A/N

Okay, I know that I don't normally make announcements at the beginning of the chapter but I figured that there are some things that I ought to address. First of all, you guys are awesome. I love watching the chaos of watching you all try to navigate the labyrinth that is my mind, never realizing that you are all trapped on the hamster wheel of my personal brand of insanity. Bwahahaha hahaha ha cough

Where was I? Right! Okay so please keep commenting, I love getting your feedback even if it is just a thank you, or you know trying to figure out my next move. Anyway second, I've received enough comments about this that I feel that I should clarify: Eternity is not acting evil, think of him instead as a chaotic neutral dungeon master, he wants entertainment, but he also wants the MC to succeed. He is more than willing to give a gift, but these gifts will always come with a challenge for the MC to overcome. And last but not least this is for the people who were attempting to post annon, idk why your posts aren't showing but I got them and have read them so worry not.

Anyways back to this madhouse that we call my story.

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0725 May 10 2010 [Local Calendar]

Bridge, UNSC Full Moon

Dark Side of the Moon

As the light cleared from my vision I blinked and looked around, seeing my companions doing the same. "Alright move us to just be able to see the Earth, then we can pick up on the radio waves coming from the planet, and figure out when exactly we are." Receiving affirmatives from the bridge crew we slowly moved towards our destination. "Okay, any final questions? Speak now or forev-"

"Sir!" Serina interrupted, a look sitting somewhere between confusion and panic setting in as the ship ground to a halt. "I'm detecting an unknown landmass in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a roughly circular area measuring approximately 650 kilometers in diameter. There is also a space station in geosynchronous orbit above the island, connected to it by a pair of orbital elevators."

Giving a confused look myself I turn back to the holo-display. "Show me." I order. As the image resolves itself, my look of confusion slowly morphs into one of stony determination.

On the display I see a large island roughly the size of one of America's Midwest states that seemed to be brown, sandy and absolutely covered in an advanced cityscape with large swaths of buildings having collapsed and crumbling into rubble. Following the two thick cables leading from the ground up, I saw a space station about half the size of the island floating there. Among the silver and gray of the station exterior I saw a large amount of purple squirming biomass. If that wasn't enough to clue me in on what this was then the large hammer shaped hull that looked to be almost complete in one of the dry docks sure did. Why the hell is a Battlecruiser from StarCraft in Highschool of the Dead? It didn't make any sense the only crossover things should be this ship and everyone on it.

As I watch, the display updates showing that the station had some sort of IFF transponder. TC NEW GETTYSBURG STATION. Oh hell, this just keeps getting better and better. New Gettysburg was the place where Kerrigan was left to die by Arcturus Mengsk, and based on the spread of the creep it looks like the Protoss have already been dealt with.

At that moment the comms officer spoke up. "Sir, transmission coming in on the E-band!"

"Play it." I said simply, taking a moment to wonder how it was that we were picking up the signals from Terran tech before chalking it up to 'The Company'.

"Uh boys, how bout that evac? The Zerg seem to have gone docile for the moment, but I don't want to chance that changing." A beautiful, feminine, and all too familiar voice came out of the broadcast system. Just as panic once again started to set in, a familiar blue text box appeared.

NEW QUEST!

RESCUE FROM OUTER SPACE!

A NEW FORM OF THREAT IS HERE TO DEAL WITH THE INHABITANTS OF EARTH! SAVE AS MANY AS YOU CAN!

SAVE THE MAIN CAST OF HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD:

TAKASHI KAMURO - 0/1

REI MIYAMOTO - 0/1

SEAKO BUSUJIMA - 0/1

SAYA TAKAGI - 0/1

KOHTA HIRANO - 0/1

SHIZUKA MARIKAWA - 0/1

ALICE MARESATO - 0/1

BONUS OBJECTIVES!

SAVE SHIDOS GROUP:

YUUKI MIKU - 0/1

TSUNODA - 0/1

KUROKAMI - 0/1

MIURA - 0/1

TANIUCHI - 0/1

KAWAMOTO - 0/1

SAVE THE TAKAGI ESTATE SURVIVORS:

SOUICHIRO TAKAGI - 0/1

YORIKO TAKAGI - 0/1

CIVILIANS

SAVE RIKA MINAMI - 0/1

SAVE SARAH KERRIGAN - 0/1

REWARDS - ???

