Kin From The Stars: Incursion

Prologue Part I: Discovery

Semper Vigilans - Always Vigilant - ONI Motto

5th August, 2568 (UNSC Standard Military Calender)

What they were currently seeing redefined Human history as they knew it, more so than the Forerunner revelations. The sheer amount of new Intel pouring in from their Recon teams was enough to cut their AI's expected life span in half, their minds overwhelmed by just how much they learned in hours.

Now the Office of Naval Intelligence's top brass sat at a table inside a ship that didn't officially exist, to once again discuss information that would possibly never see the light of day.

"So just how many know?" was the first and obvious question.

"Beyond our Prowler crew? Only anyone who has access to this room," Rear Admiral Antony Curtyn; chief of the ONI Prowler Corps, responded.

"What about the original exploration vessel that uncovered the... anomaly?" A question came from Captain Gibson.

"They never actually saw the planet or the stellar object, they only detected its energy readings," Curtyn reassured them. "The Prowler that followed up the lead, suspecting an alien contact, were the only ones who witnessed the stellar object. I still have them on stand by in a nearby star system, waiting for further orders."

"The decision is, should we investigate this further?" one of the senior brass questioned. "and should this information be ever divulged? To the civilian government or even the populace as a whole?"

"Only as the last option," Admiral Margaret Parangosky quickly quashed any possibility of that. Indeed, the look on ONI's commander in chief's face was one of deep thought mixed with an unavoidable discomfort. Indeed, the one hundred and six year old head of ONI seemed more than uncomfortable with the situation "While the validity of the information currently being processed cannot be denied, for obvious reasons, this information will never be released unless contact becomes inevitable."

"Our obvious choice of route would to be initiate long-range, or even close range studies," Curtyn added his own advice. "It's likely we'll never see an opportunity to conduct such investigations like this again."

"They would have to be conducted carefully," the head of Section II; ONI's propaganda branch, Elisa Thompson argued. "We should not even estimate the back lash unleashed if this backfired and we were brought accountable for it."

"We won't," Parangosky agreed, "any recon or operations conducted from this point forward, would obviously through proxies."

That wasn't something they had to do for quite some time. For over a century now, they had grown accustomed to operating inside UNSC where they were above the law, and outside it, where they considered was no law. Since the end of the Covenant War however, ONI had begun to grow a new small batch of 'private organizations' which served as separate vessels for their operations in former Covenant space, to stay true to the Treaty that HIGHCOM had bound them under.

They even had a few Kig-Yar mercenaries who had been covertly recruited, to operate under the orders of their convert agents. They were paid well, and no one, not even the Kig-Yar themselves had any clue that who held their chain. It was a bit bothering when they were wiped out by their fellow clans, though over the years, they have grown more experienced in handling Xeno mercenary forces.

"I wouldn't go as far to start planning any field trips yet until we know exactly what we're dealing with," another Division Leader within Section III added. "I still don't believe that we could have found another Humanity. Processing a revelation like this, is beyond the entirety of the scientific branch."

Another Humanity indeed. Aligned with alien races. It was hard to swallow, almost beyond imaginable.

"On the other Humanity branch of the argument, have you come up with any possible theories to explain this yet, Doctor Lendin?" Elisa Thompson raised the question.

"Our AI's are doing their best to compare the information our Prowler extracted from their equivalent of a planetary network, their home world, timeline and ours," the head of their Scientific Branch; and ONI's chief scientist ever since Doctor Halsey had 'died' so to speak, Doctor Lendin answered. "However, we put the time which either of our populations were separated at more than fifty thousand years, which is far too little time for this to be the work of the Forerunners, who were already terminated by the Halo Array at that time. It's still tens of thousands of years prior to even the first events of recorded history among the Covenant species."

"Another alien presence then?"

"Exactly my thought," Lendin agreed. "While from the uncovered artifacts show in Covenant civilization that they had the... gifts of the Forerunner, they were certainly not the first group of space fairing species to return to space after the Halos activation. If an alien race visited the Earth about fifty thousand years ago, took a number of subjects to another world... we could have kin among the stars."

"A very interesting subject," Parangosky nodded, "but we must all understand that this discovery poses a greater threat to our own civilization than the Covenant War."

Everyone assembled in the room past gazes between each other, wondering if the person sitting next to them knew more than they did, and perhaps this new branch of Humanity were insane cannibals that could send the Covenant running for their mothers. However, this threat wasn't in a conventional sense, but a cultural threat.

"I'm bloody well sure, that nobody in this room would even think they could imagine a time when there was no more than one government that represented the entirety of Humanity," Parangosky explained, standing up. "When the UEG was founded, and the UNSC beyond that, the first President made a speech that defined us.
Never again, shall Humanity stand divided. Never again, will any of Humanity live under another code of law that is not the accepted law of the many."

"I am quite familiar," Doctor Lendin nodded, "the exact philosophical reasoning for combating the insurrection."

"And the exact reasoning that I'm saying now," Parangosky agreed. "If the masses ever became aware of a Human government that is not the United Earth Government, then I'm must confess that we would not stand any test of time. I think we all must agree, that the UNSC saved Humanity. If we had appeased the Insurrection Movement, let our colonies separate themselves from Earth, then we would have never stood one chance at surviving the Covenant."

