Disclaimer: Contents of Halo belongs to Bungie/343 industries while Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and any starcraft reference made belongs to Blizzard. Anything else that you recognise from games, movies, shows, etc belong to their respective makers, while I hold rights to all OCs.

This publication is just a 'Beta' of some sort to gain feedback of a potential story of a Halo/ME crossover (obviously) that I have been thinking off for a while. So all in all this is just a rough draft, so please ignore inconsistency, 'awkwardness' in sentence structuring and errors, or actually better yet, point them out so I can change them. There will also be reference from other games incorporated into this story as well, mainly from Starcraft. Also as a pre-warning, if you will, there will no mention of anything mass effect related in the prologue.
Slight spoiler if you continue to read.
And finally to avoid any future confusion if the story does go on there will be THREE human fractions, with one being System Alliance, one being the UNSC and the last being prehistoric humanity(As no one wrote a story on them yet.)
Enjoy.

Prologue: Minutes to Midnight.

110,000BCE: Human-Forerunner war-3 days before the fall of Charum Hakkor.
Minutes to Midnight: 00:06:00.
Two humanoid figures in severely damaged armour stared each other down in a ruined city where the forerunner warrior-servants managed to land a force on it no more than a few days ago. The humans managed to respond in time, and a battle in epic proportion broke out on both ground and in space and what was once a beautiful city by both human and forerunner standards that was once home to hundreds of billions, now laid in ruin, as tens of millions corpses from both forerunner and human military laid scattered everywhere and literal rivers made of red from the corpses of both sides flowed down through cracks and crevices forming giant pools of blood. The charred burning husks of buildings and vehicles lay on the ground never to be used again and the broken hulls of destroyed ships, which once could bring awe and fear to all that gazed upon them, now forever laid to rest on the cold, tainted grounds of Charum-Hakkor, never to sail the stars again.

The human in black and slightly more bulky armour surveyed the scene around him, before sighing tiredly, his breached helmet showing an eye did nothing to keep the smoke and smell of charred flesh from his nose before his single hardened eye softened ever so slightly as he chuckled softly to himself before deactivating his twin wrist blades, his last weapons, and turned his attention to the only other living thing in the area.

This person known to both enemies and allies by the name of High Supreme Commander Sigma-018, a Dark Templar, the human black ops forces which also doubled as front line soldiers when needed and the best of the best, but his true name, given to him by his now long deceased birth parents was 'Crepusculum' which is only known to himself, a few other close friends and what remained of the top brass.

The forerunner brought her own wrist blades up ready to defend herself before the human spoke to her, "In the end, we are not so different are we, humans and forerunners…"
She was glad that her helmet, despite being cracked and dented, was still relatively intact and hiding her face as she didn't want to this human to see her anger as he talked about as if forerunners and these little humans were equal, but yet a very tiny part of her was curious to see what he had to say so she kept silent as he continued, "I mean, if we were to take away our weapons, armours, technology, mutations, augmentations, ignore certain cultural differences and strip us down to our purest and most primal forms…There wouldn't be that much difference would there, even if we did include the physical differences…"
The forerunner female growled out as the human said this, "There couldn't be two races more different…Despite our similar appearances, humans are no more than a rabid animal that's needs to be put down for the betterment of this galaxy…You attacked and pillaged fifty different defenceless species planets for its resources, and shortly after we have settled them as well. You claimed to be the true inheritors of the mantle, well I spit on your claims."
The human in front of her shrugged, unaffected by her words, "Perhaps, but we had a reason for what we did, though I'll admit, my superiors could have handled it better than order an attack on those world…anyways what about yours species? The mighty forerunners who rule the galaxy through their superior technology and who dares defies them get literally wiped off the face of this galaxy, we know those planets were never their respective home worlds, we know that you moved them so you can take their planets and colonize them, making your empire easier to defend, at least humanity never control and monitor a more primitive species to make sure they don't pose a threat to our empire, let alone forcibly move them from their homes…If I'm not mistaken, interfering with a species development is also against the mantle as well…"
The forerunner was silent as he said this, but in her mind she was seething with rage, not because he was wrong, but because he was right, her species had done that many times and committed many other sins against the mantle over their existence, before she could retort, the human continued on, "So I say again, we are not so different are we…And just like us, your race's arrogance and pride will be your fall one day."
"Your fleets and armies lay broken and shattered, what could you possibly do against a race such as ours?"
The human single eye from the broken visor showed amusement before answering, "Us? Nothing, we are probably days away from losing if not hours, but then again, from what experience has taught me, the universe is a vast place with many secrets some more deadly than others…And one of those secret almost destroyed us and the reasons for why this war began in the first place."
"Than what is this oh so terrible 'secret' then, if it's not just a story conjured up from your mind."
"Unfortunately I don't have clearance to talk about it…Maybe if you managed to capture me alive and pry it from my head before killing me than you would know it."
The forerunner than prepared her wrist blades, "Than prepare yourself…"
"Please, both of us can hardly move let alone fight and I know we already overused our psionic powers or we would still be fighting each other instead of talking. After hundreds if not thousands of fights with each other, it is inevitable you learn a thing or two about your opponent."
With that the forerunner lowered her blades slightly as the human continued talking, "So with everything said and done and neither of us capable of actually killing each other without dying themselves I bid you good day Delta of the Ghosts special operation division."
With that a slip space generated by the human armour opened up behind him, and as he was about to walk into it he turned around, "By the way, my name is Sigma, of course you probably already knew, and it has been an honour to have fought such an opponent."

