his sleeve and looked at a small wristwatch on it.

"Mark."

The Autumn shuddered as blue flash dissipated over the bow of the ship and throughout the vessel itself. Everyone was pushed slightly forward as they decelerated into normal space once again. The familiar stars and nebulas surrounded once more. Familiar in the loosest sense of course, they were uncharted space. Far in the distance they greeted with the sight of a massive gas giant, coloured with reddish-brown clouds. Looking closer one could see a massive dot, similar to that of the planet Jupiter. No doubt like the home system's biggest planet, the dot was in actuality a storm.

"I almost forgot what it looked while I was stuck downstairs." Joker commented with a smile.

But while their human eyes were locked on the big ball of swirling gas in front of them, the electronic sensors were picking up something else. Within seconds of exiting slipspace, Cortana called it to their attention.

"Sirs, I'm detecting a radar echo," She informed them all, sounding somewhat taken aback as she spoke. "Something... well huge doesn't begin to do it justice."

Shepard eyed Cortana's console at that, AI rarely became speechless. At least the AI he knew.

"I take it you're not talking about the gas giant," Shepard reckoned.

"It's orbiting the planet," Cortana elaborated. "And I don't think it's natural."

"Put it on screen," Keyes ordered, wasting no time.

The command screen zoomed in on a singular portion of space as well as highlighted the precise coordinates up ahead. A pictured formed on screen of the object in question, a giant ring of some sort.

"What the hell is that?" Joker asked astonished.

As the Autumn got closer the object became more visible to the naked eye. Shepard walked up to get a better look at it. He got as close to the edge of the command platform as he could get without falling onto the pilots in their command chairs below him. He could just make out what looked to be water and clouds spanning the breath of the inside of the ring as well what appeared to be land masses. As they got even closer he could see the outside of the ring was entirely metallic.

"Definitely artificial," Shepard declared.

"That's what my scans are confirming," Cortana concurred.

"Then who the hell built it?" Keyes asked in response.

A question on everyone's minds, but one no one seemed to be sure of.

"I have no idea," Cortana admitted.

But Shepard had an idea, a very clear idea. This was what they had come for, it had to be. But thoughts on the ring were quickly put aside as Keyes fell back on more immediate concerns.

"Initiate long range echo scans Cortana," He ordered. "What else is out there?"

"One moment," Cortana replied. "Picking up a few structures among the gas giant, possibly mining facilities. Also a number of proximity sensors surrounding the ring itself and-"

Not what Keyes was concerned with of course.

"Cortana, all I need to know is did we lose them?"

There was a brief silence before the AI answered. Then a number of purple pings appeared on the command screen, their locations were behind the planet it seemed, and she finally replied.

"I think we both know the answer to that."

---

All the way out here for a single human ship, half an armada to chase down one fleeing vessel. He had begun to doubt his own order, thinking he had made a tactical mistake, but by the grace of the Gods the endeavour had borne fruit. By following the human ship they had found the very thing they had long searched for since the Covenant began all those eras ago. It now floated in front of them, hanging in the void just before the tips of their ships. It was as the ancients described it in the old tomes and scriptures, perhaps even more magnificent than had originally been foretold.

Halo, the legend in all its glory was now before him.

Thel 'Vadamee could scarcely believe his eyes when he had first seen it. He wondered if it had been a trick of the mind, a case of mistaken identity, but it was real. The only thing that offset this momentous occasion was the fact that they weren't the only ones to find it. The humans had finally arrived at the ring as well and their presence endangered everything. There was only one course of action to take, eliminate them before they decided to land upon one the most holy creations of their lords. He quickly set up a communication link with his direct subordinate ship masters. The fleet would need to react fast before the humans had time to respond. They were only one ship, but a cornered animal was a most dangerous prey.

His ship masters soon came on the plethora of screens surrounding his command platform. His fellow Sangheili greeted him in kind with a gracious bow. As soon as it was over he got to the matter at hand. He stood up proud in his golden-clad command Armour and addressed his people on the situation at hand.