That itself, was undeniable true fact. Assuming that every UNSC world had been self-governed at the time of the Covenant War, then each world would have obviously taken to its own best interests, and the Covenant would have defeated each planetary military world by world instead of facing the united UNSC fleets that had bulked together, fortified and coordinated a joint response from across the entirety of Human space.

Any many among those present now, that Humanity wasn't just saved by the UNSC's military strategy, but by their own less ethical and... Utilitarianism means. Without the UNSC, there would have been no Office of Naval Intelligence, and thus forth there would have never been any Spartan Program, a key factor in their survival.

It had been the UNSC that protected Humanity, guided it, acted in the overall interests of it, and had grown Humanity to where it was now.

"What we know of this 'Systems Alliance', is the fact that they have allowed Humanity to leave their jurisdiction and space, and have allowed their independence to be corroded by alien powers which constrain technological advances such as AI technology. The fact is, they are weaker for it. If we informed the UEG Senate, they would obviously be naive enough to step forward and make contact with them. Two results from this. Either this Citadel Council would attempt to force us together with our lost brethren and we lose everything, or the Insurrection would collapse the UNSC under a surge of protesters demanding the same rights of this other Humanity."

There was a collaborative nod from every Section and Division Head of ONI. The two obvious outcomes presented were possibly the only results that could out of contact, maybe asides from a small hope that the UNSC could starve off another even greater civil war against the rebellion possibly backed by interlopers from this other Humanity.

"It is our duty to protect Humanity and the UNSC, and we shall do so," Parangosky concluded. "From what our AI's conclude, they and their alien civilization counterparts have built themselves upon a network of jump gates they term Mass Relays. This means, by our own standard, they are randomly scattered across the entirety of our galaxy. Once again, relying on this Mass Relay technology, they have weakened themselves since they have not uncovered any means to go beyond a star cluster on their primitive FTL tech. It is fact that our reversed engineered Covenant Drives can reach speeds a hundred times that of their own FTL, and that's not even considering how tiny that is compared to the Forerunner Slip Space Drives.
This means, that as long as they keep to their Relays, they will never uncover the UNSC which sits beyond the boundaries which they can travel. Meanwhile, we have the opportunity to gaze in on them. As the Rear Admiral here, suggests," she nodded to Curtyn, "we can study them without even a chance that they will know of our existence. Thankfully enough, we still look exactly the same as our kin, and this opens up possibilities for infiltration and recon."

"I'll see to it, that the UEG Department of Navigation marks all these star clusters within these Mass Relays exists as hazard sectors," Curtyn agreed. Even Rebels and Pirates steered clear of areas of space that had been marked as dangers, not willing to chance it that the government was hiding something or they really were about to jump into a Slip Space anomaly that saw them transit into a wormhole.
Also, by the coordinates of the cluster we found, I place it too far away for the old covies to uncover anytime soon."

"From this point forward, this discovery and information relevant are classified and shall only be discussed within Section III, Beta Five. Rear Admiral Curtyn will coordinate the further reconnaissance of the Systems Alliance coordinating with the Asymmetrical Actions Group." Parangosky declared, sealing the fate of all that was revealed to ONI's top brass. "Section I, is furthermore responsible for silencing any leaks of the existence of this information and I want Section II to prepare a contingency package in case that contact is initiated."

Indeed, this was big enough to coordinate all Sections of ONI; save for Section Zero that handled internal investigations. For everyone inside Odin's Eye, on the ship that didn't exist known as the Point of No Return, their prospective on the universe had changed forever.

Humanity hadn't just found aliens amongst the stars.

Several Months Later...

21st November, 2192 (Systems Alliance Earth Standard)

Across the expanse of the galaxy, far from even the Orion Arm, stood one who was a legend to the many.

Commander Mathew Shepard knew the dangers of becoming the reclusive hero. Following the Reaper Wars, in the many conversations he had with people he'd met along the way, Kahlee Sanders; a friend of the late Admiral Anderson, had told him about her farther, the legendary John Grissom who had at his time been a mythical hero amongst Human history as Shepard was today, though Grissom never wanted the spotlight, and became a reclusive old man who just wanted to escape his own identity.

It wasn't a path he wanted to go down, and Shepard at least knew he couldn't disappear forever. He had kept up the fight. Against the remnants of Cerberus, and later against the resurgent threat from the Terminus outlaws.

That was why he was currently once again standing on the bridge of the Normandy as it initiated yet another jump through the Relays.

"Hitting the relay in 5..."

"A countdown is pointless, Jeff. I am perfectly capable of monitoring our progression to the Relay."

"Way to kill the nostalgia, EDI," the pilot Jeff Monrou, otherwise known as Joker, chuckled. "There are only two people on this ship that remember the initial Utopia shakedown run."

"The way Eden Prime kept going down, I think the star system is in need of a rename," Shepard nodded in agreement. "Less Utopia, more the Bad Luck System."

"Oh, I'm sure they're not getting invaded this week again..." Joker rolled his eyes playfully. "We go through the next Relay to Hades Gamma, then were only six more Relay jumps till the Perseus Veil."