With that he walked through the portal and it closed behind him leaving the forerunner alone in a once thriving human city turned graveyard. The forerunner identified as Delta stood rigid straight staring at the position the human once occupied and sighed, 'Perhaps not all humans are as aggressive and violent as we once thought…After all if I didn't know better I would have sworn I was talking to a forerunner…' Sighing again the forerunner known as Delta by many, whose true name, 'First Light of a New Dawn', known by only those she had worked with and part of the forerunner special forces whose skills and influences are said to be on par with a full rate promethean warrior-servant, opened her own slip space portal before going through it.

The slip space portal opened up in a deep underground base and as Sigma walked through he was immediately greeted by the few commanding officers of what was left of their rag tag military, "It's good to see you made it back safely supreme commander, though I really think you should have seen a medic about those wounds first." Said Lord of Admirals Forthencho, the highest ranking officer in the human navy as he looked at his subordinate armour to see it cracked and broken with blood slowly dripping out from multiple places, "As well as get a new set of armour from the armoury…"
Sigma waved it off, "That can wait, sir, there are more pressing matters at hand…" answered Sigma in a professional tone.
Forthencho nodded, "Of course, reports have just come in that a massive forerunner fleet is amassing just outside the system and from the looks of thing they are attacking in about two days and that the small group of eight stealth cruisers we launched a day ago have successfully made it pass the forerunner blockade and transitioned into slip space heading to Sector Centauri-192B."
Sigma nodded, Centauri-192B was a place consisted of four star systems two hundred thousand light years outside the galaxy that the humans have managed to 'build' when the they first encountered the flood as an emergency backup area to retreat to if they ever got over ran, but now it serves as a place to smuggle humans and whatever San 'Shyuums that stayed and fought with them to avoid the forerunners after they lost. Right now the population in the sector was around three hundred million humans, with 60 million as part of the military, while the San 'Shyuums had a population of around 120million and fifteen million in the military and the naval strength there was around three thousand combat worthy vessels of various classes, along with hundreds if not thousands of various classes of stealth ships used to smuggle people from forerunner blockades and 5 forty-five kilometre long ultra-heavy dreadnaughts that could rival the forerunner own fortress class warships…A small fraction of what is left of the once millions of ship strong navy and trillions of people strong military…
"That's good than…Anything else I should know?"
Forthencho nodded, "The last group of twenty stealth cruisers docked on this planet will be leaving in two hours' time…"
"With due respect sir…What has that got anything to do with me?"
"Because, as you probably already figured it out, you are going with them to centauri-192B."
Sigma sighed as the Lord of admirals said this, "Sorry sir, but I'm not going with them, after all they need me on this planet to hold off the next attack, though I suggest you go instead sir, they need a strong and experienced leader like you more than they need a black ops soldier like me." Though as he said this Sigma already knew full well that they won't survive the next attack, and any survivors that do will be captured and have their memory taken for study before being killed, as is the customs of the forerunner warrior-servants, but he wanted to face the forerunners one final time in combat to defend his people before passing on to the next life and not stuck on some planet in the middle of nowhere brooding.
"That wasn't a request, High Supreme Commander Crepusculum …That was an order…"
"Court martial me than, our military lays in ruins and on the verge of collapse, the only reason you still hold power is because we are loyal to you…"
"I truly regret doing this but you forced my hand…Lieutenant please come in…"
Eight fully armed and armoured Templars walked into the room and surrounded Sigma, "Eight Templars? For me? I'm flattered."
"They will escort you to your room reserved on the stealth cruiser Darkest Night do you have anything to say before you go?"
"What if I said no?"
Sigma turned around in time to catch a Templar's fist heading for his head as he ignore sharp bursts of pain all over his body from his wounds before feeling a sharp pain at the back of his head and his vision faded black as he collapsed towards the ground.
The lord of admirals nodded towards the group of soldiers and they saluted before exiting as they carried the body of the knocked out dark Templar to the ship.

