The Sum is Greater than its Parts

A Mass Effect / Halo Crossover

Author's Notes: Another Halo/Mass Effect crossover. I decided to do this after marathon reading a dozen or so crossovers on this site. A lot of them were well written but I want to put my own spin on it. So I came up with a universe that I wanted to see out of the meeting of these two games. For the Halo side, I decided to take them centuries into the future to see where I think their technology and philosophies would have gone after the last Halo games. The Mantle of Responsibility plays a large part in their policies and will be the main plot device that keeps the ever-popular and slightly overused curb stomp scenario. Make no mistake, the difference in the Mass Effect technologies and Halo's tech will be evident. Just not to the point and manner that Mass Effect gets steamrolled. Halo tech tends to dominate the stories, I'll try to avoid that. With that being said, I'll try to keep the Mass Effect universe, specifically the characters and their reactions, within reason. The Citadel Counsel will be self-serving but not stupid. Asari will try to keep the upper hand, Salarians will try to figure everything out, and the Turians will be ready to be the strong-arm of Citadel space. Not warmongering but still the militarily pragmatic race.

The attitude of the species from the two universes are quite different. Halo's societies have had hundreds of years after the wars and such to advance at a pace that is in line with the way the humans advance during the Halo game timelines (In that universe, humans take the forefront mainly because the canon paints the other races as fairly stagnant and dependent on leftover tech. Kinda like the current Mass Effect species.) The Mass Effect species are more or less stagnant. The Counsel races have managed to keep everyone at the same level for a long time and the System Alliance has followed suit. I found it kinda strange that given our rate of advancement, if exposed to all the technology in the Mass Effect universe, much larger jumps and advancement would have been possible. I am writing that off as the attitude of stagnation the Counsel races seem to have and the humans adopting that. Really, I think humans would do better but it's a game so I'll run with it.

Also, this was supposed to only be labeled as the Timeline but it was my first attempt at uploading so I ask you ignore the title in this case - Sorry.

Anyway, the timeline is first, I'm not entirely sure if it's the best breakdown, reviews and all that are more than welcome. I don't own any of this stuff, legal stuff, legal stuff, legal stuff, don't sue, blah blah.

Timeline: Halo Universe

2587: After conflict between UNSC Infinity and Didact involving Master Chief, Forerunner Shield world and repository of knowledge are secured by UNSC forces. Archive of Forerunner technology, history, culture, and artifacts are accessible in way that previous artifacts never allowed. Humans and Covenant forces under the command of the Arbiter begin cataloging the knowledge within. Several advances are made in the first 6 months, including the restoration of Cortana to a level of Meta-stability.

2590: Forerunner archives reveal several new medical and technological advances allowing for an estimated 150 year extension to human life. Efforts to apply knowledge to Covenant species begin. Specifications for Forerunner ships are found, expanding the estimated naval strength to include much larger ships and a wider range of roles. A rush of technological expansion and discovery allow for the first Forerunner/Human/Sangheili variant to be planned. UNSC Admiral Hood gives UEG back the emergency powers granted to him during wartime while simultaneously securing the expansion of the Naval forces over the next 50 years. Loyalist Covenant forces make small strikes to harass efforts to rebuild but are quickly repelled, by 2591, their forces go into hiding.

2593: Human and Sangheili forces establish wider diplomatic channels following the discovery of the Greater and Lesser Arks location from the Forerunner archives. Deliberation and coordination begin among known species (with the exception of the Brutes who diplomatic clout equates to "I'mma hit you with this hammer") to create a unified organization to coordinate efforts between all species without warfare. Large amounts of mistrust and animosity between human and covenant forces prevent quick resolutions but societal projects between species improves public opinion between species. These include integration of species when rebuilding infrastructure and terraforming planets glassed during the Human/Covenant war. UNSC begins construction on first Havoc-Class battleships in the shipyards above Mars. The ship is to be crewed by the most trusted humans and covenant members as a flagship of the proposed joint-species exploration fleet "Reclaimed Glory".