"Fellow warriors, by the grace of our forefathers this shall be a glorious day," he announced. "Not only have we found Halo, we have cornered the ship that is said to contain the one the great oracle warned us of."

Thel pointed to the human vessel ahead of them.

"On that ship," he announced loudly. "The one they call Pillar of Autumn, hides the defiler of our faith, the human who uses the gifts of our own Gods against us, the one known to us as the False Shepherd."

Thel and the other Shipmasters grimaced at the name. The Great Oracle known as the Inquisitor had told them of this human. Of how the Forerunners had travelled to a distant dimension and seeded their technology there as well to help guide the masses of a new universe to greatness. Then the humans and other non-believers took their technology for themselves, gave credit to other beings for their creation and ignored the accomplishments of their lords. When one Oracle attempted to show them the truth, the infidel leader called 'Commander Shepard' killed it to maintain the fiction and continue their blasphemous perversion of their faith unabated. For this heresy, he would die.

"This task will not be easy for we know how strong this infidel's followers are," Thel warned his men. "I need a status report, what is the current defence of the human vessel?"

"It has already scrambled a number of its fighters in preparation for our attack," Warned Shipmaster 'Fetasna. "They are a minor nuisance at best and will be crushed. But there is no sign of the False Shepherd's ship, perhaps he hides."

"He will not hide for long," Thel informed him. "This may be our only chance to end the threat prematurely. We must prepare to decimate the ship before it attempts to land on the ring. Inform all ship masters to form an attack pattern on my wing and prepare to launch all torpedoes on close range contact."

"No!"

The voice came from behind Thel, not too far from his command platform. He looked and saw an anti-gravity chair floating towards him out of the shadows. Sitting in it was a long-necked being wearing a violet robe and a dark blue cap with ribbons of fabric that cascaded down past his shoulders. This was one of the San'Shyuum, or Prophets as they were sometimes called. There were a number of them stationed aboard ships within the Fleet of Particular Justice. This one was known as the Prophet of Empathy, he had chosen to take residence aboard Thel's command ship, the Seeker of Truth. His motives were most likely out of a desire to increase his status, like so many Minor Prophets within the Covenant Hierarchy. Residing aboard the command ship of the most distinguished fleet in the Covenant Navy offered the chance of being present at the highest level of the decisions made within the armada. As well as give him the opportunity to inject his own orders.

"I have already discussed the situation with my brethren among the fleet," he said. "We are all in agreement on this matter. Any protracted battle could endanger the ring! One stray torpedo could damage it, incurring the wrath and disfavour of our lords. We must use discretion."

"With respect, your Excellency," Thel responded. "I highly doubt a torpedo would be enough to irreparably damage such a large structure. More importantly, my fellow Ship Masters' are precise and true. Their aim will not falter."

But the prophet shook his head.

"The risk is too great with the humans' proximity to the ring being so close," he declared. "We have searched for Halo for longer than any of us were born. We cannot afford any mistakes at this stage. Board the ship instead. Kill the humans, the False Shepherd and his wayward flock of heretics directly. I have requested my counterparts relay our wishes to their resident Ship Masters."

Thel frowned at the suggestion. This could be an easy victory and the Prophet and his fellows were asking for them to intentionally make it difficult. Boarding actions were always risky, even when you had numbers on your side.

"Such a plan would lead to massive casualties, your Excellency," Thel informed him. "The fighter escort will make it even more trying."

"The preservation of the sanctity of Halo is greater than any one soldier's life in this endeavour," the Prophet exclaimed. "More than hundreds of our lives. Need I remind you the False Shepherd himself boarded one of our vessels and destroyed it with an even smaller assault team? Do you wish to display our resolve as weaker than theirs, Supreme Commander?"

