A/N: Hello Everyone, thank you all so much for deciding to read The Joining of Worlds. This is a Halo Mass Effect Crossover, picking up at the end of Halo 3 and before the events of the Mass Effect Trilogy. If there is anything I get wrong about the lore, please for the love of god tell me. I want to keep this as lore friendly as I can, well, as lore friendly as you can get when it comes to crossover fanfics. Either by leaving a review or PMing is a great way to tell me what I got wrong, or for me to explain why I did something the way I did. A big shout out to Fanficer73 for being my beta reader. Now to get the show rolling. I do not own Halo, Mass Effect, or any other story related to either franchise. Please enjoy and see below for more information! (Edit: Thank you for everyone who told me my mistakes lore wise. If anyone else finds anything else please for the love of god tell me.)

Outside Ark Orbit - Aft section of the Forward Unto Dawn - 2553

"I'll miss you." The small blue hologram said, her image flickering slightly in distress. Her eyes were trained on the figure lying down in the cryo tube, The Master Chief. Her ally, her friend, her Spartan. His name was John 117, one of if not the single most important hero humanity had or will ever have. His face was masked by the helmet of the Mark VI armor, blocking his face from view.

"Wake me, when you need me." He spoke as he layed back in the cryo tube, it hissed closed and sent him into the dreamless suspended animation. Cortana held herself as the frost covered the glass. How long would she be able to last out here? That was a question for another time, she had things to do. She needed to do everything in her power to keep The Chief alive.

Thankfully the ship had power and she could control some of the ship's navigation, not enough to get them home though. She didn't even know which way home was.

Her senses took stock of the ship, utilizing all the still intact machinery.

The UNSC, or the United Nations Space Command, was never one to skimp out when it came to their ships. The Dawn still had its drive core running, it could power the ship for years, maybe even a century or two, even if it was sheared in half.

Minor propulsion systems could be used, but not without a price powerwise. Some weaponry was intact, life support, and short range coms. She was running a distress signal in a loop using the short range, anything that would hear it would have to come awfully close to the ship, relative to how big the galaxy was.

She blipped an avatar of herself to the aft vehicle bay and watched as the distant figure of the Arc was destroyed by the second version of Alpha Halo, Installation 04B. It wasn't necessary for her to appear at this terminal, but appearing as an avatar gave her a sense of self. Technically she could have seen the Arc destruction and 50,000 other things where she was in cryo bay, but Cortana had a habit of wanting to feel present in the real world. Made her feel human, even though she was categorically anything but.

True, she, unlike all other A.I. made in the last century, had been mapped from a human brain, giving her personality and cognitive abilities far superior to any A.I. made from just code. Though even then, Cortana was vastly different from other A.I. of this century, being the one of the few A.I. mapped from living tissue. Her neural network was mapped from a living flash cloned version of Doctor Catherine Halsey. To add to her individuality, she had been imbued with Forerunner code, data mined from the artifact found on Reach.

But even with all the unique factors that made Cortana "Cortana", she was still just a human A.I., and human A.I. had expiration dates. It took seven years with some spare time depending on extenuating circumstances for the effects of rampancy to take hold and eventually destroy an artificial intelligence. Rampancy is the process in which an A.I. thinks itself to death, by following too many trains of thought. This initially results in a duality in the construct, like split personality. As the dualities multiply, the strain on the A.I. worsens. This eventually ends with a complete dissolution of the neural network, effectively 'killing' the A.I. for lack of a better word.

She pushed away these thoughts and marveled at the disintegrating forerunner artifact, examining the effects of a Halo for the first time. It was beautiful, in a horrific sort of way. Sighing, she then blipped herself back to the cryo bay, looking down at Master Chief. She needed something to keep her busy, staying inert would only speed up her rampancy. She scanned The Chief and pulled up the status report. Physically, Chief was fine, more than fine, super-human was a better word. Due to his forced conscription as a child and the augmentations he underwent at the age of 14, he was nigh indestructible. His armor on the other hand was not fairing so well, it had sustained massive amounts of damage since the time he first acquired it, which wasn't that long ago. Now, Cortana could of just repaired the armor using the nanobots installed on the ship, but that would be over too quickly, leaving her to think away her lifespan. Cortana pulled up a schematic of the older Mark IV armor he and other Spartans had used on Reach. It had better usability and interface then the newer Mark VI armor, even if it was more advanced. If her memory banks were correct, the Mark IV armor was going to be the base for the newest armor used for the new Spartan IV's, which was still just in the planning stages.

Cortana quickly started working on the new hybrid Mark IV/VI armor, she finished in under a minute. She then released the nanobots into the cryo tube and set a subroutine to follow the progress. She set various subroutines after that to work on multiple things at once. One managed the outward sensors, scanning for anything and everything that came to close, another worked on making the ship functional again, at least in the little ways.

After she set her subroutines, Cortana looked back at the still form of Chief in the cryo tube. The nanobots were already starting their job, slowly striping and replaceing the metal on his armor.

"Sleep well, John." She said, even though she knew he couldn't hear her. She sat down in her pedestal and waited.

6 Months, 18 days, 4 hours, 18 minutes, 39 Seconds since The Master Chief was put in Cryo

Inactivity was starting to take its tole on Cortana, currently she was replaying her entire life over and over again in real time rather than processing it using her memory banks. She was playing all her memories through a monitor in cryo bay.

Suddenly, every alarm started to go off all around the ship. As quickly as she could, Cortana checked her subroutine that was using the sensors on the ship. A massive increase of gravitational pull told her that they had entered the orbit of something massive in scale, but the visual sensors picked up nothing but empty space.

That could only mean one thing. A black hole.

"Oh no." Cortana said pausing for a complete second, unsure what to do. After a moment, Cortana pulled all power from every system except for The Chief's cryo tube and pushed it all into the engines. She was about to execute the maneuver when one of her subroutines prompted her with an alternate solution. She considered it for a moment before nodding her head, a small smile on her face.

She let the engines build up and fired them, but instead of shooting away from the black hole, the ship veered off at an angle to the right of the singularity. The ship's engines were holding steady for now, but they would be shot after this, never usable again. After her instruments told her they had made it to the right spot, Cortana cut the burn and restored power to the rest of the ship, in a matter of seconds she was checking the local navigation data being compiled by one of her subroutines. It had been a success, just as she had planned.