Two hours 10 minutes later…
Sigma began to slowly open to a clean sterile room, unlike the messy, blood stained room of the once proud, now wrecked buildings and bunkers of Charum Hakkor and slowly sighed as his memory returned. He slowly sat up and looked down at his body to find angry scars all over it but no wounds, hence showing the effectiveness of human medical technology. He got out of his bed and slowly made his to a window and he stared out to see a parody of the planet they had once occupied, it's mighty fleet in the tens of thousands reduced to a few hundred battle scarred ships that looked like it could fall apart at any moment, the once green and blue planet turned into a blackened wasteland, it's once large ocean and forests now replaced by giant deserts and craters, and all that is left to signify that humans, let alone life was here in the first place was the huge orbital arches that linked to the orbital defence platforms and onto the planet surface made of unbending filaments, and the true last line of defence of the planet.
He continued to stare at the planet as they slowly passed the forerunner blockade fleet holding position just outside the firing range of the orbital defence platforms, as the planet grew smaller and smaller and continued on even as it disappeared from view. Finally he turned away as the ship made the jump into slip space.
As Sigma got dressed from the pile of military drabs left beside his bed he noticed a small decorated box and a small finger sized device. Picking it up he turned the device on and a hologram popped up with a short message:
'It has been an honour to have served alongside you…'
-From everyone you once knew…
Blankly staring down at the message he tapped the screen next to see a picture of what was left of the human military command and other people he had served with and gotten to know in one room saluting at him. He stared at the picture before noticing the timestamp on the corner of the photo and chuckled lightly to himself, 'Taken when I was still on the battlefield today? That mean you bastard planned this…'
He then turned off the projector before opening the box to find two different medals in it. The first one showed a silver planet cracked in half encrusted in a gold star lined with platinum, he has seen this before given to soldiers before they were evacuated; the Charum Hakkor campaign medal. Despite losing the war itself, the medal didn't represent the victories, that was achieved, but rather the 'last stand' of humanity and the San Shyuum in this galaxy as a galactic superpower and how they stood tall in the face of the void numerous times to turn what was supposed to be a quick defeat into a fifty years of constant warfare on one planet.
The second one a gold cross in the back and with a silver eagle clutching Erde-Tyrene; The Legion of honour medal, awarded for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of the life of the soldier, above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against the enemies of Erde-Tyrene and her colonies.
He closed the box and sighed, "You know all this sighing is making even me sad right…"
A small ice blue hologram of a human male in a battle scarred Templar armour without a helmet popped on the desk in front of Sigma as he stared at the box, "I'm just wondering…Why me of all people? I mean what will I do now, caduca spes?"
His personal Ai answered back a second later, after finding the write response, "Well…They will need someone to protect the survivors if a threat arises, and you are the leader of our best of the best…And what you will do? Well I suppose only you can answer that."
With slight a nod of his head Sigma exited the room.

3 Days later…
Minutes of Midnight: 00:05:00
Charum Hakkor, the last pocket of human resistance finally falls to the forerunner after fifty years of almost constant warfare. Lord of Admirals Forthencho and the majority of the remaining commanding officers of the military were killed in battle, while the majority of the survivors either committed suicide or were executed after having their memories taken, but despite the culling of humanity, a minority was spared due to the librarian's intervention and they were devolved both technologically and genetically.

Ten thousand years later…
Minutes to Midnight: 00:04:00
G617g1, a world that the forerunner was interested in claiming at the time had a small flood infestation, after losing contact with a group sent down; they sent another research group down and shortly afterwards, lost contact with them too. Fourteen days after the disappearance, they sent a military group down and this would be the beginning of a nine hundred year conflict with the flood.