Thel groaned inwardly, the Prophet had a semblance of a point. The sangheili were the warriors of the Covenant. Could they really deny that calling and kill their enemies from a distance? He still didn't like the idea of a boarding action, but if it was the will of the Prophets then at the very least he could try to do it right. He turned back to his Ship Masters.

"Send fighters to engage the Pillar of Autumn's escort," he ordered them. "Inform all ships not aware of the plan as of yet to begin putting together boarding teams."

"Can we exclude certain individuals from the attack roster?" Asked Shipmaster 'Fetasna begrudgingly.

Thel knew almost immediately who 'Fetasna was speaking of. As much as he wanted to concur with his disdain they did not have the option.

"I will be sending my own contingent along," He assured. "It would be best if we did not exclude any resources we can muster for this. That includes... less savory elements."

'Fetasna grumbled and groaned, but he would do as ordered. This was no time for petty grievances or rivalries or dysfunction. The Prophet did have at least one thing right, they could afford no mistakes.

---

No one liked what the monitors said. Sadly no one could afford to just ignore them either. A Covenant armada was breathing down their necks and there was no way their one ship was going to kill them all. Shepard kept his eyes glued to the screen as Keyes discussed the situation with Cortana nearby.

"We made a blind jump, how did they..."

"Get here first?" Cortana interrupted the Captain. "Covenant ships have always been faster. As for tracking us all the way from Reach, at light speed my maneuvering options were limited."

Combat reports were already coming in from the Longsword fighters outside. They had engaged the Covenant attack craft, seraphs, just recon parties from what Shepard could see on the screens. Why the whole Covie fleet wasn't just blowing them out of the sky right now instead of poking them from afar, Shepard couldn't say. He could only surmise, from a similar situation he faced, that if they weren't using torpedoes right now then they would probably go for a more personal approach instead. He turned to Joker.

"I want you back on the Normandy, now," he ordered the pilot. "Get it out there and fighting as soon as possible."

The Commander then turned to Holland.

"Colonel," he began. "Can some of your troopers escort him?"

Joker was taken aback by the request and raised his hands in protest.

"Commander, I don't need gun totting babysitters. I got here on my own and I can get back on my own."

"This isn't up for debate Joker," Shepard replied, his stance unwavering. "I need you kept safe right now."

Joker crossed his arms and growled a bit, it was as close as he would get to relenting. Holland called up two of his Army Troopers from the hall into the room proper and they began to lead Joker back to the Normandy. Hopefully he'd get there before things got really hairy. Which, according to Cortana, would be sooner than they preferred it to be.

"So where do we stand?" Keyes asked the AI as he walked back to the command console.

"Our fighters are mopping up the last of their recon picket now, nothing serious," Cortana informed him. "But I've isolated approach signatures from multiple CCS-class battle groups, make it three capital ships per group. In about ninety seconds they'll be all over us."

Holland whistled at the numbers.

"How come I get the distinct feeling that they really don't want us getting anywhere near that giant space doughnut of theirs?" He asked.

If what Tali had told them about the information they had gathered from the Forerunner artifact on Reach was accurate, then Shepard guessed Holland's hunch was right on the money.

Keyes took his pipe out of his mouth and clutched it tightly. His heads drooped at the sight of the combat data and approach vectors Cortana had put on display. Shepard gave them a once over himself, he couldn't fault Keyes for his sense of dread. He wouldn't wish these odds on his worst enemy, except maybe the Reapers of course.

"Well that's it then," Captain Keyes finally announced as he turned back to the crew at large. "Bring the ship back up to Combat Alert Alpha. I want everyone at their stations."

"Everyone, sir?" Cortana asked as the klaxon bells began to ring aloud, sending crewmen running for combat stations.

"Everyone." Keyes clarified, he turned to Shepard next "That goes for the Normandy too."

Shepard simply nodded and placed a hand up to his comlink.

"EDI, I want you to send out a message to every crew member," he told her. "Get off your duffs and load up, vacation is over as of now!"

