It's been well over a year since I last updated this story, and I apologize. I wanted to put more into this chapter, however I felt that it was perhaps best to cut it in half in order to let you guys enjoy a new update.

So please enjoy this new chapter of The Roads of War.

Re: Enemy naval tactics:

When engaged, the enemy commits every non-supraluminal craft with no appreciable pattern or strategy beyond making physical contact.

Conversely, all supraluminal craft leave on seemingly random trajectories.

I understand the goal of this mission but time – our least abundant resource – is wasted every time we do a system-wide scan for survivors. The time for saving lives has passed. We must accept this if we hope to win the war.

Re: Enemy ground tactics:

All evidence suggests that use of overwhelming force is the very foundation of the enemy's combat doctrine. And I adamantly refuse to deploy personnel where the enemy has available forces numbering in the billions. With the very real likelihood we are rapidly becoming the last living specimens of our race, all personnel are henceforth confined to stasis until further notice. Even with everyone equipped with [C_12_CS[?]] we would have had very little chance of survival, let alone victory.

Recommendations:

It is my opinion that any system where there is evidence that the enemy has established a physical presence is lost and must be razed. This fleet currently retains the capacity to force premature stellar collapse; I advise that this be established as standard operating procedure for all compromised systems forthwith. We cannot fight this war by half measures if we intend to win.

-Endurance-of-Will's analysis of the Flood's combat tactics

Chapter 5 – Investigations Part 1: Of Things To Come…

The good old debriefing room. It never gets old, although Jane wished that they were able to grab some spare time to finish up the retrofits and renovating the rooms. It kinda annoyed her a bit with something not looking finished while it looked half-assed.

Well either way, she ditched her armor back down in the hangar and was back in her casual Alliance uniform, albeit with an N7 hoodie on.

She needed to talk to EDI about the A/C units in this place.

After sending the report to Hackett, she felt that she needed to know a bit more on how in the hell the Chief was able to make it down there alive and in one piece. Switching back to the current matter at hand, Hackett came up over the QEC, "Commander, I read the report from Sur'Kesh. While I'm glad we're getting somewhere with this alliance, I can't help but wonder just what exactly what Cerberus was up to."

Jane furrowed her brows as she leaned on the console, "No idea. Other than keeping use from getting the Krogan females, and maybe taking out the Salarian leadership." She shook her head, "The Illusive Man is up to something. He really wanted us dead down there. I noticed that he started fielding some new type of Spec Ops sniper soldier along with putting heavily modified Mechs out in the field. It looked like a YMIR on steroids." She knew that the Illusive Man was on the side of controlling the Reapers, but she couldn't figure out why he was deliberately trying to sabotage her and the others. If anything, this war would be a stalling measure more or less for him to bide time and figure out his own plans, and maybe lend some support on the war with intel, or some agents to sabotage the Reapers at some point.

"Then keep them at bay and keep on your toes, I can't tell you just how a victory like this could be a boon for the alliance. I'm also very impressed with how the Master Chief was able to stop the suicide bomber, saving the lives of everyone on board and jumping down to support you in the heat of battle."

"He does have that tendency to surprise everyone with something that looks impossible."

"I'm sure he does. I've sent an update to Udina and Anderson on the situation and what's happened."

"And?"

"Udina's already getting the drafts done with the other councilors with the exception of Tevos who is currently trying to talk some sense into the Matriarchs. Although Udina was a bit adamant on you getting the Chief to cough up some info on his government hoping to contact them."

"Chief's not going to talk that quickly. And from what little he's told me about his people's history, I don't think they want to go to war so quickly after almost being exterminated." Hackett raised a brow in question prompting Jane to lightly wave it off, "I'll forward you a couple of notes later on that whole thing. What did Anderson have to say?"

"Only that what you're doing and what this alliance is turning into one hell of a morale booster. It was all he was able to say in private message before he had to move to another small town to operate out of."

That was good. Keeping the good news rolling to Earth to keep the resistance going strong, "So what new info do we have on the Prothean device?"

Hackett's voice changed to a mixture of proud and suspicion, "Alliance R&D was able to begin construction a few days ago and we've been able to complete at least 40% of the known work on the device. The scientists and engineers have dubbed it Project: CRUCIBLE; it's going to be the most ambitious undertaking in human history, as for its' construction rate, we're throwing anyone and everyone that can hold a hammer."

She was surprised at the rate they were at already after just a few days, "The Alliance has been able to get that much work done already?" She was shocked at the progress made on the weapon, but then again being under the threat of imminent extinction has the effect of getting work done all the faster. Necessity may have been the mother of invention, but Shepard had no doubts that war was it's father.

"I'm not saying it was easy. We're still going to need the other races help with the device, but a few extra volunteers in Alliance space put their names up for help on getting it done. At first when we started construction with what Liara came across, we had no idea where to begin. But one of our scientists came across some program within the blueprints, almost a hidden in plain sight pattern that explained how to get it done so quickly."

"How did we miss that when we pulled the data from the archives?"

"I'm not entirely sure on that, but from what we've pieced together on the device, the design is massive in scope, but eerily simple to piece together. We can do this Shepard. You can do this. Don't doubt yourself for even a second." Hackett knew that the odds were in fact overwhelmingly against them, and this was their only shot at survival. He needed to make sure that everyone still had faith in winning, and Shepard was one of those shining beacons of it. If she lost faith, then they'd all lose faith.

Saluting one last time before their conversation came to an end, "Yes, sir." Returning the salute Hackett cut the QEC off, "Good, Hackett out."