"Makes me wonder how Sovereign initially got this far from Geth space without somebody noticing," Shepard commented, gazing out at massive colossal structure known to the galaxy as the Mass Relays grew ever larger as they approached. "Though, I guess have your own personal Relay network helps, doesn't it?"

The Mass Relays generated a mix of emotions amongst them. While having the Relay system back again and intact about a few years after the war, they still didn't know everything about them as the Reapers did. The Reapers could adjust Primary Relays to jump to any other Relay nearby, and they could adjust secondary Relays to send them pretty much anywhere in the galaxy. Despite having overthrown the galaxy's Reaper masters, they were still like kids playing with advanced technology. They could use it, but they didn't particularly understand how it worked yet, either.

Hopefully, however, they would be one step closer to finding out the Relay's inner workings soon, as well as working out how the Reapers also had so much more efficient jump drives.

"I could imagine it," Joker nodded in agreement. "No more traffic congestion for me. Seriously, the Relays into the Serpent Nebula are more congested these days than if you tried flying the entire old Migrant Fleet through the Presidium ring."

"Speaking of the Migrant Fleet, and thus speaking of-"

"Yea, yea, I get the picture, Shepard," Joker told him. "Tali still down in engineering?"

"Running the entire engineering component of the ship, yes," Shepard answered.

"The Normandy's necessary crew is actually significantly low, as long as I am present and we acquire regular maintenance between trips," EDI replied. "though Miss Zorah's continued operation of engineering without the assistance of Chief Adams, or Engineers Kenneth or Gabriel is remarkably efficient, all things considered."

"And I can fly this thing pretty well much on my own, so I guess all the rest of the crew have always been performance boosters rather than necessities, right?" Joker commented. "Or should I pick up the additional role of reminding you about your unread messages?"

"Well, after you taste anything I put together, you're going to have to add a cook to your list, Joker," Shepard added jokingly, nudging the pilot's seat.

"Gah..."

They hit the Mass Relay, and the Normandy was shot through faster than light speeds and ended up in another star cluster in the matter of seconds. Joker didn't drop them directly out at the Relay, but continued to drift, using only the minimum amount of fuel to move them just a bit closer to their destination at the next Relay.

"What you know? Drift in under fifth-teen hundred K."

"What am I supposed to say? Fifth-teen hundred K is good? Your captain will be pleased?"

"Something like that. We should have brought Kaiden along for this trip, and this whole nostalgic rerun could have gone a whole lot further," Joker answered.

"I don't recall anything about short conversation to make it nostalgic, really," Shepard commented.

"Yea, well, you just don't remember the hailstorm of rainbows and bunnies we encountered on Eden Prime," Joker muttered sarcastically, as they heard the door open behind them.

"What's this? You're remembering old times without me?" Tali jokingly told them, nudging Shepard's shoulder as she passed him.

"Be thankful," EDI answered, swiveling around in her chair , "I find sarcasm a rather unpleasant way of communicating."

"Better than saying 'death bots and their sentient dreadnought god', EDI." Joker responded, tapping away on the controls as he spoke. They dropped out of Faster Than Light in preparation for another Relay jump to the next Star Cluster. "A few more Relays to Rannoch."

"It'll be good to be back again..." Tali muttered.

"This time for a little longer stay?" Shepard smiled.

"Hopefully, yes." Tali nodded in agreement. It had been six years since the Reaper Wars, longer now than their entire journey (including the time he had technically spent dead), of three years by double. He hadn't exactly been able to retire, and months spent scouting for Cerberus Remnants became a year, then another... it was fine, as Normandy was as home to them as anywhere could be. While the remaining unindoctrinated Cerberus forces were willing to surrender at the sight of an Alliance patrol, demoralized beyond restoration, the time it had taken for them to bust down every last remnant had taken a year, which then became another...
By time they finished dealing with Cerberus, the piracy and slaving business in the Terminus Systems had already recovered and was operating once again. Thus, they were thrust into another conflict.

"So once I drop you on Rannoch, I'm sure I'm able to take the Normandy for a little joyride around the galaxy, right?" Joker asked. "I'll have it back in one piece, I promise..."

"You know that the Normandy is to be returned to dry dock, Joker. Can hardly have you lose another Normandy," Shepard told him.

"Damn, I was totally hoping to scare some-" Joker stopped mid sentence, glancing down at the controls. "Hold on a sec. There appears to be a communication coming in; on the Quantum communicator."

"Just who from?" Shepard asked. Joker rolled his eyes again and began speaking mockingly:

"Why, it's just the Council calling on their new direct line, to boss us around some more. No. It's our old friend the Shadow Broker, of course."

"Liara?" Tali questioned, knowing that this might just be an interruption. A friendly social call would have come through the old relay COM buoys, not the Quantum Entanglement Communicators.

"Must be something important," Shepard concluded what they all knew. "I'll head back, and check it out." He turned around and headed back through the bridge door and Tali followed.

"Yea... well, just call ahead if were being diverted to another endless desert in the search of lost relics!" Joker called to them as they left. As the bridge door slid shut behind them, Tali rested her head against his shoulder as they walked.