600 Years later…
Minutes to Midnight: 00:03:00
After six hundred years of failing to try and contain the flood with quarantine methods more suitable for diseases and plagues and not a sentient being and along with losing millions of planets, installations and ships to them, the forerunner declare all-out war against the against flood and begins to fully mobilize their fleets and armies once again after ten thousand years since the war with the humans…After they rearmed after disarming no more than a few century ago of course.

150 Years later…
Minutes to Midnight: 00:02:00
As the war rages on, the forerunner were slowly getting pushed back, not because of the enemy technology or combat prowess, but rather by the floods cunning and extreme population and production rates, permission was given for the master builder named Faber to begin planning the construction of twelve super weapons that would serve as a last resort against the flood if the forerunner ever found themselves in such a situation where the flood will be free to take over the galaxy. These super-weapons would be known to the rest of the galaxy of future generations as the Halo Array.

Meanwhile the human empire having successfully re-established outside of the milky way and expanded the once small four star system to a mini galaxy of one thousand-two hundred star systems from asteroids and other materials obtained from dark space, along with a naval strength of 150,000 ships strong, armies in the hundreds of billions and new and improved technology, decides to sends stealth corvettes back into their old home to assess the situation.

A few days later they discovered that the forerunners are now fighting the flood and losing, which served to worry everyone, as they didn't have the strength yet to fight the flood, especially when it was discovered the flood had developed an immunity to the 'cure', which acted more like a disease or poison, that decimated the flood population and gave them the edge thousands of years ago. Now the governing body of humanity literally face palmed at the choice of destroying all their data on the flood so the forerunner couldn't get it and leaving them unprepared, hence by extension, everyone else in the galaxy as well.
A few weeks later, it was been decided while they would keep an eye on the war for now, humanity and the San Shyuums would also be fully mobilizing their forces while simultaneously begin creating new fleets and weapons as well as begin research into the flood and weapons once more.

Fifty years later
Minutes to Midnight: 00:01:00
Humanity fleets number just under five hundred thousand, while their armies just under six hundred billion, this number does not include the San Shyuums, who themselves hold a significantly less but still large number of military. The empire of the human-san Shyuum alliance had also expanded another ten systems in that amount of time, dedicated purely for military purposes. Stealth ships are sent out to scout and identify systems infested by flood.

Three month later: Human-San-Shyuum alliance flagship: Unyielding Guardian
It was agreed by the government and military along with the support ninety five precent of the current population, with the way the war is going and the amount of systems under flood control that it was time that they reveal themselves once more to wage war not against, but with the forerunner against the flood threat. Right now Admiral Virtus, an 'old generation' human, who fought in the war against both flood and forerunner, stood on the bridge of the new ship designed by both human and San Shyuum created specifically for warfare against the flood. This ship is a tempest class ultra-heavy dreadnaught measuring at 150km in length and filled to the brim with weapons, these ship even dwarves the forerunner newly redesigned fortress class warship which measured at a 100km in length themselves, and he had another three of these ships in the fleet not including the one he was currently on along with another seven thousand ships of various classes, all larger than a km in length floating in formation.
With a single thought the armour he was wearing open a COM inside his helmet, "Pathfinder Hidden Intent is everything prepared?"
"Yes sir, beacons have been dropped behind flood controlled slip space jammers. You have a back door sir."
As he said this, a green light blinked on in his helmet telling him everything is prepared, "Copy pathfinder, OPERATION: TEMPESTAS RAPIDUS is a go."
As he said this, the ship AI coordinated with other ship AIs and the fleet all entered slip-space simultaneously.