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! This whole situation has just gone to shit and we hadn't even been in universe for more than 5 minutes.

"Commander? Jim? What the hell is going on up there? Was that flash the Confederacy setting off nukes?" The transmission from the ghost was still playing over the radio.

Reaching out psionically, I look to the communications officer. "Open a channel on that same frequency." Giving a nod the man turned and pressed a few buttons before he looked back to me and gave a thumbs up. "Attention Sarah Kerrigan, you don't know who I am, but at the moment I'm the only friend you have anywhere near here. We're in orbit and are moving in. The Hyperion, James Raynor, and Arcturus Mengsk are not here. I can't explain everything now as we don't have enough time, we will have boots on the ground within the hour. In the meantime I recommend that you take cover, it's only a matter of time before-"

"Sir!" The sensor operator shouted for my attention. "We're detecting a large number of biosigns being ejected from the space station; points of impact put them landing all over the globe." An alert sounded from his station. "Multiple hostiles are now on an intercept course, time to contact; 17 minutes."

"Damn, okay. Kerrigan, it looks like the Zerg have shaken off the cobwebs." I say, feeling two separate brushes against my psionic presence. One seemed massive, widespread, and… arrogant? The second was smaller, more focused, frightened, and felt distinctly human. Trying to show the human my honesty I felt them withdraw into themselves.

"… Well you'd better hurry if I'm going to get out of here in one piece." She said before the line went dead.

"Kasumi, change of plans. Follow me." I said, turning for the bulkhead without checking to make sure she was following. "Serina, get my armor down to the ODST drop bays along with Perfectly Adjusted. Oh, and one more thing, Serina." I said before exiting the room. "Defend this ship."

As I lightly jog towards the drop bay I mentally access my Catalog app and quickly add three companions to my shopping cart before I hit accept on the purchase prompt, crossing my fingers that what I was hoping for would come to pass. With twin flashes of light two massive armored figures appeared five meters ahead of me. "Fall in, no time for introductions right now." Moving past the two as I heard them fall into formation with me. "Here's the plan, Chief: you and Cortana are going to lead second and third ODST squads in dropping onto a space station and capturing a ship that seems to be in dry dock. Cortana, liaise with Serina to get details on the target." I tell the SPARTAN running behind me.

"Understood." A deep and gravelly voice said behind me. The part that made me miss a step and almost take a tumble was how… feminine the voice was. Glancing over my shoulder I saw that yes, this Master Chief was in fact female.

Clearing my throat I continue. "Kasumi, break off and get all of our pelicans groundside. Go for Fujimi city. Grab as many medics as possible and only take two platoons of marines, you're going to need the space." Hearing the panting of the unaugmented woman turn and run down a side corridor I turn my attention to the SPARTAN III behind me.

"Six, you're going to take fourth, fifth, and sixth ODST and drop in ahead of Kasumi. Your job will be to gather survivors and move them to the airport. Do you want an AI to accompany you?" I ask, realizing that with all of the discounts I got from these three, I may as well have gotten them half off, and so had plenty to spend on another AI.

"Negative." She answered immediately. "I don't want to bring an unknown relationship into a combat situation."

Nodding, I continue. "Your call. Just so you're aware, the main threat you should face down there are humans who have succumb to a virus that is transmitted through the exchange of fluids, normally saliva to blood. The infected will become a shambling mess and will be dead for all intents and purposes. The only thing that will stop them cold is destroying the brain, limb and torso shots will only slow them down. Check every survivor for injuries if they have so much as a scratch, detain them for secure transfer to the medical center here. Any questions?"

"No Sir, I will follow my orders to the best of my abilities." Was the instant response.

"Chief, your threats are likely to be other humans and a set of creatures that are very beastly in appearance. Any humans you encounter, you are to offer them surrender. If they refuse, eliminate them. Should they accept secure them in the ships brig."