"It'll be nice to get back to Rannoch again... a nice holiday for a while."

"It's good to get out of the Normandy for a while, right?"

"If it wasn't for EDI, I would have gone insane recalibrating the ship's equipment by now..." They passed through the old checkpoint, the scanner long since deactivated and left that way.

"Tell me, are the main guns calibrated?..."

"One more joke from Garrus and the next thing that Thannix Cannon will be firing is at you, bos'tet..."

They both stepped through the door into what had been the War Room during the Reaper War. Afterwards, a majority of the technology in the room save the table in the center had been removed by the Alliance, honestly no longer needed here. The entire room was empty save for the railings. Beyond however, was the Normandy's still intact Quantum Entanglement Communicators.

They eventually stood before the Communicator, and Shepard hit the bleeping panel for the incoming call to be brought up. Before them, a hologram of Liara T'Soni appeared, the Shadow Broker sitting and not standing.

"Ah, Shepard. Tali." The Asari nodded in greeting to the both of them. Shepard returned the nod.

"Liara. Going well?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking, but I had to call you on something I found."

"It's rather an inconvenient time for this now, don't you think?" Tali questioned.

"I don't mean to drag you off course, but this information is rather concerning." Liara told them. "While you've been busy, in the Arcturus Cluster, at Benning, a sensor array belonging to the local universities set up to monitor nearby stellar anomalies detected strange readings not too far from the planet. It's not the output of Ezeo or anything we've encountered."

"You called on the Quantum Communicators to talk about an anomaly?" Shepard asked.

"If you'd let me explain, further, I'll explain that what many think is an anomaly, is something else entirely. It's very important."

"What's so special about this anomaly?" Tali questioned.

"Rips, and tearing in space itself. A hole, large enough to consume a ship, appears, but only for an instant before closing again. It appeared once, and then again nine hours later. The anomaly was noted, even reported, but then it happened again in larger numbers a week later. A ship was actually sent out to try to predict where the next tear would happen so it could be studied, but it could never get close enough. Until it was realized that a heat signature appeared each time this rip happened."

"So, holes in space let out hot air?" Shepard assumed, not exactly being a scientist in wormholes.

"No, nothing like that, even if it was possible to begin with. It's a heat signature of a ship, much like the Normandy's own stealth system. When emerging from FTL, the stealth system is unable to hide the amount of the ship's heat. Having worked on the Normandy myself, I was quick to recognize the signs of a stealth ship."

"The Alliance has many new Normandy Class Frigates itself, as well as the Hierarchy now," Shepard reasoned. "Sure this isn't just the Alliance testing new jump drive technology or their stealth systems?"

"With the Network functioning at full capacity again, as the Shadow Broker, I'd know about pretty much anything taking place anywhere civilized space. I doubt that anything we know of could have caused these worm holes. I honestly think it's a ship, though my theory however, has supposedly been debunked by this..."

Liara reached down and tapped a few buttons on her desk, transmitting two video streams, one an unedited version and another in Infrared vision. Shepard and Tali watched as the wormhole appeared, a blue gap torn in space. On the infrared, Shepard saw a mass of heat move out of this tear in space, though he saw totally nothing on the unedited video.

"Nothing we can see, comes out," Liara summarized, "this eventually led most back to what I consider ridiculous: some kind of anomaly caused by solar wind. I however, studied it closer and found this."

The footage played again, but the video was zoomed in and slowed down. They watched again as the infrared signature passed through the circular gap, but this time, the other video stream showed a shimmer pass through, this shimmer also passing through the infrared mass.

"What is that?" Shepard questioned.

"It's not like solar wind. The shimmer fluctuates in and out." Tali asked.

"The shimmer is far to irregular to be solar wind," Liara agreed. "I've constructed a profile from this, and I believe it does indeed fit something the size of a large Frigate. I even compared it with another set appearances of the anomaly, and I've discovered that they're highly alike. It some, it even happens in reverse, which I assume is the ship leaving the system."

"So your theory is that it's a ship creating these wormholes? Coming and going?" Shepard asked.

"More importantly, an invisible ship," Liara nodded.

"That's... impossible," Tali shook her head. "I mean, we've seen a few working portable stealth field generators around the place, and the Geth have them, but they just take up too much energy to ever even think of deploying on a ship. They're useless anyhow, seeing that most of the time, you can't see a tiny ship in space anyway."

"They'd be highly useful however. Combine invisibility with our current stealth systems, and we wouldn't have anyway to detect such vessels," Shepard noted. "They could decimate every ship we have, and we'd be defenseless."

"A very chilling line of thought, I agree," Liara nodded. "What's more important, is the fact that these invisible ships can spy on us, and we have no idea who they are or what they're doing. After coming out of their wormholes, we'd have no idea where they went after that."

"What I find more interesting is that Reapers never used technology like this," Shepard added.

"It could be like Legion said," Tali commented, "maybe this technology just wasn't on their technological path... and neither is it on ours."

Possibly indeed. Shepard knew the Reaper's technology was inherited from their almost vanquished creators: the Leviathans, and from what he knew of them, he doubted the Leviathans ever required the essence of stealth to conquer the galaxy. The Reapers obviously didn't ever need stealth either, with brute force a far easier option to them.