Seven hours twenty minutes since fleet jumped…
On the other side, a 'Pathfinder' class stealth corvette, whose primary mission is to scout, disrupt, sabotage and gather information, was parked in orbit over a forerunner core world called 'Luminous Hymn'. It was home to the forerunner third largest shipyard, as well as an economic powerhouse. Before the flood came, it had a population just under two trillion as well as a garrison of over a billion warrior-servants and a fleet of three thousand ships. About ten hours ago, they had been complaining about a malfunction of the long range slip-space sensor on the edge of the system, and so they sent a fleet of five hundred ships to investigate fearing it was the flood. But unfortunately it was the flood, and the moment they jumped out, the flood jumped in with eight thousand captured warships and twenty thousand civilian crafts and deployed slip-space and teleportation jammers over the planet. Caught with their proverbial pants down, the flood took advantage of the confusion by crashing infected civilian crafts on most of the orbital defence platforms, while a majority crashed on the planet as well as on a few ships and their warships opened fire. It was basically slaughter for the forerunner who managed to get out a distress signal before that was jammed as well. But fortunately the pathfinders were equipped to deal with such jammers and managed to send a communique back to FLEETCOM. They replied by telling him to drop a slip-space beacon that would allow ships to jump in ignoring the jammers and to wait, observe and report. That was what the crew of Hidden intent did, they watched as what was left of the uninfected forerunner fleet over the planet vainly attempt to fight back against the overwhelming numbers, watched as their forerunner reinforcement were slaughtered by flood reinforcement, as much as it pained them to remember the time when the forerunner would mercilessly kill any human, it pained them even more, especially the old generations who still remember that war, to watch the flood free again after all their efforts and sacrifices they made to contain, now free to destroy this place that they once called home again.
"Sir! Detecting thousands of slip-space ruptures. IFF matches with that of the Fleet of Righteous Glory!"
The captain nodded his armoured head, "Very well, detonate Anti-matter mines mixed in the flood fleet."
The officer nodded and with a press of a button on the holo-screen, fifty small suns appeared throughout the flood fleet destroying of disabling a fifth of it.

On the surface.
Ten thousand years after the human empire fell, Delta, found her race encountering the flood, the 'secret' threat that humanity found themselves pitted against. She learnt about it after they won the war, from memories acquired from survivors who still remember the horrors of the flood and from what little information the human archives still had on them. Though they didn't learn much about it, they did learn that it pushed the civilizations of both humanity and San Shyuum to the brink and made them desperate and in their desperation, it made them cruel, which in turn made them attack forerunner territory and did what they did to merely survive. Many of the warrior-servants became speechless, including the didact himself when they found out about that missing piece of information. But they themselves and the forerunner ecumene council believed all of it to be an exaggeration of the actual events that took place, but now having personally witness the parasite for themselves, most if not all of them agree that statement to be false. She sighed again before killing 3 promethean combat forms rushing her, she and many others truly regretted what they did to the humans and San Shyuums after that discovery, if they came out and said that they needed help because of the flood instead of attacking, than things might have been different, but the humans didn't and that was beyond her comprehension of why they didn't.
She was not stupid, this planet had long ago fallen, especially with the flood surprise attack and blockading the planet like what the forerunners did to Charum Hakkor during the ending days of the war, they now had no means of escape or reinforcement, it was just hold out as long as possible and kill as much of these abominations as possible before turning into one of them, she shivered at the last thought. As she was shooting flood after flood, her Ancilla in her armour than spoke up, "Multiple slip-space ruptures detected around the planet."
"Great…More flood reinforcements…"
"Negative, IFF matches neither forerunner nor flood and ruptures are created from unknown origins."
Before she could respond, five giant sphere of black appeared inside the planet's atmosphere and five ten km ships with familiar general design schematics came through and began releasing its cargo of fighters and mech suits as well as small pods, in deployment methods which was terrifyingly familiar to the humans, and almost immediately the ships and fighters of the newly arrived combatants began engaging the flood instead of forerunner and she released a breath she didn't know she was holding and began shooting flood again along with a small team of warrior-servants she rescued earlier, all the while listening to the com chatter of these 'unknowns' pushing back the flood. A few minutes later one of the ten km long ship flew overhead and released another wave of pods and fighters and one of the pods crashed twenty meters beside her and her group, a second later, the pod opened and the occupant climbed out with a rifle in hand and what seemed to be a heavy weapon on his back before looking at her group and began jogging towards them. He held up his hand showing non-hostility as they pointed their weapons at him, "Who are you?" ask someone from her group.
"A group of people your kind tried to kill off a long time ago and failed." He answered back in their language, obviously they had been studying them for a while and she frowned at that, also the voice sounded familiar.
Before anyone could respond they heard a howl and a platoon of flood infected forerunner combat forms came hurtling towards their position, before they were disintegrated by a missile from an unknown fighter.
"Thanks for the assist Aurora-actual…"
She looked at the unknown person before her as he said this, "Who are you really and no vague answers."
He just stared at her and shrugged, "Well if you and your group can promise not to try and kill me because I'm really not in the mood to be fighting you at the moment and it will probably start a war between us..."
"Don't worry we won't, unless you become a threat."
The person shrugged, "Well Delta, if you are asking for my race, I'm human, if you are asking for military branch; I'm Dark Templar, if you are asking for rank, I'm a High Supreme Commander and if you are asking for my name…well…you may call me Sigma…"
The group just stared blankly at him before he spoke up again, "Well as much as I like awkward situations, I suggest we get going, after all I'm supposed to meet up with the rest of the forces to set up HQ in your government building where all your forces and civilians are, so unless you have something better to do, we are just wasting time here."
And so they moved out clearing out flood along the way and rescuing shell shocked forerunner survivors and joining up with human forces. For the first time in history, humans and forerunner were working peacefully with one another against a common enemy.

