Welcome to the new and improved first chapter of Phantom Pain! I decided to come back to the beginning and make it more attractive to new readers and because I just felt like it. It's not a big increase of words, but I have changed a few things that seemed a little stupid or OP when I looked back at it.

I will also be accepting reader submitted content (OCs, vehicles, etc. No Spartans, though. I already have plans for that).

I hope you enjoy and not that I am in no case an expert in the SW or Halo lore.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Halo.

~Chapter 1: Departure~

Andrew Hallsson, captain of the brand new Quick Response and Exploration Marathon II-class Heavy cruiser dubbed UNSC William of Orange, was staring out into the blackness of space through one of the large windows on the bridge of his vessel. We have come so far. We survived so much and still we have no idea what lies beyond the Orion Frontier.

The young captain was shaken out of that train of thought when his communications officer called out to him. "Sir, we're being hailed by the USC Unbending Justice. Do you want it on the big screen?"

"No, officer Miles, just put it on my personal screen." He answered with a calm voice, barely able to keep his excitement at bay before a large holoscreen popped to life, showing a reptilian alien clad entirely in gold tinted armour with the exception of a helmetless head and a single red shoulder piece.

"Captain Hallsson," A deep, feminine voice came over the speakers and he couldn't keep a grin from splitting his trimmed beard in two. ", it is good to see you are well." He could hear the smile in her voice.

"The same, Shipmistress Mantakrea. Am I right to assume the Unbending Justice is ready for departure?"

"Yes, we are fully fuelled and stocked on provisions. Me, my crew and my ship are ready to accompany you on this great journey." She said, chuckling a bit at her own joke, and Andrew couldn't help but laugh a little too. People from before their generation would have likely found such humour highly offensive, but to them it was a simple jab between life-long friends.

They had met on their first days of school, on one of the mixed-race colonies founded some twenty years after the war. Some of the older kids had been bullying him until Kiyo' intimidated them so much (actually punching one of them in the face) that the bullies had left him alone ever since. Their parents were part of the CDF, pretty high ranked, actually, and often met outside work after finding out their children had become friends.

They had sort of lost contact after going to Earth and Sangheilios respectively for officer training, so Andrew was happily surprised she and her ship were coming with him.

"As are we. I'm just waiting for last minute checks from engineering and the we'll be ready to go." He said as he scratched his short beard, something that seemed to amuse the Shipmistress.

"I do not understand why you human males seem so adamant about growing facial hair. Does it not get in the way while eating?" She said in good fun.

Andrew raised a sceptical eyebrow, "Says the alien with a split chin."

"Touché, Hallsson." She chuckled.

"Been keeping up with human speech, have you now?"

"There is little choice when you grow up on a mixed race colony. I don't see you using the Sangheili or Unggoy language, though."

He was about to retort something about poetical bullshit in Sangheili language when a soft ding notified him that engineering was finally finished checking the new Dwarf Star-class reactor. It was basically a pair of reactors capable of generating the same amount of power as a Red Dwarf could.

"I have to go now. It's been great talking to you, Kiyo'." The young captain said as he crossed his right arm over his chest, forming a fist over his heart in a Sangheili salute.

Kiyo' saluted back and sent him one more four-mandibled smile before the connection was cut.

"Helm, disengage docking clamps." He felt the ship shudder as it disconnected from the station in orbit of Reach. "Set a course for the RV point. Lieutenant O'Malley, is the Unbending Justice following?"

"Aye sir, she should be coming up on our starboard in three, two, one… there she is." The Irish officer said as the dark blue shape of a CCS-class battlecruiser flew several tens of kilometres to their right.

The CCS was larger than his own heavily upgraded Marathon II. With its 1,782 meters it was a good 200 meters longer than his own ship and sported plasma torpedoes, plasma turrets, pulse laser turrets and two energy projectors.

Suddenly a green glow came from the pedestal next to in and the hologram of a man wearing a long, black woollen coat, a top hat and a walking cane like a true English gentleman from the 19th century would wear appeared. "Well, Andrew, chap, will we finally be off now?" the ship's green tinted artificial intelligence said, English accent clear in his voice.

"Indeed Edward, exited?" Andrew said, smiling at the 'smart' AI's enthusiasm.

"Of course! Playing eight-dimensional chess with the huragok does get kind of boring after a while. In fact I am playing 759 games of solitaire right now. And I just won."

