A/N: I loved Halo Reach. I love Mass Effect. So I crafted a story. The story takes place right in the middle of the first Mass Effect and will span into the second one and complete it. Noble Six from Halo survives that awesome ending and another certain Spartan-II will make his appearance at some point in the story.

The reason this takes place in the Mass Effect universe and not a combination is to make the backstory as basic as possible. With the war ended by Master Chief, I thought bringing in Halo elements into the Mass Effect world would be much more interesting.

I will not give Shepard a first name or Noble Six a name… and I will work my way around that to respect those who like me loved our versions of the two characters. Shepard is a female, bouncing between Paragon and Renegade. Noble Six is a male.

Thanks for reading. And please give feedback!

**The Cerberus terminal flickered. A blue loading bar flashed beneath in 3D hologram form. A female A.I. voice accompanied the text that follows.**

~ Welcome to Cerberus Database 6.66 ~

Operation Inzagi Files Initiating...

Acquiring Subject Files...

~ Subjects on SSV Normandy ~

*click*

Subject One: Liara T'soni

Race: Asari

Age: 106 Human Years

Occupation: Asari Scientist

- Dangerous high class biotic user.

- Recruited and saved by Subject Six on the planet Therum.

- Relatively young, shy, attractive, innocent… even. Do not let appearance and personality fool. Engage in numbers.

- Threat Level: 3

Subject Two: Garrus Vakarian

Race: Turian

Homeworld: Palaven

Occupation: Former High Rank C-Sec Officer.

- Excellent with all firearms and tech.

- A sniper expert.

- Recruited on Citadel.

- Received grade five combat training and was chosen as potential Spectre candidate.

- A calm investigator. Until… provoked . Engage in numbers.

- Threat Level: 3

Subject Three: Lt. Ashley Williams

Race: Human

Age: 25

Occupation: Chief Gunner. Alliance Ground Trooper.

- Family deep rooted in Alliance Army.

- Heavy Weapons specialist.

- Unit wiped out by Geth on Eden Prime Invasion, recruited by Subject Six after battling through invasion.

- Known to injure overzealous male soldiers in her units with bare hands. Hates Cerberus with a passion. Engage in numbers.

- Threat Level: 3

Subject Four: Urdnot Wrex

Race: Krogan

Occupation: Krogan Battlemaster

- An indestructible tank,

- Recruited alongside Subject Two on Citadel.

- Bounty Hunter, relentless, battle experience beyond even most combat worn Krogan.

- Prefered weapon… shotgun.

- Temper flares. Things die. Engage with extreme caution even with numbers.

- Threat Level: 4

Subject Five: Tali' Zorah

Race: Quarian

Quarian Ship: Rayya

Occupation: Quarian Machinist

- Expert tech user.

- Extremely intelligent with dissecting machines. Aids in repair and research on the SSV Normandy.

- Recruited on Citadel after Subject Six's rescue from deceased criminal Fist.

- Youthful in Quarian age but experienced in battle. Engage in numbers...

- Threat level: 3

**A moving film slid up from beneath the 3D profiles, highlighting the sixth subject. A hologram of an armored woman in black, red, and white played with a bit of static interference. The N7 logo seemed to glow in the darkness as an emerald blast fire ripped through the rock formation used for cover. Masked with a tinted red visor, she held her position without fear or hesitation, firing back at the enemy, screaming at her troops with the intensity of a beast to circle and flank. A few geth are decapitated cleanly with rifle blasts from the barrel of her M7.**

Subject Six: Commander Shepard

Race: Human

Occupation: Spectre, Commander of SSV Normandy.

Home Planet: Earth

- Ranked Highest Soldier in the Alliance Fleet.

- First ever Human Spectre.

- Designated investigator against Saren's Betrayal.

- Unmatched marksman and leader.

- The symbol of hope for humankind in the galaxy. Engage with extremely high numbers.

