[Shattered Soul] 6 – A Meeting

[A/N: I have done some research and can't really find many clues  towards specific advances in technology in the civilian sector of the UNSC, so I'll mainly be using my imagination and whatever advances Church creates himself]

Gathering in the Comm Room, Tali, Kaiden, Ashley, Garus, and Wrex looked upon Commander Shepherd, who stood opposite the door.

"Shepherd? Did you find the AI?" Tali suddenly asked when the last person entered the room.

Before Shepherd could say anything, Wrex grunted and raised his arm, the Omni-tool on his arm flaring to life as he remained on guard.

Much to everyone's surprise, the Blue Armored figure appeared above Wrex's Omni-tool before floating away from it and suddenly enlarging to six feet tall. Waving their hands, the scoped rifle in their hands crumbed into digital pixels as the AI looked upon everyone in the room. 

"Hello," Church greeted, looking at everyone in the room through his digital avatar's visor.

Tali bristled in horror, clearly scared or angry at the appearance of the AI.

"Sheesh, lady, one bad AI, and you start judging all the others?" Church asked, looking at the Quarian with annoyance.

"The Geth are not true AI!" Tali shouted.

"Sure seems like they are to me, just not that advanced nor exactly like most AI I am familiar with," Church waved off Tali before focusing on the Commander.

"You, Commander Shepherd, Council Spectre, I propose a deal. You seek the rouge Agent Saren, Matriarch Benezia, and their Geth. I can be of assistance," Church offered.

"Such as?" Shepherd asked, crossing his arms.

"Shepherd! You cannot be serious!" Tali adamantly objected, stepping forward.

"I am experienced in Logistics, Digital warfare, planetary security and management, spatial warfare, and more. My creators were thorough," Church explained, listing off his various fields of expertise before continuing, "If needed, I could hack through anything that stands in your way, provide a second pair of 'eyes' to watch your back during Combat, maintain and improve your equipment, provide my assistance in this ship's Medbay, and more." 

"I vouch for it, and I'll keep an eye on it," Wrex volunteered before Tali could continue her objections.

"Fine. Wrex, keep an eye on it. If it does anything to jeopardize the mission or threaten one of our crew, we'll find a way to shut it down permanently. Wrex...Church stay. The rest of you, dismissed," Shepherd ordered.

While the others filed out of the room, Tali stopped at the door to turn around before leaving, and Shepherd looked at Church and Wrex.

"Why?" Shepherd asked simply.

"I'll need more context than that," Church replied with a tilt of his head and his arms crossed.

"Why do you want to help us? Help me. I can hazard a guess for everyone on board as to why they have joined me. Wrex for a good fight, Garrus to stop Saren and not be limited by C-Sec, Tali for her Pilgrimage, Ashley, and Kaiden because they are soldiers, but you, I don't know why you would help us, so my question is: why?" Shepherd explained.

"My duty is to the protection of Humanity, even if it isn't my humanity," Church emphasized.

"Your humanity?" Shepherd caught on.

"If our meeting and the UNSC Last Stand weren't already an indication, I can only assume the UNSC Last Stand ended up in some new reality similar enough to my own. However, what differs from your Universe and Mine is quite clear if these Codexs are anything to go by," Church began, his avatar flashing green for a few moments.

"Such as?" Shepherd asked, curious.

"Other than the Protheans, Element Zero, Citadel Races, Rachni, and Geth?" Church asked his tone becoming more stoic as his avatar became more green in color.

"Your people don't have Element Zero? How'd you get out of your system?" Wrex asked with confusion.

"Through great effort. My humanity obtained the means of FTL travel through the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, a Slip-space Engine that allowed my Humanity to leave our Solar System and begin colonizing outside of the Sol System in 2291. By 2525, humanity had over 800 colonies across our section of the Galaxy, and that was until the Covenant discovered the colony: Harvest and glassed it," Church explained.

"2525?! 800 Colonies?" Shepherd shouted, shocked.

"Glassed?" Wrex asked the prevalent question.

"Yes. The Covenant were capable of Glassing an entire planet in hours, if not a day or two, depending on UNSC resistance, which was minimal outside of ground combat, and even then, the Alien bastards usually never lost," Church spoke with melancholy.

"Their fleets and troops were that mighty?" Wrex asked, intrigued.

"Yes. They used copious amounts of Plasma-based Weaponry, potent Shielding, cannon fodder, and incredibly advanced technology. It takes hundreds of our own ships to take down just a few of theirs," Church explained with his avatar flashing a hateful black before returning to a mix of green and blue.