"I'm all but certain that these ships are coming in and out of the Euler System, and ever since we've started studying them, they just disappeared and began appearing somewhere else, on the dark side of the gas giant Silva, like they don't want to be found. When we tracked them there, they disappeared again. Perhaps they thought infiltration now was too risky, or perhaps they're now entering the system through an even more convert entry location."

"To you think you have enough evidence to put this forward to the Citadel Council, yet?" Shepard asked. "If these really are incursions, then they should know."

"Currently, every astrologist in the Arcturus Stream is debating over this," Liara told them. "While my opinion would be highly credible to any theory, I don't think the Alliance personally wants to even hear anything that could be trouble after the Reapers."

While Shepard personally despised those who dug their heads in the sand when trouble brewed, those same who caused so many damn casualties to the Reapers, he could understand the Alliance; still crippled by the war, not in any sort of mood for finding any trouble or causing unrest. It was better to blame this wormholes on a series on anomalies rather than dig into the alien incursion theory that would put everyone back on edge. Still, there was a price of ignorance.

"So do you have any further plans to look into this?" Shepard then questioned.

"Well, the exact reason I called you, was to see if while you were taking a break, Jeff could bring the Normandy to the Euler system and use your scanning system to see if we can track them. If we could get some real concrete evidence, it would move things along greatly and maybe even bring our possible visitors out of the shadows."

"That could be done," Shepard agreed.

"Thanks, Shepard," Liara nodded. "I'll send through the exact coordinates to Joker. Be safe, and may the goddess go with you."

The communication terminated and the Asari disappeared. Shepard didn't know what to think of this, but he trusted Liara's own thoughts. He turned, seeing Tali slouched against the wall slightly.

"What do you think of it?" He questioned.

"What do I think? That somewhere, somebody takes joy out of ruining every chance we get to spend some time together. We had to cut our last break short so you could resolve one incident, now it looks like our latest time away is going to get cut short if Joker pulls some alien spies out of the shadows kicking and screaming."

"Well..." Shepard shrugged. "then I'm sure hope they have the sense to run away when they see him coming. I promise this time, nothing-"

"Don't lie," Tali shook her head. "We both know when something comes up as it always does, we have to drop what were doing and run off again to resolve it. Don't tell me that if we suddenly got invaded by some invisible aliens tomorrow, you'd shrug it off and tell the Council you'd leave it for next week because it's been more than a year now since we've gotten to spend some decent time by ourselves. You'd have to get back on the Normandy, and do something. It's what I expect."

"You know I hate how it has to be that way," Shepard answered, taking her hand. "You know I've planned for us to leave the Normandy. Permanently. It's just..."

"You've figured out, that we never truly have stopped having problems. It's fact. After we finished with Cerberus, it had given enough time for all the Pirates that the Reapers had trimmed to come back in full force. After we dealt with that? There's simply just more somewhere else. It will never end, Shepard, we just need to..."

"give up and live the rest of our lives in peace?"

"Yes!... well... maybe. You've done so much, sacrificed so much, and of all people, you just deserve to just leave this behind. Really."

"Sometimes I want too, I really do, but... I'm worried that every time I turn my back, it'll all just fall apart. It's never been about the Geth, Cerberus or even the Reapers. It's been about... for the last few years, the Normandy's presence has broken the backs of any pirate or slaver incursion any cluster we've visited. I'd never forgive myself if I turned my back for a second, and another Mindoir happened..."

"That wouldn't be your fault and you should never think otherwise. Shepard... you won't be able to do this forever. One day, you'll have to accept that it's time to... let the galaxy run its course without you."

"Then what would you say then, if we just didn't come back from this break? If we left here, and never returned from the Normandy?" Shepard asked. "I've still got that promise to keep."

"Trust me, we've always got time for that as long as we live..." Tali told him, "just... I have to admit, the reason I've stayed all this time that the Normandy has been more a home to me than any house could be. If we come back to this after the month we spend on Rannoch, I don't mind. All I care about, is that if the time came, you'd be happy walking away from this."

"I'll always be happy as long as we're together..." they embraced in a hug.

"Thanks, Shepard... it really matters to me."

"I survived the Reapers, Tali. I don't think there's any stronger force in the universe that could keep us apart."

"Tell me, Doctor, what are the differences between... us and them." Vice Admiral Ned Rich questioned, looking quite intrigued at the work before him.

"There are actually very few differences, actually. There was once a theory that time was cynical. If one was placed under the same conditions, with no differences what so ever, would events occur the same? It is questionable," Doctor Lendin explained. "assume you Terra formed an entire star system, adjusted it with the great technological expertise that the Tier 0 species had, a placed an amount of Humans all across the planet... assume we had two Earths? Would they progress the same?"

"But aren't obviously the same," Rich questioned.

"Indeed not. While we see that they have a Terra formed Earth... or maybe we have a Terra formed Earth, that seismic events, cataclysms and other sorts happens in different time periods, as well as a completely different history. While it is geography itself that forms national borders, and they indeed did also go through similar time periods to our own. Since the gap is only about fifty thousand years, they haven't developed any significantly different language patterns, though they live in a translator based society where two individuals could speak a different language and never know the difference their entire lives."