Turning back to the war room, Jane made her way over to the table where it was all being planned out. Hackett just sent a hologram of the device on its construction rate, and it wasn't so bad looking. She saw the pieces that were already constructed as the rest of the outline was marked in red for future construction. She smiled at the progress already made, and hoped for a swift end to the Reaper's march. If she were any less mature than she would have made a joke about the...phallic shape of the device, but as of this moment Shepard could only smile at the first sign of the turn of the tide.

-SSV Kilimanjaro-

After the debrief on Sur'Kesh and the closing of the Citadel alliance, he made his way to his private quarters to take a private conversation that was necessary. Entering his quarters, he locked security down tight to keep any prying eyes and ears from overhearing and intercepting the information.

Doctor Garret Bryson came up on the QEC with a new report on Task Force Aurora, "Admiral Hackett."

"Dr. Bryson, you said you had something new to report?"

"Yes, well saying it's something would be an understatement." He brought up the image of what his daughter recently discovered on Namakli, "We've run the architectural designs through the archives from the Smithsonian all the way to Thessia University, and it's nothing like what's been discovered before, not even Reaper designs match it."

Hackett placed a hand under his chin, "You found something that didn't seem to be made by Reaper or even Prothean hands?"

"Exactly. We've tried accessing it, but every attempt has been met with shorted-out Omni-tools and burnt arms. Ann was able to get it loose from the rocks and have it brought to my lab here on the Citadel. We've hooked it up to try and keep the power going, but it seems to run off on its own source that we can't identify. The only thing we could gleam from it, was that the device held enough of power to run the Citadel ten times over." Bryson didn't need to know what the Alliance admiral was thinking already, but the man said it anyway, "Keep up your current work on hunting the Leviathan down, but this find could be a major advantage for us in the war. I'll see if I can forward some more resources your way discreetly; keep this under wraps and in a very closed loop. Cerberus recently made a bid to take out our leadership and wipe away the Genophage cure, there's no telling what they'd do if they find your outfit out."

"I understand. I'll be sure to tighten security up here, and send word to Garneu and Ann. I'll contact you if something comes up."

-Life Support; Normandy SR-2-

The Chief was currently looking over one of the weapons that they had acquired back on Sur'Kesh, a few Salarian weapons; mainly the Scorpion Heavy Pistol and the Venom Shotgun. However, he was more interested in the Cerberus modified M-13 Raptor. Taking it apart, he noticed that it held an extended Thermal Clip cylinder along with a Heavy Armor Piercing Mod, and the barrel had been changed to increase the velocity of the rounds. The Raptor seemed to be their equivalent to the UNSC's M392 DMR, or as close as possible. Another noticeable modification done to the Cerberus Raptor was that the second barrel that was usually part of the design, was removed entirely in favor of being an under barrel with spare Thermal Clips.

"You know, if you keep your time to just doing this and that, you'll find things to be pretty boring around here." Cortana was scrolling through news networks of the Citadel, seeing if anything of interest came up for her to analyze and pick apart for fun.

"Hmm." He shrugged at her comment. He found this to be a better use of his time with studying the enemy as opposed to doing what most of the other crew would do in their spare time. But they were currently at war and they should be keeping up their edge for combat. Cortana sighed as she swiped away the newscasts and brought up the Chief's Omni-tool, "Well since you're so enamored with that rifle, maybe you'll be the same with this new little piece of tech I just made while we've been here."

The Chief put the rifle down on the table as the AI had his attention, "You made something new within a few weeks?" He knew that Cortana could be particularly innovative if she wanted to. His newly upgraded armor being one source of creating and innovation, but he had to wonder just how much she could do with something much smaller than his armor. Along with such little time in comparison.

Standing up now to go full on 'Show Girl' for her little invention, Cortana cleared her throat per say for added effect, "Well after taking one of the Omni-tools that you grabbed from down below, along with using the nanomachines within your new heavily upgraded and modified MJOLNIR, I present to you… the Artemis Multi-Service Tracking System!" The once orange Omni-tool now glowed a tinted UNSC gray that was present within their military uniform. Gone was the organic architecture of the device, but now instead the angular architecture of their ships and computers were dominant. And a 3D hologram of the entire ship with the decks and maintenance ways, along with glowing outlines of the crew.

While it certainly appeared to be very different from the Omni-tools that he had seen being used by the people of this 'Mass Effect' society, he wasn't sure what all exactly Cortana had done to it. "Is there any difference between this and the Omni-tools that their military uses?"

Cortana beamed brightly at the unspoken challenge, "Alright so, other than the aesthetic redesign of the former Omni-tool, I've modified it for our own usage, and for future mass production for when we get back to the UNSC. It still has the standard features of the regular Omni-tool, but I've also changed up the Omni-blade to a dispenser for using it in the same way you would your Combat Knife; pull up the feature, and pull out the blade just like any other. I really can't believe they never found a way to detach the blade from the tool itself and keep it solid long enough for it to be used like a regular knife." The AI shook her hands to wave off the side track, "Anyways, I've managed to eliminate the problem of mapping out areas with the nanomachines, by using a form of echo location that bats use and by doing the same, we can map a wide area within the vicinity while combining it with the Motion Tracker, and even installing it into the system itself for our own soldiers to have on person. I was able to also use the firmware revision of your own armor for this as well, and even display it on your VISR when you don't have time to look down in a firefight." Swiping away she pulled up the vitals of his own body, "I've also managed to recreate the EV-44 Nightingale's restoration drone field to a much smaller degree with the help of the Alliance's own Mass Effect fields to minimize them to allow repair of armor, weapons, gadgets as well as healing organic matter like flesh wounds, and plasma burns. I can even get this baby to hack into our own systems including Covenant and Forerunner machinery if need be."

