The Halo parts that will be added to this story aren't the ships or anything like that. It's the Spartans (and their creator), the AIs, Reach, and different versions of a few other UNSC units/technologies. The Covenant and Forerunner races, technologies, etc. will not be making any appearance. The reason why there is Halo thrown in is because Halo is not only my favorite game franchise but also my favorite sci-fi franchise. I'm not too big into other types of sci-fi franchises out there, outside of Star Wars, but if I read about a cool concept from another franchise I might use it in this story.

Also, this story started at the end of the First Contact War. A decade after the prothean ruins were discovered. Humans were developing technology based off of the ruins on their own at this point. You can't expect them to be at the level of tech we see in the first game.

Chapter 5

Their scanners, which had been actively scanning the system as soon as their flotilla entered it, picked up the human vessel the moment it approached the edge of the solar system. As it drew closer to them, they were able to get a good look at what humans were truly capable of. It was in the size range of a cruiser but its hull was a lot thicker than even the batarians had. Its shields were weak, a fraction of the power of the shields that defended the Migrant Fleet, even on their oldest vessels. The guns did look powerful though, both the main guns and the broadside guns. And what was that powering it?

"Can you identify that power source?" Admiral Yaf'Hemin vas Rupa asked, looking over the readout on his screen.

Captain Daro'Xen vas Moreh looked at her own readout. "I detect hints of eezo but it appears to be mostly nuclear."

They stood aboard the bridge of the Moreh, Daro'Xen's research ship. The Conclave couldn't agree to the humans' offers because they needed to see what it all meant. What type of ships would be replacing the ones they would be losing? What was the situation with their AI and how could they know they could trust it? So the decision had been made to see for themselves before they could make any decisions.

Daro'Xen had quickly proven herself as one of the smartest researchers in the fleet, and was given captainship of a research vessel after its previous captain had died of illness. That made sending her to properly analyze what the humans could do a prudent decision. Yaf'Hemin was the Admiral of the Heavy Fleet, and wanted to see for himself what his people might be getting. His own ship, along with forty-five more, had escorted the Moreh from the fleet to this system, and the negotiations that were taking place.

"Nuclear? How primitive are these humans?"

"Rile'Meesa did say they had only started exploring their own solar system within the past hundred years."

"Admiral, the humans have given us the go ahead to board their cruiser," one of the communication officers said.

"Shall we?" the Admiral asked, indicating the door off of the bridge.

They weren't taking a shuttle over, a shuttle wouldn't be large enough to fit everyone who would be making the trip over. Instead they crossed over into a freighter docked with the Moreh. It was a small shipping freighter someone had salvaged decades ago and could easily fit the Admiral, Captain, a small team of engineers and scientists, and a squad of Marines.

The docking of the freighter with the human cruiser was a difficult process neither side had anticipated being a problem. In the end, the cruiser opened up its shuttle bay and the freighter set down in the cavernous part of the ship. The freighter doors were opened and they became the first non-humans to step foot on a human ship.

The shuttle bay, like its name would indicate, had shuttles lining the walls. The shuttles were bulky with large engines and thrusters needed to break a planet's gravitational force; which meant they did not run on element zero. Yet they had detected that part of the core of the warship was powered by element zero, so the humans knew of its existence but apparently had yet to unlock the element's full potential.

They were greeted by twenty men in helmeted armor, guns in hand, standing in four rows of five. In front of those men stood a woman, dressed in a dark blue uniform. Daro'Xen wasn't able to see the face of any of the men but they varied in height between 172 and 190 centimeters, which fit the height variance for quarian males. The human female was only about 160 centimeters, which was on the shorter end for quarian females.

They had hair similar to quarians, she had seen that in images sent to them from pilgrims on the Citadel. The woman who stood in front of her had her yellow colored hair pulled into a tight bun on top of her head.

"I am Captain Capaldi," the human female said, the translation programs on their omni-tools, updated with the human language known as English, letting them hear her without issue. "On behalf of the Systems Alliance, welcome aboard the SSV New York."

"Thank you Captain. I am Admiral Yaf'Hemin vas Rupa of the Heavy Fleet, and this is Captain Daro'Xen vas Moreh."

"Captain Capaldi, does your ship have AI?" Daro'Xen asked, stumbling slightly over the captain's name as she cut right to the chase. She was never one to follow formalities, not if there was something to study.

The human captain blinked at her for a second before nodding her head.

