Brothers of Steel – A Halo/ Mass Effect Cross Over

Chapter One: Chance.

"Wake me up, when you need me." Was the last thing the Master Chief, Spartan John 117 said to Cortana, the Artificial Intelligence that had bonded with him. She was full of attitude, but due to her advanced structure, she had become human, in her emotions. She had formed affection for humanity, but John in particular. In a way, she was his only real friend.

She was unable to sleep, her kind had never been designed to. She would have to wait, in the cold of space, waiting for the time that would they reach a human colony or a ship that would take them back to earth. The Ark, now destroyed, was located at the very edge of the galaxy, and they were hurtling through Dark Space, an area where nothing existed, no light or anything, but due to their prescence, they gave it form and mass.

She would have to sit there, in the cold dark of space, and think to herself. To many AI who were stranded for long periods of time, this caused an AI to go insane, and not be able to function with organic beings. This would cause problem. But while she stood in her portal, controlling the ship, the ship no longer having any slipspace capabilities, she could think back and go over the information she had been given from the first halo ring.

She formed in her head the worlds of the fore runners, and pictured herself moving and walk in them, looking at the beauty but functionality of their designs, their complex equations, and how they viewed the universe.

And for five years she lost herself in the world, not thinking of anything, not even considering that in her paradise she was forcing herself to become rampant, becoming more and more detached in her virtual reality. But then, a warning from the ship, woke her up.

She had been sitting in a field of grass reading a book, underneath a star lit sky. Then, she woke up, bringing her existence back into reality. And she saw what they were moving into. And it was time to wake up the Chief.

She stopped the cryo and called out.

"Chief, wake up!"

And then he woke up.

John felt the pain of the ice on his skin cracking but ignored it. He then got up and turning the flashlights on his helmet on, "What's the matter."

"There's a slip space rupture, I don't know how it got here, maybe a ship's reactor imploded on itself and formed it, but its large enough that its pulling us in!"

"Looks like we have no choice but to go in."

"But we don't know what's on the other side!."

"Didn't you already know that, Cortana?"

"I know, but,"

"You were hoping I had an answer, its ok. We'll get through this."

In chief's head he knew to himself there was a good chance they would not survive. He knew that this was the end, and he saw his life flash before his eyes, and though to himself, its funny because that never happened when I was fighting the Covenant or the Flood. And then he saw it, a life where he had never been given a choice, only given impossible odd after impossible odd, and forced to comply. He had fought the Insurrectionists, then he had fought the covenant, then he had fought the Flood, and then he had rested, but now he was being thrust against his will once again, to a new place. Where would it take him? He didn't know if he wanted to know. And then they were plunged into the rupture.

Urdnot Wrex and Urdnot Thurk looked up at the stars. They saw a strange purple flash in the night sky as something hurtled down into the atmosphere of Tuchanka. Alarmed, Wrex told his scout Captain Thurk to take a squad and check it out. They responded with a salute and moved out.

Master Chief was dreaming.

He dreamt that he was on his homeworld of Eridanus.

He dreamt that he was being taken away, taken to the Spartan facility.

He dreamt of Dr. Halsey.

He dreamt of the injections, and the torture, and the pain.

Then Dr. Halsey spoke in the voice of the Gravemind,

"Are you to weak to fight, are you too weak to choose?"

Then he woke up.

He was in a dimly lit cavern. He said, Cortana! But no answer. Was it possible she had become detached from him, then that was when he noticed that he had no armor. He looked around in the cavern and saw a hunched being by a fire, roasting some sort of meat on a spit. He got up and then it turned around.

The Being looked at him, and it was unlike anything the Chief had ever seen.

It reminded him of a dinosaur, but not in the same way the elites did, no, it was an alien that had a hunched back, and a forehead that rose in a bony plated crest. It had eyes on the front of its face like a normal biped, but it had a mouth that curved around its elongated face. It opened its mouth and said, in a language that somehow he knew, "Well look, the human wakes. Clan leader Wrex, he is awake."

