Universal Reclamation

Disclaimer: I do not own Halo of Mass Effect. They belong to 343 Industries and Bioware respectively.

Chapter One – Discovery

35 days (five weeks) before the Eden Prime Incident

Deep within the confines of a large man-made structure known as Arcturus Station, was a room cut-off from the prying eyes of others. The room itself was mostly spartan; an old wooden desk, a few bookshelves, and a leather chair which was currently being sat upon by an elderly gentleman with grey facial hair. The elderly man in question was none other than Admiral Steven Hackett; one of the most influential men in the Systems Alliance. The scars which adorned his face only spoke of experience, but his blue eyes showed a cunning and intelligence which so few have.

Steven Hackett's attention was firmly entrenched on the orange glowing screen in front of him, where his eyes carefully drifted across whatever was on the screen. After a few minutes Hackett seemed to have aged drastically, his shoulders had lost its rigid form and his eyelids lazily closed. The screen of his terminal seemed to stay on the last section as he re-read it again and again.

'My personal recommendation Admiral is to board the station and not inform the Council. I distinctly remember a case like this a few years ago, when we found a Prothean artefact and we weren't allowed access until their teams had everything they wanted. The exact same would happen here, they would gain the important technology while we would only get scraps.

The ball is in our court, Admiral. If we inform the Council we will most likely lose the station. If we however neglect to inform them we could possibly gain technology never seen before and have an advantage over the other races.

Captain Elisa Castillo
3rd Advanced Scouting Flotilla.'

After his fifth time of reading the file, Admiral Hackett was given the opportunity to choose between the options given to him by the Captain. Wearily gazing at the Council transmission button flicking on his terminal, he opened the transmission.

The faces of three different races immediately sprung up on his terminal replacing the report he received. The first of the three races was the Asari, this race had essentially a Human female body but the differences were still plain to see; their skin colour was the easiest to point out as they had blue skin, and instead of hair they had wavy scalp tendrils.

The next race was the Turians; they could be described as having avian features with their sharp beady eyes, while their face is made up of a plate-like skin texture which forms an angular head. The face of a Turian is normally covered in paint to represent their colony of birth and Turians without a these markings are considered untrustworthy in their own culture. Their 'hands' are essentially two fingers and an opposable thumb which elongate the end to make very sharp claws which stick true to their predator evolution. The lower half of their body was also remarkably different as they had spurs extend from where a human's calf would be and their 'toes' were only two points at the end of their feet.

The last race on his screen was a Salarian; the most distinctive feature of a Salarian was the large black eyes reminiscent of old portrayals of aliens in Human films. The next easily spotted features was their weedy body, three digit hands, and two horn like protrusions from the top of their head along with their grey skin colour.

The voice of the very soft spoken Asari calmly began the conversation.

"Admiral Hackett, It is good to see you again."

"What can I do for you, councillors?" The gravelly voice of Admiral Hackett echoed around his quiet office.

"We have a simple mission that needs doing, and we believe that the SSV Normandy is fully capable of completing it." The flanging voice of the Turian was projected through the terminal speakers and reverberated off the office walls.

"Yes, perfect opportunity to test the Normandy. A Council Spectre will be sent with the Normandy." Looking at the Salarian councillor's smile and a very quick nod of the head gave Admiral Hackett an understanding of why they wanted a resource like the Normandy.

"That shouldn't be too hard to arrange councillors." Admiral Hackett's eyes left the transmission and glanced down towards the report that was still open before looking back at the councillors.

"If that is everything councillors, I have a lot of work to do." With a set of nods from each of the councillors, Hackett closed the transmission and by doing so chose made his decision about the mysterious station.

"...red, I think he's coming to." The muffled voice was hard to hear over the ear splitting ringing sound echoing in his head. After a few seconds the person's vision was coming back, but was very hazy as he could only make out two large black blobs with two smaller golden blobs above him. After a few more seconds his vision cleared up to the point that he could make out that the two black blobs were the armour of the people towering over him, and the golden blobs were their visors.