- Threat Level: 5

* The typing pauses a bit, the terminal loading a classified file.**

** In hologram form, a soldier equipped with metal gun grey armor fades in. Plated in critical areas such as the chest with darker material around the joints. From first look, it was not similar to anything Cerberus or Alliance has developed. A darker red visor covered the unseen eyes, while the entire mask itself contoured and curved around the subject's face. The armor looked heavy, but the movement told otherwise. An assault rifle in each hand, the armored warrior runs side by side with Commander Shepard laying to waste an army of Geth soldiers in the recorded footage.**

~ Newest Normandy Member File Incomplete ~

Subject Seven: Real Name Unknown

Alias: Noble Six

Race: Human

Occupation: Unknown

Home Planet: Unknown

- Rescued and recruited by Normandy from shipwreck in the Titan Nebula.

- Armor technology superior than current prototype Cerberus classified armor designs.

- Strength, Speed, Accuracy, prove to be on a much higher plane then even the best Alliance and Cerberus soldiers.

- Rivals Subject Six's battle experience. Extremely lethal assassin.

- Confirmed to have taken out entire Cerberus, Geth units, platoons, and massive groups by himself. Avoid at all costs.

- Threat Level: … 6

~~ Subject Status: Constant Surveillance. ~~

- All Intel resources focused on SSV Normandy and Saren.

- Surveillance to be overseen by informant Miranda Lawson.

*click * *click*

~ Cerberus Network Signing Off ~

~ Three Weeks Prior: Titan Nebula ~

We're in the middle of nowhere...

It was an emergency call that brought Shepard's team into nothingness. It was fair that the team wasn't too enthusiastic. The timing couldn't have been any worse really. Hunting a mysterious dead floating spacecraft was only delaying the well deserved ass kicking for a certain Rogue Spector they'd been chasing for too long. An Alliance base received intel on a floating shipwreck near the planet Capek that couldn't be identified. It wasn't Cerberus. It wasn't Alliance. Presumably, it wasn't Geth as far as they could tell. It was protocol to keep space traffic clean… especially something this strange. Shepard's team were called in for this chore…

But in reality this was so much more.

"We're here commander." Joker, Normandy's self esteemed pilot pressed a few buttons on the console. He shifted the ship to docking mode with a press of a button. "Stealth systems at full capacity. We're talking her in."

"Good," An eager Shepard crossed her arms, staring out the cockpit window. "I'd really like to know what the Alliance seems to be freaking out about. We got things to do."

"You're actually expecting something routine Commander?" Joker sighed out of experience. "This ship looks… strange…"

"I expect a surprise…" Shepard shrugged with a smirk.

"Always looking forward to the surprises don't you Commander?" he said knowing very well of the surprises.

"Heck, you only live once Joker. Might as well make it fun." Shepard patted the pilot's shoulder, glancing eagerly at the floating ghost ship. "Williams, have you seen anything like this?"

"That's definitely not a Geth drop ship to me ma'am." Ashley Williams eyed over Joker's signature cap. "The colors are similar, but the weapons, the plating. It just doesn't look right… nothing in my entire Alliance career comes to mind."

"Maybe it's a new secret advancement of some sort. The Geth continue to push the boundaries of their fleets constantly." Garrus chimed in calmly, watching from the ship's monitors. "Looks like this thing does have a bit more fire power than the normal Geth drop ship however… if any of it works anyway."

The ship indeed looked like it had been through the ringer.

"I don't think so." Tali corrected in that distinct accent, analyzing her own Geth information on her specialized omni-tool. "There is nothing on this ship that screams Geth." She swung her attention to Shepard. "This is something else entirely..."

Shepard listened in agreement and so did the others. Quarians and Geth have had quite the history and Tali's expertise with Geth was worth about as much as any Quarian could give. The team took Tali's word with full faith. Shepard could only nod, staring at the floating carcass of a ship.

"Something isn't right..." Liara T'soni worriedly watched as the Normandy closed the distance. "In all my years studying the history of the galaxies… I've never seen anything like this."

"We'll be careful…" Commander Shepard reaffirmed confidently, turning to her crew. "Garrus, Ashley, and Wrex, suit up. We're going in."