"Sir." Was the only response I got.

Running into the drop bay I see many ODST squad leaders looking towards us, as well as an expectant huragok floating next to a crate. "First squad, on me. Second, third, go with the Master Chief, she knows what to do. Fourth, fifth, sixth, you'll be supporting Noble Six. Move people!" I bark my orders, moving to Perfectly Adjusted to get my armor on.

After I quickly pulled on my black undersuit, I took a standard T-pose position to allow the Huragok to do his job. The squad that was to accompany me gathered around waiting for their orders. "Alright, our mission is simple yet extremely difficult. We are going to drop in and extract an asset from enemy controlled territory, we're going to take SAWs, SPNKRs, and two SRS-99s, other than that pack light. I also want an extra rebreather and O2 tank packed, we're probably going to be leaving in vacuum. Questions?" Looking around at the shaking heads l nod. "Then prepare for drop, we're out the tube in five." I say as the final piece of my armor is affixed to my back and I feel the fusion reactor activate.

As Perfectly hands me my helmet I finally stop and take a look at it finding the smooth contours of a standard MK VI MJOLINR looking back. Looking at my chest plate I see that once again it's standard MK VI with the only personal touch being the 104 on my left breastplate. "Thank you Perfectly Adjusted, I'm sure that that was some kind of speed record for armoring up a SPARTAN. Perhaps you should make a team of Huragok that specializes in the upkeep, assembly, and disassembly of the MJOLINR armor sets." I say to the floating miracle worker.

The engineer simply tilts his head in thought before he nods and drifts off. Those guys are great. They just wanted to be left alone to work on their projects.

Moving quickly, I get into my pod alongside the rest of first squad. As I check over things in the pod it swung free for a moment before it turned to look inward. Directly across from me I could see Six wedged among fourth squad. Seeing her give me a nod, I return it as Serinas voice came over the radio. "Attention Hell Jumpers, today you will be deploying on Earth herself, terra firma. The order of launch will be as follows: fourth squad, sixth squad, fifth squad, first squad, third squad, and last but not least second squad. Have a nice trip, thank you for traveling with SOEIV airlines, always remember to mind the bump, and don't forget to tip your waitress."

Well isn't she just full of jokes today? I think to myself as Sixes squads fly into the atmosphere. Bracing myself I feel just a moment of weightlessness before I was sent hurtling towards the ground at higher than terminal velocity.

0747 May 10 2010 [Local Calendar]

New Gettysburg City

Earth

Sarah Kerrigan had no idea what to make of this situation, right after she had called into Mengsk to report a successful mission and request extraction, there was a blinding flash of light she had watched as Zerglings and Hydralisks had simply frozen in place seemingly confused. Then when she had asked about her evac she had felt a powerful psionic presence engulfing half the city and a new voice came over the radio, one that was connected with the psionic. She could feel his emotional inflections, meaning that while he was powerful, he was untrained. Ultimately that was the only reason why she trusted him, had his power been refined she would have expected a Confederation trick, but his worry for her and his determination to put himself in danger to extract her from the Zerg-infested surface?

There was only one other man that would do something like that for her, and she couldn't feel him anywhere.

She was distracted from her running and thought when she heard several sonic booms coming from the sky. Looking up she saw what appeared to be several pieces of debris falling from orbit, but on closer inspection it wasn't debris at all. 13 pods that were too small to be escape pods but definitely purpose built for some kind of ejection, hurtled toward the ground, probably landing five miles north of her current position.

Changing course, she made her way towards the likely landing zone. Was this what he meant when he said that they'd have boots on the ground? She thought to herself as she quickly made her way through the ruins.

A little more than halfway there she started to hear gunfire, but it sounded off. The sound of a Gauss rifle was a heavy and familiar sound, this was far less attention seeking but also seemed to have a much higher rate of fire. When she began to hear explosions, she decided it was time to take a look at her rescuers to be.