The armour looked very unique as the important sections of the body like the chest, forearms, hands, hip, thighs, shins and feet were covered in bulky metal plates which only showed a few vulnerable spots where the joints were.
However there seemed to be an under suit which encompassed the individual's body, this under armour covered the exposed areas where the metal plates didn't reach.

The person on the floor knew this armour very well; it was the trademark armour of the Spartans the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armour. As a Spartan himself Matt-094 spent most of his life inside the armour, to the point where it became an extension of him.

Slowly attempting to get up the Spartan heard his under suit creak ever so slightly, breaking the silence around him before the sound of his titanium boots thudded against the metal floor. Once standing again the figure looked around the dark hallway which was riddled with deep gouges and burn marks.

"Sentinel Beam damage by the looks of it." The voice came from within his helmet and had a very soft and soothing feminine voice; the voice was Kelly-087. A fellow Spartan that was the fastest of the lot, and was the best CQB specialist in Blue Team.

"Kelly, Matt scout ahead and find a control room of sorts. Linda and I will try to find a way to turn the power back on." The words were spoken sharply and with authority; Fred-104 was the current leader of Blue Team and stood as the tallest among the Spartans at 7ft; Matt-094 and Kelly-087 both stood at 6ft 10in while the other Spartan, Linda-058 stood at 6ft 11in.

A round of green acknowledgment winks flicked up on the Spartans' HUDs before they set off towards their objectives.

The heavy footfalls of the Spartans could be heard echoing through the silent darkness; Spartan-094 had his assault rifle shouldered illuminating the path in front of him, searching for any signs of danger as they wandered through the station.

Both Spartans noticed the beam damage was becoming more pronounced and decided to follow the heaviest amount of damage. Room after room passed by the duo before they became stuck; a large blast door which was riddled with scorch marks and burrows in the advanced metal.

"I think I got something here, four." 'Blue Four' also known as Matt took his attention off of the large blast door, and walked over to Kelly who was standing over a strange metal pedestal.

"I think this, is how we open that blast door...however there is no power running through it." Nodding to his current partner, Matt turned his attention back towards where they came from and stood guard until power was restored.

Minutes became hours before a quiet whirring noise broke the silence of the dark hallways of the station. The sudden noise wasn't lost to the two Spartans however, as they immediately took up positions besides the corridor walls ready for an attack.

"Blue-1 to Blue 3 and 4, we may have restored power to this section. Be wary of Sentinel threat now that power is restored." The quiet whirring noise was starting to pickup in decibels as lights started to flicker on and off.

A loud monotone blared out in a strange fluid alien language, both Spartans outside the blast door swept their weapons around into different locations looking for any threat.

"Reclaimers detected; Capital's power at 5%. Reclamation procedures enacted."

Scanning around the hallway which was now very well lit by unknown sources, the Spartans noticed the pedestal was now glowing a brilliant white with a green light on the top

Spartan-087 slowly walked to the glowing pedestal with her rifle shouldered. Once the Spartan reached the glowing pillar of light, she cautiously reached her hand out and pressed the green symbol into the glowing pillar.

A large rumble emanated before a mechanical hiss was heard, the noise was acted upon by the Spartans as they stood a few feet away from the door with their rifles trained onto the door. Eventually the massive blast door started to recede into the walls of the hallway revealing a very large and spacious room littered with glowing and flashing panels.

Slowly advancing into the room and checking their corners, they found the room to be clear and empty.

Looking around the room Matt suspected it to be a control point of some point with all the consoles around.

"Reclaimers, it seems that my makers fears where correct then. As the Capital's Ancillary I welcome you to what used to be the central hub of the Forerunner Ecumene; I also bring bad news as several scans of the Galaxy show multiple differences meaning that my makers plan had succeeded but at the wrong time." The high pitched voice was carried through the station through means unknown to the Spartans acting on instinct they swept the room again looking for where the noise came from.

After a few seconds of sweeping the control room for the owner of the voice, Spartan-094 gazed at the now functional central holo-projector which displayed a strange Forerunner glyph.