John looked around him and saw another one, this one much bigger and having a different style of body armor. It said in a much deeper and venomous voice, "Ah so it has. Tell us human, why should we not kill you now. It is only of respect of your kind that I even allowed you to live this long."

"Um, I am not your enemey for one, and I am disarmed, as you have seen fit to do," replied John, uncertain of his odds of fighting the strange creatures.

"Answer me a question," said the one named wrex, "Who the hell are you? Your armor is unlike any I have ever seen. And you had an AI, which are illegal in council space, in your suit. We removed the chip that it was in from your armor, but we got to talk to it, and it threatened us."

"That would be typical," said John, looking at his pale skin.

"Answer the question."

John replied, "I don't think you would believe me."

"Try me, I've done a lot of things that most people wouldn't believe."

"Well to be honest I don't even know where I am. I am Petty Officer John 117 of the United Nations Space Command. I'm a Spartan II, and I was probably reported missing in action after the battle of the Ark."

The alien looked at him with an air of dumbfoundness. Then it said, "Hmmm. I don't even know what those things are. Could you give a little explanation before I deem you insane and shoot your head off."

"Right, well, do you know of Earth?"

"Earth? Of course, the humans are the second most powerful race in the galaxy, in terms of political and economics, not as powerful as us on the battlefield though they got the resources to back themselves up."

"Okay, so does the United Nations Space Command still exist?"

"Thurk, do you know anything from reading the damn extranet about a United Nations Space Command?"

"No, I don't remember such a thing ever existing. Just the Alliance."

"The Alliance?"

"Don't tell me you don't know of the Alliance!" Shouted Wrex.

"Okay I don't, I can't really understand what's going on here. I'm a Petty Officer, a Spartan dammit. My ship was the last ship out of the Ark before it exploded. Nobody knows about that? Nobody knows of the war with the Covenant and the Flood?"

"The Covenant, the Flood?" shouted Wrex, "what the hell are those things?"

"The covenant was our first enemy, an alliance of alien races, no offense, they threatened to destroy us all, since we were heretics in the eyes of their religious leaders. And the Flood were parasites, and they threatened to destroy the galaxy."

Thurk looked at Wrex and they turned around, whispering. Chief then decided to be bold, "Listen, I can obviously tell you think I'm insane."

"With good reason, you are making up stories, but what I want to know is who made your armor. Its shields are much stronger than anything we have, it offers the same protection of a biotic barrier with an underlying layer of armor.

"Plus, it had an AI in it, AI are illegal."

That was so far the weirdest thing that he had encountered, in the UNSC AIs were beloved. How could they be illegal in the galaxy now?

"Ok, I've told you what I know about my situation. After the battle of the Ark I drifted into a slipspace portal and now I've been teleported here."

"A Slipspace portal?," wondered Wrex.

Then Thurk said, "That wouldn't happen to be the purple flash we saw in the night sky would it?"

"Yeah." Said John.

"Okay what are you then?"

"A Spartan."

"A Spartan, what is that."

John was surprised they had never heard of the Spartans, if they had heard of Earth, and the Human Alliance , which had to be what the UNSC was calling itself now. These new aliens must have never been encountered until later. Then John replied, "We are soldiers. The best."

All the aliens laughed.

"the best soldiers?" Mocked one of the aliens, " no human has ever proven themselves to be considered a warrior , none our better than us."

"Except for Shepard," said Wrex.

"Yes, Shepard."

John outbursted, "So what are you going to do with me?"

Wrex answered, "You say you are a warrior, prove it. Wrestle with Thurk. If you beat him, we will let you have your armor back. Lose, and I will let him eat you."

"He looks very nutritious," said Thurk.

"Yes," said Wrex,"Prove your skill."

John had no choice. If he didn't win, he would have to become a snack for these stupid aliens. And he needed to talk to Cortana. So he remembered the battles of strength he had with the Elites, and prepped himself for battle.