Climbing onto the roof of a mostly intact apartment building, she zoomed in as best she could with her visor. Still having trouble seeing she pulled her rifle from her back, she only had a few rounds remaining but for now all she needed was the scope. Using the additional magnification she could clearly see that a group of soldiers were circled around the roof of a shorter building, perhaps a convenience store, no the pumps to the street side indicating that it was a gas station. Looking down what surprised her was the fact that not a single one was wearing the standard CMC battle armor, all but one looked to be wearing a black lightweight armored suit with a full head helmet. The final one was the one that looked closest to normal with a massive green set of armor that was far more streamlined than any CMC she'd ever seen. The figure was running from wall to wall supporting whichever troops were getting hit the hardest, however as she watched they spun on their heel and leveled the largest caliber sniper rifle she'd seen in her life in her direction. Even as she rolled back backwards to avoid the shot, she saw the muzzle flash.

As she fell backwards to her surprise she could only feel the round with her telekinesis and to her surprise it wasn't on course for her, but on course for the Hydralisk sneaking up behind her. She watched in awe as the bullet punched clean through the head of her would-be attacker. Blinking once, twice, three times, she finally registered that they had made a split second shot with bad footing from about two miles away and had been accurate enough that the bullet would have been within a foot of her body and it still would have taken out their target.

The radio crackled to life as she sat there stunned. "Kerrigan? Are you hurt? If not you might want to get down here quick so we can get out of here." The voice from earlier spoke, making her realize that the figure was the owner of the voice.

"I'm fine, thanks for the save. I'm 7 minutes out." She replied, trying to sound casual and not let any of her amazement leak into her voice.

"Good to know, although it would be appreciated if you could hurry. The Zerg are pushing hard and I don't know how much longer we can hold them off." He responded even as he moved to the south wall to push back a pack of Zerglings.

"Understood, I'll get there as quickly as I can." Was all she said before she started running, jumping, and sliding her way to her extraction. But even as she ran, she had one thought running through her mind. If they're being pinned down like this, then how are we supposed to get out of here?

———

When I decided that it was a good idea to drop into a Zerg-infested city in broad daylight with only one squad for support, I was a fucking idiot. Almost the moment our pods hit the ground we already had Zerg clawing towards us, and we had no choice but to hole up on this gas station and wait. My bounty tracker showed that Sarah was already moving toward us with a speed that impressed me, psionically enhanced muscles?

Regardless, as the fighting picked up I noticed her stop in a position to be able to our position. As I scanned over her position I noticed a large shadow shifting behind her. Without thinking, I pulled my SRS-99, sighted down the scope, and pulled the trigger. Seeing both Kerrigan and the Hydralisk behind her drop I worried that I had nicked her, however after a brief conversation with her I figured that she was okay and was just getting out of the line of fire.

"Kerrigan, is your hard suit rated for vacuum?" I asked the Ghost as she was closing fast.

"Of course, once sealed I have a 45 minute window of usable oxygen… why?" She responded with some trepidation.

"Oh you know, just in case we have to exfil without a sealed environment." I say putting a three round burst into the head of an approaching Hydralisk.

A couple of minutes later Sarah was close enough that she could easily throw a rock at us. Just as I was raising my arm to motion her closer, I felt the earth rumble. I froze and quickly checked my surroundings.

There. 150 meters to the east, I watched as a massive worm-like creature burst out of the ground and roared into the sky. "NYDUS WORM! FOCUS FIRE!" I order my men. Nydus worms shouldn't have been evolved yet, this really complicates things. We have to get out of here now. While the barrage of automatic fire rained down on our uninvited guest I could see clearly as hundreds if not thousands of Zerglings stormed out of the Worms mouth.

Watching Kerrigan leap up onto the roof I nod to her. "Yeah, we can't wait for extraction. We're going to have to get ourselves out of here. ODST's, we are leaving!" I say walking to the west wall.

"How are we going to do that?" Kerrigan asked incredulously.

"We fly of course." I say with a hidden smirk as I drop over the edge. Before I hit the ground I'm already changing, my armor seemed to stow itself in my pocket space as it would have constricted my growing size. After a matter of seconds I'm tall enough to see over the top of the building and look at the disbelieving face of Kerrigan. "Everyone climb on!" I bellow with a baritone voice that shook rocks and debris loose. While I spread my wing onto the roof to create a ramp, I swivel my head around and begin releasing blasts of pure psionic energy into the throng racing towards us.

