AN: Turns out that by the last chapter's release, there were so many reviews that I couldn't fit the closing AN into AO3's dedicated endnotes.

By the way, there's a couple somewhat major canon changes in this chapter that will be immediately obvious, but I'm not spoiling it. Just know that I have my reasons and a plan.

IMPORTANT: Dialogue in italics and parentheses is translation for the reader's convenience because 1) I'm still learning to correctly transcribe most of the official Sangheili language, and 2) no doubt that readers will have no clue what's going on if I don't. Two phrases I know I won't be translating are "(Ghashank'o)" and "(Jan [insert name] ngitkha)", which are "Demon" and "I am [insert name]", respectively. I can link the page I'm basing this on to anyone who wants it.

Anyway, here's review responses. By the way, in the interest of my sanity regarding AO3 formatting, I'm no longer copy-pasting reviews into the chapters.

FanFiction:

Djangiti: There's still a stigma around AI's outside of human space, but there will be non-human AI's with personalities generally reflective of the species they came from. As for how a krogan AI would act, I imagine it would be a more civilized, yet equally bloodthirsty version of Iratus from Halo Infinite's multiplayer.

As for Spartan biotics, the biotics would definitely give one an edge, but the Spartan wouldn't rely on them like, say, Jack or Samara.

I'm glad you like how the Cole Protocol proliferated through Citadel space! It's honestly an ingenious concept if applied correctly, so I don't see why the turians wouldn't adopt it.

wolf master97: Okay, this review is too long for me to respond to everything (sorry), but I'll try to deal with key questions.

First: Concerning weaponry, in my universe, Halo guns work on the same principles as ME guns, because who would use conical bullets in the age of eezo? As for ships, no, I don't intend on making them useless.

Second: …that's actually some interesting context for the Treaty of Farixen. I've definitely got a more positive opinion of it now that I know more about how it works.

Guest A: The Cole Protocol serves a use beyond simply keeping planets hidden in Halo canon. It also details how to keep everything hidden from the enemy.

Guest B: In Halo canon, human slipspace speeds didn't breach three light-years per day up until the 2550's, and even then slipspace was unpredictable enough that 23 Librae, which is physically 83 light-years from Epsilon Indi (which is physically 12 light-years from Earth), is considered the closest Outer Colony to canon Harvest. However, with mass effect technology, I have no doubt that human slipspace can be massively sped up. That is, if I do decide to include it.

As for which Arbiter, it is Var 'Gatanai from the TV show.

Also, who said I was replacing EDI?

Guest 4: You're going to have to keep letting me know it's you if we're gonna keep talking like this. Also *screenshot* and thanks for the math!

RandomReader: Nice to know you're Guest 5! And yes, "Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." -Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Nitroman98: Thanks!

Guest E: In my universe, the only systems more heavily defended than Reach are Arcturus and Earth itself. Also, I don't think the turians are foreign to the concept of a fortress world, given Menae in ME3.

As for supercarriers, refer to my response to Guest 4.

ProcrastinationStrikes: …I mean no disrespect, but did you play any of Mass Effect beyond 'haha shoot bad guy'? In ME1 alone, we are fighting alongside Garrus (a turian), Wrex (a krogan), Liara (an asari), and Tali (a quarian), against Saren (a turian) and his army of krogan (obviously krogan), Benezia (an asari and Liara's mother), and geth (created by the quarians). We also fight human terrorists in the game. Then, through Garrus, Wrex, Liara, and Tali, we gain extra insight into all their species' respective cultures. In short, this is not an 'aliens bad' fic.

And if you don't like it, nobody's forcing you to read.

naotw: All your insight has proven helpful, and I've updated past chapters in response. Ah, the wonders of working on the internet.

ADeter: I don't have any sort of canon confirmation concerning multiple eezo cores, and I prefer not to use other fics as info sources, so I'm ruling that option out. If you can source your claims, I'll be open to changing that, but for now, it's a no.

Darth Tzar: Thanks for the linkage! Also, your typo is forgiven.