"As a means of escape from the infection, the Builders alongside the Master Builder theorised that with the use of the Slipspace drive they could puncture into another dimension, which would allow travel between different universes. However as the drive activated Mendicant Bias took control over the station and halted it. Whatever happened when you first boarded Capital obviously re-engaged the process and here we are."

Another universe? This was a lot to take in for Spartan-094 as that meant there might not be a UNSC or even Humanity...if there was another Humanity in this universe are they space ready? In a war? It was all too much for him to comprehend at the moment.

"So, you're the Station AI?" Kelly walked towards the central hologram and waved her arm through the glyph.

"Forgive my manners Reclaimers; it has been a very long time. My name is Offensive Bias and current custodian of Capital."

"Offensive Bias...I can't seem to think of where I've heard that name before." Kelly was looking down towards the ground in a thoughtful pose

The sound of metal clunking rapidly came from down the hallway, hearing this Kelly and Matt readied themselves for a fight but the familiar sight of two Spartans eased them off from acting. The most senior Spartan, Fred 104 ambled up towards the central projector while looking towards Kelly.

"Kelly, it was from when John filled us in during his time away. Offensive Bias was an advanced Forerunner AI created to combat a rampant one named Mendicant Bias." Matt never got the chance to speak with John; he was too busy dealing with Covenant loyalists elsewhere when the others met up.

"You are indeed correct Reclaimer; it was a most destructive battle. You can still see the signs of the battle located on Capital."

"The question we want to know though Offensive is, are you rampant?" All the Spartans handled their guns with anticipation waiting for its response.

"You have no need to fear Reclaimers; Contender class ancillas cannot become rampant in a sense. The Contender class AI's were created to combat the flood, once Mendicant Bias' betrayal was revealed certain base codes were placed into the rest to prevent it ever happening again."

There was no way they could prove if the AI was rampant or not, they had to trust the AI that it wasn't and be ready just in case.

"Warning, unidentified ships nearing Capital."

That announcement broke the Spartan out of his musing, he rushed towards a screen where it showed a group of five ships flying towards the space station. The ship that Matt was looking at was the largest but scans showed it was only 600 meters long; the ship was rather strange looking as it had hard sloping edges, but between the two sloping fins stood a large cuboid shaped piece of metal protruding from the ship; the main weapon of the vessel by the looks of it.

"Can you give us extra views of the largest ship?" Fred was looking alongside Matt at the screens displaying the ships.

"Displaying them now, Reclaimer."

The screen split up into multiple fragments which showed the different sides of the ship but the writing on the side caught the Spartans attention as they could understand it. SSV Manchester. It was written in English and the name of ship was a city located in England.

"Offensive, get me a connection with the Captain of that ship."

SSV Manchester
3rd Advanced Scouting Flotilla
Captain Elisa Castillo

On board the ship known as the SSV Manchester chaos erupted on the CIC as people began to charge from station to station, each person trying to gather the necessary information for a plan of action. Elisa Castillo the captain felt scared too, a station of untold proportions powering up would scare any captain worth their rank.

The dangers of an unknown station were rife, it also didn't help that the VI aboard the Manchester was struggling to gauge the power output of the station. Elisa had to check the stations herself as the reports felt exaggerated; it became apparent though that this station was a technological feat well beyond the Protheans.

"Alert Admiral Hackett that the station has become active and send all our reports with the alert. Make sure the Waterloo, Hastings, and Thermopylae are set up in a defensive formation around us and the Barcelona."

Elisa eventually walked to the command chair in the centre of her chaotic CIC as she watched her flotilla move into position. It did nothing to reassure the captain as she couldn't shake the feeling that should this planetary sized space station want them destroyed, they wouldn't be anything but debris.

"Admiral Hackett is on the line." The voice was filled with a nervous undertone which Elisa could sympathise with; this was meant to just be a simple exploration mission.

"Put him through."

The window which showed outer space was actually a screen, before it changed to show an elderly gentleman sitting in a dark room only illuminated by the glow of his terminal screen, which also caught in the corner a lot of paperwork pilled on his desk.