Another thing that seemed to amaze the Chief was Cortana's imagination with technology in creating and improving upon something that was already pre-existing. "You have a lot of time to yourself to create something like this."

"That I do." She brought up the latest thing she was intrigued by, and was hoping to have some sort of productive conversation with the Spartan, "So, what do you think?" The hologram above in the War Room now projected from the Artemis in front of the Chief, "Is this the device the Commander found on their Mars?" Cortana nodded, "Yup, they were able to get it up pretty quickly, all thanks to a very suspicious looking equation they found in the blueprints, that not even our shadowy neighbor found when she was pouring over the plans."

The Chief arched an eyebrow, "Not even she was able to find it?"

"Nope. A few Alliance scientists and engineers spotted it after looking over the plans within the first few minutes."

That surprised him. After reviewing the files on Shepard's crew members, he was sure that T'soni knew what to and not to look for when it came to looking over such things, but this seemed all too… odd… "You don't think that the Forerunners were somehow involved in that equation?"

Cortana dipped her head side to side in thought, "I'm honestly not sure about that myself. When I went over the plans, I didn't really look for any equations or of the sort, but instead I just put the pieces of the Crucible together where they seemed to fit best."

"Crucible?"

"Oh, that's the name of the project they named. It's apparently going to be 'the most ambitious project in human history'. Heh, if only they knew about all of what we did throughout our years." Referring to the UEG and UNSC accomplishments with creating the massive 800 various colonies, stations, outposts, etc. all before the Covenant came along and then what came after; mainly Project: INFINITY that was being discreetly constructed in the Oort Cloud away from the war utilizing literally every single advanced piece of UNSC tech to construct. And ever since the Forerunners' tech was discovered, no doubt it was being integrated along with Covenant tech and newly improved and developed UNSC technologies.

A massively scoped project that would showcase their advancement into the stars.

Suddenly an interesting ping came up over in Liara's cabin: a report about a small Reaper fleet over in the Terminus near the Maw section of space. "Chief, you need to listen to this…"

-Shepard-

Up above in the next deck, Jane had walked out of the War Room as she got a message from Liara to meet her in her cabin, apparently there was something important that she needed to show them, however she saw that a heated discussion was going on between Wrex and Victus. Despite the so-called sound proof glass, she could hear a bit of what was being said.

"You have the female, Wrex. The rest of the cure can come for your people later!" No doubt Victus was trying to ask Wrex to bring in his promised support he talked about from the summit. The Krogan clan chief crossed his arms and frowned slightly, "That wasn't the deal." He said whilst shaking his head.

By this time Jane walked in as she saw Mordin standing off to the side in his 'thinking' pose. No doubt doing the numbers and science of the cure in his head to explain to the two leaders on the nature of the Genophage for them to grasp the situation better.

"But Palaven needs your support now, we can't delay."

"Unless every Krogan gets the cure, there's no alliance." Wrex spoke with finality in his tone. This was something he wasn't going to budge on. Victus took a deep breath in and sighed, knowing that he was at the end of his road and now it all rode on the cure to be delivered to all Krogan. No shortcuts could be made to convince him to join their alliance so quickly, but he should've expected the response from the old Krogan.

Jane turned to Mordin hoping he had something to say in the situation, "Mordin, how long do you think it'd take to make the cure."

Dropping from his thinking pose, he began explaining in minor detail what all this would be entailing, "Need to synthesize base antigen from female tissue. Also require healthy male tissue. Will need a sample."

Wrex just waved a hand in their direction, "You're lookin' at it."

"Acceptable. Will need you to remain aboard Normandy for procedure" Grumbling at the prospect of being forced to stay on the ship was quite what he was hoping for, "Let's just hope the food's gotten better…" Jane looked back to the Salarian doctor with a bit of skepticism. She knew that he could certainly do quite a bit with so little, as demonstrated with his work back on Omega with the plague cure, but given how the Genophage was very stubborn on not going away combined with his own work on making it stronger so the Krogan couldn't adapt, it certainly seemed very complex.

"Creating a cure for every Krogan sounds like a tall order, you sure you can do it?"

"Of course…" Mordin said without hesitation, "…similar to Genophage modification project. Working against own alterations and such. Not as simple as garbage DNA blocking attachment sites. Will need to counteract shutdown of redundant nervous system. Adjust neurotransmitter levels…" Nodding at the deeper details he was getting at, Jane felt that it was probably best to let things off at that point before they all got confused at his rapid coffee hamster science chatter. "Got it."

"Will create cure, Shepard. No need to worry."

"Then get started, and make it quick."

"Will need med-bay for work and safety of patient. Eve requires tests." Mordin made his way out the meeting room and towards the elevator, though leaving the others wondering about the Krogan female's name as it sounded more like a Human one instead, "Eve?"

Mordin turned back to explain, "Female's real name unknown. Normandy human vessel. Human mythology seemed appropriate under circumstances. Suggest speaking with her. Surprising in Krogan." And with that, leaving the room to get straight to work, as the others were left to the privacy that the meeting room was supposedly offered with the glass doors shutting.

Jane looked to Wrex and Victus needing to know if anything had come up recently, "Anything else you two need to discuss with me?"