AO3:

GuestGuy: Sorry for taking so long, but your lack of knowledge is forgiven. I want to build this world up as we go along instead of thrusting the reader straight in, so I hope that this is working.

Also, I do intend to diverge the dialogue.

Anyway, I'm poor and don't own Mass Effect or Halo, so let's get to finishing up this two-parter.

(—0—)

Arc I: The Drums of War

Chapter III: Keystone

(—0—)

"AAAAAAGH!"

The team froze. That was a very loud, very turian scream. Williams had said that there were no turians in the colony, so the Chief immediately knew who to call.

He keyed his comms. "Sierra-117 to Nihlus, what's your situation?" After a brief moment of silence, he tried again. "Sierra-117 to Nihlus, do you read?" Turning his radio off, he turned to his team. "Nihlus isn't responding. Our timetable just got shorter, so let's-"

GROOOOAAAANNNN!

"What is that?!" Alenko exclaimed. "Off in the distance!"

"It's a ship!" Williams responded. "Look at the size of it!"

Turning to the source of the noise, Chief saw an absolutely massive ship taking off - a ship with a hooked bow. Now that it wasn't obscured by smoke, he could make out far more details than the distress call could show.

Zooming in with his VISR, Chief immediately saw that it was big - impossibly big, in fact. Five thousand, three hundred and forty-six meters long, it dominated the horizon simply by being there. The segmented hull plating was mainly silver-colored, elegantly-curved and seeming to flow from bow to stern. Skyscraper-like protrusions dotted the surface between the plates, making it look almost like a flying city, and on the bottom was a glowing blue circle. Three ovular engines sat in the stern, burning hard to propel the super-dreadnought away from the planet.

Suddenly, a bright purple flash barely missed Alenko, instantly breaking his barriers from the proximity alone. As the team took cover, Chief switched to his sniper rifle, zooming in on the spot the shot came from. Ahead was a red elite and three bird-like aliens - jackals. Two of the jackals carried circular blue shields and plasma pistols, while the third had a long purple rifle that looked kind of like a misshapen triangle.

"Warut'o, warut'o, warut'o!" the elite shouted, waving its squad forward.

Chief's first shot drilled right through the jackal sniper's head, instantly ending its life in a spray of purple blood and brain matter. The second shot flashed the elite's shields, and the third broke through and blew a hole in its chest. Alenko, meanwhile, shot at another jackal's exposed hand with his pistol. One of the rounds connected, causing the jackal to stumble back in pain and allowing a clear shot that killed it. Williams did the same with her assault rifle, taking down the last jackal.

Up ahead was a platform with several crates on it - and a body.

"Chief, it's Nihlus," Alenko said. Indeed, the body had the tattoos and armor to match - with the addition of two cauterized stab wounds through the chest, perfectly aligned.

"A turian?" Williams asked. "You know him?"

"He's a Spectre," Alenko answered. "He was with us on the Normandy."

"Looks like he got stabbed by one of those swords he mentioned," Chief observed. "Let's keep an eye out for gold el-"

The sudden clattering of crates shook the Marines out of their discussion, with everyone drawing their weapons and aiming them at the source of the noise.

"Something's moving! Over behind those crates!" Williams called out. The team tensed, preparing for more hostiles. However…

…it was a female quarian that walked out.

"Wait! I- I'm not one of them!" the quarian stammered in an accented and slightly filtered voice, raising her hands in surrender.

"What were you doing back there?" Chief questioned, keeping his assault rifle raised and pointed at the quarian.

"I- I was hiding from the Covenant," the quarian admitted.

"The Covenant?" Chief asked, dipping his rifle to a low ready.

"It's what the other turian called them, after the big alien stabbed your friend in the back," the quarian said, taking the lowered rifle as a sign that she could drop her hands. "Oh, by the way, I'm Tali, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"Master Chief Shepard," the Spartan replied.

"Wait, 'other turian'?" Alenko suddenly asked.

"There were two turians and a big creature," Zorah explained. "Your turian, Nihlus, called the other one 'Saren'. Saren called the big alien 'Arbiter'."