"I got your report Captain, these numbers are troubling if correct...not even the Citadel puts out anywhere near a fraction of these reports." The CIC was deathly silent as each of the crewmen watched on, waiting for their next orders in this situation.

"The Station is only drawing power from their source and not expending it...maybe the Station is only rebooting its systems and is uninhabited." Elisa's voice lacked any conviction which people could tell what she thought of her statement.

"If only we were so lucky, I've made sure to send a small response force under the guise of a training drill that should keep it under wraps so far. No ship is to leave after seeing or hearing reports about that station am I clear Captain? This station is a level 1 classified operation. Hackett out." The feed died before showing the said 'operation' floating in the distance.

"Ensign, activate an FTL comm. blanket; no messages are to leave am I understood? Lieutenant take us closer to the station so we can get better scans on it." A few shaky chorus of understanding rung out as the crew went back to their work stations looking nervous but excited at the prospect of discovering more.

Ever so slowly the station became increasingly larger, to the point where it was impossible to see more than the central platform on the main screen. It truly put things into perspective for the crew on board the five ships approaching the station. People couldn't help but be in awe when they first saw the Citadel marking it as a technological masterpiece, but it seems that even the Citadel was nothing compared to this artificial structure.

"Uh-Captain...I'm receiving a communication request from the Station." The ensign manning the communication desk was panicking behind his desk as he gazed from terminal to captain in rapid movements.

Castillo felt the blood drain out of her face and become rigid within her chair. Taking a deep breath to calm herself the captain nodded her ascent to patch them through, what she saw on the screen next puzzled her. A large figure covered in advanced looking black armour with a strange golden visor helmet which allowed no emotions to be seen stood there seemingly gazing into her soul.

"This is Lieutenant Junior Grade Sierra-104, to whom am I speaking?"

Elisa was stunned and so were her crew, the CIC was once again eerily silent as people gawped at the communication screen in shock.

"I am Elisa Castillo, Captain of the SSV Manchester and leading Captain of the 3rd Advanced Scouting Flotilla. May I ask how you can speak English so well?" The golden visor of the individual's helmet made it impossible to make out any features and emotions which for Elisa set the tone of conversations.

"To answer your question simply, we are Humans... I believe this conversation is best had face to face, Captain. Offensive Bias could you please send them the co-ordinates of the nearest docking bay to us?"

Elisa couldn't believe it, Humans? No one had scouted out this far because of the cost of Element Zero needed to use FTL methods of getting here but yet here were two people claiming to be Human; their English was precise and fluent and they even held military ranks that were familiar to Humanities history.

"Ma'am, we have received co-ordinates that send us onto the largest platform near the centre of it. Should we proceed?"

Nodding absently, Elisa knew that she was going to get answers one way or another and maybe advance the Human cause with all this unseen technology that was bound to be on the station.
Noticing they were within scanning range of where the transmission came from Elisa ordered for it to be scanned for Humans, four blips appeared in a large room on her scanner; 'only four of them eh? Shouldn't be too difficult should things turn ugly.'

"Have the marines ready to deploy when we reach the co-ordinates; I'm going to find out if they're Human or not."

Authors Note:

This is an edited version of this Chapter, after reading through my work and through some suggestions I decided to re-do the chapter to improve it slightly.

Hey readers this is my first attempt at a crossover. I'm not new to the site as I've many accounts but I have so many ideas swirling around my head that it is hard to lock onto one and keep going with it. I'd like you lot to know that I'm English so I will be writing this story in the English version of words so please take that into consideration before moaning about incorrect spelling.
I'm not perfect...far from it in fact and if you see any way that I can improve my writing skills to convey the story then please drop a review on how I can improve.

The group of Spartans you should know is Fred-104, Linda-058 and Kelly-087. The other Spartan is an OC I made to fill out Blue team. If you wish to know about the Halo timeline we're looking at like is just after Halo 4 so there will be no Chief or Infinity unless people want them by popular demand.

The space station is the Capital where the Forerunners housed their politics and I shit you not they describe it as massive. The Citadel is 44.7km long compared to the central circle platform of Capital which has a diameter of 100,000km means you could fit over 2000 Citadels just along the central platform.