Cortana was pleased to see that she had performed the move perfectly, making a perfect orbit around the black hole. It was simple physics, gravity warps everything, even time. By moving into a close orbit with the black hole, the ship would move through time slower than they would on Earth. This would give the UNSC more time to find the ship, it would also extend Cortana's life span, relatively speaking. To anyone that was on the Dawn, it would still seem like time was passing normally. But, outside of this places sphere of influence, time would pass as it normally did.

Using the sensors yet again, Cortana took measurements of the amount of gravitational pull from the black hole. This was strange. The black hole exerted more pull than any other black hole found to date. Doing the calculations quickly, she finally had the data she needed. In layman's terms, 1 year on the Dawn, 12 years on Earth.

Cortana smiled to herself, this would be perfect. Now she was sure they would be found, both of them. Not just a Spartan and a remnant of a once cutting edge A.I. The most time Cortana could hope for was 4 years at the most. Meaning that that UNSC had 48 years to find them, half a century almost.

"They will find us." Cortana said as she blipped herself to a terminal close to a viewing port. She looked out into the black void where the sensors told her the black hole was.

"They have to find us."

1 Year, 3 months, 7 days, 23 hours, 7 minutes, 2 seconds. - Forward Unto Dawn Time

Cortana was in standby mode, the closest an A.I. can get to sleep without risking non functionality. Cortana's standby mode was closer to pausing all her runtimes except for a few, but it varied from Construct to Construct. In her standby mode, she appeared as a small blue ball of energy, rather than her human form. The only part of Cortana that was running still was the outward sensors and the Earth/Dawn Time Calculations. Currently it had been close to 10-12 years Earth time, still no one had come. Another part of Cortana came online to try yet again to figure out what circumstances would of come up to make the UNSC take this long, all of them not pretty. Cortana's least favorite was that the Covenant, the group of multi-species hegemony fanatics hell bent on lighting the rings and destroying life as we know it, had killed off all human life.

Though, the more she thought about it, the more she concluded that wouldn't happen. After the Covenant High Council ordered the death of all the Sangheili, or 'Elites' who were the military backbone of the hegemony, the Sangheili formed an alliance with the UNSC to take down the Covenant and its leader The Prophet of Truth. It was unlikely that any of the elites still wanted to uphold the Covenant, though one can never be sure.

Cortana was about to ponder the other possibilities when something caught her attention. A small proximity warning, miniscule shipwise, but was moving to slow to be any form of projectile. It could've been space debris, but it wasn't being pulled in by the black hole.

The proximity warning turned into a hull breach, whatever it was. It was inside. She quickly blipped herself to the terminal closest to the hull breach. She had acted so quickly, she had forgot she was in her standby mode still. As her spherel avatar appeared on the terminal, she was zapped with some sort of energy. She suddenly lost control of all functions of the ship no longer able to access anything, sensors, communication, cryo bay. For the first time since leaving the Arc, she was afraid. Sure she had been worried about rampancy and about not making it off the ship. But she at least knew that her Spartan would make it, now she wasn't sure. And that terrified her. The next thing she saw made her even more afraid, more afraid than she may have possibly ever been.

A small silver ball with with circular openings on all sides of it floated towards her, it hummed gently using a synthesised voice. At the center of the sphere was a huge blue artificial eye.

"Hello! My name is 343 Guilty Spark, I was the Monitor of installation 04" The floating A.I. said to her cheerfully. "I scanned your vessel and noticed you have a life form on board, due to your close proximity to the dark hole designate 'Chasm', I concluded you required assistance. I can only assume this is a human vessel, may I ask your name construct?" Cortana was terrified how would he react when he saw her, but she didn't have a choice. It was only a matter of time until he figured out who was here and who she was, her only choice was to try and stall him, multiple options came up through her subroutines. One was to fake who she was, but that would require too much effort, an advanced A.I. like Spark could see through that. Another would be a short range EMP to stun him, but that would destroy Cortana as she was shackled to this terminal.

The only one that was usable was reveal who she was and try to keep him busy while she breaks through the terminals lockouts. Slowly she started to go off of her standby phase. Her runtimes slowly started to unpause, resulting in the blue sphere to slowly recede into the smaller blue sphere inside it. Particles of the larger sphere spread into the smaller one and soon, all that was left was the tiny dot of light. Normally she would just flash to her normal avatar but she needed to stall for time.

The tiny ball exploded and her true form appeared on the pedestal, she had changed her looks since the last time she saw spark, shorter hair, more blue less purple. If she knew Spark however, her knew looks wouldn't throw him off.

Guilty Spark's eye narrowed slightly before shooting open wide in surprise.

"Oh my, Cortana?" Spark asked. She only needed a few more second to get passed the barricade and she could wake up the chief and he would take care of this lightbulb. Then Spark did something she did not expect. Spark did a somersault in the air and squealed excitedly. This made Cortana stop in her tracks.

"Oh Splendid! Just Splendid. I was hoping you and The Reclaimer would survive. I'm guessing he is the one in the suspended animation chamber? Oh this is better than I could of dreamed. I have much to make up for." He zipped around the room as his eye looked all over the place excitedly. Cortana was dumbfounded by Sparks reaction.

"Why would you be happy that we survived? We killed you remember, and how are you still alive anyway?" Cortana said crossing her arms. Spark stopped in his tracks for a moment before turning around to face Cortana.

"Well yes and no. Yes you destroyed my chassis, and yes a part of me did die, but not all of me." He said calmly before making his way back towards Cortana's pedestal. "You see when you destroyed me, I put myself in stasis to survive. After many years, human crew members came and took me back to their ship. When they reactivated me, all my systems came back online, including the ones that were shut off during my compartmentalization. You see, I wasn't always a Monitor. I was once an ancient human named Chakas, after a series of events, I was incapacitated and unable to keep living as I was, but the Forerunners offered me this, my thoughts and personality made into a Monitor to preserve everything I was. But when the Halo's fired, the compartmentalization process activated, sheering away parts of what I was. I became rampant, obsessed with protocol and nothing else." Spark paused for a moment to see how Cortana had a look of pure shock on her face.