"Arbiter…" Chief was well aware of the definition of the word; an arbiter was typically someone who resolved disputes or settled judgements. By that logic, this 'Arbiter' was likely some kind of authority figure in the Covenant. And from Zorah's description, the Arbiter was probably an elite.

"Nihlus seemed to relax when he saw Saren," Zorah continued. "When he let his guard down, Saren ordered the Arbiter to kill Nihlus. I'm lucky they didn't bother to look around."

Chief nodded in acknowledgement. "A prothean beacon was brought to the spaceport. Do you know where it is?"

"It's on the other platform, where Saren and the Arbiter were headed," Zorah said. "I personally helped load the beacon on the cargo train over there." She let out a sigh. "I don't know about you, but I think the beacon's the reason we're in this mess."

Chief hummed in agreement. At a glance, the attack could be written off as random chance, but the fact that the beacon was found not even a week before the Covenant invaded meant that, in all likelihood, this was a targeted strike.

"Chief, some thick fog's gonna roll in soon," Williams said, shaking the Spartan from his thoughts. "We need to move."

"Agreed," Chief replied. "Squad, we don't have much time. Zorah, hole up and-"

"I want to come with you."

At the quarian's declaration, Chief turned back to her. "I don't have time to babysit a civilian."

"You won't have to," Zorah said. "Give me a shotgun and I can hold my own. The self-defense instructor said I was top of the leaderboard with shotguns. Plus, I'm a good engineer. I designed many of my omnitool's programs myself."

"But you were hiding," Chief pointed out.

"It's not like they let dockworkers bring weapons to work," Zorah countered.

Chief weighed the pros and cons in his head. On the one hand, if she was as good as she said she was, then there wasn't any reason not to accept, save for her being a civilian. A quick command through his neural interface pulled up a map courtesy of the Superintendent, showing that the other platform had plenty of tight spaces where a shotgunner would come in handy. And while Alenko was a Sentinel, and Chief did have basic training in omnitool combat, it never hurt to have an extra hacker on hand.

On the other hand, she was not just a civilian, but a quarian. Civilians typically didn't have military instruction, and all quarians wore envirosuits in order to not get sick from the slightest pathogen. If her suit had even a single tear, she could get deathly ill. With all these thoughts in mind, Chief was coming to a final decision.

Well, his shotgun admittedly hadn't seen much use on this mission…

"...you got half-decent barriers in that suit?" At her nod, he let out a resigned sigh. "Alright, but this is going to be extremely dangerous. Don't say I didn't warn you." He then pulled out his M45 and tossed it to Zorah, who caught and unfolded it with an ease on par with veteran Alliance Marines.

That was a good sign.

"Let's take the cargo train. It's where Saren and the Arbiter went, and where the beacon probably is," Zorah said as they set off. "Time to shoot some Covenant bosh'tets."

Almost immediately after turning the first corner, they were set upon by two jackals, one with a blue shield and one with an orange one. Chief opened up with his assault rifle, hitting the blue-shield jackal in the hand and causing it to stumble back, before a bark from what was now Zorah's shotgun hit it full in the chest. A trio of quick pistol shots from Alenko ended the other jackal by the same method.

Going down the ramp, they didn't see much in the form of opposition, but the platform below saw them taking fire from elites stationed on the train. Zorah immediately hit the closest one with what looked like an overload, breaking its shields, before a burst from Williams' rifle nailed it in the head. As soon as the group boarded the train, another elite - this one in white armor with red accents- charged them with a twin-pronged plasma sword, shouting, "Khisho!"

Chief fired his rifle on full auto, but the elite simply raised its sword in front of itself, letting the blade take the bullets instead. As it neared, it swung the sword in a wide arc, forcing the squad to scatter. The Spartan ducked beneath the blade, immediately resuming his fire. Even with the rest of the squad collectively overheating their heat sinks into it, however, its shields still did not falter. Another swing was aimed at the Chief, who tried to parry it with his assault rifle. Instead of blocking the sword, however, the blade sliced right through, sending the front half of the rifle spinning off the edge of the train and into the trench below. Bits of molten metal sprayed onto the Spartan's chestplate, further marring it.