Noticing that Kerrigan is still rooted in place I sweep her legs with my outstretched wing, catching her with it, and then raising it causing her to slide down onto my back. "Kerrigan, seal your suit now!" I tell her while I crouch down and extend both of my wings. "Hold on to something!" I shout as I launch myself up, and as I could feel my upward momentum begin to slow I pumped my wings and began to soar.

Quickly gaining speed and momentum, I made for the upper atmosphere and continued to climb before I spotted the space station above us. Oh… right… I forgot that was there. I think to myself as I pivot my body in such a way as to land on the underside of the platform.

Clawing my way along the platform, I quickly arrive at the dry dock that I had sent the Chief and Cortana to. Digging through the metal plates, while avoiding any creep, I deposit my passengers into the hole before shrinking down and stepping in myself. To my delighted surprise, the moment that I was back in my human form my armor was automatically re-equipped straight from my pocket space.

"Let's move." I say directing us towards the closest docking tube that lead to the ship. As we left the vacuum exposed section of the station, we immediately began to hear what sounded like a pitched firefight. Moving closer an ODST fireteam was trading fire with a single red armored marine from hastily assembled barricades on one side, and putting out gouts of flames from a flamethrower towards a small pack of Zerglings on the other.

Being in a good flanking position against the Zerglings, I motion my squad into a firing line and prepare to fire. Before I can pull my trigger I hear a single shot from behind me, whirling around with my magnum at the ready I see Kerrigan with her rifle raised and smoke drifting lazily from the barrel.

Following her line of fire I see a single bullet hole through the center of the Confederate Marines visor as the body realizes that it's dead and the now metal coffin falls on its back. Giving her a nod I turn to my men. "Open fire!" I bark, depressing my own trigger to add to the barrage of bullets.

Between the 14 people in our group and the four men who were now able to bring all of their weapons to bear on the pack of dog-like Zerg, it only took another minute to put them down. "Friendlies at your nine o'clock!" I shout both over the radio and my external speakers. Watching one of them place two fingers to the side of his helmet, I am glad to watch him motion us forward with an arm motion. Running up to him, I return the quick salute that he gives. "What's the Sitrep?"

"Sir, we have secured the six docking tubes and we are in the process of holding them while the Chief and Cortana are clearing and preparing for launch." The man reported quickly.

"Excellent." I said turning to my own squad. "Team One, you are to reinforce this position. Team Two, move from one docking tube to the next, gather the rest of the men and destroy the tubes, after that's done return here with everyone and hold this tube. Team three, you'll be assisting us with cleaning house." I motion for them to follow as we move into the oblong hexagonal shaped halls of the Battlecrusier. "Cortana, are you in the system?"

"Of course I am, who do you think you're talking to?" The reply came immediately, causing me to smile.

"Very good, please direct fireteam three to any areas that still have low level resistance, mechanics, deck crews, basically anything not in the power armor." Before I had even finished speaking, the team had already split off at an intersection and were already out of sight. "Where's the Chief?"

"The Master Chief is currently attempting to gain access to the bridge, it seems that the previous residents didn't get the eviction notice that we posted for them." The AI spoke with a hint of mirth in her voice.

Looking over my shoulder at Kerrigan who had continued to follow me quietly, I ask a simple question. "Can you lead me there?"

Her slight expression of 'what the hell is going on', faded as she registered my words and then shifted as she back tracked in the conversation. "Yes." Was her one word response as she moved ahead of me and began running towards the bridge.

————————

Arriving outside the bridge Sarah froze as she saw a second figure in similar green armor to the man… dragon… the individual behind her. This figure had more curves than the other one, indicating that she was female. She also seemed to be on edge since the moment Sarah rounded the corner, the woman's rifle was leveled at her.

"Chief, stand down." Ordered the… ugh let's just go with man.

The Chief kept her weapon raised for exactly two breaths before she lowered it. "Fred, is it wise to bring an outsider into this kind of operation?" Sarah bristled at the notion that she wasn't worth having around.