Victus spoke first, as his face seemed to hold a bit of worry in it, "There was a recent break in at one of our old military outposts. Cerberus was responsible, but we're still trying to figure out what exactly they wanted." Now that was odd. Turian military outposts usually kept some sort of stockpile list to ensure everything was kept in order, as it wasn't all that different from the Alliance military setup.

"Wait, Cerberus attacked and stole something from you, and you're not sure what they took?" The commander asked in surprise. Victus nodded as shame seemed to cross his face, "Yes. When they hit the outpost, they destroyed the manifest of all stockpiled weapons and equipment, along with burning the outpost down and destroying the tracking beacon to slow us down from tracing their location. We're still investigating what all happened, but we do know that something was stolen from survivor reports, but we're not sure what it was."

Jane bit her knuckles at this. Cerberus was getting bolder by the day now as it appeared with recent events happening, "Alright. Just keep me in the loop, because I want in on recovering whatever it was they stole." Then she turned to Wrex who seemed to be nervous, although she couldn't really say what for since he wasn't one to look like that. "Wrex?"

"Huh? Oh, right uhh… I have a bit of personal thing we can talk in private about." He looked to the Turian next him, "It's one of those things, if you catch my drift." He put his hands up in an understanding manner, "I understand."

And with that, everyone left for their posts while Jane made her way to the elevator, but not before Wrex whispered to her, "I'll message you later. I didn't want to mention it front of people in the open. Not while we've got a bunch of crap on our hands already."

"Gotcha."

Jane made her way over to her private terminal in the CIC opening it up to see that everything had been sorted properly with Alliance reports, newscasts, private messages, ads, etc. Though the garbage bin was filled up quite a bit and the more personal message forwarded up to the front being marked as a priority. She noticed that Wrex had already sent a message to her –

'Meet over at Purgatory VIP bar. Grab a booth. Not safe to talk on Normandy with so many ears. Old business from Noveria probably came up.'

That was weird, she wasn't sure what he meant by the last message, but she could understand the Krogan's need for privacy.

"Joker, let's head to the Citadel. I've got some business to do there, and I'm sure everyone else has some things to do there."

"Aye, aye, mein commandant."

"Alright, time to see what Liara wanted to show me." Taking the elevator down to the crew deck, Jane strode over to the Asari's cabin. As the doors slid open, the VI; Glyph was its name, was occupied with a view screens on one end, combing through data for whatever use Liara could find for it. "Hey, you said you had something for me?"

Liara held an expression of both shock and worry, and perhaps a bit of awe in her, "Yes. You know that given my occupation, I come across info faster than most other people, and it hits my desk when it gets reported? Well, this…" bringing up her Omni-tool and typing in a few commands, "…has me concerned." The screens loaded with the galactic data all disappeared until they loaded up a Turian patrol fleet report. And what Jane saw, well she held the same expression Liara did.

"Holy shit…"

-Life Support-

The Chief took one quick look and knew what had just happened without listening to the details that Cortana raddled off before. "You and I both know who did this."

An entire Reaper fleet of at least twenty had been effectively destroyed and very little of them remained other than in chunks that were, going by the report: 'MELTED TO SLAG'. "The Covenant is moving outside the Orion arm." Throughout the war, the Orion arm was all the Covenant had focused on; the only parts of the galaxy that the war didn't take place in as far as they knew, was on Delta Halo; which was within a section of space that the Citadel races referred to as the Attican Traverse, though the system was not within the Codex with luck. And the other site was the Ark, which sat well beyond the edge of the Milky Way itself, and more than likely beyond the Reapers grasp. As for the Covenant's own grasp of territory, well they expanded at least ten times as much as the UNSC did, and they never came into contact with the 'Mass Effect' races as far as they knew.

"I've already gone through the specifics, and the amount of firepower that obliterated the Reaper fleet points to just one type of Covenant ship." Cortana brought up what any human would dread to see, "A CSO-class Supercarrier."

"I thought the Covenant only built a few of them but they were all destroyed?"

"Oh no, trust me. They made these things in the mid-double digits. High Charity had at least a dozen of them before they started killing each other, supported by other ship classifications." When she uploaded herself into High Charity, not only was she just guiding the Chief and the POW's to Truth's location, and downloading their star charts, tech schematics, etc. she also had acquired the amount of ships that they had constructed. It still made her wonder just why they didn't send in the overwhelming number of ships in to wipe them out all the quicker.

"Are there anymore reports like this?" If there were, then Cortana could extrapolate a path through the galaxy as to where they were heading into.

The AI shook her head, "No, there haven't been any other reports as of yet. They made a slipspace jump as the Turian fleet came across large quantities of Cheronkov radiation. Where they're going? I have no idea, and I'm not comfortable knowing that." He agreed, the Reapers so far were a significant threat outside of UNSC space, but outside with none of the 'Mass Effect' capable of combating them properly, they couldn't be stopped, and there was no telling what their goal was this time.

"The commander will ask about the incident."

"I have no doubt she will, but instead of telling her 28km warship took out twenty Reapers like nothing, just say that it appeared to be a battlegroup of Battlecruisers led by an Assault Carrier. It'd put less strain and paranoia on everyone." If they were dealt news like that so soon in the situation, then they'd no doubt try push into the Maw to escape the Reapers to try and convince them to aid, but that was something no one would be willing to do.

"Hmm." He merely grunted, already seeing the logic in the lie. The Alliance, Citadel, and even the Terminus groups were suffering from losses due to the Reaper invasion, but to know that right next door was a fragmented group of religious fanatics that could kill Reapers in a single shot… the amount of paranoia and fear would skyrocket. Maybe the news of an organic race beating Reapers back with no casualties would embolden them, or this would give rise to fear another potential enemy.