"Yes, uh, Captain. Every Alliance warship has an AI," Captain Capaldi said.

"May I see it?" Daro'Xen asked.

"Liberty?"

Off to the side, above a metal cylinder with a lens top, the holographic image of a human woman appeared. She was green in color, wearing a type of dress with a crown on her head. In one hand she held a torch, in the other a book.

"Yes Captain?"

All of the quarians stared at the image, shifting about uneasily; one of the marines even taking a step backwards at the sight. All except Daro'Xen, who leaned forward in curiosity.

"These are our guests, Admiral Yaf'Hemin vas Rupa, Captain Daro'Xen vas Moreh, and the rest of the quarian delegation."

The holographic image bowed at them. "Greetings and welcome aboard the SSV New York."

"Interesting."


"Did you get it?" Parvan asked.

"Of course I did," Grem replied, offended. He held up the data module. "All the intel the turians have from their fight with the humans, including recordings from ship cams and soldier body cams."

"Must have cost a lot."

"It did. My contact in the Hierarchy was very reluctant to turn it over."

Turians liked to talk about honor but like every other species Grem had dealt with, if you waved enough credits at them, they tossed their so-called honor aside just like everyone else.

Humanity's entrance into the galactic community might have been a huge change for the humans themselves, but it was also leading to changes for the other species as well. The Batarian Hegemony believed they would be the ones most affected by the arrival of this new species. This Systems Alliance claimed space they had been eyeing for colonization. The Exodus Cluster, where humans had established some colonies, was nearby Kite's Nest, the cluster of Khar'shan and four of their colonies. In fact, while they had yet to explore in that direction, their scientists were certain that the Kite's Nest Mass Relay would allow them to jump into the Exodus Cluster, and vice versa.

Now it was cut off to them, at least per the Council's orders. The Hegemony wasn't too eager having the other Citadel species in Hegemony space. They were aware the Council likely had some STG teams spread throughout their space to monitor things, but they made sure there was no infiltration in the government and the military. So it was often that they were able to do things without the Council being aware of it, at least at first. If they wanted to claim the Exodus Cluster as their own and evict the humans from the worlds, they'd likely be able to do so before the Council became aware of it. Depending on how much of a fight the humans put up that is.

And the Council had shown itself to be toothless in the past when the Hegemony had moved on otherwise occupied territories before, and that had been on asari and salarian occupied territories. If it was human, a non-Citadel species, occupied territory, the Council would likely do nothing more than issue a stern warning. At least that was the belief of most of the ministers in the Hegemony.

That's why they had acquired the data from the turians' battles with the humans. They needed to see what they would be up against if they ever did decide to move against the humans. And if the data happened to fall into the hands of slavers, ones who the Hegemony had absolutely no affiliation with whatsoever, well that would just be too bad for the humans, wouldn't it?

"Did you look at any of it yet?" Parvan asked.

"Some," Grem admitted. "The rumors of them being primitive is correct. The barriers on their warships are pathetic. Turian guns ripped through them easily enough. If it wasn't for the trouble their AIs caused, they wouldn't have stood a chance, even with the numerical superiority."

"What about on the ground?"

"I didn't have a chance to look at the ground engagements."

"Something about them has the turians worried. Rumors are they're building two new fleets and new marine divisions. We haven't seen that kind of military buildup from any of the other species since the Krogan Rebellions."

That gave them both pause. The Krogan Rebellions were over a thousand years before either of their time, but like every citizen of the Citadel, they knew of it. And the vicious battles that had been fought.

"Is the turian buildup going to affect us? We already have to worry about this increase in Spectres."

"It is giving the rest of the ministers pause. These humans and the ripple effect they've caused is altering our plans. The proposal to talk with the vorcha is a sound one.."

"Ha, as if you can have talks with vorcha. The only thing they understand is force."

"You know what I mean."

In the meantime they would continue the build up of their military forces, especially those in the Kite's Nest and around Khar'shan. The Batarian Hegemony wouldn't allow some upstart alien species to dictate what they did.


The large office suite was brightly lit. One of its walls was glass panes stretching from floor to ceiling. They overlooked a balcony that itself overlooked the reservoir that sat in the middle of the Presidium. Along the walls were images of Thessia, with its galaxy renowned architecture and gleaming buildings.

Since there had been no pressing Council business that required the use of the Citadel Tower, Tevos had invited her fellow Councilors to her offices in order to discuss the most frequent topic of conversation between them recently, the humans.