Tossing the ruined weapon away, the Chief pulled his Sidekick from his thigh and dove into a tackle that knocked the elite down, before dumping a full dozen rounds into its shields and finally breaking them. However, the pistol had overheated from the barrage, allowing the elite to get a powerful jab to Chief's helmet that cracked the left side of his visor. Instead of waiting for the pistol to cool down, the Spartan opted to use a more readily available weapon: his knife. In one swift movement, he pulled the knife from its sheath on his shoulder and drove it into the elite's head, right between the mandibles. The alien spasmed for a brief moment, before finally falling dead. Grabbing the now-deactivated sword from the white-armored elite's limp hand, Chief stowed it on his left thigh for safe keeping until he could get it to the Alliance techs.

It soon occurred to the Chief that, while this was happening, the other quarter-dozen elites on the train hadn't so much as moved an inch, instead opting to watch with lowered weapons as Chief and the white-armored elite brawled. Now that that particular fight was over, however, the other aliens let out a collective roar, before resuming their fire with renewed fury.

"Ruuk'ina ghashank'o!" one shouted in rage.

"I really need a weapon," Chief muttered as he quickly ducked behind a rail, before giving out his next set of orders. "Zorah, hit the elite in the middle with an overload. Alenko, follow it up with a warp. Williams, fill it with lead. On my signal."

He waited for a break in the fire. A good ten seconds passed without an opening, but as soon as the elites took even a second to breathe, Chief pounced on the opportunity.

"Now!"

The middle elite suddenly had its shields flare a bright blue before a biotic warp snapped them, which was quickly succeeded by a hail of rifle fire. As it fell, it dropped its weapon, a deep blue rifle with silver prongs extending from the front, a rotating cylinder in the middle, and sickly green lights. Chief peeked out of cover and extended his left gauntlet, sending a thin cable flying towards the rifle and hooking on. He then reeled the cable back in, pulling the rifle with it and into his waiting hands.

Getting a feel for the rifle's alien ergonomics, Chief quickly noticed that the sights were quite literally holographic, bringing up a circular reticle with four triangles evenly spaced inside it, all pointing to the center. He then took aim, pulled what passed for a trigger, and let loose a torrent of blue plasma at the second elite. Its shields quickly burst, far faster than normal accelerator rounds would have, before the body was rapidly turned into a backyard barbecue. Alenko then let loose a throw at the last elite, before combined fire from the fireteam brought down the stumbling alien.

Confident that the area was clear, Chief took in his surroundings. Of particular note was the white-armored elite he had pilfered the as-yet unused sword from. "Zorah, is this elite the Arbiter?"

"No, the Arbiter had more decorative silver armor, with gold trim and a big right pauldron," the quarian answered, picking up a dropped plasma pistol and stowing it on her hip. "He also looked like he was blind in his left eye. It's more likely that this is just a high-ranking one."

Chief nodded in affirmation. "Alright. Zorah, get this train moving. We need to get to the platform before the Covenant take the beacon."

As the engineer nodded, she pulled up her omnitool and connected to the console, quickly sending the train forward.

(—0—)

Saren stared at the artifact. The humans had no idea what it truly was, what it contained.

However, none of the Covenant troops had been able to so much as budge it, not even a mighty mgalekgolo pair he had summoned. The humans had evidently used heavy equipment to get it here, but no such gear was on the platform.

"(We cannot retrieve the relic,)" the Arbiter said, coming to the same realization that Saren had. "(A small force of humans is making their way towards us.)"

The Spectre took a moment to think. "Set the charges. Destroy the entire colony. Leave no evidence that we were here."

"(But the relic-)"

"Will be retaken by the humans if we leave it be," Saren interrupted. "Once you're done, get to the dropships and head back to the carrier."

Var 'Gatanai offered no response for a long moment. Finally, he relented with a nod, barking to his troops in Sangheili.