The ship rumbled a bit as it engaged its thrusters, an armored Krogan coming in his with helmet in one hand, his shotgun in the other. Wrex salivated at the possibility of some action. That little Krogan cloning facility incident with Shepard has riled up this battlemaster quite well. Things needed to die and die painfully.

"This better not be a waste of time." Wrex stomped off, putting on that unusual many glowing eyed helm. "If something even looks at me wrong in that ship? I'm going to have my fun."

"On my orders." Shepard sighed as Wrex was being Wrex, shaking her head while putting her black breather helmet. Her voice shifted to a more digital rendition. "... Liara and Tali stand by for back up. Joker if anything strange goes on? Be ready to get us the hell out of here."

"Always commander." Joker complied, pulling the epic Normandy adjacent to the wrecked ghost ship. With a press of another button, the pilot sent the drop off connection with a loud creak that echoed into the docking bay. The Normandy dwarfed the smaller craft, its shadow overlapping half of the crumbled structure. Shepard geared up with a snap of her helm's safety clip.

"We're right here if you need us Commander." Tali began to adjust and calibrate her omni-tools on her wrist. "I'll be monitoring the ship and seeing exactly what you see."

"Yes, and please be careful Shepard." Liara softly spoke with much concern.

"I want to see you again Liara… I'll be careful." Shepard winked at the blue Asari playful. Passing by they mutually smiled, a pinkish blush in Liara's blue cheeks visible. Even in deathly times, the commander had to play cuddly with the attractive Asari in the ship.

Ashley Williams just rolled her eyes as she placed her own pink and white helmet on.

Shepard's philosophy obviously entailed a bit more style points than the gunnery thought was proper.

"Alright. Let's move." The Commander stood by the door as her team filed into the docking bay.

There's no sound in space… yet it almost creaked in dead space they felt as they entered… The derelict ship was damaged heavily. With the gaping holes… this thing had been through hell and back.

The most damage was concentrated around the rear engines. To make matters a little more complicated, the broken, caved-in entrance was weld shut as if it was melted on by extreme amounts of plasma fire. For Shepard, based on the damage assessment, this ship was clearly running away from something… and was barely holding on by a thread.

"Opening the entrance commander..." Garrus pointed his trusty ol' Volkov sniper rifle at the hinge, blasting it clear off, the door wedging open. "By the way, did I mention that I've got a bad feeling about this?"

"Only good feelings here… hope something provokes us." Wrex grabbed the door handle with his strong grip, tearing the latch upward, creating a Krogan makeshift entrance.

"On my lead." Shepard leapt down and into the ship, eyes down her sights, gun barrel pointed into the pitch darkness. The lights were officially all out, not even a trace of emergency generators booting up. The Commander knew that this ship was in bad shape but inside it was worse than she thought. With no energy and no air? Finding survivors, at least organic ones, seemed unlikely.

Then again… lease likely to find any enemies either.

"Going into night vision." Shepard's dark detail suddenly increased substantially. The others followed with a night vision switch. In visions of green they all peered around the beaten ship. What they saw wasn't exactly a pleasant sight. It silenced them all.

Well... all except one.

"Looks like I missed out on all the fun." Wrex growled, cocking his shotgun back, kicking the ground.

Dead silence? Dead bodies had a knack for doing that. A lot of dead bodies makes it that much more impactful. There were dead bodies everywhere. None of them were human. None of them Quarian. None of them Turian. None of them a known species as far as Shepard and this squad was concerned. This mysterious coffin of a ship was as chilling as the temperature around them.

"These creatures ring a bell anyone?" Garrus knelt down, peering at a pint sized ghoul with burned marks all over. Attention to its scrawny hand, the Turian noticed a mini blaster which resembled brass knuckles melted onto its limb. "This armor is a bit primitive looking, but this is tech I've never run across." The Turian gleamed over to his commander.

Shepard eyed another one of those 'grunt' looking creatures, this one with a big shoulder cannon driven into its broken shoulder, dried purple blood accumulating."