"Whether it's wise or not doesn't matter, she's here now and hopefully she won't be an outsider for much longer." Said the now named Fred. What kind of name is that for a dragon? "Oh fear me, I am the great dragon lord Fred!" She had to stifle a snort of laughter at the thought. "Kerrigan, can you please cover the rear while we evict the previous tenants?" He said, turning to her.

With an extreme force of will, she did not laugh at her previous thought process, and managed to keep her embarrassed blush mostly under control. Giving him a quick nod she turned around to make sure that nothing could sneak up on them.

————

Looking at Kerrigans back for a moment I turn back to the genderbent savior of humanity. "Cortana, what's it looking like in there?" I ask the incorporeal woman.

"Seven hostiles, three covering each of the two doors and the last one, who seems to be the highest ranking, is at one end of the room desperately trying to get the ship operational. I'm blocking that by the way. There is a manual lock out on the primary terminal that is preventing me from taking complete control of the ship, but I do have enough power to change the passcode. Additionally there are four technical staff that are not armed, and will likely surrender if the combat personnel are eliminated." The AI reported quickly.

Thinking about the situation I look at the walls, ceiling, and floor. "Are there any maintenance access areas that we could use to get in and not be in the line of fire?"

"One moment." Cortana said, before continuing after a second. "The bridge appears to be separated into two main areas, the lower main floor and a slightly raised secondary area that has many crew stations. The floor underneath the raised area has enough space for a technician to be able to access and perform rudimentary repairs without having to pull the entire floor apart. Theoretically if you disable your shields, you can just barely squeeze through the space."

I nod, liking the plan. "Hallway access?" I ask looking around.

"From the door, shift your gaze 2.5 meters towards the bow, then look close to the floor. There's a grate that is 36 centimeters by 50 centimeters. That'll be your access point." She directed.

Following her instructions I found the grate in question, it looked identical to all the other hall sections, however while the rest were covering wires and pipes this one was just black. I really hope that my previous claustrophobia didn't follow me here. I think to myself. As I continue to examine the panel in front of me I notice that it's bolted firmly in place. Standing up, I look to the Chief. "I'm going to knock three times and have a chat with the locals, with my third knock I want you to pull the obstacle out of the way. Then proceed in and wait for my signal." Receiving a nod, we switch positions so that I'm in front of the door. Seeing her take a knee and give me a thumbs up I clench my fist and hammer on the bulkhead three times with the bottom of my fist. As the third pound reverberates into the door, there's a brief sound of metal moving in ways it's not supposed to before I see the Chief placing the grate against the wall behind her, get onto her stomach and proceed to low-crawl into the opening, deactivating her shields as they flare against the metal wall on contact.

Without prompting, Cortana connects the bridge security camera to my armor's HUD pulling up a small window on the left side of my screen allowing me to watch the scene from within. I can see that the three men guarding the far door have turned and brought their weapons to bear on my door and the commander has turned to look at the door as well. I watch as he makes some motions with his hands and see two of the marines drop to a knee, the three from the other door move up and take aim over the heads of their companions bringing five weapons into firing positions. The final mook sidesteps up to the door, trying to stay out of the line of fire. Seeing his visor open I can hear his voice through the metal.

"You are trespassing on a ship of the Confederate Navy. You are to lay down your weapons and prepare to be taken into custody, failure to comply with these orders will be seen as an act of treason and will be punished as such." The muffled voice came through, sounding more robotic than either Serina or Cortana. Damn, ReSocs.

ReSocs or Re Socialized troops, were soldiers who had had their entire sense of self and self preservation removed and replaced with an overriding desire to follow orders. Wait… would that work?

"Cortana, is the commander in there the ships captain?" I ask quickly, silencing my external speakers.

"Negative, as far as I can tell he's a lieutenant in the ground forces and is simply trying to gain control."

"Do you have access to any archived vid comms data?"

"One moment… yes I do."

"Enough to create a false transmission from the ships captain?"

This time I was able to hear the smile in her voice as she responded. "Absolutely, any preference on the wording?"