As the war continues…
Minutes to Midnight: 00:00:30
When the San Shyuums and humans revealed themselves along with the intention of help fight against the flood, they were welcomed with opened arms by most of the forerunners fighting, but little did they know, it was already too late for them. At first everything seemed to be going well, the extra boost in troops and resources allowed the forerunners a bit of a breather and together they began pushing the flood back, but after a while, when the flood regained its bearings and adapted to the strategies of the humans and San Shyuums their progress was slowed considerably.

Set back after set back…Loss after loss; the flood for a time forced the new forerunner-human-san-Shyuum alliance into a stalemate until it was decided that a new type of AI dubbed the 'Contender-class AI' was to be created from the combined technological might of the three races to directly fight the gravemind, the AI called himself '05-032 Mendicant Bias', the top of the line military AI/Ancilla for the three races. But after the test firing of the first Halo ring on the old human-San-Shyuum capital of Charum Hakkor, did the forerunner unwittingly release an old prisoner from the planet that the planet's old occupants tried to keep contained, much to their ire. The worse thing that happened was the disappearance of both halo rings and Mendicant Bias along with the prisoner. Fearing the worst, the humans and San-Shyuums begin to increase ship and weapon production as well as refining their slip-space drives for extra galactic travel should the worst come.

Than the worst happened, Mendicant Bias returned with the missing halo to the forerunner capital and took control of another four of the eleven halos in orbit of the planet and attacked the forerunners. After the new found betrayal from Mendicant Bias, the alliance found themselves getting pushed back from all fronts and mass destruction of flood controlled systems from counter attacks did little to slow their advance. It was than they agreed to fire the Halo array, but unfortunately for them, Mendicant Bias returned with a flood fleet numbering in the millions and decimated the Maginot sphere, which forced the allies to accelerate their plans, fortunately for the forerunners, after fighting alongside each other for close to a century, each side had developed a healthy respect between the other side, and the humans with the backing from the San Shyuums, with slight unease, offered the forerunners asylum in the small galaxy that the humans and San Shyuums carved with their hands in dark space. Surprised, the forerunners gratefully accepted and an evacuation of civilians and unneeded military personnel begins on human stealth ships to minimize the chances of flood discovering the exact location of the system.

One hour before firing of the Halo Array.
Minutes to Midnight: 00:00:10.
Before the firing of the halo, the librarian went to Erde-Tyrene to index the humans, despite protest of the didact and the forerunner ecumene along with some of the high ranking officers of Human-San-Shyuum fleets. When the flood came for her, she destroyed all the keyships that she took with her along with any means of transportation, so the flood couldn't get to the Ark. As the Didact on his way to the Ark was about to send a small fleet to get her to safety, he was contacted by Fleet Admiral Virtus who told him that a group stealth ships stationed in the Sol system was able to save the librarian and her crew and transporting them to the their home as they spoke now. Letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding, "Thank you for saving her…What about things on your side? Are evacuation of you and your men completed?"
"Me? I'm staying behind with what remains of my fleet to assist yours in buying time and providing a distraction along with most of yours."
"No get your crew and fleet out of there! It is the our fault that the flood has became what it had became in the first place and it will be through our hands that will be righting the mistakes made…Your people already sacrificed enough for our mistakes…"
The fleet admiral chuckled lightly, "We humans are many things, but one thing that we do not do is abandon allies in a fight…Especially in such critical times. Besides the ships I have with me now are all volunteers and consists strictly of a skeleton crew…And for the record, despite our…history…it has been an honour to serve alongside you and your race." said Virtus before he cut the transmission.
The Didact stared at the wall of where the hologram had been a moment ago before whispering, "No…the honour is ours…" before exiting the bridge.