"I expect history and geography to be difference, but what about aesthetics? If we dropped a man down onto one of their colonies right now, could he be picked out of the crowd?" Rich asked.

"Not really. As many know, our civilization has allowed us to grow rather rapidly in size that dwarf our ancestors, a bit of evolution to overabundance. Since our Earth has prospered far longer and more widely under civilization than our Systems Alliance counterpart, we may averagely have more superior Human beings, not counting our upgrades genetically and cybernetically; we are even far more superior in that field."

"So not only did they have to be lifted to the stars by aliens, they are also physically and evolutionarily weaker..." The Vice Admiral nodded. "I find that quite concerning."

"As much as I'd like to refute that, scientifically, you may just be correct..." Lendin nodded. "Though we just have so many similarities, we are technically still all Human. The differences aren't that much, and as I say: I'm speaking in averages gathered from UNSC Censuses and these ones we've taken from the System Alliance networks."

"Everything can't happen the same," The Vice Admiral was skeptical of that, sitting slouched forward on the bench from the stool he was sitting on amidst Lendin's laboratory. "So where exactly is the Prowler Corps extracting all this information, anyway?"

"The Systems Alliance, and all Citadel Space we believe, has an open interplanetary network that spans between all their worlds, a lot like our twentieth first century Internet I believe. Com Buoys constantly exchange probes through Mass Relays, so most of the time, they're so called 'extranet', is updated every so and so with new information from other star systems, sometimes almost instantaneously. A Prowler easily intercepted this, and its shipboard AI has used it to extract information useful to us, ever since."

"Ha, so not only are they naive enough to put all their information in the air for anyone to grab, but they also allow their worlds to share data?" He questioned. Of course, the United Nations Space Command had stopped any technological endeavor to create some way of expanding their networks beyond system wide in the twenty second century. Through Slip Space, with colonies separated by weeks of travel, by time anyone got any data, it would be totally out of date. A majority of the colonies didn't even have an equivalent to the Earth's internet before the Covenant War.

"Indeed so. I don't think they are that concerned for the security of data that is shared across their empire. In fact, they find it hard to believe than any space fairing species can prosper away from their Mass Relay network," Lendin explained.

"They might just be in for a rude awakening..." Rich suggested, "as far as Intel is concerned, they've got under even fifty real solid colonies, correct?"

"Well..." Lendin frowned, placing the tablet he was holding on the desk. "What our AI's have gathered, is that only six years ago, the Citadel Empire went to war with a Tier 1 civilization known as the Reapers, who supposedly were actually responsible for the construction of the Mass Relays and the colossal space station that serves as their capital. They won it, and eradicated the Reapers. Such scale of a conflict proves they may indeed have their own very powerful military powers."

"That 'Tiers' thing is something the eggheads down in archeology dug up from the Forerunners, Doc. As the newly uncovered evidence suggests, the Procusors were Tier 0 and that never saved them," Vice Admiral Rich dismissed it. "These 'Reapers', don't really compare up that well against our fleet, all the battle data the AI's have compared being considered. Their so-called 'Dreadnought' was two kilometers. Our old Halcyon Cruisers are one point two and the Infinity is five and a half. If the Systems Alliance beat them off with insuperior MAC Canons and the fact they never learned how to successfully deploy nuclear weaponry in vacuum, really downplays this now disposed of Reaper threat."

"I suppose you're right, sir," Doctor Lendin nodded, his morale perhaps spurred by Rich's point of view. If the Reapers ever actually came to the UNSC... they would have been dealt with. "They're dead now anyway, so I guess they don't matter. The fact is, the Systems Alliance at the moment may be well experienced in the arts of war, but their as war-weary as we are from our war with the Covenant about ten years ago.

"Yes, but we were bigger to begin with," Vice Admiral Rich confidently responded. "We built our technology, our empire, while they leached it off aliens. We fought our own war for survival, and we won it alone. It's obvious were the stronger branch."

"But maybe the more vulnerable branch, sir," Lendin added. "while the amount of freedom they grant citizens has significantly crippled their ability to control their security, the cultural impact they could have on us just through contact could break us."

"I've looked at a rundown of their capabilities, Doctor," Rich told him, "they allow terrorists to flourish, undermine government control and allow alien slavers to carry off their people. I don't know about you, but I think it's the other way around. I think, any other Human out there, those independent Terminus colonies not under Systems Alliance control, would see the logic and reasoning in the UNSC, as well as the security it provides."

"The problem would be if they don't, Vice Admiral." Doctor Lendin told him.

"It doesn't matter really," Rich simply added. "I trust in Rear Admiral Curtyn to keep his ships far from any peeking eyes. Besides, their technology shall prove useful, especially if we can replicate these 'Mass Relays'."

"They've tried, sir, but the Relays appear to be extremely advanced pieces of technology. Rear Admiral Curtyn is still working on a plan to capture us a Mass Effect Drive for study."

"Oh, it's just not the technology that's important, Doctor... in fact, their 'Biotics' could be of benefit too."