-Liara's Cabin-

"Has anyone… chatted about this on the Extranet?" Shepard asked with hesitance. Liara shook her Liara shook her head, "No, so far the higher ups have kept this quiet while they investigate what happened." The Shadow Broker brought up analytics taken from VI drones with the results of the state of the Reaper 'corpses'. "So far they took samples from the edges of where they were attacked from showcases that heavy ionic charge separation was used in their destruction. The Geth have been experimenting from what little I've gathered on plasma-weaponry research, but nothing on this level of a scale comes close to this amount of firepower." Both women looked to each other in knowing that while they thought they knew just about everything about the races of the galaxy, the discovery of the Chief showed them that they may not know as much as they thought they did.

"I think I should stop by the Chief and ask him." Jane turned to head to Life Support down the hall, while Liara brought up something else, "Alright then, although there is something else I need to bring up." The tone seemed a bit more on the positive yet felt like she was treading on some thin ice, but friendly ice at that. Jane turned back around to wonder what it was, "And~ that would be…?"

"The Illuminated Primacy has offered a substantial reward for a Prejak Paddlefish…" The awkward smile came across in a painful way, well sort of, across Liara's face, "… and considering that you have a few in your tank…" Well, Jane held a deadpan expression with that bit of news.

"…"

"…"

"I am not selling one of my cut & precious little Paddlefish for quick cash." Pointing up to her cabin.

Liara had a feeling she would say that, so she brought up what all exactly the Hanar was offering, "They're offering substantial weapon upgrades along with new Biotic implants, Tech Omni-Tools, advanced weapon power recharge cycles, and some quick cash. Which given how many guns and mods you've been buying up wherever you go…" Liara brought up multiple items that she had down in the hangar bay.

Well that got her to change her tune quickly, "I'll think about it." Liara just smirked knowing that Jane would eventually relent in the end, "I'll keep a channel to them open when you decide." Jane left the room to make headway to the Chief with hopefully some answers.

The door to Life Support opened with a blue light disappearing out of her view; stepping in she saw the Chief with his helmet off stripping and putting back together the various weapons along with the usual military ration bags discarded after eating. All of which was in an orderly fashion; lots of things strolled around that made the room appear to be cluttered, but all kept in a tidy fashion.

He wasn't one for social things, that was for sure.

"Hey, Chief. Got a question for you, big guy." The Chief stood at attention though she signaled that he could be loose, though she doubted that doing so would make things less… what was the word? Formal? Oh, well… "Ma'am?"

Jane pulled up her Omni-tool to bring up the report that Liara came across concerning the destroyed Reaper fleet, "Well, I got a report from Liara that a recon fleet came across a destroyed Reaper fleet, which well…" She chuckled briefly before whistling in both admiration and a bit of maybe scarcity, "… was completely destroyed."

The Chief knowing full well the Covenant did this, played dumb, "Shouldn't this be good news, ma'am?" Jane only nodded her head side to side in response, somewhat hesitant on the good side, "Well, yeah no duh it's damn good thing. But… thing it, no one knows who did it."

Jane pulled out her Omni-Tool as she brought up the report from the patrol, "Turians found these deader than dead Reapers floating out at the edge of known space. They pulled scans from the wrecks and found that someone used some pretty advanced plasma wea—"

"Four CCS-class Battlecruisers supporting a single CAS-class Assault Carrier ma'am. Covenant." The Chief interrupted. The lie came so easily to him, "Covenant ships use plasma-based weapons on all of their ships; military and civilian." That part was the truth. The first Covenant ship that Johnson encountered was a cargo transport, to which had yet to fire on them when they first encountered one another.

The little gloss over his recent history gave her the chills now, "Holy shit, so they're moving into our territory…"

Cortana could only guess to why they were moving, though any reason to do so was lost on her. The Chief calmly spoke up, "The Covenant are not a threat at the moment, ma'am. The Reapers and Cerberus should be our primary focus. Anything else added, would only incite more panic and spread forces to thin."

He was right, and she knew it. A force that could bring Reapers down like nothing, with FTL travel that potentially didn't run on Eezo would only make people dumb, panicky and do something stupid in response. Jane nodded her head, "Ok then. Let's just keep this small revelation to ourselves for now." Shutting her Omni-Tool off, the Chief took this as a sign that she was dropping the subject, although…

"Though, I would like to know just what exactly the Covenant's capable of in space combat, if they were able to do that to Reapers." She'd be stupid to think that there wouldn't be more incident like this in the future, and she'd be even more so to believe that they wouldn't run into them one day. If she had a good idea of what they could do in space, they'd be better prepared for potential combat against them.

"A report will be filed, ma'am." He would type one up, however he knew Cortana was already handling that on her end. Jane gave a thumbs up, "Awesome. We're stopping by the Citadel for a while to take care of some business…" Jane looked around once again at the state of the room, "…you should get out of here Chief, stretch your legs and see the sights."

He was about to protest, until she held a finger up, "Uhp, uhp! No arguments. Take some shore leave, that's an order soldier." She smiled to herself as she left Life Support; as for his snarky companion…

"You heard her, CO's orders, Chief." She just had to parrot the commander to throw it in his face.

He supposed he could track down some vendors that could sell raw materials, "Hmm."