"Sounds like a slaughter," Wrex said roughly, not caring how rude his words sounded.

"Yes. It was," Church replied to Wrex.

"How did your people even win?" Shepherd asked the prevalent question.

"That's the thing. We nearly didn't," Church spoke, his avatar dispersing into pixels before reforming to show a...screen.

On the screen was an continental planet with large oceans. Across the surface, there were countless shipyards, factories, and more infrastructure.

"Reach. Humanity's leading manufacturer of Ships and equipment, and was, by far, the most critical military world of the UNSC, and sister planet to the Earth, being the closest colony to Earth with it being only 10.5 Light years away from the Sol System while also being the most heavily populated of all our colonies, with a population of 700 million men, women, and children. Its defenses were second only to Earth's, with 20 Orbital Defense Stations and a fleet of over 150 ships in orbit. On July 24th, 2552, four fleets of Covenant Ships, nearly 800 in number, jumped into the System.

Several days before that, though, the Covenant covertly landed on the planet and began setting up within the Vierry Territory, setting up a base of operations in the area, inserting massive armies, several corvets, and so much more. They were sloppy, however, and were discovered before their fleets arrived, allowing for early evacuations and preparations. As the UNSC started mobilizing, Spartan Team: NOBLE was sent to recon the Vierry Territory, discovering the Covenant hiding within the 'Dark Zone,' left with no choice a large number of military personnel alongside Noble Team assaulted the Covenant in the Dark Zone, however, just when things were taking a turn for the better, the Covenant CSO-class supercarrier, 'Long Night of Silence,' appeared above the Dark Zone, destroying the UNSC Frigats in the area and reinforcing the Covenant ground troops, it didn't take long until we were being pushed back," Church explained, only to be interrupted by Wrex.

"We?" Wrex asked as a miniature avatar of Church appeared before them.

"Yes...we. During the Fall of Reach, I was stationed on the planet assisting wherever I was needed while undergoing repairs," Church explained.

"Repairs?" Shepherd noted.

Church clearly winced at the question.

"AIs were vital to the war effort and were in even higher demand. Any ship with an AI on board was significantly more effective and efficient on the battlefield, but this led to the need for more AIs, and..." Church paused, "There were many projects within the UNSC, one such project, known as Project Freelancer, was commissioned with an AI codenamed: Alpha. However, they needed more, but couldn't get their hands on any...so, since the AIs of the UNSC were based on a human mind..." 

Church could see the realization slowly dawn on Shepherd, yet Wrex showed confusion.

"They began to torture Alpha, splitting it into fragments: Beta, Delta, Gamma...Epsilon, Eta, Iota, Sigma, Theta, and Omega..." [#1]

Church continued, "Each...fragment was a core part of Alpha. Delta was Alpha's Logic, Gamma its Deceit, Eta its fear, Iota its happiness, Sigma its ambition, Theta its trust, and Omega its anger."

"And Epsilon?" Shepherd questioned, not liking any of this.

"Epsilon was Alpha's memory, not only the memory of itself but of the other fragments as well. I...I am Epsilon, and I am all that remains of Alpha," Church explained, with more digital avatars stepping out of his, each with a different vibrant color and hue, leaving Epsilon at the center, his light blue Avatar surrounded by the other avatars.

Each figure introduced themselves.

An Avatar black in hue with black light being sucked into its avatar like a black hole was the first to speak, "I am Omega," It spoke, its voice demonic and unsettling.

Next, a glowing green figure rigid in posture introduced itself, "I am Delta." Its voice was monotone and devoid of emotion.

A sickly white figure was next, "I am Gamma," an analog-like voice spoke out.

Two figures glowing in a myriad of colors spoke next, "Iota," "Eta."

Then came another figure in many colors, and a childish voice spoke out, "Hey! Im Theta!"

Then the last figure  stepped forward, its Avatar resembling a walking humanoid flame with a face, "And I am Sigma."

With the last introduction, all of the Avatars dispersed and flowed back into Church, into Epsilon.

"I am but a Fragment of what I once was. Because of Project Freelancer's methods, I was left...damaged and incomplete. It was on Reach that I was repaired and allowed to return to full strength; though I am still inferior to that Alpha, my...unique nature made me one of the best AIs available in the UNSC fleet, and even then, I was powerless against the Covenant as they attacked Reach. In the end, Reach was glassed, and to make matters worse, they not long after found the most important planet of Humanity, its origin and birthplace, Earth," Church continued.

[#1: I Saw mentions of the fragment 'Xi' in Wiki, but couldn't for the life of me remember them, nor are there any extended articles related to the fragment]