"I don't know, something something, Sierra 104 is your new commanding officer, something something, this order can't be overturned by anyone but me or the executive officer." I say rolling my hand in the air.

"As you have not complied with our lawful order we will now be-" The man stops talking and I can hear the staticky mumble of a comms conversation before that too goes silent.

"I am Sierra 104, I believe you have some orders in regards to me." I blandly state as I reactivate my speakers, absentmindedly acknowledging the flashing green light from the Chief in my HUD.

"Yes sir." The monotone voice immediately acknowledges. I can hear confused and angry shouting coming from deeper in the room.

"Then please, open the door, and detain the lieutenant under suspicion of criminal activity." I order, giving myself chills as I hear how cold my voice is. As the door opens I can see the five other men subduing the final armored individual who is currently thrashing about wildly.

"You gods damned rebel! I don't know how you gained control over my troops, but you will not get away with this! Once the great families hear about this, they'll-" the man raged, spittle flying from his mouth like a rabid animal.

"They will do nothing." I interrupt his deranged shouting with a commanding tone that is projected through the room without me raising my voice to the point of shouting. Letting my Communication Talent earn its keep I begin to speak. "You don't seem to have realized this, but you are not in your neck of the woods. In this place the old families of Tarsonis have exactly zero power." I say with all of the finality of the executioner's ax. "This is not your reality, hell it isn't even mine, but one thing that you can be sure of is that right now I may as well be god to you." I continue, crouching slightly so that I am on level with him.

Looking up to the three holding him down I speak. "Take him to the brig, and take those four to a conference room and keep them there. I'll come by when it's time to move them." I say, gesturing at the four technicians who are currently cowering in the corner of the room.

As soon as the room is clear I gesture for the Chief to come out of hiding while I make my way over to the main terminal. "Cortana, what do I need to press to give you control?"

"Well, I might just be a super advanced artificial intelligence, but if I had to guess it would be the big red lock on the left side of the terminal." came the highly sarcastic reply.

"... You know, you can be very… what's the word I'm looking for?"

"Brilliant, beautiful, gifted."

"I was thinking more along the lines of incorrigible, irritating, annoying. But why don't we just move on?" I snark back as I press the lockdown override. Immediately every terminal around the bridge shifted from a light sky blue color into the deep ocean blue glow that was reminiscent of Cortana taking control. "Can you call the kids inside dear?" I ask Cortana in a patronizing tone. "I believe that it's past their curfew."

"Recalling all troops, preparing to get underway." Was the response I received, without the regular snark from her, indicating just how much of her runtime she was dedicating to figuring out these new systems.

"Can we open a channel to the Full Moon?" I ask the open air as the Master Chief finally got out from her cover without breaking anything. One of the terminals lit up on the bow end of the bridge, showing the speaker symbol with an oscillating wave line behind it.

"Full Moon, this is Sierra 104. Serina, how're things going over there?"

"Sierra 104, this is Serina. We've taken some damage, I recommend that we get out of here fast sir."

"Understood, what's the status of Kasumi and Noble six?"

"Pelicans are on route from the surface, ETA 10 minutes."

"Cortana, are the hangar bays on board capable of taking on pelicans?" I ask shifting my attention from the comms back to the interior of my new ship.

"Affirmative, their normal dropship size is 1.63 times the size of a pelican. Normally they have 20 bays dedicated to dropship deployments, however logs indicate that 18 of the 20 are currently empty due to deploying their troops groundside prior to the transmigration event that brought them here. Each of those bays can comfortably hold two pelicans, three if we absolutely have to." The AI responded after a moment.

Switching back to my first AI I continue my conversation. "Full Moon, this is Sierra 104. How many birds do we have in the sky?"

"Sierra 104, we currently have 50, I say again five-zero birds inbound, each over capacity. How copy? Over."

"I copy five-zero birds that are extra full. Redirect all inbound flights to us, the sooner we get out of here the better."

"Affirmative 104, Full Moon out."

"Cortana, if my math is right then we should have four bays with only two pelicans each right?" I ask the empty air.

"That would be accurate." She immediately replied.