-Remains of the Forward Unto Dawn-

The last few days inside this wreck were both exciting and boring. Exciting for the eggheads; boring for the Blue Suns mercs that were contacted on Zorya had taken the job of providing protection to scientists on some salvage run out in the middle of nowhere. They were able to set up a Mass Effect field that encompassed the hangar in order for them to pump oxygen through the ship, just so they wouldn't have to constantly worry about a helmet getting busted.

"So, how long is this bitch duty going to last?"

"No idea. Just keep it together, at least until we get the doors to this place open."

Two of said mercs were down in the makeshift hangar bay, shooting the shit with one another as they stayed away from the work. The Batarian handed the Human a cigarette as an offer, though he declined with a wave of his hand, "Well…" Taking the lighter out from his pocket, he clicked it a few times to get a fire and lite is cig up, "…if you ask me. We're getting an easy job, instead of going to the front lines with the others. Plus, I'd rather be here, than in Aria's growing little army she has to take back Omega."

The human did concede the point, "True enough. We probably should've brought a TV with us to at least relax in between shifts."

"I brought a pack of cards and some—"

"Hey!"

The two mercs turned to a Turian commander whom was in charge of security on the salvage site, turn the corner of the hallway they were in, "You two seen Henderson?" The two shook their heads.

The Turian seemed pissed, "Well since you two are about to go back on duty, go look for him, and tell him to get his comm back online. He hasn't answered a damn call." The commander turned back as he marched over to the ship to send the update report back his own superiors.

The two Merc's just looked at each other as they shrugged it off, "Why the hell does he have his comms off?"

The Batarian could only guess, "Wanted some alone time? We've all got needs." They headed down the hallways of eerily quiet ship, save for the areas where they were trying to crack open the doors to unlock the rest of the ship to explore and study. The main problem was that the doors leading to crucial areas were all magnetically locked and were too thick to pry open. Emergency hatches were too small to get the equipment through and the maintenance access ways were either blocked by debris or led to dead ends.

The only option they had was to cut through with a heavy duty plasma torch that needed to be bolted down to the floor, hence why they were taking so long. Either way, they were getting off easy compared to some of their other mercs currently in the field or waiting to get out and kill some Reapers or cut out some throats from Cerberus.

"Hey, Henderson!" The Human Merc called out, "You masturbating to some Asari crap." The Batarian had to still a laugh. Henderson had and Asari fetish which they routinely made fun of.

A shot rang further down the hallways over to the mess hall that was unlocked. Both mercs ran down to see that Henderson, another human was point his gun up into the vents with a smoking hole in the ceiling, "Henderson, what the hell're you shooting at?"

Henderson was sweating as he looked all around him in a paranoid fashion, as he spoke without turning to face his coworkers, "I'm hearing shit in this place, some… slithering in the vents, man."

They looked around as they clicked the safeties off their rifles and adjusted them to fire at the ready. Not a sound came from the vents above them, as they set back at ease, "You're too damn twitchy. You on something?" The Batarian asked.

Henderson just glared at him, "No, I'm not on something. I know what I fucking heard. There's something in here with us." The other human just shook his head at this and walked over to Henderson, "Look whatever it was, we'll kill it. The boss says you're going on break and we're on duty. Go back to your bunk and watch a porno or something."

"Fuck you guys." Henderson deadpanned. The three men just walked back while the Batarian glanced back above them, thinking that maybe Henderson was right as he heard a slight skittering noise from above them.

-Citadel Docking Bay D24-

Some of the Normandy crew disembarked to do their own business, while the rest stayed behind to continue their work onboard. Well one was forced to come outside his shell, so to speak.

The Chief felt it best to head down to the Presidium Commons for the market they had on raw materials for weapons, though he did his best to ignore the little voice in his head, "Awww~, he's finally moving out of the house. They grow up so fast." She shed a mock tear as he walked among the various aliens and humans of the station, whilst taking the elevator down to the Presidium Commons, a more 'peaceful' part of the station where you were less likely to get ambushed by someone wanting what you had.

He gave a light slap on the back of his head to have her think twice about the teasing of the like, "Right… sorry." He brought up the Artemis to see the list of what he needed, "Where's the best shop for what we need, Cortana?"

"For what we're looking for, we should probably head to Kassa Fabrications. They prefer letting the customer make their own weapons as opposed to selling the full thing, given many of the parts they sell are pretty heavy duty." He scrolled through their stock, and saw that the materials and parts that could create guns were illegal in Citadel space, "They haven't been flagged for their products?"

"Nope." The AI shook her head, "Technically they can sell the parts, as owning them aren't illegal, however putting certain parts together to forge certain weapons, well then you're looking at the customer only getting arrested. Pretty shady business, but with the war going on, I highly doubt anyone's considered the repercussions."

"War profiteering's nothing new, happened in every conflict from Mesopotamia to New Mombasa." The chief replied nonchalantly.

He wasn't very concerned with that, though he did have to wonder just how many people had illegal guns in their closet or under the bed, and how many were killed by the owners due. Although he didn't doubt that they kept track of the parts like any responsible vendor.

Either way, he looked over the list that he needed. Mostly comprised of steel, tungsten, depleted uranium, aluminum, copper, cupro-nickel, lead, etc. It shouldn't be too hard to get all of these items in one place, right?

-Outside Purgatory Bar VIP Floor-

Jane had arrived outside the bar to meet up with Wrex first, since he seemed a little concerned back on the ship. Though she would've preferred having the conversation back up in her cabin where they could still have some privacy, but then again, Wrex didn't feel convinced that they were safe to talk onboard, she was about to step through the doors, until she heard Garrus behind her, "Jane?"