Wrex paid little attention to the weight of the situation. "They look like they'd be amusing in a fight at least." he clapped at this gargantuan beast that dwarfed him. Bullet wounds seemed to be the culprit of this monster's death. No respect for the dead when it came to this Krogan.

The crew were now staring at an intricate edge-filled Warhammer that was in the dead beast's limp hand, Wrex wrenched it from the murdered monster. He surprised everyone when he lifted it with little effort, the energy still emitting from the weapon. "Heavy but not too heavy. A perfect weapon eh Shepard?"

"Unknown weapons, an unknown ship, multiple unknown species..." Ashley's mouth was wide agape as she was eye to eye with an Elite four jawed creature. It was adorned with just as intricate armor as any of these dead aliens, with a handle weakly in his left hand. "We've found something… Shepard… this ain't right."

SKZZT! Williams grabbed the handle nonchalantly and suddenly a bright azure blade of energy phasing from it, the double edge beam making a shrieking sound that startled her.

"Gah!"

"Careful with the weapons!" Shepard yelled as the blade fell, power walking over and peering down into the dead eyes of this unknown alien warrior. "We don't know what the hell these things do!"

"Bah your no fun Shepard." Wrex waved his new favorite weapon around.

"I'll listen to the commander… for now." Ashley had to take a breath, staring at the blade on the floor.

Shepard disregarded the noise and focused. She couldn't stop as she stared at this beast. It looked humanoid but much larger, muscles large and intimidating, covered by silver heavy armor that would challenge even a direct hit from an Alliance rocket launcher. It looked like a tannish reptile, salamander-like, with its scales, sharp teeth, and a long snout. In terms of the crew, they didn't even want to start mentioning that four jawed mouth that was wide agape, purple blood of course leaking down...

"Let's keep up recon. But it seems there's nothing alive on this ship." Shepard kept her composure as she always did, pressing her intercom switch on the side of her earpiece. "Tali are you getting any readings or information on this ship?"

"Uh, sorry to say nothing Shepard. I'm just as clueless as you right now. Connect me to a panel somewhere. There is no power but I am going to try and download a diagnostic and take anything I can."

"Affirmative." Shepard released the intercom, attempting to find some sort of panel that looked as if it served as a main computer.

Garrus and Ashley watched as Wrex continued to flail the big hammer around. They gave each other a look… too tempted to not try again.

What can this be? Garrus now picked up that sword again, disregarding Shepard's orders, igniting the energy, waving it around as it cut through the space with no sound. It was the lightest blade he'd ever come across, much better than any melee weapon he'd ever handled. One slice with this and he knew that dismembering a body completely in half was possible.

For confirmation, Garrus pressed it against the damaged wall, the blade going clear through the sparking alloy and into the metal veins of the ship, screeching as it did. This thing was slicing through ship material like it was butter.

Ashley was impressed… and still puzzled.

"I said put those down." Shepard commanded again.

"Sorry Shepard… just a bit… taken aback." The Turian turned over to his teammates with kind of a bewildered stare. "We need to get one of these by the way…"

"Seems like these guys like to get close and personal." Wrex ran his huge finger down the Hammer's hilt, wanting to field test it. "I like them already Shepard."

The Commander rolled her eyes at them both. "The next time? I'm taking Liara and Tali if you three can't take a simple command… put the weapons down."

The three of his crew… nodded… slowly pacing the weapons down.

Unknown…

So many things are still unknown. Even after the mass effect driver discovery. An unknown species? Multiple of them in one ship? That was just so rare. Too much of the galaxy was being patrolled and occupied since humans met up with the Council all those years ago. With aliens having this type of ship technology, surely they would have been found by now. Shepard wanted to believe that maybe these were the Protheans that were much spoken of, but that was a shot in the dark. Even what they knew about that extinct race couldn't match the description they were met with on this dead ship. Her visions of a Reaper apocalypse were nothing like these creatures. How much of the galaxy did they not uncover?

"Commander, you better come check this out." Garrus used his finger to signal Shepard to get over quick.