With that out of the way, Saren walked up to the artifact, which began to glow. Standing in front of it, he allowed the knowledge within to pour into his mind.

(—0—)

Tali anxiously waited for the train to come to a stop. The fog, or rather smog had long since washed over the area, engulfing everything in a thick, ash-laden haze. In response, she had upped her suit's scrubbers to keep the fumes out. Alenko and Williams had similarly sealed up their helmets. Shepard had reassured Tali that his armor, despite the cracked visor, was still quite capable of keeping the particles out.

In addition, she'd been educated on the different enemy designations. The big lizards were called elites, the backpack chimps were called grunts, the birds were called jackals, and the bugs were called drones. Easy enough to remember, considering they had no idea what the Covenant species were actually called.

As the train neared the platform, Shepard took charge. "No doubt the Covenant are prepared for us, so go in guns blazing and take cover wherever you can. We get in, secure the package, and get out."

"Yes sir, Master Chief."

"Aye-aye, Chief."

"Got it, Shepard."

The train wound down and came to a stop, with the squad disembarking soon after. Almost immediately, they were met with what looked like a… purple, spiked pickle the size of a forklift. The pickle was emitting small amounts of gamma radiation, not enough to hurt anyone but enough to be picked up by Tali's envirosuit, as well as a steadily-increasing whine.

"It's a nuke!" Alenko exclaimed, coming to the same realization the quarian did. "The Covenant must have planted it!"

"Zorah, disarm the bomb!" Shepard barked. "We'll cover you!"

"Got it!" Tali replied.

Immediately, she opened her omnitool, opening a connection to the bomb's systems and hastily crafting a program to stop whatever timer this thing operated on. Behind her, the sounds of combat rang, with plasma and sand grains flying between the assailing Covenant and her team. Translating the program to binary, she slammed her omnitool on the big red button (must it always be a big red button?), and was pleasantly surprised to hear the beeping replaced with a short, deep whine that signified the bomb's defusal.

It seemed the device was lacking in terms of firewalls to stop an intrusion.

"Bomb disabled," Tali proudly said. Turning around, she flinched when she saw that her teammates had a few new scorch marks and melted bits to add to the collection.

"We're not clear yet. I've got three more gamma signatures," Shepard informed. Indeed, upon further inspection, her HUD showed said signatures. "We'll split up. Alenko, take the bomb across the bridge. Williams and Zorah, behind the crates. I'll deal with the one by the dock. Let's move!"

Climbing up the ramp and reaching the bridge, the squad was met with a jackal sniper immediately trying to burn a hole through their heads from another catwalk on the other side of the area. Shepard took it out with a single sniper shot, spraying ichor behind it. As they reached the other side of the bridge, Alenko went left to deal with his bomb and Shepard went right, leaving Williams and Tali to deal with the one in the middle. A squad of four grunts led by a blue-armored elite met their advance, forcing the two to take cover.

"We take out the elite, and the grunts scatter!" Williams said. "Hit it with an overload, and we'll load it with buckshot!"

"Good idea!" Tali replied, waiting for Williams' signal. As soon as a lull in the plasma and needles came, the signal was given.

"NOW!"

ZAP!

The overload quickly shorted out the elite's shields, before shots from Tali's M45 and Williams' Bulldog turned its body into… what did the humans call it? Shish cheese?

Eh, not important right now.

As predicted, the grunts began to flee, waving their arms comedically as they waddled in circles. More buckshot ended whatever threat the scaly chimps posed.

Tali then rushed up to the bomb, copying the defusal program from the first one and again slamming her omnitool into the button. Just like the first one, this bomb whined as its timer halted.

"Done," she said.

Just then, her radio crackled to life as Shepard called in. "Sierra-117 to squad. Status report."

"This is Alenko. Took a needle to the arm, but my bomb's down." Tali saw Williams visibly wince. "Biotics are out of the picture for a while, though."

"Tali here. Our bomb is disabled," the quarian reported.

"Sierra-117 to squad. All bombs defused. Regroup and form up at my location."