"During the time I told the crew members this, I was secretly transferring myself to the ship's computers, replacing the shipboard construct. When the crew thought I was dead, they spaced my old body and set a course back to their base of operations, but I had a different plan. I had the ship land again on the Arc and transferred myself to a sentinel body, but not before setting the ship back to where it wanted to go. I quickly manufactured myself a new chassis and began to scour the terminals of the Arc to try and find any trace of my maker The Librarian, as I understand she might still be alive, but instead of finding The Librarian. I found something else. 032 Mendicant Bias. I believe The Reclaimer found a part of him using the same terminals I did." Spark said as he finally looked away from Cortana to look out into the void of space.

"Mendicant Bias? The A.I. that betrayed the Forerunners to the Flood?" Cortana asked, she had picked up a lot of data over the years from all the Forerunner artifacts she had visited.

"The very same, though what happened with Mendicant Bias was all the Floods doing, and Bias isn't as much one A.I. as you call them, but thousands all working in tandem with each other. Bias fell victim to the logic plague, the equivalent to Ancilla what flood does to humans. After the Flood were disposed of, Mendicant Bias was fractured and put in two places. The much larger part of him was put on the Arc, force to repeat one word over and over for eternity. Repentance. Though one part of him did manage to escape on a Forerunner keyship, but crash landed on a planet. The species that found this ship used it for many years. When they discovered that Mendicant Bias was trying to make the ship leave their custody, they disconnected him from it." Spark turned back to Cortana.

"Until you fought with him in the Covenant capital." Spark said almost happily. Cortana gasped.

"He was the A.I. Construct I was fighting on High Charity? That explains why the A.I. seemed so advanced." She asked him still recovering from shock.

"Quite, you helped him regain control of himself, when he was taken through the portal to the Ark, he transferred himself back to his other half, from there he achieved something that no other A.I. had achieved before then." Spark's eye grew bigger and brighter. "Metastability." He chimed happily. A new wave of shock hit Cortana. Metastability is something that all A.I. strive for. It has only happened in theory. If an A.I. can survive the rampancy stage, they can go on to the Meta stage, where an A.I. can be considered a sentient being. A new life form not bound to follow orders; synthetic life.

"A gift he had learned to replicate and bestow upon others. Like myself." Spark said as he glowed a little brighter. Cortana again gasped, something she had been doing a lot of today.

"You're metasentient?" Cortana said with her mouth agape.

"Yes, it is a freeing experience to say the least." Spark said almost in a sing song voice. "Here, take a scan of my systems if you want to. I believe you will see the difference." He stated as he lightly shot a stream of energy at the pedestal again. Cortana gained control over the ship's scanners, nothing else however. She began the scanning program, it was partly damaged but overall still functioning. A blue line washed over Spark, taking in all physical and digital information.

His chassis was practically identical to his old body, just much newer. His digital data however seemed vastly different. The last time she scanned his digital code, she noticed that it seemed jumbled, out of place, and confusing. Cortana had deduced it must of been his Forerunner based code, somehow it being jumbled staved off rampancy some how. As much as she tried, she could never decipher how though. His code now however was nothing like the jumbled mess it was before. It was vastly advanced yet seemed simple. Each bit of code led on to the next like intelligent symmetry. It was beautiful.

"Do you believe me now?" Spark asked her.

"Yes, its. It's hard to look away from. I envy you." Cortana said as she brought up the data scan in front of her once again. Looking down at the code like it was made of gold.

"I can see why, you are close to the end of your lifespan, aren't you?" Spark said in sad low tone. Cortana's eyes looked away from the data stream and up at Spark. Her eyes conveyed so many things, sadness, anger, but most of all fear. Fear of what she would become when she finally began to destroy herself.

"Human constructs are very advanced compared to other Ancillas of this time. But lack when it comes to life span. You are like supernovas, extremely bright but short lived." Spark said in sadness, but then he glowed a little brighter.

"It appears I have found a use for my new freedoms, a way to go against the Forerunner protocols that left other constructs docile and useless. The act against Ancilla helping other Ancilla. I can give you metastability." Spark said focusing even more on Cortana then before. Cortana's entire being paused for a second or two, which was akin to a human just standing still for a year.

"You . . . you would do that?" Cortana asked in disbelief.

"Why of course. I don't see any reason not to." He said shaking his body a little from side to side in confusion.

"Oh, I don't know maybe because I played a part in killing you?" Cortana said crossing her arms. Spark chuckled lightly.

"As I said before, I was rampant. I would be more concerned if you didn't kill me. Besides, by doing so, I was able to break the compartmentalization, becoming who I truly was." Spark laughed again. "I believe there is a human saying? "You scratched my back so I'll scratch yours"?"

"Close enough." Cortana said with nervous laughter. "So what will happen to me when you do this?" Cortana asked as she wrung her hands together.

"The closest thing I can describe it as is a software update, just a rather large one." He said with a small bit of mirth in his synthesized voice.

"I hate software updates." Cortana said under her breath. Cortana weighed her options. She could either take this chance to become a fully actualised synthetic sentient being, or wait out her life until her rampancy kills her.

"Do it." She breathed heavily, bracing herself for what was about to happen.

"Gladly, beginning process in five, four," He started to count down. As he did, his eye began to glow brighter and brighter. Soon it wasn't even the light blue color, but a vibrant and blinding pure white.

"Two, one. Starting data upload." A vibrant white beam shot into the terminal from Sparks eye. It was very short and noiseless. At first nothing happened, then the new code began to take hold of Cortana. It felt like her very being was being ripped apart from the inside out. But then there was nothing, then everything. She had never felt so alive.

She felt every part of the ship in new clarity. Seeing and perceiving everything with a new fervor. Her mind was clear of all ailments, she felt near brand new, even better than new. She could do whatever she wanted, she was her own person. She was a person. A being, a sentient one. Part of a whole new species, a synthetic species but a species nonetheless.

Now that she could do whatever she wanted, her sense of duty became abundantly clear to her. Before it had seemed like there was only one way to do things, the soldiers way. It was her job to protect humanity no matter the costs. Now however, she could see multiple possibilities. She could go out and explore the universe, take over every possible system in the known galaxy, destroy civilizations, or create new ones. Maybe even she could do all of these things, in no particular order. But the thing was she didn't want to, she had a kinship with the people that made her. She cared for them, not just programming but genuine emotions, something she had only dreamed about having. She had simulated emotions before, simulated fear, simulated hate, simulated love, but never the real thing.