She turned to see that it wasn't just Garrus, but also Liara alongside him whom brought up the email, "I take it you also got Wrex's message? 'Business on Noveria'?" Well, ok then. Guess having some of the old crew told her that things weren't exactly good, with what he had to say, "We should probably get a table away from everyone else, I'm sure whatever it is Wrex has to say he didn't want anyone overhearing it." The three crewmates strode inside, with music blaring to high levels, peopled dancing above and below them, others getting drunk, talking amongst themselves, etc.

The picked out an empty round table near the corner, though while some people were nearby, odds are they wouldn't overhear the conversation. Taking their seats, an awkward silence came over them, while they waited for Wrex, who should've been right behind them if they weren't mistaken, Jane felt it best to go ahead tell Liara about the little graveyard of Reapers.

"By the way, Liara. I did find out who it was that turned those Reapers to scrap." Liara had a feeling who it was, though now Garrus was intrigued, "Wait, a bunch of dead Reapers, and this is the first I'm hearing about it? Color me interested, so who did the deed?"

Jane scratched the back of her head in embarrassment, "Long story short; a Turian patrol came across a bunch of dead Reapers and filed it back, but it's being kept quiet until someone takes responsibility. Although, I brought this up to the Chief, and he says it was a small fleet of Covenant ships that killed those Reapers."

Garrus noticed that Jane wasn't so enthusiastic about the news, "So… shouldn't this be a good thing? What's the human saying? 'Don't look a gift horse in the eye'?" Jane laughed a bit at that. Garrus always seemed to get their saying wrong, "It's mouth, not eye, Garrus." Her finger was tapping the table to speed time up by some miracle, "And yeah, it can be a good thing, but… I'm not so sure…"

Liara stayed silent as she contemplated of such a force moving through the galaxy that could kill Reapers so easily, while seeing the possible scenarios that could play out if the truth got out, "The thing is, Garrus. If the Covenant is moving into our territory, and out of theirs, it could mean that we'll have a new enemy to deal with."

Jane gave a look to her scar faced friend, trying to think of an analogy to get across the potential shitstorm that the Covenant's presence could be, it was harder than you think when you had to factor in difference in culture. "How many ships did it take to bring down Sovereign Garrus, and that was a single Reaper, admittedly stronger than a standard Reaper but still just the one. This was a group of over a dozen Reapers, reduced to molten slag floating in space. and from what the Chief tells me it was a standard battle group of Covenant ships that did the deed. Are you starting to see why people may get concerned?"

Garrus was about to ask more, until they heard Wrex's voice cutting in, "Glad to see you guys made it. Sorry 'bout the wait, I had to take the scenic route." Wrex slid over onto his seat as it creaked a bit, while he got closer to the others, "Didn't want anyone following me. Can't be too careful nowadays, what with Cerberus poking where they shouldn't be."

Feeling it best to address just why Wrex brought them here, Liara spoke up, "You messaged only the three of us to meet with you, Wrex. So why all the secrecy?" Wrex shuffled in his seat as he waved them to get closer, "I sent some scouts to check out the Rachni relay. Heard rumors of trouble in the area." The other table occupants were surprised as Jane voiced it, "Rachni?!"

Wrex motioned for them to settle down, glancing around them to check if anyone was listening, "Thought that might get your attention. I've got a favor to ask you guys. It's big. I couldn't bring it to anyone else, since you were the only ones there that day."

The Turian sniper could only shake his head in disbelief, "They're back? But this doesn't make any sense. The last queen promised she'd disappear…"

"…on the condition that they'd never show themselves to the galaxy again…" Liara continued.

"…or risk being destroyed for good and going back to being extinct." Jane finalized. The Krogan could only nod, "I know. All I know for sure was that our scouts went silent as soon as they arrived. I've got a bad feeling about this. Maybe it's Rachni, maybe it's something else. Could be another invasion." Wrex took out a flask; likely Ryncol, and took a swig before putting it down, "Either way, this needs to be taken care of, and I only trust you three right now."

Back in the good old days when they were hunting Saren down, the crew of the SR1 had formed a close-knit relationship with one another; that they could count on one another to watch their backs and keep their secrets to themselves.

"We'll find out what happened, Wrex."

Nodding in acceptance, Wrex gave a toothy smile, "I knew could count you guys. Just like the old days…" Looking back at the bar, he got an idea, "…and like the old days, time to get into a drinking contest!" Jane put her hands up in protest as she got up from her seat to make way back to the entrance, "As much as I'd love to get into a drinking contest with you guys again, I've got to go find the Chief and make sure no one tried to step on his toes."

She knew she'd lose so damn fast. Well, better to cut and run at times.

-The Chief & Cortana-

"Now this is a nice place to be settled into." Cortana commented on the Presidium Commons; a place where a more than wealthy or at least well-connected citizen could afford to get an apartment. Here there were offices, embassies, marketplaces, parks, etc. The supposed shining image of the Citadel and the culmination of what galactic peace could provide if achieved, but John knew better.

Here is where the political power was consolidated among these 'Mass Effect' civilizations. Where the newly introduced races were shown off to the Council's so-called accomplishments, and that it was all a veiled showcase of power.

"This place is too exposed to aircraft fire." New Alexandra back on Reach had most of its areas covered by Plexiglas. One could easily take a C-Sec shuttle and bolt down a heavy machine gun, open the door and fire on the civilians below, killing quite a few people before C-Sec could be scrambled to counter said shuttle. "Oh, lighten up. Just relax a bit before we head back into the lion's den. Besides it wouldn't hurt too much to see more of this place to put together a nice combat scenario back home."