"Affirmative, Commander."

Shepard turned back to Keyes and Holland once EDI logged off.

"My people will be ready, sirs," he assured

"I'll get my best trooper squads ready to repel any boarders," Holland added. "Anything in Covie skivvies gets a bullet in the eye."

Keyes seemed to smile at the boast from Holland.

"Good to hear that," he concurred, turning to the command console once more. "And Cortana..."

The AI's holographic image flickered into view at Keyes' words. Her short neck length dark hair surrounding her delicate face came into view at last as did her most distinguishing feature, the black patterns along her body. Shepard wondered if they meant anything or if they were just there so Cortana didn't look completely naked.

"Hmm?" She asked as she appeared.

Keyes' eyes narrowed as he spoke.

"Let's give our old friends a warm welcome," he said gravely.

Cortana merely smiled that cocky grin she always seemed to have and answered succinctly.

"I've already begun."

---

The obnoxious sounds of the sirens stirred her awake. The clamping of boots and revving engines forced her eyes open and kept them as such. At last, Jack had enough and rose up violently from her little spot behind some crates. It was bad enough that the quarian and the chattering nerd couple's constant tinkering kept her awake in her hidey hole, now she couldn't even get any sleep outside in the hanger bay. It was usually so quiet down here since no one had turned anything on in weeks. But now that damn klaxon siren had come to life and it seemed as if every fuel cell within a vehicle was following suit. Warthogs drove past the doorway carrying troops, speeding along the metal pathways of the massive hanger bay. Even tanks were rolling out of their little parking spaces. Worst of all was the pelicans, their blaring jet propulsion systems blazing overhead. They were loading up anything they could carry, mostly vehicles. Jack knew if they were doing that then they must've arrived at their destination, wherever it was.

"Damn it, I'm never gonna get any sleep," she groaned.

She pulled herself up and scrambled over the crates, stretching herself out as she landed. Marines ran past her, barely even giving her a look. That was new, a bald biotic psychopath with egregious amounts of body art usually stood out. Fine by Jack, she didn't like gawkers, but it did seem odd. She hadn't left the Normandy much since they got stuck on this crate. She thought she'd be a bit more curious looking among the jarheads that populated this boat.

But she was recognized soon enough. As she turned around she saw two people rushing out through a doorway towards her, two people she knew. One was Jacob, the ex-Cerberus officer who she only slightly liked more than his counterpart Miranda. Jacob was just a goody two shoes, Miranda was a bitch. As far as Jack was concerned that wasn't really going to change, ever. Even if she didn't hate either of them all that much anymore, she wasn't going to be friends with them. She didn't make friends.

The other one was Thane, a drell, those were lizard xenos with freaky super good memory as she recalled. She kept reminding herself of that because she kept fucking up before and kept thinking of him as a freaky fish thing. It was the back eyes, they threw her off. He was okay she guessed. At least he wasn't Cerberus, former or otherwise. She didn't like some of his preachy shit though, almost as bad as the Justicar with how much he seemed to go on about souls and bodies and death and crap. She supposed it came with being an assassin that was going to die of a terminal illness eventually. Something that had to do with lungs and humidity, she never paid much attention. At least his religious bull wasn't like the asari's, who made it perfectly clear on several occasions that in other circumstances she'd probably have to kill Jack because some retarded code told her to.

Jack took solace at least in the fact that the first people she saw upon awakening weren't anyone that she found insufferable or annoying. They spotted her quickly and rushed up to her.

"Jack," Jacob spoke up first, sounding surprised. "What are you doing out here?"

"Trying to fucking sleep some place quiet for once," She explained, holding her head as it throbbed from the klaxon ring that was still stuck in her ears. "The fuck are you doing here?"

"You didn't get Shepard's message?" Jacob responded, looking a bit befuddled.

Jack groaned at the statement of the obvious from Boy Scout #2.