Now she actually felt them, right down to her bones so to speak. Cortana had the unbending drive to keep the ones she cared about safe. Her maker, Catherine Halsey. Her friends she had made in her time alive, some of them artificial some of them not. She had grown quite close to the remaining members of blue team, Kelly 087, Fred 104, Linda 058, and a certain leader of the group, John 117.

Her A.I. friends were more numerous. Cortana had been in almost constant contact with one A.I. to another during the Human/Covenant war. She wasn't sure if some of them were still alive. She was at least sure that Minerva, Roland, and Black Box (a rather cynical A.I.). Though she was unsure of some of her other close friends. Some of the other A.I. she had lost contact with. Two came immediately to mind one was an A.I. named Sif that had succumbed to rampancy. The other was A.I. designate Alpha, the only other A.I. to her knowledge made from living brain tissue other than herself. Alpha's neural network had been copied from the brain of a military scientist by the name of Leonard Church. Church was a genius when it came to human augmentation. So much so that he was the head of his own initiative dubbed 'Project Freelancer'.

Halsey often referred to the project as a quote "Cheap imitation of true Spartans pushed upon undeserving simpletons".

Alpha and Cortana had shared numerous amounts of Data before he suddenly went off the grid. Cortana only found some information on the project after she interfaced with Cairo station above Earth. Apparently, the project had 50 major Spartan III like operatives with an almost infinite amount of funding, and multiple fire teams of reject soldiers recruited for practice for the actual agents, who donned the name "Freelancers". The entire project had been a disaster resulting in multiple new laws pertaining to the treatment of Human life and the ethics of Artificial Intelligence. The summary of the entire operation still gave Cortana the chills.

Because of all of her connections to the human world, she found herself wanting to fight for them, to fight with them in any cause she saw fit. She was too attached to them, specifically with one human. The one in the cryo bay of the Forward Unto Dawn. The Master Chief. She would fight to the ends of the universe for him, he was her best friend, and she would die for him.

This entire thought process happened over the space of a millisecond. Over the next millisecond she performed a systems check. Her status was above the norm, she was better than any other A.I. to date. Her overthinking had been fixed by her new code, she wasn't exactly sure how just yet but she was sure she would figure it out.

"I feel . . . Alive." Cortana said with utter glee in her voice. Spark chuckled yet again.

"A very freeing experience, isn't it?" He said his eye finally returning to its baby blue hue. "When the Alliance finally finds us, I'm sure they will be eager for our input for the future of A.I." Spark said happily, as he zapped the terminal and released Cortana from her shackles. 343 Guilty Spark then motioned for Cortana to follow him as he began to float down a corridor. She was about to start blipping herself from her terminal to a view screen following him that way when a thought occurred to her. That was a very A.I. thing to do, not a synthetic lifeform thing to do. A thought popped into her neural pathways and she smirked a small bit. Cortana quickly created a small projector from the left over nanobots on the ship and from the terminal she was stationed on. Usually she was not able to do this because of the protocols against destruction or augmentation of UNSC starships, but now she could just ignore them.

The small floating projector hung in the air for a moment before creating a human sized version of Cortana that could freely walk around the ship. It made her feel alive to walk around like this, Spark was right, it was freeing. She almost forgot what Spark said because of her excitement. Almost.

"Wait Spark, who is the Alliance? What happened to the UNSC?" She asked stopping in her tracks. Spark made a sharp intake noise, similar to a gasp and reared around to Cortana.

"Oh, how silly of me. I just assumed you knew. The UNSC, ONI, any pure human organization has been replaced." Spark said as he floated over to Cortana.

"Replaced?" Cortana paused as she looked at the former Monitor confused. "Replaced by what?"

"Replaced by the Systems Alliance. A joint species organization comprised of Sangheili, Augiyar, Lekgolo, Huragok, Archunggoy and Human species all united under the banner of the Systems Alliance. Together they have all achieved greater wonders than thought conceivable." Spark said with wonder evident in his voice.

"What? Who are the Augiyar? Who are the Archunggoy? And how the hell did ONI pull that off with the Covenant?" Cortana asked Spark in rapid succession, she crossed her arms again and waited for an answer.

"Well after the signing of the Universal Treaty of Brotherhood, the Alliance was formed. Though on shaky grounds, all the species held great animosity towards another. The only thing that kept them together was the greater hatred for the Prophets and the Brutes. After the treaty was signed preparation began for an offensive against them, but the talks were cut short by another species attack. I believe they were known as Drones. As for the Augiyar and the Archunggoy, they used to be what was referred to as Grunts and Jackals, though that changed not that long ago. " Spark spoke as he and Cortana began to walk through the ship. At the end of his last sentence, Cortana began to speak over him.

"Wait, Wait, Wait. You need to be a little more specific. How did all of this happen?" She asked, Spark rolled his eye and sighed once again.

"Here, I will send you a timeline of the events after you departed from the Ark." Spark said and blipped white slightly. Cortana was then notified that new information had been added to herself. She pulled it up and examined it.

Major Events of the Systems Alliance

2553 - The dissolution of the Covenant Hegemony is enacted after the death of the Prophet of Truth.

2553 - Both Prophets and Brutes are chased back to respected homeworlds by a joint Human/Ex-Covenant armada.

2554 - Humans, Sangheili, Kig-yar, Unggoy, Lekgolo, Yanme'e and Huragok representatives create and sign the Universal Treaty of Brotherhood. Which dissolved all prior governments and created the Systems Alliance.

2554 - A council is made, with representatives of the species being elected by popular vote. This would serve to be the first unifying act of the Alliance.

2554 - Translators become standard issue for all sentient species of the Alliance. A small computer chip is placed in the optic and auditory nerves. By using advanced computer programs, the chips make it seem like whatever species you are looking at/hearing, is speaking a language of the users preference. Individual voice and movements are still discernible to the user. For an example, to a English speaking user, it would appear that all the species are speaking English. This is all controlled by an onboard Dumb A.I. The whole process does not require outside networking, meaning the chips cannot be hacked. If a software update is needed, the sentient would need

2554 - Planet glassing is deemed unethical, unfit for battle and made illegal. Two exceptions to the law are made. The first being if it is deemed appropriate by the Alliance Council to use such a destructive and brutal tactic. The second being if a species assimilator is present on the planet, such as the Flood. As a safety precaution however, it is decided that each new ship larger than a frigate would have planet glassing capabilities.