"On our way," Williams replied, speaking for them both.

(—0—)

The squad eventually made their way to the Chief, who was at the top of a ramp. As they arrived, he took stock of their situation. Williams' armor seemed distinctly more charred than before, and Zorah definitely had picked up some soot and plasma scoring on her envirosuit, which was miraculously unbreached. Alenko had it the worst. His left arm hung limply, a hole in the bicep plating revealing a small, fleshy crater indicative of a needler shard having been roughly pulled out. He was lucky it hadn't blow up, or he might not have had much of an arm left.

"Alenko, let's get some biofoam on that arm," Chief ordered, pulling a canister from an armored pouch and flicking the nozzle up. He jabbed the tip of the nozzle into the wound, before pulling the trigger and letting the white foam fill up the crater. Alenko let out a pained grunt as his wound was dealt with, before the anesthetic in the foam activated and reduced the pain.

"So what's the plan?" Zorah asked.

"The Superintendent says the beacon's down this ramp," Chief explained. He noticed that Zorah stiffened at the mention of the colony's AI, but chalked it up to the quarians' understandable if misplaced distrust of AI. "We get down there, and finish the mission. Once the beacon's secure, I'll radio the Normandy for pickup. Everyone understand?"

The team all gave their affirmatives, so they proceeded. As they made their way down the ramp, Chief took notice of two things.

The first thing he noticed was a massive silver pillar near the edge of the catwalk. The pillar looked as if it had grown from crystal, was as tall as two elites on top of one another, and had neon-blue lines crisscrossing over its surface. It seemed to radiate power, yet it didn't seem to be a weapon of any kind. Chief guessed that this was the beacon. It didn't look prothean by any means, from what little research he'd been able to do before the mission.

The other, more obvious thing was the pair of identical, twelve foot tall armored monstrosities in front of them. They wore deep blue armor atop sinewy orange flesh that looked almost like giant worms. The armor had a shield the size of Chief on the left arm, and an equally massive cannon on the right that glowed a radioactive green. On the back were half a dozen spines, each four feet in length.

It was at that moment that the monstrosities noticed them and raised their cannons, which began to glow brighter.

"MOVE!" Chief barked, and the squad needed absolutely no further encouragement to get to cover. Just as they hid behind some crates, the creatures fired, creating blinding green explosions.

"Those things will tear us apart!" Williams yelled, taking potshots with her assault rifle that merely bounced off the armor.

"Yeah, I'd guessed!" Chief dryly replied. It was then that he got an idea. "Everyone, pull out a frag. We distract these things, it should give us a chance to take them down. On my mark."

He waited for even the slightest break in the fire. The moment it came, he pounced.

"MARK!"

Four grenades were tossed from behind cover, bouncing around the monsters. When they went off, the monsters stumbled around for a moment, giving the squad the time they needed to push their advantage. Chief and Williams opened up with plasma and rifle fire, leaving cover to circle around and hit the creatures from the back. Zorah did the same, with Alenko following her.

However, one of the monstrosities seemed to somewhat recover, enough to spin around and slam its shield's broadside into the first thing it saw.

That thing happened to be-

WHACK!

"ZORAH!" Chief yelled, watching the quarian get knocked into next Tuesday. Her body flew into a nearby crate, blacking out as she fell. Her left leg was bent in a most unnatural way, and she seemed to be breathing heavier. Her envirosuit's visor had cracks spiderwebbing all over it, and the suit itself now had red blotches staining it, indicating intense bleeding.

If this fight didn't end soon, she could die.

In a fury, Chief leapt onto the offending monster's back while it was distracted, before it could finish the job. He latched onto a spine, before pounding and yanking at exposed flesh. In his hand was a giant worm with four mandibles, proving his earlier suspicions. With this in mind, he tossed it away, grabbed another frag, and tried to shove it into the wormy mass - tried being the key word. The monster didn't take too kindly to a Spartan being on its back, writhing and bucking like a wild bronco in an attempt to dislodge the half-ton super-soldier. But the Chief didn't relent. He managed to stabilize himself, before priming the grenade and forcing it deep inside. As he leapt off, the monster didn't have time to comprehend what had happened before it exploded into orange blood and eviscerated worms.