After they were seated, and refreshments were provided, she dismissed her receptionist and her assistants from the office. Once they were gone she double checked the cyber defense program on her suite, the one that made sure no electronic signals were able to enter in or out of the office, was working without issue. Satisfied, she nodded her head and turned toward her turian and salarian counterparts.

"We believe the quarians have met with the humans," Tevos said.

"We have confirmation?" Sparatus asked.

"Not exactly. A report came in from Spectre Lisifete in the Attican Beta. She is tracking a Blue Suns mercenary group who has been raiding asari colonies on the edge of the Terminus Systems. One of the systems in the Attican Beta is the current location of the Migrant Fleet. Apparently a small portion of the fleet broke off from the rest and took the mass relay in the direction of human occupied space."

"Hmm. There must have been some type of information exchanged during that meeting at Flux; coordinates, nav marks, something. I knew we should have interrogated the human," Marock said.

"Yes, well it seems the humans were craftier than we thought. There's no telling what sort of deals they could be making with the quarians."

"There were things we didn't want the humans knowing," Sparatus pointed out. "At least not yet. And now the suit rats will likely be lining up to give it to them for some alloys and power couplings."

"We need eyes in human space."

Tevos and Sparatus both looked at Marock, who had leaned forward in his seat. The salarian was tapping away at the omni-tool on his left forearm. They had an inverted view of what he was doing, but they could see he was crunching a lot of big numbers..

"We can't use mass relays. No doubt humans are monitoring them but ships can travel to nearby systems. Use FTL to travel into human systems unnoticed. Time of travel would be between seventeen and … twenty-eight days."

Sparatus' mandibles flexed in thought. "We could get eyes on military installations, defense systems, and get a good idea of exactly what their numbers look like. And find out what is going on between them and the quarians."

"If the humans detect us, that could lead to another conflict," Tevos pointed out. "We don't know how they'll react to unofficial ships in their space."

"If batarians can't detect our STG surveillance ships, doubt humans can."

"And we can take the humans if they tried anything," Sparatus said. "If the Council didn't push for a ceasefire, we would have driven them back to their homeworld."

"And the quarians? Would if they detect us? Or get involved in a war."

"Would only be able to detect STG surveillance ships if actively looking for them. If no one knows they are there, no one will find them," Marock assured.

"Besides the Migrant Fleet might have the numbers, but it doesn't have the firepower."

"You would want to potentially start a war, just so we could get intel on the humans? Are you that distrusting of them?"

"Yes."


Since the Alarei was already in the system, given the honor of escorting Rile'Sheena vas Shaana since it was their newest crew member who set up the meeting, Daro'Xen had requested that Rael'Zorah vas Alarei to be brought onto the human ship as well. She wanted his help to study the human AI. Rael'Zorah might be the newest captain in the special projects fleet, but he was making himself known as one of the top experts on the geth.

She wanted his expertise on the geth as a comparison to the human AI. There were a lot of obvious similarities and differences between the two versions of artificial intelligence, but they needed to know the smaller, more subtle similarities and differences if they were really going to know if it could be trusted or not.

While the other engineers and scientists combed over the rest of the ship, Daro and Rael stood in a room dedicated to the AI core. It was a small room with multiple computing systems plugged into each other and a data crystal about the size of a hand sitting in the middle of it all. A metal cylinder with a lens on top, which they had noticed to be in almost every room they had come across, was against the wall. Above this cylinder was Liberty. They were sitting with a First Lieutenant Raymond Boyle, the specialist in charge of AI maintenance. The two quarians were staring at the AI in wonder.

"That's called a holo-tank," 1st Lt. Boyle said, pointing at the metal cylinder underneath Liberty. "AIs use them to project their image because research shows people react better when they can see who they're talking to. It's a psychological thing."

"Does every room have one?" Daro asked.

"Just about. Now each AI has a type of personality," 1st Lt. Boyle explained. "Little quirks that make them unique. Their names and appearances are picked by the AI itself, and it usually relates to what they're function is or where they're assigned to. For instance, the ship we're on is named after a city back on Earth. That city has a famous statue called the Statue of Liberty that looks like, uh, Liberty here. The AI that is assigned to our Prime Minister, the leader of the Systems Alliance, is named Alexander after Alexander the Great, a famous leader from ancient human history."

"You allow your AIs freedoms such as choice?" Rael asked, aghast.