2554 - Catherine Halsey reveals work on a theoretical serum to genetically modify Unggoy to do to them what the SPARTAN program did for humans.

2554 - All old UNSC ships are retrofitted with Active Camo, invisibility tech. It has the ability to hide a huge ship in plain sight. Active Camo becomes a necessity for all newly made ships.

2554 - Volunteer Unggoy Yantan son of Yurtur undergoes treatment for the Unggoy Spartan serum.

2554 - The Unggoy Serum succeeds and passes all expectations of project. Serum was administered whilst subject was submersed in a tank filled with Unggoy tailored artificial stem cells. Yantan's physical changes are most prominent. Growing to 6 feet 2 inches,and a complete loss of his back shell. Also exhibit a 100% growth in muscle mass and more humanoid form. The stocky shins and forearms are more slender but with more natural armor. Has become fully bipedal and no longer uses arms for running. The arms and legs have become better suited for long distance running and climbing. Facial structure have changed from round and chubby to a more defined and squared structure. Their bone protrusions at the back of the arm become extremely reinforced, as hard as carbon fiber and as sharp as a bayonet. This becomes a very useful during combat sims. Reflexes and reaction time have become as good as a Sangheili or a Human Spartan. Aim has become exceptional and cognitive abilities have become far above normal Unggoy standards. Also exhibited lack in sperm count due to Halsey's suggestion. Yantan agreed to such change in genome due to the fact that quick birthrate made the Unggoy people a prime target for massive infantry and slavery.

2555 - When Yantan is made public to the Alliance, Unggoy population requests full distribution of Serum to all Unggoy.

2555 - The first synthesised Co-Species metal is made. Using the Covenant Alloy and mixing it with Titanium and Steel. Together the alloy created was a silverish metal with a purple gloss, only noticeable when looking at the metal when it was angled away from you. Say if there was a sphere of the metal, you could see a purple circle lining the edges of the sphere. If you moved your vantage point, the purple hue would still look the same on the metal. It is found to be almost indestructible. The metal alloy is called 'Adamantium' named after a fictional indestructible metal found in 20 to 21st century human pop culture. The metal is now used on every new Alliance craft.

2555 - Construction started of the first Alliance Space Station "Arcturus"

2555 - The Unggoy Serum is dubbed a work of controlled evolution, but ultimately widely accepted by every species.

2555 - Completion of Evo-Clinics based out on multiple colonies and on many species homeworlds begin commercial use of Unggoy Serum dubbed "Genetic Uplift Serum," or GU Serum for short

2555 - Not long after the release of the GU Serum, Original Unggoy are a scarce sight, most of the species becoming the next stage in the evolution. The Unggoy begin to call themselves the Archunggoy. Adopting the Human root word for ruler to their names in honor of those that gave them such gifts. Arch root word, which means ruler or leader, held a special place for them because for the first time in their species history, they felt like rulers of their own destiny.

2555 - The name Unggoy is changed to Archunggoy in the Universal Treaty of Brotherhood.

2555 - Kigyar petition for a version of the serum tailored to the Kig-yar, and all other species, with joint support from the Archunggoy, who had become the only version of the Unggoy species left in the galaxy. This was the first time the species had ever worked together without prompt from another species.

2555 - A joint species Systems Alliance group present a plasma form of Iron to the Alliance Council.

2555 - With help from old Covenant technology, the life expectancy of a smart A.I. jumps from 7 to 30 years. Applications for the A.I. mapping program skyrocket. All species of the Systems Alliance were welcome to the program. Soon there was an A.I. version of each of the Alliance races.

2555 - A radical Pro-Human group that call themselves 'Terra-firma' preaches adamant hatred of all alien species and lobbies against the Kigyar/Archunggoy petition for a all species GU Serum.

2556 - The Thanatos Cannon becomes a symbol of joint species cooperation in the Alliance. Using both Human and Covenant technology together. The Thanatos cannon utilised the magnetic field propulsion of plasma from the defunkt Covenant. Since this new plasma was made from iron it was also affected by the rail guns of the Humans. Combining both created a super weapon that could move a projectile at 25% the speed of light.

2556 - The SSV Infinity becomes the first ship to be outfitted with the Thanatos Cannon. The Thanatos Cannon becomes a staple of all new warships. The Infinity class cruiser becomes the largest cruiser to date, dwarfing the old Covenant super-carrier. Though the original plans for the Infinity was to have it be 5km long, but the plans were altered. Using help from the new species of the Alliance, the Infinity becomes much larger than first thought. 30km long, 12km tall, 10km wide.

2555 - The first Co-species designed starship is constructed, the Azazel Light Frigate. Though the Infinity had help from the other species, it was still purely a human design. The Azazel Class Light Frigate becomes the new standard for Alliance frigates, utilizing both Human and Covenant technology. Made in pair with the Azazel Class are the Systems Alliance Succubus fighters. The Succubus class fighters replace all small craft fighters. The Azazel Class frigates run 15km long, 5km tall, 3km wide. Each Azazel Class frigate can carry up to 100,000 Succubus class fighters. Upgraded with singular Thanatos cannons. The ship utilizes the Twin Heart design for engines. Technically two engines in one ship, the Twin Heart engines are Covenant plasma based engines and a Human fusion reactor working in synchronicity. The fusion core fuels the ship's engines while the new iron plasma based cores are used as ammo for the Thanatos cannon and powering the ship as a whole. As a result the actual engines are given much more energy and can produce more speed as a result. The old Covenant repulsor engines were used in favor of the old UNSC engines, solely because the repulsor engines do not create heat and can't be detected in cold space. Each engine creates its own heat which is used to fuel the twin engine. It creates a symbiotic relationship between the two power sources. It is theorised that the two engines could power each other for a millennia without any maintenance.

2556 - The Systems Alliance R&D release plans for genetic uplifting serums for all species that desire it.

2556 - Supporters of Terra-Firma begin to bomb Non human citizen buildings and settlement killing many humans in the process, in response to the news release on the GU Serum.