"Good, after you get into touch with those pelicans, redirect any with wounded to the hangars nearest to the medical bays. If we have to, turn those less full bays into triage centers. Once everyone has landed I want us to get underway, meet up with the Full Moon and I want you to set up a rally point using this ships FTL as a basis and get a destination, in UNSC standard astronomical bearing, to Serina. Once we regroup, we can jump to the next world." I order before turning around only to find Kerrigan standing there with a slightly open mouthed look on her face.

"What?" She whispered hoarsely.

"Kerrigan," I say, raising one hand in placation.

"What do you mean next world?" She asks in a near whisper.

I sigh heavily. "Okay, I promise to explain everything, but can we at least find someplace to sit? It's going to be a lengthy conversation." I plead before looking at her unmoved expression. "Fine, what do you know about multiverse theory?" The only response I get is a slightly confused look. "Okay, sure, let's just make things even more complicated. Okay the theory states that anything that could possibly happen does in an alternate reality, however this goes a bit beyond that, in that… hmm how best to describe this?" I ponder to myself. "Do you read fiction?" I ask the redheaded ghost.

"Not very often…" She says slowly, almost as though approaching a distressed animal. "But I have read a few."

"Excellent, now imagine that character A from book A gets introduced into book C with all of his skills, memories, etc. intact, even if all of these things go against the universal laws of book C. With me so far?" Getting a confused nod from her I continue. "Okay, so that's basically what happened here except it wasn't a character, it was a City. Now I know this because I and my companions are interdimensional travelers that can move from one reality/dimension/universe almost freely." As I speak, I can see the swarm of pelicans making their way towards us in an attempt to land. "Any questions up to this point?"

She looks at the ground for a few moments attempting to wrap her head around everything I've just unloaded on her. She slowly lifts her head to look at me before opening her mouth. "When you spoke to me over the radio earlier, you gave names that I had not. Are you from the same place as me?"

I sigh, the worst part of explaining to anyone was always going to be this part. "No." She looked down in disappointment. "But I do know your story. In my reality yours was a video game, a game almost completely about one specific individual. You."

Her head snapped up at my final word. "Me? There's nothing special about me, why would they make a game about my life?!" She half askes half shouts at me.

"Because the majority of that story hasn't happened for you yet." I say soothingly. "In the story I know; Mengsk, still angry at you over the assassination of his family under confederate orders, left you to the Zerg swarm on Tarsonis. However, unlike his expectations, the Zerg did not kill you. Instead the overmind of the Zerg swarm infested you and turned you into a powerful weapon…"

Over the next twenty minutes I briefly summarize the entire timeline of Starcraft 1 and 2 to the best of my memory. In that time we had collected our wayward flights and were just approaching the Full Moon. Thankfully it seemed as though the Cerabrate that controlled this brood had decided to collect the biomass of the planet below rather than follow us, as the swarms of Mutalisks that had been buzzing around were instead pulled back to deal with whatever fightercraft the nations of the world still had even after the zombie apocalypse.

That was the last thing I saw as off to the side, the Full Moon opened a slipspace portal and left moments before, with a burst of inertia, we warped away.

———

A/n: okay so I might have gotten a little bit carried away with this, and honestly I had kept going, but as I was looking back at it I realized that the feeling shifted rather dramatically and quickly, so as to not give everyone a jarring feeling just from reading this I'll leave this here. The chapter is already probably the longest one I've ever written, definitely the longest in the story.

Now I've got to ask you all: as this is meant to be a long term project and in the next chapter I'll be jumping worlds again do you want me to continue in this specific story or would you rather have me break up the story into separate parts based on the world tier?

Oh and to nip some of the naysayers in the bud before someone starts saying that I'm favoring Halo over everything else in regards to purchasing, there is a reason behind it. Specifically in this chapter I got Six, the Chief, and Cortana because the MC was panicking and needed strong people that could be in two other places that he couldn't and that knew how to operate an SOEIV, and I got Cortana because a) she's been like my childhood wet dream for forever, b) because I needed a cyber intrusion specialist, and c) because the Chief and Cortana are always a package deal.

So there we have it, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you in the next one.

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