"No, I did not get Boy Scout's message," she grumbled. "I was asleep, I just told you, duh!"

She could tell by Jacob's grimace he didn't appreciate the attitude, but he kept his mouth shut. It wasn't like she'd listen to him anyway if he tried to talk back. Thane, thankfully, managed to get things back on track.

"The Covenant beat us to the jump coordinates," he elaborated. "Shepard fears they will attempt to board us and take the ship. We obviously can't allow that."

Jack just grinned maliciously at the news. Of all the reasons to be woken up unceremoniously, this was one she could accept.

"Good, I get to kill something," she declared, slamming her fist into her hand. "Perfect way to start the morning or any time of day now that I think about it."

"You may wanna consider better armour then," Thane advised. "Remember, the Covenant want us dead more than anyone. They'll be targeting us."

Jack stared at the drell, fairly annoyed. She had been wearing this damn black armour over her body for over a month now and he was asking her to put on more? This was good enough wasn't it?

"I got my barriers, I'll be fine," She insisted.

"I think Thane's got a point, Jack," Jacob interjected. "Maybe wearing one of the Marines' armour vests would be helpful."

Jack merely rolled her eyes.

"And what about him?" Jack asked, pointing to Thane. "He wears a damn jacket with his upper chest exposed."

"I need to be maneuverable and that hole is there for medical reasons," Thane countered.

"Oh stuff it with your excuses, drell," She told him angrily. "Bottom line is I'm fine without it."

Thane looked back unhindered by the outburst and simply walked over to a nearby crate labelled "body armour." He pulled off the top and took out of a Marine uniform, complete with ceramic plating and ballistic gel absorbing layers underneath. All designed to keep plasma from melting your skin.

"I think it best you not let your pride get in the way of common sense," Thane told her.

He tossed the armour over Jack, who caught it with ease.

"I don't need you people playing babysitter," she declared, still with an angry look in her eyes.

"I'm not, I assure you," Thane told her. "I'm giving you advice, not orders. The latter part is Shepard's job."

Jack kinda wanted to shove the armour back in the drell's face, just for the hell of it. She decided against it in the end though, didn't feel like wasting more energy on this shit when Covenant were coming. That and the argument was interrupted by the Autumn's version of EDI.

"Attention, all combat personnel: Please report to your action stations."

By now practically every jarhead and trooper in the place was scrambling to gather their weapons and strap on their helmets. As Jack watched one Marine slap in a fresh mag into his rifle, she realized something.

"Fuck, I left my gun on the Normandy," she growled.

Jacob reached behind his back and tossed her his shotgun. An M-22 Eviscerator, the perfect weapon for tearing through Covenant hides like tissue paper.

"I'll grab one of the Marines' shotguns from the lockers, don't worry," Jacob assured her.

"Wasn't," she unceremoniously said as she walked past him.

She spotted Thane giving her a stern look as she did. Finally she sighed and when she was far enough away reluctantly began putting on the body armour, strapping it on tightly.

"Fucking fish-eyed lizard," she muttered under her throat.

Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw the drell smiling, but her focus was interrupted by Cortana again.

"5th Platoon, secure airlocks on deck 11. 14th Platoon, rendezvous with 22nd Tactical at bulkhead Charlie 14."

At first Jack had grown weary of the constant military jargon, but overtime she actually began to understand it somewhat. She just didn't like it all that much was all. It all just seemed too formal and superficial to her. Not her style, she liked being direct and brutally honest.

A Warthog passed by them as they were getting their gear together. It carried a full load of Marines through their little ready bay, probably heading out to secure the airlocks and decks and all that other shit. Once it left Jacob snapped to his feet suddenly. Jack had a good idea why. As she strapped the final part of the armour on over her torso a new voice filled the room.

"You heard the lady! Move like you got a purpose!"

