Hello there readers. Now I normally don't make these 'author notes only posts,' in fact I was never going to make any of these type of posts. I always thought it was bad for a writer to do this, since it's a fake tease unless they have a preview of the story in it. However, under these terrible circumstances I will make an exception for this one time. That is why all the words are in bold, it's an author's note post. While I will talk about this story later on in this post, there is some troubling news I need to tell you all.

It pains me to say this, but we have lost one of our own. Freedom Guard, whose full name is Salvador R. Balleza has passed away. On the 5th of August he had went through cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest is a sudden stop in blood circulation due to the failure of the heart to contract effectively or at all. When Freedom Guard went through it, they were unable to resuscitate him.

We have lost a great writer. Salvador had written forty-three stories, two concept ideas, and one story challenge. He had a vast knowledge of several categories, ranging from Halo, Mass Effect, Justice League, Marvel, G.I. Joe, Vandread, and so many more. With his vivid imagination he was able to expand on those categories' and write his own works of fiction. Sure his characters weren't always in character, and he had some run-on sentences, but damn it he had a natural talent of capturing someone's attention. Freedom Guard wrote in the third-person point of view in all of his stories. He did a wonderful job in writing characters' thoughts, opinions, and expressions in his story.

I was able to see how dedicated he was to writing and to others inspiring to write. When he posted a chapter, it had a numerous amount of pages worth of content, all up in a short amount of time, much quicker than I can ever hope to be.

Yes to some they will be losing a writer, but to me, and few others, we are losing a colleague and a dear friend. If you look up in the author's notes in most of my chapters, you will see Freedom Guard's name up there, and how I thank him for helping me. With almost every problem I ever had, whether writing related or even personal, I came to Freedom Guard and he was happy to lend a hand. He was there to offer advice when I needed it, and bounce ideas off when I felt creative. Every writer usually hits that old problem 'writer's block,' but when that happened to me, Freedom Guard would write out examples how an idea could happen, making writer's block all the more easier to breeze through. He was even able to look over my chapters before I posted them, whether he asked for them or I asked. He was practically my own Beta-Reader, and one of the best I ever had.

One of the things he taught was how to manage my stories. I, like many writers, have ideas just begging to be written down. Freedom Guard showed me that while it's good to have that light bulb flashing, you got to keep yourself in check and not overwork yourself. Looking at all of his stories, he told me how having so many made it extremely difficult to update them all and satisfy the readers. So now I write down any ideas on my profile page so I can eventually get back to them. And when I post a new story, I make sure it's entirely thought-out so I don't stop abruptly.

Without Freedom Guard, I bet I wouldn't even have half the amount of chapters posted now. And the ones that would be posted would lack some creativity. Did he make me the type of writer I am today? No, I can't give him all of that credit. But he was a part of the ones that did. I know for a fact he was also the one who inspired many more writers to be at the computer, and he was there to help the ones who asked. Sometimes he would actually seek out others that could use the help, which was how we met. He came to me when I was writing my Halo/Mass Effect crossover. I was brand new to fanfiction, and a terrible writer at the time. But he messaged me telling me I did a good job for a beginner, and have a lot of potential. He helped me reach some of that potential. And we have been friends ever since, for many years.

Freedom Guard, you may be gone, but you will not be forgotten, not by me at least. You may not be here anymore to give me advice, but I will always think 'what would Freedom Guard do?' With your stories out there, I hope others will take some inspiration from them. In this life and the next, you will always be my friend.

Rest in peace, Freedom Guard. With all of the work you did for fanfiction and others, you deserve that peace.

Now regarding the story, man it feels selfish saying that after the dedication to Freedom Guard. But here it goes.

With my Halo/Mass Effect, yes I'm still continuing it. It's just... I am doing a huge rewrite over it. I don't mean going back to fix a few simple grammar problems or rewriting sentences. I do have my reasons for why. There are too many plot mistakes, and its too similar to a friend of mine's crossover.

The plot mistakes are pretty evident, they mainly conflict how a character would approach a situation. Some examples are The Master Chief not blowing up the Forward Unto Dawn when he leaves it so no one can take any technology, the Chief giving a tiny bit of information to Miranda about the Plasma Pistol, and getting John-117's armor damaged when Hock's Mantis crashes into him. I did have solutions for these mistakes that were going to be incorporated into the story. Like with the Forward Unto Dawn I was going to have the Chief go back to the ship to get it upgraded to Halo 4/5 variant so he would be able to use armor and Spartan abilities, which before that happens he would run into the Flood aboard it and then it would start his own Loyalty mission like in Mass Effect 2. The Master Chief would have to kill off the Flood on a Batarian ship and a station similar to Omega where he would encounter new Flood forms that infect Mass Effect species. With Miranda and the Plasma Pistol, she was suppose to get very little information and since the UNSC are confused by how Covenant technology is made, it was going to frustrate Miranda even more since she practically know nothing about it. And with Chief's armor, like I said it was meant to be fixed and upgraded to the Halo 4/5 variant.

Plus the story is too similar to a friend of mine's own crossover with the same categories. Back then when we were both first writing them at the same time, we were having fun coming up with ideas for our stories. We admitted to each other they would be incredibly similar to each other, and we were okay with that at the time. But now I am not alright with it. He is an extremely talented writer who is leaps and bounds better than me. Whenever he would post a chapter, it was actually depressing. I know I should be happy for him, and I am, but it made me feel inadequate as his quality was far superior than mine, along with he has more chapters than me. If you can guess who the writer is... well bonus points to you.

So now I am doing a rewrite of 'From Hell to Hell.' At the moment its still in the idea process. Hopefully it will be thought out and I can get to work on rewriting the chapters.

See you all soon.

Rest in peace, Freedom Guard.