Author notes: This is a Halo/Starcraft crossover, set place after the end of halo 3, and after the wings of liberty campaign, I'm making this up as I go along, but I'll try to stick to canon of both universes, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Halo, or any characters, nor do I own Starcraft. The only thing I own is this story and any original characters.

1127 Hours, August 17, 2570 (Military Calendar) / FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn, Unknown System

The aft section of the UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn drifted silently through space. In Cryogenics-Chamber 4, only one pod was active. Inside laid a 7 foot tall green armored figure with an orange polarized faceplate, the legendary Spartan-II, John-117. The unfreezing process had already begun, and the soldier known as the Master Chief stirred awake. The glass hatch of the pod rose open, and the master chief, after spending a moment to collect his wits, stepped out into the dark chamber. Dull red lights flickered on, as they drew power from emergency batteries, illuminating the cryogenics chamber.

"Cortana, status?" the Chief asked, seemingly to himself, as there was no one else in the chamber. However, a holo-projector in the center of the chamber activated, and a holographic blue woman with lines of code and symbols running along the length of her body appeared.

"We've been caught in the gravity field of an unknown planet, however, there are large cities visible on the surface, and they appear to be forerunner. The Dawn's engines are damaged beyond repair, and we're crash landing."

The master chief pondered on this detail for a moment, then asked "Can we survive the crash?"

"We have a 2.83% chance of survival, but there is still a working escape pod near the hangar, two decks down, we can get off the ship from there. We'll reach the planet's atmosphere in 11 minutes."

The Chief simply nodded. "Alright, let's go." John removed Cortana's chip, a memory drive containing her entire being and inserted it into a specially designed slot in the back of his mjolnir mark. VI helmet. The feeling of mercury flooded John's mind.

"Still not a lot of room in here…"

John left the chamber, and began making his way to the life boat. Along the way, John continued his questions to Cortana. "How long have we been drifting?"

"Almost 17 years. It's been lonely without you." Cortana replied, her voice reverberating in John's head.

At that statement, John paused a step, but continued making his way to the life boat. "What about rampancy?"

"I've achieved a state called metastability. Believe me, I wasn't quite all there for a decade, but I began to stabilize about three years ago, I'm better now, and while there are some…side effects left over from the rampancy, nothing serious enough to jeopardize our lives."

John decided not to inquire more about those side effects for the moment, and continued to the life boat, breaking into a brisk jog.

John had no weapons aside from a covenant energy sword left on hand, and along the way, he didn't find anything either. John was about to land on an unknown, possibly hostile planet since there was a forerunner presence. In John's experience, a near unstoppable parasitic species known as the flood that could take over people's bodies and knowledge usually accompanied any forerunner presences, but there was no other choice, so John pushed that thought away.

The Spartan got into the life boat, the only one remaining, and launched it. The sleek grey pod fell away from the frigate, and starting heating up in atmospheric re-entry. John let Cortana take over the controls, but as it turned out, the life boat's atmosphere thrusters were heavily damaged, and Cortana was unable to stabilize the life boat into a safe landing.

Her only words as the surface of what appeared to be a forerunner city got closer were "Hang on!"

John tried. He had grabbed a handhold in the back of the life boat, and braced himself. It wasn't enough. The life boat crashed nearly nose first, and the front half of the boat was crushed flat. The impact threw John forward to the ground, and despite airbags deploying to dampen the effects, John lost his grip and slammed down hard. Very hard. Upon impact, John blacked out.

1143 Hours, 2507 (Koprulu Sector Calendar) / Girax II, Planet surface, Raynor's Raider's/Protoss task force joint HQ

"The ship crash landed about 14 klicks from here, and it's emitting a distress signal. In English."

Colonel Allen Russell thought of that last statement for a second. The Raider's joint objective with the protoss were to find a way to access the Xel'Naga ruins on Girax II and hopefully acquire technology to use against the coming hybrid threat. Ever since the dark prelate zeratul and Raynor witnessed the zerg overmind's vision of a future where protoss-zerg hybrids led by a mysterious foe consumed the galaxy, the Raider's and their Protoss allies main goal had been finding ways to defeat the hybrids.

After considering, Colonel Russell made his decision. "Even though our main objective is getting into the Xel'Naga ruins, I think we can spare some men to investigate this crashed ship. It's weird though, since the distress signal was broadcasted in English, the ship must be of terran origin. But I've never seen any class of ship like that one before. Something that big can't be some backwater world made freighter or whatever. But be careful, sensors still read rogue zerg out there, and we've heard word that there are pirates on the planet somewhere."

"Yes sir" answered Captain Anatoly Kerimov, 39 years old, and a very experienced and seasoned soldier. "I'll take my team out then."

With that, the captain gathered the other five members of his Raider Special Forces team, the Wildcats Bravo squad, and headed out in their team medivac dropship.

Unknown Location…

Master Chief John-117 stirred, feeling lightheaded from the crash. John was faintly aware that he wasn't in his mjolnir armor, and he was in a different, unfamiliar location…

And that's the first chapter! I hope to finish the second one pretty soon. If you're confused about how come the dates don't match up, that'll be explained pretty soon…and it's not because of any alternate universe crossovers or w/e, you'll see. Don't forget to review, so I can get some more ideas, and hope to write better!