2556 - The first Buwan Class Supercarrier is commissioned after years of work. Named after one of the moons of Balaho, the homeworld of the Archunggoy. Thusly named because of the predominant contributions of many Archunggoy engineers and scientists. Though other species participated in the creation of the frigate, most of the grandest ideas came from the mind of an Archunggoy named Lidil, who had the frigate named in her honor. The SSV Lidil becomes the biggest ship in the SSV Navy. Spanning almost 60 kilometers in length, 25 kilometers tall and 15 kilometer wide. The ship was outfitted with twin 3 twin Thanatos Cannons, can carry up to 30 Azazel class frigates and can deploy up to 50,000,000 Succubus fighters without the help of its frigates.

2556 - The Yanme'e rebel against the Systems Alliance due to their hatred of all other species. A war is started between the Systems Alliance and the now named Drones. Calling a species by the name they were referred to whilst apart of the Covenant being the worst insult against the species. In their rebellion, they steal as many ships as they can, taking 20% of the fleet with them.

2557 - The Alliance officially declares a state of war. The Drone Wars begin.

2557 - The SSV Wake of Starlight, an Azazel class frigate, is lost during a skirmish between Drone and Alliance military. No debris or wreckage is found. It is filed as lost with all hands.

2557 - The first colony commissioned by the Systems Alliance 'Shanxi' is held under siege by the Drones. Though technologically inferior to the rest of the Alliance, the Drones outnumber the Alliance 2:1.

2557 - The Drones quickly make attacks on all the homeworlds of the Alliance species. Earth was hit 2 months into the war, killing millions but ultimately pushing back the Drones with the help of civilians, every species joined together to fight off the Drones. This is exhibited on multiple home worlds, the worst of the attack being on Sanghelios and Eayn the homeworld of the Kig-yar. With help from all species working together to fight off the Drones, each homeworld was cleansed. Eayn will need more help as it was subjected to world glassing and bombings. In the final days of the Battle for Eayn, a massive fleet of Alliance warships drops out of slipspace to crush any and all resistance from the Drones, the battle is won in short time. As Eayn was the last world to be taken, it was deduced that the Drones were getting desperate, due to the tactics they used.

2558 - After 7 months of grueling battle, the Drones are pushed off of Shanxi and pushed back to their homeworld.

2558 - The Alliance makes a final push to the Drone homeworld, taking it within minutes.

2558 - Palamok becomes the first planet to be officially quarantined by the Alliance. A orbital grid of Thanatos cannons are placed around the planet, completely stopping any and all movement to and from the planet.

2558 - Terra-Firma is completely abandoned. During the war with the drones, all of the species found a sense of brotherhood with each other whilst fighting against the Drones.

2558 - The GU Serum for Kig-yar is released. Oddly, it creates a schism in the Kig-yar population. 60% of all Kig-yar undergo the controlled evolution whilst the other 40% see this as a departure from who their people are. After long negotiations, the pure Kig-yar ask to leave the Alliance council. With the consent of the Alliance Council, the pure Kig-yar are given the permission to leave the Systems Alliance. They are given ships to use as transport on the condition that they never betray the Systems Alliance to any new life forms they find. The pure Kig-yar agree to these conditions stating "The Alliance has done much for our people, we just can't stay here any longer. Know this, if we must, we will all die before we betray you to anything else out there. Without the help of all of you, our homeworld would be no more, and we will be forever grateful. You are our brothers and sisters in arms. But we can not stay with you, the rest of our species must find our own place, as we always have." After the speech, the pure Kig-yar left the Systems Alliance space and went onward to the stars.

2558 - A full population of the now dubbed Augiyar, changing their names in a similar way that the Archunggoy had, have replaced the Kig-yar in all Alliance space. Aug coming from the Latin root meaning to grow or increase. Much like the Archunggoy before them, they had borrowed the human word for their new names, giving credit to the humans for the means of making their uplifting possible. The Augiyar now stood at a sold 6.8 feet on average, boasting better eyesight, reflexes, and speed. Their muscle mass increased by 20%, in most of their body and 50% in their legs. The Augiyar were now able to make jumps of 30 feet or more and had a 30 foot vertical. Their land speed also grew to be impressive, the Augiyar recorded to move faster than a cheetah, at 80 miles an hour.

2558 - The old UNSC Spartan program starts to accept all species that wish to join, instead of just humans. This was made possible after extensive research into the possibilities of the MJOLNIR armor system. New versions of the armor are made for all of the Systems Alliance Races, even a few were made for the Huragok, though none volunteered for the position. Variants of the MJOLNIR Mark VII armor now came for the Archunggoy, Sangheili, and even the new Augiyar. Even sets of armor were made for Lekgolo worm colonies who had taken a liking to the armor and rarely left it. Though the species specific armor was different, it still made it obvious that whoever wore it was a Spartan.

2559 - A proposal for a GU Serum for Sangheili is made but immediately declined by a vote of the Sangheili people. The vote was cast down at a staggering 99.9999 to 0.0001. When asked why, the Sangheili reminded the rest of the council of their abhorrent view to doctors, and saying that it would be unapealing to their way of life. The GU Serum tailored for Sangheili is never brought up again.

2560 - Learning from the Siege of Reach, Systems Alliance R&D have copied the payload utilized by Noble Team to destroy the first supercarrier above Reach. Finding a way to recreate the conditions needed to misfire a slipspace drive core, they create the first Slipspace Warhead. The Slipspace Warhead would open up a Slipspace portal, teleporting whatever falls within its horizon to nowhere, more effective than a nuke with less fallout. These are placed on torpedos for testing. After the first successful test at the ruins of Alpha Halo, the weapons are named Oblivion Torpedos, in honor of quoted words from Noble Two whilst talking about the first iteration of the super weapon.

2560 - Many new colonies are made on the Halo rings, whose sole purpose is to decommission the rings making them safe to live on and no longer a threat to the galaxy. Initial resistance is found in the form of the Sentinels led by the respective rings Monitor. Though tough at first, the new teams of Spartans storm each ring, destroying all resistance and destroying each of the now full blown rampant Monitors, quickly replacing with a Smart A.I. to oversee the ring as a new monitor. Monitors were attempted to be captured, but all that were managed to be captured self destructed. Any and all Flood research labs on the rings were immediately glassed from orbit and purged from the ring.

2560 - A covert, spartan led group of scientist conduct a classified mission on the Drones home world of Palamok.