2600: Science teams on the Arks discover large industrial capacity and with the help of a recently-discovered Monitor, Guardian Truth, the greater Ark factories and foundries begin the process of coming back online after hundreds of millennium of disuse. Fleets of Sentinels and forerunner construction drones assist. Great advances in the understanding of Slipstream space are made and applied, allowing near-Forerunner level accuracy and speed. Ongoing disputes stall attempts at establishing larger diplomatic relations between Human and the Covenant government leads to abandonment of unified organization between the two societies, instead coordinated efforts are maintained.

2610: Relations between human and covenant species are at an all-time high. New technologies and societal policies have transformed life for many citizens in UNSC and Covenant. Life expectancy is confidently projected to be nearly 400 years and nanotechnology is beginning to become a much larger reality for a wider range of citizens. Actively repairing armor, nanotech based architecture is realized in laboratory settings allowing timely building of structures from the Nano level up to roughly the size of a 2-story house. Manufacturing is revolutionized and streamlined across all worlds. The fleet Reclaimed Glory is finished and begins exploration through the Orion arm travelling towards the Galactic core.

2630: The Arks are used to produce large numbers of colony craft and defensive structures. A standard "Colony Package" includes 3 colony ships (750,000 individuals) a network of 64 orbital defense structures that include 1/3rd that number of Super Mac/Plasma weapon Super Capital ship busters. A network of redundant communication satellites. Ground structures reflect lessons learned from both the Humans and the Covenant throughout the 40 years of conflict with each other and the flood. Joint efforts at designing and colonizing new and terraformed worlds pushes cohesion between species to higher levels and while the older veterans of the Human/Covenant war still harbor grudges and animosity, the sheer number of colonies and areas available keeps tensions to isolated areas. Large-scale Nano-repair of organic and non-organic substances is achieved. Entire cities can be built in a small number of years if the nanites are supplied with the appropriate refined materials. Mining and refining of materials do not benefit and become the largest bottleneck to expansion due to issues with the impurities and varying structures of virgin material and the difficulties nanites have processing them.

2800: A census tallies the combined numbers of colonized worlds of all species at 15,870 colonies across local region of the Orion arm, some of colonies being the reclaimed worlds of the humans (roughly 800). The rest are newly colonized and terraformed worlds with few asteroid and deep space stations. Relationships between the species and technological advancement reaches a point that all the colonies rejoice with the dissolution of their respective governments and the formation of the Sentient Species Coalition – the SSC. The SSC is formed as an elective democracy across the entirety of colonized space under the guidance from the human interpretation of the Mantle of Responsibility with the Greater Ark as the seat of government. The structure of the government is broken up into 13 separate Regions that include 1,200 worlds in each region with a single representative from each colony serving in a local Senate reporting to two individuals from each Species (excluding the Lekgolo who are represented by a group of roughly 15) This group is known as the Assembly and all decisions made by the Assembly are facilitated by superluminal communications and society-wide connection to each individual through nanite grown neural lances present in all citizens. The Assembly is charged with the overall peace and safety of all citizens of the SSC. At this time, the subject of Artificial Intelligence is addressed and recognized across all systems as fellow sentient beings, recognized with full representation in the SSC government. They number at 120,407 of the newest generation of Smart AIs. Cortana and a new generation AI, Newton serve as the representatives for the AI nation.

2810: The SSC government is fully established and stabilized. The SSC Assembly oversees and has authority over all lower branches of government with the Regional Senates overseeing the administration of civilian, economical, and policing of their areas. Policing of planets and local space is the scope of the Regional Senate, however the Assembly maintains the Exploratory Navy, the Defense Navy, the Assembly Intelligence Service (many former ONI and Covenant equivalent moved here), the Forward Fleet, the Ark Fleet, and they coordinate very closely with the Research Scientific Academia, the Farm and Food Group, as well as the Manufacturing Conglomerate (not actually a single entity but the "voice" of the manufacturers throughout the SSC). Together these organization serve to ensure the SSC is prepared for the unknown, expand carefully, and continue to advance the understanding of the Forerunner archives and how they area applied to the service of the Mantle of Responsibility. Life sciences reach a point that the lifespan of all sentient species is effectively indefinite.