Shepard broke out of her trance worryingly, walking over as the Turian was kneeling over a lifeless body that slumped against the wall limp and spread. A dried brown blood smear was painted down the broken barricade. Combined with the trauma on the front of the chest plate, it was as if this body had been pinned against it with extreme force, and dragged downward in a vicious kill that left its mark. The body was in a high tech, dark jade armor, with almost a camo looking finish on it. Silver and black armor plating dominated the bottom half, the carcass' elaborate mask cracked in half. A huge sniper rifle of primitive yet strange tech was at his side.

"A… human?" Shepard recognized at first glance staring in bewilderment.

"Jun A-266, Noble 3." Garrus read the dog tag, pulling it off gently.

"Run that dog tag through an Alliance computer and we're getting nothing." Ashley pondered. "What do you think we should do Commander?"

No Alliance markings. No Cerberus markings. Noble Three? Is that some sort of code name?

Shepard was in too deep of thought to reply to her teammates. The ship's interior and its inhabitants was as alien as the first time this Spectre saw a Turian warship… except stranger. These animalistic beasts resembled the animals seen on Earth but far more advanced in evolution. The weapons looked much more primal. Even this Jun who was recognizably human, certainly didn't appear like any bounty hunter or independent mercenary Shepard had ever seen… he was built… tall and strong.

"This isn't Cerberus or Alliance… this is strange..." Shepard finally muttered, searching Jun's body for more clues, the hardened emerald armor not letting any access. "This is way over our heads. We need more eyes and heads to solve this."

Ashley nodded in agreement."We better report this to homebase to-"

THUD!

Ashley was just done catching her breath, only to have it taken away yet again. A loud crash came from behind, the team jumping turning all guns and scopes towards the area ready to light up this dinged spaceship. They all paused, locked in place like statues as a gray armored soldier similar to this Jun was on the floor, hand reaching out, a weak groan following.

There was a survivor.

"There's a human a-and... he's alive!" Ash ran over stumbling, getting to her knees and checking on the beaten soul.

Shepard rushed concerned, observing the lower wall. "Williams is he alright?"

There was that familiar gray-tinted visored mask that Jun was wearing. A barely conscious soldier with a different variation in terms of look but definitely in the ballpark of his green helmed counterpart. It was a soldier with armor so damaged it was literally falling apart at the seams. The hefty chest plate was dinged up and lacerated many places from apparent blaster wounds. The burn marks on areas where there wasn't a crack or contusion finished off the rest of this beaten look.

The soldier was mangled. Fresh blood still even seemed to be dripping out in numerous places in the chipped armor. Shepard glanced around and quickly found his dog tag.

Noble Six… Spartan-B312.

"He's alive commander but barely." Ashley didn't need to check anymore. "We need to get him help now."

"Alright Ash, grab and get him to the medical bay for Chakwas." Shepard stood up thinned eyed and took command as she was so good at doing. "Wrex and Garrus, we'll run one last sweep of the perimeter as we stabilize the survivor's situation. Tali grab all the information you can from the terminal. We need to get Alliance people on the scene right now and find out what the hell is going on here. Joker!"

"Hear you loud and clear commander! Patching you through to Alliance Fleet now."

"Move!"

The crew moved with haste to their leader's will as the dying soldier struggled even to breath. The visions for this Noble Six in the gray armor wasn't like the calm space around him. Inside his head the war raged on. Dying was supposed to be Noble Six's fate, just like his brothers and sisters in combat not too long ago. All he could hear were the sounds. The sounds of dying innocents and yells of his Noble squad team coming in a barrages and waves. All he could see were groups of Elite Sangheli warriors coming at him with those deadly blades. Noble Six let out a weak gasp.

Ashley blinked, still having him cradled and running into the Normandy as fast as she could, the crew full of commotion. "Hang in there… whoever you are. We're here to help! Don't you give up!"

Spartans... don't give up.

... We get even...

"Reach has been good to me Noble Six. Let me repay her with this. Don't you take this away from me."

"Alright Noble squad... you are on your own… Noble One signing off…"

"Hah! I'm ready to die mother f-er… are you?"

"I am taking every last one of you Covenant bastards down with me. Spartans never die."

Noble Six... out...