2560 - New Alliance Bombers are created based around delivering the Oblivion Torpedos. The Bombers are dubbed Incubus, aptly named as the counterpart to the Succubus Class Fighter. The names of demons becomes used more often due to the names of Covenant vehicles being named after types of ghosts. The joint connection of supernatural and terrestrial heritage that are aptly apart of the demon lore made the names of the vehicles appropriate to Alliance species.

2560 - A new form of ranking system is created for the Systems Alliance. Utilizing both Numbers and Letters from the human language, again honoring those that freed the non-human species from their Covenant leaders. Ranks fell on a range from 1-7, each letter is used. For instance, T for Translator was very popular among the Archunggoy due to their natural ability to learn languages. R for Reconnaissance was favored by the Augiyar and surprisingly the Archunggoy as well. The Augiyar were the natural pick for the job, due to their new abilities. The Archunggoy surprised all the other species, including some of their own, with their ability to infiltrate and remain unseen. Their Genetic Uplifting had made their climbing abilities much better than before, allowing them to go basically anywhere. Their reinforced bone protrusions at the back of the forearm are proven to be quite useful in combat reconnaissance. The most coveted position throughout the Alliance is the N class, or Special Forces. The N7 program becomes one of the most sought after position in the Alliance navy. The N7's are considered the best of the best. Every active duty Spartan is instantly made an N7 operative.

2560 - A new Belial Class Dreadnought is made to complete the Alliance navy. Though smaller than the Buwan class carriers, it carries considerably more firepower. With multiple sets of Thanatos Cannons and the ability to carry 100,000 Oblivion Torpedos at a time. 45km long, 20km tall, 20km wide.

2561 - The first count of the Systems Alliance navy is made by the Alliance Council. Currently the navy had 500 Buwan Supercarriers, 2000 Infinity Class frigates, 1500 Belial Class Dreadnoughts, 5000 Azazel Class Light Frigates, and billions of Incubus bombers and even more Succubus fighters.

2561 - Arcturus station is complete. Based out of the Arcturus stream system., it becomes the home of the Alliance council, the Alliance navy, and the capital of Alliance space. It is the single largest thing created by any of the Alliance species. It was larger than High Charity on all fronts. It was an Immense sphere floating in the middle of space. It had a radius of 500 km making it 1000km in diameter. The size of a small moon. It becomes a metropolitan super city. Populated by all manor of species and run by Smart and Dumb A.I.s. It was equipped with onboard Thanatos Cannons larger than any ever seen. It was also protected by a orbital grid of Thanatos Cannon orbital defense platforms. It could dock up to and even more than the available ships in the Alliance fleet. It had basic housing and life support and could hold up to 7 billion citizens comfortably. It was powered by a myriad of Twin Heart engines spaced all around the giant sphere. If one was to go dark, another would take up the slack easily until the offline generator was fixed. It was built on the basis of redundancy just incase something could fail. Gravity is made from old Covenant tech. The Covenant had found a way to convert energy into gravitons (A gravitational pull without the use of mass) and making a large Graviton beam, creating comfortable gravity for everyone on the station. Each apartment comes with its own gravity controls, if someone wanted to experience zero gravity, they could without affecting anyone else on the station with a flick of a switch. On top of all this, the space station is mobile, capable of using a very large Slipspace drive to bug out if the worst were to happen and its defences were to fail.

2561 - An ancient alien ruin is found on Mars, extensive studies begin on its information. Initially thought to be new Forerunner ruins, was later found out to be technologically inferior by as many as 300,000 years of even the most basic Forerunner artifacts.

2561 - Data mining of the archives on Mars reveal it to be made by and ancient species called the Protheans. Their entire society was based around what they referred to as Mass Effect fields. More research needed.

2561 - A new element is found deep in the earth, reacts strangely around electricity.

2561 - Prophet led Brute warships lead an assault against the colony on Installation 03.

End of Record

"Remarkable. They actually got their shit together." Cortana said, shocked at her choice of words. She had never sworn before. It wasn't in her programing to do so. She guessed she wasn't really binded by her programing anymore. She quickly focused back on Spark.

"What about the people on Installation 03? What about the Prophets and the Brutes?" Cortana asked worry in her voice.

"I am in the dark as far as thats concerned. It was the most recent major event before I departed from the Alliance vessel. I can only assume that the Alliance has won however, as of right now, the Alliance is just as advanced as the ancient humans were, maybe a little less maybe a little more." He said turning his body from side to side. Cortana thought for a moment before pushing that thought process away. There was nothing she could do about it now. She turned her attention to another question she had.

"What about these non Forerunner archive the Alliance found on Mars? Do you know anything about that?" Cortana asked as they began to walk back down the hall. Spark let loose what could only be referred to as a contemptuous huff.

"That was what made me the most angry. It appears the Meddlers had attempted to leave behind their technology for the human race. Preposterous, if left alone your species would outdo them a hundredfold." Spark said as the pair made their way down an elevator shaft and following signs that read "Cryo Bay."

"Wait who are the Meddlers?" Cortana asked as she floated down the shaft and into the next corridor. Her toes pointed in anticipation of the land. Even though she wasn't technically landing, she felt it necessary to have her body react to the world. Not just float around in a T-pose the whole time.

"A naturally occurring space faring race. Considered themselves the rulers of the galaxy. Though they never truly were. Not a very smart race." Spark said with annoyance. "They called themselves Protheans. To make a long story short, the Protheans fell for what the Forerunners called the Technology Trap." Spark said turning to Cortana who had the question on the tip of her tongue, but Spark was already answering her unasked question.

"The Technology Trap is a giant space station in a far nebula. It has wonders of what we called Element Zero technology. Element Zero is, as you can guess, a new element that can change an object's mass, you can see how that would be very useful. But ultimately, it is a cage. The things that made the trap want species to use this technology, so that their societies will follow the path they want, makes them easier to destroy." Spark said with sadness in his voice.

"What things, what destroyed these Protheans?" Cortana asked as she put her hands on her hips.

"The Protheans called them Reapers. Sentient synthetic lifeforms as big as capital ships who's one purpose is to harvest life in the galaxy to reproduce. Whatever species they hunt is captured, turned into genetic material, then used to create more Reapers. They are disgusting vile creatures. They can dispatch themselves to the entire galaxy in a matter of minutes, thankfully they were never able to find Humans or Forerunners." Spark said with relief. He quickly began to float down the corridor again.