2900: The SSC expands to almost encompass almost 650,000 worlds. Many are fully colonized systems but 56,173 of those worlds have life that is either sentient at some level or potentially sentient. Worlds that fall under that category are placed under the purview of the Developing World Trust. An organization dedicated to ensuring non-space faring sentient species are not interfered with, only observed. Although under certain, very specific instances interference is allowed. Few instances of this ever take place although the most notable are the prevention of an extinction level impact event in 3 systems, intervention between two planet's interplanetary war in the same system having evolved two separate sentient species on two adjacent orbits, and the stabilization of a supernova that would have sterilized a large area of space with 7 underdeveloped worlds that also included 16 SSC systems. The understanding of the Forerunner Archives is deemed almost complete and plans are drawn up to produce an Ark Seed fleet that will allow the SSC to begin creation of the first Ark in over 100,000 years to celebrate the turn of the millennium and declare the SSC'S advancement as a Tier 1 society.

2917: Designs of each ship for the Ark Seed Fleet are finished, the Ark Seed – a 1,200 km diameter Halo, will be transported by the newly designed Patriarch-Class ship, to be the Flagship of the SSC which will feature the first forerunner-based Singularity Core to power the ship. The Singularity Core is produced by collapsing a Jupiter-sized gas giant down to a singularity 56 cm across within a containment field that negates the mass of the singularity from interacting with the HB field, allowing the ship to move without dealing with a Jupiter-sized mass slowing it down. The Pride of the SSC is to be 280 km long, 45 km wide, 30 km tall (crew of 10 million) with 10 sections of the Ark Seed Halo attached to the sides by a complex interaction of gravity, Higgs-Boson manipulation, and hard-light. The Ark Seed Halo will be in 10 sections 120 km long, 40 km wide, and 14 km thick. The fleet will also include two 144 km long Fortress-class variants (crew of 2.5 million each) and ten 52 km Havoc-Class battleships with crews of 1 million each. Construction begins the same year.

2950: Expansion is halted in the SSC area of the Orion Arm to ensure stabilization of all systems. The SSC now includes 701,962worlds under its flag. No other sentient species under the protection of the DWT have achieved interstellar spaceflight but are closely monitored for potential. The Patriarch-Class Flagship "Pride of the SSC" is finished, loaded with a complete archive of the Forerunner knowledge, and celebrated across over 600,000 systems and 14 trillion individuals.

3000: The turn of the millennium celebration is held to usher in the next great age of the SSC – the creation of the New Ark and the beginning of the SSC's ability of planetary engineering. The Ark Seed Fleet gathers at a point between the Greater and Lesser Arks but as the Slip space engines begin to spool up a Covenant Loyalist fleet, thought to have been wiped out centuries ago, arrives and attempts to destabilize and destroy the Ark Seed Fleet. Before any defensive steps can be taken, a violently unstable slipstream portal is seen to open up and engulfs the entire Ark Seed Fleet while destroying the Covenant Loyalist fleet. The event is later mourned as a loss of two of the most inventive and advanced items made by the collective species of the SSC was lost and a memorial for the loss of 25 million of the best and brightest of the last 500 years was taken by the screaming tear of Slip space. Life in the Milky Way galaxy and the SSC continue, heavy with the memory of who was lost and the potential wiped from the universe on that day.

Simultaneously at a point in a universe an infinite distance across slip space, a tear opens thousands of light years outside and above an average spiral-arm galaxy. A fleet of Silvery-White ships are flung into the abyss.

After Event (A.E.)

Timeline: Transposed into Mass Effect Universe

A.E. (2077 System Alliance) : The Ark Seed Fleet arrives and the story begins.

Author's Notes: Had a lot more expanding on the After Event but took it out because it is more of a guide line for me. Don't want to spoil anything! Happy Reading!