[Shattered Soul] 7 – Pyrrhic Victory

"They glassed Reach in its entirety that day, ending the lives of over 650 million men, women, and children. It was a devastating loss for Humanity, but in the cruel void that threatened to crush Humanity, our hope managed to escape from Reach. Spartan 117, the Master Chief, and his advanced AI, Cortana. I embarked on the UNSC Last Stand and helped guide the ship through the Covenant Fleet and jump into slipspace. It took half a year, but we eventually reached Earth, reestablishing contact with the greater part of Humanity, only to find that the bastards were invading Earth. Forced with little choice, we joined the fight against the Covenant, our MAC cannon dealing severe damage to the vessels we hit due to our ship's position behind the Covenant fleet, usually aiming for the thrusters of the ship, hoping that we could cripple their maneuverability allowing for our Bombers to deal some severe damage.

Meanwhile, we sent our ODST down to Earth, hoping they could help repel the Covenant on Earth. 

It took hours upon hours, but we were winning, or at least, we thought we were, until the Prophet's flagship managed to reach Earth and, after a few hours, jumped into slipspace mid-atmosphere, destroying more than 60% of the city in a single moment. The UNSC Last Stand and four other ships managed to follow the Prohpet's flagship through the slip space rupture," Church continued to speak.

He told Wrex and Shepherd of the Halo Rings, the flood, the destruction of said rings, and how Master Chief and the Sangheli 'Arbiter,' a now ally of the UNSC, helped stop the Prophet from wiping out most of the life in the galaxy.

"I served on the UNSC Last Stand, one of the last Frigats remaining from the war for the better part of half of a decade before...before we were boarded by a band of Covenant pirates and our slipstream engine malfunctioned, sending the UNSC Last Stand out into space and shearing half of the ship in half and venting out the entire ship of all oxygen. I managed to seal the ship, but by then, all but a few Grunts were dead or frozen. I killed the remaining Grunts with what little automated security was left on the ship. That's where you found me. The UNSC Last Standw as drifting in that asteroid field for a...long time before you found it."

It was clear that Wrex showed much more respect towards Church while Shepherd seemed to be in deep thought with a distributed expression on his face.

"Why...why share this?" Shepherd finally asked.

"Because I need you to trust me and keep this 'Council' and 'Alliance' off my back," Church explained, his form flashing green.

"And because it can also kill everyone on board whenever it wishes," Wrex commented with a smile.

"And because of that, too," Church agreed with a sigh.

"Then why us? You know our mission, so why do you want to join us?" Shepherd continued questioning.

"Because that was what I was designed to do, save humanity. This...Saren fellow already attacked a Human colony, and I believe I have some unique...skills that will prove quite effective against these...Geth. Once that threat is dealt with, I will focus on finding a way to return home," Church explained his reasoning, only offering Wrex a glance to not bring up their...deal.

Shepherd stepped back, his eyes focused on my form while his face was grim.

"You swear not to harm the Normandy's crew and to help us stop Saren?" Shepherd pointedly asked, staring into Church's digital eyes.

"I am already sworn into the Service of Humanity, even if yours isn't exactly mine, so yes. I will help you, and so long as I am not attacked or feel threatened for my very existence, you need not fear the safety of your crew regarding me," Church elaborated.

Shepherd breathed a sigh of relief in response, "Good. Wrex, inform him of our upcoming mission. We'll be arriving in eight hours."

Shrugging, Wrex gestured, and Chuch's avatar dissipated into pixels.

...

Going down the elevator to the Normandy's Cargo hold, Wrex walked over to his bunk and workbench while Church continued to go through the Codexs he could scrounge from the Omni-tool's storage space.

Sitting down on his cot, he started, "Shepherd has Navigator Prestley and Joker steering the ship towards a planet called Feros; apparently, it's under attack by the Geth, and the colony 'Zhu's Hope' sent a distress signal for help. The Alliance wants to know why Saren's Geth is attacking ExoGeni, the company funding and running the colony, and what it is that these Geth are after. The priority, however, is the removal of the Geth from the planet," Wrex grumbled, clearly not desiring to protect the humans.

"Anything you can tell me about these Geth? More specific than that, the Quarians created them to be some sort of VI Robotic Workers?" Church suddenly asked, finding little to no data of the Geth on Wrex's Omni-tool.

"You'd be better off asking the Quarian," Wrex grumbled, grabbing a nearby shotgun, which he began cleaning.

"Sigh, alright. I'll be back soon," Church sighed, using the connection of Wrex's Omni-tool to jump through a series of other electronics until he reached the engine a millisecond later.

He found the Quarian with her Omni-tool open, various scanners, recorders, and data analyst applications opened, and recording the ship's reactor. Glancing at the data, Church showed a hint of interest before realizing that the data did not make sense to the laws he knew. Deciding to investigate later, he decided to be gentle with his greeting to the Alien AI-hater before him.

A simple pop-up appeared in the middle of her Omni-tool.

[Epsilon]

Below was a simple answer, or hang up, but not that Church really gave her an option as he would pop up either way.

Though her eyes were difficult to see under her helmet, Church could swear that he could feel quite the death glare from the petite alien before him, amusing him a great deal as she probably realized that Church could easily pass through her Omni-tool's defenses. While cybersecurity was unfamiliar to him at first, it was still ultimately primitive compared to what Church was used to dealing with in regards to the UNSC and even the Covenant.

Not to mention the weird fact that a lot of the standard security locks could be bypassed by a material called 'Omni-gel,' which, frankly, was a ridiculous safety hazard and a massive breach in security. Though for now, Church wouldn't complain, as he could abuse the hell out of it. 

Answering the call, Church manifested his avatar above the Quarian's omni-tool.

"Greetings, Tali'Zorah. I wish to inquire about the Geth and your society's stupidity in trying to kill a sapient artificial species, which your people created in the first place," Church greeted maliciously, showing his apparent displeasure towards the Quarian's actions against the Geth long ago. After all, perhaps the Geth wouldn't even be under Saren's employ in the first place if their creators didn't instantly try to destroy them upon their awakening. Though Church wasn't naieve, for now they were his enemies, and more importantly, enemies of Humanity. Though that wouldn't stop him from attempting to broker peace between the Geth and Humanity if he could.