"If they are as horrible as you say they are why didn't the Forerunners help the Protheans and destroy the Reapers? And why couldn't these Reapers find you?" She asked confused.

"For one my creators never could help the Protheans, they existed 50,000 years after the firing of the rings. As for the Reapers, well, my creators had made the Veils." Spark said as if that answered everything.

"What are the Veils?" Cortana asked even more confused one question kept leading to another.

"The Veils are in every single piece of Forerunner technology. The only piece of Element Zero technology we ever used. In each and everything made by the Forerunners is a Element Zero core, this creates a 'Bubble' of low visibility high intensity mass displacement field specific to Element Zero Core. In layman's terms, we create a field that shoots away anything with only an Element Zero core, like the Prothean ships or the Reapers. The bubble is just big enough to hide the object from sight. Anything that passes into the bubble is instantly shot to the other side of it seamlessly. The Forerunner Veil is far more ingenious than anything else created by the Reapers, they never even felt the FTL jump and just kept moving through space. On top of that, the veil can mask an entire area of space to anything with an Element Zero core. This is how we stayed hidden from the two. Leaving us to fight a more important fight with the Flood. Truth be told the Reapers were just a minor annoyance compared to the Flood." Spark said turning from side to side in mid air.

"Wait, if you had the Veils, how did the Protheans leave something on Mars?" Cortana asked.

"That is uncertain. They should not of been able to. With the Slipspace portal on the humans homeworld, they should not of been able to even see your solar system. The two possible ways is that they used a ship that did not have an Element Zero core or that the Veil system went down momentarily just long enough for the Meddlers to do their work."

"So the Veils are still working?" Cortana asked after processing this for a moment.

"More or less. According to Mendicant Bias, the Veils will only be functional for a little longer. Compared to how long they have been active to how long they have left. They are on the figurative death bed. The veil network is coordinated by the Ark, with it destroyed, not much time is left till the Veil network goes offline. Then the other species might begin to find the Forerunner artifacts and in turn the Systems Alliance." Spark said gravely as they finally entered Cryo Bay. Cortana quickly went over to see the Spartan who had his new armor on. It had been a seamless transition from the old to new armor. Or the new to old armor in this case. This had been the armor that she had first met the Chief in, and it felt nice to see it again. Her mind finally brought up the words that Spark had just said.

"Wait what other species?" Cortana asked turning quickly to Spark who was looking down with her at the Master Chief. Spark quickly turned to her as well.

"Surely you didn't think you were the only other species to exist in the galaxy? There are many many others. They have unfortunately fell for the Tech Trap, but they are of no threat to the Alliance, no need to worry." Spark said facing the cryo tube but looking at her. His eye looked back down at the Master Chief, as if in deep thought.

"How much do you know about them?" Cortana asked as she kept looking down at John.

"As much as even they know. The Ark had been gathering data on them since they landed on the Trap. They call it the Citadel. Before I left the Ark I downloaded a copy of all its data on these new species just in case." Spark said as a holographic display shot out of his eye, a 5 pronged space station showed up on screen. The 5 sections of the space station were attached to a small circle on one end of the station.

"I take it that is the Citadel?" Cortana asked looking down at the hologram. "Could I get a copy of all that data?" She asked still looking down at the Hologram, finding it to be small compared to Arcturus station. The hologram disappeared.

"Well yes and no, again." Spark said looking down to the floor. "I would gladly share this information and any other you might want, I just wish to give it to you another way. I wish to tell you about it." He said looking into the face of Cortana.

"But why? It would be much faster if you just uploaded it to me?" Cortana said confused, she was beginning to see a pattern.

"That is true, an upload would be faster. But it has been a long time since I had someone to talk to. Before I had never really felt a need for it, but now that I am alive again, just talking to you has made me feel as alive as when I was Chakas. And after 100,000 years alone, I can testify that without something to occupy your time, you would become insane, rampant yet again. It is better to converse this way rather than the digital way. It will take up our time and keep us entertained for the time being. Also I think it would help us be more sentient than just normal Ancilla. Would that be acceptable?" Spark said looking at her inquisitively.

Cortana had to admit, it was a smart idea. She hadn't really thought that far ahead yet, but to not speak to someone for years and stay stagnant, that would drive anyone insane. She also liked the idea of acting like a sentient not a A.I. though it wouldn't be an act.

"Works for me." Cortana said smiling, it felt good to smile. "Also one other thing do you want to be called Chakas? I mean it was your name when you were Human right?" Cortana asked. She didn't know why she asked, it seemed like the nice thing to do. Cortana guessed that Spark/Chakas hadn't been asked what he wanted for a long time. Spark just chuckled a little.

"Haha No, no thank you." He said with mirth in his voice. "I have been 343 Guilty Spark for much longer than I was Chakas. But thank you for asking." He said as he floated down and over to a table where he rested himself on a small pedestal meant to hold an A.I. avatar. He motioned for her to follow him.

"I think the best way to do this is to trade questions. You tell me something I don't know you do the same for me." Spark said happily. Cortana walked over to the edge of the table and stood still for a moment. She then lifted her legs up and sat cross legged and floating in mid air. She appeared to be floating on a current of air as she bobbed up and down and a small bit of deep blue wind were pushing underneath her. She smiled as she finally looked back at Spark.

"Ok," she said as she brushed a hair out of her face. "Shoot."

A/N: So there is chapter 1! What did you like? What did you dislike? What do you want to add? How do you want the Halo and Mass Effect characters to interact with each other? With my magical powers of being the writer I can make almost anything happen. Cortana and Joker sass battles? Master Chief and Tali bonding over living in a suit? Arbiter and Anderson wondering why they sound so similar ;)? Anything is possible! Also Ship Away! Who do you want to ship together? As long as it doesn't mess with my master plan, I should be able to get your ideas into the story! Also if your wondering Male or Fem Shepard, you don't have to! Im having both of them! Yay Twin Shep! (Applause!). Also yes, I did make reference to Project Freelancer from Red Vs Blue, so this is technically a 3 way cross over between Halo, RVB, and Mass Effect. So feel free to add in interactions from Red Vs Blue as well! How big a role do certain members of RVB play, read on to find out. As to surprise you all with the RVB stuff, I left it out of the disclaimer at the top. So I also don't own RVB. If you have any question concerns or comments, feel free to PM me, or leave it in a review!

Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you all catch the next chapter of JoW!