It was then that the other monster took notice of its fallen comrade. It let out a roar to the heavens before renewing its fight with doubled fury, slamming its shield full-force into a crate and carving a Spartan-sized chunk out of it.

And it was at this moment that Chief realized he was out of grenades.

Knowing he would have to get creative to take out the other monster, he came up with a plan. "Alenko, Williams, fall back! I've got this!"

He yanked the pilfered sword off his left thigh, before activating its twin blades. He dived underneath the monster, which rapidly spun around in an attempt to crush him under its shield like a half-ton mosquito under a two-ton boot that had the force of a speeding train. Chief ducked to the side, before leaping up onto the shield and using it as a jumping pad to leap over the monster and get onto its back. As he gripped a spine, the monster flailed beneath him, desperately trying to knock the Spartan off. However, he raised the sword and plunged it into the creature's back, before slashing through and bisecting it from the abdomen up, ending its life. Chief jumped down from the deceased monster, panting hard.

"Those things were relentless," Alenko breathed. "I think if they had the chance, they would have hunted us to the ends of the galaxy."

"'Hunter' seems as good a name as any," Williams said, equally breathless.

"We've got other things to worry about," Chief reminded. "Alenko, get to Zorah. I'll radio for medevac."

"Aye-aye, Chief," Alenko responded, heading off to hopefully stabilize the quarian.

While the Sentinel and Williams went off into their own conversation, Chief keyed his comms. "Normandy, this is Sierra-117. Package is secure. We need immediate medevac, my location. Tell Chakwas to prepare the medbay for a quarian patient."

"Quarian patient?" the voice of Esparza said over the radio. "Oh god..."

"Now!"

"We're coming, we're coming!"

BWOOM!

A pulse broke the Chief from his conversation. Turning to the source, he saw Williams being dragged towards the beacon by some unseen force as mysterious glyphs appeared around it. He quickly dived ahead, roughly yanking the Marine away from the artifact. However, in doing so, the artifact seemed to switch targets to Chief.

He doubled over as his head was assaulted by intense pain, worse than anything he'd ever experienced. Then he started levitating. As he was lifted into the air, another, larger symbol appeared in front of the artifact: A circle on a spire, surrounded by a broken halo and flanked by two wings.

Then John had a vision.

C-c-i-y

S-e-

-l-h

-es-n-

Ab-m-a-n-

K-s-ne

W-

-en-a-y

St-s

F-r-er

-l-e-s

H-o

-ap-rs

Re-a-me-

BOOM!

(—0—)

Arbiter Var 'Gatanai traversed the winding corridors of his master's flagship, the Sovereign. It was truly nothing like Covenant architecture, especially being gunmetal gray instead of the holy shades of violet he was accustomed to. Nevertheless, he would follow his master to the end, for the Hierarchs had decreed it.

Eventually, he rounded a corner and came upon his seated master, the turian Spectre by the name of Saren Arterius. Had the Covenant done things the normal way, they would have contacted his species and eventually absorbed them and all they associated with into their holy empire, but the san'shyuum had foreseen that this was the way towards starting the Great Journey. As such, they had deployed the First Fleet of Solemn Accord to follow the Spectre, and assigned their dishonored fleetmaster to lead them.

The Arbiter may have only had one intact eye, but he saw that the Hierarchs saw that Saren was the one who would lead the Covenant to salvation.

Standing up straight and pressing his fist to his chestplate in a salute, the Arbiter spoke, "(My officers have identified the vessel that came to Harvest. It is a human frigate, bearing the name Normandy. Its shipmaster is called Anderson. The colony was preserved by their efforts.)"

"And the keystone?" Saren inquired.

"(It self-destructed, though a single human used it,)" Var revealed.