"How so? That we could replicate their abilities to our soldiers? It would be a massive advantage against the Covenant remnants."

"Well, yes. It's just what I had in mind for an upcoming project I've been placed in charge of," the Vice Admiral nodded. "So I'm ordering you to keep informed on any further updates on your efforts into uncovering more of these Citadel worlds, Doctor."

Two Months Later

Doctor Catherine Halsey was hardly even in the general emotional state to even want to see any faces of the ONI bureaucracy that damned her to her fate, but it wasn't like she had a choice.

Led by two armed guards through the corridors of Station Ivanoff, she was seated at a meeting table, the same meeting table in which Admiral Parangosky had condemned her to be kept here on this research station orbiting Installation 03.
A part of her mind wondered if she was about to meet the Admiral yet again. In the last few weeks, her current work had dried up as less and less Forerunner technology was passed onto her to study. Maybe she had finally outlived her usefulness and was about to get a merciful execution. Or perhaps the elderly head of ONI had died, and her successor had come personally here to make the fact known to her and that things weren't going to change one tiny bit.

Whatever scenario she theorized, she dreaded it.

It was actually surprising when it was Beta Five Division Member, Rear Admiral Ned Rich, now Vice Admiral Ned Rich, who was there. Apparently, the man had significantly cleaned himself up over the last few decades, maybe after growing some sense and wanting to get his career back on track. Regardless of any of that, he was here.

"Ah, Doctor Halsey. They're quite not as dead as they say you are," Ned Rich smiled. Halsey didn't bother to return it.

"I've spent over a decade now without any decent social contact with another Human being, Vice Admiral, but that doesn't mean I've lowered my standards when it comes to humor."

"Hm. Of course," Rich simply nodded, looking down at the folder in front of him. "Believe it or not, Doctor, despite your fallout from favor, you still are quite a valuable asset to ONI. I personally just wish that you could be applied to a place where you could be of more use to us."

"On a Research Station orbiting an artificial ring world isn't applied enough?" Halsey questioned, wondering what great event had arisen to take ONI's eyes off looting every last bit of Forerunner technology they found.

"Depends on what were studying. Old relics of a dead race. Or Humanity itself." Rich told her. "Tell me, are you familiar with the code Snake Eyes?"

"I still remember every ONI Code from when I was actually informed of anything, and that's not one of them. It must have come into use in the decades I spent rotting away here," Halsey commented. "Whatever it is, just how would it be relevant, Vice Admiral?"

"The codeword Snake Eyes, deals with defection, but not the defection of any regular UNSC personnel. The code Snake Eyes was created with the Spartan IV Program, to deal with the obvious risk of Insurrectionist infiltrators or defectors. The risk of creating an Insurrectionist Super Soldier is well guarded against."

"That's what happens when you drop the ethical code, isn't it, Rich?" Halsey questioned, knowing obviously how this result. There were always traitors in every conflict.

"Indeed. Code Snake Eyes was first declared nine years ago, on a single rogue soldier. Currently now, we have nineteen declarations of Snake Eyes. Five years ago, Admiral Parangosky placed me in charge of a new Program to correct any errors we made."

"Surprising, or maybe not," Halsey commented again, "at this rate, I estimate by the next century, we may already have Spartan X's, right?"

"It's far from humorous, Doctor." Rich told her. "The Spartan V Project shall avoid any previous ethical and moral issues, while also avoiding recruiting those who may betray us later on."

"Hm," that was probably the only thing in the conversation that slightly intrigued her. Not recruiting adults, but not recruiting younger either.
"So how will you do that, Vice Admiral?"

"Flash Cloning is still practically useless on a large term scales, but practical cloning isn't. With the right systems, we've avoided any significant financial cost, and created a new wave of subjects for our program," Rich explained.

"Interesting... full-grown clones," Doctor Halsey acknowledged, "though I see we still don't abide by UNSC Medical Law, do we?"

"Petty comments aside, Doctor, this is an obvious true step towards creating a worthy successor to the earlier program," the Vice Admiral stated. "though, clones aren't all I wanted for the program. I suggested to Admiral Parangosky, that we attempt something new. Something that will make this program landmark, just as your II Program did so long ago now."

That may of slightly been interesting, though Halsey was sure it was Rich's ego speaking. Unless they could their soldiers neigh invincible, she doubted they could come anywhere close to even matching her Spartan II Program.

"A shift from focus on direct combat," Rich surprisingly announced, "to infiltration. The Spartan IV Program is still in operation and handles putting Spartans in combat zones, but what I wanted is a new type of Spartan. One with the unique capability of handling any threat, anywhere in the galaxy. One with the unique capability of addressing the unique new crisis ONI had found us in."

"Interesting... and just how would these changes be?" Halsey questioned.

"Well first, not all subjects would be Human." Rich announced, and that sentence was the first thing in years, no, decades, that generally had generated a real response from her. It was intriguing, yet... highly unpractical.

"All you need to do is talk to any xenologist, who could tell you that such an insane effort is doomed to failure," Halsey told him. "I don't see how it could work."