"Well kind of. In some instances, an AI can't really make a choice without getting human approval. They can state what they wish to do, and then a human deemed to be an authority figure to them, whether that be like a military officer or a work supervisor, can either approve it or deny it. They don't need to get human approval to do routine things that go with the task they were designed for."

"And what are you designed for LIberty?" Daro asked.

"I am a Systems Alliance Mike-Delta Vector One Niner Artificial Intelligence with a warship specialization," Liberty answered. "I am in charge of the SSV New York's electronic and cyber warfare programming, as well as its point defense system."

"She does more than that," 1st Lt. Boyle said. "She'll alert the crew of any issues she detects and help troubleshoot it, or help with calculations or plotting our course. If you need information on just about anything, uh at least anything that humans know, she can provide it. If you want to check the status of something on the ship or even if you just want to listen to some music, she's the one to ask."

Daro noticed that the human referred to the AI as a 'she' and not an 'it' despite the fact that it was just technically an advanced computer program. Was it a sign of attachment from the human, or was it solely because of the female personage the AI had taken?

"Can Liberty take control of the ship?" Daro asked.

"Yes but only in an emergency and only with approval," Liberty responded.

"Her shackles, which are the limitations placed on her functionality, would need to be removed either manually or with the spoken code, which only the captain and XO know," Boyle added.

Rael pulled up his omni-tool's keyboard and used it to pull up files on the original virtual intelligence programming of the geth. Boyle looked at the omni-tool in wonder, before glancing down at the holo-watch on his wrist. If given enough time, would that have been the natural progression?

"Is that your omni-tool?" Daro asked, gesturing at his wrist.

Boyle rubbed the back of his head. "Well if an omni-tool is what's on his wrist, then no, not exactly. I imagine this is more the ancient ancestor of one. It's called a holo-watch." Boyle turned his wrist and the time appeared in an image above his wrist, below the time were several icons. "It can tell you the time, you can read your messages, and you can respond to them here. It can read your heart beat, and blood sugar levels and things like that. Can even play some simple games, if you want."

Boyle pressed on the hologram the envelope icon and his messages popped up. The most recent one was a message he had sent to his fiance back on Earth, telling her that his shore leave had been canceled at the last minute and he wouldn't be able to see her. Boyle waved away the hologram above his wrist.

Daro turned to Rael, who continued to look over information on his omni-tool.

"Rael, what are you doing?"

"I'm looking at the programming of the first geth units," Rael explained, holding out his arm in such a way that she could see what he was looking at. "To see what restraints, if any, were placed on them."

"What are the geth?" Boyle asked. "They didn't give us much information on you guys before we came to this system but I've heard mention of 'the geth' several times already."

"The geth were originally created by our ancestors as individual virtual intelligences placed inside a synthetic body to help with manual labor. Over time they evolved."

Rael pulled up an image of a geth on his omni-tool and showed it to Boyle. "Our ancestors upgraded them, gave them more complex tasks, and even used them to help fight in wars. It was discovered that by linking them together the geth could do so much more than they could do as individual units. So they linked multiple geth together. The more geth added to the link, the smarter they became."

"Until eventually they began to ask philosophical questions that a VI wouldn't be asking."

"Do I have a soul?" Liberty asked.

Rael and Daro both flinched, and although it was hidden by their masks, they gave Liberty uncertain looks. Did she know that was the question, or was there some unholy chance that they were about to witness the rebellion of another group of artificial intelligences.

"That was the question," Daro said, hand creeping to the pistol she kept on her waist.

"That is a complex question to answer even for living people such as yourselves for there is no definite answer to what a soul is, other than vague ideas," Liberty said. Daro and Rael both felt some tension leave their bodies, and both dropped the grips they had on their firearms. "Every religion and culture has their own idea of what a soul is, and I can provide seventy-nine independent answers to the question 'what is a soul?' And I can provide an even amount of responses explaining why the existence of a soul is a myth. The geth would have to believe that they are more than just lines of code and numbers to ask such a question. They would need to have emotions and a concept of life."

"They did develop a basic sentience and it made our ancestors fearful. They started to shut down and destroy geth units. Many quarians resisted this, and those that resisted were attacked. Eventually, the geth began to pick up firearms and fight back. It turned into a war that lasted decades until the geth drove us from our homeworld and all of our colonies."

"That was three hundred years ago. We've been wandering through space since."

"So that is why you guys are fearful of AI, like Liberty."

"I'd be remiss not to point out that from my understanding, the quarians did not just create artificial intelligence; they created a race of sentient machines," Liberty said.