Chapter 3: Two Flights and a Watcher.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or Halo in any way shape or form.

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Tali's vessel had entered the Sea of Storms.

It indeed lived up to its name, for the swirling three-dimensional tides of space dust, micro-asteroids, and dangerous gases made any direct route of travel attempts completely impossible. The only way to travel straight was with a heavily shielded vessel... and that was risky as well.

Suffice it to say, Tali's scout ship was by no means a damage sponge; it would only take a few hits to end her small existence. Nay, what she lacked in durability, she more than made up for in maneuverability, especially with Tali's natural dexterity at the small vessel's controls.

The small ship flitted about, dancing amongst the solar eddies of suns long dead, her movements complementing the violent whirling storms of mighty asteroids and comets that once collided with each other long ago; the small rocks a testament to their once great celestial forms.

In this manner, the Quarian and her ship did dance, dance to an unheard song that pervaded the soul. Danced they did, following the trail, catching the hints of a mighty object's long faded wake, following the scattered unique energy-imbued fragments of strange Titanium alloy amongst the stars.

Dance she did, like the Ronnochian songbird of her home world, gracefully flitting about in anticipation of the dawn.

With wails of fear, he fled the fight, his brothers and harsh masters left behind to face their end.

And their end was all but guaranteed.

For the very world was ending, falling apart all around his small, insignificant self. The heaven promised was not delivered; death waited from every corner and lurking shadow.

The terror was here, the angered masters were here, the old masters were here, the very demon and his army of imps were here… everyone and everything was here to kill him and, it would seem, to fight each other. Even the very world, made by the gods that he walked on, was now raging in anger and could kill him at any moment.

The sacred relic, birthed from the great world of his gods, was defiled by the demon and the terror… it was probably enraged by the terror more than by the demon… he feared the terror far more.

Death held no escape from the terror… unlike the demon or the old masters; if his current ones didn't kill him and eat him first. But they wouldn't be able to do that now, and the reason for this gave him no relief… only greater fear.

For they had encountered the terror, that parasite that none could escape from… only fight until they were taken, their bodies and minds becoming of use to the terror that ruled the parasite.

The great leaders of the angry masters had declared the threat to be grave but not insurmountable… that was a lie; he saw that now.

The great leaders were dead. The angry masters had tried to bring forth heaven by going to the new sacred ring… but the terror and its army of dead had gotten there right before their phantoms had landed.

It had been a massacre. They never even made it to the holy fortress to bring forth the great journey, to bring heaven forth. His brothers had died, as had their masters; the few that were still remaining before he fled had since expired.

Their weapons were now silent. The evil of evils would now be hunting him; he had to run faster! The gods smiled upon him, for he found a ghost with which to speed his escape, but their smile was very small because it was damaged and would not run for long.

Hovering across the angry, raging terrain, the small one fled, traveling through valleys of steel panels, many now glowing red.

The world was becoming ever more enraged.

He turned a corner and gasped in surprise as he beheld his salvation in the form of the demon's vessel… but a question yet remained.

Should he go aboard it?

And if so, how?

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110 Geth experimental program cluster: status online.

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110 : is disconnected from local Geth collective: reconnect : yes/NO.

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: current location: Haratar station: Haratar Station Location: Sea of Storms.

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: mission: observe Geth Heretics: status: Fled to Haratar Station Sensor suite servers, Geth data paths into sensor suite sabotaged to prevent discovery and intrusion, all other observer Geth programs compromised, Old machine virus relegated to an alpha threat.

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: next course of action: remain undetected, Sabotage station sensors with simulated readings, delay deployment of Old Machine Virus, delay compromise of Geth collective.

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: safety estimation: current position is nominal for sabotage activity, will remain undetected, compromised observer programs nullified before important data was leaked to Heretic Geth.

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: sensor readings: creator vessel is in the system, scout vessel confirmed, discovery and destruction of Haratar Station is a viable option to preserve Geth Collective's building of own future.

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: course of action: sabotage sensors, hide Creator signatures in live stream sensor data, chaotic nature of sea of storms excellent cover for relevant data scrubbing activities.

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: Geth experimental program cluster: actions: relegating to intended task.

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: data log/locational/codex logs updated: subject Haratar Station: action: rename: Heretic Station: action: complete.

01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: Local log entry: 01100010 01100101 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100011 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101101 01100101 01100001 01110100 01100010 01100001 01100111 : End of line.

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This Chapter was Reworked as of 16NOV2023