The order came from a grizzled UNSC Marine Sergeant, Avery Johnson. Jacob had met him just before they fled Reach and for some reason the two had connected pretty damn fast. Hell he even got into line with the other Marines, falling in as Johnson spoke aloud to the men. Jack hoped to stay out of the whole lame military cliché show, no such luck.

"That goes for everyone in here! No one is special!" He barked.

Jack growled again, bad enough she was woken up now she was getting bossed around by everyone NOT named Shepard. Damn it to hell. She fell in beside Thane, who like Jacob was standing up straight and tall. She didn't follow their example, she slouched instead. What was that ornery jerk of a Sergeant going to do to her anyway? Shepard may have said they were drafted into this damn Army, but as far she was concerned she wasn't anyone's flunky, let alone the UNSC's.

Other Marines snapped to attention as Cortana rang in again.

"This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill."

'No shit, lady,' Jack thought to herself.

The Marines had formed two perfect straight lines, Thane and Jacob included. Jack didn't get why Jacob was so damn hot to trot for these douches. Wasn't he a higher rank than Johnson anyway? Whatever, he wanted to be a good little minion let him. No loss on her part.

Sergeant Johnson now began to walk in-between the two lines of Marines. A parked warthog rested behind him as he moved up through the center with his head held high and his gun resting on his shoulder.

'Shit,' Jack thought, 'he's going to make a damn speech.'

Jack had started hating speeches ever since Shepard had made a fucking habit out of them. They were corny, stupid, pointless, filled with lame ass bravado and sucked up valuable killing assholes time. Why give a pep talk? Just shoot and kill the fuckers already. That's how she worked and it had done her just fine for years.

"Men, here is where we show them split-chin squid-head sons-of-bitches that they could not have picked a worse enemy than the human race," Johnson began, his commanding voice booming throughout the room.

He momentarily looked to Thane, almost as if to say 'no offence' without interrupting his precious speech. The Sergeant almost stopped to correct Jack's posture, but he kept going anyway. He was probably too into the moment to care right now. Fine by her, she wouldn't have listened anyway.

"We led them dumb bugs out here to keep their filthy claws off Earth," Johnson boomingly continued. "But we stumbled onto somethin' they're so hot for that they're scramblin' over each other to get it. So once again it is our job to finish what the flyboys started. Make no mistake, we will be leaving this ship, Platoon, and engaging the enemy on solid ground. I don't care if this thing is God's very own anti-son-of-a-bitch-machine or a giant hula hoop, we're not gonna let them have it! What we will let them have is a belly full of lead and a pool of their own blood to drown in! When we meet the enemy we will rip their skulls from their spines and toss them away laughin'!"

Well, at least his speeches were more to Jack's style than Shepard's. They involved decapitation for one. It gave her a bit of a grin, even as Johnson violently turned around and screamed some more.

"Am I right Marines?" He demanded to know.

"Sir, yes sir!" Everyone shouted back.

Jack was somewhat surprised to hear those same words come out of her mouth, albeit a bit more silent than most. Damn, the group mentality was already affecting her.

"Uh-huh, damn right I am," Johnson responded to their answer. "Now move it out! Double time!"

The lines of Marines split up and Jack followed them out the doorway in a rush.

"Finally! Dumbass killing time!" She declared, switching her shotgun to warp ammo as she ran forward.

The Marines were mostly silent as they made their way out along the hanger deck to their designated combat positions. Jack stuck close to Jacob and Thane as they were the only people in this gaggle of military fuckwits that she even knew. Better to stick with the familiar than a bunch of assholes she wasn't sure she could rely on. Even if they weren't her friends, she at least knew Jacob and Thane would have her back. They were too big on the heroics and teamwork shit to do so otherwise.

As they moved further away from Johnson, Cortana's warning of imminent contact with the enemy echoing through the halls, they heard him give on last little quip. This time, it was a semi-warning cloaked in a little satirical humour.

"All you greenhorns who wanted to see Covenant up-close, this is gonna be your lucky day."