Saren was not pleased at all. He began to growl in rage at the news. He thrashed in his seat, before angrily shooting to his feet. He hurled a small container into a wall and shoved over a table, before storming over to Var and grabbing his left two mandibles, pulling him down to the turian's level. Eventually, however, Saren regained his composure, and released the Arbiter.

"This human… must be eliminated," the Spectre growled. "Do we have any clues as to his identity?"

"(Surviving warriors report the human being referred to as Master Chief Shepard,)" Var replied. "(His speed and strength far surpass what we expected from their species. Some of the more superstitious, and most of the unggoy, refer to him as a ghashank'o.)"

"'Demon', hmm? I sincerely doubt it," Saren scoffed. "And how are our… 'guests' from the freighter doing?"

"(The asari matriarch and her escort are confined to my carrier's brig,)" the Arbiter reported. "(Significant casualties were taken, but a jiralhanae chieftain managed to gain the upper hand.)"

"Good." With that, the Spectre got to other business. "Are your troops ready to deploy?"

"(On your word, I will personally lead the corvette Penitent Sacrifice and its warriors to the world Therum. The archeologist, if your words again ring true, will be essential to accessing the relics.)"

"Very good," Saren said, splaying his mandibles in the turian equivalent of a smile. "With your faith, there is no doubt that we will find the tools we need to enable the Reapers to commence the Great Journey."

Deep down, a part of Var knew that Saren didn't truly believe, but the overwhelming majority overruled that.

For his shame, he must serve.

As the Prophets' will, he shall fight, and reclaim his honor.

(—0—)

Codex: MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor

Often remarked to be the single most expensive program the Alliance has ever undertaken, Project: MJOLNIR is considered by many to be the absolute pinnacle of modern armor design. Crafted with Spartan augmentations in mind, Mjolnir exosuits are capable of directly amplifying almost everything about a Spartan super-soldier without sacrificing adaptability, mobility, or speed. These suits have a per-unit cost equivalent to an Alliance cruiser, and every credit goes toward making its users the most dangerous things on the battlefield.

Development began with the Mjolnir Mark I in 2558. The first iteration of Mjolnir, while pioneering several technologies, had several flaws: The suit was bulky, unwieldy, and difficult to control, and required so much power as to have to be tethered to a power source. The Mark II which succeeded the Mark I had greatly increased mobility and improved vacuum sealing, but still needed to be tethered to a generator. The subsequent Mark III had further improved mobility and could be powered by broadcast energy instead of a tether, but the limited broadcast range kept it off the field.

It was the Mark IV Mjolnir that ultimately saw full-scale production. With the advent of miniaturized power sources, the energy requirements could be sated without the need for a generator. Everything else about the armor was redesigned specifically to work in tandem with Spartan augmentations, to the point where Spartans are the only individuals capable of even using the suits. Declassified development videos (viewer discretion advised) show unaugmented individuals being simultaneously crushed and torn apart by Mjolnir, while Spartans are seen flawlessly using the technologies.

Mjolnir continues to be developed to this day, and continues to pioneer the latest in combat technology. The Mark V Mjolnir, derived from the Beta variant of Mark IV, is noticeably lighter than the Mark IV and features redesigned armor plating, alongside major improvements in the on-board computers to allow an AI to directly interface with the armor. The subsequent Mark VI vastly improved the kinetic barriers and further streamlined the plating, making it denser yet less bulky and simultaneously reducing the amount of grapple points, which minimize an enemy's advantages in close combat. Initial prototypes for the Mark VI included a dedicated neural interface for an AI-Spartan integration, and while this did not make it to production, it is planned for the upcoming GEN2 line of hardware for Mjolnir armor, set to release in mid-2584.

(—0—)

Next chapter: Citadel

(—0—)

AN: Anyone else like to imagine the Codex as being voiced by that san'shyuum scribe from the Halo 2 Anniversary terminals?

Anyway, now we're done with this two-parter and I can move on with my life.

In terms of IRL news, I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled the day this goes up, so don't expect any updates within the week. I don't want pity, that's just the honest situation.

So, please follow, fave, and review. Keep the reviews coming so that I can get better.

This is Believer218, signing off.