Ten minutes before firing of the Halo Array.
Minutes to Midnight: 00:00:01.
A man sat on the empty observation deck with his helmet on the floor as he stared out the window on board the Didact ship. He watched as the Didact himself took a drop-ship down, as the Ark prevented direct teleportation in from ships in orbit, as the mixed escort of forerunner and human capital ships floated around lazily and finally looked passed all of that onto the galaxy his race and that of countless other that has once called home literally be taken over by flood. The once beautiful galaxy now had black ugly holes of missing light from the countless supernovas caused to wipe out flood controlled systems and the usage of a human designed WMDs called the 'Final Light', an Antimatter bomb that can decimate all life within a radius of two hundred light-years. Deployed as a last resort in an attempt to slow down the flood advance and gain an upper hand as an alternative to activating the Halos. Fortunately it did slow down the flood, but unfortunately they didn't gain an upper hand and the strikes seemed to just merely annoy the flood instead. As he continued to brood on the thoughts, he slowly felt anger rising before it suddenly disappeared to only replaced by a sense of tiredness as everything he went through just collapsed on him and he closed his eyes and sighed tiredly as he placed his head between his knees.
Just then he heard the door slid open and someone entered and sat next to him before taking off her helmet as well. Taking a quick glance from the side of his eye, he saw long silver hair gracefully cascading down her back before he turned his attention to the wrecked galaxy again.
The two sat in silence for a minute before the second one spoke, "I suppose in the end you were right Creps…We aren't really that different…"
Crepusculum just chuckled lightly, "Perhaps…But what happens next…We destroyed at least quarter of the galaxy quite literally, abandoned countless species to the flood and purposely sent countless of good people to their deaths…"
"Simple, we rebuild and reseed the galaxy."
"What about us? What are we going to do now? What am I going to do now? I should have been the one that stayed behind on Charum Hakkor helping in its defence before the fall…Not knocked out and dumped onto a stealth ship retreating from the planet…Or at the very least in an interceptor or mech suit fighting to distract the flood right now…"
"You ever thought about talking to someone about these problems? Like your family?"
"Watched them get infected by flood during the initial outbreak when I was six…"
"Oh…Sorry…"
"Don't be…you couldn't have known…"
As he said this, the seven Halo ring fires, releasing a wave of its beautiful and deadly pure white energy throughout the galaxy which drew the attention of both occupants. As the seconds passed, Dawn placed her hand on his.
As he turns to look at her she merely smiles and says "If you don't have a reason to live…Well I guess I'll just give you one…"
With that they turn back to the galaxy, she leans on him and with a moment hesitation he put his arm around her draws her closer.

Hoped you enjoyed the really rough draft.
R&R any mistakes from story plot, characters, inconsistencies or just grammar and spelling errors. Also feel free to ask questions and provide opinions on how the story should go, names and schematics for new weapons, equipments, vehicles, spaceships, etc, but keep it realistic and proportional and not too overpowering(E.G: A ship capable of dishing out damage in the teratons is believable, a standard heavy weapon used by ODST or marines dealing similar amounts of damage is not…Unless it's for the ancient humans or forerunners than maybe...), credit will go to you, unless I have already developed something similar, than ill pm you and give you partial credit for it.
And before anyone asks, yes, both UNSC and prehistoric humanity will be a HELL LOT STRONGER than system alliance and citadel, as teratons stronger and supercarriers will actually be bigger than the one used in the covenant war and not nerfed to tiny seven km long ships with the firepower to tickle its larger counterpart...Though I might have to buff the citadel a little bit to keep things interesting…
And finally, for the forerunner-human-San Shyuum alliance/empire, I have no name coming to mind, I have some infrastructure of government, but no name for the general alliance so far, so any suggestions there will be hugely appreciated, though try not to make it too cliché or 'arrogant'. Also feel free to make any type of suggestions particularly in this topic.

This story will be continued either after my exams at Dec 2012 or Jan 2013 if people wants it to be continued. Also this chapter might be subjected to minor changes.