Referring to both potential engagements within the Citadel from Cerberus and Reapers, or for UNSC forces to take it. Never knowing if they would be received as hostiles.

He took in the sights as many people appeared to be at ease with their lives. Going about daily business, spending time with significant others. Ignoring the deaths beyond the station. He could tell they knew what was happening, but they ignored it in favor of living in bliss. He didn't know how those on Earth and the colonies were living, but they did acknowledge the Covenant War. The Chief wasn't sure why he expected them to acknowledge it…

Reading through the signs he found Kassa Fabrications off to the side, overlooking a large vista that had several benches along the edge. Marching over, he saw that one of the workers, a human, was sipping coffee while looking over some datapad. A manifest most likely for restocking, "Well, what're you waiting for caveman? Ask away."

The Chief cleared his throat to grab the vendor's attention, "Sir." The vendor raised his head as he started talking, "How can I help… you… sir…?" No doubt taking in his massive appearance. Deciding to just cut the time short, he brought up the manifest and showed it to the man, "I need raw materials for weapons fabrication. Deliver to docking bay D24 onboard the SSV Normandy."

The vendor was no longer looking at the Chief, as he directed his attention down towards the Artemis, "Uhm, yeah we've got all of that…" Punching up the numbers he saw, he showed the total up on his datapad, "…if you can afford it. Along with the handling of delivered materials."

600,000 credits plus extra for delivery. Not a cheap price for what he was asking. He thought that war time would make them more affordable to military. Although Cortana eased his mind, "Don't worry. I have that little account I have just for us. I'll handle the finances." She had the account number wired to the Artemis as she transferred the credits to the vendor, along with extra to have them bring it aboard the Normandy.

All the while this was happening, the Chief suddenly got a chill going up his spine. He wasn't sure what it was, but he felt as if somebody was watching the back of his head; feeling the need to get back to the ship, he was about to speak up about anything regarding the transaction, however he got a ping on the Artemis: a message.

Hopefully the commander had a new mission for them, alas it was not. A message from an 'Unknown Sender' along with 'No Subject'. Not sure what exactly this was, though his blood ran cold as soon as he saw that single word –

"I see you, Reclaimer."

Turning around to scan the crowd, he quickly cast glances everywhere he could find someone looking at him, but there was nothing. The balconies that stretched across from the vista were numerous and he couldn't pinpoint whomever it was that sent that message. They had to be looking right at him to send the message from its contents.

Cortana was yelling at him, but he was ignoring her until he felt a slight shock on his neck, "John! What happened?! Your heart rate and adrenaline levels spiked!"

The Chief was confused. Shouldn't she have caught the message when it came through? "I'll explain later, we need to get back to the Normandy." Cortana left a message on the digital receipt for the vendor to keep the change, as they made their way back to the docking bays his thoughts raced.

The only beings that called him Reclaimer were the monitors of the Halo rings.

343 Guilty Spark.

2401 Penitent Tangent.

They, and they alone called him Reclaimer in each verbal engagement. When he first met them, when they would start a conversation or give him some information.

They couldn't be a Monitor on board the Citadel, could there? Taking the elevator back up to docking, he ran right into the commander waving a hand for his attention, "Hey, Chief. Where's the fire?" She saw how he quickened his pace back to the Normandy, and he ignored the question as he brought forth his own, "Do we have a new mission, commander?"

If she was a betting woman -to which she would admit to having such a guilty pleasure- then she would say he was on edge. Many other people couldn't tell, but she slowly began to pick up on the Chief's gestures, tones, etc. as she was able to make out if he was annoyed like he was with something not going his way, putting up with her talking to him like a regular human being. Whatever it was that put him this way, was not something he would so openly discuss. Feeling the tense atmosphere, he was putting off she nodded as she spoke, "We've got a group of missing scouts, and they haven't been heard from in over twenty-four hours. We're heading out to find out what happened and kill whatever happened to 'em."

The Chief nodded his head in acceptance, as they left to to depart onwards to their next mission, all the while John's mind was occupied. Somehow… someway…

…the past found him…

-NEXT: RACHNI-

And done! Once again, I apologize for the massive delay in an update, plot bunnies for new stories sprung up in my head and I just had to get them down.

Now as far as OC's go, I am still looking for these characters –

*Blood Pack Vorcha Leader

*Blue Suns Batarian Leader

*Eclipse Salarian Leader

*N7 Fury Adept

These characters are what I'm still looking for, so if you guys have any of them, feel free to send them over, or even some that I already have such as –

*Blood Pack Krogan Leader

*Blue Suns Turian Leader

*Blue Suns Human Leader

*Eclipse Asari Leader

*Eclipse Human Leader

*N7 Destroyer Soldier

*N7 Shadow Infiltrator

*N7 Slayer Vanguard

*N7 Demolisher Engineer

*N7 Paladin Sentinel

Having all of these characters inter connected will be a big help, though that's all your choice.

Now as for what format you'll need to submit them in it will need to be like this –

1) Name

2) Age

3) Rank

4) Species

5) Gender

6) Preferred Weapons

7) Appearance

8) Backstory

9) Likes

10) Dislikes

So until next time, please continue to read, review, favorite and follow my other stories on my profile. Hopefully the next chapter I put put, will be the revamp of my Marvel story :)

P.S. Please, when you guys review, let me know what you guys think of the chapter. What you liked and/or disliked about it.