Suddenly the comms crackled to life., *This is Reach space traffic control to the UNSC William of Orange, you have permission for joint slipspace jump with the USC Unbending Justice. Please follow the flight path to the designated coordinates for jump. How copy?*

The comms officer answered for Hallsson as the bridge crew went to work like a well-oiled machine, setting the hulk of metal and technology in motion. "We copy, traffic control. Proceeding to designated coordinates for slipspace jump. Receiving flight path. Transmitting codes… now."

*Codes received. Good luck out there, Reach control out.*

As soon as the transmission cut out two swirling blue portals appeared in front of the cruisers and with a grace not expected from such massive ships, they glided into the seven dimensions of slipspace.

Two weeks later,
0634 hours earth time

As the young captain approached the door to the labs he noticed that the ODST guards he had stationed there were silently conversing with a pair of Sangheili bridge guards. Kiyo' must've already arrived then.

His Sangheili friend and colleague was on board his ship because the eggheads had finally found out what the Forerunner device they had taken from the ruins did. Kiyo' had personally asked to see a live demonstration. It was after all not often you got to see actual forerunner technology in action.

As soon as he neared the door all four of the ODSTs (the rookies from each squad) shot into attention and saluted. "Sir," a voice called from one of the ODST, "The Shipmistress has already arrived and is waiting for you inside."

The captain shot a look towards the large Alien guards and raised an eyebrow at the private. "You don't say, private…"

"Gus Swanson, sir, sorry." The ODST seemed slightly flustered. Well, as flustered as a Helljumper could get, at least.

"Don't worry. So, fresh out of the Mars training camp, I see?"

Swanson seemed to relax a bit, "Yes sir, this is my first deployment on a ship this size."

"Ah, has the William of Orange been to your liking then? I trust… Gamma has been treating you well?" he asked, quickly looking at the emblem on the trooper's shoulder.

"Certainly, sir."

"It's been good talking to you, Swanson, but I have got an appointment with a certain Shipmistress. Good day." The troopers and bridge guards saluted in their respective ways as he passed them into the laboratory of doctor Henry Albert.

He saw Kiyo' standing a little to the side and quickly walked over to her, getting ready for one of her bone-crushing hugs. "G-hmph. Ow, my ribs, my ribs." She quickly let him go, sending him a sheepish smile.

"It is good to see you again face-to-face, brother. It has been too long."

"Indeed it has, sister. How long has it been, seven years now?" he replied.

"Yes, that would be about right. Andy, I'm sorry I couldn't be there after what happened to the Chernarus." She said sadly.

"Don't worry, Kiyo', I get that you couldn't just leave on an escort mission that important."

The three civilian scientists all looked up at the strange show of affection before going back to work. A fourth scientist, a balding man with a little bit of brown hair left on his head and a pristine white lab coat on coughed silently to get their attention up, "Ah, captain, now that you are here, we can start our demonstration."

The captain nodded, "By all means, dr. Ablert, show me what you've accomplished."

"As you see, we have connected two cables to the device, one for a positive charge and one for a negative charge. When we send a positive charge in to the device, this happens." He flicked a switch and a small slipspace portal about the size of a football appeared above the forerunner relic. "We have found what the Forerunners called pocket dimensions."

Henry reached into the portal and pulled out a steaming cup of coffee. "I put this in here three hours ago. As you can see it is harmless to the human body and keeps hot and cold things the same temperature. We tried putting a watch in there to see if time flowed differently and I now owe colonel Deralioux a new one. Needless to say, this will revolutionise storage and logistics."

He took a sip of the coffee and set it down on the table next to him. "Dr. Albert! Power levels are increasing to dangerous levels! I can't shut it off!" Items started flying around the room erratically, barely missing the scientists and the captain and Shipmistress.

"Give it a negative charge, quickly!" Henry shouted before being tackled by Hallsson and avoiding a chair that would have otherwise hit him In the head.

"I tried tha-" Everything went black as a blue sphere expanded from the device, growing and growing until it swallowed both cruisers before disappearing into nothingness. There was not a trace of either warship left.

Thanks for reading and please follow, favourite and review if you liked it. You may do so as well if you didn't like it, I'm not stopping you. Constructive criticism is appreciated, though.

May the Chief be with you.