"That's why I have recruited nearly every remaining top Sentient Xeno Specialist I could find," Rich told her. "It's been quite some time since we met other sentient amongst the stars. We know them now, Doctor. After intense study and theories undertaken on test subjects, I have been told that Sangheili are highly compatible for the program when recruited at the correct age. They can even be upgraded, just like your Spartans to be better than their own rabble. Imagine, Doctor, split lips fighting for us, instead of against us."

"Do you know why I never lied to the candidates, Rich?" Halsey questioned. "I could have spun any number of lies to motivate them, to make them thankful of their place, but I didn't. I told them the truth, because in order to ensure their complete loyalty, I knew I couldn't lie to them. Honestly, I have no idea how you plan on putting a creature into battle against its own kind and not thinking one moment that it would ever have second thoughts about its allegiance?"

"And how do your Spartans shoot their fellow beings? It's because their loyal and they know what their fighting for." Rich answered. "They won't be the only ones either."

"Oh?" Halsey added. "Has the UNSC boomed into a wide galactic community while I was locked up? There are many sentient beings out there, ripe for ONI's picking? Because I certainly don't remember ONI having that ability."

The Vice Admiral showed a genuine sign of amusement. Rich glanced down at his folder.

"Indeed, a new situation has arisen in which the UNSC requires sight into foreign territory a Human just can't get to. This new contact incident and the need for these infiltrators, was what spurred this radical change of concept to begin with. We could operate anywhere."

"Your program sounds quite ambitious, Vice Admiral," Halsey told him, "though it's another thing entirely in pulling this thing off."

"That's why, I want the best, no matter what. I consider you, Doctor, to be that best." Rich finally got the point of the entire trip. "We're still a year out from even starting the program, and your expertise and experience would be invaluable to us. I was willing to bargain with Margaret to even get you to chance to change from this dead-end research station back to a real innovative project were someone of your intelligence is needed. Would you be willing to consider, accepting my offer, and join my new Program as Head Supervisor?"

Halsey was silent for the moment. She mused what an offer she was facing. She had spent the last two decades struggling with her own conscience to try and redeem some of the guilt that warped her mind after the Spartan II Project, which she never successfully had thanks to ONI. Now, she was being offered to do the same thing again, but since it was to non-Humans (and some clones), it was now slightly more morally acceptable?
The Program would go ahead regardless if she joined with the Vice Admiral's highly unprovable program, but if he had somehow convinced Beta Five to allow the changes he proposed, then maybe it was more likely in succeeding than her bitter mind thought... and maybe it was her one chance to escape her own personal hell.

"The offer still stands, Doctor." Rich decided she spent far too much time musing about it. "My ship departs in six hours. If you do wish to join me, all you have to do is say the word."

"What I don't understand is why you couldn't just ask Parangosky to transfer me to your program," Halsey told him. "It's not like I would have a choice."

"Like you said earlier, the truth must be told in order to earn loyalty. You'd be useless unmotivated." Rich nodded.

"Then... I accept your offer." Halsey finally agreed.

"That's good, Doctor." The Vice Admiral smiled as he rose to his feet. "I knew you'd understand. Return to your quarters, and prepare for your transfer. Oh, and I may just recommend to clean up your act. I do understand you've been locked away on this hunk of metal for a decade, but I won't excuse any further insubordination under my command. I'll enjoy working together with you in the future, Doctor Halsey..."

The Vice Admiral turned and left the room at a brisk pace. Halsey still sat.

I've been told to clean up my act by Ned Rich. How times have changed indeed...

Author's Afterward:

This was practically an idea of mine that popped into my head, and I honestly didn't think I could make it into a Fan Fiction, but after a day of sitting down and writing, I figured I could make something of this.
Both Earth's aren't exactly the same. Which has the altered timeline, I'd say the UNSC.

While I enjoy looking through the Crossover sections from time to time, my personal favorite choice is in which an AU Timeline isn't created to mesh the UNSC and Systems Alliance together or the history of both universes, but allows both exist.
I didn't exactly want to villainize the UNSC or ONI. Honestly, the UNSC is more in control than the Systems Alliance and has its pros and cons, as well as the Systems Alliance having their own strengths and faults.
The two won't exactly collide, but as shown here, at least the Shadow Broker is aware of ONI's exploration.

For the Halo side, I put it ten years forward (Halo 4 never happened folks), but kept the familiar faces. I kept Admiral Parangosky as head of ONI because I honestly couldn't imagine Osman running it with the same efficiency, and technically, Parangosky is only a hundred and six
I also sized up the minor character Rear Admiral Ned Rich, if you might remember him from Ghosts of Onyx has a particularly insubordinate member of ONI's Beta Five. In this particular fan fiction, he cleans up his act and actually becomes the competent ONI Officer obviously expected.
And Halsey has spent a decade rotting away due to Parangosky's hypocritical moral crackdown and is thus quite bitter.

On the Mass Effect side, I haven't touched much yet, though from the start of choosing just where to place the story, I wanted to tell a sub-plot of how difficult it is for Shepard to simply stop being Shepard and leave the Normandy behind.

I also don't want this to be a one hit chapter, sort of thing. I've now got a lot of time on my hands, and I intend on getting at least another chapter done. Drop a review and tell me what you think of the story.

PS: The ENDING shall not be mentioned... ever...